NEW SALES HIRES: 5 Steps to Hitting Your Quota as Fast as Possible
As a new sales representative or a rep at a new company, it can be hard to get used to the ways of the company right off the bat. But as much as they need to teach you, you need to be open to learning.
Outbound Sales Professor, Rex Biberston mentions in an interview for The Business of Family and Selling podcast that a lot of what he learned in his days selling door-to-door apply to B2B sales, and are part of what he teaches to new salespeople today.
5 Steps to Hitting
Your Quota as Fast as Possible
1. Be Confident and Comfortable – Be comfortable with the whole process of selling as if you’ve done it a thousand times before. What do you do if they say yes? What happens if they say no? These are questions you should know going into an appointment.
The answer to these simple questions in addition to the contract, the fulfillment process, etc. are all things you should know inside and out. Knowing will give you confidence and having confidence in yourself, your abilities, and the product will in turn boost the buyers confidence in you.
2. The 10 Word and 30 Word Rule – Rex says that you should have a ten word explanation of what you’re selling and how it will benefit the client.
Don’t use jargon and be concise because people aren’t usually keen on being sold things that they don’t yet know they want. Then, have a slightly more elaborate 30-word explanation for when they hopefully say, “Tell me more…”
Plan and practice these elevator pitches before you’re in front of prospects.
3. Focus on The Client – Make sure you are in it for them. How can you make their life easier or less painful?
Prospects don’t care about you, if you’re the best at your job, or how long you’ve been with your company, if those things aren’t directly correlated to what they want or need in the world.
When a prospective client is taking the time to listen to you, take advantage of that and by make it all about them.
4. Be Creative – If you aren’t getting responses, you have to find some way to stand out to them.
5. Don’t Think of Buyers as PROSPECTS – They are humans who are all different and the more you learn about them the more you can tailor your sales strategy to them.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR SALES LEADERS…
In his article The MacGyver Sales Rep Myth, Rex writes about how most of the time business owners hire sales reps and give them jobs that are the jobs of directors of sales or sales managers.
“If you’re asking your sales rep to be MacGyver, they probably can’t. It’s a rare person who has the vision to design a sales strategy, the technical know-how to design a sales process, the self awareness to stay motivated, and the execution skills to make sales happen. If they can do it, you’re probably not paying them enough,”
Rex also mentioned the importance of a specific training or on boarding program, and not just watching your top sales guy do his work. Because every salesperson has different techniques to make connections and close the deal.
If you reall want to get your sales people up to speed fast, “Try role playing,” Rex said, “get them into real conversations with clients.” Passive learning is not the way to go.
PRO TIP: You Can’t Hit Quota With an Empty Pipeline
In an interview with Jim Brown for the SalesTuners podcast Jill Konrath mentions that while the effectiveness of prospecting tactics and channels will vary on a prospect-to-prospect basis, the ones that work also have similarities. Jill says that the prospecting messages that break through the noise are, “Short, they are sweet, they are to the point.”
Jill also shares that knowing things about your client – even just the things you can find out about them on LinkedIn – can be used to develop the right kind of questions for your prospecting activity.
These are the kind of questions that get a potential client engaged and talking, they are the kind of questions that get them to open up to you, and the kind of questions that get prospects to sell themselves on you and your offer.
And when it comes to channel of communication you use for your prospecting activity remember this rule of thumb…
If your ideal customer is 55+ perhaps a phone call might be most effective. If they’re young and you notice they have a bigger social media presence, sending a message through social media or email might work.
And still – because we all sell to individuals and not clones, you’ll want to diversify your prospecting cadence among a few different channels (phone, email, social media, door-to-door, etc.). You might be surprised by how similar prospects seem from afar, but how different the communication channels are that actually get their attention.
About the Author: Carly Trombley is a writer and social media strategist living in Vermont with big dreams of moving to a more metropolitan area. She is a recent college graduate who loves photography/videography and the impact that they have on society. Follow her on Instagram or connect on LinkedIn to learn more.
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