Key Insights on 10 Activities Top Reps Are Doing Consistently to Win More

As sales leaders and sales reps, how much do we rely on data and science to predict our success? We refer to the art and science of sales, and the data is the science. But are we levering it? Looking under the hood to see what and why things are happening for the good or not so good.

Let’s start with the hiring process; how can we de-risk our chance of a bad hire?

‍Have you considered providing an aptitude test? determine their chance of success, attract skills best suited for the role as well as are aligned to the existing organizational culture.

What about data to suggest what happened on deals that were closed lost vs deals that didn’t advance past the first call?

‍Or looking at data within your sales process to determine where things started picking up or started to decline? How can we remove emotion and bias and see what is happening? In short, review the data.

‍‍I am sharing  10 ways data can be used to measure the impact you are having on your prospects and conversion rate, in no particular order.

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Here we go…

1) Have a next meeting booked, Recommendation is to never get off a call without the next meeting booked, even if it is a placeholder, it can be modified, ensuring something is already in the calendar.

2)  Throughout the demo, invite your customer to share their thoughts, feedback, get in front of “fake objections”.  “Curious what your initial thoughts are” “how does this compare to the way your team accesses the dashboard today”?  remove assumptions, you have access to them.

3) Current vs future state. Are you able to paint a picture of their before state?

Show them what things are like now. Ask questions to dig deeper, help them see the impact of no change not only to them but surrounding areas. If we don’t start in the current state when it comes time to cross the chasm to the future state there is no resonance or desire to move there. Things aren’t that bad, this is manageable.

4) Customize demo, this is the result of an effective discovery. Discover what is important to our prospects, what problems are they trying to solve, what have they tried? What happens if they don’t solve them, how long has this been going on? How much is it costing them? Etc. Prioritize their top 3, this is what you show them in the demo.

5) Avoid being robotic on the call, even though it may be your sixth discovery /demo of the week. Show up with energy and intentionality and let your personality shine; they are buying your enthusiasm. Set a clear purpose and end goal: everybody wants to know where you are taking them when they know they are more likely to go along.

6) Leverage customer stories, “stories sell facts tell”. Paint a picture your prospect can see themselves in. This helps them acknowledge of the challenge or gap they are facing- stories help illustrate this. Data suggests for a 45-minute call, we should be sharing 3 customer stories.

7) Back to Basics, New and tenured reps can benefit here, did we have an agenda? invite our prospect to add to it, confirm the time, purpose of the call, get buy in with our prospect? Introduce multi-stakeholders on the call if required. This sets the tone for the call and gives your prospect the feeling of you are in good hands vs this is a waste of my time. Time is currency.8) Lead with value. Avoid beating around the bush, people want to know what you have, what is the new object, solution etc. Lead with it, don’t keep them waiting. Emotion decreases over time. You may lose people in your meeting, or they may have to leave earlier and will never get a chance to see what it was.

9) Do not wing in it. We are dealing with people and their time; time is the currency we trade. Be prepared and consider their thoughts, needs, objections, and wants prior to the meeting. Show up with intention and to serve, otherwise we continue to bring the profession down.10) Have a Hypothesis. If they could do it themselves, they would. They have agreed to a meeting because they need help, a different way to look at their situation. Be the subject matter expert and share your hypothesis. It can be based on past clients like them, years of experience, trends, data etc. we must help them connect the lines they will not cross themselves.

After reading the list, ask yourself:

Am I at least hitting half of these?

Where can I be more intentional, more structured?

How as a leader can we coach our team to ensure they are putting these into practice?

Do you use a conversational intelligence platform?

Are you able to look at call recordings and coach to the list?

Recommendation is to start, whether that means creating a framework for your team to follow on a discovery, demo? Involve them, iterate based on experience and coach to it.‍

If you are looking to get started but aren’t sure of the first step or hone your existing coaching skills please reach out, I would be happy to provide some recommendations and help you get the wheels in motion.

How are you leveraging data and science in your business?

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