How Productivity Apps Could Help Salespeople?

 

Selling is one tedious activity. It involves a lot of T.A.S.K.S – there is not one stressful day. Here comes the heaven-sent applications and programs that are specifically designed for the salespeople. If you are wondering how these productivity apps may help you as a salesperson, read on. First things first, though, please know that apps should be regarded as an enabler, your closest ally.

How productivity apps can help salespeople

1) Apps can aid in sales presentation

A demo can be outwardly frustrating more so when you need to present and explain a complex product or solution. How can you ensure that you will deliver a critical differentiating value to your audience knowing that they are weighing several proposals? The solution is simple – a complete and interactive presentation through the help of an app.

That is, through a digital presentation, you may visually communicate the features and benefits of such to any prospect in the clearest manner possible. The process is also more engaging as the sales representative can focus on guiding and listening to the concerns of the prospect. Not necessarily on whether he forgets a detail or two since all the details are being demonstrated in front of her.

In the near future wherein new features are added to the product or solution, the salesperson may easily and seamlessly integrate these new changes into the system. Also, the app will send a notification to all the sales rep about the change or changes made to the sales presentation; that is if multiple people are utilizing the presentation.

2) An app can help in sales proposal

Following a meeting, a proposal should be drafted immediately including the requirements, specifications, and quotes. When there is a time gap between these two activities, it usually results to disconnected, draggy proposal. What’s worse, due to the lack of time to prepare the proposal, you send a copy-and-paste, templated sales proposal. Such disconnection is a huge turnoff to any prospect. And this prospect may feel like you are not listening to her, losing the opportunity altogether.

Many a reason why this happens. First, the person who prepared the proposal was not actually a part of the meeting. Second, the salesperson failed to note essential details during the meeting. Third, the prospect requested modifications, but the sales assistant unintentionally overlooks such as the deadline is nearing. Lastly, the sales team is using a proposal template that hadn’t been evaluated since last year.

Since the goal is to shorten the sales cycle, an app allows documenting important information without the need to take time away from talking to a prospect or detract from the presentation. A mock proposal can be devised on the spot. This also allows the salesperson to confirm the details with the prospect, potentially reviewing it before a final proposal is outlined. Afterward, the sales staff will only need to send or share the information with the proposal writer. The process is streamlined. Thus, you can send the proposal to the prospect even right after the meeting.

3) An app can assist in sales planning

Any sales personnel would understand the need to plan and schedule daily, weekly, monthly, and even quarterly activities diligently. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of things to do. Confusingly, a salesman or woman only spends 50% of his working time doing the selling. The other 50% is spent on answering emails, devising proposals, preparing presentations, attending meetings, researching prospects, and other administrative tasks.

An internal meeting alone with the sales team can be awkward to organize with all the sales personnel outside the office. Coordinating the meeting only to postpone it for another suitable time incurs unnecessary costs, too. The same goes for making any adjustments to your calendar to accommodate prospect or client requests as well as keeping track of the critical dates.

Effective time, task, lead, and client management are expected from all salespeople. Managing various information can be quite challenging, but the challenge can be minimized with the help of some tools. The best ones are those with reminder and notification features so you can better manage your and other people’s day and time.

Thereby, productivity apps not only makes the sales process more streamlined and faster for the salespeople. Instead, your would-be clients mostly benefit from this situation, too. Their pain points of both the sales team and the prospects are addressed, minimizing pain points on the sales funnel, narrowing the gap in the sales cycle and eliminating whatever disconnect there is.

All of these thanks to the utilization of apps that solve the problems the salespeople face and improve their overall productivity!

 

There is no denying the value of using productivity apps. One such app is Vender App. Download it now and discover how can make the processes easier!

5 Ways on How to Choose the Right Technology for the Salespeople

 

Online, you will find a plethora of discussions on how to become a great salesperson. If people know what it takes to become a rock star sales rep exactly, then why are there so few exceptional salespeople?

The answer lies in the fact that the salespeople don’t have the information the right information on hand to make every deal a success. But what if a productivity app for salespeople, for instance, can be every salesperson’s knowledge depository and more? By more, it means the app can also be used in scheduling tasks for each lead and contacting the prospect directly through its inbox features. Indeed, an app can do this and more.

The question now is – how can you choose the right technology that is specifically designed with the salespeople in mind? Here’s how.

How to choose the right app for the salespeople

Answer these questions first.

Sales apps are so important – simply accepting them at face value is unacceptable. There is a need to evaluate them based on their utility and efficiency otherwise no one can tell that the team will be able to reap real benefits from using the app. There are fundamental questions that must be answered during the evaluation phase.

1) What are the core activities of the sales team?

2) What kind of technology does the team need to succeed?

3) What features and functions are needed for a more efficient team?

 

Sales technology guidelines

There are instances when the sales manager or supervisor is given the freedom to decide which technology or app is the most appropriate for the team. In choosing a particular app, the following factors must be considered.

1) Valuable

At its most basic level, the app must be able to bring real benefits to the salespeople. Otherwise, you cannot expect all their buy-ins. No one will find delight in using a technology that only requires them to enter data. The same applies to use an app that is technically used in tracking them.

For an enterprise application to be of benefit to the people, it must be created to cater to the needs of the sales team. It should be customizable and scalable to accommodate future requirements of the team members.

2) Customizable-cum-scalable

No two companies are the same—even the sales teams within one company are unique from one another. Not only should the app be flexible enough to be customized to the requirements of the sales team, but must be easy to learn and maintain.

In case of modifications, any of the members of the team should be able to navigate through the app to make the required changes. That is, the implementation should be easy because a company doesn’t have weeks to have their chosen app up and running.

3) Process-based

The app should be rapidly and readily adaptable more so due to the vertical processes at each stage of the pipeline. To continue with #2, if it is possible to build an app from scratch so it may reflect the company’s pipeline, then much better. If not, again, it should be customizable to suit the requirements of the enterprise.

Also, if it can be made to accommodate the buyer patterns as well as the purchasing trends, the better. It should be intuitive to the user to act on the trend as analyzed through the app and make actions to follow through and close the deal.

4) Turnover-ready

One major pain point of the sales managers and supervisors is proper turnover. When a salesperson leaves the team, it’s hard to rummage through the files of the former team member. But with an app, it will be easier for the team to start where the previous employee had left off.

An app must be capable of archiving the activities executed for specific leads in one accessible database. The history must be available to the right persons in just a few clicks to enable these individuals to act on the leads as well as the opportunities the departed sales representative left behind.

5) Analyzable

Sales head make sense of the data extracted from the available information on whatever technology the team is using. With this, the app must be capable of producing raw data, analyze the data and perhaps present them illustratively so the salespeople can make sense of them and use them for decision-making.

Any empowered app can inform the decisions the managers and supervisors shall make. For instance, if the sales manager is aware of each representative’s lead conversion and opportunity closing ratios, it would be easier to determine the exact volume of leads each rep can handle.

With all these, the ultimate goal is to find an app that can assist the salespeople to do their job in a more efficient manner. The app should enable them to focus on the actual selling activities, not necessarily entering data and sorting through the given files which take precious time away from the sellers. And in the world of sales, time means money.

 

Vender App is the right app for your sales workforce. Download the app now!

How to Improve Sales Efficiency

 

Sales efficiency refers to the process and speed at which task or activity is performed with the goal of doing this right the first time. In increasing sales efficiency, examining the current processes as well as their weaknesses is necessary. Afterward, there is a need to determine the solutions to address the inefficiencies. Improving sales efficiency can be tricky, but here are some ways to do that.

Before that, though, we should discuss the importance of improving the efficiency at both the team and individual level.

 

Importance of improving sales efficiency

It doesn’t matter if you are a startup or an established company—all sorts of incapabilities can hurt the bottom-line. The solutions you bring to the company will consume resources. Not to mention, the time it will take to implement the new process could mean a lull time for the entire sales team.

There are other challenges along the way, too. For instance, businesses that are scaling up in terms of profitability are looking more into their sales team. They aren’t adding more to the team. Instead, they find ways to get more from the team. This is only possible through using sales operation, technology and training to make the salespeople more efficient on what they do.

Thus, improvements on the sales efficiency means:

– utilizing lesser resources,
– highlighting the internal capabilities,
– maximizing the resources at disposal,
– adopting more adaptable and agile processes, and
– dealing with evolving market conditions.

 

Steps in improving sales efficiency

1) Determine the right sales process

What is the sales right process for you? This is perhaps the question that you need to answer first. Notably, every sales process is unique. Sales processes aren’t universal—what’s right for other sales team may not necessarily be right for your sales team. Once you determine the right process for the team, the second question is – is it scalable enough? If it is, changing a process for the benefit of everyone involved should not be a problem.

2) Evaluate the current sales process

Initially, it is critical to know the current status of the sales process, whether it is despicably broken or not. The goal of this step is determining flaws and weaknesses. A reactive process as it may seem, but once you get the hang of it, reviewing the sales process on a regular basis, it’ll become more practive. That’s how you strengthen the sales process unless otherwise the assessment requires the team to devise a new sales process from scratch.

3) Utilize sales efficiency metrics

The sales people are not alien to quota and other requirements. Thus, introducing metrics wherein the efficiency level can be measured against will be a welcome idea. The process also allows you to measure the impact of the changes made. These metrics could include process or activities that you have control over such as the numbers of follow-ups, meetings, and appointments made and so on.

4) Leverage the economies of scale

At times, increasing sales efficiency lies in the sales operation itself. The basic premise is that the sales representatives should spend their time doing selling and not necessarily the activities preceding the actual selling. This is more so for the closers wherein they should be doing more selling than non-selling activities. Otherwise, the firm would not be able to scale up efficiently toward sustainable profitability. Compartmentalize the team if necessary.

5) Create a coaching culture

When the sales team is created at the time when the company started its operation, the mantra is learning things together. However, as the team moves into company growth continuum, it’ll be different. The dynamic changes, and so should the learning process. A coaching culture, according to Harvard Business Review, might be all the company needs to speed up the time needed to make a new salesperson become productive. It should be the onboarding process of any growing and ever-diversifying sales team.

6) Tap onto the benefits of technology

Sales efficiency tools are on the rise, giving the salespeople an impetus to focus on improving their capabilities. These tools can help from curating relevant contents to scheduling tasks to managing database. If you can find a tool that can address the majority of the ineffiencies at the same time, the better.

There are many other ways to improve sales efficiency. Take it from the sales experts themselves based on the sales efficiency improvement article by Docurated.

 

Improving sales efficiency is just one part. For more information on how to improve selling as a process, head on to our blog section.

4 Signs That Your Sales Process is Despicably Broken

 

A process is only effective when all the individuals involved understand the purpose of establishing such a process. A team probably use dozens of processes on a daily basis. The sales team is no exemption. Within the team, there are well-defined processes that aim to bring in more sales as possible. The question now is what will happen if the sales process starts breaking down?

You need not wait to happen. Below are some of the tell-tale signs that your sales process is broken to the extent that it borders the mediocre and the awful. We also offer some insights into how you can fix it.

Signs of an ineffective sales process

1) Low response rates

If you are doing cold calling and email outreach and yet very few people are responding, then there’s a problem. There is nothing completely wrong with email outreach and cold calling for that matter. However, the methods to connect with our prospects are evolving. Perhaps, your sales process should, too.

Some experts argue that cold calling is dead. Nowadays, sales reps should prioritize “warm calling.” LinkedIn is there for a purpose. So, use it to your advantage. Yes, it is tempting to open the yellow pages. But for a more streamlined process that adds value, you need to define your list before you introduce yourself to the person.

When it’s time to connect through a call or an email, your name will be familiar to the prospect. This increases the likelihood of getting a response.

LESSON: The sales process must emphasize the need to establish a connection first before making the first contact

2) Few leads

If you aren’t able to build rapport in the first place, chances are, there will be very few leads to enter the pipeline. If there will be leads entering the pipeline at all. Another problem to look into is the fact that many companies are still buying leads lists. Thus, the prospects are nothing but names and not necessarily people who have a genuine interest in the company or its products and services.

Now is the perfect time to change the perspectives of these salespeople. If you are looking for qualified leads, these are the people who have already expressed an interest in your product. These people definitely need or find value in what you are offering. Yet, if a sales rep cannot distinguish between a qualified and unqualified lead, your process is obviously problematic.

The first place to look for those who have an established buyer interest is through the company’s CRM (customer relationship management). This is a critical tool to determine who reaches out to your company to inquire. They are probably looking for information about the choices and alternatives.

LESSON: The sales process should emphasize the need to differentiate between cold and warm leads

ANOTHER LESSON: The sales process should integrate sub-processes to determine which leads to pursue

3) Low close rates

In creating revenue, the sales team needs to convert leads into sales. If the team conducts 100 meetings in a month and closes 2 to 3 leads, the sales process needs to be improved. The ideal conversion rate is at least 10%. Anything lower than this rate is a sign that you need to evaluate the process that the team is using.

Depending on the industry, there could be some slight variations in the process. Nonetheless, the goal is the same – conversion. Thus, you need to know if the team members understand and complete the required steps to take. They should be able to address the pain points of the prospects.

It takes more than reviewing the sales reports and evaluating the performance of the sales team. The entire process must be reviewed to determine which areas need improvement.

LESSON: The sales process must value the buyer experience, and the team must understand how to do this

4) Longer sales cycle

There are no two sales cycles alike since they differ depending on the industry or niche. There are no rules of thumb when it comes to this. But, this is not an excuse to have a draggy sales cycle. If you can trim down the process into 15 to 18 days, why not right?

LESSON: The sales process should be operationally efficient, so there must be no room for redundancies

Simply, the sales team is only strong if the sales process that they rely on is equally strong. If the process is not doing what it should, it’s high time to do some evaluation. And please, get the team on board not because they are the one who uses it, but because the team members know what makes a valuable sales process. They are completely aware of the loopholes so they can best judge which needs to be improved.

 

Learn more about selling tips and hacks through our blog.

4 Things That Ruin a Sales Presentation

 

A sales presentation has three important goals. First, inform the audience about the company, product and service of the company with the goal of painting the brand in an ideal light. Second, captivate the audience. Third, convert the audience into a paying customer. The first goal is the easiest to accomplish. But, the same cannot be said for the second goal and thus, the third one. Why? Because of the flawed sales presentation.

Did you know that there are several ways your own presentation can actually sabotage the entire sales process? Below are some of them.

Things that ruin a sales presentation

1) Being immensely generic

Interestingly, the benefits of your product or service are not universal and apply to specific groups of people. Your sales presentation must not be too general, too. It should be customized to the needs of your audience. By now, you should have already realized that there are no two prospects alike. Each has its own pain points. Thus, the solutions you should present must be tailored to its needs.

If you won’t do this, you are losing the opportunity to let the prospect imagine himself using your product. This will be more apparent when you are sharing with him some success stories. He would be able to relate to the story if the story is relevant to what issues he currently struggles with. Visualization is key here.

2) Discussing benefits to a fault

To continue, it would be better to discuss up to four major benefits of your product in connection with the prospect’s pain point. People tend to remember information they think are useful to them. The knowledge about the relevant benefits you highlight in your presentation will become the basis of their decision.

Don’t bombard your prospect with too many benefits. In the end, she might get confused and doubtful whether all your claims are true or not. What will happen if she discovers that these are just false or unfounded claims? You won’t win her trust and so her business. Not to mention, listening to too-good-to-be-true statements can be very distracting. It also has negative implications on the person’s decision-making process.

3) Sticking to the script

No sales rep would be able to build a momentum if he would start his presentation in an obviously scripted manner. Coupled with a monotonous voice and questionable body language, the presentation is doomed to fail. An emotion-lacking presentation is a lackluster presentation.

How can you expect your attendees to respond if the presentation and the presenter himself lack energy and enthusiasm? You can avoid a drab presentation through practice. A dry run in front of your co-sales reps for instant Q&A and immediate feedback specifically on what you need to avoid and improve will be valuable. Ditch the script if possible.

4) Avoiding to answer questions

If there is one thing that can quickly kill your credibility that would be avoiding to acknowledge and answer questions thrown at you. Some sales rep think that their presentation is so great that it will suffice. Little did they know that it leaves holes here and there – black holes that slowly inch your prospect away from you! Additionally, presentations like this leave more questions than answers so you really need to answer questions to the best of your abilities.

Some sales rep dodge questions because of their inherent fear of giving the wrong answers. Misinformation has its costly consequences, too. Well, you need to know your products and services by heart so that you are able to give the right answers. This is also the reason you need to practice. Never say “I don’t know.” If you cannot answer a question, you may tell the person asking and the audience that you will consult a superior first. You can ask for the person’s email address and make sure that you contact her.

Sales presentations are tricky. Even the sales experts have off days and misses. Now that you know the basic presentation killers, strive to avoid them at all cost. Your goal should be acing the presentation. If it means customizing the pitch, focusing on relevant benefits, and practicing over and over including answering questions, then so be it.

 

Now that you know what must be done and avoid during a presentation, discover more tips and hacks for salespeople through browsing our blog section.

Sales Words and Phrases to Avoid at All Costs

 

Salespeople are real talkers. They are often articulate, tactful, and direct. Most importantly, they avoid using weasel words or those words and phrases that can subliminally jeopardize their credibility. These words and phrases are noise that is distracting or offensive to the prospect.

Nonetheless, there are still many sales representatives who want to boast and appear important without actually assessing the [negative] impact of what they are saying in front of the prospects.

To these uninitiated reps: Sorry to disappoint you, but your prospects can see right through those words!

Indeed, there are words and phrases that you mustn’t use during a pitch otherwise, you’ll run the risk of ruining your own credibility. And, with the mention of these words, the conversation is lost and there is no way you can get it back.

Things salespeople should not say

“Trust me.”

If you need to blatantly ask for the prospect to trust you, more likely, you cannot be trusted. This is one of the most annoying deflection tactics that only makes your prospect suspicious, thinking that you are hiding something from him. Trust must be earned.

“Honestly” “To be honest…” or “Let me be honest with you now.”

It’s a tell-tale sign that you are not being totally honest with her. In fact, the term or phrase is almost always followed by a lie. Needless to say, this also makes the prospect even more suspicious of your intention. Honesty must be established from the beginning.

“Frankly” or “Quite frankly”

This is one of the most insincere words out there.

“Obviously”

Stressing what’s obvious is very insulting. It’s a condescending word that puts out that the prospect isn’t smart enough to take notice or understand the matter. If it is that obvious, your prospect has already noticed it.

“Phenomenal”

Such a big word that may backfire if not used properly.

“Contract”

Such a word has a finality in it; thus, avoid mentioning the word during the first call or meeting. A great substitute is the word agreement.

“Problem”

This word has a negative ring to it. Mention the word in a room full prospects and you’ll only hear sighs. A more appropriate word is challenge.

“Prospect”

Mentioning the word is a-okay if you are talking to colleagues. However, if you are talking to a prospect, use the most appropriate term future client.

“You should”

Another offensive phrase, this tells the prospect what they should be doing instead. You have no right to tell her what she must do really.

“I’ll try.”

Maybe you should. Maybe you should abandon the indecisiveness, too.

“I hope so.” “I think so.” or “Perhaps”

It only shows that you are not 100% sure of what you are saying or demonstrating. Phrases like these are not helping your cause. Thus, make sure that you understand every nook and cranny of what you are selling.

“Cheap”

Every product or service has its own positioning. Nonetheless, regardless of how cheap it is, you need to position it as valuable. Don’t devalue your own product or service.

“Cost”

Impliedly, the word seems like you are just there for the sole purpose of hitting some numbers. Instead, use the phrase total investment.

“Once in a lifetime” and “The best ever”

The product or service that you are selling must be really excellent hence not using it is a waste of opportunity. But if it isn’t, spare your prospects some unfounded claims.

“Competitor”

Never mention the word and any of the names of your competitors. Your prospect will google it to know the difference. Show the buyer that the product or service you are selling meets his needs and exceeds his expectations.

“Buy”

The right term is invest.

“Are there any objections?”

Again, the word objection is an awfully negative term. An alternative is areas of concern.

“Pitch”

An industry jargon, it is better to use the word presentation because the word is too salesy. And, you are trying to be discreet about it, right?

“I mean that.”

Actually, you don’t. If you really mean what you say, there’s no need to emphasize it. Your sincerity must not be expressed verbally. Your prospect should feel it.

“Free” “Lowest price” “Risk-free” and “No risk”

These are just some of the most overused clichés that are sort of promises and not concrete claims.

Don’t talk yourself right out of the sale. There are specific words and phrases that you should’ve already ditched from your vocabulary if you want to make more sales. So, salespeople, take heed.

 

Now that you know which words and phrases to avoid, discover more selling tips and hacks from our blog.

5 Follow-Up Mistakes Salespeople Make

 

We can’t help but emphasize the fact that the salespeople of today are very lucky. They have the tools, applications, and learning materials at their disposal. Technology is their greatest ally. And yet, for some reasons, the salespeople still commit follow-up mistakes and without knowing it. What’s worse, they end up thinking the lead sucks, when it is their follow-up strategy that truly sucks. If you are making the same mistakes below, you better stop because these aren’t doing you any good.

Mistakes salespeople make

1) A slow follow-up

While there is no rule of thumb on the frequency and extent of following up a lead, it would be better to do a follow-up within 30 minutes after making the initial contact. Did you know that a salesperson is 100 times more likely to connect with a particular lead? That’s true. However, the number declines the more the salesperson waits. It’s because you are the top-of-mind person. However, if you are going to wait for a day or two to do the follow-up, the lead may not even remember talking to you. What more remembering your name?

2) A scripted follow-up

If you haven’t realized the excruciating truth yet, scripts are no longer relevant today. Some still find value in it since they can always deviate from it. But, if they are doing just that, it means they are actually using a template and not a script. The difference? You read a script verbatim. On the other hand, you tailor a template based on the context of the lead on hand. It is a personalizable framework because let’s admit it, the context differs from lead to lead. In fact, in the sales world, there are no two leads exactly alike.

3) An oversimplified follow-up

During the initial contact, perhaps the first call, you know nothing about the lead’s pain points unless he initiated an inquiry and told you about them. It is completely okay to fumble because you are not aware or completely sure about the details. Nonetheless, this can be avoided if you’ve just done your research. In the case of an inquiry, for example, you already have minute details that you can build your follow-up from. Usually, they mention the name of the company. You can start from there. While it is impossible to have a dossier for each of your leads, it is critical to do adequate research to understand where the prospect is coming from and what she cares about. Then, you can tailor the follow-up based on the information you gathered.

4) A “touching base” follow-up

Many a time, a salesperson fails to do an immediate follow-up. And usually, what he can do is to send a ‘just checking in’ email specifically a generic one because he hasn’t done his research just yet. #EpicFail. With the third item in mind, first, your messaging won’t evolve if you are not doing any research. Second, when messaging the prospect, your message needs to be as specific as possible. So, okay, you don’t have any dossiers yet, but you can always send content suggestions that the lead may peruse. Definitely, it would be much better if you can send contents that are somehow related to the nature of the business of the client. The prospect is more likely to give you a response if you can demonstrate that you’re not just after a sale.

5) A misaligned follow-up

While you are always ready to make a sale, a buyer may not always be ready to buy. A sales reality. Indeed, the buying process happens in four stages: awareness, consideration, evaluation, and decision. At each stage, a prospect’s activities will be very different due to the varying needs. Case in point: A salesman cannot offer a demo right after the lead discovers the product, service or both. It’s not how you should do it. As a salesperson who connects with a lead that was just building her trust and confidence in you, you must tailor your follow-up to her current needs.

The bottom-line

These mistakes don’t add value to the process. In fact, with each mistake you commit, you are taking away what little value you’ve already offered. Don’t be surprised if your follow-up tactics aren’t closing any lead. Act as a consultant, not necessarily a seller, and with a goal of providing value every step of the way to make your prospects happy and stay that way. Anyhow, the mistakes noted above, while they are serious, can be avoided. The most important lesson here is to build your follow-up around the needs, preferences, and requirements of your lead. Remember, the leads don’t suck. So, stop blaming them.

 

Don’t be the mediocre salesperson. Browse our blog section for more sales tips and hacks. While at it, download our Vender App now!

The Most Important Sales Skill Every Representative Needs to Learn

 

Poor listening has its price. In fact, millions of dollars are lost daily due to poor listening. It may not be that much for your business, but there remains the fact – poor listening is a costly mistake. Adding insult to injury, such a mistake shouldn’t be a mistake at all if you’d just invested a little of your time learning the most important skill every sales representative must possess.

Then again, there goes the cliché – hearing is one thing, listening is another. By definition, hearing is the act or process of perceiving sound while listening is the act of paying attention to sound and the process of hearing something with thoughtful attention.

But, then again, listening is not the most important sales skill that we are talking about. Active listening is a conscious effort, which means you have to be mentally present during the entire process. What we want to teach you is the art of empathetic listening. Here are some things worth knowing about this most important skill.

Empathetic listening defined

Empathetic listening is guided by the principle “seek to understand, before being understood.” The root word is empathy, which is defined as the ability to understand and share the emotions and experiences of another person. Thus, the process aims to connect cognitively and emotionally at the same time. It means paying attention to what the other person is saying with empathy, with compassion without forgetting about the insights.

One study refers to the process as active empathetic listening. Again, active listening appeals to the intellect more. For example, repeating back what the other person has said to ensure that you understand. The listening aspect is superficial. But whether it’d be empathetic listening or active empathetic listening, the bottom-line is empathy must be at the core.

Why empathetic listening

Empathetic listening has its own dynamics. Nonetheless, it can only be effective when the act of listening itself is born out of the sincere desire to understand what the other person feels. Such desire helps in realizing that the perspectives of that person have value. After listening empathetically, you may now see the bigger picture and make better and more informed decisions following that.

Fundamentally, you might be asking – As a salesperson, how can I make sense of empathetic listening? Empathetic listening is the key in upping up connect rates, developing better relationships and enabling to make more sales. Here’s how in detail.

1) Empathetic listening optimizes a follow-up

While you might say that cold calling is difficult, wait till you do some rounds of follow-up. Understandably, you would want to go over your follow-up script, but how will you respond when your prospect says, “Oh hi! I just got back from Greece. The place is so nice!” Will you say, “That’s great! Well, you should have bought our product blah blah blah to make your vacation more blah blah blah.” Wrong.

Think of a sales follow-up as an opportunity to build a relationship with your prospect. That means during that call you may say, “That’s great to hear. I’ve been wanting to go to Greece for a long time now. Any place I shouldn’t miss checking out?” Upon hearing the question, your prospect may start talking from a personal experience you can also build upon to deepen the connection.

2) Empathetic listening helps in need identification

Some prospects – the majority of them – cannot clearly articulate their pain points. They often do this through telling a story, a story that you have to listen to intently otherwise you will miss any opportunity that might emerge from it. There would be no need to ask any questions whether they need your product or service or not, allowing you to clarify and qualify.

For prospects that aren’t so forthcoming, the single most important question you can ask is W-H-Y to facilitate the sharing of experience. And, other than listening compassionately, read the body language of the person speaking. Don’t miss the small cues and steer the conversation from there.

3) Empathetic listening aids in prospect qualification

One of the most common mistakes of a sales rep is going too deep in the sales prospect without realizing the bad fit between the prospect and his or her product, service or both. Nonetheless, once you get the facts from listening from them, you can instantly make an informed decision whether that prospect is worth pursuing or not.

Depending on what the prospect says he or she needs or what his or her body language reveals and depending on the depth of the connection, the conversation may eventually lead to a demo.

 

How to listen empathetically

While empathy is not a word you get to hear during a sales meeting, it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist within the sales schema. Because it does and it should be. Good thing, empathetic listening is a learnable skill. Below are the basic guidelines.

– Focus on the person speaking

– Tune into the speaker’s voice inflection and body language (verbal and non-verbal cues)

– Look for feelings surrounding the person’s words and nuances in the speaker’s thoughts

– Identify the person’s core perspectives

– Accept the person’s interpretation as valid and worthwhile

– Use your imagination to think about a similar or almost similar situation you’ve been in

– Be aware of your own emotions about the topic

– Be aware of your own body language

– Indicate you are listening through providing responses, head nodding, providing invitations for the speaker to relate more

– Be open-minded and honest particularly if there’s no good fit

– Put your opinion aside in the meantime; share them later

– Collect yourself first before responding

– Seek confirmation by verifying your perceptions

– Ask confirmation questions genuinely

– Don’t pass judgments on their actions, the facts, and the meaning being related

– Respect the speaker’s views and opinions

– Follow the basic listening rules – don’t interrupt, don’t interrogate and don’t be distracted

Let’s end this discussion with one of the most powerful states from Anthony Iannarino: “Caring comes first. If you don’t care how people feel, it is impossible to be empathetic.

Enhance Productivity in Less Than 15 Minutes Daily

 

Every pragmatic worker would want to know how they can improve their daily productivity. But, did you know that each profession has its own idea to boost productivity may it involve just one person or more. In other words, we can learn from what other professionals around us. Let’s take the web designers and developers as an example. These people conduct stand-up meetings or short meetings with one main goal – to realign priorities.

Sometimes, this is all a sales team or salesperson needs to keep things in perspective and, ultimately, boost productivity. And, guess what? Realigning one’s priorities is very easy; all you need is 15 minutes of your time or even less than that.

Stand-up meeting defined

From the name itself, a stand-up meeting is a type of meeting where all attendees participate while standing. The goal is to keep the meeting as short and straightforward as possible. Otherwise, the discomfort of standing up for a longer period will eventually take its toll on the participants. Thus, stand-up meetings are usually timeboxed, occurring between 5 and 15 minutes, and at the same place and period. The meeting will push through even one member, or more are not able to attend.

Through this, each member of the team may be able to

– coordinate their efforts,
– resolve any issues that impede the progress of the project,
– determine any challenges each member faces,
– seek opportunities to collaborate, and
– strengthen commitments from each.

Evidently, a stand-up meeting is more of a communication vehicle to encourage the members to speak up and voice their concerns if they have any. In fact, there are two common styles implemented – Scrum and Kanban. These styles intend to know the progress, if the project is progressing at all or not. The only difference is the approach – the approach that you can also apply as a sales team.

Stand-up meeting for a sales team

Definitely, the two styles have accomplishments, obstacles, and priorities at the core. Kanban-style meetings focus on the following questions:

1) What obstacles are impeding the team’s progress?
2) In what areas the team has progressed?

On the other hand, Scrum-style meetings involve the following questions:

1) What did the team accomplish yesterday?
2) What does the team need to accomplish today?
3) What obstacles are impeding the team’s progress?

During a stand-up meeting, it would be impractical to limit the discussion on the questions. But, it’s purposive to answer these questions first. Whichever style you choose, throughout the discussion, the sub-topics will reveal themselves anyway through questions and clarifications.

Stand-up for a salesperson

Even if not taken in the team setting, the stand-up principle is also applicable to any salesman or saleswoman. You may use either the Kanban or Scrum styles to prioritize what you need to do today and tomorrow. You may do stand-up in the morning you go to work or while at work or do it at the end of the day before you go home. Alternatively, you may want to do a stand-up in the morning and the afternoon so that you can refocus your to-do list.

With Scrum-style in mind, you may frame your questions to reflect your conditions. You may ask yourself the following questions during a personal stand-up:

1) What are the straggling tasks that I left off yesterday and must be completed today?
2) What other things that I must accomplish today?
3) What are my schedules tomorrow that I need to prepare for today?

Depending on how you prioritize these, one thing is certain – what you do today will impact what you will be doing or must do the next day. So, make it a habit to stand-up. If you need to revisit your list of to-dos, do so. Just make sure that if isn’t that important, it shouldn’t be on your list or should be least prioritized.

If you are not satisfied with how things are going, you may start your after-lunch work with a stand-up. Since you are in the sales department, you’d know how a single call can alter your plans for the rest of the day. So, go over your list of must-dos once more. The goal is to reorganize your thoughts and tasks particularly after being derailed by a distraction.

Now, ask yourself the following questions:

1) What have I accomplished so far?
2) What should I finish now?
3) What can I do tomorrow instead?

On the contrary, if you’ve done all the tasks, the next best thing is to take a particular task in your next day’s to-do list and do it now. That is, if you still have the time to devote to another task. The more spare time you have, the more tasks you can take from the list. This will be revealed with each time you do stand-up. Now, you are seeing the value of doing a personal stand-up. Perhaps, you should do it more often to know if you are on the right track or not.

Again, we can learn a lot of things from one another especially the productivity hacks. You just have to be prudent among which of the concepts and principles apply to your profession as a sales representative and which are not.

 

For more productivity hacks and tips, head on to our blog section. Download our app, Vender App, to make your days more productive.

8 Cringe-Inducing Body Language Mistakes Salespeople Make During Meetings

 

Body language kills – the sales process, that is. Indeed, the non-verbals can be the single most destructing factor that hinders you in closing that supposedly mega deal. Are you committing these disastrous mistakes when delivering your sales pitch? Well, not every sales representative is completely aware that he or she does, so it would be better to digest each of the below.

Body language mistakes salespeople make

1) Avoiding eye contact

Some prospects are heavy on eye contact. Having eye contact means instant connection and inspires deeper conversation. Thus, oppositely, avoiding such may draw the prospect to think that you are hiding something from him. Demonstrate your sincerity by connecting with him through eye contact. But, be discreet about it because too much of it may only freak out the prospect.

 

2) Rolling the eyes

Sustained eye contact makes a salesperson appear more confident and in control of the conversation. However, when she starts to roll her eyes, it means she’s growing impatient with the process. It won’t make a good impression to any prospect. Did you know that the eye roll is the visual form of sighing? Don’t be disdainful and avoid rolling your eyes most especially when responding to questions.

 

3) Clasping the hands

A culprit that distracts the attention of the prospect on you and your message. There could be enough distractions in a room so the very last thing your prospect wants to hear is clapping, knuckle crunching or even cuticle picking. Keep your hands on your sides always unless you are making big movements or pointing to something important.

 

4) Drumming the fingers

Drumming one’s fingers on the table may mean an anticipation over something that should already be happening. Put simply, the act is indicative of frustrations especially those that are internal in nature. At worse, it means that the person wants to leave because she is already bored with your presentation. Perhaps, the prospect wants to say something but you won’t let her interrupt you. Take heed. Ask her if she wants to say something.

 

5) Facing elsewhere

A big no-no, some inexperienced salespeople always turn away from their audience to the extent of speaking to the screen. A prospect may think unfairly of this situation more so when you have his full attention. Instead, think of the think, turn, and talk method. Turn your back if you have to gather your thoughts, face your audience again and start speaking.

 

6) Watching the clock

Impatient as they are, some salespeople themselves especially those with multiple meetings within the day tend to gaze at their watches more often than necessary. That’s if it is even necessary to do so while conducting a meeting. It only means you want to be somewhere else. Don’t be like that. Give your full attention to your prospect while you are sitting on the same table, at least.

 

7) Checking the phone

As notorious as the above, this cannot escape your prospect’s eyes. The prospect agrees to see you because she wants to hear you speak. If you are sending the wrong signal of not focusing on her, you won’t be able to build your sense of trustworthiness. Again, be in the moment and never lose eye contact. The messages can wait anyway.

 

8) Slouching

Slouching is melancholic, leading the prospect to think that you aren’t interested in his or her business. Likewise, psychologists say that when a person slouches, he tends to use more negative emotion and sadness words than when he is sitting up straight. You won’t win the prospect’s confidence so sit up straight.

 

What can be done instead?

Robert Philipps, a body language expert, there are many ways to understand body language. First, you need to know your own positive signals and negative movements. The above are the negative movements you yourself make, and, of course, some opposites are the positive signals. Examples of these are open hand gestures and eye contact.

Second, you have to learn the proper way of mirroring. Mirroring is a technique of reflecting back your prospect’s body language. Pick up subtle hints from the prospect himself. The easiest to mirror is the person’s posture. If he is sitting straight up, he means business. Make sure that you convey the same message by sitting up straight yourself.

Third, you should learn the proper way of adopting and adapting behaviors. Adopting means taking something as your own while adapting means changing for new situations. So, adopt the right behaviors of a salesperson and adapt them to situation to situation. No prospect is created equal, right? Just emulate, don’t copy.

And, if you find some difficulties as to what body movements are acceptable, here are some of the subtle moves that may influence the direction of the presentation towards the favorable. It may take practice before you can master each.

– Raising your eyebrows slightly to show objection. The same with tilting the head.
– Pausing after asking a question while holding your breath. It means waiting for an answer.
– Pressing your lips down slightly to demonstrate disagreement.
– Smiling gently to show acknowledgment and appreciation.
– Breathing slowly and deeply to show confidence. The same with showing a relaxed face.
– Wincing slightly when something outside your intent is mentioned.
– Gesturing with an open palm to show openness and honesty.
– Having soft eye contacts regularly to show care. Not staring or looking away.

Philipps also mention that incongruence is the most detrimental thing in body language. You might have the greatest sales pitch in the world, but your non-verbals may have other plans than helping you in closing the deal. Another good opportunity lost, isn’t it? Just because you aren’t completely in charge of your own body language.

Likewise, it is not just about learning and understanding body language. What’s more important is using such knowledge to leverage your chance to close a deal. In simpler terms, stand, speak clearly and loudly, make eye contact, open your arms, plan for success, look good and, of course, smile.

 

Browse our blog for more tips on how to become an effective salesperson. Download Vender App too to get more things done!