Many sales professionals struggle with these 3 habits. Research shows they ALL correlate with increased sales.
1. Prepare: 75% of B2B executive buyers say salespeople are not knowledgeable about their business... and do not understand the issues they face. Unsurprisingly, only one in four salespeople get agreement from these buyers to meet again. See Sales Call Preparation, p 2.
2. Probe: Over 3 decades of research makes it clear: Salespeople who ask questions about customers' problems sell more. See Neil Rackham's landmark book, SPIN Selling.
3. Publish: Salespeople rate themselves low on entering data into their CRM. Yet this habit strongly correlates with beating sales quotas. See VOC Skills that Drive B2B Sales (pp 11, 13).
Everyday VOC® training--which employs the SalesPrepTM system--improves all 3 habits.
1. How to PREPARE better
Why do many salespeople fail to prepare well for customer meetings? It's time-consuming and they're busy. But with AI, they can download a SalesPrep report in just 60 seconds with:
- Company news: With up-to-date news, you'll never be surprised by your customer's new acquisition, divestiture, layoffs, vice-president, or company announcement.
- Market trends: You’ll engage your customer more deeply if you’re conversant in their top 15-20 industry trends. And you can download a 2-page Trend Brief on each.
- Common problems: You'll see the top 15-20 problems typically faced by this type of company. You can download a comprehensive Problem Brief for each.
- Process steps: You'll see the steps your customer takes to use your type of offering. Each step's Process Brief recommends ways to make the step faster, better and cheaper.
- Company overview: You'll review a detailed description of this account... their size, leadership, products, competitors, and published strategy.
You can view all of this on your desktop or phone. Download a sample report for a closer look.
2. How to PROBE better
Decades of research shows that asking the right questions boosts selling success. SalesPrep software and the Everyday VOC workshop teach our "What-Why-Clarify" probing... an advanced VOC method based on our training of global B2B firms for 20+ years. This training includes:
- 10 E-learning modules (each 6-12 minutes)
- Downloadable resources, such as the Everyday VOC Guide.
- Unlimited practice sessions with an AI Guide called "Claire."
The last item--AI role-playing with Claire--is amazing. You select any of your products and its customer application. Then you practice What-Why-Clarify probing on an AI "customer" who gives very realistic answers. Claire--your AI Guide--gives you advice as you go.
3. How to PUBLISH better
Our research shows that B2B salespeople who record their sales calls in a CRM are more likely to beat their sales quotas. (See VOC Skills that Drive B2B Sales, p 13). And yet many fail to consistently do so given their time constraints.
AI changes everything: After your sales call, "Paige"--your AI Ghostwriter--asks you questions about your call in just 5-10 minutes, and then drafts a) your post-call report and b) a "recap" email you can send to the customer.
This not only boosts selling success, but strong data entry allows Market Scouting... AI-based data-mining of your CRM to detect weak market signals before competitors.
4. How to CHANGE BEHAVIOR
Workshops are common. Real behavior change afterwards is not. With the Everyday VOC training program, your sales team will quickly start preparing, probing, and publishing better:
A. Kickoff workshop: During this 4-hour workshop (virtual or in-person), your salespeople get hands-on role-playing practice. At this time, your sales leaders announce follow-up web-conferences with some "friendly contests."
B. Monthly follow-up web-conferences: These are one-hour web-conferences 1, 2, and 3 months after the workshop. We recognize early adopters who are diligently using "Claire" and "Paige" sessions, SalesPrep report downloads, and e-learning modules.
C. Email reminders: For 90 days, learners receive email reminders (customized to their activity level) to take e-learning, practice with Claire, and ask Paige to draft their call reports.
D. Certification: Learners receive a SalesPrep Certificate that can be one-click-posted on LinkedIn when they complete 10 e-learning modules, 10 reports, and 10 "Claire" sessions.
E. Sponsor Dashboard: Your sponsor(s) get access to a dashboard to monitor and encourageuse of the SalesPrep system.
F. Permanent change: We work with your leaders to provide incentives to both learn and apply new behaviors... some of which should happen now and some later:
We want impressive, measurable results for your team, and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. The cost is just $495/person + $9000 per private workshop for up to 50 learners. (For more learners add $9000 for a second trainer.) This includes everything above.
Each company has a different "starting point", so your AIM Institute advisor will work with you to develop the best plan for your organization. (Contact AIM at www.talkwithAIM.com)
Keywords: sales habits, sales behavior, prepare, probe, publish, CRM, CRM capture, encourage behavior change, require behavior change, learning new behaviors, applying new behaviors, sales incentives, sales compensation, recognition, prizes, testimonies, 3 P's, certification, sponsor dashboard.