Data Backed Sales Tips to Never Miss Your Quota
As some of you may know about me, I love sales and I love negotiating. It's something I'm quite passionate about. In fact, if you are reading this and need help with sales, negotiation tips or talking a deal through - email me and I'm happy to offer any advice I can.
One of my sales mentors was John Barrows. John is the CEO of JBarrows Sales Training and one of the best sales trainers in the world. My experiences with John sharpened my sales skills and gave me the confidence to leave a comfortable software sales job to go after CG Sports (pic of Barrows and Cejih below).
The JBarrows team recently hosted a webinar called "Data Backed Sales Tips To Never Miss Quota". Here are a few key takeaways I would like to share with you:
What actually happens when a buyer tells you they "need to think about it." Data shows that sales win rates are not affected significantly when a buyer tells you this phrase. However, the length of the sales cycle gets longer. How much longer?
Sales cycle increase by 173%. So if you have a 30 day sales cycle, a 173% increase now puts you at 82 days for them to buy.
What to do when you hear this? Pro tip: Say the following, "Usually when a buyer tells me that, it's because I missed something or they are just not interested. Which is it?" Then be quiet. They will now disclose what the final objection is. From here you can now navigate some mutually agreed upon next steps. Or they will shoot you straight with an honest ‘no’ and you can move on.
Don't confuse small talk with building rapport. Top performers discuss small talk 17% less than average performers. Small talk would be something like “How is the weather?” Building rapport involves going deeper to try and find a shared interest between you and the buyer. Is small talk bad? No - but get through it quickly and see if you can discover a shared interest or experience between you and the buyer. Pro tip: Research the buyer before the call.
Turn on your webcam!
Win rates are 127% higher when you have your webcam turned on during a sales call.
Wearing hats during Zoom calls did not affect win rates either way (whew).
The science behind multi-threading
Top performers include at least 3 stakeholders in their deal.
1st call with buyer: Average performers 1.09 people, Top Performers: 1.23 people
2nd call with buyer: Average performers 1.27 people, Top Performers: 3.32 people (+161%)
How to ask to get more people on the next call, without sounding pushy? Pro Tip: Say this, "Who else on your team would feel left out if they didn't attend our next meeting to discuss the proposal?"
Key takeaways in summary: “I need to think about it” usually means a longer sales cycle, but isn’t always a no; replace small talk with finding shared interests; always have your webcam on; get more people in on the deal from the buyer side.
Good luck and happy selling!
