Our passion is to help organizations develop high performance cultures by raising values based leadership performance to the next level

SELLER Sales ProfileTM

Many small to midsized companies grow due to highly skilled, natural ‘Rainmakers’ who simply have a great knack for finding business. Does this describe your organization? The question is how effective in your sales force today? Will they remain competitive in tomorrows changing world? How will new Sellers be trained and what process do they use to find, develop and close new business?  

Business owners already know that it is much harder to find a new customer than it is to resell an existing customer. How also are you doing at customer retention? Are you maximizing your cross selling and upward selling of your existing customers? Transcende’s Sales Audit can answer these questions and much more to help prepare your for future success.  

Transcende’s professionals have been top Rainmakers and Sales Executives with broad multi-industry experience. We can help match you to the best expert on our team who will then help measure the skill sets of your current salespeople through our DISC and Hartman-based SELLER Sales Profile tests which diagnoses behavioral styles and selling strengths and weaknesses. We then work closely with senior management to develop a concrete proven plan to lift your sales organizations performance to the next level with our integrated SELLER Sales Process empowered by Salesforce.com. Below is an outline of our SELLER Sales Training process. Click here to find out more.  

Purchase a Sales Skills Assessment Here

 

The effective Sales Process is like a hanger to a coat. The coat is your product or service and the hanger gives it shape and support.  

Key Training Components of the SELLER Sales Process:

SEARCH  

Ancient roman Philosopher Seneca wrote, "“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Before any sales activity takes place, the Seller must first have clear focus and understanding of the target Prospect. The Search phase of the sales cycle then is foundational to success. The more you know about your business and your ideal customer and why they buy, the more effective your research will be. Discovering the Prospect in advance...their business, their needs, and wants, can give you a significant competitive edge and amplify a positive first impression. Basic Search steps will often include:  

-Website (as a bare minimum)

   a. Their Values and Mission

   b. Leadership and decision makers

   c. Events/News

-  Industry or Professional Associations

- Hoovers , D&B and other industry research tools including trade associations, etc.

-  Check history in your contact record (no CRM? See us about Salesforce.com) and past customer data

-  Enter any new data into your CRM  

 

Skills Associated with Top Searchers

Initiative

Intuitive Decision making

Persistence

Self-Starting

Role Confidence

Attention to detail

Continuous learning

 

ENGAGE  

Your first meeting with the Prospect (whether live, by telephone or via videoconference) will often determine success or failure. ‘Trust Capital’ is the amount of trust you can build up in a relationship and it is essential to any successful sales effort. Trust can be easily established and strengthened…or broken, very early in the ENGAGE phase of the sales cycle. You will often find that trust is given in the beginning by some personality types and others are naturally distrusting. The best way to build trust early on is to:  

  1. Be prepared. Your research is done; your materials are ready and professional, your teams (if present) are prepped on their roles on the call. Your product or service should be aimed at their needs, not your commission check!
  2. Be prompt...or early. You look your best and are confident
  3. Engage them. Eye contact, sincere warmth, firm handshake with a smile can go a long way in the first few seconds to gain you trust capital.
  4. Be professional in appearance and behavior. If a meal is involved, show god etiquette and manners.

 

Skills Associated with Top Engagers  

Interpersonal skills

Sensitivity towards others

Relating towards others

Sense of timing

Customer focus

Self confidence

Self assessment/awareness

 Purchase a Sales Skills Assessment Here

The SELLER Process
 a six step sales process

LISTEN  

Salespeople like to talk…it is what we are good at! A wise marriage counselor once said, “To love is to listen”. The same applies in the sales relationship. You are building a ‘contract’ between you and the buyer. The better you listen the more trust capital you create and the more likely you will succeed. The Listening step includes:  

a. Empathy-you should apply your ability to feel their pain and concerns…and understand their felt needs. This is actually a psychological muscle that can be exercised and strengthened over time. Understanding means to get in their shoes or to ‘stand under’ in the same way a servant would anticipate the needs of the Master.  

b. Prepare intelligent questions to draw out the Prospect. We think of our selves 93% of the time, per the Gateways Institute. We tend t like people who are interested in us…so turn it around and keep the meeting about them…their job, their challenges...and their business needs. You can guide the transfer of knowledge of key information by dong less and asking targeted questions. Ask them “Who else other than you will be involved wit the decision?” The Prospect will think you are pretty smart by the time the meeting is done!  

c. Write-to record key points during this first meeting will show both respect for what the Prospect is saying and aid you in giving feedback to them in summary fashion during the call as well as for an email ‘recap’ later on. Finally it gives you a record of what was said that you will need to refer to later in the proposal stage.

 

Skills Associated with Top Listeners  

Empathy

Evaluating what is said

Seeing potential problems

Objective listening

Attitude towards honesty

 

LEVERAGE  

Competition is fierce and to ‘lose by a nose’ is still last place. If the first 3 steps were well executed you should be well positioned to leverage your solution into a first position I the Prospects mind versus other companies. Some important aspects of this step are:  

  1. Recap-immediately after the meeting, send a recap email to the Prospect outlining what you learned in this meeting. You should do this every time you have a sales encounter with them through the process. Copy your team and save to your CRM history
  2. Analyze their needs and apply your best solution, being budget sensitive, to their problem. Critically think how each part of your solution can be differentiated from others as well as how it uniquely meets the needs of the Prospect. This is the foundation of your proposal.
  3. Get an idea of what the next steps are and how close are you to closing the sale by asking the Prospect these 4 questions:      1) How does this look to you compared to  other options you have? 2) When will you be making a decision? 3) Who else, other than us, are you considering to provide this product (or service)? Why? 4) What would you suggest we need to do to secure the spot as your vendor of choice here?

 

Skills Associated with Top Leveragers  

Understanding attitude

Versatility

Concrete organization

Problem solving

Conceptual thinking skills

Creativity

Gaining commitment

Integrative ability

Resiliency

 

ENSURE  

Ensure, per Webster, means “to convince, prove, compel by argument”. In this closing phase, you must first ask the hard questions to yourself. How well have I differentiated our solution? Salespeople are too often overly optimistic. If this is a major sale, review the deal with your sales manager. Ask yourself, "What could possibly go wrong here?” Reconnect with your Prospect and begin to secure the final close with close questions such as:  

  1. Is there anything else we can do to bring this to a decision?
  2. What are the circumstances (contract, delivery, payment) that you need for us to move forward?
  3. Looking at the calendar, we have some busy implementations coming up…when do you need this solution to be in place?
  4. As a Client/Customer, how can we assure retaining an ongoing win-win relationship with you?

 

Skills Associated with Top Ensurers  

Handling Rejection

Self Confidence

Results orientation

Persuading others

Understanding motivational needs

Flexibility

Situational analysis

 

RETAIN  

The key to growing your commission base and overall company profitability is retention. But retention begins with effective, inclusive, account turnover. How they begin this new relationship with your company oftentimes determines their longevity with you company. As a sales professional you should assure that:  

  1. The internal details of account turnover are handled according to process and with efficiency. This experience determines whether they will buy again.
  2. Your internal people are connected relationship-wise to their internal team. Make the introductions and leave nothing to chance.
  3. Your sales contract is explicitly followed by your delivery and billing departments.
  4. Assume nothing. This is your deal…baby sit it if necessary to make sure that what YOU promised is delivered.

 

Skills Associated with Top Retainors  

Attention to Detail

Self confidence

Role confidence

Personal accountability

Quality orientation

 Purchase a Sales Skills Assessment Here