Mike Schultz's Blog, page 15

4 Steps to Overcoming Sales Objections

The word "no" can be a tough pill to swallow.

In selling, when you're trying to meet a quota, squeeze in an extra deal before the end of the quarter, or get your bonus, the word "no" is too often interpreted as a sign to run for the hills.

Worse, some salespeople see most objections as a call to battle. With this attitude, it’s no wonder they handle sales objections poorly. However, when we break it down, you can see that objections can actually be a good thing.

7 Time Management Tips to Boost Your Productivity (and Happiness!)

Almost all sellers at some point in their career will consider adopting a time management system to improve their productivity. Few stick with it. The challenge is that many time management systems focus too deeply on the activity level—what to do first, what to do next, what the priority order is—without paying enough attention to the bigger picture.

We studied the habits of extremely productive people—we call them The XP—in a global productivity research study with more than 5,000 participants to date. Not only did we learn their habits, we found that the most productive people are also more satisfied with their jobs, more likely to be top performers, and are happier.

50 Powerful Sales Questions

Great sales questions help you find out what’s going on in your buyer’s world. They help you connect with buyers, understand their needs, understand what’s important to them, and help them create better futures for themselves.

They help you disrupt buyer thinking and change buyers’ perception of what’s true and what’s possible. They help you drive the sale forward and avoid pitfalls that can derail the sale along the way. 

Great sales questions help you win sales.

Virtual Selling Q&A: 11 Answers to Your Questions

Becoming a top seller has always been part art and part science. The following are among the hallmarks of successful sales professionals:

Deep expertise in your company’s offerings and industry
The skills to determine customer needs and proactively drive opportunity
The ability to help buyers to shift and set new priorities and attack challenges with better approaches

However, being successful in sales also requires the ability to connect, engage, collaborate, and influence buyers remotely.

How to Sell through LinkedIn

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know social media, especially LinkedIn, plays an important role in sales. But you may be surprised by just how big that role is. According to LinkedIn research, 89% of top sales professionals find social networking platforms such as LinkedIn important to closing deals.

Indeed, our own research reveals the majority of buyers—82%—will review your LinkedIn profile, and, yes, judge you, before accepting a meeting or otherwise connecting with you.

Do You Need to Negotiate Differently with Procurement?

If you’re like most sellers, you find yourself negotiating deals with a buyer’s procurement team at least some of the time. Certainly, the frequency with which you’re dealing with procurement and purchasing professionals will vary based on industry and product category, but being skilled working with procurement is often the key to moving your deal across the finish line in a timely way.

You might wonder whether there’s any need to negotiate differently when purchasing plays a role. The answer is yes—and no.

LinkedIn for Sales [Free Guide + Tools]

82% of buyers will look up a seller on LinkedIn before replying to a seller’s prospecting efforts.

82%!

Which begs the question: How are you showing up on LinkedIn?

What does your profile look like and what does it say about you?

Key Account Planning Checklist

According to our research of sales, enablement, and company leaders:

64% prioritize increasing business with existing accounts
62% prioritize improving customer retention, repeat business, and renewals

Despite this, only 8% of executives rate their account planning process as very effective.

13 Tips for Crafting the Best Prospecting Emails [Examples]

TL;DR? Download the PDF and save it for later.

Many sellers assume buyers don't want or need to talk to them early in the buying process. 

This simply isn't the case.

In fact, our prospecting research reveals buyers want to hear from sellers early. 

When Do Buyers Want to Hear from Sellers in the Buying Process?

The Virtual Selling Skills You Need [Research + Tools]

Note: You can download this article as a PDF to save it for later! 

Developing relationships, collaborating online, leading virtual sales conversations, gaining and keeping attention, leveraging technology, making the ROI case, delivering value—these are hard to do regardless of the sales and economic environment.

But, do these become more difficult when selling virtually versus face-to-face? Are some areas more difficult for sellers than others? What influences buyers’ purchase decisions when buying virtually?