Mark O
Selling in today’s world requires more grit, creativity, and emotional IQ then at any other time. How are you training your teams so they are best equipped without overwhelming them with process and change?
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People/Most sales teams aren't. They are putting salespeople on PiPs and showing them the door then hiring new ones and hoping that the past organization trained them better than the last batch they churned.
Spot on...and as long as this lives, the KPI > quota era shall continue. For what its worth, Mark. I don't believe you can teach creativity or EQ. While inherent in any good seller, it does not scale. They've got it or they don't.
For me, building a team of pros has a necessary recruitment element. Can they innovate, create and close by illuminating the value of a solution. All of the basic discovery questions have been long since documented. Any monkey can ask open-ended disco questions. But can they ask good ones?
Executives need to emote, think or laugh. We need sellers capable of creating an conversation and an environment conducive to this. And there's no freaking tech stack that does it. It still takes a human.
Interview questions: Ever solve any business problems? What was your thought process when solving them? Tell about you and the concept of innovation. Every create anything? Tell me your thoughts on the value of an idea.
If they blank out at this point, and words come out with no substance, they're off my list.
Last thing: You're getting hairs raised for using your public profile. You'll notice most of us are anon. Not a commando thing... we just never know who may be lurking. Employee/employer.. etc.
Welcome
For me, building a team of pros has a necessary recruitment element. Can they innovate, create and close by illuminating the value of a solution. All of the basic discovery questions have been long since documented. Any monkey can ask open-ended disco questions. But can they ask good ones?
Executives need to emote, think or laugh. We need sellers capable of creating an conversation and an environment conducive to this. And there's no freaking tech stack that does it. It still takes a human.
Interview questions: Ever solve any business problems? What was your thought process when solving them? Tell about you and the concept of innovation. Every create anything? Tell me your thoughts on the value of an idea.
If they blank out at this point, and words come out with no substance, they're off my list.
Last thing: You're getting hairs raised for using your public profile. You'll notice most of us are anon. Not a commando thing... we just never know who may be lurking. Employee/employer.. etc.
Welcome
🔔 Ding ding ding ding 🔔
Yeah but most are pushing people out. Only to bring in new ones with a half baked onboarding plan. Just creating a perpetual motion of churn.
sad but true :/
Which trainings have you seen that have helped your team? Maybe tell us that and this will become a more engaging post/question.
Also, do it without promoting your company or any training that you provide as a service.
Also, do it without promoting your company or any training that you provide as a service.
I actually have focused on simplifying the process and using omnichannel outreach. I work on training my team to have actual conversations and put themselves in the position of the client.
Realize that people in general hate to be sold to or told what they need to do. Ask questions to guide a prospect to open up and additional questions to validate and learn what their goals are.
There are too many tools in the tech stack today so I have been looking for solutions that put the necessary features in a single pane of glass for the team.
It’s been difficult because change the way they sell and speak to clients is difficult. People tend to revert to what is comfortable the minute things get difficult.
Realize that people in general hate to be sold to or told what they need to do. Ask questions to guide a prospect to open up and additional questions to validate and learn what their goals are.
There are too many tools in the tech stack today so I have been looking for solutions that put the necessary features in a single pane of glass for the team.
It’s been difficult because change the way they sell and speak to clients is difficult. People tend to revert to what is comfortable the minute things get difficult.
people hate being sold to, but love going shopping with friends
Are you angling to promote Elevate here? This goes against Rule # 4 of the 5 that the WR has.
Not at all. Actually has nothing to do with Elevate. Curious for myself leading a team and evaluating tech stack. What part of my post sounded like I was trying to sell something?
Your post doesn't really fit in with the way things are done around here, not adding any context as to why or talking about your experience thus far. No value add, just a straight question that can be seen as leading - setting people up to be pitched by you.
We see it all the time from people posting for the first time using a real name, when this is basically a fully anonymous community.
We see it all the time from people posting for the first time using a real name, when this is basically a fully anonymous community.
Your responses are almost word for word off your company's LI/website...
This too
Hey Mark - welcome to the War Room.
My manager gives me autonomy and doesn't confuse means with ends which helps us a lot.
Would love your insights running a team and to hear your stories!
My manager gives me autonomy and doesn't confuse means with ends which helps us a lot.
Would love your insights running a team and to hear your stories!
I love this. When I work my team I always focus on them being themselves. You need to be authentic and use your own voice. This way your conversations are natural and authentic.
Training on the personas and what they will be caring about in 2024 is key, plus how x product helps that pain.
Training on a CFO cares about finance is a waste of time, reps need specifics on the challenges of tomorrow
Training on a CFO cares about finance is a waste of time, reps need specifics on the challenges of tomorrow
Honestly, having more video calls and more in person meetings/conversations. Just need to understand people and how they physically and emotionally respond to comments and pitches. You learn a lot and move faster.
Training list be continuous and constant. Not like all the time, but in intervals. Training, regardless of subject, can’t be done if you just shove it in their face for two days. It has be a constant part of the discussion and you have to do it multiple times if you want it to stick. This way it gets less overwhelming if you do it in little bits over time.
I disagree with it requiring more creativity and Emotional IQ (however Grit = yes.). If Selling is requiring more EIQ, than perhaps you need to look at your own sales team (and company management) and gauge where they are at more than where your clients are at. And if you're worried about overwhelming them with process and change - maybe you need to look at how you do things first.
I took a look at your bio - you appear to be a "management by numbers" kinda guy. You'll leverage micromanagement tools like Gong (and other "tech stack" micromanagement enablers) to judge reps and do the whole fire/hire routine to shift the blame from poor processes and management to the reps you've hired.
I took a look at your bio - you appear to be a "management by numbers" kinda guy. You'll leverage micromanagement tools like Gong (and other "tech stack" micromanagement enablers) to judge reps and do the whole fire/hire routine to shift the blame from poor processes and management to the reps you've hired.
not really selling anything rn, but for jobs ive been networking in person. For ex. just met with a national sales director for drinks on friday, nobody else is doing that for a job. Bc of that he said if you get an interview, you'll have a final round or close to the final round with me and ill just put you through. In sales now, going back to in person meetings if its feasible, sending gifts or videos. makes you more memorable than the person just sending sequenced emails
Don't overwhelme them with a question for every situation. When I was a training manager, I would use every other account we would visit as a trainable account for them to better understand company standards and goals.
We were territory sales people so we were always in the street visiting accounts. This would allow them to do their job and focus on the training objective.
I would also ask them to identify the problem and when they gave me an answer, I would explaing to them why they were ask to do this.
Break the process up so that everything is not shoved down their throats. Help them see the benefits as to why training needs to take place. They will be more receptive to what you are teaching them.
We were territory sales people so we were always in the street visiting accounts. This would allow them to do their job and focus on the training objective.
I would also ask them to identify the problem and when they gave me an answer, I would explaing to them why they were ask to do this.
Break the process up so that everything is not shoved down their throats. Help them see the benefits as to why training needs to take place. They will be more receptive to what you are teaching them.
🤡
Changing process to match the market? psssh not at this org.
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