Sales mastery is achieved through intentional practice and continuous improvement, including internalizing and capitalising upon core sales tools.
Top sales professionals and leaders follow a proven sales process during every client interaction. They understand that sales is all about building trusted relationships; thus implementing coaching, role plays, and reinforcement plans as key ingredients of sales mastery are necessary for true mastery of this profession.
1. Identify Your Unique Selling Position
Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) defines what sets your company apart from competitors, providing an effective means of drawing customers in, driving sales and forging brand loyalty.
Investigate what distinguishes you from your competition through market research. Gather customer feedback, competitive analyses, product data and any potential USPs against industry standards to identify which will provide an edge against them.
Learn to overcome roadblocks in the sales process in order to close business with an excellent customer experience. Establish effective qualifying processes which identify investment constraints, decision-making processes, and risks among potential prospects.
Empower your managers to coach effectively by creating a coaching culture and providing sales training materials and sales tools. Coaching, role plays, reinforcement plans and teach-backs will assist your team in reaching sales mastery.
2. Develop a Unique Selling Strategy
Are You Tired of Wasting Time with Prospects Who Don’t Buy Or Decide? Do Your Sales Managers Feel Disappointment in Their Company Goal Progress? If this describes you, don’t waste any more time.
An effective unique selling proposition (USP) distinguishes your business from competitors by creating an appealing benefit that draws people towards you and your product/service.
Your USP should also address the needs of your ideal customers. For instance, AdvancedAG originally developed its bacteria to address lake restoration and wastewater treatment, yet they discovered an unmet need in Canada’s agricultural sector and now leverage their unique product as a catalyst to drive change.
3. Practice Makes Perfect
An intention and ability to excel at sales are necessary components, but true mastery in sales takes dedicated practice and experience. Unfortunately, too many sales organizations struggle in this area – CSO Insights reports sales rep quota attainment rates are below 60% and on an ongoing decline.
There’s good news here – you can take steps to change this statistic by emphasizing sales team development through training and coaching programs, like those provided by QCSS’s Sales Mastery program.
The program includes three tracks: Foundation for Success, Serving Your Client and Conversations that Convert. Each of these builds upon itself to prepare you for sales mastery; every lesson includes communication theories, psychological theory and powerful strategies and masterful techniques.
4. Establish a Coaching Culture
Sales must foster an environment of continuous learning and development – something only coaching can achieve.
As statistics demonstrate, when managers take a coaching approach to selling (CSO Insights reports that those who coach their reps to meet quota have higher win rates), it can make all the difference for teams aiming to consistently hit their targets.
However, for an effective coaching first culture to develop all leaders must embrace it and commit themselves fully. This involves coaching their teams regularly and taking time out for planning each call so as to maximize performance – something which may prove challenging during times of month, quarter, or year-end pressures; yet is essential to success.
5. Teach-Backs
Coaching your sales reps is crucial to their mastery of sales mastery. Establishing a coaching culture may be as easy as having sales managers coach each seller regularly via phone call, email or even an enablement tool that supports role plays to assess and coach reps.
Reducing sales team tension and improving effectiveness may be easier than you think with the QCSS Sales Mastery Program’s Conversations that Convert. Our tailored sales training programme caters to each individual based on their behavioural profile, selling skills and experience – no matter which sales level they operate at.