Redefining the Sales Profession Due to Pandemic

This lecture explains what a "Quintessential Sales Professional" comprises compared to the traditional sales person.  Using the adjective quintessential broadens the significance of of what people in refreshed sales roles and responsibilities will be while we get through this pandemic and what the new sales normal will consist in the post pandemic business world.

Merriam Webster defines the "Quintessential" as an adjective that means

-representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class

Let's take a further look at what this word means, represents and where it came.

Check these facts below:

Similar words for quintessential

• classic/classical

• essential

• exemplary

• ideal

• model, perfect

• necessary

• par excellence

• superior

• essential

• outstanding

• essential

• top notch

• well known

• most famous

• iconic

• ideal

What is the etymology of 'quintessential'?

• The origin of the word quint is the late 17th century; it derives from French, which took the word from Latin quintus (fifth) from quinque (five). In Italian, quinto means fifth, and has the same origin. Quintessential derives from quintessence (from Latin quinta essentia), which was considered thought to fill the Universe beyond Earth.

Quintessential and the Elements

The philosophers and scientists of the ancient world and the Middle Ages believed that the world we inhabit was entirely made up of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Aristotle added a fifth element, the aether or ether, by which he meant the material that fills the rest of space, mostly invisibly but sometimes taking the form of stars and planets. Many writers described the element as a kind of invisible light or fire. In the Middle Ages, it was referred to as the quinta essentia ("fifth element"). It isn't surprising that the quinta essentia came to stand for anything so perfect that it seemed to surpass the limitations of earth. Today we generally use quintessential rather freely to describe just about anything that represents the best of its kind.

mindset

/ˈmīn(d)set/

noun

1.the established set of attitudes held by someone:

2.a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior:

Why is Mindset Important?

• Basis of everything you do!

• Your decisions/choices

• Your thought process

• Action you take every day

• It is your level of achievement.

For as she/he think in their heart, so they are Proverb 23:7

Here are my Top 10 Sales Mindsets you need to have or refresh to be successful in the New Sales Normal

#10 - Know Exactly How Your Product or Service Can Positively Impact Your Clients and Potential Future Client

You should be able to clearly articulate, believe and feel this impact.  Better yet, your clients should be willing to broadcast this impact

#9 -Celebrate and Get Excited When the Benefit the Client is Experience by your Client.

aka Have Your Clients’ Best Interests at Heart

The obvious tendency is to celebrate is when the client signs the agreement and when you are paid a commission.  That is okay but do something special for your client in the way of a gift, message or some form of content that honors them.  The acknowledgement is the foundation of this celebration of Gratitude.

#8 - Treat the Person Who is Presently in Your Presence as if They Are the Most Important Person in the World

This applies not only to your client, but to everyone in your circle of influence or people who you are meeting for the 1st time.

#7 - Believe that Failure is Part of the Process of Success

Having positive self talk reminders in this really helps to transform.  Also encouraging others in their failures will reinforce this with you as well.

#6 - Be Specific as to Who You are Going to Do Business

Qualify your customers before you invest in proposal development or even an in-person visit. You only want to focus on good opportunities, so that means not spending time on opportunities that are shaky.

#5 - Supplement Your Sales Activities Persistency with Smart Automated Technologies

It is always going to be important to be persistent in following up with your targeted audience/market with your own efforts.  You would be very wise to 1st understand how automated technology work and immediately implement.  Instead of attempting to remember who to call on the phone or send an email let automated sales technology

#4 - Win an Academy Award for "Friendliest Disposition"

It is easy to be friendly in the most ideal circumstances and favorable outcomes, but when things are not idea you need to "act" the appropriate role of kind, respectful, understanding and professional.  "And the winner is ......."

#3 -Be Aware Your Own Body Language and Voice Reflections are a power force

Making conscience efforts to be aware of small key gestures in your face, eyes, posture, hands and voice.  These are more powerful than you know.

#2- Listen More Than You Talk

I know this is a "no brainer" action you hear all the time, but the traditional sales person (including myself) like to talk.  Listening is simple (just be quiet) but when to speak and say something is the more complex action.  I have found being the talkative type that focusing on asking interesting questions and keeping my statements and responses short and clear.

#1 - Have Fun!

Life is short.  If you are not having fun then you need to review the components of the sales process to see where there is pain and discomfort

So there you have it  The Top Sales (and Life)  Mindsets.

I am very excited about all the subjects I am mentoring you, but this subject of the Sales Professional working with whatever level of marketing they have in their organization.

It is important that I state that I am not trying to make Sales Professional into Marketing Professional. Nor am I trying to make Marketing professionals perform task that Sales Professionals need to do.

The purpose is for Sales Professionals to be more aware of the power they obtain contributing to marketing efforts.

The Sales and Marketing Relationship is a vital duet that must be encouraged and nurtured.

The Synergy formula of 1 + 1 equaling 3 and more applies in reality of these two disciplines.

syn·er·gy

/ˈsinərjē/

noun

• 1.the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects:

It is undeniable that they need to work together in order to generate interest in the offering and ultimately make sales.

If the Power of Marketing is not in full force then Sales Professional will have to resource to the traditional outdated methods

Return on Investment of Sales and Marketing collaborating together

Organizations with excellent sales and marketing alignment close 38 percent more deals, achieve 27 percent faster three-year profit growth, and achieve 208 percent higher revenue than organizations with disconnected sales and marketing teams.

Sales and Marketing Contribute to Buy Persona Profile

Sales and Marketing need to work together to make sure the Buyers Persona match up to the products and services the company is offering and that the content material align with it. Sales and Marketing will produce better content together vs. by themselves. 1 + 1 = 3

**A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.. The more details the better**

Both sales and marketing departments rely on buyer personas to appeal to the audiences that will invest in your product or service. But often, organizations whose marketing and sales team have ineffective communication find that their buyer personas do not line up with their target audience. What’s the point of putting in the time to create buyer personas and marketing collateral targeted to those personas if the audience isn’t an appropriate target? Collaboration between sales and marketing helps marketing generate content that will capture the audience decision to buy.

This collaboration will ensure that marketing, sales, product development and customer support all have the same view of your ideal customer. You can then use your collective personas data to guide the direction of your work.

Marketing and Sales Need to streamline technology to facilitate alignment.

We will talk about this more in the next lectures, but Sales and Marketing need to have a platform such as a CRM or Sales Enablement to collect and collaborate on efforts to move a prospect to the point of buying.

Sales and Marketing Must Work Together to find the perfect piece of content

Sales Professionals can provide helpful insight and feed back that will contribute to effective content to attract the right audience

Sales and Marketing Must Determine that right content is being sent to buyers in the most effective way?

What is the channel being used to make this content available to the ideal client

The Competition "Frienemies"

I am not like most people. I do love people and care about them on the best way can. I confess I have always "disliked" my competition. When I have to see them I do "act" and show them respect and regards, but I know they want to beat me.

Having a solid relationship with my family member in Marketing causes me to lose some of this "dislike". I know I can combine my knowledge of the competition along with what they know to increase our chances of winning with our Most Ideal Audience.

In my experience in connecting with Marketing I have always felt I have them back and they have mine.

Your Next Steps

Determine what marketing resources you have available to you

Schedule a communication meeting to state your commitment to working together.

Take Inventory of the marketing materials that exist and where they are located.

Ask them if there are any frustrations you can help resolve.

Ask them if you can schedule a regular meeting to collaborate.

In my next lecture I will cover the raw truth about the roles and responsibilities you need to grasp on to.

The truth will set you free.

This lecture is a refreshing review of the roles and responsibilities of the Sales Professional.

To be exact - Sales is the process of actually convincing someone to buy from your business. It often involves some level of interpersonal interaction that persuades a lead to become a customer. Once a Sales Professional is given (or finds) a potential prospect then they can use their Super Sales Powers.

I want to tell you my observation from 4 Decades of Sales Experience about the roles and responsibilities of the Current and traditional Sales Professional.

But 1st a children’s fable from Hans Christian Andersen, You probably know it

One of my favorite children fables is the "The Emperor's New Clothes". If you don't know the story, I will provide it in it entirety in the external resources.

Everyone pretended that they could see the clothes because they didn't want to be considered as fools or unwise. The truth was the Emperor was walking around "butt naked". This is because the weavers had told everyone that only the wise people could see the cloth that they weave. It takes an innocent child to shout out, that the Emperor is in fact not wearing any clothes.

There are a few moral of the stories to this fable but the one I like is

"People should be willing to speak up if they know the truth, even if they think that everyone else will laugh at them"

I share this story to cautiously challenge the reality of what a Sales Professional should do and not do.

Sales Professionals should not be spending a majority of their time Prospecting through unqualified markets and audiences.

What Sales Professionals have been led to believe is they need to find prospects through traditional "interruption based activities" like cold calling, telemarketing and emails to unqualified, disinterested and uneducated audiences

Using the Paretto theory (80/20)

80% of their time should be

• Relationship Building

• Immediately following up from Leads from Marketing

• Doing presentations to interested audience

• Demonstrations (Virtually now too),

• Pricing Proposals

• Answering questions of interested parties

• Nurturing qualified prospects who will be buying in a specific time frame

• Researching influencers who you can help and help you

• Attending Promotional events or trade fairs (Post Pandemic)

• All this with qualified specific audiences leads from Marketing Efforts

20% of their time should be

• Taking care of your current clients to make sure they are your champions. This is not services and admin responsibilities. Some call this retention

• Asking your highly satisfied clients for referrals

• Providing Introduction to potential clients you have connections

• House keeping activities required of your leadership/manager (CRM, One on One, Meetings, Training. etc)

• Closing

The true Sales Professional will use their time to to spend their valuable time and efforts on qualified target companies and people

There’s nothing worse than wasting time, energy, and resources on an unqualified lead who was doomed from the start.

This lecture covers the significance of the NEW roles and responsibilities of the Marketing Professional.

In our last lecture we covered the the roles and responsibilities of the Sales Professional

What sales and marketing does is mutual inclusive.

Mutually inclusive events/actions/people have some overlap with each other.

When you understand this overlap in sales and marketing you increase your ability to make more money and reduce your stress.

SMARKETING

Before I go into presenting the roles and responsibilities of Marketing professional, I want to highlight that

Sales Professionals have the role & responsibilities to have a personal interaction with people directly. They rely heavily on their personality and their ability to communicate on a one on one basis. They need to rely on their persistence

Marketing Professionals have the roles and responsibilities to attract the right target and audience through actions in the content and choice of communication vehicles. They in the past have relied on their visional abilities to know what is attractive and will draw attention based on what their intended audience will take action.

There is an extra boost of power When each understand one another roles.

Marketing encompasses the strategies you use to reach new leads and generate interest in your business. It should have measurable benchmarks so that you can judge which marketing choices are cost-effective and produce results. Depending on your business, this could include:

• Print, TV, or digital advertising

• Public relations

• Social media use and partnerships

• Relationship marketing

• Brand marketing

• Viral marketing

• Direct mail

To summary the process of this in a nutshell

1. Marketing based on components of product and or services, collective and collaborative data, then decides who the best audience is.

2. Marketing creates attractive, relevant, and up-to date content Choosing the best form of media to deliver and make available to the ideal audience

3. A portal to provide the engaged lead is necessary to communicate back what they need.

4. Marketing has a process to immediately inform Sales Professional that timely follow up is needed.

Now Sales Professional needs to use their Super Power of follow up and performing best market best in class “human interactive communication” skills.

I state once again that marketing is not in full force in their roles and responsibilities, , then Sales Professional will waste of time, effort and resources.

Well Peter. I thought you said NEW roles and responsibilities. You are right, so in addition to the current roles and responsibilities, marketing and sales technology will play a big part of BOTH sales and marketing responsibilities.

Here is the main Technology that will bring Sales and Marketing together

• Marketing Automation is the technology that allows companies to streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows so they can increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster.

These are some of the component that make up Marketing Automation

Email Marketing - Performed with the right attractive customized & personalized content to the right people

Landing Pages

Campaign Management

Marketing Programs

Lead Nurturing

Prediction/Scoring

Lead Management

CRM Integration/Sales Enablement

Social Marketing Resource Management

Marketing Analytics -

I know this is a lot but please understand this exists so Marketing can build alignment with the Sales Professional. Just recognizing the concepts, and understanding their purposes is a great beginning for you.

You do not need to be an expert at this point.

I will go over this technology in my next lecture

The Role of Technology

Today’s technology has a key role in sales and marketing. It also has a role in facilitating collaboration between the two business units.

Sales and marketing alignment is potentially the largest opportunity for improving business performance today. When marketing and sales teams unite around a single revenue cycle, they dramatically improve marketing return on investment (ROI), sales productivity, and, most importantly, top-line growth.

Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitive tasks.[1]

CRM

Sales Enablement

Email Sequences and Funnels

Landing Pages

Websites

This lecture will cover the importance of the Sales Professional understanding of how

Websites aka Home pages,

Landing Pages and

Squeeze Pages work.

Homepages (aka Websites) are great for what they do, which is provide general information and encourage visitors to explore.

Homepages act as an introduction to your business’s brand, product, services, values, who and what it’s for, who to contact, you name it. It should provide a “first good impression,” encompassing all that a company has to offer, and direct visitors to learn more throughout different sections of the site.

While it provides a great place to browse through large amounts of content it lack focus and a “call to action”

Here is where the landing page and squeeze page come into play.

Landing pages are a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result, marketing promotion, marketing email, or an online advertisement. There aim is to achieve a single conversion goal — which could be anything from gaining free trial signups for a new SaaS (Software as a Service) product, to registering attendance for a webinar, to leading buyers to catalog or product pages.

Squeeze pages on the other hand, has one constant goal: to collect the user's name and email address. Squeeze pages can also be used to offer a free ebook, white paper or subscription to a virtual eventin exchange for the user's email address but the requested information always remains the same.

The squeeze page comes in a Opt-in page link so user can fill in the completed information requested. While getting as much information as possible, the fewer details you request the higher conversion rate. The goal once you have a permission from the visitor is to continue to send them content they will be interested in reviewing and hopefully engage back in the conversation.

These all can be used in conjunction with one another but the main goal is to prove the sales professional an opportunity to engagre with leads that are interested in being contacted in a creative, fun and automated consistent way.

Again, to reinforce my intention is not to make you into Web Designers but to understand enough of it to have a great collaboration with your Marketing Professionals.

I have provided several articles in the external resources section of this lecture if you would like to go deeper into this topic.

A customer relationship management (CRM) system is an integral part of every marketing, sales, and business development department as well as CRM companies. Organizing and maintaining relationships with clients and maintaining a fantastic customer relationship management system is extremely important for small business CRM to big business CRM. A CRM system, in the form of top CRM software, helps users organize, categorize, and prioritize contacts, as well as monitor relationships with previous, current, and prospective clients and customers.

At the simplest level: Sales enablement provides tools and resources to close more deals. CRM is a database that also automates processes and procedures to make salespeople more productive. Sales enablement is about knowledge, connection and quality. CRM is about data maintenance, speed and efficiency.

The address books and Rolodexes of the past have transformed into the CRMs of today. With sophisticated address books, you were able to add detailed contact information, obtain email history and even categorize contacts into groups. But with CRMs, you are able to do all that and a lot more. The “R” in CRM does exactly what you think it does: helps you keep a track of your relationships. It helps you keep a focus on customer relationship management.A good solution, at minimum, will offer the following core features:

• Account/Contact Management

• Opportunity Management

• Sales Pipelines

• Price Quoting

• Workflow Automation

• Calendars and Task Management

• File Management

• Collaboration tools

• Sales Forecasting

• Reporting

• Mobile applications/Mobility

Keep up to date with the various technologies that exist in our world.  Don't get left behind.

There are 7.8 billion people in the world.

331,901,946 in the United States

You can break this population up by several catalogs as I am showing you.

https://www.livepopulation.com/country/united-states.html

So how are we going to find our perfect

Leads

Prospects

Clients

in this very large crowd

You probably by now can see the importance of broadcast out content that will attract the right persona and more important who is not going to be interested in our offering.

So what can a Sales Professional do to start the journey of who their know and who know them?

If you have not done so already begin by reviewing the people you do know.

Family

Relatives

Long time friends from your past

Neighbors

All your professionals (Dr. Dentist, accountants)

All the stakeholders in your community (Local government leaders, place of worship leaders, police officers, local business people)

If you can at least list on 100 you are doing well.

The process may take a few hours or days.

It would be wise capture all basic information in your own CRM records (Name, cell phone, email, address, special dates and where you connect).  If they have a LinkedIn profile then capture their link.  More later

If you can't list 100 no worries just do the best you can, bit continue to make efforts to reminder who you know and go out and meet more people.

If you can easily do 100, then you need to do the same thing and continue to recall who know you and go out and meet more people through all the various opportunities to meet people.  Again this is a challenge during the Pandemic so be careful.

Now that you have a list of people you know, list out those people in your target market you want to connect who are influencers and/or decision makers or respected in their industry or environment. 

You may need to do some research to locate.

Now that you have a list of your 1st Degree people, it is time to connect with 2nd degree people who are in your target audience.

Linkedin is still the place to daily research who your 1st people know that you don't.

This is the time to reach out by Linkedin message, email or cell phone text to get  reference to connect.

You will even have an opportunity to send a LinkedIn message directly to the 2nd degree person and name dropping your mutual connection.

There are time people provide their personal email and cell phone, but be prepared to make a friendly well thought out conversation that you want only to connect and find out what content they are seeking.  Give give give.

I have formed many great relationships starting this way.

Once we get back to someway normal in reaching out to people by prospecting building on the foundation of who you know and who knows you by great reputation makes life alot more fun and enjoyable.

This is one way to contribute to what marketing is going to do for you in your collaboration with them.

We are not going to a fraction of tThe process for connecting starts

Establish Your Online Reputation of consumers will use a business with at least a 4-star rating -Forbes 94% Tactics Results Positive online reviews can help influence new customers to choose you along with gaining more visibility in search engines. Displaying positive reviews on sites such as Google and Facebook helps with free marketing and increases your word of mouth referrals. Online reviews also allow your business to stand out. Let your amazing work be known by the world. You can increase your reviews online by simply asking your customers. Add social media review widgets to your website so customers can see and review you on those sites. Be sure to respond to all reviews, positive and negative. Some of your best customers can come from how you handle a negative review. Improves your businesses credibility and reputation Gives your customers an opportunity to gush about your business Serves as an ego boost for you and your employees as you continue to service your c

This lecture will cover some of the technologies you should be aware of if you don’t already know.

You probably have experience already in being a buyer or consumer of product and services over the internetThe technology I want to present to you is “bot” technology

An Internet bot is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are simple and repetitive, much faster than a person (sales professional) could.

A Chatbot more specifically is

“A computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.”

There are many different forms of “bots” both good and bad

I will focus on the technology that is looking like it may replace much of what humans perform, including Sales Professionals like us.

The key word is repetitive. A Sales Professional historically has been given the expectation of repetitive tasks such as 1,000s of phone calls each week and every more emails. There is kind of a pride in some sales professionals who attribute their success to making repetitive actions all to gain a small percentage of results.

The purpose in Phone Bots is to make 1,000s of phone calls that filter through the calls to uncover a person who is interested. The bots have no problem repeating a well written script over and over delivered perfectly. It actually does sound like someone is calling and not a recording. When an interested person responds to a statement and question, the bot recognizes the response and provides an answer. Remember the bots job is to simulate conversation of which then a real person is connected to the conversation.

The bot’s friendly call may be based on the person's visit to a website of which the call might start “I saw you visited our website, What are you interested in receiving from us?

Speaking of websites, the chatbot can hold their own in a conversation with a visitor. The Chatbot alert a real person (hopefully the sales professional) of an interested party.

The technology of cookies aka called an Internet or Web cookie places a big part of in keeping the conversation going with your targeted audience who now has shown interest.

The cookie technology now knows what you are looking for and can automate a communication strategy through Marketing Automation.

Add to this, when a target user provides their email. The technology now potentially knows what social media accounts are connected to the email. Suddenly you see advertising on your social media feed.

Adding one more function, instead of you reaching out to your target audience to schedule appointments and demonstrations, your targeted users can view a calendar to see dates and time available that match their availability. Live phone calls and virtual meetings can be scheduled too.

This is all real and is not a futuristic thing that is coming.

I see this as all positive for the Sales Professionals. Once the sales and marketing technology is finished with all their filtering then it is showtime for the sales professional to provide the true human touch with all their fine tuned interactive communication skills that they have developed through the years.

If your company is not knowledgeable and your competitive is performing this well then….. You know.

Prospecting is the act of finding leads and turning them into prospects.

Leads come from various places; you can buy lists, skim the phone book, search the internet, or talk to people while you're waiting in line at the store. In most cases, whatever form you use, your goal is to determine if the person could become a prospect.A prospect is a potential customer who has been qualified as fitting certain criteria outlined by a company based on its business offerings. Determining if a contact is a sales prospect is the first step in the selling process. Once you've determined that the person meets the criteria, they're a prospect and can move into the next phase of the selling process.

A prospect is often confused as a lead, but there's a fundamental difference. A lead is an unqualified contact; any potential client or customer you meet who hasn't been qualified as a prospect is a lead. In the sales process, you gather leads first, qualify them into prospects, and then move them through your sales funnel or process.

It is very important to learn as much as you can about prospects to tune up your selling process and improve your customer relationship management. Many traditional sales people miss this important step in understanding prospecting.

Summary of the Course

Providing assignment