At Acquirent we participate in all varieties of ongoing training to include a book club. Recently we read Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, which describes the processes he implemented to help Salesforce.com add an extra $100 million in revenue in the early years of the company.
We created this blog series to save you time from having to read the book yourself (although it’s a short book, who has time to read these days?) and to list the takeaways and best practices from the book that we’re putting into practice, which we encourage you to do. This second installment in this series is by Sales Manager Ryan Morehouse, we’ll post one installment a week on Friday.
This was a fantastic book and should be read by anybody working in sales. The main takeaway from chapters 4 – 6 is plan; plan your day and plan your success.
Plan, Plan, Plan!
The two most important things you can do when you get in the office are set goals for the day and plan your activities for the day. As a telesales professional, your day should look something like the following:
- Morning –email
- Late morning- calls
- Afternoon-calls
Finally, in the late afternoon, set yourself up for success the following day by sending at least 50 emails to get fresh responses for the following morning. One of the most important things is to keep your intensity high throughout the day. The two tricks to maintain your enthusiasm and ensuring that it translates over the phone is to take a break every 90 minutes and committing to stopping the day at a given time each day . . . i.e. 5 p.m.
You’ve set your day up properly and have plenty of accounts to talk to, so why isn’t it working the way I expect?
The six top mistakes reps make:
- Expect instant results
- Writing long emails
- Going wide not deep; contacting 100 accounts once instead of 10 accounts 10 times each
- Giving up on ideal targets
- Not giving up quickly enough on non-ideal targets
- Depending on activity metrics rather than proven practices
How can I fix these mistakes before they affect my work product?
- Call/Email High- talk to the person that manages the decision maker
- Your attitude – assume the personality of a non-threatening researcher
- Bite-sized emails, nothing longer than three sentences
- If they aren’t interested, find out why
- Don’t give up with ideal prospects
- Always set up a next step
Forget the Close!
Now that you know the pitfalls of selling and how to avoid them, how do I sell my product? Most sales folks just sell the benefits of your product/solution, not the final results, but this is not enough. Selling the predictable revenue way starts with hiring and training teammates that are totally committed to the company’s vision. Compensation is a motivation, but the success of the team is the most important factor.
In order to accomplish your goals as a sales professional, you must sell with a “success plan” in mind. This means that your job as a salesperson is to show the prospect how your product/solution will impact their business once everything is implemented and adopted. Then you need to go one step further and show how it will help their customers. The trick to this type of sale is not caring about the close, which seem counterintuitive. But the stress of closing sends small signals to the customer that you are pushing for the close. This creates apprehension and leads to an increased likelihood that the deal won’t close. The trick is truly not caring about the sale . . . let me repeat the trick is truly not caring about the sale![/fusion_text][separator style_type=”none” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”30″ sep_color=”” border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” class=”” id=””][one_half last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”dropshadow” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”center” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] 
[/imageframe][/one_half][one_half last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]Ryan Morehouse joined Acquirent in April of 2013 as a Sales Manager. Ryan is responsible for a 20-person team with a long-standing partner, and has been tasked with finding creative ways to propagate continued success. He has worked at Enterprise and Groupon and dreams of the day he can work for Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Click here to read Book Review Part 1: Predictable Revenue by Nick Hogren
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