Sales Insight Roundup: Mobile Sales Tips & 2014's Top Sales Enablement Books
The sales insight roundup gathers news, research and provocations from thought leaders in sales and leadership. Here’s what we found interesting this week:
4 Tips for Creating a Search-Free Sales Organization
From SAVO
Think like every type of sales person: Every organization has various types of sales people with varying competencies… The key is to understand the psyche of these different types of reps and design solutions that appeal to the entire sales force.
Prioritize key sales enablement situations: Trying to boil the ocean is a sure sign of impeding failure…Focus on the top 2-3 situations and really nail down the success at these spots in order to quantify the value of sales enablement projects. You’ll get 80% of your ROI focusing on your top 2 or 3 sales situations.
Map and replicate a core, fundamental sales process: You don’t have to have a commercial sales process from any of the leading sales process methodology companies or messaging companies that everyone lives as the gospel, but you will need a lowest-common-denominator understanding of the different steps and stages of your company’s sales process…
Replicate the results of your top sellers:…The best way to employ this strategy is to refer to the Tony Robbins approach; study the top 5 sales reps or subject matter experts and see what consistent, repeatable attributes they display and then figure out a way to deliver that to your sales reps. (Notice the reference back to #2? Don’t try to do everything, just the primary repeatable actions.)
Our Take: SAVO is on-point with these proactive sales enablement suggestions. Sales material won’t be effective if it’s confined to a hub; it needs to be in the hands of salespeople for “just in time” use. How does your organization stack up on this list? Where do you see room for improvement next year?
Conquer Your To-Do List with Your Phone
Creating reminders on your phone also means that you’ll be triggered to act on the tasks you’ve captured at a certain time, wherever you are. I’ve never been diligent about reviewing to-do lists, largely because they quickly get so daunting that I can’t bear to look at them. Instead, I now rely on reminders that feed me one thing at a time – instead of facing the long list of everything I have on my plate. Even if you’re the kind of person who diligently reviews her to-do list at the beginning or end of each workday, location- or time-based reminders prevent you from neglecting the tasks you’d otherwise avoid, or those you need to complete outside of working hours…
Embrace the power of your phone to keep you from forgetting the little stuff, and you’ll enable your to-do list as the place to keep track of the big stuff. Once you stop relying on it as the one-stop place to find everything you ever need to remember, looking at it every day will become much less daunting. That means your to-do list can finally do what it’s meant to do: keep you focused on the work that matters most.
Our Take: It’s rare to be fond of a To-Do list, but if you’re like most modern professionals, you’re probably very attached to your phone. Alexandra Samuel’s tips on making your phone reminders work for you is a new take on the To-Do list problem busy professionals are always trying to solve.
The 7 Most Useful How-To-Sell Books of 2014
From Inc
When Buyers Say No by Tom Hopkins and Ben Katt
Agile Selling by Jill Konrath
Changing the Sales Conversation by Linda Richardson
Duct Tape Selling by John Jantsch
7L: The Seven Levels of Communication by Michael J. Maher
Never Be Closing by Tim Hurson and Tim Dunne
Insight Selling by Michael David Harris
Our Take: ‘Tis the season for the irresistible 'Best of' lists. Did any of these books make your reading list this year? What other sales enablement books would add to the ‘Best of’ list? Leave your perspective in the comments below.
Comment below with other articles you found interesting this week or comment with your opinion of the Insight Roundup articles.
