Secrets of High-Performing Salespeople
The Role of a B2B Salesperson
As a business-to-business Salesperson you hunt new business in a territory, or you’re in charge of retaining & growing key accounts. Sometimes you sell product to purchasers and their influencers who already know what they want and are ready to buy. At other times you create demand by selling different stakeholders on a solution you've identified as relevant for their business needs.
You’re always under pressure from tight timeframes, tough competitors, competition for internal resources, and a sales target that goes up every year. You operate in an environment where competence is judged by not only achieving your sales targets but also by how accurate your forecast is, and the extent to which you profitably sell benefits instead of discounting to win.
You also need to master all the selling skills and techniques needed for different stages of the sales cycle, and an increasingly VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous). You must network across accounts and grow them each year. Your targets never go down. Training workshops take you away from your territory, and filling out online CRM screens still feels like administration, not automation, and only further reduces your available selling time. You may even wonder if AI is going to enhance your abilities or replace your job.
On top of this you also get pulled into management reviews to explain your approach in lead generation and prospecting, the status of large deals in the pipeline, forecast reviews and key account plans, and take sales advice from people who don't know your customers as well as you do, or whose practical sales experience was long ago in a different age.
Let's face it, in the era of virtual teaming, remote working, social media and high stakes deal-making, a career in sales demands a matrix of attributes. It's a complex job. Today you must be a strategist, tactician, accountant, industry guru, product expert, researcher, evangelist, futurist, graphic designer, presenter, thought leader, networker, lobbyist, coder, entertainer, news reporter, video influencer, negotiator and closer. It's a great career, but it's not for the feint-hearted!
"Competition is fierce. Some join forces against you to bundle products & services. Niche players undercut you on price. Sometimes your customer’s own departments bid against you. Some quarters are up, others are down. If only you could consistently win."
Snakes and Ladders
Maybe you first learned the sales craft by watching others sell. You’ve taken ideas from books, audocassettes, videotapes, DVDs, online videos, and formal training. You've tested what works and what doesn't, and refined your approach over time. The market is always changing, so you try to stay sharp.
But customers are fickle. They surprise you with tenders that give your competitors an advantage. They spread budget you expected would be spent with you across multiple suppliers instead. Promised sales can evaporate after you’ve forecast them. As the economy gets tougher, executive buyers are getting more involved in routine decisions, and are more difficult to please.
Competition is fierce. Some rivals join forces against you to bundle products & services. Niche players undercut you on price. Sometimes your customer’s own departments compete against you. The post-pandemic world requires adaptation, and you must always be looking for new ways to help customers commit when they're more risk-averse than ever.
And with just 220 selling days in your calendar each year, time is precious, yet you may feel too much of it is spent on unnecessary meetings and administration. Sometimes it feels like a game of snakes & ladders; some quarters are up, others are down.
How We Help
SalesLabs helps you sell more. We’re one of the few firms that invests in regularly conducting fresh research on how executives buy and how top sellers succeed.
We distill our research into bestselling books with our publishing partner McGraw-Hill, then develop these concepts into training & work aides that make selling easier because they actually work.
We're the only sales training firm experienced and independent enough to be trusted by Edward Elgar Publishing to compile the new Encyclopedia of Sales and Sales Management, due for publication in 2025.
We all know death-by-powerpoint training puts you to sleep. Too many courses teach ‘what’ to do, without helping you practice ‘how’. So we’ve worked with neuroscientists and learning experts to completely redesign how sales training is delivered.
Our approach is interactive, dynamic, and treats you like an adult. It focuses on simplicity, situations and simulation.
In fact, sales professionals in more than 50 countries have closed $50 billion in new sales after learning to sell the SalesLabs way.
Call to Action
There are some simple things you can do to lift results right away.
Find out why our sales books Selling to the C-Suite and Target Opportunity Selling became sales classics. Whether you’re new to sales or a seasoned veteran, you’ll find fresh ideas you can implement on the deals in your pipeline.
See why our training is winning global awards. Look for public seminars near you, take an online course, or ask your training department to talk with us about tailored in-house programs or 1:1 coaching.
Look for sales tips and ideas in the videos, audios or thought leadership tools available on this site.
Our approach is unique. It's evidence-based. And it works.
Are you ready to take your earning power up a notch?
