One in every five businesses doesn’t last the first two years, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. How do you position your business, so it doesn’t drown with the rest? The solution usually lies in how well you handle your finances, management, and sales.
In this article, we’ll take a particular focus on sales. So, let’s delve into the key skills for pushing your sales volumes.
Why sales training is critical
In a competitive environment like sales, it’s important to seize every possible opportunity to get ahead. Knowing the skills you need is one thing, but figuring out how to apply these competencies is a whole other ball game. That’s where sales training courses come in.
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Through courses, your team can learn how to use and improve their skills to achieve the main sales competencies, such as improving win rates, shortening deal times, or increasing margins.
Your reps can also practice and gain confidence through peer-to-peer feedback, empowering each other to perform better at their tasks. Working together during sessions can also boost teamwork, which can help your business hit more targets.
Below are some of the main skills your team can learn that can buoy your sales outcomes.
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Prospecting and qualification
Prospecting is the process when salespeople seek out and develop a pipeline of potential customers. Statistics show that:
42% of salespeople find prospecting difficult (HubSpot)
90% of reps don’t prospect consistently (Predictable Revenue)
These statistics highlight the importance of training reps on how to keep feeding new prospects into the pipeline. If you don’t keep up with reaching out and finding potential new customers, your sales are likely to stagnate instead of grow.
So, what are some of the strategies for prospecting? First, it’s critical to have a detailed buyer persona that outlines the ideal buyer for your products or services. With the ideal buyer in mind, you can sieve out unlikely buyers and avoid wasting time.
Here are some prospecting tips:
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Keep at it. It takes several follow-ups on leads to turn them into qualified prospects. So, it’s important not to bow out early. Telenet and Ovation Sales Group statistics say that it takes at least eight follow-ups to get through to a prospect.
Use several sources of data to look for new leads. Consider investing in data analytics to get insights into customer behaviors and trends so you can easily identify people most likely to be interested in your product or service.
Set aside time to prospect. With all the other duties in the sales process, it’s easy to overlook the more challenging tasks like prospecting, so be intentional and stick to a set routine.
Negotiating and value selling
Hitting targets and quotas at any cost can lead to rash discounts that drastically undercut business margins. It’s critical for reps to get the right training so they can preserve value on every deal.
Negotiation courses teach the importance of exchanging value, not giving it away. So, when customers press you for discounts and lower prices, it’s important to know how to accommodate your buyers without losing out. For instance, you can agree to drop the price in exchange for a long-term agreement that guarantees future purchases, with a pricing escalation mechanism.
Some essential techniques for salespeople to remember include:
See beyond the price. Consider other value points to bring to the table, such as payment plans.
Think about alternative options before you start negotiations. When presented with alternatives, the buyer may be more willing to hear you out. In addition, visualizing possible outcomes can help you determine when to call it quits if the talks prove fruitless.
Storytelling in pitching
How your reps present your offering to buyers can make or break a deal. Customers are often bombarded with pitches from various businesses every day, often making them numb and unreceptive to sales communication.
Training courses can teach reps how to package their pitch in a way that’s palatable to the buyer, for instance:
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Focusing on how the buyer will benefit from the product or service, not on its features.
Listening to the customers instead of delivering a standard pitch. When you listen more, you can get to the bottom of the customer’s pain points. Understanding the buyer’s needs lets you plainly show them how the product or service can meet their needs.
Weaving a story that resonates with buyers. Stories evoke an emotional response. You can use them to bring up issues that the buyer relates to and highlight your offering as the hero of the story. For example, by using customer testimonials that showcase a before and after scenario where the product or service solved their pain points.
Social selling
Numbers crunched by Statista indicate that there are over four billion active social media users. Social media platforms offer an opportunity to connect and interact with buyers, which can guide them to buy your products or services. That’s why the best sales training courses help salespeople learn how to navigate the social sphere to use it effectively.
Some of the leading social selling aspects that reps should know include:
the etiquette of different social media platforms
leveraging their expertise to help customers by answering questions, responding to comments, and providing helpful content
how to engage with customers without coming off as pushy
using social media sites to dig deeper into customer behaviors and identify new leads
linking to products directly from social media to increase purchases
how to promote a brand on different platforms using various media like videos or text
Self-motivation and resilience
Finding new prospects and nurturing them along the pipeline until you seal the deal takes time and determination. Despite your best efforts, some deals will fall along the wayside. It’s important for salespeople to learn how to develop the resilience to keep forging ahead in the face of disappointment.
It’s essential to keep a level head and sober emotional state despite the circumstances so you can tackle the next challenge. Here are some tips for developing resilience:
Distance yourself from the rejection. When a customer says no, it should not reflect on you personally. Rejections are a common part of the process, so take it in your stride.
Extract the lessons. Perhaps the prospect was not a good fit for your customer persona. Or maybe you pushed too hard? Chew over the failed sale and draw out the main lessons so you can keep improving.
To conclude
Mastering important sales skills like prospecting, pitching effectively, negotiating, social selling, and resilience can help reps rise above challenges and score more deals. As a result, it’s vital for businesses to include comprehensive sales courses to train reps to be more effective.
Passionate news enthusiast with a flair for words. Our Editorial Team author brings you the latest updates, in-depth analysis, and engaging stories. Stay informed with their well-researched articles.
Gerber and Perrigo Face New Lawsuit Over ‘Store-Brand’ Infant Formula Pricing; All Pending Toxic Baby Food Cases Consolidated into New Class Action MDL
Infant formula makers Gerber and Perrigo have been hit with a class-action lawsuit, which accuses the companies of artificially creating a shortage and jacking up prices for “store-brand” formula sold at Walmart, Walgreens, and other retailers.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. It accuses Perrigo of violating antitrust laws by collaborating with Gerber to prevent competitors from entering the market for store-brand formula.
Perrigo, one of the nation’s largest suppliers of store-brand formula, sells its products under retail labels at prices lower than similar branded products. However, the lawsuit alleges that Gerber, by granting Perrigo the first right of refusal to Gerber’s excess formula supply, which could have been sold to other competitors, is engaging in practices that stifle competition.
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The lawsuit claims that through this arrangement, Gerber agreed to keep its excess formula out of the store-brand market, thereby gaining a share of Perrigo’s profits. The lawsuit was filed by four residents of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, who will represent millions of customers who have purchased store-brand baby formula. The lawsuit does not name formula retailers as defendants. It asks the court to intervene and end the anticompetitive deals between Perrigo and Gerber and seeks more than $5 million in monetary damages.
This lawsuit is similar to another case filed in Brooklyn federal court by a potential store-brand competitor, P&L Development. Gerber and Perrigo requested the dismissal of that case, which was denied by the judge in February. The companies involved in the lawsuit claimed they compete fairly with other infant formula manufacturers, including those of store-brand formulas. The lawsuit also cited the squeezing out of P&L Development from the store-brand market, which has led to higher prices.
Gerber is also facing numerous lawsuits accusing its brands of baby food of containing dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic, and mercury. These heavy metals are extremely toxic, even for adults, and can have catastrophic consequences on developing children, leading to health complications and neurological damage. Conditions such as ADHD and autism may be linked to consuming these toxic baby foods.
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On April 11, 2024, all the lawsuits pertaining to toxic baby foods, which had been filed at different times in various courts, were consolidated into a new class action MDL in the Northern District of California and assigned to Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley. Besides Gerber, other baby food manufacturers like Beech-Nut and Campbell Soup Co. have also been named as defendants.
The legal wrangling between the crypto sector and the SEC, or the Securities and Exchange Commission, is getting uglier, with ConsenSys, a major protagonist of the Ethereum Blockchain, filing a lawsuit against the regulatory body in a Texas federal court. This legal action seeks an intervention to ward off a looming SEC lawsuit against the company regarding features of its popular MetaMask wallet. The lawsuit also seeks the court’s help in deciding once and for all the vexed question of whether Ethereum’s digital token, Ether, is not a security. The legal uncertainty hangs heavily on the crypto sector and puts a question mark on its very existence.
In an exhaustive 34-page legal filing, ConsenSys states that the SEC’s endeavor to exert control over Ethereum is both illegal and a threat to blockchain technology.
The complaint states,
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“The SEC’s unlawful seizure of authority over ETH would spell disaster for the Ethereum network, and for ConsenSys. Every holder of ETH, including ConsenSys, would fear violating the securities laws if he or she were to transfer ETH on the network. This would bring the use of the Ethereum blockchain in the United States to a halt, crippling one of the internet’s greatest innovations.”
The lawsuit also alleges that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has embarked on an aggressive enforcement policy directed at the big players in the crypto sector like Coinbase and Uniswap. The lawsuit particularly points out a campaign that involved a deluge of subpoenas asking firms and developers for documents related to their dealings with the nonprofit Ethereum Foundation, which supports the blockchain’s development.
The crypto sector is up in arms against Gensler’s tactics and has contended that the SEC has never provided clear rules meant for the distinct features of blockchain technology. However, Gensler negates this argument, saying that the existing securities laws are clear and sufficient, and that the crypto industry refuses to comply with them.
Gensler’s actions are full of contradictions since, in the past, the SEC had maintained that blockchain’s tokens, like Bitcoin, are not securities and hence beyond its purview. A senior official in 2018 had stated that Ethereum has reached a state where it is adequately decentralized, and further, the agency also gave the green signal for the launch of Ethereum futures trading—an implicit acknowledgement that Ether is a commodity. However, at present, Gensler is using a recent feature of Ethereum, known as staking, as grounds for the recent legal campaign.
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The lawsuit was filed after the SEC issued a Wells Notice, which is akin to a formal letter warning that the agency intends to sue a firm and could lead to a settlement later. The SEC charged ConsenSys that MetaMask was operating as an unlicensed broker-dealer. MetaMask offered users a means to stake Ethereum on their behalf. Staking was a feature introduced in September 2022 on the Blockchain as a replacement for the energy-intensive mining process. The process involves a system of validators who pledge collateral to become trusted validators.
The SEC objects to the process of staking, which has changed Ethereum from a commodity into a security. ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin has called this account of the SEC “preposterous”.
Lubin said,
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“The act of staking is really just posting a security bond so you can get paid to contribute labor and resources to help operate the Ethereum protocol. Now they’re trying to turn that into some sort of investment contract.”
Lubin also stated that the SEC’s actions will lead to a halt in the growth of the crypto sector and blockchain technology as a whole. Lubin feels that the SEC seeks to block pending applications by companies to launch spot ETFs for Ethereum, following the huge popularity of Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC is in fact trying to regulate a technology on its merits and it will only stifle innovation.
Caterina Fake is a renowned American entrepreneur and co-founder of several groundbreaking ventures, including Flickr and Hunch. Born on June 13, 1969, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fake has been a driving force in reshaping the digital landscape through her innovative ideas and entrepreneurial acumen.
From her early days in Pittsburgh to her rise in Silicon Valley, Caterina Fake’s career has been marked by a relentless pursuit of excellence. Co-founding platforms like Flickr and Hunch, she has revolutionized how we connect and share information online. Her visionary leadership and creative brilliance have cemented her status as a trailblazer in the tech industry.
Caterina Fake Net Worth
As of 2024, according to TheRichest, Caterina Fake’s net worth stands at an impressive $25 million. Her entrepreneurial ventures, including Flickr and Hunch, have contributed significantly to her financial success. With a keen eye for emerging trends and a knack for innovation, Fake continues to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs around the world.
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Caterina Fake Age
Currently 54 years old, Caterina Fake was born on June 13, 1969. Despite her age, she remains a dynamic force in the business world, constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in technology and entrepreneurship.
Caterina Fake Family: Husband and Children
Caterina Fake was previously married to Stewart Butterfield, with whom she co-founded Flickr. They tied the knot in 2001 but announced their split in 2007. They share one child, Mint Butterfield, who has recently been reported missing. Caterina Fake is currently in a relationship with Jaiku co-founder Jyri Engeström.
Caterina Fake Height and Weight
While specific details about Caterina Fake’s height and weight are not readily available, her stature in the tech industry is undeniable. Standing tall as a visionary leader and innovator, Fake’s impact transcends physical measurements, leaving an enduring legacy in the digital sphere.
