The last few years haven’t been easy for those working in the B2B sales industry due to many barriers, including working from home, the difficulty of meeting in person, and the obvious non-sales related priorities that have taken over the psyche of buyers. At the beginning of the year, like any year, we were all optimistic about what 2021 would bring, but now we must figure out how to pick up the pieces that the pandemic has left behind. (more…)
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Prospect Qualification for Breakroom Suppliers
One of the most important topics you can cover with your sales reps: the effect that a successful qualification call can have on the sales process. The impact is inimitable. Proper qualification saves the sales team time, so that labor that can be properly allocated to pursuable opportunities. This process prevents pipelines from getting filled with an abundance of unqualified, or more so underqualified, prospects that drain your sales rep’s time and energy. Imagine dialing in multiple times over to the same prospect that is estimated to have 120 employees, only to reach them and find out they actually have 22 on-site! Or making 6 calls over 3 months to Suzie, who turns out to be a “coordinator” – hardly a decision-maker.
Although certain criteria requirements vary from Operator to Operator, the importance of an effective qualification call remains constant.
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“Call Me After the Holidays”
As the cold weather approaches, so does the infamous objection that anyone making prospecting calls dreads to hear: “Call me after the Holidays”.
With Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years and other holidays on the horizon, the excuse that prospects won’t have time to talk until after the New Year is going to pop up often. Many prospects will get lost in the thought of good food and spending time with friends and family. While your mind may drift off into similar thoughts of your own, you can use this time to increase your sales pipeline into the New Year!
Here are some tips that will help prevent your pipeline from freezing during the winter holiday season. (more…)
Uncover Your Agency’s Value Proposition
—Reprinted with permission from Professional Insurance Agent Management Services Inc.—
In addition to a reliable prospect list, your agency’s value proposition is arguably the most vital element of your overall marketing messaging. A value proposition explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situations. Let’s face it, it’s not always easy to differentiate in the insurance industry. From our work helping insurance agencies get sales appointments with their prospects, differentiating (on paper) has proven to be the most challenging piece of the sales process—but it is the most important first step toward an effective sales strategy.
It’s easy for an insurance agent to be a quote shop, but in an effort to not become commodity-based, let’s explore how to uncover the value proposition to get the insurance buyer’s mind away from just thinking about the price of a policy. That is not to say that the cost shouldn’t be part of the prospects’ mindset, as saving money often is the first consideration. However, how you save them money is part of your value proposition. A solid value proposition demonstrates credibility and expertise while developing trust.
The End of Summer: A Strong Finish to 2019
By Jessie Geevers
Back in the beginning of the summer, we provided tips to keep your sales pipeline flowing through the summer months. Now let’s keep the momentum going as the decision makers return from their summer vacations, eager to finish out the last quarter strong.
Track your efforts and strategize.
Identify the prospects you contacted these last few months via phone or email, and ask yourself the following questions: Aside from traditional forms of outreach, did you utilize any direct mail campaigns or email newsletters and track clicks? Did you host or attend any summer networking events or conferences? Did you enter new business cards and contact information into your CRM? Did you get your foot in the door when business was slower in the summer? If you engaged in any of the above, hopefully you were recognized for your efforts to distinguish your company among the competition. Your summer efforts can push you forward in the line of competitors vying for the same business now that fall is around the corner.
There is no time like the present to follow up. Find out if there were any holes in your lines of communication. Who did you meet with this summer that should hear from you again? Identify these opportunities and strategize by assigning priorities to each task. (more…)
The Consultative Sell on an Introductory Sales Call
Ask Questions To Learn About Your Prospects’ Wants And Needs
It is easy to fall into the trap of “I’m calling to give you a quote” rather than engaging in a meaningful dialogue. Asking good questions is the best way to learn more about your prospect’s needs and desires while, at the same time, building rapport. Rather than being viewed as “another Insurance agent”, you will become a valued advisor. This technique is referred to as consultative selling.
It would be easy if there was one right set of questions to ask that would always guarantee responses that we want. The best approach is to create a mix of open-ended questions that get your prospect talking, along with questions that easily yield a “yes” response or get the prospect thinking of what their current broker is NOT doing for them. (more…)
When Customers Want to See the Human Behind the Product
Harvard Business Review article by Adam Waytz on June 05, 2019
Everywhere you look these days it seems that modern commerce has been designed to separate humans from each other. Smartphones keep our attention locked in a virtual realm, online retail allows us to browse and shop without leaving our home, and automated tellers and cashiers seem designed to remove human interaction entirely.
My research and that of others shows that when people think of what it means to be human, they typically consider two fundamental capacities: conscious experience (i.e., the capacity to feel) and agency (i.e., having thoughts and intentions). Human-to-human interaction is central to this conception. As a result, businesses that try to distance its customers from other humans are missing a critical tactic — refocusing their products on services around the power of human interaction provides an opportunity to create enormous social and economic value.
Human contact has an almost magical power: For example, research shows that holding a spouse’s hand or in some cases even holding a stranger’s hand reduces the aversiveness of painful stimuli (e.g., excessive heat, electric shocks).
A human touch also imbues experiences and products with special significance and so increases people’s perception of the value of those (more…)
Don’t Let Your Pipeline Dry Up this Summer!
Summertime is here: the weather’s hot – but don’t let the summer heat wilt your business. In fact, summer is a great time to market – no matter what type of business you have.
Sure, it’s true, more people go on vacation during the summer, but that doesn’t mean that companies shut their doors and head to the beach for the entire three months of summer. The average worker gets two or three weeks off, and the rest of the time it’s business as usual.
Appointment Setting – Today’s Leading Sales Strategy
We all know and love movies like ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘The Boiler Room.’ They give us an inside peek of what the sales world is like: fast-paced, addictive, and deceptive. Well, that’s how Hollywood depicts it. As much as there is to love about these movies, they have tarnished the reputation of the sales industry and created mass confusion about what appointment setting is. Luckily, we have research and industry statistics to explain what appointment setting is, what the benefits are, and why it’s best to outsource the practice.
