Sales leaders today agree that there’s an increasing gap between buyers and sellers. In our annual sales performance studies, sales leaders tell us that organizations struggle with advanced engagement capabilities and they’re challenged to strengthen sales relationships.

B2B selling involves a myriad of choices about how to engage with customers. Sales organizations and salespeople spend an enormous amount of time planning which customers and prospects to spend time with and what messages to focus on. Typically, a high-level annual plan anchors more detailed quarterly plans which get broken down into even more granular periods.

An effective sales team has proven to be a leading factor in companies’ performance and growth throughout the pandemic. For those of you responsible for enabling a sales force, this is great news. Your work and contributions are likely noticed and applauded company-wide.

Determined, intelligent and unafraid of knockbacks – all traits of great sellers.

Salespeople are also having to adapt to new technology, buyer behavior and other factors outside their control, while still striving to hit targets.

Investing in sales training to improve selling skills is one of the wisest decisions any sales manager can make. But what’s the best way to find a sales training company that will get you great results? Here are seven key areas to consider as you evaluate different options.

Yesterday I watched a toad walk across the outdoor side of our kitchen window. Picture it! I wish I had video but it ran so counter to what I have observed toads doing over the past 65 years that I froze. I performed a google search and found exactly one image of a toad on a window. Please understand that the dirty window and sill are not mine - I found the image via a Google search.

Dale Dupree is the founder and CEO of the Sales Rebellion. He draws on his many years of sales experience to coach sales professionals in developing innovative and creative approaches to their craft. Dale is also one of the hosts of the popular Selling Local podcast. He joined Predictable Revenue to discuss how to create experiences that cause familiarity, fuel relevance, drive curiosity and give your prospect a reason to meet.

The ability to strategically negotiate with others drastically impacts the success of your training organization and business at large, both in closing individual deals and sustaining long-term business relationships. One of the most fundamental elements of a successful negotiation is understanding the client’s needs. Often, the easiest tactics are overlooked while negotiating. This includes relating to the other party, gauging emotions and/or choosing the right time and place to talk business.

There’s always some level of uncertainty in the world of sales but external changes can make it challenging to know where to focus, what to do and what not to do. Neil Rackham, author of SPIN Selling, consultant, academic and founder of Huthwaite International, discusses the three big mistakes that salespeople make when times are hard and how to avoid them.

Jay Mount is the CEO of basix.ai, an industry-leading company that increases its clients’ conversion rates by boiling sales down to its simplest components. He joined Predictable Revenue to discuss how increasing pressure to meet growing revenue targets without scaling processes can reduce the productivity and morale of a team. He also provided five key pieces of advice to help team leaders increase their sales productivity.

Business customers increasingly control how they buy. They expect to engage with the companies they buy from through a coordinated blend of human and digital experiences and sales channels. It’s challenging for companies to create a fully-integrated experience. Especially when dealing with many prospects and customers (e.g., small and medium-sized businesses), it’s difficult for sellers to tailor solutions sufficiently to match each customer’s situation. And sellers often struggle to make the most of their sales engagements without access to marketing intelligence from digital interactions.

What do you believe you are capable of when you feel confident? If you’re like most people, your world of possibilities is greatly expanded when you feel sure of yourself.

You’ve decided to take the plunge and change careers. You are ready for a brand new start, excited to take on a new challenge. One major mental obstacle stands between you and your new start; the uncomfortable, but obligatory, interview process, which comes equipped with the dreaded “why did you leave your last job” question.

Strengthening customer relationships is a key way for sales organizations to improve sales performance and win more deals.

Nic spent most of her childhood avoiding people. She was raised by a volatile father and a mother who transferred much of the trauma she’d experienced onto her daughter. The combination left Nic fearful and isolated. “My primitive brain was programmed to be afraid of everybody, because everybody’s evil and they’re gonna hurt you,” she told me. (Nic asked to be referred to by only her first name to protect her privacy.)

What makes a great customer experience? For some brands, it’s a frictionless journey. For others, it’s a memorable experience. But few brands are successful being both frictionless and memorable. Research shows companies can choose among four strategies when deciding whether to focus on being frictionless or memorable.

Sales is the lifeblood of any business. Beating the plan yields optimism. Missing the number could mean a scramble for survival. Without sales, your business literally has nothing.

If you’re skeptical about whether you need to prepare for a new era, consider the story of Michael. Michael exemplified a veteran B2B salesperson. As a perennial top performer for twenty-five years in the pre-pandemic, in-person selling era, Michael was skeptical about whether he should embrace the concept of virtual selling when his company announced a work- from-home policy in March 2020.

Sales must help B2B buyers overcome the complexity of buying today by enabling buyers to complete each of the required jobs.

What is buyer enablement? Buyer enablement is the provisioning of information that supports the completion of critical buying jobs.

The most important aspect of making a sale is also a major weakness of every salesperson: Asking Questions.

It’s an enigma to me. Questions are so critical, you’d think it would be the topic of training every week. Yet salespeople are odds on favorites to have never taken one training program in the science of asking a question.

How critical? The first personal (rapport) question sets the tone for the meeting, and the first business question sets the tone for the sale. That’s critical.