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The Brave New World of Selling

Day two of the Virtual Leadership Conference was kicked off with an opening session from ‘The Sales Navigator’ Troy Harrison, where he covered all things sales with his session titled “The Brave New World of Selling.” This session was sponsored by EquipmentWatch, who provides data for construction equipment, lift trucks and ag equipment – equipment costs, values/prices, year verification, rental rates.

Harrison’s agenda consisted of five key-topics for attendees to focus on:

• The Five Key Sales Trends Post-Covid19 and how they affect you
• Building Processes that Matter
• The Skills and Attitudes that Salespeople Need Now
• CRM And Other Salesperson-Friendly Tech
• Your Information

Considering we are still in the midst of a health crisis like this nation has never seen, Harrison started off with discussing trends that sales teams may need to embrace in the coming year. In this section, our first speaker noted, “The changes that we would have seen happening in 2022 and 2023 are happening right now.” This sort of information is sure to help a company’s sales both now and in the near future.

Following this, Harrison covered the concept of ‘A Sales Process.’ This section gave our 185+ attendees a better understanding of what it takes to build on sales, not just the immediate pitch, but for long-term success.

Furthermore, Harrison went on to discuss the importance of not only knowing your product but how to engage as a salesperson. Essential aspects of this section showed us that a sales team needs to also have “high mental agility” as to be “able to change directions in the call as needed.”

Finally, day two’s opening speaker noted the importance of technology as we move into a more digital world. This closing section showed attendees that CRM is mandatory for success and even went as far as claiming that “If you don’t have it, you’re losing to those who do.” Overall, the critical takeaway seemed to be that information is critical to any team’s success.

Here are some questions that were asked during Harrison’s session:

1. How has the trend of less face-to-face affected the relationship building between the customer and the salespeople? As you mentioned Sales Calls have less fluff, which is usually a major portion of building a rapport with the customer.

Answer: Rapport building itself used to be called the donut value and something I actually used for 30 years, I believe in authentic rapport. Simply let them talk about their favorite things or themselves. I always try to note that, “I’m curious, how did you come to this position?” and get to know your customers on a personal level.

2. How does the Metric change if the life cycle of the sales process is lengthy – bid/spec opportunities (3 to 6 months decision process)?

Answer: The sales metrics don’t change, closing ration don’t change, these work whether it is a week or 2 years, if you are having 4 demos per week and expecting 2 proposals, doesn’t matter if you get those proposals, 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, those ratios still count.

3. Would you suggest that our salespeople be on all social media platforms to communicate better with Customers? It seems like everyone has some sort of social media nowadays.

Answer: Here’s what I found for business. I think the two big ones are LinkedIn and Facebook. I haven’t talked to any salespeople that have direct customer interaction via twitter. My go-to platforms are always; email, text, phone and from a social media perspective, LinkedIn and Facebook. However, the skills that go into communication into LinkedIn and Facebook can work just as well as whatever platforms you prefer.

4. I would like your thoughts on how to adjust the good time Charlie into a performer. Your thoughts on indicators to tell if adjustment to the new way of selling is possible.

Answer: Train them to do quality sales call, start with quality discovery, train them to ask good probing business questions, and then go out live with that person to see if they are asking those proper questions. Then, just watch how they do them and ask what kind of responses they are getting back from those detailed questions.

5. What is the future of the longtime customer?

Answer: You need additional dimensions of contact and should be adding as many as you can when you can. This means that you may have to branch out in other forms of communication where you aren’t currently operating. You shouldn’t just email, shouldn’t just call and shouldn’t, overall, just be remote.

6. Is social media a marketing function or sales function?

Answer: It’s both. Marketing will put out the company message whereas the salespeople will have to be more personal.

7. How important is it to have integrated CRM?

From a sales perspective, it is a five out of ten. If you can’t get a good one that speaks to your enterprise system now until you can get that perfect system going.

Contact Troy for a free AED member offer at troy@troyharrison.com. Find more information on his website by clicking here.