Find solution
How to increase my sales?

I have virtually no experience in B2B Sales. How do I drastically increase my value in 6 months?

  • These details may (or may not) influence your response: -I am in my mid-twenties -I currently work in finance and that is my main skill set -I will soon have exposure to the "sales process" by virtue of working as sales support and creating pro-formas for $2-10mm (60 month) deals My goal is to eventually become a sales executive.  I will not mention the line of business--and while I'm sure that affects some responses, I don't think it will lead the good ones too far astray. From where I stand right now, here is how I would prioritize my coming months:   1. Mastery of the product/service offering (big confidence booster)   2. Refinement of various interpersonal traits/development of sales tactics (book recommendations maybe?)   3. Ask questions, work with successful sales execs, get exposure. Again, I have no actual experience in this realm yet, so I can only speculate.  But I do think I have the skills and personality to thrive in the scenario I've been presented and I want to position myself well from the beginning. Thanks for your time!

  • Answer:

    This is a scenario that many different types of professionals face sometime in their career. Yes, there are purist roles that are devoted to chasing down new business and renewal sales. But, many professionals who are specialists in their field discover that there is a sales engagement process to the consulting work that they do.  Therefore having some context and experience of sales engagement will provide a useful basis for many customer facing professionals.  Even those not in pure sales roles.  Essentially, selling is obtaining commitment from another person. This notion can be applied to all facets of ones professional and personal life. From your information above, I understand that you're seeking to move into a purer form of sales where your responsibility is dedicated to B2B portfolio growth.  You've touched on some strategies that you intend to undertake to help you develop your sales acumen. You're on the right track with what you have highlighted. I would recommend reading as much as you can to give you a strong foundation upon which you can refine your real world expertise on.  Given the size of the sale that you have indicated, it's likely that these sales will carry a high complexity that will need to be worked through to close each sale.  For this environment and a structured approach to developing your sales career, I recommend closely studying the material below: The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation - Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson (Highly recommended) Link:http://www.amazon.com/The-Challenger-Sale-Customer-Conversation/dp/1591844355/ref=sr_1_1_ha?ie=UTF8&qid=1367935954&sr=8-1&keywords=the+challenger+sale This book has made quite an impact since it's release and highlights the latest trend in sales engagement. It identifies five distinct sales professional profiles and points out that the "Challenger Profile" is most successful in transforming new business results and importantly, adding value to the customer/executive relationship. Implicitly, the 'challenger' brings new perspectives or ideas to the customer to help them save or make money, or generate other meaningful value from the offered services. If you were to start modelling your own sales engagement method, I would recommend closely studying the 'challenger' profile. SPIN Selling: - Neil Rackham (Highly recommended) Link: http://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/0070511136/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367940777&sr=1-1&keywords=spin+selling AND Major Account Sales Strategy - Neil Rackham Link: http://www.amazon.com/Major-Account-Sales-Strategy-Rackham/dp/0070511144/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367940860&sr=1-4&keywords=spin+selling Neil Rackham's framework is still immensely influential in organisations where complex or solution sales are undertaken.  It has been deployed in large firms, in one form or another, for approximately the last 20 years.  SPIN Selling provides a framework that can be replicated (SPIN stands for: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff) across sales professionals to deliver results with some degree of predictability. Well worth your time to review and understand the methodology. The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell - Keith M Eades (Highly recommended) Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Solution-Selling-Revolutionary/dp/0071435395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367935888&sr=8-1&keywords=the+new+solution+sales Eades book was published in early 2000 and crosses over with some of the practices that have been deployed in SPIN Selling. It offers some refinements to the sales engagement method and is complementary to your understanding of SPIN Selling. The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World's Best Companies (Highly recommended) Link: http://www.amazon.com/New-Strategic-Selling-Successful-Companies/dp/044669519X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367937642&sr=1-1&keywords=miller+heiman The Miller-Heiman sales engagement process has been around since the mid 1980's and is one of best credentialed systems to work through a complex, methodical sale. It provides structure to every aspect of the sale and provides a framework (bluesheet) that can be used to clarify the sales objective and also ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of a sales position in any stage of the sales cycle. **Out of all these resources, learn to identify the influences upon a sale throughout a sales cycle. For example, the role of the technical buyer, the economic buyer, user buyer, and the coach.** There is a good executive summary of the Miller-Heiman approach here to get you started: Link - http://josephbmurphy.com/uploads/Strategic_Selling_Primer_and_Notes.pdf ---- There are workshops in Miller-Heiman or SPIN Selling that you can consider undertaking to help you develop and embed your sales methodology. For a newcomer entering into the field of sales, I would highly recommend participating in any workshops associated with these methodologies. ---- For some more general books, I would recommend the following recent books: Life's a Pitch: What the World's Best Sales People Can Teach Us All - Philip Delves Broughton Link: http://www.amazon.com/Lifes-Pitch-Worlds-Sales-People/dp/0670921513/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367938139&sr=1-1&keywords=lifes+a+pitch What They Teach You at Harvard Business School - - Philip Delves Broughton Link: http://www.amazon.com/What-Teach-Harvard-Business-School/dp/0141046481/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_4 To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others - Daniel H Pink Link: http://www.amazon.com/Sell-Human-Surprising-Moving-Others/dp/1594487154/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367938415&sr=1-1&keywords=daniel+h+pink And lastly, some basic sales engagement principles activities can be picked up in this easy read: The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople - Stephan Schiffman Link: http://www.amazon.com/Sales-Habits-Highly-Successful-Salespeople/dp/1598697579/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367938530&sr=1-4&keywords=sales+books ---- Mentoring: Outside of the above knowledge building, I would recommend spending customer facing time with the best of your peers.  You will learn a lot by following their preparation, engagement methods and follow-up behaviours.  Be open to observing and learning, you'll be surprised how quickly you start to pick up the best practices that will lead to your success. ---- Perfect the basics: There are some things that are basic yet even the most seasoned professional fails to do, fundamental things that you must get right to help your opportunities prosper: 1. Be in the sale. You would be surprised how many opportunities are lost simply because the professional doesn't make a phone call or develop a presence around the customer. Make sure you are visible and available. 2. Reliability. If the customer needs information or your promise to do something for the customer, make sure you follow through. Follow through with EVERYTHING you say and do. EVERYTHING, even if you believe it is insignificant. You must be reliable, your words must always be backed with action. 3. Promptness. If you have an inbound request for information or have a follow-up action to do for the customer, deliver it with speed.  Develop a reputation for service. 4. Focus on the Customer Experience.  Every aspect of your interaction should be thoughtful and tailored to optimise the customer experience of your engagement/service.  Ensure you make doing business with you a service not a burden.  This will foster your business relationships. 5. Win-Win.  Operate with win-win mindset. A win for your organisation and a win for your customer. Always treat your business relationships with integrity and respect. Always. If you don't, you can be sure it will come back and haunt you. 6. Communication. Be clear, be concise, be honest.  Presenting and public speaking usually goes hand in hand with sales engagement. If you're not comfortable with this, get some coaching and refine your skills. When you're seeking commitment from another entity, your delivery in all facets of communication (written, verbal, visual) needs to be pristine. It shouldn't need to be said but often needs to be: this includes your physical presentation. 7. Knowledge. Lastly, take the time to know your products and their applicatoin. It is much easier to sell products that you believe in and are passionate about. There are many different ways to sell, such as through the relationship or the economic value of the service/product. By far one of the most useful ways to achieve a win-win outcome is to be able to sell through expertise, by having a critical and technical understanding of your products and how they will make a difference to your customer. Of course, you will need to be conscious to adapt your approach depending on the which part of the organisation you're talking to. If it is a user group, then focus on the product attributes. If it is the financial controllers, then focus on the revenue aspects of your products. Your approach is dependent on your audience and the identification of their respective wins. --- Start working through the above elements and you will be on your way to a successful career in sales. I hope this helps, best of luck!

Matt McCoy at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

Answering from personal experience, I got the opportunity to gradually slide into a full-time sales role. I'd say that 3 things really matter: Make sure you develop a competency on an actual subject (in your case, that is finance) on which you can grasp the core concept very well and feel comfortable discussing about Each time you get a new job, make sure that job has a bigger "sales" component than your previous role (this way you're sure you're going in the right direction) When in that job, make sure to highlight to your clients, co-workers and management that you possess the skills that would make you a great sales guy: providing great collateral if you're doing pre-sales, digging for BANT*-related information, identifying new opportunities from existing deals... This is pretty much what I did. I started in product management, went on to perform pre-sales for international customers, then handled sales for international customers, then go on to manage sales both for our home and international markets. This was a gradual process over 2-3 years, not something instantaneous. As for book recommendations, the best book I got to read once I switched to full-time sales was most definitely this one: http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Teach-Ride-Bike-Seminar/dp/0967179904 * BANT = Budget / Authority / Need / Time, a classic sales framework.

Guillaume Lerouge

Fundamentally, you are on the right track for some critical learning points in the process, which is a fair place to start. You will find rapidly that you need EXPERIENCE, more than anything to supplement your education and exposure. While you are part of the sales support arm in creating pro-formas, you are getting a small slice of a larger pie, as many of the truly prolific sales executives I have had the pleasure of sharing time and space with demonstrate an otherworldly commitment to a few areas. I'll detail below: 1. Being able to satisfy a mutual agreement, at drastically low stakes Essentially, the smallest example of this is through traditional business networking. Generally, everyone is operating around a quota, set of goals, or to do list at the very worst in their professional role. Being able to listen, identify, and help others, when the stakes are low, and money is not necessarily even transacted, will get you a great start. This will expose you and force experience upon you to some of the most important lessons, such as low success rate, hearing no, being let down, and most importantly, building trust in others and their trust in you 2. Being able to remorselessly prioritize who and what is important and when to give up Managing wasted effort is a skill that no project based role within a large, complex sales cycle can teach. The average sales executive will have various roles either within, or across various companies, departments, or sales channels. In either case, no matter how small or large, understanding your sense of autonomy and when to move on from a project or opportunity is critical. There are few roles as flexible as those in selling, where you get to prioritize and direct your work, as the ultimate goal is the singular focus of meeting or exceeding your planned objectives. 3. Being comfortable enough to love the widget to sell it, but not in love enough to lose your heart to the widget Overall, you need to understand that unless you are in a very niche and unique scenario, you will likely not get an opportunity to sell the big and shiny widget that you would like, before proving you can move the dusty boxes in the stock room first. There is simply too much risk, and you will not be nimble enough to respond to the sales cycle, no matter how short or long it may be like you will after gaining experience. You need to learn to love those dusty boxes, get good at hearing "no", understand that the secret sauce to getting forward is hard work, combined with a little luck and a lot of u-turns and wrong decisions, and just when you are comfortable with the grimy stuff in the stock room, whether it is a product or service, realize that it's ok to pull the plug and find your way to the next big thing. There is no reason to get attached to one product, service, or tactic. They can all work in the right tandem of needs, approach, situation, and delivery. 4. Being savvy enough to know when to ask for the business, and always asking for the business in general is a non-negotiable. In closing, too many sales cycles drag on too long, or never end. You need to ask for the business...sometimes six times, listening along the way. You need to ask, deal with "no", work tirelessly for "yes" and never forget that it's ok to step away from a bad opportunity. Sometimes getting yes can be worse than a no. In either case, all of these create EXPERIENCE. Take notes, have a thick skin and a short memory. These lessons and principles are areas to focus on more so than any specific strategy a book can deliver

Ryan Arnold

You've got the plan for the upcoming months which is a great route to take and everyone else has generally covered the topics and areas to practice on. Now focus on building up a customer list - every recruiter loves someone that has a juicy customer base. A stock broker has a book filled with customer details who are the first port of call if the broker decides to move to another company. If you can get a high quality customer list then you've already got a massive head start. How do you get this customer base? Go to networking events for both your industry and the industry you'll be involved with in the future. You get to kill two birds with one stone as you can practice your sales techniques and processes whilst attempting to build up your customer book. Believe me if you can turn up on your first day with a filofax filled with customers to call you'll be rising up the ranks in no time.

John Perrin

Dear Finance Guy to Sales Guy, You are in luck.  Sales is a skill, and skills can be learned (and thus taught).  The book recommendations are are solid, I've read Rackham and Sadler.  Pick one that resonates with you.  My personal fave is Mahan Khalsa, "Let's Get Real, or Let's Not Play." Once you learn the skill, you need to hone/practice your skills.  This might be shadowing a person, or better yet.  Just getting tossed into the mix selling SOMETHING.  Nothing makes you learn like getting told "no" lots and lots of time. Drive is what makes a salesperson successful (and learning from failure, to be precise).  "Fall down 100 times, get up 1001" will be a mantra to live by. Now, go rent...no BUY "Glengarry Glen Ross" and watch Alec Baldwin's opening scence.  Next, watch the whole thing, right before you go to sleep.  If you don't have a nightmare about selling, you're going to be fine.  8-) Practice, practice, practice.  Find a company that's willing to let you learn. You're a Finance Guy, so understand what a Value Proposition is, and how you are "helping" your customers when they buy from you.  Your customers will believe you and trust you.  Then you can really thrive and find out how FUN sales really is! Hope this helps.

Chris Ochs

Try inbound marketing: putting your knowledge and personality online as a magnet for customers, we have good experience with it in our company: http://mashable.com/2011/10/30/inbound-outbound-marketing/ I always show the video below on conferences, it says it all in 2 minutes:

Edwin Vlems

Read industry blogs and network, network, network.  Your first job is selling yourself by prospecting with decision makers who can potentially give you a job (sales VPs, recruiters).  These are the first people that you should practice your selling skills on.  Look into career-changing programs for sales professionals (SAP Sales Academy, Oracle Academy.)  Network online with Linkedin and Quotablitz discussion forums.

Matthew Salvatore

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.