Page 75 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com

3. Trust development on the connect call: Perhaps she's doing a great job
contacting her leads and getting them on the phone. However, she's not
engaging well with the prospects once she gets them on the phone. She may
be leading with a boring elevator pitch every time, rather than using the calls
to learn more about her prospects. Diagnosing this skill requires a tactical
effort by the sales manager, which I will cover in a few pages when I discuss
the process of “peeling back the onion.” For coaching, set up two 90-minute
shadowing sessions to listen in on her prospecting and connect calls. Role-
play with her, using suggested improvements to her tactics, and then have her
apply those improvements as you shadow her next few calls.

Finally, let's take a look at the salesperson represented by the upper left diagonal
pattern, listed as the bottom most person on the charts. He's doing really well
with high volumes of leads worked and demos delivered. However, he has a very
low number of customers closed, especially for that amount of activity. Here are
possible diagnoses and coaching plans for this salesperson:

1. Lack of urgency: This is the most common issue I encounter, whether it's at
HubSpot or any of the many organizations I have helped. The prospect
expresses great excitement about the product. They literally tell the
salesperson they plan to buy. The next day, they call back and have some
excuse about an upcoming trade show or some deadline that's fast
approaching. They ask you to call back in a month. When you call back a
month later, they barely remember your name. A great way to surface this
diagnosis is to review “closed lost” reasons on late-stage opportunities. Two
solid coaching tactics include role-playing how to develop urgency on future
opportunities and recording sales calls that can be reviewed and critiqued.
The key questions here are: Why does this prospect need our product today?
What will be the implications if they don't buy today? Imagine it is six
months from now and the problem we're talking about solving is still not
solved. What happens then? Will it really be that bad? If the answer is “no,”
then the salesperson has not developed the urgency and probably won't win
that business.

2. Lack of “decision maker” access: In some cases the salesperson isn't
identifying or reaching the decision maker. Often times, if a prospective
buyer says he is the decision maker, he probably isn't. Conversely, true
decision makers may try to deflect this ownership to someone else. Figuring
out if a prospective buyer is really the decision maker is often tricky. A
manager can diagnose a “lack of decision maker” issue by evaluating how