{"id":893,"date":"2023-08-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/?p=893"},"modified":"2023-08-24T11:15:16","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T15:15:16","slug":"rethinking-sales-skills-and-ways-of-working-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/rethinking-sales-skills-and-ways-of-working-to-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking Sales Skills and Ways of Working to Win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Cutting through the avalanche of sales and marketing noise to meet ever increasing sales targets is not easy.\u00a0 According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hubspot.com\/sales-enablement-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HubSpot<\/a>, over 40% of sales leaders missed revenue targets last year.\u00a0 Top sales teams are rethinking sales skills and ways of working to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While many sales teams are scrambling to restructure hybrid selling models and implement new technologies, the highest performing sales teams continue to help their organizations stay ahead of the pack by focusing first on their customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Focus on the Customer&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Buyers want to feel good about the buying process and the purchase decisions that they make \u2013 especially when the stakes are high. \u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/lsaglobal.com\/the-benefit-of-putting-your-customers-first\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sellers and organizations that put the customer first<\/a> create high levels of customer advocacy and lead their industries in profitable growth.\u00a0 Truly focusing on the customer requires investment and rigor in the attitudes, skills, and ways of working at every customer moment of truth during the buying process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Sales Skills that Focus on the Customer<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To ensure a customer-first mentality, invest in high levels of sales confidence and competence in two key areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>The Ability to Understand their Customers<\/strong><br>Customer-first sales reps are deeply curious about what matters most to their <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/lsaglobal.com\/ideal-target-clients-are-you-chasing-the-wrong-customers\/\" target=\"_blank\">ideal target clients<\/a> and bring customer needs to the forefront of everything that they do (e.g., decision making, negotiations, and sales calls).\u00a0 They know what matters most to their buyers \u2013 personally and professionally.\u00a0 They get their customer\u2019s unique situation (e.g., industry, competition, company, target customer), goals, problems, and needs.<br><br>Based upon data from our <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/lsaglobal.com\/leadership-simulation-assessments\/\" target=\"_blank\">sales leadership simulation assessment<\/a>, we know that top sales skills in this area include the ability to:<ul><li>Clearly define who target customers are for their <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/lsaglobal.com\/5-questions-to-stress-test-your-unique-value-proposition\/\" target=\"_blank\">unique value proposition<\/a><\/li><li>Seek information about and anticipate future customer needs<\/li><li>Base business decisions on customer feedback<br><br><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>The Ability to Customize Messages and Solutions<br><\/strong>Top sellers hyper-personalize key sales and marketing touchpoints to meet customers where they are.\u00a0 They make it easy for customers to try and buy solutions that fit their unique situation.\u00a0 Top sales skills in this area include the ability to:<ul><li>Identify key customer goals, problems, and needs<\/li><li>Link how you can help the customer get where they want to go in a way that makes sense for their unique situation<\/li><li>Articulate meaningful and differentiated customer-centric value in a trustworthy manner with energy, excitement, and passion\u00a0<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>The Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/capabilities\/growth-marketing-and-sales\/our-insights\/future-of-b2b-sales-the-big-reframe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">McKinsey<\/a>, more than 50% of organizations do not believe that their sales reps have the sales capabilities to succeed in today\u2019s marketplace.\u00a0 Why? Because they are focused on their own targets, products, and features rather than on their customer.\u00a0 Do your sales, service, marketing, product development, delivery, finance, and legal teams truly all put the customer first?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn more about helping customers to succeed, download <a href=\"https:\/\/lsaglobal.com\/whitepaper-download\/30-effective-sales-questions-more-important-than-budget-when-selling-solutions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>The Top 30 Effective Sales Questions that Matter Most<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/TristamBrown.png\" alt=\"Headshot of Tristam Brown\" class=\"wp-image-895\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" title=\"Tristam_Brown_Headshot\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Tris is the CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/lsaglobal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LSA Global<\/a>. He is passionate about helping leaders to take their teams and companies to the next level through meaningful, impactful, and practical solutions that align strategy, culture, and talent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this blog, discover ways to win at sales skills in a way that works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":898,"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions\/898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sales30conf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}