Everything in sales has shifted. The buying process, new sales channels, and how customers interact have all changed – it’s a new landscape. The Internet and social media are now primary sources for product and service details. Salespeople have less in-person time with potential clients and need to connect with customers who are more informed and further along in their buying journey.
How do you prepare in this changed selling environment?
You may find this comical, but looking back at a 100+ year-old organization that was founded on the motto ‘Be prepared,’ the Girl Scouts’ motto has strong merit that sales reps can follow.
#1. Be prepared to work as a team.
Girl Scouts Perspective: Girl scouts depend on each other and work as a team to impact and serve their local community and the larger scouting organization.
How Sales Reps Can Leverage: Sales teams touch all points of a company and depend on and need their colleagues (marketing, legal, finance, operations, etc…) to support them for sales success. Systems need to be integrated across different organizations, so teams have access to complete customer and account profiles that allow them to do their jobs better.
#2. Be prepared with the right information.
Girl Scouts Perspective: Girl scouts educate themselves on a wide variety of subjects, earning badges for their knowledge and expertise. They are prepared to face difficulties by knowing what to do and how to do it.
How Sales Reps Can Leverage: Sales teams must educate themselves as completely as possible in today’s selling environment. Before a sales rep picks up the phone or contacts a prospect, they need to be prepared. They need to know the problem to be solved – and a prospect’s interest level. How great is their need right now? Has the prospect even opened your email? If not, maybe they aren’t really a prospect, and you shouldn’t be making the call. How often and how long has a prospect viewed your content? Advanced analytics can alert you to interactions as they happen. This information delivers incredible power, showing sales how and when to engage in outreach. (To learn more, read How Dynamic, Digital Listening Can Boost Sales Timing.)
#3. Be prepared with the right tools.
Girls Scouts Perspective: Before camping – a big scouting tradition – a girl scout reviews what’s needed in meticulous detail, from first aid supplies to cooking tools, water purification kits, a compass or GPS, and more.
How Sales Reps Can Leverage: Sales teams also need to plan ahead and be prepared with the right tools that enable them to succeed. But with so many tools emerging in the market, the choices can be overwhelming. To make it easier, sales professionals must narrow their choices by focusing on critical criteria. Sales organizations need tools that can be rapidly adopted. If frontline reps won’t adopt a tool, it has no value. Sales teams want tools that work within existing proven practices. They don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Sales teams want tools that can add value quickly and easily. Tools should be intuitive and integrate with other systems. When you look at sales tools, keep these top criteria in mind.
#4. Be prepared with a positive attitude.
Girl Scouts Perspective: The Girl Scout slogan is ‘Do a good turn daily.’ One way this has been defined is “A good turn is something you do to help someone out without being asked.’ Can you think of any time in your career when doing a good turn didn’t make you feel better?
How Sales Reps Can Leverage: The world of sales has changed. However, salespeople still have the ability to impact the process, solve problems, and contribute in a positive way to the lives of customers. Maintaining a positive attitude has been proven essential for long-term sales success, and doing a good turn daily might be the best New Year’s resolution yet.
This blog originally appeared here.