Rounding up the latest in sales research and innovation.
June 16, 2021
This month’s Mastery blogs focus on the hidden Ps that support the Seven Ps of Phoenix Sales Method. We’ve scoured the internet for sales-related news that ties into all the Ps—hidden and not!
Do you know a college student who you think has the right stuff to succeed in sales? The International Collegiate Sales Competition will occur at Florida State this fall and offers great prizes. Competitors demonstrate their sales professionalism through role plays or sales management case competitions. Role playing is a great way for any sales professional to build client readiness and excellent communication skills. If you happen to be (or know) a college student who excels at this format of sales preparation, tell them about the competition! Entry deadline is August 1st.
A lot of process for a skilled sales professional centers on recording actions in the CRM. That’s how you keep track of the data that you need in order to scientifically analyze your performance and keep track of what works best.
For that reason, we here at Maestro Group are fanatical followers of everything that goes on at Salesforce, HubSpot, and similar organizations. This month’s news is that Marc Benioff has declared that the future for Salesforce will be “Slack-first.” Personally, Slack is the bane of my existence—I particularly detest when it makes it impossible to use my mouse on the rightmost part of my screen. But Benioff has exceeded my expectations in the past, so maybe he can make a Slack-enhanced CRM while also curing Slack’s weird cursed bugs.
If you’ve been working from home for the last year, your people skills might be a bit rusty. You know, eye contact, socially acceptable handshake alternatives, all that kind of thing. But it’s time to polish up your skills, because before you know it, conferences will be back in swing and meeting people live will once again be part of sales. Luckily, you can ease into it. Try local events, virtual conferences, or taking a business friend out to lunch on your way back to the big leagues.
Product is not just about knowing your offering inside and out. There is also a feedback loop with prospects and customers that helps an organization understand market trends and unmet needs. This helps new feature releases and even new product launches succeed. Business 2 Community has a concise but link-packed post this month on how to launch products more successfully.
When I graduated college, I pursued graduate study in England for a year. One of my mentors gave me a letter of introduction to take some Greek classes in my spare time. I ended up not having any spare time. But I should have listened to my mentor—if I had, I would have been classmates with Tom Hiddleston, who’s currently starring in Loki on Disney+.
More to the point of this sales news roundup, Hiddleston confessed in a recent interview that he wishes he were better at PowerPoint. Don’t we all! A simple, professional-looking deck is an essential part of preparing for Zoom-era discovery calls as well as demo meetings in any era.
In the realm of Pay, negotiations and contracts usually get more attention than the practical matters of moving money around—yet technical issues can make it easier or harder for customers to give you their money. Stay abreast on the latest news about B2B payment trends, avoiding fraud, and more with newsletters from PYMNTS.com. Or for a deeper dive, read their February 2021 report, The B2B Payments Innovation Readiness Playbook: The Business Case For Automating AR Processes.
Maestro always recommends asking for referrals. This recent post from Growth Rocks puts those referrals, and the word-of-mouth marketing they contribute to, in context within the larger project of growing your brand and making it stand out from the crowd.
Just two weeks ago we were talking about the hidden P of Practice that underlies so much growth in sales professionalism. But we have updates on the topic already!
First of all, if you want to learn something really, really well, don’t use shortcuts like online flashcards. Write it down yourself. (Note: online flashcards are still many times better than not trying to learn it at all!) This is one of several reasons why Maestro encourages sales professionals to write down three goals before every call. (To learn the other reasons, hit up Mastery@maestrogroup.co!)
If you are determined to use online flashcards, at least stay security aware. Unfortunately, American service members who had to learn boring technical details about nuclear weapons management used non-secure online flashcards and exposed national security secrets! Bellingcat had the scoop.
Usually, when we talk about psychology, we are talking about understanding the human brain and how it conditions the behavior of salespeople and prospects. However, looking at the news lately, it is manifest that psychologists are much needed to help all of us handle the fallout of a very difficult year. If you or someone you know is having a challenging time with a return to work, grieving, or other issues, don’t hesitate to seek help from a professional. If you are in crisis in the greater DC area, contact PRS CrisisLink. In the Boston area, contact Samaritans Hope.
Our third hidden P will be revealed next week. What do you think it will be? Give us your best guess in the comments or on LinkedIn! Thanks for reading.
Prepare your conference strategy or get some high-intensity role plays in with sales training and coaching from the Maestro Group: Mastery@maestrogroup.co.
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