[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/03\/18\/6-steps-to-selling-smarter\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/03\/18\/6-steps-to-selling-smarter\/","headline":"6 steps to selling smarter","name":"6 steps to selling smarter","description":"Make it easier for your sales team to sell, and they will succeed. Here are 6 ways to make selling easier and more effective.","datePublished":"2016-03-18","dateModified":"2024-10-30","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/kevin-kimber\/#Person","name":"Kevin Kimber","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/kevin-kimber\/","identifier":142,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e67353f21fe117fdaddbcb82ff40b39293eaa4d74438f9ad3e666d4d84530d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e67353f21fe117fdaddbcb82ff40b39293eaa4d74438f9ad3e666d4d84530d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/thumbnail-6cd9aae4b3fcad9daf65af29f05f0748.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/thumbnail-6cd9aae4b3fcad9daf65af29f05f0748.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/03\/18\/6-steps-to-selling-smarter\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/sales\/","name":"Sales","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sales","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q194189"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/sales\/sales-general\/","name":"Sales","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sales","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q194189"]},"Sales Success"],"wordCount":685,"keywords":["B2B Sales","Intelligent Sales","Sales Automation Software"],"articleBody":"\u201cDon\u2019t wish it were easier, wish you were better.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Jim RohnWhat if you could make selling easier and make your sales teams better at it as a result? It\u2019s a topic close to my heart, and thanks to advances in both technology and sales strategies, it\u2019s now a reality for a growing number of organizations. \u00a0In fact, making selling easier is\u2026well, easy.A guide to selling smarterLet me break it down for you in six steps.Make gaining insight into your pipeline a priority. Which would you rather do? Rely on your sales person to assign a percentage on whether or not a deal will close? Or have a sales system that can monitor opportunities in real time, compare them against similar successful deals to improve win rates, share best practices across teams and industries, and use predictive analytics to help your sales people identify and engage with key influencers?Make sure your accounts and territories are optimized. Ask yourself this: are you able to evaluate various territories, markets, and accounts to know where the biggest potential is? Can you analyse past wins to understand where you\u2019ve had the most success before? And can you get the facts that will help you optimise how you align your salespeople with accounts? If the answer is no, and you\u2019re relying on gut feel, you\u2019re making things harder for yourself.Know, know, know your customers! Know what they need and what problems they face. Too often, sales people are focused on what they want or are being asked to sell rather than listening and understanding what their customers are trying to achieve and what problems they are trying to solve.Only knowing half the story is embarrassing at best, and dangerous at worst.\u00a0 By equipping your sales people with a 360-degree view of all the interactions a customer has with your company, as well as information about the company and its employees \u2013 including latest news, financials, company history, and social information \u2013. you can make better decisions, offer more tailored products and services, and, as a result, build more meaningful and trusted relationships.Empower your sales people with processes and information that are accessible \u2013 from anywhere. That means the ability to provide real time answers on delivery information, respond to product questions immediately, and even create a quote or process an order while the customer is still sitting in front of you.\u00a0 It will not only elevate service levels to buyers, but streamline productivity, collaboration, pipeline and KPIs for your sales team.Give your sales people access to the support they need. We all know the value of effective collaboration. But tapping into expertise can be difficult across time zones, geographies, departments and formats. \u00a0That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to make it simple to find and add internal expertise to your sales team. Support can take many forms, such as virtual deal rooms, for example, where you can share content, best practices, and sales strategies, keeping everyone updated in real time, wherever they are.Finally, mind the gap \u2013 as in the business gap. Time and again, we all hear stories of sales teams losing major deals because the customer stayed with the status quo. It\u2019s surprisingly common. And it\u2019s usually because the sales person has failed to demonstrate why keeping the existing processes and tools will not meet future requirements. In other words, they haven\u2019t shown that making a wrong decision or doing nothing has significant adverse consequences for the buyer\u2019s business. So my final point is to make sure you nail your business case. Make it solid, illustrate the cost of doing nothing, and make it compelling by pulling together the necessary history, data and insight required.In the process of implementing these six steps, sales teams will not only find it easier to sell, but they\u2019ll also become better salespeople by benefiting from the right tools, technology and support at their fingertips.  It’s not your father’s CRM.Boost customer relationships.Win loyalty.\u00a0Drive revenue.The future of business starts\u00a0HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2016","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"03","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/03\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"18","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/03\/\/18\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"6 steps to selling smarter","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/03\/18\/6-steps-to-selling-smarter\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]