May 4, 2020 – Vienna, Va. -As a continuing service to sales professionals around the globe, the Institute for Excellence in Sales (IES) asks past guests of its award-winning Sales Game Changers Podcast for tips each week.

As the global COVID-19 Pandemic continues, the challenges facing sales professionals continues to grow. However, top sales professionals are now Moving Forward and looking for solutions for their customers at an unprecedented pace.

Learn about IES live webcast learning events including our weekly Wednesday at 2pm EST panel discussion with top sales leaders, including those below, discussing what they are doing today to solve sales and business problems and to learn how they are motivating the sales professionals on their teams to succeed.

This week, May 6, we feature WorldStrides sales leader Jennifer Fisher and Meridian Knowledge Solutions leader Patrick Devlin.

Click here to register for this week’s interactive webcasts.

You can learn about each of the sales leaders below by listening to their Sales Game Changers Podcast episode. Just click on their name.

Jim Van Stone, President, Monumental Sports & Entertainment:

  • The evolving landscape is an opportunity to provide clarity of your brand: stay true to your foundational principles and let those guide your decision-making.
  • Consistently showcasing your value will help you weather systemic changes. People expend resources – time, money or loyalty – based on its connection to a return on investment. Give them something to value.
  • This is the time to qualify and quantify your stretch goals and look at them with fresh eyes. Don’t be burdened by past norms; it’s all a clean slate now. Trying to fit within previous models is a waste of effort, so choose to be bold.

Find Jim on LinkedIn.

Patrick Devlin, Chief BD Officer, Meridian Knowledge Systems:

Be genuinely curious when speaking to prospects. Your goal should be to learn as much as possible about them, not to talk about your company, products, features and functions. Get them talking about themselves then stay out of the way. Listen. Don’t interrupt. Instead of trying to schedule more demos, try to have more conversations. This is especially important early in the process but remain curious and continue to listen throughout the entire client engagement lifecycle.

Find Patrick on LinkedIn.

Tim Atkinson, Group Vice President, ACS Group:

Here are two questions to think about before getting on a call or virtual meeting:

  • What value can I bring to prospects who I know can’t buy right now? (Can I help them start now and pay later?)
  • What is the opportunity cost for prospects who push this project farther out? Conversely, how can this project help them recover from this downturn faster?

Find Tim on LinkedIn.

Vince Burruano, Vice President Sales, Commercial Division, JK Moving:

Move from selling to solving problems.  Right now, many of our prospects and clients have challenges and need trusted advisors with ideas and resources to help them meet their unique challenges.  Give them a call and ask “what can I help take off your plate?”  You may be surprised by the response.

Find Vince on LinkedIn.

John Asher, President, ASHER Strategies:

Here are prospecting tips for right now from the ASHER team:

  1. Concentrate on your current customers: show empathy, express gratitude for having them as a customer, ask them what help they need and offer discounts and free items.
  2. Continue the dialog with prospects that were in your funnel before the crisis unfolded.
  3. Do not spend much time on prospecting for new customers until the changes brought about by the crisis have somewhat stabilized.
  4. Once most of us start thinking about America 2.0 , start prospecting like crazy! The status quo will not hold us back ; buyers will be open to new solutions.

Find John on LinkedIn.

Steve Richard, Chief Evangelist & Co-FounderExecVision:

When playing call recordings for call reviews in one-on-ones or small group call coaching sessions, be sure to share your computer sound.  Zoom Video has this feature.  It’s a game changer.  When your reps can clearly hear the audio of the call recording it allows the uptake and learning process to happen.

Find Steve on LinkedIn.

Christopher Ware, Vice President of Business Development, NAIOP:

Stop sending follow up emails that start with “did you read my last email?” You are reminding them that they deleted your email once already. If that was the right call then, then it is likely the right call now. You are better off just sending the last email again. Better still, keep the main body of your original email – the one they ignored – and change the intro.

Find Christopher on LinkedIn.

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About the Institute for Excellence in Sales

The IES provides a wealth of services to sales leaders and their teams at companies large and small throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and across the globe. The IES produces four webcasts each week, plus the award-winning Sales Game Changers Podcast and runs the IES Women in Sales Leadership Forum. The mission of the IES is to help sales leaders acquire, retain, motivate, and elevate top-tier sales talent. Contact the IES at http://www.i4esbd.com. A complete list of upcoming IES programs including our 4 award-winning weekly webcasts, can be found here.