Have you ever wondered how top sales teams are so effective at turning leads into loyal customers?
Maximizing sales success relies on cultivating a competitively supportive team culture, leveraging downtime for strategic planning, and mastering the art of listening to build lasting customer relationships.
A recent conversation with Bill McGovern, Vice President of Sales at SalesMail, revealed strategies to elevate sales performance. Here are the key takeaways.
In American pop culture, there's often an emphasis on the lone, charismatic salesperson—the type who single-handedly closes deals with sheer charm. However, success in sales isn't just about individual prowess. It's more important to foster a team environment where collaboration and healthy competition coexist to maximize revenue for the company.
"We bring in the smartest people to keep ourselves fresh and our heads on a swivel," expert Bill McGovern shared. Regular team meetings involving a diverse range of company talent allow the team to level-set, exchange knowledge, and strategize on how to attack goals with a shared vision.
Complementing team sessions, Bill organizes individual meetings with every salesperson to address personal challenges and prevent roadblocks from building up. While team meetings focus on big-picture strategies, one-on-ones ensure things stay well-oiled. This mix of group & personalized approaches ensures that everyone is pulling in the same direction.
Casual interactions—like water cooler conversations—are crucial for building a healthy company culture. More actionably, hosting informal gatherings, like team lunches & dinners, go a long way in establishing a healthy culture. These events reinforce social connections between the team and strengthen the company bond.
"You need to be the most competitive, but support each other more." -Bill McGovern
Salespeople are encouraged—and should be eager—to share successful tactics to elevate the entire team's performance. Think of it this way: if you learn something new and share it with ten colleagues, and they each do the same, you've effectively learned ten new things instead of just one. In the senior living and multifamily industries, where understanding the nuances of where leases can be found is vital, leveraging this network effect can give you the edge.
Industries like senior living and multifamily often experience slower sales during certain seasons, known as "drought time." Bill's advice? "Take advantage of the downtime. Do the things that line you up to kick ass in the new year."
Use slower periods to:
"Recognize and embrace the seasonality of your business," Bill stressed. Preparing during downtime leads to better performance when business picks up.
A successful salesperson is genuinely curious about their customer, which is reflected by hearing their client out - the customer should speak 70% of the time during interactions. This natural curiosity not only encourages the customer to open up but also provides valuable insights into their needs and challenges. By listening more and talking less, salespeople position themselves as trusted advisors who understand the customer’s specific concerns.
"Be so curious about the other person that they don't have a choice but to talk about themselves." -Bill McGovern
Your curiosity will unlock:
Understanding these critical questions empowers you to uncover who the economic buyer is, meet their specific needs, and provide you with context to forecast their success.
The economic buyer is the individual with the final authority to approve a purchase or allocate budget. Understanding who the economic buyer is within a prospect’s organization is powerful because it allows you to tailor your pitch to their specific priorities and decision-making criteria. Knowing their needs ensures that your solution resonates where it matters most and increases your chances of closing the deal.
Bill McGovern's insights boil down to a few key strategies that can make a real difference:
Boosting our sales results doesn't just come from individual efforts, but through building a culture where salespeople can work together as a team, share their knowledge openly, and genuinely care about our customers. By uniting these elements, teams can outperform what any one person could achieve alone and convert more leads into leases.