“One of the most important skills that we need to start to level up our team on is digital selling skills.” – Jake Dunlap in today’s Tip 733
How do you elevate the profession of sales for success in the future?
Join the conversation below and share your own thoughts!
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Jake Dunlap. Jake consistently designs repeatable, sustainable sales models and processes that outperform industry standards. As the Founder + CEO of Skaled Consulting, Jake helps executives around the world accelerate business growth with data-backed sales solutions. Here he is:
Jake Dunlap: So I get asked quite a bit about the future of sales, sales and marketing alignment, et cetera. And for me, there are a couple of key themes, I think in 2020 that every sales organization really needs to consider if they want to stay ahead of the game. And if we want to talk about, you know, what we’re going to need to get to that level, it’s really about elevating the profession of sales in 2021 to set us up for success in the future. And there’s a few ways as I get into the different tactics and things that we need to do to stay on top of sales in 2021, that will be most critical.
The first is what we call a digital sales experience. And so more and more as we have zoom after zoom, after zoom, salespeople are being asked to do more. They’re being asked to keep people engaged. They’re being asked to make sure they’re sharing their screen and use new technology. So if we’re going to elevate the profession of sales in 2021, one of the most important skills that we need to start to level up our team on is digital selling skills. We can’t elevate the profession. We can’t be at the highest level. If we’re overly focused on qualification, we’re overly focused on just getting out our pitch and not focused enough about the customer experience. You know, what are we doing to get them excited before the meeting, during the meeting, after the meeting. And if we’re going to elevate sales in 2021, we have to start to educate and teach sales reps. These are brand new skills, right? These are brand, brand new skills that many people have never had to flex before. So we have to make sure that we’re teaching them digital sales skills. So that’s how we’re going to elevate the profession, number one.
The final way that we’re going to elevate sales in 2021 and the trend that we’re seeing and the beautiful part is just how, how much of an overlap there is, is in transparency that because buyers are getting access to more information. And again, we’ve been talking about this for a while, but it’s real now. And what buyers are looking for from a sales experience has foundationally changed. And what buyers are looking for more and more is instead of someone to give them the information it’s someone to help to guide the process. And so again, if we want to elevate the profession of sales in 2021, we have to teach our sales organizations how to have transparency in the process and really understand that sales is moving to more of a facilitation role then being the gatekeeper to information and the gatekeeper to next steps.
And so, you know, this includes things like talking about pricing on the first call. Talking about the competition. You know, there’s a great book called “Transparency Sale” that gives some statistical data around the importance of that. And also Gong.io puts out a lot of content about this, and there’s some great technology that’s really helping to facilitate this like Recapped.io as well, too. That really helps to create this, this transparent plan of what, Hey, here’s what needs to happen from our side that let’s fill in the dots for what needs to happen on your side. And it really becomes about managing a process and giving people the right content they need at each step than it is about, you know, hiding information. “Hey, let’s get on another call. Let’s get on another call.” And so again, if we’re going to elevate the profession again, we have to start to educate and train our salespeople. That transparency is okay. You know, we don’t have to hide things. It’s okay to just talk about things freely and, and really help facilitate the customer to make a great choice.
So again, if you’re looking, to up your sales game, again, for me, what I’m passionate about is elevating the profession. In both of these details, whether it’s creating a digital sales experience or how to be more transparent and have more of a project mindset are going to require a different type of seller and sales motion in 2021. And that’s what I’m most excited about.
Scott Ingram: Jake and the Skaled team are looking for your thoughts on what you think the future of sales is going to be or should be. Go to LinkedIn, write a post and use the hashtag #createthefuture and if you’ll click over to DailySales.Tips/733 we’ll have a link to Jake’s profile, the new Skaled website and I’ll also include a link to my post on LinkedIn today that used the hashtag: #createthefuture.
Once you’ve joined me in doing that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!