Sales Leadership with Jim Pancero

How many of your reps have become too self-focused in their selling efforts? All they do is talk about how great their products are, how many other satisfied customers they have, and how they promise they’ll be there to help? And how many do 90% of the talking on their calls?

Could your team reverse this process so they spend more time focusing on their buyers? Marketing expert Theordore Levitt said “You don't go into a ...

There are three critical areas, when maximized, that can improve your team’s success. Ignoring any of these three areas, sales (and skills) will tend to remain flat causing much less growth than you could otherwise achieve. 

The first key is improving your team’s response to a customer asking “Why, based on all of my competitive options, do I want to buy from you?”  How are you helping your team hav...

You can increase your sales team’s effectiveness by strengthening the persuasiveness and effectiveness of the questions they’re asking prospects and customers. 

Questioning is the path to discovering and explaining how you can improve your buyer’s lives, lower their risk, make their life easier, and increase their profitability. But the only way you can do that is by asking probing questions. 

Most reps' a...

You don't have to be the lowest price…you just have to prove you’re in range of your competitor and are offering a lower total cost. How much extra would you pay to have safer tires on your car? 

Sales is really just a two-step process. The first step is to communicate your uniqueness and value to prove you’re a better option, even at a higher price.

The second step is to then show how your price is still &ldq...

How persuasive are you selling to someone with a personality and communication style opposite yours? 

Most salespeople tend to be persuasive when their buyer’s motivations or interests are like theirs. The real selling challenge is selling to somebody opposite of you.

How do you sell to a detailed person if you're more big-picture? How do you make sure you’re able to communicate and deal with their comfort zone, not ...

There are three levels of competitive awareness. The first level is your PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE competitive awareness. It’s understanding how your features and benefits compare to your competitors. 

About 90% of all salespeople have fairly strong product knowledge competitive awareness. This is where they received the most training.

The second level is your PRICING & DISCOUNTING competitive awareness. It’s knowing you...

There's an old sales term of “under-promise and over-deliver” to help make sure we are impressing our customers and satisfying their concerns. Are you, like too many other businesses today, not following this “under-promise / over-deliver” philosophy?

I called my doctor to schedule an appointment. I called them at 5:55 p.m. No one answered, and instead I got a voicemail recording saying, “Our normal hou...

Most believe they have a fairly strong level of competitive awareness. They know what their competitors are doing, their prices, how they sell, and how they close business.

But we're in a very fast-changing environment today. Companies continue to respond and adjust how they communicate their competitive advantage. Just because you understood how your competitors were selling and the messages they were delivering a year ago doesn't ...

The reality over decades of research is that people coached by somebody more skilled tend to have the fastest improvement in those skills. Your job as the coach and leader of your sales team is to help strengthen and improve the skills of all members so they can sell even more.

Who’s coaching you, the manager? Who's helping you understand how to be more effective? How to be more persuasive? How to create a stronger motivationa...

Too many salespeople are afraid to ask for the order. They're either afraid they’ll seem too pushy or they don't know the steps to getting a buyer to say yes.

The close is not the most critical step in the selling process, especially when you’re successful implementing the first steps of their call. If you've effectively lowered their resistance, asked questions, and presented solid solutions, then your closure will be e...

I ask my sales training attendees to identify the slimiest salespeople they’ve ever met. Most identify a specific industry like time shares or used car sales.

I next explain, the difference between a trusted advisor to a customer and somebody who's slimy and pushy is not in the steps of a sales call. They’re all using the same steps. The differences are in how they utilize the steps.

High pressure slime ball salespeople f...

Blitz Days are based on team members blocking their calendars for a specific date agreeing, if at all possible, to not be calling on existing customers. The entire day is devoted to prospecting for new accounts and stopping by to identify new contacts to be talking to. 

Today even walking into an account is a challenge since there are few secretaries or receptionists anymore to greet you. But your reps can still identify compan...

Effective sales leadership is based on mastering four distinct skill sets to increase your team’s success, persuasiveness, and stability.

The first skill set, taking the majority of most manager’s time, is solving problems and fighting fires. 

The second skill set involves managing your team’s “performance numbers.”

Most sales leaders are good at these first two skills. But for too many, these first ...

Do you know anyone who doesn’t trust salespeople? They're afraid of being taken advantage of and not being told the truth. Do your buyers trust and believe your reps are committed to their best interests? 

Three ideas to help build even more buyer trust… 

1st - Make sure reps have a “No Surprises” selling philosophy. If a delivery is delayed, are they immediately alerting their buyer? Are your propo...

Give one of your rep’s a new sales lead…what will they do first?  

Sadly, most immediately grab their phones calling the lead to get a conversation, or even better, schedule a face-to-face appointment.

But these reactive “Ready – Fire – Aim” people are just “shooting into a darkened room.” It’s kind of hard to hit something if you don’t know what you’re aiming fo...

Successful selling today demands we master both sides. But most salespeople only gravitate to one side, and that side is usually the intuitive art side. 

It used to be having the “gift for gab” was all that was needed to be successful. But today, with tougher competitors, less product differentiation and less time in front of buyers, sales pros also need more structure, more consistency and more process controls.

How...

How many of your reps could be selling more…if they just put more energy into their territory? How you motivate your people and get them energized is a critical component of effective sales leadership.

There are four simple rules of motivation. The first rule is you can't motivate anybody to do anything. The reason you can’t is due to the second rule… you can’t motivate anyone because everybody is already h...

Are your reps only bragging about what they’ve got instead of focusing on the benefits your buyers will get?

How many of your reps sell utilizing a self-focused approach. How many were taught a “feature-benefit” presentation style?

“A feature of this pen is the cap fits on the base. The benefit to you, the buyer, is it can improve the quality of your presenter’s handwriting.”

Look how the rep is bra...

One of the best ways to increase your team’s effectiveness (and sales) is to not respond with the same answers everybody else gives when asked “Why do I want to buy from you?”

Ask this question of your reps and you’re likely to hear… “Because of our high-quality products, strong levels of support, our competitive prices (we’re not the cheapest but we are competitive) and you get me!”&...