Sales Leadership with Jim Pancero

How are your reps responding to a buyer asking “Why, based on all the competitive options available to me, do I want to buy from you?” 

A great test to learn what’s being delivered by your team is to individually ask each rep how they’d answer a prospect asking “Why buy from you?”

Be prepared to hear a different answer/message from each rep. This is not a weakness in your reps, but in your man...

We need salespeople today to be more proactive initiators, not just reactive responders. 

How many of your team spend most of their time answering the phone, covering their territory on the same days each month, and calling on the same customers? They define a successful sales call if they can ask their four questions… ”Anything you need?” “Anything coming up?” “Anything I can help with?&rdq...

One of the ways, as a sales leader, that we can increase the effectiveness of our sales team is to make sure they have the best habits of selling, that they’re selling more as a process instead of events.

The reality is most sales reps are just too intuitive giving them a tendency to want to immediately decide or take action…a philosophy of ready, fire, aim.

You go up to them and you give them a sales lead. What’s ...

There's a simple coaching technique that you, as a sales leader, can use to help make sure your salespeople continue to stay more future focused in their account discussions and account planning. This simple phrase is… ”And then what?” 

Next time you’re talking with a sales team member, ask them about their selling plans for an important account and what they’ve planned for their next sales call. ...

Are you regularly posting videos to deliver your selling messages? A great way to reach customers today is through online postings, taking advantage of the kind of videos like I've been posting now for several years. But too few companies are taking advantage of this online marketing channel. 

How are you reaching your customers with the ideas and solutions you can offer, and to validate how you can help them lower their costs,...

The profession of selling is experiencing some pretty tough times. We have less time in front of customers. Customers don't respect salespeople like they used to. Buyers assume all products are generic and believe there’s very little difference between vendors. 

How are your salespeople making these challenges turn into success? This is the time when you and your team need to become stronger students of selling.

Most sales...

Too many salespeople today spend so much time selling, pushing their products, and talking about their latest deals that they're not doing much to actually help their customers.  

A buyer recently shared, “The only time I see my rep is when they’ve got another smoking hot deal they're pitching to me.” That buyer doesn’t see their salesperson as someone helping their business. They only see them as a push...

Sales has gotten a lot tougher than what it was ten or even 15 years ago. Customers are harder to reach. They don't return phone calls anymore. When you stop by their office, they're not available. They don't answer the phone when you do call. 

The challenge we have is customers are harder to reach. And the problem with that is that a lot of salespeople tend to give up.

There was a study years ago that identified the average cus...

Most reps are good at selling to someone just like them…with the same likes and dislikes. Are your team members equally skilled at selling to buyers with completely opposite personalities? 

A goal of sales training today is to help salespeople understand the personality differences that exist in buyers and how they compare (or contrast) to the salesperson.

One of the great structures we can use to define the differences b...

Most salespeople today are intuitive and have never learned the steps of selling or see the importance in using them. Because of this, most are dealing with three problems…

1st problem – A rep with little to no awareness of the steps of a sales call will likely do all the talking.

2nd problem – Reps doing all the talking means they’re also not asking enough buyer questions to discover needs and available oppo...

Selling in the last ten to fifteen years has gone through a cultural shift due to the general lack of trust buyers have with sales reps today.  

The first major challenge today is that customers are overworked. They want shorter sales calls. The idea of sitting around with a customer for an hour just chatting to strengthen their relationship rarely happens today because customers just don't have time.  

A second challenge i...

How many of your buyers are doing more research and know more about your products than your reps do?  

Customers are doing their own research today before talking to a salesperson. They’re also delaying when they bring salespeople into their evaluation and decision process.

By the time a prospect or customer talks to one of your reps, especially if you’re a distributor carrying a broad product line, there's a good ch...

A great way to increase your customer impact as the leader of your sales team is to increase your use of technology by connecting with prospects and customers utilizing Zoom, GoToMeetings, or Microsoft Teams. 

In the old days, you’d occasionally ride with each of your reps visiting prospects or customers. Lots of time to get in front of a few buyers.

But spending that much time away from the office could disrupt the rest o...

One of the best questions a sales rep can ask a buyer at any time in their selling process is “Why?” Too many times we only ask buyers a lot of “What” they want and “How” often they want it questions. 

If a buyer shows interest in your products, how many of your reps immediately assume their buyer has valid reasons and go right into their “Features & Benefits” pitch without as...

The job of a sales leader is to help your people achieve more than they would have achieved if you just left them alone. Do your sales reps really believe that's your goal? 

It’s your responsibility to make sure everybody is in line with what they need to be doing. Yet most managers forget the affirming side of leadership is to also make sure you're giving positive feedback reminding them you're on their side. 

Early ...

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...