Are your Sales Reps Behaving?

The Internet, ecommerce and social networking are just a few of the major drivers that have changhed sales. Today a buyer is most often more than 60% through their buying journey before contacting a supplier.

The reality is that buyers now dictate the sales process. In recent studies several key buyer behaviors were discovered:

• Buyers use the Internet, particularly search engines when they want to learn more about a business product or service
• When asked what type of content they want when interested in a business product or service – “Product/service information”, “Ratings & Reviews” and “Peer Experiences/Case Studies” were the top responses
• What do buyers want to discuss on a first sales call? The top responses were “pricing”, “how the product/service works”, “discuss our needs” and “how similar businesses have used the product/service”.
• What sales reps plan to cover on a first sales call – “Timeline for a purchase”, “who will authorize the purchase” and “pricing” were the top responses. Clearly there is mis-alignment between buyers and sellers.
• Finally the survey participants were asked what can sales reps do to improve – “Listen to my needs”, “is not too pushy” and “provides relevant information” were the top responses.

In other studies on sales rep behavior there were several key findings. Top performing sales professionals have several behaviors in common:

Effective “territory” management – Top performers are very good at managing their “territory” – they understand it well, they understand the numbers they have to hit and have a plan on how to be successful.

Building pipeline – Top performers are building pipeline every day

Good at networking – The top performing sales reps are very good at networking but not the “networking” you may be thinking of. They are well networked within their own organization, they build relationships with with internal support staff and with external vendors and partners.