How to Win Sales with Business Acumen
What is worse than accidentally opening your door to a solicitor? They rarely know anything about your situation and then you are stuck trying to end a conversation. Why do we all feel uncomfortable in this type of situation?
The #1 Problem Salespeople Face:
People are not their focus.
Salespeople tend to get stuck in the rut of talking about the features and benefits of their product. This is great, but it is important that you are first thinking about your customer. How can you prove to your clients that you care about them? How can you gain their trust?
When you start chatting with a prospect, you should step into their role. Get into the mode of thinking about their concerns and struggles, the pressures that could be on them, and trying to fix the problem that they need solved. Once you start thinking about how you can benefit them, then the benefit to you (a sale) will fall into place. Be a resource they feel like they can come to for advice or questions. You should be a trusted partner first and a features and benefits/salesperson second.
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What They Don't Teach You in Sales:
We love passionate and enthusiastic salespeople! But we've all been on a call when the salesperson is so amped to share their products or services, that they forget to really focus on your company's needs.
Sometimes, when we’re embedded in our product, we jump right in and have to explain all the great things about it — what it can do, how it is beneficial — without actually knowing the needs and struggles of our customers. And I really don’t blame you! You sell great things!
However, I think that is the number one problem that salespeople run into and business acumen help solve. Customers need somebody who knows their business and can see how the product/service benefits them. The overall question the customer is thinking is, “How does this benefit me? How are you going to help me solve the problems that are top-of-mind at my company?” Which is reasonable. So our job as salespeople is to teach our customers what we can do to help them. How can we be of benefit to them? How can we solve their problems and build their successes?
Sales professionals spend thousands of dollars a year on sales training for their employees. But your clients don’t need another training on sales technology, a new platform, or even the latest CRM. They need a business partner. They need someone with business acumen. How can their expertise drive profitability for their customers? How does their product reduce costs? These are the things that will help them sell. Business acumen is not only impactful but necessary for the success of your sales team.
Benefits of Business Acumen for Sales
“In B2B sales, lack of business acumen is like a person without a medical background trying to make a diagnosis (opportunity assessment), identify a disease (pain point), and prescribe the appropriate medicine or therapy (business solution).”
Sales Enablement – Your Teams Need Business Acumen Training
Your job is critically important to the function of a company. In sales enablement, your job is to ensure the sales teams are up to speed and getting the training they need. It’s a combination of building up your teams and creating incredible salespeople, while also supporting and giving them the tools they need to succeed. We want to help you make your sales teams the best they can be.
Click here to get a demo of our Business Acumen Training for Sales:
Business acumen: The 5 Business Drivers
In our courses, we teach an insightful but concise way of looking at a business — it's called the 5-driver model. In our sales training, we teach these 5 drivers as it pertains to selling. How are you aligning your agenda with those of your prospects? How is your product aligned to improve the concerns of the CEO? These are all questions that salespeople get asked every day. Whether you are looking through the lens of People, Growth, Cash, Profit, or Assets, the objective is the same — aligning your ideas with the ideas of the customers' initiatives. So here are the 5 drivers as it pertains to selling:
Cash – The fuel to grow your business.
What is your customers cash position vs. cash flow?
Profit – What remains after expenses are subtracted from revenue.
Is your customer increasing sales or reducing costs?
Assets – Anything of value that you own or control. -
What is the status of your customers' asset strength vs. their asset utilization?
Growth – Changes made.
How are your customers sales? Profits? And earnings per share?
People - Employees and customers.
Are your customers focused on developing or pivoting with innovations?
Like you, we want your sales teams to be as successful as they can be. Looking at your prospect's problems through the lens of these key business points is a crucial part of not only being a great salesperson but a great businessperson. Business Acumen teaches everybody to think like an executive and win sales in the same process. Doesn’t that seem like the best of both worlds? Reach out to us. We are in this together.
Business Acumen Training is Necessary
Business acumen is not a dispensable attribute. It's necessary to do your job well. And, if you want your clients to be EXCITED to talk to you, learn their metrics. Learn their business. Get business acumen.
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