#JodySays

Q2 2021

For sales associates and leaders everywhere

 Q1 2021 is now behind us. If you hit your quarterly goal, congratulations! If you missed it, check your performance statistics and you will find what was insufficient that kept you from  hitting your target.

The obvious challenges most retail and trade showrooms are facing right now are supply chain shortages and insufferable lead times. This is what the remainder of the year will look like, so it’s critical that we manage what we can contr…

For retail sales professionals, everywhere 

#14     Continuous sales training = 50% higher net sales per employee

Salespeople who continuously train bring in 50 percent more sales than those who don’t. It’s a no brainer—keeping sales teams up to date and involved means more sales.

Salespeople Even veterans need to sharpen their skills, techniques, and perspective as the market and the prospect/client changes. Retail and showroom people are experiencing less foot traffic and need to learn the skills of outreach sales actions to stay curren…

#13     

It’s crucial for sales reps to be easily accessible. Having active social media profiles is a great way for your reps to connect with prospects and customers.

Salespeople Put this action on your weekly calendar and don’t rely on memory or instinct to guide you to do this. Talk to other salespeople (in other industries, and in different B2B or B2C sales positions) about what they are doing and what they are achieving with socia…

Self-discovered information is becoming the norm for product research and purchasing decisions. Your company needs to have targeted and relevant sales materials that are easy for customers to find.

Salespeople This is true for B2B sales and B2C. The prospect no longer relies heavily on the salesperson for information where there is much to be found online. And researching online is such an integral part of the buying p…

Investing in CRM software and other marketing automation technology helps organize and expedite the sales process and increases sales productivity. High-performing sales teams use almost three times as much technology as underperforming teams.

Salespeople  I still hear pushback from older salespeople on upgrading technology to be current in today’s marketplace…a reaction that is sure to diminish their sales re…

10. Mobile sales make up 30% of all US eCommerce

Making website material mobile-friendly and having trained salespeople ready for web sales is crucial to your bottom line. If you’re not keeping up with the mobile and tablet movement, you will be left behind.

Salespeople

Consider getting a second line on your phone so that your customers can call you, or become facile with your tablet so that you can use it for sketching, web searching your competition, scheduling appointments, etc. If you aren’…

Communication between sales and marketing is so important—it’s a main component of sales enablement. Marketing templates and documents need to be easily accessible and customizable.

Salespeople  I listen to salespeople who regularly show their resistance to ongoing communication with prospects and clients as “What am I going to say or send them? The marketing department manages email blasts….” In a time when retail showrooms need to…