Know yourself as a salesperson and the industry that you sell to, and rock it! Time management skills are important, and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and network. And you can't forget to use the best sales enablement tools such as etailinsights!
The more precise you can be, the better success you’ll have. With etailinsights you can narrow down exactly the companies that fit your ideal target and then refine even further right to down to identifying the decision maker you need to connect with. This helps you get to the right prospect quickly and not waste your time sorting through leads that are not in your ideal client profile.
A lot of the time in SaaS sales, it’s easy to list off features and statistics and dive right into a demo of the product, which can overwhelm prospects or cause them to tune out on a call or WebEx. Avoid being put on mute after effectively securing a demo by listening, engaging with, and asking effective questions to your prospect. Find out what the root problem or pain point in your prospect’s current business is, and adjust your demo to highlight the specific areas of your solution that can help fix their current pain points.
I can’t say enough about localizing your prospecting. We have sales people in major markets including Arizona, Texas, Illinois, and Colorado. Being able to call on a prospect and tell them you’re located within driving distance is huge. With all the sales calls that etailers receive, it's important to put a face with a name. Plus, knowing you're close gives them some comfort that if they do decide to work with you they have a local “throat to choke.”
"Technology Spy." Such a cool cheat that allows you to quickly know when a firm changes ESP, eCommerce platforms, or anything else in between. This is essential for our business, as we care deeply about integration partners. If a firm goes from "in-house" capabilities to demandware over night, we want to know. Technology Spy will push that information to you in real-time, keeping you update with the prospects and firms you care about engaging with the most.
Use etailinsights for "Account Based Marketing" – calling or emailing a contact/account with a targeted message. If you are an email service provider, you could run a report in etailinsights of every company using your top competitor (i.e. MailChimp could target everyone using Constant Contact). You can then use that report to build out your top accounts, create a sequence of messaging, and build out a successful cadence of calls/emails.
Go big or go home regarding your acquisition efforts. As an out-of-country firm, we find that our brand recognition is non-existent compared to what it is in Canada. So whether your acquisition strategy is direct, mass, or event-based, we need to make an impact with the dollars we spend.
My most effective, and many times overlooked, sales hack is to provide the right message at the right time. We all know how often etailers get approached by new technologies and vendors, but if you are executing on pain points that are hot topics at their company, they will be more than happy to hear you out. Research current trends, spend time on specific etailer sites, and tailor your story to be interesting to the specific point of contact. For example, if I'm reaching out to email marketing managers, I'll be sure to study an etailer's current email marketing strategy (sign up for their email, look at current programs, and differences in emails they send me based on my activity). Then after reaching out, you can gauge the way they are reacting to your outreach. If you are tracking email opens and there is a spike in opens - it is probably a sign of engagement, and you should provide more information right away while they are at their highest level of intent. At the end of the day you need to add value in the short amount of time they have to spend on reading your email.
