From Sales Person to Influencer and Advisor

be-less-sales-focusedThis is a great time of year to better position yourself for bigger revenues by the end of the year. If you are happy with your revenues as a sales person, disregard this post. If, however, you would like to be more buyer-focused and more of an influencer and advisor, please read on.

One of the biggest ways to grow and accelerate sales is to do an objective audit of your messaging. Here is a simple exercise you can do to begin to uncover areas of improvement in what you are saying and conveying to your prospective buyers:

Look at the last 5 emails you sent to prospective buyers. Are they “us” focused (about you, your company, and your products) or are they focused on how your stuff will help your buyers - and in what ways will it help them?

Does your e-mail have some sort of a hook to your buyer that shows you know something about them – whether it is through their title (“We work with busy CFOs like you”) or their location (“I’ve been working with some of your neighbor companies such as X and Y”) or their industry (“We have done some great projects with your industry peers X and Y.”) If no hook, do you sound like just another sales guy or gal vying for my attention?

Think about your voice-mail messaging. Do the same exercise above.

THE BOTTOM LINE FOR SELLERS

Buyers don’t have time for salespeople. They don’t need information – they can look up nearly any information online – don’t you?

What they DO need is INSIGHT. Insight is information applied to your buyer’s world – to solve a challenge of theirs, or to help them aspire to bigger and better outcomes.

Stop pushing products and services and instead think about the voice of your buyer. What are they saying?

BE AN INFLUENCER OR ADVISOR

Help your buyers see what others in their industry are doing. Share success stories, and get input from those you have helped so that you have SOCIAL PROOF of your work.

If you can solve your buyers’ problems and if you can improve the lives of the contacts you engage with at the companies you are working with, you can increase revenues and the speed that they happen.

Start by positioning yourself as a problem solver. Fix that LinkedIn profile and bio on your company website to show how you help solve issues and how you help clients aspire to greatness.

Focus on doing your best work with them. If you do that, revenues will grow, and you will have a reputation in the marketplace as someone others should work with.

Eventually, it becomes a situation where a prospective client reaches out to you to see IF you have time to work with them, not what your fees are. When this happens, it’s magic.

Here are a few other posts about being an influencer:

1) Five Attributes of Top Sales Influencers

2) Can Your Company Create a Sales Influencer?

3) Inside Sales Influencers - First Annual Rankings

We’d love your thoughts here as a comment or on Twitter @scoremoresales

Lori Richardson - Score More SalesLori Richardson is recognized on Forbes as one of the "Top 30 Social Sales Influencers" worldwide and is a Top 25 Innovative Sales Blogger. Lori speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside sales teams in mid-sized companies. Subscribe to the award-winning blog  for sales strategies, tactics, and tips.
Increase Opportunities. Expand Your Pipeline. Close More Deals. Develop Leaders

email lori@scoremoresales.com | My LinkedIn Profile | twitter | Visit us on google+

We’ve got even more coming

Sign up for our newsletter