4 Steps to Combat Employee Burnout

Chris Pierce

Employee burnout is an unfortunate but common part of working in the sales industry. We can’t perform 100% all the time. That will quickly lead to burnout in any role. However, there are ways to limit how often “slumps” caused by burnout happen and how long they last. Unfortunately, burnout is something I see often. So my goal is to help you, as a rep or manager, understand some of the reasons why slumps happen and how you can help your reps out of them as fast as possible.

What is Employee Burnout?

Burnout can look different depending on the person or situation, but typically it is when someone has lost the motivation to do their job due to overworking or stress in the role.

From the outside, these slumps are when someone just can’t seem to hit their goals or they completely lack the motivation to do their job. 

Basically someone who is struggling. 

It can be hard as a manager or coworker to identify when their rep is burning out until it starts affecting sales stats. But there is an added element of frustration, fear, and dissatisfaction when someone experiences burnout. It can often be accompanied by continued doubt, fear, low confidence and self esteem, embarrassment and burnout. 

Most people who experience burnout look at it in a negative way and feel like there is nothing they can do. They can’t seem to do anything right. The outcomes they are after seem impossible. Slumps are an awful thing to experience. 

Why Does Employee Burnout Happen?

In sales there are a variety of reasons that burnouts happen. Some of which are out of your control, and many that are. 

These “slumps” most often occur when an individual’s focus has shifted from a task focus to a self focus. This means that instead of paying attention to what tasks they’re doing and the actions they need to take, they’re focused on how the work is affecting them. I see this constantly happen because of the pressure career professionals place on themselves or the pressure placed by others. 

Remember, your results are only the byproduct of your actions.

Another reason why slumps occur is because employees stop caring. The results are no longer worth the effort and although they’re going through the motions, reps are not utilizing their skill set anymore.

Either way, most people who experience “slumps” are so preoccupied with getting the end result, that they fail to focus on the actions that need to be taken to get out. Some of the most common causes are:

  • The sales culture is toxic
  • There’s no reward for hitting or exceeding goals
  • Management doesn’t help reps when it’s needed
  • No clear goals or expectations are given

4 Steps to Escape Rep Burnout:

  1. Realize that you are burned out. 
  2. Ask yourself two questions. 
  3. Commit to the actions you identified. 
  4. Take action. 

#1 Realize that you are burned out

You might know because your numbers are low or your leadership has pointed it out to you. Or you are just not feeling like yourself. Regardless of why, step one is to realize that you are not doing what you need to, in order to get the positive results you’re after. It is hard to get out of a slump you don’t know you are in.

#2 Ask yourself two questions

What will you continue to do? What will you do differently? Answering these simple questions will help you shift back to a task focus. It might be hard to ask yourself these questions but it will be helpful in the long run. 

#3 Commit to the actions you identified

There’s no point to realizing burnout, identifying the issue, and then not holding yourself or your employee accountable to the solution. The best possible way to dig yourself out of a burnout hole is to make actionable tasks and goals no matter how small; and after that’s done, you have to commit to the actions to make it work.

#4 Take action

All the planning and focus in the world will not help you accomplish anything if you do not take action. You may need to get an accountability partner to help keep you on track. Whether it’s a sales manager, coworker, or even a friend, we can all help each other to avoid further burnout.

Are you Experiencing Burnout?

Don’t know if you or someone you work with is burned out or not? There are 4 simple ways to see if a sales rep is experiencing burnout and get them on the right track.

Experiencing burnout is no fun for the individual experiencing it, nor for the leadership trying to help. The faster you can go through the steps, the sooner you can be on your way toward performing at your potential. Remember that sometimes it takes more effort today than it did to do the same thing yesterday. But, just because it takes more effort, does not mean that the goal changes. It just means that your focus and effort need to change.

Let’s keep in touch

This is the second blog in our Manager Series so there will be more to come (plus another webinar) so be looking out for that! If you like learning about mental toughness and want even more tips, let’s chat about it. Shoot me a DM on Instagram @chris_pierce and look out for the next exciting blog we’re releasing about mental toughness in sales to make you a better manager.

B2B Prospecting: Strategies for Successful Lead Generation

Shawn Jolley

When it comes to B2B prospecting, everything revolves around finding the right leads and turning them into paying customers. If you’re running a B2B business, successful lead generation is super important for growing your business. That’s why we’ve put together some tips and strategies for effective B2B prospecting. We’ll cover killer strategies you could be using right now to generate high-quality leads and achieve your B2B sales goals.

What is B2B Prospecting?

B2B prospecting is the process of identifying and targeting potential business customers with the aim of generating leads and converting them into paying customers. It involves researching and analyzing potential prospects, crafting effective outreach strategies, and nurturing relationships to ultimately drive sales and revenue for your business.

What are B2B Prospecting Strategies?

There are many different types of B2B sales strategies, and we’ve included seven popular methods that can be used together to generate high-quality B2B leads:

  1. Social Media
  2. Account-Based Marketing
  3. Cold Calls & Emails
  4. Content Marketing
  5. Referral Marketing
  6. Events & Trade Shows
  7. Door-to-Door Sales

b2b sales strategies

Social Media: How to Use it for B2B Prospecting

Social media can be a powerful tool for B2B sales prospecting. By using social media strategically, you can expand your reach, build your reputation, and find new prospects to drive sales and revenue for your B2B business.

Here are a few ways to use social media to find and engage potential business customers:

  1. Identify and follow relevant accounts: Look for industry influencers, thought leaders, and potential prospects on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow them to stay up to date on the latest news and trends in your industry.
  2. Engage in conversations: Join industry groups and forums to engage in conversations with other professionals in your field. Share your expertise and offer value to the community to build your reputation and establish yourself as a thought leader.
  3. Use social listening tools: Social listening tools like Hootsuite and Brandwatch can help you track conversations and mentions of your brand, industry, and competitors on social media. This can provide valuable insights into your target audience and help you identify potential prospects.
  4. Share content and engage with prospects: Share relevant and valuable content on social media to attract potential prospects and engage with them. Respond to comments and messages quickly and personalize your outreach to build relationships and trust.

“A study published in the ‘Journal of Business Research’ found that the number of social media followers to a business positively affected the amount of sales revenue, and that new followers were primarily driven by sales posts.”

Account-Based Marketing (ABM): How to Use it for B2B Prospecting

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a targeted approach to B2B prospecting that focuses on identifying and targeting high-value accounts with personalized outreach. By using account-based marketing to target high-value accounts with personalized outreach, you can drive more qualified leads and close more deals for your B2B business.

Here are a few steps you can take to use ABM effectively for B2B prospecting:

  1. Define your ideal customer profile: Start by identifying the characteristics of your ideal customer, including their industry, company size, budget, and pain points. Use this information to create a target account list of high-value prospects.
  2. Align your sales and marketing teams: ABM requires close collaboration between your sales and marketing teams to create customized messaging and content for each target account. Work together to identify key decision-makers, understand their needs and pain points, and craft a personalized value proposition for each account.
  3. Create targeted content and messaging: Use your knowledge of each target account to create customized content and messaging that speaks directly to their pain points and challenges. This can include personalized emails, targeted ads, and customized landing pages that address their specific needs.
  4. Use multiple channels to reach decision-makers: ABM involves reaching decision-makers through multiple channels, including email, social media, direct mail, and in-person meetings. Use a combination of these channels to engage with key decision-makers and build relationships over time.
  5. Measure and optimize your results: Use data and analytics to track the effectiveness of your ABM campaigns and optimize your outreach over time. Use A/B testing to refine your messaging and targeting, and track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to measure your success.

Cold Calls & Emails: How to Use Them for B2B Prospecting

Cold calling and emailing can still be useful methods for B2B prospecting if done correctly. By knowing and implementing the following best practices, you can effectively use cold calling and emailing for B2B prospecting and generate a higher number of leads for your business.

Here are some tips for using these tactics:

  1. Personalize your messaging: To increase the chances of success with cold calling and emailing, you need to personalize your messaging for each prospect. At the very least, you should use their name, company name, and any relevant industry information to make your outreach feel more personal and tailored to their needs.
  2. Focus on the benefits: When reaching out to prospects, outline the benefits of your product or service before listing the features. In an email, benefits should go in the subject line. Highlight how your solution can solve their specific pain points or challenges, and make a compelling case for why they should consider your offering.
  3. Keep it short and sweet: When it comes to cold calling and emailing, brevity is key. Keep your messaging short and to the point, and focus on the most important information that will capture the B2B prospect’s attention.
  4. Follow up consistently: Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get an immediate response to your outreach. Follow up consistently with prospects who don’t respond, and use a variety of channels to reach them, including email, phone, and social media. Varying your message and timing can also help cut down on perceptions of annoyance.

b2b prospecting tools

Content Marketing: How to Use it for B2B Prospecting

Content marketing is a powerful tool for B2B prospecting. Creating valuable content that addresses your target audience’s pain points can establish your business as a thought leader and build trust. A strategic content marketing plan can also attract and convert leads effectively.

Here are some tips for using content marketing to attract and convert leads:

  1. Develop a content strategy: Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience, you can develop a content strategy that addresses their needs and interests. This could include creating blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, webinars, and other types of content. Get creative because your perspective is unique and the sky’s the limit.
  2. Optimize for search: To ensure that your content is visible to your target audience, you need to optimize it for search engines like Google. This includes using relevant keywords, writing compelling meta descriptions, and structuring your content in a way that’s easy for search engines to understand. Learning the basics of SEO can go a long way in prospecting.
  3. Promote your content: Once you’ve created your content, you need to promote it effectively to reach your target audience. This could include sharing it on social media, promoting it through email marketing, or using paid advertising to drive traffic to your website. Focusing on several channels of outreach is the most effective way to gain traction.
  4. Measure and optimize: To maximize the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts, you need to continually measure and optimize your content. Use analytics to track how your content is performing, and use that information to make adjustments to your content strategy over time. You shouldn’t make tweaks all the time, give it time to collect enough data first.

Referral Marketing: How to Use it for B2B Prospecting

Referral marketing can be one of your most effective tools for B2B prospecting. By tapping into your existing network and encouraging satisfied customers to refer their colleagues and connections to your business, you can generate high-quality leads with built-in buy-in.

Here are some tips for using referral marketing to attract and convert leads:

  1. Start with the best: Identify your most satisfied b2b customers and ask them to refer colleagues and connections who may benefit from your services.
  2. Make it worthwhile: Create a referral program that incentivizes customers to refer others to your business, either with discounts, payouts, or industry-specific equipment.
  3. Create simple tools: Make it easy for customers to refer others by providing them with referral links or a simple form to fill out. Place these tools in visible spots and mention them whenever the opportunity arises.
  4. Engage, engage, engage: Thank customers for their referrals and keep them informed about the status of the leads they’ve referred. Make them care!
  5. Pivot when and where needed: Track your referral marketing efforts to identify which tactics are most effective and adjust your strategy accordingly.

“An article published in ‘Business Horizons” found that when compared to traditional marketing efforts, referral marketing offers several benefits lacking in other programs. These include enhanced credibility of friend and family member recommendations over paid advertisements, increased access to potential customers that traditional marketing may not reach, and better alignment of referred customers’ needs.”

Events & Trade Shows: How to Use Them for B2B Prospecting

Attending events and trade shows can be a high-effort, high-reward way to prospect with the right B2B prospecting tools. The amount of energy you have to put into each event will vary, and the more events you do, the less preparation you will need for each event.

Here are some tips on how to use trade shows and events to generate leads:

  1. Research and select the right events: Look for events that attract your target audience and focus on industries that align with your business. Relevance is usually the most important factor, then size and location. You have to go where the demand exists.
  2. Plan ahead: Create a plan for the event, including goals, booth design, promotional materials, and staffing. The more resources you have, the easier this is to handle, but even with a small team and budget, you can b2b prospect effectively.
  3. Engage attendees: Be approachable, start conversations, and be prepared to answer questions about your business and offerings. At most events, attendees expect to be engaged with, and that’s your golden opportunity that differentiates this B2B strategy.
  4. Collect contact information: Have a system in place for collecting and organizing contact information from leads — the simpler, the better. Remember when using this strategy, you should primarily be focused on prospecting for B2B contacts, not closing.
  5. Follow up promptly: Important! Reach out to leads shortly after the event to continue the conversation and build a relationship. These leads are hot, hot, hot, and they can move through the funnel quickly. Don’t waste time waiting when it comes to events.

b2b sales prospecting

Door-to-Door Sales: How to Use it for B2B Prospecting

Technology has made door-to-door sales a viable and effective option for B2B prospecting. You can find B2B leads, map efficient routes, and prospect on a daily basis with incredible results.

Here are some tips on how to use door-to-door sales to generate B2B leads:

  1. Identify your target market: Before knocking on doors, make sure you know which businesses you want to target. Do some research to identify potential customers based on their location, size, industry, and other relevant factors.
  2. Develop a strong pitch: Craft a concise and compelling sales pitch that highlights the benefits of your products or services. Be prepared to answer any questions or objections that prospects may have. Try to schedule door-knocking during slow business hours.
  3. Dress to impress and be respectful: When visiting businesses in person, it’s important to make a good impression. Dress professionally and be polite and respectful at all times.
  4. Keep track of your B2B leads: As you visit businesses and speak with prospects, keep detailed notes about their needs, interests, and contact information. This will help you follow up with them later and keep track of your progress.
  5. Follow up and stay in touch: After your initial visit, follow up with prospects via phone or email to thank them for their time and reinforce the benefits of your products or services. Be sure to stay in touch regularly, as B2B prospects typically convert slower.

What’s Next for Your B2B Prospecting Plan?

Remember that even though these strategies can be effective for B2B prospecting and lead generation, every business is unique and may require a customized approach to meet its specific goals. By incorporating the strategies that work for you into your overall B2B prospecting plan, you can increase your chances of success and generate high-quality leads for your business.

👉 Book a demo with SalesRabbit.

Guide to Sales Prospecting: 9 Techniques and Strategies

Diana May-Jennings

As a sales professional, you should be familiar with the sales prospecting process that we all have to go through. No one is lucky enough to constantly stumble upon their ideal buyer—finding the best customers is a lengthy process that I’m sure you dread sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be as painful. 

Use this guide full of sales prospecting techniques for d2d and b2b to make sure you’re hitting all the necessary prospecting steps while avoiding what you don’t need to do.

What is Sales Prospecting?

Sales prospecting is the process of identifying and reaching out to potential customers or clients in order to generate new business opportunities. The goal of sales prospecting is to create a pipeline of qualified leads that can be nurtured and converted into customers over time. An effective sales prospecting strategy requires a combination of research, communication skills, and persistence.

Stages of the Sales Prospecting Process

The sales process goes from gathering lead information to closing the sale to make them customers—your prospecting efforts are the steps in-between that:

sales prospecting definition

Why Does Sales Prospecting Matter for Reps and Managers?

Salespeople should care about prospecting because it’s a crucial part of the sales process that helps generate new business opportunities. Here are just a few reasons why prospecting is important:

  • Fills the Sales Pipeline: Qualified leads that can be nurtured and converted into customers. Without a steady stream of new leads, salespeople may struggle to meet their sales targets.
  • Expands Customer Base: Salespeople can reach out to potential customers who may not have heard of their company or products. By expanding the customer base, salespeople can increase revenue and grow their business.
  • Identifies New Opportunities: Prospecting can help salespeople identify new business opportunities and stay ahead of the competition. By understanding the needs of potential customers, salespeople can tailor their products or services to better meet those needs.
  • Builds Better Relationships: Have more opportunities for salespeople to build relationships with potential customers. By establishing trust and credibility, salespeople can create a foundation for future sales opportunities.
  • Improves Sales Skills: Great prospecting requires a range of skills, including research, communication, and negotiation. By practicing these skills on a regular basis, salespeople can improve their overall sales performance.

In summary, using prospecting techniques is important for salespeople because it helps fill the sales pipeline, expand the customer base, identify new opportunities, build relationships, and improve sales skills.

How to Master Sales Prospecting

Now that you know why sales prospecting matters, you have to ask how you’re going to use it in d2d or b2b sales? The technique remains relatively similar with some slight differences shown here—but first, let’s define the biggest difference between these types of sales industries.

What is D2D Sales?

D2D (door-to-door) sales involve sales representatives going directly to individual consumers’ homes or workplaces to sell products or services. D2D sales are aimed at individual consumers. In D2D sales, sales representatives typically focus on building a personal relationship with the consumer to persuade them to make a purchase. 

What is B2B Sales?

In B2B (business-to-business) sales, prospecting typically involves researching and contacting companies that fit a certain profile, such as those in a specific industry or of a certain size, and engaging with key decision-makers to pitch products or services that meet their needs. 

b2b sales prospecting

9 Steps to a Sales Prospecting Strategy

Whether you’re in d2d or b2b sales, the general idea of sales prospecting remains the same, but your timeline will differ. B2b deals go through several rounds of consideration based on company budgets, size, needs, etc. whereas d2d sales can typically be a quicker close. 

See the steps we recommend you take when trying to find and close deals with your buyers no matter the target audience:

  1. Define Your Ideal Customer: Before you start prospecting, you need to have a clear understanding of what your ideal customer looks like. Consider factors such as industry, company size, location, and other relevant characteristics.
  2. Build a Target List: Use tools like LinkedIn, industry reports, and trade publications to build a list of companies that fit your ideal customer profile. 
  3. Research Ideal Prospects: Once you have a list of companies, research each prospect to identify key decision-makers, their pain points, and any relevant information about the company.
  4. Develop a Prospecting Strategy: Determine the best way to reach out to prospects. This could include phone calls, email, social media, or in-person meetings.
  5. Craft a Compelling Message: Your message should be tailored to the specific prospect and address their pain points. It should also be concise and hit on the pain points that you know your customer faces.
  6. Reach Out to Prospects: Start reaching out to prospects using your chosen method. Remember to personalize your message and focus on how your product or service can help solve their pain points.
  7. Follow up Often: Persistence is key in sales prospecting. Follow up with prospects multiple times using different methods to increase your chances of getting a response. *Pro tip: Consumers (d2d sales) may like to be contacted via text or phone call while businesses (b2b sales) prefer scheduled zoom calls, email threads, or conference calls.
  8. Nurture Relationship: Once you’ve connected with a prospect, focus on building a relationship. This could include sharing relevant content, offering helpful advice, or simply staying in touch.*Pro tip: this is the key difference between d2d and b2b, nurturing the relationship with a consumer versus a business takes a different approach. With a consumer it’s as simple as a phone call or text but with a business the follow up is lengthier: texts and calls are necessary, as well as business meetings, email discussions to loop in decision makers, etc.
  9. Measure Your Results: Keep track of your results and adjust your strategy as needed. Monitor metrics such as response rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated from prospecting efforts.

“When it comes to sourcing prospects online, LinkedIn is the biggest game in town,” —Stephanie Svanfeldt, a strategic account executive at Salesforce.

By following these steps, you can create a successful d2d or b2b sales prospecting strategy that helps you identify and connect with your ideal customers.

prospecting tools for sales

What Are Your Next Steps?

Your next step depends on where you are in the prospecting process—do you or your company already do everything on this list? It can be an overwhelming process without the proper techniques so stick to this list and you’ll be amazed at the results. Sales doesn’t have to be complicated, keeping it simple will always be the best way to go.

Comment down below a prospecting experience you’ve had that could help someone else that’s just starting out or trying to develop their sales process.

What is a Sales Funnel?

Sean Huckstep

While managing a business, owners may come across sales terms. One of the common questions we get is, “What is a sales funnel?” The next question many business owners have is whether or not their company has one.

All companies have a sales funnel, whether they create one intentionally or not. Check out below what a sales funnel looks like and the 4 common stages it has. 

What does Sales Funnel mean?

A sales funnel showcases the steps or stages customers navigate, from when they first become aware of a company to when they actually make a purchase. This is often used as a tool to track the customer experience and look for ways to improve the buying process.

The 4 Sales Funnel Stages

  1. Awareness
  2. Interest
  3. Decision
  4. Action

sales funnel stages

Once customers enter the sales funnel, they move through several stages. Naturally, fewer and fewer prospects make it to the next stage. This is what creates the imagery of a funnel. Here are the main stages of the funnel that you should take control of when creating your sales campaigns.

#1 Awareness

Awareness is at the top of the sales-marketing funnel. Customers must first know a business exists before they can buy from it. Focusing on marketing can help boost awareness. One of the most common methods companies rely on is optimizing their website so that customers find them when they search for things related to the company’s products or services.

#2 Interest

Interest is the mid-stage in the sales funnel. Having a website or a store in town only gets people to the front door or the first page. To move from awareness to interest, companies must provide valuable content that customers can use to compare and research. It’s important to keep in contact with customers throughout this step without being pushy. Pushing a sale too early could cause them to jump ship so trust the process.

#3 Decision

Decision is near the bottom of the sales funnel. This is the point when the customer is ready to make a purchase. However, your company may not be the only one they’re considering. Study your target market and your most successful customers. When they were in the decision stage, what swayed them toward your offering? Keep, improve, and innovate on similar offerings.

#4 Action

Action is the final step that involves actually purchasing the product or service. This is where many businesses lose the opportunity to truly capitalize on a sale. Marketing, sales, and customer service may stop focusing on nurturing existing relationships in favor of running off to find new ones. Instead of running off to the newest and best thing, keep customer retention and remarketing in mind for continued future growth.

“If an opportunity isn’t effectively qualified, the sales rep will operate under the mistaken impression that the deal is theirs to win.” —Dave Stein

Need the Right Tool to Improve Your Sales Funnel?

Sales funnels play an important role in building and growing any business. While every company has one, the funnels with high conversion rates are handcrafted to find and keep as many prospective buyers as possible. If you’re in field sales, then SalesRabbit can help you track your sales funnel from lead to close.

👉 Book a demo with SalesRabbit.

The 5 Best Sales Podcasts for Selling

Sean Huckstep

Practical and immersive ― those two qualities can take a sales podcast from good to great. And great podcasts are the ones you want to listen to as a sales rep. Below, you’ll find 5 of the best podcasts on selling, and they’re all free!

So, whether you’re a podcast junkie or a complete newbie, filling some of your spare time (walking, exercising, commuting, or cleaning) with helpful podcasts is rewarding in this industry.

“Never allow your ego to diminish your ability to listen.” ―Gary Hopkins

Top Sales Podcasts

  1. Conversations with Women in Sales
  2. Sales Gravy
  3. B2B Growth
  4. The Wolf’s Den
  5. Hey Salespeople

#1 Conversations with Women in Sales

conversations with women in sales

“Conversations with Women in Sales” focuses on sharing the perspective of women in sales, covering everything from B2B sales to sales leadership. Stay up-to-date on the shifting world of sales through this interview-based podcast, and catch new episodes two to three times per month.

#2 Sales Gravy

sales gravy

“Sales Gravy” is a great podcast for timely advice, keeping you in the loop on sales strategies that work today ― not half a century ago. Episodes range in format and length: everything from six-minute interviews to hour-long discussions on topics like selling in a tough economy and the way to structure your sales process for efficiency.

#3 B2B Growth

b2b growth

“B2B Growth” is a helpful sales podcast for reps who primarily work in the business-to-business world (even if you don’t they still make some useful points). Gain advice and learn how developments in the industry could impact you, your business, and your sales strategy. Multiple episodes drop every week, and they’re about half an hour long, which is perfect for that morning commute.

#4 The Wolf’s Den

the wolf's den with jordan belfort

“The Wolf’s Den” is an aptly named sales podcast hosted by the self-proclaimed REAL Wolf of Wall Street. On his show, Jordan Belfort interviews popular and successful salespeople all the time. His reactions and insights into varying sales strategies and theories can provide reps with a better understanding of how differing opinions can provide success. New episodes come out once or twice a month, and their length is uncut, ranging from about half an hour to over two hours.

#5 Hey Salespeople

hey salespeople

“Hey Salespeople” is an interview-style podcast focused on providing reps with strategic ways to grow their careers. Questions and answers are geared toward giving salespeople practical tips and actionable advice they can immediately start using. If you want to sell more without all the fluff, then you’ll appreciate the short episodes delivered about once per week.

Can’t Get Enough Top-Rated Podcasts?

Here’s another list of 15 inspirational podcasts to follow. Say goodbye to boring commutes and hello to improving your sales ability from wherever you are with the best sales podcasts.

Sales Strategy with Jordan Belfort and Grant Cardone

Sean Huckstep

If you’ve ever thought about what a sales strategy is and are looking for ways to become a better rep, now’s the time to discover the secrets to sales strategy with Jordan Belfort and Grant Cardone. These masters of sales share their insider secrets in this sales training heavyweight match.

“The rep that talks to 10 leads a day will always lose to the guy that talks to 200 leads a day.”

3 High-Level Sales Strategies Covered in the Video

1. Playing the Numbers Game

According to Grant Cardone, sales is all a numbers game. The more you contact and get out there, the more successful you’ll be. If you market or contact through the phone ahead of time so the client already knows you, that’s icing on the cake.

2. Overcoming Fear

Cardone and Belfort emphasize that you can prep and train as much as you want to be a good rep but without a lead to talk to no strategy will ever work. The problem is being scared to cold call or talk to people, but Cardone says don’t get nervous or upset about it.

3. Helping Others

If you’ve tried to improve as a rep but are struggling, Cardone recommends you take a step back from your sales approach and help a fellow rep. If you take some time away from focusing on your shortcomings, you can become motivated by helping improve sales for someone else. For Cardone, a 100% cure for the sales slump is helping someone else make deals.

Watch and Learn

Watch these hotheads debate what works in sales, what doesn’t, and what is sales strategy. Do you agree with one over the other? Let us know in the comments below.

Additional Sales Training from Belfort or Cardone

If you want more in-depth training with Grant Cardone, you can look into his Sales Training University.

If you’re interested in learning more about Jordan Belfort’s approach check out his YouTube channel.

What is a Sales Process + 3 Ways to Build One

Diana May-Jennings

We’ve worked with a lot of door-to-door, canvassing, and field sales companies to use our sales app to solve some specific problems they’re encountering. Unfortunately, most companies are approaching their business without any significant strategy or plan.

This is making your job harder. Instead, teams need to target the source of the problem, the best way to start doing that is to identify existing issues, then build an adaptive sales process accompanied with technology that can structure and guide that process. Learn more about how to build your ideal sales process now.

What is a Sales Process?

A sales process is the series of steps a prospect takes to become a customer.

More importantly, it’s the most defining characteristic of a mature company. Most major sales maturity models identify “lack of system or process” as the main reason that a company is “immature” or “chaotic.”

This process will be different for each company, but there are universal steps that every door-to-door or field salesperson goes through as they successfully convert a prospect to a customer: they go out and knock doors, make contact, and close the sale. By focusing on these basic steps of your sales process, you can start to measure your team’s performance in more specific ways, allowing you to adjust, strengthen, and personalize your process as you go along.

Why Do I Need a Sales Process?

There are several reasons why you should have a sales process, especially in the world of door-to-door and field sales:

  • A uniform system for your reps
  • Faster, more effective onboarding
  • Better vision of performance
  • Make productive improvements
  • Better customer experience

It doesn’t matter what sales industry you find yourself in, having a thought out sales process is going to be the best way to set you and your team up for long-term success. There’s a reason why all the major companies like to think of each step in their process; it eliminates a lot of the natural human error that can come from poor stat management, lack of communication, or difference in personal process.

3 Ways to Build or Fix Your Process

  1. Gather Data for a New Perspective
  2. Track Sales Rep Stats
  3. Create a Mobile Sales Process

In our experience, most door-to-door and field sales companies are in two camps:

  • Companies have put off building a sales process because they don’t know how or think they don’t need one.
  • Companies know they have a general sales process but they freely admit that they don’t really use it or it’s outdated.

Sales processes need continual optimization and improvement to encounter for changes that happen in the company or the market. Any business hoping to be successful needs to know that there is no replacement for a smart, evolving, scalable sales process. Let’s talk about crucial steps that have to take place as you build or update one.

#1 Gather Data for a New Perspective

You’re not going to start out with the perfect sales process, so just jump in to what you’re currently doing. Start by making everyone participate in data gathering. Reps need to be reporting what happens at every single interaction with a customer. This will give you a perspective of what’s happening in the field and a picture of what reps are currently accomplishing, succeeding at, and struggling with.

Work to build a company culture that demands this behavior. When you show your reps that they are also going to reap the benefits of an intelligent sales process, they’ll start doing it because they want to and they will come to expect the same behavior from each other.

#2 Track Sales Rep Stats

After you’ve started collecting data, you’re going to want to organize that data in stages to match your process. Let’s refer back to the basic sales steps mentioned earlier: doors knocked, contacts made, and overall sales.

The data from each of these steps tells you something unique about your salespeople:

  • Doors knocked: This number tells you how hard a rep is working in the field. It’s straightforward—if a rep isn’t knocking enough doors then they’re not going to be selling anything.
  • Contacts made: This stat tells you how strategically a rep is handling an area. You’ll know if they’re tracking their interactions and using that information to adjust routes so that they can get the most out of an area instead of simply knocking through it.
  • Sales: How many sales your rep makes a pretty straightforward measurement of their success overall and in certain areas. If you’re not tracking this stat already, you should be.

#3 Create a Mobile Sales Process

The top teams all know that they need to invest in a mobile CRM that will support their workflows and give them a data-supported vision of their company’s performance.

Salesforce’s “State of Sales” report showed that high-performing sales teams are implementing a “smarter, faster sales process,” and are 2.7x more likely than under-performing teams to be using process automation.

For most of them, this technology is mobile. There are a lot of benefits to following the example set by these top teams. Mobile CRMs are essential to your data gathering as you start to build out your sales process. They’ll help eliminate all the time you’re currently wasting on other inefficient processes.

The best mobile sales apps will sync with other services and CRMs that you’re currently using, bringing all your data to the same place. They’ll also help you better understand and cater to the customer experience. Not to toot our own horn, but SalesRabbit is designed to do this for you.

What Does Your Sales Process Look Like?

No matter how good or bad you think your current sales process is, you should always be measuring and reevaluating your approach. Keep an eye out for trends that you and your reps are discovering. Be willing to subject your process to experimentation and trial and error. These steps will get you on track, but the truth is that it’s hard to give general advice on developing a sales process.

We’d love to talk to you more about a process that fits your team and show you the tech we’ve built that directs you towards stable growth, demo with us today.

5 Ways to Improve Customer Experience

Mike Hilverda

A solid customer experience (CX) can make or break a business. It’s important to be proactive in how you think about and interact with your customers, starting from before they’ve even heard about your brand until they’re fully aware of who you are and are engaged with you.

Customer experience improvement can be handled in many ways, but the key is to always take a multifaceted approach. Below, you’ll find five ways to improve your customers’ experience now.

“Did you know, according to Garnter, Inc., customer experience drives more than two-thirds of customer loyalty, outperforming brand and price combined?”

How to Improve Customer Experience

  1. Map out the customer journey
  2. Shift your target from customers
  3. Identify all available touchpoints
  4. Personalize customer interactions
  5. Realize change must be a priority

#1 Map Out the Customer Journey

Mapping out the customer journey is a great way for any business to start improving customer experience. Knowing where your customers come from, how they find you, and what they do to interact with you, can help you discover what’s working and what isn’t.

Creating a map of your customers’ journey doesn’t need to be detailed and difficult (although, that’s an option). A basic map or outline can be simple and straightforward while giving you enough information to start improvements immediately.

Parts of a Customer Journey Map

  • Steps describing a general customer’s actions (e.g. see ad, click ad, view landing page, sign up for email marketing, etc.)
  • Steps describing a general customer’s thoughts or feelings (e.g. curiosity, “How will this help me?”, “How much does it cost?”, excitement, confusion, etc.)
  • A list of business touchpoints at each customer step (e.g. customer service rep interaction via homepage chat widget, in-store checkout process via self-checkout, etc.)
  • Actions you or others can take to change any aspect of the customer experience (e.g. create and implement pricing table on website, train reps on product features, etc.)

customer journey map

#2 Shift Your Target From Customers

Focusing on customers makes sense when trying to improve their experience, but that’s not the only thing you can do to improve CX. You can also shift your focus and target improving the representatives or software that your customers interact with on a regular basis.

Employee training, feedback, tools, and experience can go a long way toward improving how your customers interact with your business. Happier, more satisfied employees affect everything.

Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction

  • Review, replace, and upgrade equipment, technology, and tools used by employees (for digital customer experience, this may involve software bug fixes or further development)
  • Provide employees with an anonymous survey and schedule regular one-on-one meetings to get useful feedback
  • Look to your competitors to make sure your business offers similar or better incentives for your customers

#3 Identify All Available Touchpoints

Take the touchpoints from your customer journey map and flesh them out; include different departments and communication channels for each one. For example, you may find that there is overlapping or redundant communication happening between the marketing and sales steps.

Some of the most important touchpoints you’ll come across happen in your customer service or support department. Long-term customers are maintained at this level so make sure every interaction is as personalized and thought-through as possible.

What to Look For in Post-purchase Touchpoints

  • Automated or personalized follow-up messages (email, SMS, phone) about the quality and experience of your product or service (this will look different depending on company size and resources)
  • Re-marketing efforts for decreasing churn in SaaS business models and improving brand loyalty for other businesses (communicate product updates, launches, and events)
  • 24/7 support availability where possible, quick response times, and human interaction (be proactive and reach out on a regular basis to facilitate positive conversations)

how to personalize customer interactions

#4 Personalize Customer Interactions

Customers like to be treated like living, breathing human beings — not robots. One way to make sure the human element remains at each touchpoint of the customer journey is personalization.

For larger companies, personalization may be challenging to scale, but remember that the overall customer experience is made up of many interactions. The more personalized each interaction is for the customer, the more improvement you can see in the customer experience.

How to Personalize the Customer Experience

  • In pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, personalized ads have become the norm, and, in email marketing, list segmentation helps with personalized messaging (i.e. digital tools make personalization possible even at a large scale)
  • Having modern tools that communicate relevant customer information to the right people at the right times can help every conversation feel more personal (e.g. SalesRabbit can provide information about prospects before representatives make contact)
  • Giving welcome presents and recurring gifts (like swag) is a great way to market your brand while making customers feel noticed by you

#5 Realize Change Must be a Priority

One of the most important and potentially difficult aspects of improving customer experience is getting everybody from senior management to entry-level employees on the same page. However, there’s no effective one-size-fits-all approach for communicating changes and requiring adoption, so this can be challenging.

How to Get Everybody to Improve CX

  • Incentivizing change can be a great way to quickly get new policies and procedures adopted by customer service representatives (e.g. roll out a temporary bonus structure)
  • Start at the top and work your way down (i.e. if members of the executive team aren’t onboard, then it’ll be harder to get other employees in the company to buy in)
  • Depending on your size and resources, you may find it beneficial to create a specific customer experience role; their job responsibilities can revolve around CX improvement

“Did you know, according to 123FormBuilder, 90% of consumers worldwide will pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience? And, 81% percent of customers are more likely to make a repeat purchase from a brand with good customer service.”

Other Quick Tips for Improving Customer Experience

  1. Set up multiple communication channels in high-visibility areas
  2. Utilize digital or in-person surveys to gather CX analytics
  3. Welcome new customers and re-engage existing ones with swag
  4. Identify where problems happen to proactively solve them
  5. Develop a process for collecting and acting on customer suggestions
  6. Feature customer success stories on social media and your website
  7. Train customer service representatives frequently for consistency
  8. Be quick and intentional when listening, responding, and following up

Found Success In Customer Experience? Let Us Know!

If you have thoughts about customer experience, let us know down below. Maybe you’ve worked in customer service, owned your own business, or you have a unique story to tell. We’d love to hear about CX ideas that work well or experiences you’ve had yourself.

3 Steps to Train Sales Reps for Mental Toughness

Chris Pierce

We’re back with another exciting round of mental toughness blogs, this time for managers! These tips will be applicable no matter your role in sales so check it out, share with your managers or peers, and start trying out the principles.

We all know that as a leader it is your responsibility to ensure that your reps have all the tools they need to succeed. This includes sales training, organizational skills, life skills and mental toughness. Mental toughness is something that can be taught and it is your responsibility to train your reps to be mentally tough. 

“You need to be in control of yourself before you can control your performance.” -Ken Ravizza

Your success is limited to the amount of control you have over yourself. If you want your reps to be successful, you must train them to maintain self control. This is mental toughness. 

So how do you build mentally tough reps?

If you want to build a mentally tough sales team, you must focus on actions over results. Results are only a byproduct of your actions. Yes results are important to track, but they don’t always lead to your reps taking action. 

It is very likely that you’re contributing to either building or breaking down their mental toughness. It begins with you and the way you speak to your reps. What you say to your reps shows them what is most important to you. 

3 Steps to create mentally tough sales reps

  1. Give insightful feedback
  2. Ask the right questions
  3. Encourage them to learn

#1 Give insightful feedback

The influence your feedback has on your reps has a much bigger impact than you know. Your feedback you give your reps is either putting them in a fixed or growth mindset. 

To build mental toughness, your feedback must focus on:

  • Specific strategies
  • Skills to develop
  • Having a good attitude
  • Work ethic
  • Amount of effort

This builds winning streaks, consistency, character and work ethic, which in turn yields results.

If your feedback is focused on results, outcomes, talents and abilities, you will break down your rep’s mental toughness and put them in a fixed mindset.

#2 Ask the right questions

As a leader it is your responsibility to give feedback to your reps that puts them in a growth mindset. Whenever giving criticism and praise to your reps, always include strategies, skills, attitude and effort. Avoid praising and criticizing outcomes, results, talents and abilities. 

Instead, ask yourself:

  1. What will I continue to do?
  2. What will I do differently?

These questions help reps stop focusing so much on the results and outcomes and instead helps them shift focus to their actions. Asking these questions at the end of everyday will help them to increase their consistency and help them adapt to necessary changes. 

#3 Encourage them to learn

Gaining knowledge is something that will help your sales reps in and out of the field. This is something you should always be encouraging them to do whether it’s reading books, listening to podcasts, or watching videos relating to mental toughness and control.

Here’s what we recommend if you don’t know where to start:

If your reps aren’t already looking into educational resources like this (that are usually free), try including it in their development or making it a fun part of the team culture!

Let’s keep in touch

This is the first blog in our Manager Series so there will be more to come (plus another webinar) so be looking out for that! If you like learning about mental toughness and want even more tips, let’s chat about it. Shoot me a DM on Instagram @chris_pierce and look out for the next exciting blog we’re releasing about mental toughness in sales to make you a better manager.

Top 4 Sales Books to Help You Take Control

Sean Huckstep

The more mental control you can gain, the more sales you can close. Interesting idea? In these four best books on sales, you can learn how industry experts recommend taking control throughout the selling process to ultimately win more deals. The suggestions in these books are proven, you just need to read to get started.

“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn

Best Sales Books

  1. “The Challenger Sale” by Mathew Dixon & Brent Adamson
  2. “Awaken the Giant Within” by Tony Robbins
  3. “Door-to-Door Millionaire” by Lenny Gray
  4. “The 5 Second Rule” by Mel Robbins

#1 “The Challenger Sale” by Mathew Dixon & Brent Adamson

the challenger sale book cover

“The Challenger Sale” is well-researched and backed by strong science, and it exposes the weaknesses that prevent a lot of salespeople from being successful. It clearly instructs salespeople on how to change and reach trusted advisor status with their customers.

There is a huge difference between a sales rep that maintains a superficial relationship with a lead, rather than someone who becomes their trusted friend. It doesn’t take as much time as you’d expect to improve to this level of a relationship.

With this advice, you’ll become an overall better salesperson.

“‘The Challenger Sale’ shows you how to maintain control of the complex sale…you will know how to better differentiate your organization, your offering, and yourself in the mind of the customer.” —Adrian Norton, Vice President, Sales, Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals

#2 “Awaken the Giant Within” by Tony Robbins

awaken the giant within book cover

You’ve all heard of the #1 national bestseller, Tony Robbins, but have you taken the time to read one of his books? We highly suggest this one because it teaches you how to take immediate control of your mental, emotional, physical, and financial destiny.

Reading it can help you find power in your personal and professional life.

If you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom and you need advice on how to take control of your life, this book is the one for you. Personal and professional health are equally important, especially in the sales industry. If you’re not taking mental control of your personal life and finances it’ll be that much harder to excel in such a harsh role. It’s time you took full control of your sales destiny.

“Astonishing credibility…every page bursts with well-researched and immediately practical guidelines for concentrating your thoughts and emotions on the attainment of your goals.” —Scott DeGarmo, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, “Success” magazine

#3 “Door-to-Door Millionaire” by Lenny Gray

door-to-door millionaire book cover

Another sales-centered must-have is the 2014 bestseller “Door-to-Door Millionaire: Secrets of Making a Sale” by author Lenny Gray. Gray has years of experience in the sales industry, making him the perfect person to talk about the common mistakes sales professionals make all the time.

He shows how smart salespeople avoid critical mistakes.

When you’re aware of sales mistakes before you make them, it’ll save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Being a smart salesperson comes with being proactive and arming yourself with industry knowledge.

Common Mistakes You Could Be Making

  • Using no tools or the wrong ones
  • Treating every customer the same
  • Focusing on your pitch over connection
  • Lacking integrity and mental toughness

“I’ve been in sales for five years and have seen that salesmen that follow these principles are successful and those that don’t usually end up quitting.” —Kelton Chapman

#4 “The 5 Second Rule” by Mel Robbins

the 5 second rule book cover

Having endured a lot of negative experiences, Mel Robbins decided to dedicate a book to what saved her: the 5 second rule. Simply put, her rule says to count down from five and then act on whatever we were too scared to do. No thinking, as soon as you hit one you’re up and moving before overthinking what could go wrong.

The 5 second rule is how Robbins got out of debt, saved her marriage, and became a motivational speaker.

This rule can be applied anywhere in your life, especially to sales. We all have those days when we struggle to just get out of bed or knock on that last door, but the advice in this book can help us find new leads and close more deals without overthinking it.

“‘​​The 5 Second Rule’ helps you build an excellent habit that will transform your life…Highly recommended for anyone who wants to improve their life.” —Niraj Kapur

Bonus: Door-to-Door Sales Books

While these four books are must-haves, there are plenty more sales and motivational books that can help you find the motivation you’ve been looking for:

Check out our Top 8 Books for Door-to-Door Sales for an even bigger list.