Welcome to your sales weekly roundup for January 29-Feb 4th. This week we’ve got the benefits of negotiation tactics, operation challenges with ABM and the unique challenges for both digital and analog sales leaders. Enjoy.
Training for Success: 4 Experts Share Why Negotiation Training Is Essential For Their Bottom Line
Sales negotiation and training seminar company Spasigma interviews 4 experts on the value of negotiation training. Here they are:
- Koka Sexton, Global Industry Principal, Social Selling, Hootsuite: Training helps professionals identify win-win opportunities. Sexton believes that sales pros will position themselves better when “they can articulate the natural give and take of a deal” and understand that the buyer is really interested in.
- Marc Jablon, Executive Negotation Trainer and Facilitator, Spasigma: Negotiation training helps everyone work smarter. Marc says negotiation training is so essential for three reasons:
- Put to rest any concerns that your purchasing or sales team will give too much away.
- Help the team work together better.
- Build better relationships and deals.
- Jon W. Hansen, Editor-In-Chief, Procurement Insights: Good Negotiation training ensures long-term business stability. Jon believes the bottom line is built through negotiation training that establishes relationships, enhances collaboration, and doesn’t make gains at the expense of the trading partners.
- Skip Tucker, Master Negotiator and Trainer, SPASIGMA: Trained Professionals build better deals and relationships. Negotiation training positions professionals to negotiate better and, consequently, leave less money on the table. “A one- or two-percentage point difference might not sound like much, but that could translate into some serious money, either gained or lost,” says Skip.
The Operational Challenges That Come With ABM
Thought leader in customer-centric business management CustomerThink breaks down the main challenges with account-based marketing. The article is based around a study ITSMA published last spring. These challenges are essential to consider for any leader looking to implement account-based processes in the next 12 months, as they require a substantial human and financial investment.
First, most ABM thought leaders and practitioners now recognize three “varieties” of ABM:
- Strategic ABM involves a very small number of target accounts and is extremely resource intensive. It typically involves the use of marketing content and marketing programs that are customized for each target account.
- ABM Lite focuses on groups of identified accounts that share similar business attributes and needs. It involves a larger number of accounts, but is less resource intensive than Strategic ABM. For example, marketing content and marketing programs may be customized for segments of target accounts, but not for individual accounts.
- Programmatic ABM emphasizes the use of new technologies to apply ABM-inspired techniques to a large number of accounts. It is the least resource-intensive variety of ABM, at least in terms of human resources.
The operational challenges:
- The median number of accounts included in Strategic ABM programs was 10, while the median number of accounts in ABM Lite programs was 30.
- In Strategic ABM programs, the median number of accounts per dedicated marketer was 4, and the median number of accounts per part-time marketer was 3.
- In ABM Lite programs, the median number of accounts per dedicated marketer was 9, and the median number of accounts per part-time marketer was 10.
Are You A Digital Sales Leader Or An Analog Sales Leader?
The folks over at TrapIt wrote this post lining digital sales leaders up against analog, or old school, ones. Not to say the two have to be mutually exclusive—most leaders fall somewhere in the middle, borrowing mindsets, behaviours and techniques from both schools of thought. Check out this comparison chart to see the differences between the two:
Takeaways:
- Sales leaders exist along an analog-to-digital spectrum, and there a few things each can learn from each other.
- Digital sales leaders challenges include evaluating the effectiveness of technology, and understanding the differences between automation and personalization.
- Analog sales leaders challenges include adopting technology to improve their sales processes, as simply using the phone isn’t enough these days. After all, social sellers experience 66% greater quota attainment than those using traditional selling techniques.
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