Let’s face it, cold calling isn’t popular. Customers complain; people find cold-callers irritating. A recent article in The Telegraph even gave advice on how to ‘outwit’ the cold caller! It’s no wonder salespeople aren’t keen on doing it anymore; it’s repetitive and tough to get through to the right person.

“Cold calling is dead” can be a popular excuse for salespeople not to bother. But cold calling can still work. It just depends on how you approach it. Starting out with a defeatist attitude certainly won’t help. Here are a few tips to improve your cold calling process:

1. Know your market and find the right data to hook in your target audience.

2. Give a good reason for your call: an upcoming webinar or seminar, a change in legislation that they need to be aware of, something that will make it worth their while and give you an edge over just trying to sell.

3. Don’t necessarily stick to a sales script. Work on your message, make sure your personality comes across and be more conversational in order to win over the person you’re calling.

4. Don’t try to sell straight away. Set smaller goals such as getting an appointment, you can hard-sell in a meeting later on.

5. Be persistent but know when to stop.

Do your sales team still do cold calling? What works for you?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Reaching popularity in the 80’s, there was a major shift from selling products and what they could do to selling Solutions that address customer’s pain points. Rather than saying “our product does this”, salespeople started saying “What are your problems? How can we find the right solution for you?”

The success of Solutions Selling has almost become a cliché these days, with many companies even adding ‘solutions’ to their company name. Some have even broken into sub-genres such as ‘complex solutions’, or ‘horizontal solutions’.

Some people say that Solutions Selling is dead. Buying habits have changed; customers have access to more information and are becoming more independent. Defining their own solutions, they are increasingly only coming to salespeople for a competitive price.

Solutions Selling isn’t dead. It’s just shifted into Insight Selling. So how do you get ahead in the solutions market? Raise your game and challenge your customer with new insights into problems they never knew they had, offering unique solutions that only you can provide. The Solutions salesperson should be able to give high-level insight and expertise, building technical business cases for customers. Now more than ever, the Solutions Salesperson needs to be determined, driven and hungry for success.

Are you up for the challenge?

We’re always looking for talented and driven salespeople for a variety of sales roles. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Sales Managers should be the link between the sales and marketing departments. It’s critical for the Sales Manager to ensure that both departments communicate with and understand one another.

According to Forrester Research, only 8% of B2B companies say they have a strong alignment between sales and marketing, which means 92% have a serious problem (source: Corporate Visions).

Communication is key; we've put together a few pointers to ensure cohesion in the workplace:

• It’s best to bring the two teams together from the start in order to collaborate on key messages and avoid conflict. Involve both teams in decision making processes and manage expectations in order to achieve your goals together.
• Tell your marketing department about any projects your team is working on; ask them to support the sales efforts with targeted campaigns. For example, if you’re pushing a particular product or feature this month, make sure marketing can back it up with a mailer, social media post or blog. Likewise, talk to the marketing team to find out what they’re working on so that your sales team can support them by mentioning relevant campaigns in their sales calls or emails.
• Decide early on who is in charge of lead nurturing and reporting. The battle over lead generation is a big one. Aside from commission, recognition remains a high motivator in any area of business so it’s important to have a clear way of defining who to give credit to once a deal has closed. 

Whether your organisation is sales-led or marketing-led, both teams must work effectively together in order to sell your products or solutions and achieve your commercial objective with success.

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

The best form of leadership is to lead by example.

As a Sales Manager, you probably demand that your team gives 110%, or more. This is great; you’re pushing your team to be the best, but do you show your team that you’re matching their efforts? If you ask them to put in extra hours, have you been seen to be doing the same? You can’t expect others to do more if you're not prepared to yourself. You set the standard.

Managers are often distanced from their team, perhaps confined to an office rather than ‘in the pit’ with the others. But you’re still a key member of the team. Staying late with them shows that you’re all in it together and sets an example for those who might not be so keen to put in the extra work.

Leading from the front will allow you to drive development, gain respect and remain a real part of your sales team. It’s critical for getting a real understanding of the sales process and establishing yourself as a strong leader.

A successful Sales Manager sets and raises the bar when it comes to commitment and achievement. You might even inspire one of your team to step up and make the transition into management themselves.

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.