Crucial Tips for Accidental Sales Managers
Are You An Accidental Salesperson? As the MD or team leader of an MSP or IT company, you may find yourself torn by a myriad of responsibilities – including generating sales But do not panic. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Here are some key steps you can take to systemise your sales process without having to employ sales professionals. Ramp UpSet aside time each day or week to understand how best to optimise your schedule so you make dedicated time to build your sales pipeline and attract and qualify new leads.Be YourselfSales can be daunting, especially when we try to overdo it and you can easily end up sounding like characters from movies or being overly salesy. Be the salesperson you aspire to be, not an imitation. Discard what you dislike about sales approaches and enhance what you love.Use a Proven Sales ProcessAs the person who knows the MSP sales process best, make sure you write it down so that you can use it, replicate it, and share it with your team to help with in outbound outreach. Begin with a Discovery phase, where you take control of the conversation and ask prepared questions to really understand your prospective clients’ pain points.Learn to Pitch & CloseMaster the art of presenting and pitching new business. Once you’ve built a relationship, smoothly guide your prospect towards making a purchase without causing friction or losing deals. Consider incorporating storytelling, following the six attributes defined by Paul Smith: a time, a place, a main character, an obstacle, a goal, and events.Track Progress Remember the adage: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Conduct regular meetings to understand the state of your lead generation and pipeline. You can identify actions necessary to work towards your goals, leveraging Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as meetings attended, qualified opportunities opened, and the number of conversations held each week.If you don’t have time to take these key steps yourself, I can help.