From The Xant Blog — Izenda

Inside Sales Training: Train Like a Pro and Watch Sales Numbers Climb 0

Louie Bernstein is Chief Sales Officer (CSO) for Izenda, an XANT client, a serial entrepreneur, and a consummate, award winning salesman.

No sales rep ever lost a deal or an account for out-hustling the competition. It’s important in all aspects of business to work hard and give it your all. But in sales, it’s essential. Your competition doesn’t care about your mortgage. They don’t care about your kids’ college education, your car payment or your dinner tonight.

They are playing to win because in sales, there is no money for 2nd place. The sale only rewards the winner. The sooner you accept this fact, the sooner you can get into the winning mindset. And that is where you need to live.

Inside Sales Tip: Implement a Daily Sales Meeting to Increase Sales 0

(Louie Bernstein is Chief Sales Officer (CSO) for Izenda, an XANT client, a serial entrepreneur, and a consummate, award winning salesman.)

Every day at noon I meet with my sales people for 33 minutes. During that time, we either pick one or two sales training lessons, work on deals we are trying to close, tackle communication issues that need addressing or recognize success. Over the past two fiscal years, our sales have grown an average of 67 percent. Just as important, we have developed a sales process and sales playbook that should provide the foundation for future growth.  I do not think any of it could be possible if we only met quarterly, monthly or even weekly.

Habits are formed by what you do consistently or on an everyday basis. If you are in sales, good habits can make you a nice living. When I insist on daily sales training with a new sales group, I usually get resistance for about a week. Then they see I am not going to stop and that it’s not a one-time event. After that, the magic starts to happen.

How to Create Top Selling Sales Reps – Ask the Tough Questions 0

(Louie Bernstein is Chief Sales Officer (CSO) for Izenda, an XANT client, a serial entrepreneur, and a consummate, award winning salesman.)

Too many sales reps are afraid of asking the tough questions because they worry they will hear the word “no.”  What these sales people fail to realize is that they are either delaying the inevitable or they are being given a chance to uncover any objections that can help move their sale along.

Being a sales person requires guts.  You have to ask questions that others would not ask because those questions make the conversation “uncomfortable.”  You have to let the “no’s” bounce off you and move ahead.

Inside Sales Tip: Only Send a Prospect a Proposal with a Scheduled Time to Review it 0

(Louie Bernstein is Chief Sales Officer (CSO) for Izenda, an XANT client, a serial entrepreneur, and a consummate, award winning salesman.)

You’ve made it to the stage in your prospect’s buying cycle when they either ask you for a proposal or you suggest, if the previous action or commitment steps have been completed successfully, that they should review a proposal to see if they can move ahead with a purchase.

Never send a proposal without confirmation that your prospect will review the proposal with you.  Your conversation should go something like this:

“Rick, we like what you have shown us so far, so can you send us a proposal?”

“Lee, I would be glad to.  Let’s confirm what you are looking for.”

Tips for Hiring Inside Sales Reps: 7 Must Have Sales Attributes 0

(Louie Bernstein is Chief Sales Officer (CSO) for Izenda, an XANT client, a serial entrepreneur, and a consummate, award winning salesman. This is the first article of a three-part series.)

In every company – and in particular every small company – everyone’s in sales. If anyone in your company has contact with the buying public, then they’re in sales. Never forget that. More importantly, use it to your advantage.

When someone contacts your company, they don’t know what department the person is in who answers the phone or who responds to their email. All your visitor knows is that person is your company. You only get one first impression and it needs to be a good one.

You may have started your business and been in a field other than sales such as marketing, accounting or finance. And/or you may not like to sell. If the latter is the case, you should really consider not starting a business because you’re always selling. 

How to Increase Inside Sales Rep Call Volume by 30% with Sales Technology 0

Izenda, LLC, a new client of XANT, increased their daily dials by 30 percent in just three weeks. How did they do it?

Louie Bernstein, Chief Sales Officer at Izenda, was using the Salesforce.com CRM and Skype as the main phone system. However, before implementing the PowerDialer for Salesforce, his sales process was full of manual processes which slowed down his team.

In order to create a call list, a rep had to manually setup filters that would pull lists out of the Salesforce CRM. Then they had to paste those records into Excel before manually dialing each contact. His reps struggled to make 50 calls per day on this system.