Competitive Advantage — Ascender Community

Best Ways to Follow Up

Rachel Clapp Miller — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:49:06 +0000

This is one of my favorite topics to write about because I think it's an often overlooked way you can differentiate yourself as a salesperson. Curious to hear others' tips on following up on sales meetings.

https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/Explore?post=differentiate-your-call-follow-ups

Reducing Buyer’s Remorse: Creating a Differentiated Buying Experience

Diana Sheley — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 14:46:17 +0000

This article calls out a trend that many of us have noticed with customers increasingly preferring a self-serve form of purchasing with less interaction with an actual rep. Unassisted buying can often lead a higher purchase regret. This can be avoided by offering a more meaningful, differentiated buying experience. In the previously mentioned article, they cover this specifically in the third item on their list. It’s all about the importance of reducing buyer’s remorse for our clients, and how this should be a key focus for sellers right now.

Whether it’s providing expert guidance like Protolabs or engaging customers through gamified apps like Tim Hortons, the goal is clear—human interaction and tailored solutions reduce post-purchase regret and drive long-term customer satisfaction.

Now’s the time to rethink how we guide customers through the buying process to ensure success on both sides.

How are you ensuring your customers have a meaningful, differentiated buying experience that reduces regret? Share your strategies for creating a more engaging sales process.

Unlocking Customer Loyalty

Marty Mercer — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 17:11:17 +0000

Check out this article on leveraging Net Promoter Score. It provides a deep dive into fostering lasting connections with clients, and explains the importance and potential benefits of measuring your own NPS. It really is a great read for sales teams aiming to elevate customer experiences and drive sustainable growth.

You may be asking, what is a Net Promoter Score? In short, it’s a metric used to measure customer loyalty and the likelihood of them recommending your products and services to others. While it’s a simple practice, it provides valuable insights into the health of your organization and also helps to identify areas for improvement.

I would love to know who’s currently using this tool, and what you like about it. Drop a comment below!

Leading Vs. Convincing: The Art of Questioning

John Kaplan — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 18:43:41 +0000

It is crucial to guide a business conversation with insightful questions, as this enables prospective clients to identify their own needs rather than being told what their problems might be. The key here is to lead rather than convince. This approach leads to more productive discussions than merely pushing solutions on them, as it demonstrates that you are there as an ally to help them resolve the issue together rather than telling them what they're doing wrong.

Try asking, “How do you currently address [mention a specific business challenge]? What outcomes have you noticed?”

An old saying that I really love is, “People rarely argue with their own conclusions.”

I’ll leave you with this - How often do you find yourself truly listening instead of pushing a sales pitch?

Leveraging Multiple Offers to Build Partnerships

David Chimenti — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 13:26:17 +0000

I am working a deal with more than 5 locations currently.

Based on their previous experience with other providers and some tech challenges they face due to location, we would be a huge advantage to them.

We can try to win the deal on $ value, but that seems like small potatoes for us on the value side and doesn't send the message to the prospect that we will be any better than the service level problems they've had from a larger and non-industry specific provider, more recently.

I think a 3-offer approach, one at fair market for a fair deal, but two separate offers with discounts to get them closer to what they currently spend with contingencies and service level agreements for a case study or partnership has way more value for our company.

Looking for experience or things to trade in a scenario like this from others who have been there

What is your favorite sales qualification methodology and why? e.g. MEDDIC, BANT, NOTE

Mateo Tedeschi — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 15:26:41 +0000

And why?

Decision Process - Discovery

George Haywood — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 18:12:34 +0000

Hey,

I have just finished the Decision Process module in the MEDDIC Essentials course.

An area that I really liked and will work on is asking discovery questions early in the sales cycles to identify the "backward timeline"

From here, you can identify if the customer even has a solid decision process.

Could anybody share some examples of some killer discovery questions they have used at this stage of the sales cycle, please?

Really keen to bring some of them into my deals!

Thanks in advance 😁

The New Bullpen

Patrick McLoughlin — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 20:01:24 +0000

Welcome Beta users and friends, really excited to see where we can take this forum. Looking back on my career I had plenty of opportunities to participate in formal sales trainings. But what I really found was the most impactful learning was in the collaborative sales conversations that started in the early mornings or late evenings in the BULLPEN. Where all the sales people started their day or spent late afternoons and evenings completing proposals and pre-call planning for the following morning. The topics, went from competition, sales strategies, customer objections, and value propositions.

Well the Bullpen is gone, Covid!, virtual offices, work from home. So friends I see Ascender as more than a Bullpen but as you begin using Ascender please take this approach, I will take something away and I will give something back! It is the New BULLPEN, our ability to collaborate, educate, share learnings. Remember if you are green you are growing if you are ripe you rot! #Bullpen. All the best to everyone! Paddy Mac