But if you stop to think about your flight, or business, in longer terms, you know that over the year you will probably hit a lot of turbulence. If used properly, your business dashboard, like the control panel of a 757, could provide the critical information you need to make the vital decisions required at those critical moments. In other words, it would be nice to have a system of alerts to give you warning before you are on the verge of crashing.

Are You Monitoring Your Top Sales Priorities?

Have you looked at your top sales priorities dashboard lately? What does it tell you? What alerts or warning systems do you have in place to let you know when you are losing altitude and attitude?

How do you know if all systems are working properly and that your sales aircraft will get you safely to your destination, on time and on target? What should you be monitoring and doing every day (priorities) in your "preflight inspection" to make sure you improve the probability of getting there and reaching your sales goals?

The Core Activities Behind Top Sales Priorities

Here’s my suggested short list of top sales priorities:

Prospecting, talking to people, scheduling appointments, conducting qualifying (and disqualifying) appointments, presenting, and getting decisions.

Just like each engine of an aircraft, each of your top sales priorities should have a gauge (a standard of performance) and an RPM or required ground speed (a set time frame) necessary for safe lift-off and landing of your aircraft at the proper destination.

Daily Actions That Support Your Top Sales Priorities

Let’s break these down into action items you can do today and this week to impact your top sales priorities:

1. Respond promptly to inquiries. Sixty-three percent of buyers expect a same-day response.
   
   
2. Pick up the phone and make the call. Do it consistently every workday. Schedule this prospecting time on your calendar and do not let anything get in the way.
   
   
3. Stay committed to follow-up. It often takes 14 attempts to reach a contact, yet most salespeople stop after three or four.
   
   
4. Ask for testimonials, reviews, and introductions from your best clients. When people are searching for services, reviews and introductions are valuable credibility points.
   
   
5. Fall in love with the word “no.” It helps you avoid wasting time with unqualified prospects.
   
   
6. Use tools like scorecards to identify higher-quality opportunities early. Download our free Prospect Scorecard here.
   
   
7. Make sure you are talking to decision-makers who have the authority to say yes or no.
   
   
8. Close the initial call with this question: “Is your problem just a problem, or is it a priority?”

Having a thoroughly monitored dashboard of top sales priorities to help you execute a safe landing, your goal, is a must.

Ready to develop stronger relationship-building skills across your sales team? Download our free eBook The Relationship Selling Guide for proven strategies and frameworks, or contact Anthony Cole Training Group to learn how our assessments and coaching can transform your team's ability to build rapport and close more business.

Why Soft Skills in Selling Matter in the First Meeting

Which of these approaches demonstrates a skillful approach to a sales conversation? We certainly hope that you chose the second. That is just one example, but a salesperson’s ability to deftly open a meeting, ask enough great questions, and really listen are examples of the importance of soft skills in sales. These are difficult skills to learn from a handbook. Soft skills in selling come from watching, practicing, and gaining comfort in the approach.

Since the most important soft skill for us to learn in selling is mastering not just great questions but timely and explorative questions, let’s explore that a bit.

• How do we get information from other people? We ask questions, right?

• When you ask a question, what kind of question do you ask? Are they technical in nature or for gathering data?

• Are your questions framed for yes or no answers?

• Do your questions really probe and make people think?

• Are your questions focused on the prospect’s core business issues or problems, or are they about your products?

• Do your questions sometimes surprise the prospect, perhaps make them a bit uncomfortable, and do they bring out the real issues?

What about after you ask those questions? This is when real soft skills in selling present themselves. How well do you listen? I mean, really listen. How often can you repeat what someone is saying to you? How often do you take a keyword in their answer and use that to phrase your next question? Typically, two things are going on in most sales conversations. Bankers or producers are hearing and not listening. Secondly, they are listening to themselves instead of their prospect and are formulating their response.

Salespeople should try this the next time they are in a conversation with a prospect and ask them a question. Really focus on listening and repeat what the prospect just said by repeating it and asking for confirmation. This is a great way to get the prospect to repeat what they said and to ensure the salesperson is not focused on listening to their internal talk. Sometimes, in the repeating, the prospect will provide additional context to the issue.

The Power of Asking the Right Question

Sometimes a salesperson will not ask a certain question because they do not want to disqualify a prospect. Be truthful, hasn’t this happened to you or your salespeople? By mastering the soft skills of asking questions, salespeople become more courageous as they get more comfortable ‘drilling down’ in their conversations. This will help them become better at qualifying their prospects and cleaning non-qualified prospects out of the sales pipeline. And that gives them more time for prospecting, the number one job for all financial services salespeople.

Here are some suggestions on helping salespeople become more skillful with their soft skills in selling:

• Role-play with them and help them to stay in the moment – they should not be thinking about what products they can sell. They need to listen and probe with good, interested questions.

• When they find an area of concern, they should uncover compelling reasons to buy – ask a question like “Why is this home equity loan important to you?” And…

• They must really listen to the answer and ask more questions about that issue so they have more information and understanding.

• This approach will build trust – the client’s needs are front and center, and it is clear the banker or agent wants to help them.

• The salesperson must be able to ask tough questions, and that takes courage. If the end goal is always to help the client, asking a question like “Do you have other deposit accounts elsewhere that we could help you with?” should not be that hard. But it may take practice!

• Good salespeople take nothing for granted – meaning they always seek clarity, and that means getting their client to talk.

• They must have an appropriate amount of patience. Again, if the salesperson’s focus is on their prospect, they should not need to push. It is more important that through their questions and discussion, the client comes to their own decision on their actions.

Soft skills in selling are what turn a routine conversation into a meaningful sales discussion. While product knowledge and technical expertise are important, they are rarely what determine success in the first meeting. The ability to ask thoughtful questions, listen carefully, and truly understand a prospect’s situation builds trust and uncovers the real reasons someone might want to make a change. When salespeople focus on developing these soft skills in selling, they not only improve their conversations but also create stronger relationships and better long-term results.

Register for our upcoming live webinar on Monday to learn why top lenders drive up to 10x more revenue than bottom performers and uncover the four qualities that define diamond-level relationship managers! You’ll gain practical insights on developing stronger producers and access a free tool to benchmark your team’s relationship-building skills. Free registration, recording provided.

Ready to develop stronger relationship-building skills across your sales team? Download our free eBook The Relationship Selling Guide for proven strategies and frameworks, or contact Anthony Cole Training Group to learn how our assessments and coaching can transform your team's ability to build rapport and close more business.

#1 Outsourcing the Responsibility for Recruiting Talent in Financial Services

They outsource their recruiting and the responsibility. Recruiting is something that financial services firms must own. Be cautious of outsourcing the work and the responsibility. That makes it too easy for people internally to throw up their hands and transfer failures associated with the hiring process to the outsourced firm. In order to recruit better talent in financial services, companies have to own the process.

#2 Lack of a Consistent Recruiting Process

There is a lack of a consistent process for constantly searching. Most, if not all, banks and insurance firms make the mistake of looking for candidates only when they have an opening. This leads to many problems:

• They are held hostage by producers with “large books.” Managers feel they cannot do anything about them for fear of losing the “books” since they do not have any replacements.

• They feel desperate to fill a chair with a warm bottom when there is a vacancy. A body, any body, is better than no one sitting in the chair.

• They do not replace underperformers because there isn’t a pipeline of candidates to choose from. The underperformers stay around too long; others know it and realize that they don’t have to perform that well to keep their job, so overall team production continues to decline.

#3 Poor Candidate Qualification in Financial Services Recruiting

Financial services companies are not getting quality candidates entering the process. The traditional model of recruiting today involves the placement firm trying to convince the financial services company why a candidate should be hired. Companies should, on the other hand, work extremely hard to disqualify candidates because there are specific skills that apply to that sales job and many or most candidates do not have those skills.

Bottom line, the company has to assess at least two things:

1. Does the candidate have enough of the right strengths to be successful?
2. Will they sell versus can they sell?

Here’s some information on how to find out if your candidate will sell.

#4 Poor Communication About Sales Role Expectations

There is poor communication about the specific role and expectations of this new hire. Too often, everyone is so excited about getting the seat filled that no one takes the time to get into the details of the day-to-day requirements of the job. This leads to early misunderstandings about the role and, eventually, failure on the part of the new hire to meet the expectations of the company. Failure to “negotiate on the 1st tee” leads to misunderstanding and failure to execute on the sales goals.

#5 Inadequate Onboarding for Sales Professionals

The onboarding process is inadequate in the area of selling. Most companies are ill-equipped to effectively onboard new salespeople. They spend time introducing them to the “culture” of the operation, the mechanics of the job, and how to get things done. They introduce them to HR, their support team, marketing, and their partners. And, yes, there is discussion about goals, sales activities, and how to enter data into CRM. And then… the new hires are on their own.

Banks and insurance firms think that they have hired their next sales superstar and then, 12 months later, they cannot figure out what went wrong. They look at the numbers and discover that the new hires are producing “just like everyone else in the middle of the pack.” The process many have in place currently to recruit and hire salespeople perpetuates this problem.

Need Help Recruiting Talent in Financial Services?

If you need help or more information on recruiting better talent, we have many resources available for you. You can start with our eBook on the topic:

How to Hire Bankers Who Will Sell

Register for our upcoming live webinar to learn why top lenders drive up to 10x more revenue than bottom performers and uncover the four qualities that define diamond-level relationship managers! You’ll gain practical insights on developing stronger producers and access a free tool to benchmark your team’s relationship-building skills. Free registration, recording provided.

Ready to develop stronger relationship-building skills across your sales team? Download our free eBook The Relationship Selling Guide for proven strategies and frameworks, or contact Anthony Cole Training Group to learn how our assessments and coaching can transform your team's ability to build rapport and close more business.

How to Differentiate in Sales

1. Identify and Create a Sales Process
2. Practice and Improve Your Sales Pitch
3. Follow Up on Open Deals
4. Be a Great Listener
5. Embrace Rejection
6. Learn from a Mentor
7. Review Your Strengths and Weaknesses
8. Identify What Motivates You
9. Be Able to Walk Away
10. Prioritize Your Wellbeing
    
    

1. Identify and Create a Sales Process

First and foremost, you’ll need a repeatable sales process that you and your sales team can implement within your CRM. Based on the #1 sales evaluation, “elite” salespeople utilize a consistent, stage-based selling system. Having a sales process keeps salespeople on track with the stages a buyer goes through on the path to a decision, and it helps remove inefficiencies from the sales cycle. By implementing a consistent sales process, salespeople will see better results in a short period of time.

2. Practice and Improve Your Sales Pitch

Much like your sales process, sales reps need to hone, craft, and practice their sales pitch. You can start creating a better pitch by doing more research on your prospects, putting yourself in their shoes, and asking great questions about their business and challenges.

As a salesperson, you must invoke confidence. You can do this by practicing and perfecting your sales pitch. We call this your Unique Selling Approach, and when you share it, your prospect should react with “That’s me” or “How do you do that?” Sales leaders must help their people practice this so their USA is natural and conversational and helps them differentiate in the sales process.

3. Follow Up on Open Deals

A good sales rep follows up on open deals. As a salesperson, you will have more success following up on your existing prospects if you strategically determine how to add value to the potential relationship in your follow-up plan. It’s estimated that nearly half of salespeople never follow up on a prospect, and only 10% follow up three times or more. This is a problem, as it’s estimated that 80% of all closed deals occur between the fifth and twelfth outreach.

Following up also shows the prospect that you’re organized and considerate enough to reach out again. Most people will appreciate your follow-up, and by reminding them of your previous conversation, you can stay top of mind with prospects and differentiate yourself.

4. Be a Great Listener

Having an open dialogue is critical in nurturing your prospects and giving them a voice. Make sure you’re really listening to what they’re saying, as it can help you close more deals. By listening to better understand your prospects, you can identify what your prospect wants, how they want it, and why.

Listening to understand takes concentration and the ability to remain undistracted by what you can offer as a solution. If you can truly understand what your prospect wants and needs from you and repeat that back to them, you will differentiate yourself and build confidence with the prospect. Sales leaders, this is a critical skill to focus on and practice with your team.

5. Embrace Rejection

In sales, you will always be met with rejection. Accepting this fact, and learning from your no’s, is key to becoming a better salesperson. The best way to deal with rejection is by debriefing after a sale is lost to fully understand why the prospect did not buy from you.

Sales leaders and salespeople should set structured time to debrief, find out what was not done or revealed, and ensure those steps are not missed next time. This will help you build confidence and improve your sales process by gathering better prospect information.

Elite salespeople are quick to get back on track and maintain robust sales pipelines. Rejection in sales is simply part of the job that helps them move on to the next opportunity.

6. Learn from a Mentor

Learning from a mentor is one of the best ways to differentiate yourself in sales and become a better salesperson. Having someone who can show you the ropes and provide constructive feedback can drastically improve your sales abilities. If your company is looking for professional sales training, guidance, and leadership, check out our Sales Growth Coaching program.

7. Review Your Strengths and Weaknesses

All great salespeople take time to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, focusing on leveraging what they do well while improving weaker areas. Purposely identifying opportunities to improve in prospecting, communication, or closing deals can increase the number of desired outcomes.

Sales evaluations can provide salespeople with insights into areas they may not recognize, helping build confidence and refine their selling approach. Successful salespeople are continual learners who intentionally gather information about their own performance.

8. Identify What Motivates You

We all have motives behind everything we do. Identifying what motivates you can be one of the best steps toward becoming a better salesperson. Are you motivated to become a better version of yourself? Do you seek recognition for your work? Are you striving to achieve your ideal lifestyle?

By recognizing what drives you, you can create an action plan that moves you closer to your goals. This clarity can provide the motivation needed to improve yourself, and close more deals.

9. Be Able to Walk Away

Follow-up is essential, but it’s also important to know when to walk away. If you’ve made double-digit attempts to reach a prospect, or they remain standoffish, it may be time to move on. This can be difficult the deeper you are in the sales pipeline, but successful salespeople know when to let go and focus on the next opportunity.

If a prospect is not returning emails or calls, your time is better spent pursuing new leads. Elite salespeople differentiate themselves by knowing when to remove a prospect from the pipeline.

10. Prioritize Your Wellbeing

You must prioritize your work-life balance and mental health. You’re no good to your company or your prospects’ time if you are overwhelmed, burned out, or distracted. Sales moves fast, and that pace can be stressful.

Taking breaks, getting fresh air, using time off, and maintaining a personal life can help counterbalance job stress and prevent burnout. To be relaxed and confident in selling, you must stay healthy in both mind and body.

In Summary

Selling is not going to suddenly become easier. Leads are not likely to become more plentiful. So the question worth asking is this: What will you do to create your slight edge in selling? What small actions, done consistently week after week, will lead to meaningful gains in production?

Try one or all of these 10 tips for differentiating yourself in selling, and let us know how they work for you.

Register for our upcoming live webinar to learn why top lenders drive up to 10x more revenue than bottom performers and uncover the four qualities that define diamond-level relationship managers! You’ll gain practical insights on developing stronger producers and access a free tool to benchmark your team’s relationship-building skills. Free registration, recording provided.

Ready to develop stronger relationship-building skills across your sales team? Download our free eBook The Relationship Selling Guide for proven strategies and frameworks, or contact Anthony Cole Training Group to learn how our assessments and coaching can transform your team's ability to build rapport and close more business.

What Is a Prospect’s “Love Language”?

Prospects don’t respond well when salespeople fail to tailor their message for resonance. In other terms, that means your salespeople are not speaking the prospect’s love language.

A prospect’s love language comes down to two things:

• The problems or challenges they are dealing with right now
• The future growth opportunities they see on the horizon

When your salespeople lead with anything other than those two areas, they risk wasting the prospect’s time and missing the opportunity to move the relationship forward.

Salespeople often fall into the trap of leading with product features, company history, or generic value statements. What prospects care about is whether your salesperson understands their world and can help solve real problems or support real goals.

That is where many sales conversations go off track.

The Two Challenges Facing Financial Services Sales Teams

As a national sales training and coaching firm, Anthony Cole Training Group has a front-row seat to what is happening inside financial services sales teams across the country. Two challenges consistently rise to the top.

1. Fewer Quality Prospect Meetings

With fewer face-to-face meetings over the past several years, many salespeople have struggled to adapt their relationship-building skills to a virtual environment. Resistance to meetings has increased, and too many salespeople do not know how to work through that resistance.

The result is fewer quality conversations and fewer opportunities entering the early stages of the pipeline.

2. Margin Erosion at the Finish Line

When a deal finally starts moving forward, many salespeople become overly focused on simply getting it across the finish line. They cave on rate or price to close rather than protecting value.

Over time, this behavior erodes margin and conditions prospects to expect concessions.

So, guess what? We lead with those two things… and nothing else. Because those are the issues prospects actually care about.

Prospects are far more willing to engage when they feel understood. When your salespeople speak directly to a prospect’s challenges and growth objectives, they immediately separate themselves from competitors. They become relevant. They earn the right to continue the conversation.

Coaching for Relevance and Results

Too many sales teams still operate with a “hope strategy.” They hope prospects will be interested. They hope meetings will go well. They hope deals will close.

High-performing sales organizations do not rely on hope. They coach their salespeople to lead with purpose, preparation, and messaging that resonates.

• If you want more meetings, coach your salespeople to lead with what matters to prospects.
• If you want stronger pipelines, reinforce early-stage activity.

• If you want healthier margins, hold your team accountable for selling on value instead of price.

Teach your salespeople to lead with prospect priorities, and you’ll build stronger relationships, healthier pipelines, and more consistent growth.

Register for our upcoming live webinar to learn why top lenders drive up to 10x more revenue than bottom performers and uncover the four qualities that define diamond-level relationship managers! You’ll gain practical insights on developing stronger producers and access a free tool to benchmark your team’s relationship-building skills. Free registration, recording provided.

Ready to develop stronger relationship-building skills across your sales team? Download our free eBook The Relationship Selling Guide for proven strategies and frameworks, or contact Anthony Cole Training Group to learn how our assessments and coaching can transform your team's ability to build rapport and close more business.