Jill Konrath on Experimenting With Sales
John Ternieden
Jill Konrath thinks you’re working too hard, but this isn’t an excuse to ease off the accelerator.
Jill, a well-known sales author and keynote speaker, led a special session sponsored by Microsoft at this year’s Sales Acceleration Summit, highlighting the importance of working smarter, not just harder.
Effectiveness vs. Efficiency
According to Jill, there are two different factors that seem to compete within the world of sales. On one side, there is efficiency. Efficiency deals with how many calls reps are making and their conversion rates. It’s the numbers side of the equation.
On the other hand, we have effectiveness. Effectiveness deals with finding new ways of selling. Effectiveness allows you to do things like sell more with fewer prospects.
Your way isn’t always best
Even after all the training sessions and sales webinars, you’re going to do things your way. And that’s not always a bad thing. Personalization can help you get an edge and develop your own brand. However, you need to accept that your way isn’t always the best of way of doing things.
Many times, when we’re working too hard, it’s because we aren’t optimized and functioning at our best level.
Sell better with experimentation
To overcome this barrier to improvement, sales teams need to constantly experiment with their processes to see if there is a better way of doing things.
Jill recommends starting with areas you feel strongest about, because pride might be blinding you to simple improvements and a more elegant way of selling.
In order to spark some creativity, Jill shares a few personal examples of how she experimented to improve her sales results.
1. Selling to busy prospects
Jill shared an experience back when she struggled with her prospecting and outreach efforts. For whatever reason, no matter how many emails she wrote and calls she made, she couldn’t get any responses.
She was expending way too much energy for very few results.
She soon realized it was because many of her prospects and customers were so busy, they didn’t even have the time to respond. With that insight, Jill altered her approach to match the needs of her customers and solved the problem.
This was the focus of her book, Snap Selling.
2. Getting more sleep
Another example, which may not seem as important, was a startling revelation for Jill. She used to think she could be at her best with only six and a half hours of sleep each night.
She decided to question it and began sleeping longer, almost eight hours, and tracking her productivity.
She was startled at how much more alert and sharp she was in the morning, leading to greater effectiveness at work.
3. Shuffling your slides
Jill was convinced she had her presentation format down to a science. She saved her best slides for the end, creating a narrative throughout the presentation before revealing the business value.
Then she evaluated those watching her presentations and realized they were falling asleep or zoning out at the end, missing the big benefit. As a result, she shifted her approach, placing the best slides and business value right at the beginning. Immediately she noticed how people were more engaged.
Follow Jill’s advice and experiment with your own sales process to see how you can sell more effectively.
You can watch Jill’s full presentation, or any of our other sales summit speakers, on demand by registering today.
