The term “sales prospecting” gets a bad rap.  This is due to the fact that many salespeople and managers drive prospecting using ineffective, outdated techniques that stopped working ten years ago. This, in turn, delivers suboptimal results and leaves the sales chain of command from top to bottom scrambling for answers.  

We’ve all probably seen or participated in a bad sales presentation.  Frankly, there is nothing more uncomfortable than to be on the receiving end of an awful presentation.  Bad slide decks, pixelated graphics, inconsistent fonts and terrible messaging. All as we think to ourselves, "Here goes another presentation into the trash heap of presentation purgatory."

On an almost daily basis, I find myself talking to organizations who are looking for advice on how to increase sales, close deals faster and drive results for better sales growth. What blows my mind is that with very few exceptions, all of these organizations are doing the same things, using the same old traditional sales methods, chasing the same carrots at the end of the same sticks.

If you haven’t already done so, check out Part I here.  Below are the final three keys in creating some killer sales content.  Keep in mind that this is a long term play and not just a short term solution, so make sure you are committed to the long haul.  The results will be worth it!

Insanity: Doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.  We’ve all heard this, and yet, many continue to sell the same way they always have in a business world that has been changing dramatically over the last several years.  Now more than ever, developing TRUST as a cornerstone of your business is critical and the four keys below will start the process of developing a new orientation with your clients and prospects.

It’s rare to get a prospect’s attention on the very first outreach attempt. More often than not, a sales rep will need to reach out again, and again … and again. Persistence is a virtue in sales. Most sales experts espouse making between six and 10 attempts before giving up on a prospect. Abandoning prospects too soon could leave money on the table.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Dumb and Dumber with Jim Carrey who plays Lloyd and Jeff Daniels who plays Harry.  There aren’t too many movies that can keep me laughing through an entire two hours, but this is certainly one of them. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Lloyd is having a conversation with Mary about his chances of them getting together and Mary’s response is “one in a million”.  For the average person, that would be taken as a slap in the face, but for the dim-witted yet lovable Lloyd, it provided hope.  False hope as it was, he walked away with his head held high, but without Mary.

One of the hot topics in sales management circles these days is “sales enablement”. For those of you who may not be familiar with the concept, sales enablement is the technology, training, processes, and content that empower sales teams to sell efficiently at a higher velocity.  I read recently that 80% of marketing content goes unused by sales teams.  That number may seem huge, but after two decades of managing sales teams, I can say that I am not surprised.

Storytelling is something that all of us have done naturally from a young age.  As children, we would offer up whimsical stories from the playground or backyard to whomever would listen. But, something happens during the transition from childhood to adulthood. We tend to lose our sense of wonder and curiosity, leaving many of us unable to connect with others at a deeply emotional level. Telling a great story is an art form and, when done correctly, can have significant power in connecting with people. This emotional connection is extremely meaningful in building trust and long term relationships.

Miyamoto Musashi was a famous Japanese swordsman who traveled 17th century Japan, engaging in duels and developing his unique two-handed fighting style. In the 1935 epic, Musashi, Eiji Yoshikawa writes about the life of this famous samurai. Although the account is somewhat fictionalized, it is based on Musashi's real-life quest for swordfighting perfection in which he vanquished many skilled opponents and eventually experienced a martial arts enlightenment. It's a great read and I highly recommend it.