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So — it seems like it was another lifetime ago, but when the pandemic hit, like many people who make their living in sales, I felt a little lost. My usual go-to strategies to connect with customers, build relationships, build my pipeline, and close deals seemed to no longer be an option in a world defined by quarantine and video meetings.
It is funny — before quarantine, I had been playing with a few of the tools that I now consider an essential part of each day — not necessarily because I thought they were really that useful or important, but instead because I wanted to play and experiment with the new and shiny.
Video messages, audio messages, social selling virtual selling, and supporting — these were intangible ideas, nice to have, but not that necessary or widely adopted. I was not sold that they would really fit well into my world of biotech — except as a novelty idea but never as a serious tool. Suddenly, it seemed that these novelty items were about to become the most critical tools in my kit. Tools I was not sure how to use, how to feel confident and competent.
My managers and colleagues at the time kept talking about this being a short problem and if we just waited it out, our customers would open their doors and welcome us in. I honestly did not believe that was true and made a decision very early on that I needed to figure out how to be where my customers needed me, in every way and any way that would work for them. I also decided I needed to figure out the right way to do it — so that I could be professional and polished and skilled in these new avenues of communication and outreach.
So I started to look around for courses I could take to train myself and I stumbled into Sales Gravy University. This was the best accident I could have had. SalesGravy University is not inexpensive if you are footing the bill yourself — you can take an individual course for a few hundred dollars, or you can sign up for $97/month or an all-access pass to hundreds of classes.
The available classes are a combination of Live Instructor-Led classes and on-demand workshops from a range of incredible trainers across topics ranging from Leadership to Sales Skills, Account Management, Virtual Selling, Time Management, Negotiating Prospecting, and objection handling. There is more content available than you can possibly participate in, and new courses are available all the time.
SalesGravy uses a simple framework to build habits and success around. Much of the content is based on Jeb Blount’s books — and he has a fantastic team of educators and salespeople teaching. Unlike many sales training programs where the instructors have not sold anything in years the team of instructors split their time between sales and training.
The tactical and practical skills taught here work well with any underlying sales culture found within companies (Spin Selling, Miller Heiman, Solution Selling, Challenger Selling, etc). These are simple foundational skills that bridge the gaps in many programs — and step up to help frame conversations or teach how to give presentations more effectively.
Most sales training programs work with teaching you how to close a lead that already exists — SalesGravy teaches you how to prospect and find your own leads to ensure you have a healthy pipeline.
So — if you want to know where I learned a few of my tricks in the last year — many were learned or fine-tuned at SalesGravy University.
Where do you go for your answers on how to improve your own sales skills? I would love to hear your tricks and tips!
All resources reviewed here are tools and resources I personally have tried and used. Many are currently part of my own toolkit. Every resource reviewed is either free to access or is something I have paid for as part of my toolkit.
I would love to hear your thoughts on these resources or other tools you use. I am excited about the opportunity to have a conversation with you. Please comment here or even schedule a time to chat with me.
You can also follow me on my various social media profiles to keep up with new Resource Reviews or some of my other thoughts!
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This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
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