Here’s a great way to start the day. Wake up a half hour early. Make a list of your top 5 priorities. Then cross out the bottom two. The initial list and the remaining priorities will be very different for people in different sales positions.
Jenny Moore over at the Sales Engine blog wrote about the unique challenges salespeople face in their unique environments. Specifically, she focused on the challenges of what she calls “entrepreneurial” salespeople and “professional” salespeople.
Entrepreneurial salespeople to do it all.
Because they work in startups, entrepreneurial salespeople wear the proverbial million hats. At any given moment, they could be the receptionist, customer service rep or accountant. They’re probably selling an amazing product that nobody’s ever heard of, for a price the market’s yet to determine. They are responsible for every step in the sales process and they have to close the deal with no sales tools, just a few words in their heads.
Professional salespeople play a critical role.
They work in established companies with established responsibilities and processes. And sometimes that means slogging through thickets of bureaucratic red tape to get things done. They can also get bogged down trying to decide which of the 13,642 pieces of sales collateral to use for a meeting. Customers know your brand and your products, but they also know your competitors. Meanwhile, pricing’s set by others and you have little, to no, wiggle room.
Whose job is harder?
That’s a trick question. One job may be different from the other, but they’re both just as hard. And a lot of the strategies they both use to be successful overlap. Especially in time management and productivity. Let’s look at the CRM, for instance.
For the Professional Salesperson, updating it is yet another slog and it takes time away from selling. “Yet another job that bureaucratic task that takes me away from the work I have to do to hit quota.”
For the too-busy owner entrepreneurial salesperson, updating the CRM might be the easiest priority to cross of the list. And it always bites them in the butt. “What did I tell that guy last Thursday?”
What they both agree on is Rollio. The app uses artificial intelligence to let them update the CRM, just by giving a recap in their own words. Updating the CRM never makes it to the “priority list” because it just gets done.
Click here for a demo.
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