4 Things About Sales Enablement That My Summer Job Taught Me (That work even now…)

I worked at a local boutique in the summer after my junior year  of college to earn a few quick bucks. The store I worked for was owned by a lady who designed her own clothing line for women. When on-floor as an attendant there, I learned 4 very important sales lessons…lessons that can be applied, still today, in B2B selling: 

Look at your customer—First few days, when I was asked to assist customers, I didn't do very well. It seemed to me as though they were always turning down my suggestions. Either the color was too bright, or the length too much or the fall of the fabric was not what they were looking for. Then my boss gave me a helpful hint. She said, “Look at your customer…notice what they are wearing, how they are dressed and then make your suggestions.” So, the next time someone walked in wearing solid colors, I knew what to suggest and voila! my suggestions were appreciated by them. So, what does this mean in the B2B sales scenario…know your prospects. Get a complete picture of who your leads are, what they are looking for and then go about figuring how your solution can serve them. In this case, your focus is not limited to noticing the dressing style of people who physically walk-into your store. It involves tracking the behavior and characteristics of leads that visit your website, interact with you on your social media page, receive your e-mails, call your contact center or comment on your blog.

Have the “fabric book” handy—We often had customers walking in with custom requests. They ranged from requests for bridal gowns to formal wardrobe. We always used a fabric book when discussing these orders. The fabric book was just a bunch of pages, each with a few sample squares of different fabric types stapled onto it. If I were to compare the fabric book to something a sales team needs today, that would be the sales playbook—a knowledge bucket of pre-approved sales collateral that provides the salesperson with all the information they need to have a meaningful conversation with their leads.

Wish them a happy birthday—About 15 years ago, the term ‘Big data’ was relatively unknown. But, my boss had her own way of collecting data about her customers. Every person who made a purchase was given a card to fill in that asked for important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries.  These cards were then filed in month-wise order and every customer was sent a birthday card and a special discount coupon at the beginning of their birthday month. In today’s world, this translates into personalization—tailoring your sales communication and offering to suit prospect needs.

Always pitch in at the community barbeque—We had community barbecues in our town every summer and spring. My boss made it a point to be present at those and to mingle with everyone there. Not just that, she also made sure her staff was present there as well—even if that meant paying us overtime. End result—lot more people walking into the boutique the next weekend. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and professional networking platforms like LinkedIn are present day equivalent of the community barbeques. Go ahead and mingle with your prospects online and build your personal brand on these social media platforms.

In short, if you are looking to make your sales team more effective, provide them the sales enablement tools that—

• Offer deep insight of lead activities
• Include sales playbooks
• Allows them to personalize their sales communication
• Helps them connect with their leads across multiple platforms including social media