If a salesperson sits waiting by the phone, hoping that a potential customer will call—or an RFP will come in— then you’ve got a reactive seller on your hands. Here’s what you can do about it.
Are your salespeople reactive or proactive? Does your sales team actively engage and get to know prospects well before they start looking for a solution—or do they respond to sales opportunities as they arise?
If a salesperson waits for a potential customer to come to them and ask for help, then you’ve got a reactive seller on your hands.
What Is a Reactive Salesperson?
A reactive salesperson is one who makes a pitch to a current or potential customer and then sits back and waits for a response. Often, the sales pitches come as a result of a prospect reaching out to request information or assistance.
A car dealer is a very simple example of an organization that often takes a reactionary approach to sales. When someone is ready to purchase a vehicle, they visit a dealership—and that’s when the sales relationship begins.
A salesperson is there to answer questions and guide the buyer toward the right vehicle based on what they need. But most salespeople in those environments wait for customers to come to them. They don’t actively seek out potential customers, get to know them and their goals, and work to maintain relationships with them.
The Limits of Reactive Sales
While reactive sales can obviously bring in revenue, it can only take your sales pipeline so far. Why? Because it:
Lengthens the sales cycle as you wait on customers to get back to you.
Wastes salespeople’s time when they focus on waiting for and responding to the wrong types of customers.
Creates difficulties in staying connected to customers and their goals, which also makes it more challenging to sell strategically.
Positions the salesperson as a passive bystander or information provider instead of someone who brings additional value to a conversation or process.
Becomes difficult to see and plan for future revenue
Makes you a vendor, not a consultant, which drives down win rates and margins
As opposed to other sales approaches, reactive sales requires minimal training. A salesperson that’s simply responding to a request doesn’t have to know much about the customer’s pain points or long-term goals. Instead, they let the customer drive the conversation and relationship, providing information when asked.
How a Proactive Seller Is Different
If reactive sales isn’t going to build your sales pipeline, then what will? Try a proactive approach to sales instead.
Most salespeople rely on reactive selling for one reason: They haven’t been taught what proactive selling is, how it works, or when and how to apply it.
As you aim to improve profit margins and amp up managed services, your company needs proactive salespeople. These are professionals who make themselves invaluable to customers by staying engaged, asking the right questions at the right times, providing helpful resources, and making recommendations based on what the customer shares about their personal and professional goals and KPIs.
What's a Proactive Salesperson?
A proactive salesperson is one who can design or control a situation by helping customers solve problems they may not even realize they have—instead of waiting for something to respond to.
Outcome-based selling is a proactive sales strategy that shows customers how you can help them achieve a specific business goal, such as:
Reducing capital equipment costs
Attracting and retaining quality workers
Increasing market share
Minimizing downtime
With a proactive salesperson from your organization in their corner, customers don’t have to decide on their own how to build, market, and position their business. That salesperson can step up as a resource and advisor and show them exactly what they need to do to move closer to their goals.
Train Your Team to Sell Strategically with Outcome-Based Selling
Outcome-based sales helps your salespeople truly understand their prospects’ needs, interests, challenges, and priorities so they can provide a personalized sales experience and convey value that customers won’t be able to find elsewhere.
But there’s a catch: Your sales team can’t be expected to figure out how to become proactive salespeople on their own.
The right training will help them learn how to apply a repeatable methodology to assess opportunities and sell strategically by:
Starting conversations that pique the interest of potential customers.
Knowing when to walk away from a sales conversation.
Customizing conversations based on who they talk to (the CIO, CFO, or president, for example).
Focusing on customers’ business objectives and ROI so that price doesn’t become an issue.
Presenting the right solutions at the right times to increase win rates.
Building long-term technology roadmaps so clients always know where they’re headed—and how to get there.
Closing deals quickly and efficiently.
When your salespeople are able to do this, then lasting relationships and customer retention come naturally. They become credible and trusted advisors—not just another salesperson.
Sales Training for Integrators and IT
No matter how well they perform right now, every single person on your sales team could be selling more (and at higher margins), even as clients slow down their buying in a high-inflation economy. Just because your salespeople rely on a reactionary approach right now doesn’t mean they can’t learn how to become proactive sellers.
Think about the financial impacts of boosting the performance of every salesperson in your organization. For example, according to NSCA, the average sales rep at an integration firm generates $1.8 million in revenue annually with a 30% margin ($540,000).
If Revenueify’s sales training program helps only one of your sales reps increase margins by just 5% over the span of a year, then you realize a 275% return on your investment. And a margin increase of 5% is just the beginning of what’s possible—we’ve watched participants increase sales and margins at much higher levels.
Our sales training turns reactive salespeople into proactive salespeople. It offers you a way to improve the performance of your entire sales team without you having to take on any additional work. We absorb the burden of training and coaching, and your company sees real, measurable results and increases in sales and margins.
Why Our Sales Training Is Different
Here’s what makes the REVUP Achiever Outcome-Based Selling program different:
It’s industry-specific and designed to help sales professionals who sell technology for integration firms and IT companies.
It’s part sales training, part sales management: We train your sales team and also act as their personal coaches, helping them with the experiences they encounter in their day-to-day work.
It’s a low-cost investment with no upfront costs that offers an incredibly high return.
So … how can you improve the performance of your sales team? All you have to do is sign them up for our training. We take it from there. And you’ll see the results in your bottom line.
Learn more about REVUP Achiever training and get signed up for our next session.