Unlocking Sales Success: Mastering the Art of Value Communication

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In the current business landscape, establishing the value of your product or service is more crucial than ever. If you can’t clearly communicate how your offering can boost revenue or reduce costs, it becomes challenging for potential customers to see why they should choose you over your competitors. According to a study by Forrester Research, the primary obstacle to achieving your sales targets is the inability to effectively convey a value proposition.

Here are some of the top inhibitors to meeting sales quotas:

  1. Insufficient leads: 13.3%
  2. Poor sales skills: 16%
  3. Too many products to know: 21.4%
  4. Information gap: 24.3%
  5. Inability to communicate a value message: 26%

“Value proposition” is a term that gained popularity in the 90s, and regardless of whether it’s considered a buzzword or not, establishing your product or service’s value without overwhelming potential customers with a barrage of features and benefits remains essential. So, how can you achieve this?

  1. Understand Your Customers: Begin by studying your customers thoroughly. Dive into their market, understand what they sell, assess the competitive landscape, consider the size of their organization, and identify the key decision-makers involved in their processes. Conduct informational interviews within your network, seeking insights from industry insiders who have experience with your ideal customer. Lastly, engage directly with your customers and prospects. Learn about their goals, how they measure success, and understand their pain points. Armed with this research, you’ll be well-equipped to position yourself effectively to resonate with your target audience.
  2. Demonstrate Value: Utilize the knowledge you’ve gained about your customers to craft a message that highlights the value of your product from their perspective. Explain how your product can alleviate their pain points and help them achieve their daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly objectives. Some examples include:
    • “Imagine a day without the stress of x, y, and z. With the time you save, you’ll be able to accomplish twice as much of what you need to do.”
    • “Whether it’s daily, weekly, or yearly, we understand that goals are always top of mind. Let (product X) help reduce the time it takes to meet those goals by taking advantage of x and y capabilities.”
  3. Position and Differentiate: Identify what sets you apart from your competitors. Is it your exceptional customer service, an extensive range of capabilities, or competitive pricing? Whatever it may be, ensure that this differentiation is consistently emphasized across all your sales and marketing channels. Align your messaging on your website with your social media channels, marketing materials, and the language used by your sales representatives. This might sound straightforward, but regrettably, many organizations overlook this crucial step.

By understanding your customer, effectively demonstrating value, and clearly positioning your unique offerings, you can streamline the sales process and avoid falling into the 26% of businesses that struggle to communicate their product’s value consistently and persuasively.

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Flannery Sales Systems with Acolad Sales Training Interview

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Immediately following Sales Process Workshops in Spain and France, John is interviewed by Cristina Lourenco from Acolad on how customized, focused and actionable sales training turns into revenue. Have a listen to what happens before, during and especially AFTER the training that gets results.

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Enhancing Business-to-Business Sales: The Power of Sales Coaching for Managers

In the dynamic realm of business-to-business (B2B) sales, effective sales coaching is paramount to achieving outstanding results. Sales managers play a critical role in guiding and developing their teams, helping them excel in the art of persuasion and relationship-building. In this blog post, we will explore the significance of sales coaching in the B2B space and outline key strategies to help sales managers elevate their coaching game.

  1. Understanding the Role of Sales Coaching: Sales coaching goes beyond mere instruction or oversight. It is a proactive process that empowers sales managers to foster growth, optimize performance, and drive revenue generation within their teams. By identifying individual strengths, areas for improvement, and aligning them with organizational objectives, sales coaching plays a pivotal role in cultivating a high-performing sales force.
  2. Developing a Coaching Mindset: Successful sales coaching begins with cultivating a coaching mindset within sales managers. It involves adopting a collaborative approach rather than a directive one. Encouraging open communication, active listening, and empathy can establish a trusting relationship between managers and their sales representatives, creating an environment conducive to growth and learning.
  3. Setting Clear Goals and Expectations: Clarity is key when it comes to sales coaching. Sales managers must establish clear goals and expectations for their team members, ensuring everyone is aligned and working towards a shared vision. Setting measurable objectives, such as specific revenue targets, customer acquisition rates, or conversion rates, provides a framework for progress evaluation and motivates individuals to strive for excellence.
  4. Personalized Coaching Plans: Every sales representative possesses unique strengths and areas for improvement. Effective sales coaching requires managers to create personalized coaching plans tailored to each team member’s needs. Conducting regular assessments, such as skill gap analysis or performance evaluations, helps identify specific areas that require attention. By addressing these gaps through targeted training and mentorship, managers can unlock the potential of their sales team members.
  5. Ongoing Skill Development: Sales coaching is an ongoing process that should foster continuous skill development. Encourage self-reflection and self-assessment among sales representatives, allowing them to identify their own strengths and areas for improvement. Providing access to resources, training programs, and industry insights can further enhance their knowledge and expertise, equipping them with the tools to adapt to evolving market dynamics.
  6. Effective Communication and Feedback: Communication lies at the core of successful sales coaching. Regular feedback sessions, both individual and collective, allow managers to provide constructive criticism, highlight achievements, and offer guidance. By fostering a culture of open dialogue, sales managers can create an environment where sales representatives feel supported, empowered, and motivated to achieve their goals.
  7. Lead by Example: Sales managers must lead by example, demonstrating the qualities and behaviors they expect from their team. By exhibiting strong sales skills, effective communication, and a passion for continuous improvement, managers inspire their team members to follow suit. Leading by example builds credibility and trust, fostering a positive coaching environment that drives excellence.

Conclusion: In the competitive world of B2B sales, sales coaching is the catalyst that propels sales teams to surpass their targets. By embracing a coaching mindset, setting clear goals, and developing personalized coaching plans, sales managers can optimize their team’s performance and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Through effective communication, ongoing skill development, and leading by example, sales managers can unlock the full potential of their sales force and achieve remarkable results in the B2B sales arena.

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In Person and/or Virtual: We Cover Your Training Requirements

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There’s no doubt that sales training is an investment; but, when done right, it’s one of the smartest investments your company can make. Small improvements in selling techniques can make a huge impact on revenue. What would it mean to your sales results if your average reps were producing as well as your top performers?

We have 17 years of experience training sales teams, which means equipping them with the skills and tools they need to achieve sales goals. We are different from other training organizations because we don’t teach a one-size-fits-all course. Our curriculum is customized to your unique sales process and selling environment. Your reps will leave our course having learned and practiced the techniques they need to successfully engage with prospective customers to drive revenue.

We provide both in-person live sales training along with virtual sessions. While we love to engage in person with your teams, if you do opt for an online training experience, you can rely on our fine-tuned virtual event platform that allows you to maximize learning opportunities through group break out discussions, private and public chat features and a one-on-one coaching.

Whether you choose to hold your sales training in-person or virtually, take advantage of our Online Learning Portal which has helped hundreds of our customers’ salespeople reinforce what the sales skills they acquire in our workshops.

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Recognition as a Motivator for Success: Thank You to Harvest Small Business Finance

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On the final day of their Sales Kickoff Meeting, Todd Massas, the Chief Commercial Officer for Harvest Small Business Finance, took the stage for their Awards Ceremony. This is something many organizations do to celebrate top performers and build momentum going into the new year.

During the previous two days, Flannery Sales Systems ran a Sales Process Workshop for Harvest, focusing on key selling skills they can use to improve their overall performance. We had a great time. Their participation was excellent, we were able to cover many of the challenges they face in the marketplace, and we put a plan in place for post Workshop coaching so they can continue to practice what they learned.

Back to the awards. Todd recognized many of his internal team members who produced big results and represented Harvest’s value offerings to the market—there are a lot of talented people on that team. Then, to my surprise, Todd turned toward me and began to describe the valuable contribution Flannery Sales Systems provided during the Workshop. He said he saw our services as being pivotal to their success in 2022 and invited me to the front of the room to receive a “game ball.”

I was floored. Over the years, there have been many nice things said about our team and compliments made in the form of referrals and invitations to events, but this one really impacted me. How thoughtful and kind for Todd to do this in front of teams that we had just trained, and what a powerful way to bring a partner company into the fold in a new capacity for Harvest.

Thank you, Todd and team, we are grateful for the recognition and look forward to helping your team continue to build selling competencies and provide excellent service to your customers in 2022.

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How Much Is Enough for Your Revenue Pipeline?

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In Hollywood, many films are based on true stories. Don’t let your revenue pipeline be one of them.
There are 3 macro criteria you should be looking at now (and a few subsets thereof) to determine if your revenue pipeline has enough in it to hit your goals for 2021. Listen in to this video for a description of each, and make plans to adjust if there needs to be more in development.

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Get A Fast Start to 2021 Sales Success

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Increase Your Virtual Selling Effectiveness

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To say the last few years have been odd is a gross understatement. There are so many things happening domestically and globally that we haven’t seen before; we will spare you the exercise of naming them all. For us, the most relevant and pressing issues for our customers and prospects are the radical shift in buying that the Work from Home (WFH) environment has created and talk of economic headwinds.


So, what have you done about it? As a sales or commercial leader, you’re doing your best to keep your team focused. Sellers and other front-line employees in customer-facing roles (CFRs) (which include sales, marketing, technical specialists, product development, customer service, project managers, etc.) are working to get the attention of prospects and keep the momentum for deals that used to move through reasonably quickly.
The new buying behavior can be fragmented and frustrating for both buyers and sellers. And one of the conduits to it all is virtual selling which relies on your ability to navigate relevant technology platforms like Zoom, TEAMS, GoTo Meeting, Google Hangouts, etc. The word we have received from buyers and sellers is that it’s still a mixed bag of good and bad on how well the technology is being understood and used. The meetings that you’re conducting with your internal teams are often the same—some attendees are plugged in and ready, while others need to ramp up their participation and stop multitasking during calls.


Our Virtual Selling Effectiveness (VSE) workshop is designed to help improve the use of technology to connect in the scenarios described above, as well as others. There are several things that hosts and attendees can do before, during, and after the meetings to increase the overall effectiveness. How well you and your teams are able to manage this new (ab)normal is a large factor in your overall success.


The ability to embrace and utilize virtual communication is here to stay, regardless of when we are fully back in our offices huddling around water coolers again. Now’s your opportunity to take the time to make sure you and your team get this right.

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What Do You Do? Sales Training?

An excerpt from San Diego Voyager Magazine.

 

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Flannery Sales Systems, LCC – What should we know?

At a cocktail party or BBQ I say we do Sales Training. What we really do is help our customers to refine and implement a repeatable process to drive revenue. If I say the latter at a social event, people walk away (joking). But if I am speaking with a Commercial Leader of a mid to large size organization, they get it.

Because the work we do is fundamental to the tactical execution of the GoTo Market strategy. And companies spend millions on getting their strategy right. We help our customers to improve the quality of the Sales opportunities they develop, and to increase the overall revenue in their pipeline. All Sales organizations are focused on this, and we enable it with a skills-based program that is custom built for our customers based on the markets they compete in and how organizations BUY, not how they should be selling.

Sales effectiveness is about understanding buying, not refining your sales pitch. The source of pride for us is twofold. First, we have helped the individuals in our customers’ organizations to improve their success. This is important monetarily, but even more so when you hear the effect it has on their families – that makes my heart sing.

And second, there are seven customers who have come back to buy from us again: four have bought from us twice, and three have done so 3 times. It may not be seen like a lot, but we only have 3-4 customers at a time and have worked with 56 overall, so the repeat business says we are doing something right.

What sets us apart is our team. I know that may seem trite or overused, but people buy from people, and we have super individuals at FSS who make the difference.

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We Are Pleased To Announce Our Affiliation With Chris Bullick

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Flannery Sales Systems is pleased to announce its affiliation with Chris Bullick and Cathedral Consults.  Cathedral is a startup consultancy providing sales coaching and training to insurance related organizations.  Chris brings over 25 years of experience to the consulting world. 

“I am very excited to join with John Flannery and his team.  The FSS’ platform is tried and tested, and has been a revenue driver for companies across many industries around the globe.”   

Chris will be conducting sales and coaching activities with a focus in the commercial insurance industry where he has spent his career.   Chris is a Paralegal, graduate of Penn State University and recipient of an MBA in Organizational Management from Eastern University.

 “We are thrilled to add Chris’ experience and skill set to the platform.  It will allow us to penetrate new markets where we feel there is a lot of runway,” said John Flannery. 

Flannery Sales Systems provides customized sales coaching and management training to sales teams that want to drive revenue.  They go beyond the traditional approach by implementing and reinforcing the sales process. 

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