What are the traits of an expert? And why should appearing as an expert be important to sales?

That’s because, people in general find experts to be convincing and trustworthy, especially if they have put in several years of experience in the field. An expert:

• knows what and how much to say, and when and where to say it, every single time.
• has been a trusted advisor to several clients for several years.
• has a message that is consistent at all times, following the facts.

These are traits that every sales rep should have, so that customers and prospects see them as experts at every interaction. 

Let’s see how this principle can help your sales rep go from rookie to pro.

1. Personalize the sales pitch for each customer

No two customers are alike. This is true in pharma, telecom, real estate, insurance, e-learning, automobiles, banking, or any other business segment where the customer invests significant time, research and money. Some buyers are beginners in the field (like a doctor starting their practice), and rely on the salesperson to advise them on the right buy. Others with more experience will have moderate or expert knowledge. The sales rep needs to customize their messaging accordingly. The sales rep should be able to simplify things for people relying on their advice, e.g. why should one buy health insurance? Yet, they should be comfortable with the most technical aspects when dealing with those who have better knowledge of the market. e.g.,  specific details of co-pay requirements.

To help them, line managers should train and help salespeople do the following:

• select and personalize the right content depending on the situation with the customer, and their grasping power.
• handle customer objections, send product information, do comparisons and clarify doubts in real-time.
• have all the information on their mobile phones, so they can respond on the go

2. Equip every salesperson to be an advisor

Making a sales pitch to clients, prospects or customers is easy. Advising them on buying the right product is not. Selling the incorrect product is the easiest way to lose a customer forever. So what makes a good advisor? Anyone who

• is always armed with data and suggests only relevant products for each customer need
• knows and explains the pros and cons of every product, and shows their comparative benefits
• clarifies doubts in real time

3. Deliver consistent messaging when communicating with the customer

No expert will play to the gallery or overpromise. They offer customization when possible, and to the extent possible, but no more. They are not interested in cutting corners to make a sale. For any brand, the sales force speaks for the brand at every meeting with a prospect. Therefore, consistency is key to the brands’ integrity.

This is not easy. On the one hand, you have to train the sales force not to parrot the collateral but to actually know it, and on the other hand, they need to  be able to explain it in different ways without losing the core message. If they appear to contradict themselves, the game is lost.

A good sales enablement platform can help you train your sales force, wherever they are posted, to become subject matter experts. When picking a platform, make sure it helps them:

• deliver personalized content in minutes based on pre-loaded templates
• have intelligence on the prospect in real-time and shape their pitch accordingly
• answer customer questions with sales battlecards and follow-up collateral
• deliver consistent messages through easy-to-understand content

Following these industry best standards will help any organization train their sales reps to not only appear as experts, but actually become experts. Most good sales enablement platforms are designed to help with this course of action, through training, monitoring and metrics.

‍

sharpsell equips sales reps with personalized content to engage with customers and customized presentations to share with customers as per their needs. All the content is accessible through a single source - the sharpsell platform. Companies using sharpsell have seen an increase in sales productivity with higher number of products sold, higher ticket size, increased visibility on prospecting, reduced content creation cost, reduced time to first sale, reduced costs of training, and uncovering insights on product feedback.