Two-Minute Sales Masterclass: Kharisma Moraski
Identifying an ideal customer profile (ICP) is critical to understanding your buyer and their pains. In this installment of our Two-Minute Sales Masterclass, learn about relationship building and career development VP of Sales Kharisma Moraski.
How can I improve my cold outreach message in 10 minutes? If you have 10 minutes before starting cold outreach, here are three things you should do: First, make sure you have your foundations in place. Do you understand your ICP or ideal customer profile? What is the pain point that your product solves, and what is your value proposition? Make sure you never use sales jargon in your cold outreach, and never just set a meeting at all costs.
What’s the most important aspect of a cold outreach message? When I think about crafting a message for cold outreach, the first thing I’m going to try to do is relate to the customer on a personal level. When you think about the tools that are available via social today, there’s no reason you can’t find something in the brand that your prospect has created for themselves that you can use to relate to them on a very personal level and start building a relationship early on.
Are there any common sales tricks that are effective? If you find yourself saying anything or just agreeing with the customer for something you actually don’t know the answer to, chances are you need more training. And you’re development is a hundred percent your responsibility. Raise your hand and say that you need more information, you’re not answering the customer’s questions the way they should be answered and you’re not doing yourself a service long-term.
How do you become a strategic advisor? You have to know your ICP, which is your ideal customer profile, and you have to understand what their day-to-day looks like, what their strategic priorities are, and what their business is that they do on a day-in, day-out basis. If you understand those aspects, you’re going to be able to talk to them on a level that they understand and you’re going to relate to the on a level that they understand. You’re not going to be selling to them, you’re not going to be selling with them; what you’re going to be come is this trusted advisor, where they’re going to think of you as someone they can look to as a subject-matter expert for their industry, not just for this one product. To know the entire market space that you’re selling against and with, and then you can talk to the customer on their level.
What advice do you have for new salespeople? If I had any advice for someone who’s new to sales it would be these three things: Make sure you understand your foundation, which is who is your ideal customer profile, what pain you’re solving, and your value proposition. Make sure you craft your message accordingly, and always work toward becoming a trusted advisor.
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Is your sales career in your own hands? Hear from Kharisma Moraski on how to harness coaching and feedback to improve your likelihood of success.
How an I uplevel my sales skills in 10 minutes? If you have 10 minutes in your day to uplevel your sales skills, here are a few things I think about. The discovery process: How do you go through this and not waste your customer’s time? If you’re going to be in sales, you’re going to face rejection. When is no really no? Coaching and feedback is fundamental to your development. How do you not only get this, but process and execute it on a daily basis.
What should sales people consider during the discovery process? Today prospect’s and customer’s inboxes are saturated with emails with people trying to get their attention. It’s imperative that you understand them from a brand perspective. When I say that, I mean, what is the brand that they’re creating, so you can relate to them on a personal level. And then also do research to understand what initiatives or what can you garner from social media and various searches on what that company’s doing to move their needle forward for that company. If you approach your email and position your pain and value proposition based upon actual research, and a personal cue into the customer, then you’re going to be much more successful.
How important is sales coaching for professional development? When I think about professional development for a sales rep, I tell them it’s one hundred percent their responsibility. If you’re lucky to get a manager who’s very focused on your personal development, that’s great. It’s not always the case. So take your development into your own hands. Make sure that you’re leveraging social networks, make sure that you’re looking at programs, blogs, anything in the industry that can help you improve your sales skills. Because at the end of the day it is one hundred percent your responsibility.
As a salesperson, what’s your perspective on rejection? When you’re a salesperson you’re going to face rejection every day. I think a key to this is trying to figure out when is no really a no. There are three qualifying areas you should focus on to ask questions around: One, are they going to solve this internally using processes or headcount, and how cost-effective would that be. The second is are they not going to solve this at all, and they’re going to keep it status quo. What is the cost of that internally to them? And the third one is, have they decided to go with a competitor, and have they already made that decision. If you can ask question around those three items and really suss out what the customer feels between those three items, typically you can understand if it’s really a no or if you can try to continue in the deal cycle.
Who should I rely on for professional development? Coaching and feedback are so paramount to the growth of any sales professional. I did not take it well. Did not love coaching and feedback. Asked for it all the time early in my career, but had justifications for every reason that I did it the way I did it. So a good thing to say was I could not process or execute it. So if I had advice for sales reps today it would be ask for the coaching and feedback, but you have to internalize it and process it. And then work through how to apply it to make yourself better. If you’re not going to actually use it and try to apply it, don’t bother asking for it. It’s not beneficial to you or your manager and it’s just going to create friction. If you’re performing well, and you’re actually taking and receiving feedback and coaching and applying it, you will stand out.
So if you have 10 minutes in your day to focus on upleveling your sales skills, here are three things you can focus on. The discovery process: How do you uplevel and make sure you don’t waste your customer’s time. Rejection is a part of sales, but when is no really a no? And if you’re going to ask for coaching and feedback, make sure you’re also applying it and executing it on a daily basis.