70% of all sales professionals are unhappy with the amount of money they make every year.
Sales are something we all need to excel in. It’s an important part of every business, and it can make or break your company if you’re not doing well enough with the revenue generation process (aka making sales). So let me share five tips for improving this area using simple tricks that will help improve our sales to hype up the last months of this year!
1. Forget always be closing.
The sales industry is always looking for new ways to close deals, but if you’re still running around saying “always be closing,” it’s time to stop and smell the roses. You should really focus on helping, serving, and listening to your customers instead of trying so hard just in order to close – which will ultimately lead nowhere anyway! The consumer today has more intelligence than in any other era before because access to information is instant.
It’s important to take an authentic approach and generate a sale based on your customer’s problems. You should provide them with solutions that truly address those issues. An amateur sales professional is a closer. A true sales professional is a problem solver. Once you take that mentality that I’m going to solve problems, the commission will income quickly follows.
2. Implement a system of active listening
According to Forbes, 55% of sales personnel lack the basic training skills in sales. Listening is one of those fundamental skills. And listening is one of the most important skills in sales. When you listen, it tells your prospect that they are not alone and someone cares about what’s happening with them; this conviction will lead to a better relationship between both parties as well as increased conversions for their products or services offered!
And when we’re listening to our prospect, these subtle nonverbal cues of head nod, eye contact, change in voice, and change in voice are easily picked up in face-to-face sales. But in the world of virtual sales, you have to truly sell that you are listening to your prospect. You have to look at the camera and let your prospect know you’re listening to them.
Being an active listener goes beyond just hearing what is being said. A successful salesperson needs the skill of listening for things that aren’t being expressed but may still affect your client’s decision-making process and ultimately their overall satisfaction with you as an organization or individual representative in this relationship.
Too many times I’ve seen sales reps jump on sales calls only to rush through their agenda without listening to their prospects’ questions, and concerns. If you truly listen to your prospect, they will tell you everything important to them and they will tell you the reason they’re going to buy your product later.
3. Master the discovery call.
Mastering the discovery call will reveal everything important to your prospect. A quality discovery call also tells you what line of questioning should be used next to further extract more information so you can make a sale at the end of the presentation. So take time this year and learn how to be an expert at the discovery call!
See also: How to run a discovery call that works every time
4. Find the right community to associate yourself with
In my opinion, it’s one of if not THE most important aspect in achieving success in any area of business. Listen, a sale is a mental gain. You are going to be told no more than you’re told yes. You’re always going to have an objection. So avoid surrounding yourself with negative thinkers.
It’s going to be difficult to overcome. You’re always going to face a challenge. So how we approach our sales day is going to be reflective of how we think about our sales day. If you surround yourself with negative-thinking people, you are going to get negative results. If you surround yourself with positive thinking people, you have a better chance of getting positive results.
Either way, you choose who to associate yourself with. Find a community of people within your organization, within your industry, or find a community online that is uplifting, motivating, and inspiring to you. Because if you surround yourself with people who are negative thinking. Who believe in the lie of ‘always closing’ and believe that a career in sales is based on a challenge that you have to win. That you’re going to fight for this sale. That you’re going to be this massive closer. People who are so emotionally tied to the result may not be the best source of influence for you. Surround yourself with motivated people, inspired by the craft and the skill and the goals you’ve set, and you will find yourself in a better position.
Your environment is incredibly important to your success in your sales career, your entrepreneurial career, and your sales professional career. If you want to give yourself a 95% better chance at achieving your sales goal, you must surround yourself with the right community. The right community that creates a system of accountability will help you achieve your sales goals.
5. Commit to education in the skill of sales.
Here’s a scary statistic for you. 70% of all sales reps say they received zero formal training and all their sales training is on-the-job training experience. This year 60% of sales reps say they’re scared they will not hit the quota next year. Look, the game of sales has changed. The high-pressure in-your-face tactics of yesterday, of the early 2000s, of the 90s, the 80s, the 70s, and the other stuff that I see being taught, are antiquated techniques. And if you go to a prospect with antiquated techniques, you are going to find yourself on a string of no sales that you can get yourself out of.
The truth is, to elevate your sales this year, you have to recommit to the craft of learning sales. And do that by finding a credible community that will help you elevate your sales skill.
And there’s a community out there that’s dedicated to helping improve the craft of sales. You just have to find the right community for you.
There are numerous communities I can recommend. So I highly encourage you to take the steps and get educated and find the community that will help bring that level of education you want.
If you want to learn more about how to generate sales or find that community, I invite you to join us at the Catapulting Commissions Academy!
