A number of traits define the sales personality. They are listed here for you to recognize the three top actions to incorporate into your everyday practice as these will make a huge difference in your sales growth:
- Perseverance
- Consistency
- Working to solve problems and serving your clientele well
When I began in sales the Internet did not exist. We were required to “cold call” business parks. Cold call refers to not having prior knowledge of the people you are about to contact. The advice was to contact 100 companies per week and out of those numbers, by the end of the month, 10% of the companies contacted would most likely purchase.
Advancing in my career, the advice was to make ten new phone calls per day. This was in addition to appointments, demonstrations for product and writing proposals. The days were crammed with activity. Each time I followed the advice and by the third month I became the top producing salesperson.
Fast forward to entrepreneurship the world changed. The online sales cycle is reverse engineered. Due to the excellent content delivered, people find us having familiarity of how we think piquing their interest prior to our personal connection. Over time, our followings get to know us and once again a modest percentage will request our services.
So the question becomes as we slowly head out of a recession, how do we further increase sales? Some things never change. It’s a requirement to pick up the phone, send a personal email or have a Skype conversation multiple times per day.
Modifying the original advice, I suggest you make three personal connections every single day when you are most energetic. High energy serves to put forth a more enticing message. Adapt the sales motto, “People buy from people they know, like and trust” to my entrepreneurial motto, “Call people you know, like and trust!” Making a sale should always be about finding the best-qualified matches to include being in sync for how you conduct business and level of integrity. The calls create sales momentum.
Successful salespeople are very goal oriented and pursue them every day no matter the setbacks they may encounter. They are motivated to accomplish all in a short period of time. Even on a day where everything goes wrong, motivate yourself to get into a positive mindset to make three phone calls every single day. The qualifiers are to call the people with whom you like, feel synergy and with whom you know will be a great collaborator.
Connect to update one another, brainstorm and find new projects that you may create together. You may be surprised to hear an immediate need for your service. Even if there is nothing you can do together at the moment, you may hear they have an upcoming event themselves. Volunteer to help promote online. It takes little time to promote and when your time is ready they will reciprocate. Cross promotion attracts increased sales too.
Referring back to the three traits at the top, the consistency of making three calls every day to those with whom you are already acquainted and like will bring about a flurry of possibilities. Your next job will be to prioritize the activities that will meet your goals and say yes to just a select few. Over delivering on expectations will further build your partnerships, clientele and of course dramatically increase sales.
As you build upon excellence in follow-up and delivery, you create an impeccable personal brand. You are now on the wave of the Smooth Sale!
Author:
Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, (800) 704-1499, www.smoothsale.net. Open View Labs selected Stutz to be in their “Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012.” Elinor authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”, Career Press. She provides team sales training, private coaching and highly acclaimed inspirational keynotes for conferences. Elinor is available for consultation.
