Salespeople have spent countless years trying to find the perfect way to sell. Unfortunately, theyve been looking in the wrong places. The best way to sell isnt in a universal system or well-crafted script. The styles and methods that will produce the best results for you are the ones that YOU understand and YOU are comfortable with. If you arent comfortable with a particular method, then it WONT work for you, regardless of its quality or merit! Inside each and every dedicated salesperson lies a personalized method and set of principles that will unlock their full potential. The challenge is learning how to recognize and develop your individual method. Work for yourself, not your boss. No, Im not telling you to quit your job; Im telling you to own it. Dont let your companys needs and quotas limit your sales success. Thats right, limit. Your boss reasons are valid and important, but they arent YOURS. Set your OWN goals for your OWN reasons, and ALWAYS set them higher than the sorry minimum standard your boss sets for you. In addition to having a professional plan for success (the one you developed with your colleagues and managers), you need to have a private plan to achieve the type of success you desire. Take the time to have a weekly meeting with yourself. What do you want to accomplish in the upcoming week? Write down your goals and ideas and review your plan for success everyday. Writing and reviewing your plan will help you identify your goal (you cant achieve anything without first identifying it) and help you solve your sales problems. Each entry will plant a new seed in your mind, and you will find yourself subconsciously analyzing and solving these problems throughout the day. Turning your job into a personal challenge will also energize your inner drive to sell. Expect more from yourself, and you will achieve more. When you become your toughest critic, you will want to exceed your companys expectations. YOU will provide the motivation and drive to not just do your job, but to make it uniquely YOURS! Youll be happier with your job and your increased sales! Learn from yourself You determine your sales method. So in order to understand your unique method, you must first understand yourself. Take the time to learn from yourself; about yourself. How well do you know yourself as a person? As a sales professional? Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and motives will help you find the sales method that will work best for you. What do you value in life? What kind of customers do you enjoy helping? Why? How are you particularly qualified to serve these customers more than others? Its also important to know WHY you are in sales in the first place. The only way to be successful in sales is to enjoy what you do and rediscover the passion that got you there. Learning from yourself requires radical honesty, which usually requires privacy. Try this: Go out and buy yourself a journal. This isnt a diary for you to record the events of your day, its an exploration tool for you to divulge and examine what works for you in sales and what doesnt. Use the journal to explore new ideas and weigh the pros and cons of different sales situations. Take the time to reread your entries. Your mind will race with new solutions to old problems and a sense of pride from knowing where youve come from. Organizing and reading your thoughts will help you discover your natural style of selling. Once you are aware of your unique style, you will be able to master it. and others. Admit ityou dont know everything about sales, although you probably like to think you do. I know it may be difficult and embarrassing to admit to other salespeople, but you owe it to yourself to at least admit it to yourself. Admitting you have much to learn is the only way to sharpen your skills in your current craft. Being a lifelong student means actively pursuing new information about your products, your customers, and your professional career in sales. Take yourself to as many training seminars as you can; read as many books as you can get your hands on; listen to an audio book or motivational speaker every minute youre in your car. Having a fresh and open mind will allow you to learn new ideas and apply them to your sales method. Something more important also happens when you successfully change the way you see yourself professionally. When you are able to view yourself as a lifelong student of sales, rather than the seasoned veteran that you have grown comfortable with, everything will changefor the better. You will have a new sense of humility; you will discover a previously untapped sense of empathy; you will enjoy a renewed sense of patience. You will see opportunities where you saw none before, and will make sales like you never made before! I dont have time for all of this! The only reason why you dont have time to become a better salesperson is because youre not making the time; which means you arent making it a priority! Life is made up of nothing but time, so there is ALWAYS time to complete the things that are most important to you. How much time do you spend watching television reruns? Surfing the internet? Think of how much time and potential you WASTE everyday, every month, every year! Using even the smallest amount of available time can lead to BIG results! Invest your time by filling it with activities that will help you become a better salesperson. If thats not enough to motivate you, consider this: you may not be willing to find time to improve your sales method, but your competitor probably is. Is your television show really worth those lost sales? Making the time to discover your unique motives and strengthen your individual skills is the only way to find the perfect sales method for YOU! Your success will be sweeter knowing that your sales method developed on YOUR terms and was consistent with YOUR unique qualities and values. You will be happier in your work and your customers will be happier buying from you! |
