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4 pillars of sales success

There are four things we need to work on to have a great sales career: work ethic, sales skills, account box, and lumber/product knowledge.

Work Ethic

A lot of salespeople just don’t work hard enough. I’ve heard salespeople say, “When my customers start buying, I’ll start selling more.” These salespeople do not have enough accounts but won’t prospect because they are “experienced” now and no longer need to.

The first and last hour of the day are the most important for being productive. When we make our last sales call of the day, we should prepare for the next day before going home. What does that preparation look like? Last hour preparations: • Make a call list for the next day. • Who are we going to call and what are we going to offer them? • Prepare more than one item per customer. Inside sellers, minimum of 20, outside sellers, minimum of six. • Have multiples of each item to offer. Never offer just one unless that’s all you have. • One call every 10 minutes is 48 calls in an eight-hour day. Most inside sellers are making 30 calls or less. Train yourself to make 50 and give yourself a 40% advantage! First hour preparations: • Do not eat your breakfast at your desk! • Do not sit at your desk until you are ready to start work. • When your tail hits the chair, your finger hits the phone. • Outside sellers, hit the road.

Sales Skills

Great salespeople stand out, are easy to say yes to and difficult to say no to because they do things differently than most: • They take the time to treat the receptionist like a real person. I cannot stress this enough: BE NICE TO THE RECEPTIONIST. Most salespeople treat the receptionist like a piece of furniture. Superior salespeople treat everyone at the account just as well as they treat the buyer. The receptionist is our number one ally if we choose to make them one and give us a competitive advantage. • They know how to listen. Most salespeople interrupt customers all the time without even knowing they are doing it. Interruptions break rapport and tell the customer that we really don’t care about them. This is easy to say no to.

• Speak in a warm and natural way. Many sellers have verbal tics: o Ums, uhs, ya knows, like o Beat-around-the-bush-it-is. Many sellers use filler words when asking questions or promoting their products. o Interruptions. We need to count to three at the end of our customers sentences, especially on objections. Often customers will pause to think or just take a breath. When we jump on their sentences or don’t wait to let them keep talking, we break rapport. People are dying to be listened to. Master Sellers do it. • Ask for the order. As simple and fundamental as this is, most sellers do not ask for the order. Most sellers present the product and then wait for the customer to buy. The Master Seller tells customers why their product is a good deal for them and then asks for the business.

Account Box

If we are working hard enough and our sales skills are at a high level, one of the only ways to increase our income is to upgrade our accounts. We cannot have an A+ sales career working a B- account box. It takes just as much time and effort to work 40 decent accounts as it does to work 40 great accounts.

Master Sellers continually upgrade their accounts by prospecting regularly. Most sellers do not prospect at all or do so sporadically or when they lose accounts. This is treading water and is the reason many sellers are plateaued.

Lumber/Product Knowledge

The most dangerous salespeople are the ones who work hard, have great sales skills, continually prospect, and have excellent product knowledge. If I have to choose between a salesperson who understands people or one who understands products, I’d choose the people person every time, but if I can find someone who knows people and products, I know I’ve got a monster on my team.

We all need to work on these pillars throughout our career to ensure sales success.

James Olsen

Reality Sales Training (503) 544-3572 james@realitysalestraining.com