5 Tips to Find Success in Your Sales Job
Working in sales is not for the faint of heart. It takes a particular personality. You have to be someone who feels passionate and driven to success, alongside a good pile of self-confidence. Anyone can develop this kind of personality if they work on it, but not everyone is willing to do what it takes. That’s because almost every sales job consists of long stretches of monotony and lots of rejection, punctuated by exultant moments of triumph. Those moments make the rest worth it, but it’s key to have the right approach to the whole process if you want to reach them.
Here Boom Demand presents 5 powerful tips (and 5 awesome quotes by sales master Zig Ziglar) to help anyone in a sales job cultivate and maintain success every day.
1: Listen and Observe Before You Speak.
You were made with two ears and two eyes, but only one mouth. There’s a reason for that. Sales is fundamentally about service. You are providing something that you know people need. Rather than going on and on about how great your stuff is, you should make sure that it will actually help the person you’re talking to. How? By listening to them. Let them tell you what their problems are, and watch their body language. They will show you what to say, and when.
“Stop selling. Start helping.”
2: Believe Passionately In What You Are Selling.
If you are selling something that you don’t think will actually do any good for the customer, they won’t believe you either. You must understand your product and its capabilities on a fundamental level. You must be willing to use the product yourself. You should, whenever possible, have personal experience with its benefits.
“Have an absolute and total belief that what you’re selling is worth more than the price you ask for it.”
3: Trust is Everything.
Your credibility depends on your personal level of honesty and sincerity. Customers hate slimy tactics, misrepresentation, and high pressure. It’s unfortunate that sales has a reputation based on those who used such tactics in the past, so to stand out, be trustworthy. Trust is currency. Trust is a deal closed, and it is repeat business. Never, ever betray your customers’ trust.
“The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.”
4: Follow Through.
Don’t let prospects slip through the cracks. Stay organized and keep in touch with everyone. You never know who might give you a referral, nor when. Any prospect who shows interest should be contacted again, and every interaction should end with a mutually agreed-upon next step. Always be moving forward with everybody you serve in your sales job, whether employer or customer.
“Take time to be kind and to say thank you.”
5: You Have 960 Minutes.
If you’re getting a healthy amount of sleep each night (you ought to, for top performance), then you have less than a thousand minutes awake each day. You should be acutely aware of that number, and plan your activities in advance to make each and every one of them count, because they are irreplaceable. Use every single minute to move closer and reach your goals.
“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”