2020 seemed to have turned the sales environment on its head and many industries struggled to move through 2020 and you may have felt like you were trudging through sludge and may never make it into 2021. But you have made it and we are here to give you five invaluable tips from a recent webinar with NSBC Founder & CEO, Mike Anderson and SALESGURU CEO, Mark Keating on how to succeed in sales in 2021 and beyond.
Before going into the tips, there is one crucial idea we need to accept before we move forward. The sales environment has changed and it’s time to adapt. If we don’t, we may never achieve the success that we want. And with that let’s look at the first tip:
1. Examine your mindset and attitude
Much of being successful in sales is determined by your mindset and attitude. With a negative and pessimistic mindset, you will not reap the success you want.
One leading cause of a negative mindset is that you might be in the wrong profession. It is important to ask yourself:
- Why did you choose the role you are in now? If you choose to be an entrepreneur then you need to acknowledge that you choose to have sales as a critical part of your daily job.
- Is the role one you want to be in and are passionate about? If you have no passion for your job you will struggle to have a positive mindset. If it is your passion then design a reminder which you can look at to recall why you are doing what you are doing on the days when you are negative or down.
- Why do you have to keep your job or business? If it is important for your financial wellbeing, then you need to find something outside of your job which will motivate you to do your best at work.
And remember that motivation is inside of you and no-one can motivate you to do something except yourself. This can be a hard reality for someone to realise but you are responsible for your motivation.
You can build a positive mindset by watching what you are feeding your brain. If you are exposing yourself to negativity it will feed your mindset with negativity and then infect everything that is around you. Therefore look for positive podcasts or YouTube channels or books which will inspire you to be positive and go after your dreams.
Two other mindsets to consider are:
- You are not keen on doing sales because you are fearful of being rejected. This is a common fear and you will often get the dreaded “No”, but we need to remember that sometimes we won’t be a good fit with our prospects and that’s OK. We can minimise this by ensuring the way we prospect clients is targeted and that we have a clear idea of who our ideal client is for the solution we offer.
- You feel like you are bothering someone: If you believe in the solution you offer then this should never cross your mind. If it does then you need to reconsider the solution you have and the clients you serve. When contacting clients, you need to believe that you are bringing them value which they would appreciate to hear and not that you are intruding on their day with nonsense.
2. Have a conversation
Many digital tools only offer the opportunity for one-way communication, so you need to pick up the phone and have a conversation. Remember when you contact your prospect to be focused on them and their needs and try to establish if what you are selling will satisfy their need. If you are a good match, you will have opened the door for further discussions and hopefully a closed deal in the end. By making the prospect a contributor to the conversation, you will gain great insights into how they think and what they took out of the conversation. It is important to listen actively, speak slowly and make sure you are focused on taking your customer’s pain away.
3. Be active
Unfortunately, sales is not a once-off deal. You need to participate in sales daily. You should block off time in your schedule each day where you work on your sales. You need to make sure you have strategies for face-to-face meetings, referrals, e-mail, and LinkedIn. Now, that many meetings and conversations have moved to a virtual platform, it is important to have a strategy in place. Here are four tips for virtual face-to-face meetings:
- Send an agenda: when you send the meeting link make sure you attach an agenda so that your customer can see you have a clear plan for the meeting. This may also help them to get questions ready for the meeting.
- Make sure you are presentable: The minute the video goes on, you are representing your brand. You should be dressed smartly and ensure the wall or background behind your chair is neutral and doesn’t have any offensive material in it.
- Give a clear introduction: When you start the meeting, introduce yourself, the reason for the meeting and what you hope to achieve in the meeting. This will help to set the tone for the meeting.
- Always end with a call-to-action: When you end the meeting ensure you have a call-to-action. If it was successful, you have arranged the next meeting time and if it was unsuccessful but positive, you may have some referrals who you can contact.
4. Upskill your skills
Take an audit of your skills and make a note of areas where an improvement may contribute to sales. If you have the funding then invest in a course to help improve the skills otherwise there are many YouTube channels, podcasts, free webinars, and blog posts that can help to improve your skills.
5. Just do it
Finally, even with all the tips in the world, the only way to improve and succeed in sales is to go out and do it. By participating in sales every day you will find out what works in your industry and what doesn’t, and you will become more confident with every sale.
Watch the full webinar here.