Every sales trainer will tell you to watch the movie Glengarry Glenn Ross. I have also heard of some saying, do not enter the room if you have not seen this movie! The famous quote from the movie is ABC: Always Be Closing. Though that’s the ultimate goal (to close and achieve our targets), I personally think that ABC is not the thing you need to focus on.
A salesperson needs to focus on the right processes, lifestyle, interpersonal skills, dedication, motivation, understanding prospect needs, conviction on your own product and closures will happen for you. It may sound simpler that what it is, you may say. May be you are right. Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
In this article am focusing on 5 aspects I believe a true salesperson should be totally aware of and should be constantly improvising upon. And it’s not enough to only work on few of these. You cannot win a cricket match if you only bat well. You need to field and bowl well too. All need to be happen in tandem.
Mindset Change: As you grow in your career, you need to shift your point of view as well. And by viewpoint I mean your perspective of things, it needs to broaden, year on year and decade by decade. You cannot be approaching a problem statement in the same manner when you are 35 as compared to how you did it in your 20’s. You will have to approach using many lenses, think in multiple perspectives, be in the shoes of multiple people and wear many thinking hats. CEO, CTO, Product Head, Operations Head and the CFO, how your deal impacts each of them is critical.
You have to be all of them, each day.
Money Matters: I don’t know about you but money motivates me. Of course am talking about money which is over and above the basic. If you have tasted blood, you will go for more kills. With close to 2 decades of experience in Sales, I can assure you, money surely matters, motivates and moves all of the sales fraternity. Having said that, am talking about all the right ways of earning sales commissions. Integrity and honesty in all sales persons is a given and a must (this is a broader topic which I will write about in another post). The thought process needs to change. You should not think of not spending/investing because you do not have enough. But think of how you can make this money back from your business. And work towards earning that.
This is also my hidden factor for keeping myself motivated.
Partner Management: As your company grows, managing your clients and employees is not the only key to your growth. Managing your sales partners in the best way possible is very critical. Frankly, nurturing partnerships is not only important for growth but is the key to exponential success. Unless you are already overwhelmed with the organic growth. In that case you already know the problems to look for, is more inwards. Such partners come from various walks of life and just like your peers, they bring in so much you can learn from. They surely are needed for more business and revenue, but nothing is stopping you from leaning more from their expertise.
Get involved.
Constant Learning: Am not asking you to do your 2nd MBA. Hear me out. Frankly, am not in favour of a formal large classroom learning, unless it’s very very focused on a single topic/agenda. All am asking my fellow sales folks is to be industry aware. There is so much content available for FREE. Once this free content has generated your interest and hooked you to it. Go for a paid course, go for the best. Ask your peers, friends, bosses, CEO of your company for the right recommendations. They will guide you to the best. And ensure you ask your company to fund this course. Getting your team lunch bill passed is easier in your company than a course fees. But give it a try, you will be surprised how easily this will also get approved. Also, avoid yourself getting signed up for company wide general training involving many departments. This is a complete waste of time. You know which area you like improvement in, sign up for that course. Period.
It has to be decided by you, not decided by your company.
Product Understanding: As you grow in your job/role/profile, its not just important to up your skills by doing courses and training sessions. You also need to be on top of the products you are selling. Especially if you work for a growing product technology company. Products are evolving rapidly and continuously adapting to the new market needs. Are you living in your own world which gives you the fake ego wherein you only sell what you already know of. You will fall and you will fall hard. Keep up with every advancement that is happening in your product offering.Your organisation may have the right experts to get deeper in the technical know how, but your domain and functional expertise must be top notch. Regularly test out your product demos/ features yourselves.
Experimentations should never end.
These are the 5 areas I constantly work on, how about you?