If you adopt one of these habits every day for the next twenty days, you too could be a top performer.
Top performers are on their ‘A-game’ from the first minute they get out of bed, until they leave the last prospect, or customer, of the day. Being positive makes your prospect positive – about buying.
People are generally drawn to enthusiastic people. Genuine enthusiasm is catching; it’s like a tidal wave that will carry your prospect along to the sale.
Understand what it is you expect out of each interaction with a prospect, and how you are going to handle it. Consider whether the objective is to get the sale today, or whether this is a step along the way to a sale.
If enthusiasm is catching, so is someone who truly knows his or her stuff. We are drawn to people who possess knowledge about something we are interested in, whether it’s a particular sport, art, food, or more importantly something we are considering purchasing. Become an expert in what you sell, the industry behind it and the market you are selling to.
Find opportunities to show people that you’re an expert. Offer free seminars to prospects, or existing customers; produce a newsletter or write a book; record a podcast, or create a Facebook page. Whatever you do become the guru in your field and people will find their way to you and buy what you sell.
Every time I open my email browser there are messages from friends, business acquaintances and others that contain jokes and other useless detritus, but occasionally a snippet of fascinating information appears that I can’t wait to share. When this happens I am grateful to the person who sent it, because they are making me look good in the eyes of the people I in turn share it with. This is why jokes have been a staple of top performers since the dawn of selling.
Nice and simple this habit – don’t waste your valuable selling time and energy selling to people who are not highly likely to buy what you are selling. Think long and hard about your target market. Top performers spend less time with prospects than the average salesperson because they have pre-qualified them.
Super salespeople don’t wait for their sales managers to give them targets, they set their own. It’s a winning habit to set yourself targets based on the number: of leads generated; calls per day, appointments made, presentations made, sales achieved. If you can measure success by it – target it!
One of the keys to successful selling is to become a chameleon. We can all sell to people that have the same personality as ourselves, the trick to super sales is to relate well to people that are not like you, or even have the opposite personality, or social style.
Once you recognize the prospect’s behavioral style then it’s a whole lot easier to react to them in a way that will make them feel comfortable. The key to selling to anyone is the ability to make them like you. People don’t buy from people they don’t like – it’s that simple.
This is a rookie mistake that happens all the time. Salespeople home in on people that look easy to sell to and spend inordinate amounts of time trying to convince them to purchase something, when they are not in a position to buy. Before you waste any time on a potential prospect, spend a few minutes talking to them; discover whether he or she is a bona fide prospect. The quicker you discover they aren’t, the quicker you can start selling to someone who is.
This is another great habit to get into, and works in tandem with setting targets. Everyday assess how well you are doing in moving towards your targeted goals. Motivation comes from seeing that you are exceeding them, and when you’re not you’ll know you need to pull your finger out, pronto!
Poor salespeople avoid objections as if they are bad, top performers not only welcome them, they actually dig for them. As long as there is an unspoken objection you will not get the sale. Get into the habit of listing all the objections people might have for not buying what you sell and come up with answers. That way, when an objection arises you have the answer ready at hand.
This goes hand-in-hand with the habit above. Constantly ask questions to make sure the prospect is hearing, and understanding, what you are telling them and clarify any misunderstandings.
The more involved your customers are with your presentation, the more likely they are to buy. Use samples, demonstrations, colourful sales literature, or whatever is relevant to your product or service to generate interest and excitement.
Top sales performers know their customer’s birthdays, children’s names, hobbies likes and dislikes, and anything else that will help build a relationship with them.
Get into the habit of asking prospects if they like certain aspects of what you are trying to sell them. This will provide an indication as to whether they are leaning toward purchasing, or highlight potential objections.
This is probably the oldest piece of advice out there, but at the end of the day more sales are lost simply because the salesperson simply did not ask for the order. Come up with several phrases that you feel comfortable with such as: “So, delivery next week is okay for you?” or, “Okay, so let’s write this up.” Both are assumption closes; in my experience this type of close is the most effective and easiest to employ.
Top performers are constantly aware of how well they are performing. Remember sales targets and goals, and tracking your progress? Well, it’s not just about the numbers; after every sales interaction carry out a post mortem and look at what went well and what could you improve.
Following up after a call is not just polite, it’s good business practice. It’s far less expensive and takes a whole lot less time and effort to sell to an existing customer than to try to find a new one. Start building relationships by following up each sale and then regularly thereafter.
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There’s nothing super special about great salespeople but they do have some things in common. They are very personable – people warm to them – they like them. But just being charismatic is never enough, it has to be backed up with a level of professionalism that delivers for the prospect and soon to be customer. It’s like saying that Usain Bolt would be just as fast whether he trained or not. Sure, he’d natural fast, but it’s doubtful he’d be world-class if he didn’t take his sport seriously and didn’t approach it professionally. So it is with salespeople; those at the top of their profession are the ones who use skill, technique, organization, strategy, and hard work as well as charisma to win over prospects and close deals.
