Did you know that you can be a salesperson without even realizing it? Even if your title doesn’t have sales in it, if you are the founder or team member of a small company, a big part of your job is convincing customers to use your company’s product or service.
While the term sales often brings up a mental image of an aggressive car salesman, you don’t have to adopt this type of personality to be successful with sales. Instead, there are much simpler ways you can improve your sales skills:
Get Organized: If you don’t have a formal sales position, you may think that you can just wing it. However, not being organized can still cost you sales. It can also make your life much more stressful than necessary. If you’re constantly looking for phone numbers or trying to remember if you need to follow up with a contact, you’re spending valuable energy on very minor issues.
The best way to put an end to being unorganized is to start using a CRM program. Not only can you sign up for a web-based CRM without spending much money, but once you begin using it, you’ll wonder how you ever worked without it.
A web-based CRM will organize all of your important information and allow you to access it from anywhere. Instead of scrambling for phone numbers or trying to remember when you need to follow up, all of this information will be right in front of you.
Focus on Lead Quality, Not Quantity: When you first start taking sales seriously, it’s easy to get caught up in the “everyone is a potential customer” mentality. Unfortunately, trying to chase every prospect under the sun is going to lead to lots of frustration and wasted time.
A better approach to take is coming up with criteria for your ideal prospects. One of the simplest ways to do this is by analyzing current customers. When you find common characteristics among customers, you will know that those are the types of leads you will want to pursue. Clearly outlining this criteria will allow you to focus on quality leads without feeling like you’re wasting others.
Accept That Sales Take Time: If you know people who are extremely good at sales, you may assume that they are just blessed with a natural talent. Additionally, you may think that they’re are able to close prospects right away.
In reality, most people who are good at sales have reached that point through practice and patience. Even the best salespeople know that it’s much easier to close a deal after you’ve built a relationship with someone. Trust plays a big role in sales. When you take the time to develop a rapport with prospects, they’re going to be much more receptive when you’re ready to close the deal.
Not only does building a relationship make it easier to close sales, but it also makes it more fun. Instead of worrying about applying pressure to prospects, you’ll simply be able to get to know them and then take action when the time is right.
What obstacle(s) have held you back from being as successful at sales as you would like?