Blog

Great Sales Results Are About Great Sales Habits

It’s not about tricks, scams or being pushy.  No one wants to be the archetypal Life Insurance saleswoman or the multilevel marketer who pesters everyone they meet. It is, however, about developing good sales habits.

Stephen Covey’s book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” hits the mark; habits are the common factor in success.  It’s the same for you and making sales.  Whether you sell locally, regionally or online to the world, consistent activity and efforts will lead to success.

What sales habits should I developed?

• Research
• Communicate
• Trust and credibility
• Feedback

Build each of these into your daily routine.

Research

• As your business evolves and grows so your avatars change.  You need to update your avatar(s) regularly as your learn more about your new clients and what makes them tick (psychographics) and where to find them (demographics).
• It should go without saying that researching your hot leads is a no-brainer, but too many think they can “wing it” on the day with skimpy research.
• Be aware of trends in your own specialisation as well as your clients’. Keep up to date with market and industry knowledge. Reading the latest blogs or listening to podcasts is time well spent as you build your skills and general knowledge about your target clients industry. As you become more of a niche player this becomes easier and you can charge a premium for your understanding too.

Communicate

• Know how many people you communicate with every day about your business.  Face to face, on the phone, email, blogging, social media statistics.  Set yourself daily goals and track them. If you want to increase sales you need to have an upward trend week on week.
• More networking (builds up a coffee tolerance), more calls (these don’t have to be cold calls…but they help too).
• Blog more frequently AND promote your existing blog more aggressively and
• Improve the quality and quantity of your social media posts. (A great guide book for everyone using social media for business is Jab, Jab,Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuck )

Trust and Credibility

• Make sure everything you do builds trust; blogging, social media posts, 1 to 1 networking and marketing.
• Focus on your avatar, their communication styles and psychographic needs.
• Use their language. If you are a 20 something female  web developer trying to sell to a 50+ guy, how should you speak? Don’t get too techie and use abbreviations and slang. Explain it as you would to your favourite uncle.
• Be consistent in your message, in fact be “On Brand”.

Feedback

• Track what sales activities you do every day. Whether you record it in your diary, a spreadsheet (for the analysts amongst us), a notebook or whiteboard (my personal favourite).
• Each week check how you are doing compare it to your goals.  Build on last week’s actual results. If you are not getting the number of leads you need then you HAVE to up your activity.
• Do better this week. Communication has a cumulative effect. Make it a habit.
• In fact do better TODAY. It’s a bit like a diet, just because you indulged in half a dozen doughnuts yesterday doesn’t mean you restart next Monday. Start now. Pick up the phone and call an old lead, a former client and go for a coffee. Write that blog post tonight (although you’d rather watch The Walking Dead, even if you feel like one of them). Turn off the music and listen to that podcast.

Block Time

Treat sales as you would a client’s project. Block time to make sure it happens on time and is given the thought and effort it requires.

Happy hunting

 

 

If you are focused on developing your sales skills join me for a live workshop on Tuesday 28 June: Lean Sales For Design Firms