Chances are if you are reading this, you are already successful. Successful people continue to look for ways to get better and improve their outcomes. Well, this information and these rules should help you sharpen that competitive edge.
Top sales people require the same type of on-going training that all professionals endure. The athlete, physician or lawyer at the top pays a price every day to stay there. The price they pay is conditioning. Conditioning is a way of life, basic disciplines and a set of practical rules. Follow the rules and you’ll always be in condition to make the best use of your talents in your profession.
To get to the top and remain there, follow these ten basic and important rules:
1. Stay on the right side of the trouble line
Don’t spend too much time on a “no pay time” side of the line. Pay time, usually 9 to 5, is the time to be in front of clients and prospects. No pay time, usually after 5 and before 9, is important, but it’s for planning, preparing and meetings. When you do “no pay” time activities during “pay time”; you have poorer sales and feel guilty. Make pay time productive.
2. Burn your bridges
Top sales people commit 100% wholeheartedly to themselves, their family, product or service, prospects and clients. Don’t think, “I can always go back to something else”. Act as if this were your last chance!
3. Get mentally and emotionally tough
Selling can be cruel. Prospects are better conditioned than salespeople. Every day, sales people hear “no”, often leaving them feeling “down”. Top sales people know it’s okay to hear “no” and to “fail”. Good results of sales calls are getting yes or no. “I want to think about it” is not acceptable. Always go for “no” or “yes”.
4. Maintain a healthy self esteem
When you feel good about yourself, who you are and what you do, you are more effective. Develop a healthy self-image. It’s not important what people say, do or think about you. What’s important is how you feel about yourself.
5. Cultivate a support group
Find other top sales people or those on their way to the top. Spend time with them. (Don’t do it on pay time!) Surround yourself with people who support you in winning. Get reinforcement to succeed.
6. Know when to use product knowledge
Sales people usually talk too much. Instead, practice silence. While it’s important for you to know everything about your product or service, it is not so for your prospect. At least not during an initial sales call. The rule: Sell today, educate tomorrow.
7. Know your competition
If you know their strengths and weaknesses, you can ask questions to help your prospect understand differences. We often ask our prospects “How do you enjoy the reinforcement part of their sales training?” (We know our competition has no reinforcement training!)
8. Keep a journal, have daily attitude and behavior goals
You are either part of your plan or you are part of someone else’s. Goal setting helps you take control every day.
9. Work a prospecting system
You are on the wrong track if you are still making cold calls. Top sales people gets their clients and customers to prospect for them.
10. Use a system
Prospects always use a system, never in your favor. If you don’t have a selling system to follow; you’ll be using theirs. Find a system that works and practice it until you own it. Then, under pressure, you will deliver.
Master these rules and you will make it to the top!
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