The Driving Forces Behind A Successful Sales Person
You walk into your first day as a Sales Rep, bright eyed and bushy tailed with nothing but the utmost confidence you’ll crush your quota. Although, after you have completed your training and your forgiving ramping period is over. You may find yourself wondering, “Why am I not as successful as other reps on my team?” While sales is not always meant for everyone, here are a few things to help keep you on track to progress.
Ask For Help
Take the initiative and reach out to your Manager if you feel like you’re struggling. Their job is to be there for you and help pinpoint where things can improve.
Reach out to the reps that are killing it. Ask them for advice. Even if they seem busy, they’ll appreciate you turning to them and it will strengthen your relationship. Ask the top performers what they’re doing. Even though it may feel like a competition amongst your colleagues, there’s something to be said for a team that is supportive of each other (and if you're not working in a collaborative sales environment then you may want to work elsewhere - that's a whole other blog post!). Don't view others who are doing well as competition but someone you can learn from so you too can have the “Secret Sauce” and exceed your quotas.
Related post: 8 Bold B2B Selling Techniques to Help You Close That Deal
Always Be Learning
Although you received training about your company’s product, that doesn’t mean you should stop trying to learn even more. A lot of reps forget to do homework on their own and review the materials that the company has on each product. Take the time to review these so when taking a call you have knowledge and confidence that you know what you’re talking about. Marketing materials should be accessible to you, if not reach out to the department and ask. Marketers love it when their materials are actually being used by sales vs sitting idly in a Google drive!
Sit in on your other rep's closing calls, and see how they handle objections. Do they use certain sound bites that you can use yourself? Take notes, then after ask the rep how they think it went. Do you share the same viewpoint? If your company uses a call recording application like Gong or Chorus.ai listen in to closing calls on your commute.
Time Management
How are you utilizing your time as soon as you walk into the office? Have you identified what times have the best connect rates to make calls for your prospects? Do you know which prospects have opened your emails? This in itself could be a game changer because it can help you prioritize your follow up and allows you to reach out when your email is fresh in your prospect's mind.
Break up your day with various tasks. You shouldn’t be spending all day doing research on one company or just importing contacts. These should be saved for your off hours. Plan out your week beforehand on which new accounts you will be focusing on. Be sure to map out how you’ll be reaching out to them, while following up with current ones in your cadences.
Ask your manager and teammates when they have the most successful calling, then block out those times on your calendar. Typically mid-week tends to be the most successful so be sure to take advantage of those days.
Related Post: Customer Success and Sales: Your Next Dream Team
Tools
The world of sales has changed drastically over the years and companies are turning to more and more tools to help their teams manage the high volume of prospects.
Make sure you know how to use each tool properly. This could be what’s holding you back in time management if you are not able to navigate your salesforce leads, or do not have an automated cadence to funnel leads through.
A lot of sales people don't like to send out automated emails. Remember, not all prospects are created equal. For those that are higher value certainly create a highly personalized message. You can use a semi-automated sequence for prospects that may not be as high value. I say semi-automated, because you can start with a basic template and then personalize the template. In addition to sending out email sequences, there are lots of manual tasks that you can automate so that you can focus on prospecting. One example might be scheduling demos and closing calls. How much time to you waste doing the 'calendar dance' trying to coordinate a time for a call? Make it easy for yourself and your prospect with 1 click calendaring.
Related post: 4 Ways To Offer Personalized Sales at Scale
Another trick might be to include a poll in an email - making it easier for your prospect to respond. With a couple clicks you can make it super easy for your prospect to respond, and even if they respond that they aren't interested at least you know not to waste time on them anymore.
If you're a new sales rep, welcome to the most important club of the decade. You'll learn the grind and all its glory, and learn the value of success as well as failure. Leverage your teammates and help each other succeed, and utilize your sales tools to their full capabilities. While you can't imagine life without them, some of your Managers may share horror stories of using only Post-Its and their cell phones to get the job done. Best of luck!
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