There are many skills sales pros utilize to meet or exceed quarterly goals and have higher sales to calls ratios. In a recent study of over 1,000 sales pros and managers, they have about two dozen skills and behaviors ensuring they close more sales than underperforming sellers.
We’ve been reading about most of them in this sales column. Since we are in the sixth month of 2022 – yup… the year is half over – here are six skills sales specialists should strut:
Time Management: How is your productivity? On average, distractions can take up to an hour a day. That works out to about six weeks of distractions a year! What could you accomplish with an additional six weeks? More sales. More commissions. Definitely more days golfing… with a buyer. Always ask yourself, “Is what I am doing right now the best use of my time?”
Staying Focused: As we saw in April’s column, maintain discipline on completing high payoff activities during selling hours. This is not the time to mow the lawn or clean the pool. Unless you get paid to manage social media, do not spend time on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook arguing with strangers or viewing videos of cats.
Relationship Building: The goal of building relationships is to get your buyers to know, like and trust you. Once you become their trusted vendor, they will seek you out when something involves your product or service category. The way to building relationships in your community is Always Be Networking.
Growing Accounts: There are two ways to increasing sales: obtain new business and grow accounts. We all know it costs more to obtain a new customer than keeping an existing one. One way to grow an account’s business is to ensure they are buying your firm’s most popular products or services. Uncover additional opportunities by upselling. We have all been asked this popular upselling question, “Would You Like Fries with That?”
Conducting Persuasive Presentations: You must exhibit you love your products or services, you love your company, and you are the best at what you do. Features, advantages, and benefits (FAB) should never be read from the slides. FAB should be intermingled with trial closing questions and the presentation should be so compelling, the buyer will be buying before you reach the end of the deck.
Storytelling: Being in the company of Top Performers requires storytelling to successfully communicate FAB and their value. Your presentation should show the buyer the benefits of saying yes as well as costs if they don’t. Presenting real results, the increase in revenue or productivity, and the dollar impact of moving forward is a story all buyers enjoy. Proving your program will work makes the decision easy.
Strut these six skills and Heat Up Your Sales.
