Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

Effective and successful selling requires excellent technique.  One must excel at asking questions and listening.  One must have skill at telling stories and using metaphors and analogies to make a point,  Certainly, one must be expert at dealing with stalls, questions and objections; however, what drives a sales person's ability to execute these techniques and skills will be hard to find in a traditional sales training setting from traditional sales trainers.  As Curly said in the movie City Slickers:  "One thing, just one thing, you stick to that and the rest...

The one thing that drives consistent execution in sales is courage.  In our sales training classes, we talk about commitment, desire, outlook and taking responsibility.  Those components help drive courage.  If you think about each one of those, you would soon discover that they are not very trainable.  As a salesperson, that is what you have to bring to the dance if you want to get good at dancing, or in this case selling;  I can't teach it here and I don't try to teach courage in my sessions.  What I can do is give you some insight as to what having courage can and will do.  In the end, what matters the most about any discussion around courage is:  Start.  Just start.

1. Start by making the decision that courage has to be part of your make up and that you will be courageous in your thinking, decisions and activities. Become a warrior for what you stand for and what you want to achieve
2. Start by identifying what is it that you really want out of being a sales professional. Did you get into this business to be average? Would you rather be extra-ordinary? Then start thinking that way.
3. Start by stopping. What I mean is decide what you will stop doing. This too takes courage because often we do things because they make us comfortable instead of difficult and uncomfortable sales activities that make us money. Not that you stop providing great service, but do you have to do that? Get your need for approval met by selling to more people, more quickly at higher margins. You'll receive all the reward and recognition that you need.
4. Start by leading others instead of standing in line with those willing to just get along. Don't buy into the bad economy or poor product excuses and stop hanging around the water cooler talking about company decisions. Start taking responsibility for your results and start being the leader on the leader board.
5. Start having fierce conversations. Read the book by Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations. She will tell you that the first fierce conversation is with yourself. Once you get your head straight and get honest with yourself, commit yourself to have fierce and tough discussions with others. Not in-your-face aggressive or mean discussions, just tough discussions about what is or isn't happening, and what has to happen to move a sale forward or to stop where you are.

                Courage, as they say, comes in a can.  I CAN.