Sales is all about finding the right prospects, identifying their problems, answering questions real quick, conducting follow-ups, and closing the deal.
The process is not easy and many struggle to perform well consistently.
Apart from presentation skills, market understanding, subject matter expertise, sales professionals also also need to work on peripheral skills like keeping patience, being resolute, and disciplined.
It’s always a great practice to learn from seniors and experts and see if their advice improves your sales performance.
To this end, we reached out to some sales experts and asked them to share their insights, tips, and knowledge.
Let’s get straight into it.
David Petherick (Doctor LinkedIn™)
Listen. Listen in on some sales calls that a more experienced colleague is making, and make notes. Listen more to what the person at the end of the call is saying or asking, and note the winning and losing strategies.
The best salesperson is a great listener, and has the customer in effect talk themselves into a sale.
Manish Balani (Connect With Him On LinkedIn)
In sales, you have to impress your prospects. People don’t buy from people whom they do not find impressive. Gone are the days when salespeople used to sell product.
Now, concept selling is something that everyone needs to do, due to dynamic nature of requirements, products, and industry. Just like while dating, a very eager person or someone who gets very touchy is shrugged off immediately.
Similarly, if you try to sell without context or try to do follow-up which cross the line of demarcation between follow-up and irritating the prospect, you’ll never get that deal, and instead you will lose the prospect.
Always remember people don’t like to get sold, instead they want their problems to be solved. Focus on problem not on selling!
Cory Warfield (Connect With Him On LinkedIn)
My tips are to build relationships WITHOUT trying to sell anything and to listen WAY more than they talk. Also I know everyone else says they’re not dead but I think cold calling and cold email is dead. Ineffective. A waste of time that pisses people off.
Carlo Guzzi (Connect With Him On LinkedIn)
If you have decided to embark on a career in sales remember you are entering the people business. Your clients not only buy the product or service you are offering but they buy you. In other words people from those they know, like, and trust.
Sam Baisla (Connect With Him on LinkedIn)
My advice for a new salesperson:
1. Practice and Learn EMPATHY
Keeping your customer’s WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) in focus is the center point to all persuasive communication. If you learn and practice this you will be better at everything you do.
2. Sales is just not a skill or job
Being in sales changes the way you think and approach life in general. Setting goals and taking massive action for the same, inspiring people to join your cause or keeping your motivation up; you will learn all of this.
Ahmad Imam (Connect With Him on LinkedIn)
Make sure you treat every prospect, potential client and client….the same way. They may not be qualified. They may not be able to afford your services.
But they very well could refer someone that can. You never know who they know. Having a giving mindset is the best long term sales strategy.
Saheb Youssef Bakhsh (Connect With Him On LinkedIn)
Follow the CARE principle.
Connect meaningfully with intent with the client and appreciate the feedback that they are giving.
Relate to their real needs and requirements. Engage them with your suggestions and how you can provide them value and build a lifelong relationship.
Venkateswaran (Connect With Him on LinkedIn)
In my opinion – Firstly Relationship is everything , You should be able sell yourself to earn trust. Secondly, be obsessed about listening to your customer. Finally, Selling is – “by the people and for the people.
Tracy Oswald (Connect With Her On LinkedIn)
When you’re just starting out in sales, it can feel overwhelming, intimidating and downright discouraging. It can be easy to get sucked into feelings of desperation, NEEDING to make a sale as month closes. And it can feel like your sales target is always on our shoulder, mocking you. [I promise you, it isn’t!]
Here are two core principles of successful selling that will help catapult you over the competition and into true and lasting success:
1. There 3 Things You Are Always Selling
• Your Belief in Yourself.
• Your Belief in Your Product/Service
• Your Belief in Your Clients/Customers
You have to believe that people WANT what you are offering! You must have an unwavering belief that people actually NEED it, and are waiting for you to show up so they can buy from you.
2. Selling is NOT about convincing someone to BUY.
It’s about creating a relationship and delivering so much VALUE that the sale is the next logical progression in the relationship.
People buy from people they like and trust. They buy from people who make them feel good, who help them from a genuine place, not just to ‘win them over’ so they can make the sale.
Priyanka Desai (Connect With Her On LinkedIn)
If you’ve just started your career in sales, here are my tips. I’ve made mistakes and learned what’s effective.
1. Cold-calling seldom works. There’s so much clutter in our inboxes and social media. Simply sending a mail pitching your services is no longer going to make a cut.
2. Add value. Help your prospects before presenting them a sales pitch. Another trick that works is giving them customized proposals. The prospects get to know that the proposal is made exclusively for them. We took that extra step of researching their competitors, finding out publications where their competitors are talked about and covered.
3. Use the right set of tools. Managing the prospects, the stages of the buyer journey and follow-ups is a time-consuming task. Also, the overload of information leads to errors in the spreadsheets. Thus use the right set of tools.
Nikhil Sharma (Connect With Him On LinkedIn)
What’s Next?
So, you successfully accessed proven sales advice from experts. Just implement these into your process and see the results!
Would love to add any tips to this list? Or Got any query? Just drop your views in the comment section below.
One of the best sales advice that I can give for beginners, as well as veterans, is to “Commit what you can fulfill”. Do not give false commitments to the customer. It will only result in a lack of customer trust and satisfaction, eventually, lower referrals leading to lower sales in the long run.
