5 ways to be successful in a sales role January 11, 2018

Salespeople from different industries tend to use different sales techniques. After all, if you're selling high-end financial products to giant corporations you'll need to approach your prospects in an entirely different way from someone who sells books at the local bookstore. Still, the primary rules of how to sell remain the same regardless of your product type and customer base.

The following gives you 5 ways to be successful in a sales role:

Set goals

Having a set goal or goals is very important to not only company success but also personal success. Start out by creating “activity” goals, for example, how many calls to make in a day or scheduling in-person meetings with customers. Next, create “result” goals, for example, the amount of new accounts per month or the number of sales completed in a month. Lastly, write these goals down, which helps to focus your attention and track progress.

Always stay one step ahead of your client

The best salespeople understand their best clients inside and out. They do their research, and dig down deep, on the client and the industry. Their goal is to find problems and opportunities for their clients before the client is even aware of it.

Manage your time

Sales can be a very fast-paced career and managing one’s time is of paramount importance. Start by creating an organised and detailed schedule of daily tasks and appointments. Once the schedule is created, test the actual time it takes to complete a task and adjust the schedule if needed. This will not only help you stay on track but it will also maximise your time on the bigger tasks at hand.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to identify with customers, to feel what they are feeling and make customers feel respected. Empathy is NOT sympathy, which involves a feeling of loyalty with another individual. It is more than understanding their concerns from an objective standpoint. A salesperson showing empathy can gain trust and establish rapport with customers by being on their side and not appearing judgmental. Empathy allows the salesperson to read the customers, show concern, and clearly demonstrate his or her interest in providing a proper solution.

Be Confident

Confidence is a subset of charisma. The best and most charismatic salespeople believe fervently in themselves, their company and their product or service. Confident salespeople act fearlessly and are willing to take risks without worrying about hearing a “no” from a customer or losing out on a potential opportunity.

Not confident with your sales communication skills and looking for sales training programs? Find out more about sales training courses available at London TFE.