Have you ever wondered what it is about that certain salesperson on your team that just seems to always be busy making sales regardless of the economic conditions, the time of year, or just about anything else? I know I have, and for me, it was always very interesting. I was always very curious when I was new to sales how certain people around me did what they did to have such consistent success.

What I learned is that we tend to always buy from salespeople we like and have some trust in. Sounds simple right? Well, it’s not so simple for many people all around the world at businesses trying their hand in sales only to find it’s not as easy as it sounded. What I have seen many do over the years when they start out new in sales is trying to be someone they are not. Or even worse, pretend that they know the answers to every question.

There’s not much worse than talking out of school and making promises or claims you aren’t sure of or can’t back up when you’re a salesperson. It’s my opinion that it’s always best when you aren’t sure to thank your customer for the particular question and the opportunity to find the answer and help them. Just be sure that you do find the answer and you retain the information for next time, making yourself more knowledgeable. However, you must learn that not every question you don’t know the answer to requires you to run back and forth like a chicken with its head cut off. Sometimes people ask questions just to see if you’re gonna BS them!

So, why is that salesperson always busy no matter what, what makes them so good? It’s a combination of many things honestly, but one of those things I believe for certain is the ability to add a tremendous amount of value to the experience by creating a genuine relationship very quickly. When you meet a salesperson who is always at the top of the sales board and operates at a high level, you usually meet someone who is genuine about who they are when they are selling and because of that they make a lot of same-day sales and get lots of referrals.

Great salespeople don’t change who they are when they get a customer in front of them, they use who they are to create a genuine bond and experience between them and the person they are helping so that the person they are helping wants to do business with them. Why? Because no one likes a phony, and when you’re genuine and honest with people you quickly earn their favor, and they begin to like you. After some test of time, and it could be as quickly as the first meeting in certain sales arenas, they begin to trust you enough to make a positive buying decision.

When you’re new to sales it’s tempting to try and be someone you’re not, to pretend you know everything and cause yourself to act and talk out of school. Remember that no one likes a phony, people like and trust genuine people who are being themselves and trying to help. You and I can both smell a fake salesperson a mile away, so always be you and if the customer doesn’t accept that then it’s their problem, not yours I say!

Once you find your style and really begin to fine-tune your scripts so they are natural and personal to you, you will have great success with your customers. They will like and trust you and want to do business with you more often than not. They will also recommend you to their friends and family because once people find someone they connect with and really trust and enjoy doing business with they want to come back and send people they know your way because they know you’ll deliver on the experience. People like helping people they like.

Wrapping It All Up!

So strive to always be you and never try to be anything else. You will learn lots of great things from the people around you and you should always be growing and looking for those opportunities to learn something which will make you better. But make sure you make it your own and genuine to who you are. You’ll accelerate your success this way and word of mouth will help you really establish a solid foundation for your sales career.

As always, if I can be of any help to you or you have some advice or thoughts to add please feel free to comment below and please SHARE with someone who needs to read this! 

Make It A Great Day!

This is one that sounds so obvious but is so often missed by salespeople and companies every single day. In 2018 the customer is more and more focused on taking care of things themselves, this is why you see self-checkouts at every major store now. I always prefer to use them, and I’m sure you do too. But when a customer does need help somewhere along the sales process from a company or salesperson, they want to receive fast, efficient, honest service.

But is that what they always get? No, and often times they get the exact opposite!

We know customers want to spend less time in the store making transactions, this is why so many people spend hours shopping online, doing research ahead of time and gathering information from social media, as well as getting recommendations from friends. But even though we know this many companies and salespeople will still do things or practice processes that go against what the consumers are telling us. Don’t do that!

Instead, find ways to streamline your process and make it as efficient and transparent as possible while maintaining a Win/Win mindset as Dr. Stephen R. Covey called it when he wrote about this in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Dr. Covey said, “Win/Win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions.” He also went on to say that “agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial, mutually satisfying,” “all parties feel good about the decision and feel committed to the action plan.”

Focus your process and actions on Customer Experience, and throughout the road to the sale keep a win/win mindset. By doing this you become mindful of the little things a customer would pick up on and you can make sure you address these things accordingly. For instance, knowing that people dread the car buying process if you’re in car sales you may choose to use a process that saves time and offers information to the customer making it easy to buy from you. It’s no longer about wearing customers down or being the high-pressure closer, it’s now about how do you make your customer feel during the road to the sale?

Part of the ROI from focusing on the customer experience is the word of mouth and referral business you receive from it which is more important today than ever before. Do you want to hear something crazy? Consumers today, our customers, trust what they read in online reviews almost as much as they do the recommendation from someone they know! That’s huge, but in taking a closer look at those stats you also find that reviews older than 90 days don’t seem as relevant to those same consumers.

So what does this mean to you?

When you deliver on the customer experience and really win over your customer, you also have the opportunity to leverage the experience by getting positive Online Reviews, Testimonials, and Customer Service Survey’s from them. If you did a great job with your customer, part of your follow up process should include getting your customer to tell their story in the form of a review. Now it’s believed 70% or more of our customers are happy to leave a review when asked to do so. But the statistic I want to make clear is this, 100% of the customers you DON’T ask for a review won’t give you one, so be sure to ask!

In the end, your personal brand is going to benefit tremendously from focusing on the customer experience, as technology makes it easier and easier for consumers to get information on their own our role as salespeople will evolve as well. What we do will be less about “selling” and more about the experience. Yes, selling skills and the abilities of a well-trained salesperson will be necessary, but they will be useless if they aren’t part of a bigger package.

For more motivational sales blogs visit www.NewtoSales.org!

Don’t even consider the idea of quitting. When you make a mistake, when you get set back by something or someone, you just find a way to keep moving forward. You regroup and find a better way, and you learn from your mistakes. However, what is better than learning from making mistakes, is learning from the mistakes of others.

Part of grinding it out is studying others and always being a student. If you want to make more sales, you need to study how to sell. If you want more money, you need to understand money so it doesn’t avoid you and leave you easily. If you want better relationships with people, studying human behavior and relationships would be beneficial. The greatest in any field are constant students, never too proud to learn something new, or learn a better or more efficient way to do something.

Don’t be afraid to put in the time, and do the hard work. Anything worth doing, anything that will bring great reward to you, will require hard work and probably some patience on your part. Often times we look at successful people and assume they were lucky, that their success was easy. We don’t know about all the hard work, the failures, the times they were told no or doubted themselves before they finally became successful. 

Often the super successful are regular people like you and me that just simply believed in what they were doing, they refused to quit,  and then they had their breakthrough. Remember that, and go be great because that's what you were designed to be!

For more motivational sales blogs visit www.NewtoSales.org! 

Success is defined a few different ways. If you Google it, one of those definitions reads, “a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity.”I believe people define success differently. The one thing that I can assure you everyone wants is to be happy. Part of most everyone’s definition of success is to be happy. Success is an important ingredient to a happy life. If you want to have a happy life (however that is defined for you), you need success in all areas of your life. Success is the key that unlocks a happy life.

Don’t Wait For All The Lights To Be Green, They Never Will Be

You can’t wait around for success to happen to you because that’s not how it works. Success comes to you when you take action towards it. The more action you take, the more potential you have for greater success. I believe that success is won in little battles throughout each day in all area’s of your life. You have to have the attitude that success is your duty. Now, having great success in your career but sacrificing your family life does no good if your family life is important to you, and you value it. For most of us, we have MANY different parts of our life we want to be successful in. These are all the things that make up who we are and what we are all about. Therefore, it truly is a duty, and obligation to yourself, family, company you own or work for, community and your future to be as successful as you can be in life.

Start by making a commitment to do your best in all area’s of your life each day. Start right now just focusing on doing your very best. It really is that simple. You have to see success as the only option. This doesn’t mean all of a sudden you won’t fail ever again. Or that you won’t make any mistakes in life from now on. That’s not how God made you. You will fail, but you will learn from failure how to be better next time. In essence, you never really fail unless you give up. Seeing success as your ethical duty in life keeps you in the game, and never quitting on your life.

Are You Looking For A Career Or Just A Job?

This is especially true in your sales career. You have to develop a career mentality, not just think of it as just a job. What’s the difference? Here’s an example I’ll use to explain my thinking on it. You have two guys or two gals it doesn’t matter, they are just starting out working for a well known fast food store. Both are flipping burgers and doing the required job-related tasks. One of them is trading time for money, just waiting for the shift to be over, doing what is required to get the job done and not get fired or catch any hassle. This isn’t a bad employee, it’s just not an outstanding one either. It’s the average person.

Now the other guy or gal is doing his job as well, but they are also looking for ways to help others do theirs better. This person is also looking for ways to learn other responsibilities, not worrying how much more it will pay them now because that’s not the ultimate goal of this person. This person wants success. This person sees themselves running one of these stores someday, or maybe many of them. This person is thinking about a career. See the difference? Now, we aren’t all born to run fast food stores I get that. However, you were designed with the ability to do great things with your life if you see that as the only option. This will mean different things to everyone, but this mentality will allow you to see your potential. So whether you want to run a McDonald’s franchise, or write a book, you need to see success as the only option!

J O B  Stands For “Just Over Broke”

Remember, a job is just that, a JOB or Just Over Broke. I think I heard Grant Cardone say that in a podcast one time and it really sunk in for me. If you have a job, find a way to turn it into a career. If you can’t, then go do something, find something that you can. You need to be all in no matter what it is you’re doing. This way you are more likely to keep your commitment to yourself and do your best every day. This world is LOADED with information, and people willing to give it to you. Often times for FREE. How much success you have in any area of your life is dependent on the degree to which you’re willing to do what is required to attain it.

Financial well being is also vital to your happiness. We live on an economic planet. It takes money to do just about everything in life. While I do NOT think money is the most important thing in life, it’s right up there with God, Family, and Oxygen. If you want true FREEDOM in life, you need money as well as many other things. I am not super motivated by money, however, I am motivated by what you can do with it. The people you can reach. The people you can help. Whether it is family or friends. Maybe your community. Money allows you to make a difference in the lives of others. Yes, you always have your time to donate, I get that. But if you can write a check that keeps a program running for a year doing cancer research locally, for instance, that’s impact! Success is the key.

The Harder You Work, The Luckier You’ll Get

Successful people seem lucky to others, but this is because their actions create successful results which compound and create more success. If they changed their actions and started making bad choices, like everyone else they would pay the consequences of those poor choices. Therefore, successful people take massive action daily, and they make the best choices they know how each time. You must demand this of yourself in all area’s of your life. Don’t fall into the victim role and blame something or someone else for your lack of success in life. It doesn’t matter what it is when you claim responsibility for it and take positive action towards it you have more success.

Be sure to get the people in your life on board with this mindset as well. It does no good to commit to success and then have the people closest to you working the opposite way. Opposites DO NOT attract. Likes ATTRACT! Successful, positive minded, motivated people want to be around other people like that, not the opposite. Negativity brings positive people down, it actually repels positive minded people in many ways. I believe I can actually feel someone’s negative energy just by getting close to them. Usually, when I feel this way, I am right. Just a few interactions with the person and I can see they are negative. Sometimes positive people get into a negative funk, but when success is your duty you bounce out of it almost immediately because it leaves a bad feeling in your gut. You want to think of success as an ethical issue. When you give less than your best in an area of your life, you should feel bad about it. It should bother you. Every day that you don’t live up to your potential is time wasted that you can never get back.

Don’t Waste Your Most Valuable Asset, And The Only One You Can’t Get More Of, Time!

The one thing we cannot get more of in life is TIME. You need to make the most of it every day. You never know how much of it you have left. This is why there is no one area of life where you need to be more successful than any other. If I was going to choose one, I would choose my relationship with God, and his son Jesus Christ. But we truly need success in every aspect of our lives for true happiness, and in abundance. We deserve the best life possible and since we only get one why wouldn’t we want that anyway? God wants us to have a wonderful life, that’s why he has given us everything we need to do just that.

A great story that illustrates perfectly the mentality you have to have in order to reach your true potential, and an inspiring story of faith, is the story of Sylvester Stallone and his Rocky screenplay. Stallone went through a lot, he was so broke he lost his relationship, and his dog. He had to literally sell his best friend (the dog) for money to get by one more day. Stallone came up against failure after failure on his way to making himself a success. He was given a few opportunities to make some quick money, more than he had ever seen at that time, upwards of $400K. But, he knew his potential and he turned down several offers before making a deal to make the movie and star as the main character, Rocky Balboa. Well, he and everyone else involved is glad it turned out the way it did. As we all know the rest is history and he is one of the most successful and well-known people to ever live. Rocky Balboa is almost like a living person to some of us who grew up watching the movies and love the character. But it was almost just another movie. Stallone only saw one option, he was all in. That’s why he was able to succeed.

Where Are You In Life Right Now?

You may be in a place right now where you feel successful in your life. That’s awesome! However, we are human beings. We are the most intelligent species on the planet. If we are not growing, we are dying. Eventually, you will want more from life. Remember, you were designed to do great things. So even if you define yourself as successful, you need to keep pushing every day putting your best out there and continue to grow and get better.

If you wouldn’t call yourself successful right now but want to be able to, then consider my advice here on this. I have years of experience and so far what I have learned is you cannot replace hard work with anything else. Success is a mindset and it requires HARD WORK! In order to work hard day in and day out, to get the success you deserve, you need to commit and have no other option on the table for yourself. This post was not only inspired by my life experience but also from the chapter Success Is Your Duty in the book The 10X Rule. I highly recommend this book to you if you find yourself in this place.

It’s like the great Zig Ziglar used to say and I’ll never forget, “You go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you’ll always be able to see further.” Start now. With every area of your life that you want more success to start making better choices, putting in more effort and taking more action. Decide what your definition of success is in each area of your life, and base this off your potential. So really give your potential some serious thought! In the end, you should be able to tell someone exactly what you want to accomplish in your life at the moment.

Because we are always growing and changing throughout our lives, you may find that some things you thought were very important to you no longer are. It doesn’t matter. What is important to you right now is what matters. There are certain things like financial success or marriage that are a lifetime commitment. However, if you are in sales now and you’re selling cars let’s say, then be the best car salesperson you can be! You might not want to sell cars for the rest of your sales career, but until you figure out what it is you’re passionate about, be passionate about success no matter what!

Wrapping it all up!

You will go much further in life a lot faster with this mindset. You will find that even when things aren’t going exactly your way, you have the capability to persevere and grind it out with this mindset! Keep your focus on success, allow no alternate option. With this mindset, a new season is awaiting. No matter the challenge life presents you will dominate it with positive, massive action.

Something I truly believe is that most every salesperson has some degree of fear of selling. Whether that fear is based on not being able to make a quota, letting their team down, being treated poorly by a customer or management, being rejected, being laughed at and judged, or whatever else the mind can conjure up. But trust me, your mind creates a terrible false reality you will likely never live out in the real world. Learning how to overcome the fear of failure and instead have success begins with your mindset.

Strive to have a Mindset of Growth

There are different mindsets you can choose to have and each will affect how you think about your sales career and ultimately how successful you are. If you choose a fixed mindset that believes you’re either born with it for sales or you’re not, then you are going to be sadly disappointed because no one is a born salesperson, salespeople are made. Instead, I recommend you choose a mindset focused on constant growth.

Focusing on having a mindset of growth, it is easier to overcome your fears of selling because you know that even though you may fail, you will learn something new that will make you better next time, so in reality, you never fail unless you quit! This is why salespeople with a growth mindset will continue to try and try again because they believe they can develop and grow over time into successful salespeople.

For some wonderful insight into a Fixed vs. Growth Mindset, I highly recommend you read the book “Mindset” by Dr. Carol S. Dweck. It is one of my favorite books on the shelf, and one that I learned so much from and continue to reread for insight into this subject. However, along with mindset, you have to have a healthy self-image.

Self-Image is EXTREMELY important

Know this, it is very hard to act consistently in a way inconsistent with how you see yourself. You MUST get sold on yourself and your self-worth. Yes, you are New to Sales right now and you don’t know everything that you will know someday, but you have a passion for helping your customer and you need to use that to maintain a healthy self-image as you start out in your sales career. You have a tremendous amount of value even as a new salesperson that you bring to the table with you, remember that as you get started.

Also, you must see yourself as a salesperson, and when you look in the mirror you need to like what you see. If you believe and buy into the stereotypes given to salespeople, and if you yourself have ill feelings towards salespeople when you’re in the shoes of the consumer, you will, in turn, assume the worst opinion of yourself from your customers. Getting yourself sold on you and on your sales career is critical to a healthy self-image and your ability to overcome your fear of failure and instead have success in sales!

Customers are NOT rejecting YOU!

This one takes a little longer to really sink in, but the sooner you figure it out the better off you will be and the more successful as well. When a customer decides not to do business with you, you cannot take it personally and MUST realize it is not a “Personal Rejection” but rather a “Business Refusal” to the offer made. Too many new salespeople hear no from their customers and believe this is a personal rejection, after several of these “rejections” the salesperson has had enough.

It is the offer that the customer is saying NO to, so please don’t confuse this as a personal rejection. Once you realize this it becomes much easier to overcome the fear of failing in sales. Also, you must understand that a No today doesn’t mean a No forever. Don’t give up and you never know you might just close a deal you thought you’d never make. Every No leads you closer to a Yes, so when you’re New to Sales keeping looking to help people and don’t worry about the No’s because you’re looking for yeses and there plenty out there waiting for you!

Wrapping it all UP!

When you are new to sales it is very common and normal to have some healthy fear inside you, we all go through it and many salespeople even those that have been selling for years still have some fears and anxieties every single day. We are human and even the most experienced salesperson has to remind him or herself that thinking positive, having a positive self-image, and not taking No personally from a customer is important to having success in spite of fear.

It blows my mind how many people I talk with that shop for a product somewhere, or purchase one, that when I ask them if they have received any follow up of any type after the visit or sale say no! Salespeople and Companies are not following up enough, and too often unfortunately not at all. A huge factor in having sales success is the variety and volume of your follow up.

Many people do not buy the first time they visit you, and no salesperson closes every single deal.

If you know a salesperson with a 100% closing ration, I guarantee it’s 100% because they didn’t count the ones they didn’t sell, and you tend to see this a lot in the car business! Most of the time you will not make the sale of the first contact, and you will need to follow up. I’m in agreement with many sales trainers, especially the Sales Master himself Grant Cardone, who believe it’s critical to follow up as quickly as when they are driving away.

Statistics show that the sooner you follow up, the more likely your customer is to buy from you and not someone else.Why is this you ask? Well, it is my opinion, and I base this on my experience selling the past 17 years, that people still like to buy from other people they like, and believe will take care of them during and after the sale. When you follow up with your customer it makes them feel as though you take them seriously, and it shows them you genuinely care about servicing their needs! The problem is that most salespeople don’t follow up at all, and some studies say the number on that statement is as high as 53% or slightly more than half of the salespeople.

So right out of the gate even if you just follow up once you are ahead of 53% of your competition. But making one call, or even worse sending one email that you can’t even be sure didn’t hit their SPAM folder first, is not going to be enough to really move the needle in your direction. So here’s what I suggest you do….

1- Alway’s make phone calls and follow up by phone.

If you don’t get your customer and you get a voicemail, always leave a message. If someone answers the phone do your best with them, make a great impression and again, always leave a message. I would continue to use the phone as follow up each day, keep leaving messages if there’s no answer letting your customer know you’ll check back another time, but be sure to leave your direct number, and leave the length of the messages in the optimal 8-14 seconds range! Eventually, you’ll catch your customer on one of these follow-up calls, but regardless you will want to do this next step as well…

2- Send a handwritten note to your customer thanking them for their time when you last saw them, and your phone number to contact you.

This is a GREAT tip from Cardone that I have integrated into my follow up strategy and one of the benefits of this is that it makes you feel great sending nice notes to people. I use this to follow up my sold customers all the time, I love sending notes telling my best customers I appreciate their business and that I was thinking of them hoping that all is well in their lives! So, along with your phone call to follow up, now they will receive this nice handwritten note, this will definitely make you stand out from the other sales reps they may have shopped with. Now that you have their attention, next you will…

3- Send a Video Selfie of yourself simply by using your Smartphone.

Send a selfie video on your phone that is really quick and to the point, keep it about 30-40 seconds long just letting your customer know that you were thinking about them and you wanted to reach out to them. Make sure that you put in a call to action that they contact you. Before you send the selfie video, upload it to your video editor (I use iMovie) on your phone, embed your direct phone number into the selfie video so your customer has it once again and see’s it while the video plays. This is a great, personalized, and highly effective follow-up method, they will watch and re-watch this video, be sure to USE IT!

If you don’t have your customers’ cell phone number but you have their email, then upload the video to YouTube, copy the link into an email and send that. If you’re new to sales and you want to establish yourself in your sales career right now, then you need to have a great follow up strategy for both your sold and unsold customers. Remember, your sold customers are your best resource because these are people who have already agreed to do business with you and likely will again if you take care of them, but the only way to do that is to follow up regularly. You will on average lose about 10-15% of your customers each year to things like moving locations, death, their needs change, etc. So be sure to follow up and keep as many as you can coming back to see you again and again.

On the other side of follow up, you are going to have to either follow up until the sale is complete with your unsold customers or hope that they will come back to you when they’re ready.Don’t hold your breath! Some of these “be-backs” can and will happen, but the majority of customers who leave aren’t coming back unless you follow up with them and make sure they return.

Wrapping it all up!

The choice is yours, but if it were me I would commit to my follow up right now and get serious with creative ways to do it, this will result in much more sales success for you in your career!

I have seen how often times people will get into sales as just a “job in between jobs.” They get into sales because it seems easy enough to do if you can handle the long hours, work the weekends, and handle the customers. If you can handle the pressure, multi-task well, and keep yourself fairly organized you can probably find a sales job somewhere and get by OK.

Lots of salespeople are doing this every single day in the modern world of sales. These salespeople have figured out how to work into their companies system, keep their nose clean, and sell enough to keep the boss happy. In the process, they make a little money for themselves. Often times these same people who were “just going to work in sales until something else came along” end up staying in the game far longer than expected. Some of these people even become good salespeople.

However, most of them receive only a very basic level of sales training. Most are shown some type of sales process but then are left to simply figure it out through trial and error with live customers. Eventually, through some determination and common sense, these salespeople are able to figure out a way to “make it work” for them, and they settle in.

These salespeople are often times good employees to the company, and they are usually liked well enough at the office by their colleagues. They never intentionally skate a fellow co-worker, they give their customers adequate service, enough at least to keep them happy. However, these salespeople rarely leave a major impression on their customers, so their customer loyalty is unpredictable. Have you met a salesperson like the one I have described? Hopefully, this doesn’t describe you! But if it does, what can you do?

See this type of salesperson isn’t a bad salesperson, and often times this salesperson is potentially a very good salesperson that just got stuck in what I call the “average trap” and couldn’t get out. The average trap is when you get comfortable, you get into a routine and you stop challenging yourself to grow and get better. Once you fall into the average trap in one area of your life, it can spread like a disease into all areas of your life quickly.

Are You In The Average Trap In Your Sales Career?

Do you set goals for yourself on a regular basis? If not, this is typically a sign of someone who is trapped in average thinking, average amounts of action, and likely living way below their potential. I have never known a single successful person that didn’t believe it was important to their success to practice goal setting.

You will have a harder time and it will take longer to reach new levels of success in sales if you do not set goals for yourself along the way. You should be constantly trying to improve your performance, using goal setting to raise the bar for yourself over time. Hopefully, your goals at the beginning of your career will look much different than 3, 5, or 10 years down the road. That’s one of the many benefits of goal setting. You can look back and see where you started and how far you’ve come, and that keeps you motivated and gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment!

Has your sales performance improved over time?

If you’re new to sales then you may not have much data to compare to right now. That’s ok. The important thing for you then is to remember not allow yourself to stay stuck on a plateau for too long. You need to find a way to break out of it as fast as possible. One thing that has always helped me do that is to continue the growth and improvement of my knowledge and selling skills. Too many salespeople who have been selling for some time get stuck in a rut and stay there far too long because they stop doing basics things that made them successful before. Don’t do this!

Also, you need to keep track of your sales performance and analyze it. I would definitely sit down at the end of each month and use the data to prepare for and set goals for the next month. As your sales career progresses and you have more data to analyze you’ll be able to set goals more effectively and ensure you are continually improving your performance.

Have your skills improved over time?

A major red flag and indicator of someone who is stuck in the average trap is someone whose sales skills haven’t improved for long periods of time. You will find this one everywhere nowadays. There are far too many salespeople lacking in their sales skills who have been in sales for some time. Some salespeople call themselves professionals, but in reality, they have very basic selling skills and a lot of experience.  It’s somewhat of an epidemic, and just because you have spent time in sales, doesn’t mean you are a true pro.

In today’s modern selling world it’s important to have the right skills. Those salespeople that have the knowledge and skills will dominate their space. Many of the skills you need in today’s selling climate have to do with technology. If you don’t know how to initiate a sale through email, text, phone, or close a deal through those methods then you will need to get your sales game up to par asap. You need to be constantly training and improving your skills along with staying current with today’s technology.

There Is A Shortage Of Great Salespeople In Today’s World.

Do you realize that there is a shortage of great salespeople? Salespeople are mostly “good enough” nowadays, and unfortunately, there are a few bad salespeople. The bad salespeople make it hard for the profession to shake off the stereotypes that get attached to it. But unfortunately, I don’t think you will ever have any profession where there aren’t some bad apples, sales included. This is why it is so important for these good enough salespeople, who make up the majority of salespeople in the world, to commit themselves to the profession and become great. The world desperately needs more great salespeople. The profession gets stronger every time someone like you commits to their career.

Don’t sell yourself short on this, and if you are new to sales make this something you commit to from the start. Even if your current sales job is just something you are doing until you find something you’re more passionate about. I get that! But you will need these skills, and you will most definitely use the sales skills you learn in your career to be successful in life. So commit to learning as much about sales as you can. You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain! The great news for someone who decides to commit themselves to becoming great is that this shortage of great salespeople around the world will make you so much more valuable to customers and companies. People know right away that they are dealing with someone who is different when they encounter a salesperson with confidence, conviction and who is clearly completely committed to their career.

What Are Some Things That Stand Out About Professional Salespeople?

The Professional Is 100% Committed To Their Career. If you’re going to be considered a real professional, you will need to commit to your career. We have covered this but it truly is a crucial point to understand about becoming great at just about anything in life. No matter who I study, no matter the era, successful people are committed, people. This level of commitment demonstrated by the greats is what allows them to move from failure to success when others would end up simply defeated.

The professional was to be great not average. When you are having a conversation with a professional salesperson you can just feel their desire, the passion for helping their customers as they speak about it. I know for me when I speak with people about sales and the responsibility that comes with being a professional, I get very passionate. There is no shame in wanting to be great in your life, the professional works towards daily.

A professional salesperson is committed to their personal development.

A professional salesperson is one that you will often time find using their free time to work on personal development and their sales skills. I know for me I try to be a constant student and learn something new every day. I am an advocate for sales training, and I believe it needs to be done daily to stay sharp! A professional is constantly growing and redefining themselves becoming better versions of themselves over time. A true professional is committed to their personal development.

One of the problems I see in many salespeople is they aren’t completely sold themselves on whether becoming a professional is worth the time and effort. New salespeople hear all the horror stories of failed sales jobs and think that’s what’s in it for them. They think a sales job mean they’ll be overworked and underpaid. Well, let me begin by saying that by now I should have made a pretty good case as to why you would want to consider putting in the effort to become a great salesperson. I want to sell you on becoming great because to me it makes no sense to be in sales and think otherwise. I want you to see that the effort it takes to reach your potential in sales is no greater than the effort to be average.

I actually believe it takes more out of a salesperson to produce below their potential than it does to take massive action towards achieving it. When you aren’t living up to your potential, it brings your spirit and will to win down. It brings your attitude down and limits your success. You are always better off working towards your potential and taking positive action! I believe we are created in God’s image, uniquely designed by the creator himself to do amazing things with the abilities he has blessed us with for our lives here on earth. If you are not using your gifts and abilities, it’s only natural that you will feel guilty about this. It’s only natural that you will have this little voice in the back of your head that is calling for you constantly.

Some people get good at ignoring that voice, and they do it for so long eventually it becomes harder and harder to hear. At some point, the voice gets so low and weak that it’s no longer there at all. This is the “numb” stage of the average trap. This is where you have been living below your potential for so long you are now sold on this level of existence and have accepted it. The good news is you can be “unsold” on this thinking, and that’s what I am hoping to do for you. When you are new to sales it’s like anything else in life that is new and interesting. Whether it’s a new relationship, a new friendship, a new car, a new career, whatever it is it doesn’t matter. When it’s new you are excited and it’s easy to be fully committed to it, you are sold. You’re sold and that’s why you exhibit such energy and enthusiasm day after day in the beginning.

You need to maintain that commitment and excitement for your sales career right from the beginning. Like every profession, sales has its ups and downs, but you have the ability to choose how you’re going to handle it and deal with it. Stay sold on your goals and the things you wish to accomplish in your career. Listen to that little voice that tells you to do big things and dream about great accomplishments. Learn to make this way of thinking your lifestyle.

Here Are Some Things I Think About To Stay Sold On My Sales Career!

Committing myself to greatness and maintaining professionalism at all times is very rewarding personally and professionally. My sales career allows me to have a purpose, I am able to help people through the products and services I sell. I create the buying experience my customers want and frankly deserve. My sales career makes my life about more than just me because I am responsible for all my customers.

I acquire ongoing knowledge because of my profession, which in turn makes me more valuable to my customers and the company I work for. Customers will pay more to do business with you if you are able to handle things for them efficiently, and professionally. It is a very rewarding feeling to know that someone is willing to pay a little more because they know you will be worth it. That is creating personal value and worth!

I have been able to create some wonderful relationships over my years selling. You will hopefully find this to be one of your favorite parts of sales as you get started. I would recommend to you that you get involved with your customers right from the start. Establish yourself a great follow up system. You are in the people business first and foremost, and people still choose to buy from salespeople they like AND trust every day. I have also developed a tremendous sense of “job security” since committing to and becoming a sales professional. I know that no matter where I go, I know how to sell. I know how to create an opportunity and sell, so there will always be work for someone like myself. A professional knows that his services are always needed because there is such a shortage of great professional salespeople in today’s world.

My sales career offers me the opportunity to make the income I desire. This is something you can really use to motivate yourself in sales if you are driven by financial reward. If you are not money motivated, that’s ok I get that too. Personally, I am more motivated by what money does for me than I am the actual money itself. But no matter your view on money, there is no denying the fact that the more money you have, the more people you can help and freedom you will enjoy. A sales career can offer great financial rewards, especially for someone who is committed to becoming a professional and focuses on their training. I love to train and it brings me a greater sense of accomplishment knowing that I can handle myself in the sales process and produce a successful income for myself and my family.

With customers researching more and more online now than ever before, today’s customer is full of information and looking for someone to help them sort it all out. There is a need for the salesperson just as much today as there was 20 years ago. As technology gets more and more sophisticated our customers will need us more in different ways. If you don’t commit yourself now, you will be left behind. A sales career is no different than any other career, if you don’t know what you’re doing you won’t be successful. If you are not successful you eventually won’t enjoy selling and may even develop a disdain for sales. If you have decided that you want to be great in your sales career, and you want to become a professional salesperson, make sure you commit yourself to continued training and learning. I am rooting for you to be a great salesperson because I love this profession and I want to see more great salespeople out there having success in their careers. I want people to look at a career in sales and see it for what it can be, a wonderful opportunity to create a truly successful life.

Wrapping it all up!

Well, I hope at this point I have made my case to you about the choice you have to make. Regardless, you will make a choice. Will you choose to become a professional, and enjoy a successful career in sales? Or will you choose to remain an amateur status, consistently falling short of your true potential? What kind of a choice are you going to make? In today’s world sales is all about “what have you done for me lately?” You deserve to enjoy a career that offers you personal, professional, and financial fulfillment. Your customers are going to change more and more, and if you don’t choose wisely for your sales career and decide to commit yourself to becoming a pro, you will be left trying to keep your head above water.

So you may be new to sales, or maybe you have been in sales for a little while now and you’re asking yourself the same question many people in sales jobs ask themselves. Is this a way of life for me? For some people, a sales position may not be the right career. However, even if you are not a professional salesperson, or you find that a career in sales isn’t your thing, just remember that EVERYONE on planet earth sells to get what they want. How successful, happy, and fulfilled you are in life is determined in part by the level to which you can sell others on your ideas, wants, desires, products or services. Selling is not only a way of life, It impacts the quality of our lives tremendously. 

One of the things I am most grateful for is that I have become a professional salesperson. I am also a constant student, always looking for ways to improve. When you understand the sales process from start to finish, you can always create income for yourself by selling. When you know how to sell, you never have to worry about providing for your family, and in most cases the more hustle you add to skill the bigger the checks!

If you are just starting out in your sales career and find that you’re asking yourself whether or not sales is for you, I want to share a few things with you that have stuck with me over the years and have truly helped me build a successful career. These next points will make you be more effective at the beginning of your career and build the foundation you need for lasting success, and avoid negative setbacks or mentality. You will question yourself less, instead of asking whether this is a way of life, you will hopefully begin to see selling as a great way of life!

For Starters, You Need To Be Honest

This couldn’t be truer in sales. You really need to remember that honesty is always the best way to handle every situation, Period! You want to build a sales career on a foundation of honesty. You want people to trust you because when they trust you they stay loyal. They stay loyal because they know you have their best interest in mind. You also want to have a reputation for honesty and fairness among your peers. If you are in a sales environment where you work on a team, it’s vital you’re always honest about your dealings with your co-workers. Nothing can ruin a salesperson faster than getting a reputation for dishonesty, or taking what’s not theirs.

So remember, your role as a salesperson is to supply the customer with enough information to make a good buying decision. You want to give honest facts, comparisons, testimonials, advice, and you want to be honest in every way. You also want to treat others in your office the same. Fair and Honest. In the end, it will always be worth it. By always doing the right thing you will have less stress, happier customers, better working relationships and bigger paychecks throughout your career.

You Need To Have A Great Attitude

This one goes without saying, you need a great attitude. I did an entire post on attitude, you can read that here. However, when you are new to sales there is a 90-day phenomenon that seems to exist. This is where a new salesperson will come in and start off hot right out the gates. Their sales performance is great, their attitude is great, and they make sales! However, it seems like after 90 days something happens to the new salesperson. Don’t lose your excitement, Attitude makes all the difference in a sales career! Maybe you get some negative information about your product, service, company, or whatever it is and now your attitude isn’t as good about things as it was before. You start to focus on things that you didn’t pay any attention to in the first few months, and the result is your sales performance suffers.

Keep your attitude where it needs to be. It needs to be great! No attitude other than a great one is going to pay you in sales, trust me. You cannot have a massively successful career in sales with a bad, negative attitude. No-one is going to want to work with you, manage you, or buy from you. Keep your attitude great, keep it positive, and you’ll have more success in sales and enjoy your career!

How hard you hustle makes a difference

For ten years of my sales career, I worked as a salesperson, and then sales manager and trainer for a large furniture company. My mentor during this era of my career was the CEO of the company. He took me under his wing and taught me the skills I have built my career on. He also taught me the quality of hard work and hustle.

He was and probably still is the hardest working person I’ve ever seen. He was tremendously successful with his business, a true inspiration for me. Ever since then I have known that as long as I am capable and willing to hustle, I can be successful in my life. Basically, my belief has always been however much I am willing to put of myself into something, I can expect to receive that in return. I can’t put 50% effort into something and expect 100% in return, right? I learned very quickly hard work was the way to see major success in sales, and life! So I hustled and worked hard. The harder I worked the more success I had. You really need to hustle, especially in today’s competitive selling environment. One of the biggest value adds to your customer is your amount of hustle. People like working with someone who hustles and isn’t afraid to do hard work. They’re usually willing to pay more for the level of service that comes from someone who hustles!

So if you’re new to sales maybe bringing some light to these things will help you realize that a career in sales is a great career to choose. You can shake off the uncertainty of whether this is a way of life for you or not. Commit and go all in. A sales career requires hard work, passion, persistence, and a great attitude to become successful. OK, so what if you are honest, you have a great attitude, and you hustle like crazy always looking to go that extra mile for people and still find yourself questioning things. You might feel like selling is something you could be really good at, and you like helping people, but for some reason, your performance is always up and down. Why is it so hard for you to have the consistency in your job that brings the consistent income as well? Well, ask yourself this:

Are you getting the training you need?

Regardless of tenure, every salesperson needs training. Actually, you need daily training, and you need training specific to your skill set, as well as a regular practice of the basics. This is no different than the old analogy we’ve all heard before about why professional athletes like Tom Brady practice the basics, run plays over and over, and watch hours of tape all week long before game day on Sunday. It’s no different as a salesperson, only your game tape is role-playing with a co-worker. Your plays are knowing your product knowledge so when your customer has a question you are an authority on what you sell.

You need to know the sales process, selling skills, closing skills, prospecting skills, follow up skills and techniques for every part of your job. To become a professional in your sales career you need to acquire not only experience but technical skill and understanding of the profession. If you are questioning whether sales is it for you, most likely you are not getting the results you want. Without the professional training, you need your sales results will always be up and down as well as your attitude about the job.

I am a big believer in training. You must keep the saw sharp and training daily does just that. I highly recommend YOU invest in your own training if your company doesn’t already offer training to you. I don’t mean Saturday meetings or a once a quarter get together. I am talking about technology that offers daily training and support to your sales career.  If you are able to have success in sales you will enjoy sales. But it’s really like that with everything, isn’t it? I mean, if you are a teacher and you aren’t able to teach your students, how much are you going to enjoy being a teacher? Get the proper and ongoing training you need so you can succeed in your sales career!

Another thing that some people really struggle with when they are in sales is the commission. For some reason, this word has become almost as dirty as the word PROFIT! Or, the other side of the coin with the commission, and this I think is more common, is the fear of the unknown. Many people fear to work on straight commission or a pay scale that heavily weighted towards commissions opposed to a fixed salary or hourly wage. Are you unsure about working on commission? Well, everything is a commission in life!

I would choose being paid on commission over a fixed salary or fixed hourly wage EVERY SINGLE TIME. I always want to be in control of my income. I don’t want to be told how much I can make. That’s the beauty of a commissioned sales career. As I mentioned above, if you hustle and work hard, the sky is the limit. Assuming, of course, you work for a company that doesn’t cap your commissions in some way and personally I never would. Working on commission shouldn’t cause you to be concerned or stressed, instead, it should motivate and excite you to set your own income goal and then go out, take action and achieve it. Working on commission is freeing and truly the American way. If sales are your career, I wouldn’t get paid any other way!

Finally, remember this about the commission. It’s not a dirty word. Everything in life is a commission. When you find the right person in life and treat them right, the commission is love, friendship, and happiness. When you go to school, work hard, study and apply yourself the commission is good grades, scholarships, and opportunity. I could go on and on. It’s foolish to think only “salespeople” work for commissions. Commissions are a good thing and everyone works for a commission in some way, remember that!

Wrapping it all up!

A sales career can be a great way of life. Selling is a very important profession, and I hope I have made my case as to why it’s vital to your success in life regardless if you choose it for a career or not. If it is your career, remember that what you do every day is significant. You need to be honest and have integrity at all times.You need to have a great attitude and hustle. There is nothing that can replace the hard work you need to put in in order to have a successful career. Make sure you get the training you need and be willing to invest in yourself when necessary to acquire the skills and knowledge you need to consistently succeed at high levels and earn big commissions.

Car shoppers want information and they want to be able to find it easily. They also want to be able to compare products easily to make a determination of which will best suit their families needs in many different ways. This is why the king of online shopping Amazon is so popular, you select a product of interest and they supply you with other "comparables" and reviews right away making it easy to research and make an informed decision. 

When I started selling years ago a sales mentor of mine in those early days defined selling to me as supplying the customer with enough information to make an educated buying decision. What he was really telling me was help your customers solve their particular problem by being a resource of information to help them do just that.

I knew my product inside and out and how it could help, I could compare products with the other products I offered to give my customers different choices, value, options, and compare to my competition so my customer didn't have to or if they did confirm what they already knew. I was able to help my customers and built a reputation for being a true resource.

However, today we can be a resource as salespeople in such a bigger way than when I first started selling by leveraging the power of social media, online blogging, websites like DrivingSales.com, video platforms like YouTube, or anything else that allows us to build our brand by offering great content that our customers can engage with. We need to be the resource our customers turn to when they are in the market for a vehicle. We need to be the authority on what's happening in our industry.

Salespeople have a tremendous opportunity in today's world, 2018 should be your best year. If you're New to Sales and just getting going you have taken a step into a changing world and a fun world of sales, especially in the car business. Yes, things are changing all the time, but the reality is they have already changed big time in the car business and the salespeople who dominate the future are different than those who dominated the past!   

Change is inevitable, and if you avoid it you will feel pain in your sales career.

One thing is for certain is that the way salespeople sell today is different with the advances in technology and being able to connect with so many people so quickly and easily and in some cases even for free! Some salespeople refuse to change once they get used to something, while others with methods more modern refuse to see any use in "older" techniques that still have value.

Willingness to accept and adapt to change is how you will realize your potential.

If you stay in the same place all the time you see the same things all the time. If you want to see something new you need to go new places, meet new people, and look for opportunity beyond your comfort zone. Like Zig Ziglar used to say, "You go as far as you can see and when you get there you'll always be able to see further!" This is very true, but we tend to get stuck in our comfort zones and refuse to accept change when something new comes along and when you do this you always lose because you never get the chance to see the next horizon and go for it. Be ready for a change by continually growing into a better version of yourself every single day.  

Right now you could be a successful young salesperson reading this using modern day techniques and marketing practices second to none to reach your customer base and generate leads, etc. But I promise you at some point there will be new technology, new ideas, and new ways of doing what you're doing that someone else just like you someday will think is THE BEST way to do it. That doesn't mean what you're doing right now won't have some value in the future, and maybe it will still work best for some people, but being open to trying new things and technologies is a crucial mindset to have especially learning it early on when you're New to Sales!

There is a lot of debate between MANY high profile, high performing, Type A personalities out there in the sales world about whether or not cold calling is dead for instance. Yes, cold calling is one of those highly debated topics in sales and if you're new to selling I am sure you have heard about cold calling and the varying opinions salespeople have. Of course, it's important that you decide what you think and feel to find a way to be successful selling yourself, your product or service, and your company. If you know of a way to accomplish your goals without cold calling, good for you then go for it!

But does cold calling still play an important role in the success of many salespeople? Grant Cardone who has built 4 companies on cold calling that produce a $100 million a year or more in sales believes it's one of if not THE most important things you need to be doing. When someone like that still advocates for it then I listen and take note. Cold Calling my friends has its place in the sales process for almost all salespeople and companies. That's why big companies spend big money on cold calling. People hate cold calls yes, the stats stink and if you go by the stats then you wouldn't do it, but there's something more to it than the crummy stats and that's what made Cardone a sales and business superstar!

One tip on Cold Calling that Cardone gives is to "blanket" a market with cold calling for a few days. Make calls and focus on getting appointments for later in the week when you spend two days than calling on those leads in person. He says to even be sure to visit the prospects that hung up on you when you called! That's right because most people forget 75% or more of what they talked about the previous day and 94% of people don't remember a single cold call they received in the last 24 months! So CALL and CALL again he says, and be sure to even follow up with a visit!

Now others like the "Hardcore Closer" Ryan Stewman have figured out how to generate leads and make a ton of sales from them in the process. His way works, it's modern, and it's a change from what would be considered an "old school way" in what I described Cardone advocating. Both of these men are successful, I mean c'mon GC owns a jet! So who is right and who is wrong? I say neither is right and neither is wrong, they both just found what works for them and that's what we all need to do to be successful.

So the best advice I can give you is to be open to change when you're New to Sales and willing to learn new things every day you can. But ultimately you have to find the things which work best for you and how you are most likely to succeed consistently long term. We are all different and selling is very personal and unique, the salespeople who find a genuine sales persona and process do the best and have the most success.

Wrapping it all UP!

Remember, it is very hard to act like someone and something you're not for too long before you have a hard time keeping up with the unhappiness. You have to be yourself in sales and that will lead to you finding success on your terms. Cold Calling works, Funnels work, social media works, etc. etc. so use them all, get good at them all and maximize your efforts by doing what works for you with an attitude of acceptance towards change so that you're always in a position to grow and get better, to reach your potential.

This is a very powerful mindset to establish when you're New to Sales, but you can do it I'm rooting for you and I'm always here to help!

Did you like this blog? Are you new to sales? I want to connect with you!

Subscribe to the New to Sales Success Tips delivered to your inbox every Monday morning at 6 AM.