Why It Is So Easy To Become An Exceptional Sales Person

When I was 18 years old, I got a summer job working for a company then called Jewel Tea, whose business was selling groceries, housewares and kids clothing to housewives on a route.  I was hired to work the routes for the vacationing sales people who owned the route. 

At age 18, I had no sales experience and little personal presence or confidence, but I consistently outsold the older, more experienced people who owned the route, and was recognized by the company as the “outstanding college student” summer employee.

I was astonished.  I had no idea why I was successful.  It really wasn’t that hard. I just did what my boss told me to do, in the way he told me to do it.  Didn’t everybody do it this way?

Over my career as a sales person, I sold a variety of products in a variety of selling situations.  From suits and sport coats in a retail men’s store, to capital equipment to schools, to surgical staplers to surgeons in the operating room, to 70,000 line items for a wholesale distributor.  I always did well, and was the number one sales person in the nation for two different companies and two distinctly different selling situations.

I was always a bit perplexed by my success.  I always worked hard; always tried to do well; listened to my boss and did what he told me to do; and constantly sought out ways to improve my skills.  I bought the books, went to the seminars, listened to the audios, etc. 

For almost my entire selling career, I could never understand why I was more successful than others in my company.  Didn’t everybody do it this way?

It wasn’t until I formed my sales consulting/sales training practice and began to work with sales people and sales forces that I discovered the answer to the question.  “No, not everyone did it like this.  In fact, very few do.”

What did I do that I now realize very few sales people do?  These are the three cornerstone characteristics that I just took for granted, but which I have since discovered are the rare building blocks upon which sales success is built.

1.  Work hard, every day.  I can’t believe I’m actually telling people to work hard.  That ‘work ethic’ was just instilled in me by my parents.  I was raised in a family of six boys, and we all had paper routes and part-time jobs as soon as we were able.  We were expected to work hard.  I never questioned the wisdom of it.

Of course there were times when I took that afternoon off, or those special long weekends.  Every employer, though, got at least 45 – 50 hours from me every week. 

In my practice, however, I run into sales people seemingly every week who have no problem with routinely leaving the house at nine and being done for the day at three.  As one of my clients verbalized recently:  “So many people in the work force today have an entitlement mentality, a short attention span, and inordinate hubris.”  If he’s right, that’s too bad.  Those are not qualities upon which success is built.

2.  Try to do well.  Again, I find it incredible that I have to mention this. Doesn’t everyone strive to do well?  Actually, no.  The vast majority of people, sales people included, just want to do a job and forget about it at the end of the day.  Only a small fraction – somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent in my experience – actually strive, day in and day out, to do well. The reason why most sales people are not highly successful is that they don’t want to be successful.

Let me be really clear.  Everyone wants the results of doing well – the extra income, the higher degree of respect from bosses and colleagues, the feeling of accomplishment and the extra confidence that comes as a result of sales success. But very few are willing to pay the price for it.

I remember reading a quote from a famous coach, whose name escapes me at the moment.  It went something like this:  “Every athletic has the will to win, but only the winners have the will to practice.”  There is a price to pay to be successful.  You have to want to be successful, and you have to want to be successful badly enough that you will invest time, money, ego, energy and emotions in it.

3.  Constantly improve.  Believe it or not, you are not as good as you can be.  Ever.  If you are going to be successful at sales, you have to become more competent than you are now. 

Sales is a proactive profession.  In other words, the customers don’t send you a purchase order, and then you go see them.  No, you must see them first, and influence them successfully.  Your actions get reactions.  If you act well, they will react accordingly, and you’ll eventually get enough of the deals to become successful.  If you don’t act well, they will react accordingly, and you’ll forever be relegated to mediocrity. 

So, if you want to be successful, you must continually improve your skills, your habits, your attitudes and your mindsets.  That’s something that only a handful of sales people actually understand.

There are two things to do to continually improve:

a.  Constantly reflect on your performance and your actions and identify things to improve.  That means, reflect and evaluate after every sales call.

b.  Expose yourself to the best practice of the profession.  That means read the books, go to the seminars, listen to the audios, read the Ezines, etc.

Now, here is why it is so easy to succeed at sales.  Sales is the only profession where most of the practitioners don’t practice the three simple habits above.  In every other profession, there is the expectation that serious practitioners will continually improve.  That’s why doctors go to conferences, nurses have in-service training, lawyers read case studies, executives attend roundtables, minister listen to webinars, etc.  Every other profession in the world expects its members to constantly improve, and the vast majority of them do. 

In the profession of sales, there is no expectation for constant improvement.  So, most sales people don’t bother.  The reason it’s so easy to be successful in sales is that your competition, other sales people, don’t really want to be successful!

4 Nervous Habits That Kill Sales

Have you ever had that out of body experience where you feel like you’re watching yourself kill a sale? …where it feels like you can literally see the prospect becoming less eager to buy but you just can’t stop yourself from making the situation even worse? You aren’t alone. I work with exhibitors full time and, because the sales process is accelerated during trade shows, there are plenty of opportunities to observe booth staffers who feel like they’re under intense pressure (or simply out of their element) and inadvertently turn off their visitors with nervous habits.

If you have ever experienced this issue, or know someone else who has, this article is for you. Here are four of the most common nervous habits that kill sales and what you can do to avoid them in your next selling situation:

1. Not talking enough.

As the meeting host (FYI – if you’re selling, you’re the host …whether that “meeting” is taking place in your office, trade show booth, or local Starbucks line), you are responsible for progressing the conversation. I don’t mean that you should monopolize the conversation (see habit number two below); but, it’s not okay for you to clam up either. If you don’t do your part to carry the conversation, instead of making your guest feel welcome and at ease (so they begin to like, know, and trust you), you’re placing all of the pressure onto them to entertain you. In this scenario, your problem is that you are not talking enough.

So, if you find yourself becoming too quiet, speak up! You need to be engaged, ask questions, and listen thoughtfully so that you can respond to your prospect’s comments before transitioning the conversation from one stage to the next. If you do get stuck (say you stumble upon a sensitive topic or draw a blank), just take a breath, remember that you’re probably more bothered by any awkwardness than your contact is, and redirect the conversation to a topic that will help you reach your mutual goals.

2. Talking too much.

If you get carried away with avoiding habit number one, you may see your prospect’s eyes glaze over, notice that he has a sudden fascination with his watch/phone, or feel like something really exciting must be happening just over your shoulder. These are all signs that you are talking more than you should and have lost your prospect’s interest. On the flip side, you may find that this habit causes your contact to withdraw from the conversation (especially if your “talking” sounds more like “interviewing”) or become confused while trying to translate your babbling back into coherent sentences. If you observe either of these responses, you are talking too much.

So, if you catch yourself being a bit too chatty, wrap up your current sentence as quickly as possible and immediately follow it with a question for your contact. As long as you let him answer and listen thoughtfully while doing so, this can be an excellent start to reengaging your prospect. From that point forward, it will be even more important to ensure that you are focusing on his needs, his interests, and his continued involvement in the conversation (so that there is a conversation to progress).

3. Overcompensating.

As a sales professional, there are times when you might feel unprepared or inadequate (for example, when you find that you aren’t as familiar with your prospect’s situation as you should be or you realize that your competitor excels in key areas that you don’t). In this situation, there are two clear options: lie or own up to your unpleasant feelings. However, in the moment, you may choose a different option. You may choose to “highlight” the knowledge you do have, like irrelevant industry information (to distract from anything you don’t know) or your competitor’s personal and professional weaknesses (to detract from their positive attributes). Even if you justify this by saying you’re doing your best in a challenging situation, you should know that you’re really just hurting yourself by overcompensating.

So, if you find yourself exaggerating to make up for your lack of preparation or confidence, reevaluate your options. If the information you don’t know is necessary in order to progress the conversation, either ask or reschedule your meeting until you can do additional research. If you are tempted to badmouth the competition, don’t; simply shift your focus back to the relevant benefits your products/services provide. Take the high road and bite your tongue as needed.

4. Appearing desperate.

In a society where the old “minimum standard” is seen as the new “extra mile,” going above and beyond is impressive to prospects and appreciated by clients. However, there is a fine line between providing excellent customer service and offering too much. Once you have offered a huge discount, promised to personally be available 24/7/365 to hold your (hopefully) new client’s hand, and agreed to rush the order at no additional cost, you have probably given away too much. In fact, if your prospect was sold on the value of your offerings themselves, throwing in all of those extras may just be causing him to question his original assessment… Your prospect may now be saying to himself, “why does she need this order so badly? If her offerings are as great as I thought they were, why is she practically giving them away? Maybe they aren’t so great after all…”

Side note: If your prospect can’t see the value of your offerings without so many extra benefits, you missed a step in the sales process; randomly throwing in extra benefits at this point, without resolving these issues, is not your best long term solution.

So, if you catch yourself going too far, just stop and wait for your prospect to respond to what you have already promised. If the package isn’t quite right, design a new offer that is a better fit for his situation (if he wants more benefits, charge a higher price or if he’d prefer a lower price, take away the expensive extras). Negotiating is part of the game, but don’t trade your self-respect or give your offerings away at a loss to get the sale. Premium offerings should come at a premium price (or else they won’t receive the respect they deserve).

In conclusion, nervous energy isn’t all bad. In fact, these actions can actually be helpful in small doses (for example, striking a balance between facilitating a conversation and being an active part of it, reinforcing your relevant expertise without getting lost on a tangent, and offering a great opportunity without appearing too needy or being unfair to yourself). However, it is important to consciously rein in those actions; instead of watching yourself spin out of control, keep your nervous habits in check and utilize them in the more positive ways mentioned throughout this article.