Sean Huckstep Needing motivation to reach your potential for the new year? Learn how to become a highly effective salesperson with these 10 sales tips.
“Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential.” -Stephen R. Covey
You don’t want to let your potential go to waste. That’s why we have provided you with these 10 sales tips that will train you to have better personal and sales habits. Get started learning how to be successful and highly effective now.
#1 Get 7-8 Hours of Sleep Regularly
There are physical and mental benefits to getting enough sleep each night and a science behind sleeping that a lot of people don’t understand. Many people think it’s a feat that they can get by on four or five hours of sleep. However, you can’t catch up on sleep that you miss each night.
Lack of sleep leads to impaired judgment, an inability to receive information, and a weakened immune system. The goal for adults is 7-8 hours of sleep per night to function at your very best. If you aren’t getting enough sleep then selling to a client will be the last thing you can do effectively.
#2 Always Have a Goal in Mind
This principle goes hand in hand with being proactive and having a clear plan of what your selling timeline is. Planning ahead of time will save you a lot of stress in the future of your sales process.
Having goals in mind can be personal or company wide if that’s what you prefer. HubSpot Academy recommends 8 Steps to Setting Smarter Sales Goals including monthly sales goals to incentivize you and your team and corporate goals.
Setting smarter goals will greatly increase your effectiveness as a sales rep. By following this guide and setting practical sales goals, you and your team will be much more effective and successful in this new year.
#3 Consistency is Key
Effective sales habits don’t form overnight. That’s why you need to be consistent about the habits that you want to form as a salesperson. Once you have found a sales system that is effective for you and yields positive results, then why change those habits? Having a consistent effort in a proven sales process will give you consistent results to success.
#4 Honor the Prospect
This tip is centered on mutual respect between you and your customer. According to our very own Chief Strategy Officer, Zac Kerr, you can honor the prospect (customer) by saying “Mr. Customer, regardless of the outcome, I want you to know I honor you for your accomplishments in your personal career and within your current company. As I researched your background, . . .” This shows them that you respect their time and decisions.
This not only establishes trust between you and the customer, but also a level of respect and loyalty. Over time, this will build a strong brand reputation that invites more business and creates stronger customer relationships.
#5 Solve for the Customer
Before a big pitch, get to know the needs of your customer. Don’t oversell them on features or products that won’t be beneficial. They want to know exactly how your product will help their specific needs. Knowing what your customer will respond to from your sales pitch is done with preparation. Today’s consumers are smart and well-informed. That means you need to be prepared with smart questions to uncover their past experiences with sales reps, discover things about their personality, and always explain what’s in it for them.
#6 Work on Your Follow-up Game
This may seem like an obvious tip, but effective salespeople never let a promising lead go dry. Whether it be cold calling, emailing, or calling someone after having a meeting with them, following up is a key practice that will land you more sales.
Here are 5 Secrets to Mastering Sales Follow-Up that help you learn how to categorize your leads from the three categories. There are leads ready now (hot), leads that will be ready soon (warm), and leads that may never be ready (cold or dead). It’s important to categorize each lead according to this process because you don’t want to waste your time with cold or bad leads.
To be effective you want to follow-up with leads that are hot and convince warm leads to turn hot through good follow-up. Timing will also play a huge role in how you approach different lead types via phone or email.
#7 Track Your Personal Sales Progress
If you track the number of sales you make month-to-month you may surprise yourself with the results. Tracking gives you the ability to see how far you’ve come from your first month to your current month. If you’ve already started selling, still track your personal sales and note what you think is working for you and what should be improved in each month.
Using our Lead Tracker function and Sales Leaderboards are great ways to track your progress. If you’re not tracking, you’re not going to know how well you’re doing or if you’re improving. If you’re in the dark about your performance, you can’t make the adjustments you need to in order to improve and grow.
#8 Learn to Take Breaks
This may seem counterproductive to being a highly effective person, but it is more important than you think to give yourself planned breaks. Workaholism is a real danger that many sales reps face.
On the other hand, learning to take breaks and giving your brain time to relax will actually make you more effective when you resume working. A 2017 study on 503 sales reps about the effects of workaholism discovered some compelling statistics:
- ⅓ of sales reps say they have no work and life balance
- 68% of reps say their lifestyle is challenging
- ½ of friends and families of reps state that they work too much
- ⅓ of reps say their job negatively impacts their life
- 72% of reps say they wish they had more time off
There are several more statistics that all point to the same conclusion: sales reps suffer from workaholism. This is not a given standard across the board, some reps have the work and life balance figured out, but as these statistics prove: many have not.
Be sure to work hard and give it your all, but respect the limits of your body and mind and give them the rest they need so that they can keep performing for a long time.
#9 Identify Your Strongest Motivator
This can also be known as having your “why.” In order to sell at your most effective, you need to have a reason to do so. The reason can be whatever drives you, whatever motivates your passion to close sales.
But if you don’t know how to answer the question “Why do I want to be successful?” then you need to self-reflect. Having a strong motivation will allow you to feel like the time you put into yourself and your career is worth it.
It doesn’t matter what drives you to be an effective salesperson, but the bottom line is that you need to find a motivator to be at your most successful.
#10 Honesty is the Best Policy
It is common knowledge that sales reps lose credibility if they are found being dishonest. If you want to be effective and credible as a sales rep, then honesty is a must.
When it comes to being a passionate sales rep, it can be hard not to bend the truth just enough to land a sale. However, lying will decrease your long term relationship with that customer. If you are honest in telling the customer what is truly best for them, they will thank you for it and potentially come back for another sale because they trust you.
Honesty not only benefits you as a sales rep with your customers, but also your mental and physical well-being. The American Psychological Association conducted new research that finds telling the truth can significantly improve a person’s mental and physical health.
Conclusion
Now it’s time to crush your sales goals every month by using these habits for amazing results. They will help transform you into a more effective salesperson through consistency and mindfulness.
You can also check out the additional sources below to get even more ideas of how to be efficient in sales.
Additional Sources for More Tips
- SalesRabbit: Becoming a Better Salesperson
- HubSpot Academy: How I Doubled My Sales in One Year
- Sales Hacker: Sell like a Psycho(Therapist): 3 Counseling Techniques to Crush Your Quota
- Stephen R. Covey: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
