Tips to become a Sales Super Star

Build a businessStop thinking about closing single transactions and instead focus on building a sustainable long term business, one satisfied customer at a time and then use all your satisfied customers as leverage, to get referrals to the next perfect prospect, who needs exactly what you have to sell.

ListenKnow your own value proposition and research your markets to discover your perfect clients, always ask questions and listen far more than you speak, when in front of your customers or prospects. This way you will develop a complete understanding of your customers and prospects needs.

Deliver more than you promiseConsistently look for innovative ways to always go the extra mile and constantly look for ways to blow the socks off your prospects and clients, with all the consistent extra value you bring. Every time you exceed the expectations of your clients or prospects, you build trust and cement the relationship with them. As you know people buy from people they know, like, trust and who offer them great value. The more you can over deliver, the greater will be the trust and so they will no longer just be customers any longer, they will become raving fans, who will actually help you to grow your business.

Invest time on things, which yield a returnFocus and prioritise your time only on things, which yield the greatest return, stop wasting time on low yield functions. Always be on the look-out for new, better more innovative ways to allocate your time, so that you can get the most from your available time. For example, if the administrative function is wasting your time and stopping you from selling as much as you could, then consider hiring an administrative person to support you.

I can hear those of you, who do not truly believe that you are running your own business, saying “It is not my responsibility to pay the staff at my employers company”. Well imagine, if you could treble your sales commission every month and you only paid an administrative person a fraction of that as a salary. Would that not be one of the wisest financial decisions you have ever made?

Develop your networking Skills
I am not talking about making contact with people and collecting business cards at networking events here. I am talking about leveraging the right contacts, so that you can turn them into “sales contracts”. This requires work and a system to ensure that you are firstly attending the right networking events and secondly that you connect with the right people at these networking events.

Action Idea: Before attending any networking events, ensure that you get a list of all the people, who will be attending the event. This is a really simple exercise, where you phone the networking event organiser the day before the event and request a list of names and companies, who will be attending the event. Explore the names of the people and companies from the list and see if there are companies, who need what you sell who are attending. This will allow you to save buckets of time, as you will be certain that it is worth investing the time to attend that specific networking event.

Once you have established that the event is worth attending, the next step is to research the people you want to connect with at the event. Research them on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google etc. and find out as much information as possible on them before attending the event. Also print a picture of them, so that you won’t waste any time at the networking event, trying to find the people who you want to connect with at the event.

Armed with their photo, you can walk straight up them and introduce yourself. As you have researched them, you will be armed with information to help you make small talk and keep the conversation flowing. Things like, wow I see you recently got a promotion or congratulations on buying that new car, or I see you are also a mountain bike rider etc. Once you have got the person to know and like you at the networking event, the next phase will be to get their business card and to ask them if you can give them a call to discuss how you can help them.

Keep the conversation away from trying to sell anything to the person at the networking event. Make contact with the people, who accept you invitation to make contact with them after the event to set up an appointment to discuss business with them. When you meet with them, always have a long term view in mind and do not try to close a single transaction with them, at the first meeting. Be patient and always have a long term strategy to build a long term mutually beneficial relationship with them. The more you understand their business and their needs the more you will be equipped to ensure that you exceed their expectations in the future.

Sales Super StarTo become a sales super star, you must never think about closing single transactions with prospects or customers in a day, but you should rather have a daily long term strategy, where you explore ways of developing sustainable mutually beneficial relationships with the right people, who need exactly what you offer. Selling or the ability to influence people is a natural skill we all possess, be authentic, have your customer’s best interests at heart, trust yourself and selling becomes effortless and enjoyable.