SALES Secrets v2

A couple of weeks ago over the 4th of July holiday weekend, my daughter and I stopped at our local Ace Hardware on Saturday to grab a few essential items.

As we were waiting in line to check out and one of the employees said, “Make sure you sign up for the grill giveaway!”

Now, in my close to 44 years of life on this earth, there hasn’t been much, if anything that I’ve won.

• In high school, I won a television, but that was because I sold the most frozen pizzas door to door, to help raise money for a band trip to Florida.

• Also in high school, I won a couple of leadership awards within the band program, but again, was an output from my actions over many months.

• Throughout my professional career, I’ve won various sales rep of the month/year awards. Yet, again, due to my actions and investments in time and skill.

So for years, I’ve avoided the ‘sign up here to win the free’ whatever. I never win.

As I was having breakfast the next morning, Sunday, I received a call from an unknown number. I avoided it. But then the same number called again. I thought it was odd that I was receiving a spam call on a Sunday morning on a holiday weekend.

After cleaning up my dishes and the kitchen, I listened to the voicemail.

I won. I WON? Yes, I won the grill.

My daughter was more excited than I was, but I did think it was pretty cool!

And imagine, if I would have kept my same negative attitude towards winning a random drawing and prize, this moment between my daughter and I never would have gotten to take place.

_{Do you follow Twitter? If not, I’ll post my “Sales Tweets of The Week” below, for more thought-provoking ideas, trends, or stories. Check them out below!}

To win, you’ve gotta play the game.

What’s up, homies!

It’s been a hot minute (6 weeks) since my last weekly blast; a lot has been happening, but I’ll leave that for another post.

Like my story of winning the grill, I never would have won if I didn’t play (sign up). As my tweet from above says, When it comes to SALES, in order to have a chance to WIN, you’ve gotta play the game.

You’ve gotta have high activity and be able to turn that activity into buying conversations with prospects.

Here are a few recent tweets that lend a hand towards a few tips and tricks for SALES success.

^{Prepare for a SALES presentation with a customer-led agenda.}

You’ve made it to the finish line. You’ve outdueled your competition and have a presentation to solidify your offering.

The majority of SALES reps will prepare a presentation on what THEY think the customer wants to hear more about.

But the best SALES reps, those with the highest closing percentages, ask their customer what they should prepare for, and/or what the customer wants you to spend your time on.

Don’t stop being strategic, ever. Keep engaging your customer. Keep asking questions. That’s how you’ll win.

^{“I’ll figure it out.”}

Throughout middle and high school, I grew up in a middle-class suburban landscape. The ‘bubble’ was alive and well, and I was fortunate to come from a household with two parents. Upon graduating from high school, and later, from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, there was a definite moment in my early twenties where I remember thinking, “I’ve gotta figure my own stuff out; my parents aren’t always going to be there to extend the suburban bubble.”

When I got my first big-boy sales job at the age of 24 and had quotas and responsibilities just like my coworkers who were 10, 20, or even 30 years older than me, I remember thinking, “No one’s showing up to do this job for me.”

And a few years later, when I quit that job to start a real estate company in 2006, I all of a sudden was the owner of multiple properties. And when something broke or needed attention? Again, ‘no one’s going to fix this for me.’

You might call these realizations simply growing up. Or maturity flourishing.

I might not disagree with you, but don’t lose sight of the idea around mindset. The best SALES professionals I’ve ever worked with as peers have always adopted the mantra: “I’ll figure it out.”

And they always do.

^Grit.

I don’t care which industry or type of job you work in. Plain and simple, the people that are successful in both metrics and facades are the ones who display grit.

They work hard. They don’t wait for something to be given to them.

When I first started in my current industry (12 years ago) I didn’t make my first sale for over 10 months. I was nervous about my job. Others who started with me in my new SALES onboarding class were out selling deals and seemingly having more success than I was having.

“Are all of these other reps that much better than me?”

Later, I would realize that they weren’t, but I was self-doubting my abilities.

What did I do? I rolled up my sleeves and made my goals as small as possible.

• When I booked a new prospect meeting, or got a response back from a strategic follow-up, or successfully convinced a prospect to visit our office, or … the list could go on.

I labeled all of those task-related outcomes “Small Cs.” They were small closes that were laying the framework towards the “Big C,” or the SALE. They were direct and non-direct ways that the prospects were telling me “yes.”

But all of that work didn’t underscore the power or grit. Simply rolling my sleeves up, working longer hours, and not being afraid to fail. Or if I did fail, I was at least going to go out doing it my way.

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The moral of the story? Agendas never fail, and not being afraid to fail will always afford you victory.

There are a billion gazillion ways to succeed in SALES. And everyone does it differently. But these three tactics or mindsets will literally help you come closer to your SALES goals this year, and forever.

Sales Tweets of The Week!

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