Sales Performance Boost For Top Salespeople – Part Two

My husband was stuck in our home elevator for 75 minutes. The inside elevator door latch had no hinge for him to grab and my attempts to remove the outside door hinges failed. A community police officer couldn’t budge them off either. And the eight firemen, who repeated all the same steps and more, could not free him from being stuck between floors.

#1 - Top salespeople recognize that a step back can be overcome by a step forward.

As a salesperson have you ever lost one sale, and then another right behind it? Or have you ever procrastinated on activities like follow-up or delivering a proposal or giving a presentation?

Maybe it was a situation of dealing with objections and you felt like you weren’t making any forward movement.

It may at times seem that all your efforts to help your prospect buy are going nowhere. Still you continue to take inspired action expecting positive results in the long run, by calmly taking a step back and looking at how you can entice your customer going on from this point.

Much calmer with about an hour having passed, my husband asked me to get the smallest screwdriver I could find so the firemen could hand it to him through the two inch opening between the bottom of the door and the floor landing.

#2 - Top salespeople stay focused on the customers needs.

By staying in touch with sales prospects, it may seem like you are not moving ahead. However, if you have your eyes on developing the sales relationship more than getting the sale, you will eventually move forward in the sales process; it is inevitable.

Assuming that as a salesperson you bring sales skills, product or service knowledge and excellent personal relationship skills, it could be just a matter of time, more the customer’s time, that you indeed have a new customer.

When you stay focused on the customer, you are most assuredly going to find a solution you can sell and they want to buy.

I did not hear my husband’s request for a small “Philips head” screwdriver, so two trips to the garage became necessary, and caused a delay in getting him out of the elevator.

#3 - Top salespeople that can distinguish hearing from listening, do more listening.

Listening is so critical. In an October 2005 article I wrote, there are 6 key “hearing aids” to listening. (Visit http://www.prostrategies.com/newsletters/eNewsOct05.php to read this article.)

My clients often miss key or operative words in either their own self-talk, which they speak aloud with me. At times we may debrief a client conversation and we find that they may have also missed key or operative words with them as well.

With listening you will know how, when and what to respond to. If you only ‘hear’, you may miss valuable key phrases.

My husband fit his hands in the smallest of spaces to unscrew four screws of the latch box that was a foot above him. Then with a push on his end, a tug from the fireman on the outside, his smiling face was looking up at all of us. A couple of the firemen reached down and gave him a lift out of the stuck elevator.

#4 Top salespeople stay the course.

For salespeople, there is practically no better skill than focus and persistence.

Focus on helping to solve the prospect’s problem. This is different than focusing on merely getting the sale.

Persistence includes staying in touch with the prospect. In a recent survey, 80% of salespeople reported they find their follow-up skills are a hit or miss process. This behavior is inconsistent with persistence. So knowing how to follow-up easily, strategically and without feeling like you are bothering someone, is a key to the success of increasing your sales results!

Lessons learned, 1- take a step forward for every step back, 2- stay focused on the customer, 3- listen instead of just hear, and 4- focus and persist with each prospect.

Top salespeople do all of this and more. Move yourself into higher sales by adopting these beliefs and actions.