"If you look at all aspects of all sports, everything comes down to basics and fundamentals."
Robbie Lawler
To everyone in sales, you can perform much better and become more successful, if you just learn to master with consistency the basics.
Vince Lombardi, the great Green Bay Packers coach, once said that football comes down to only two things: Blocking on offense and tackling on defense, and those are the basics his teams spent 80% of their time on in practice.
Many analogies have been made between sales and sports. It’s often been said the one key fundamental principle in sports is to focus on the basics, and the same can be said for the sales profession. Never is this truer than when times are challenging, just like they are now. There are certain key fundamentals, or basics, to follow that ultimately lead to sales success.
BACK TO THE BASICS
We frequently hear the term “back to the basics”. Regardless of the sales vertical, “back to basics” is in everyone’s playbook.
Basics provide the foundation for all sales success. Witnessing the success of great companies, we often question “How’d they do it?” We see the success but not how it was achieved. It may appear to us their success is luck, a twist-of-fate, or a rare combination of chance meeting opportunity. Success is more than circumstance. Success does not just happen. It begins with the basics.
"If you can't do the little things right, how can you do the big things right?"
Basics, the universal language of business people.
Think about this for a moment...
We are asked to give “basic ideas,” “basic info,” or “explain it to me like I’m in second grade.” We break down our world into basic, bite-size chunks, so it makes sense to train ourselves in the same manner.
Here's a simple hint...
Salespeople, you must get back to the basics. Applying the basics in 2019, will allow ordinary sales reps to do extraordinary things.
Believe in the basics, execute the basics, and succeed with the basics.
When we were young, teachers often focused on the “Three Rs.” These are reading, writing, and arithmetic. These three basics were the mainstay of education.
BACK TO THE BASICS FOR SALES REPS
In 2019, I encourage all those in sales to evolve from Business-2-Business selling to Back-2-Basics selling. All those in sales will become more successful by focusing on the basics. Regardless of language, company culture, generation, product, or industry; the basics are the key to any successful sales professional.
Sales professionals need these basic skills in 2019.
WRITING
I'm a firm believer salespeople can write. We all have the capability of writing, it's what we do with it.
We're now communicating in a digitally driven, socially connected and highly networked business world. Communicating your thoughts in writing is a critical skill salespeople must master in 2019.
Identify your self-limiting beliefs around writing and take action steps as it may open sales doors and business conversations. Isn't this what you want?
How well you communicate is critical to your sales success but how well you write about it will be catapult your success.
Writing attracts prospects. Writing opens up conversations. Writing opens up relationships.
I am here to inform you wisdom often comes from the mouth of salespeople.
Here's some help. Gather the top questions you hear from your clients and prospects during your sales meetings and answer them in a blog format. Potential prospects researching for those answers online could end up finding your blog posts.
Here are a few ideas for you (especially if you're a technology sales professional)
- Top 5 reasons why implementing Document Management is critical to your business
- 3 reasons document scanning can enhance productivity within accounting department's
- 3 reasons why BYOD security is important within the digital workforce
"No one can write your sales story, so write it yourself"
READING
Imagine for a moment, what could you learn by reading every day to start your day? Set aside the first 30 minutes of your day to read.
When reading, your mind becomes engaged. The topics you read about can influence your conversations. Think about how this can help you to drive better business conversations with your clients and prospects.
How well are you leading your clients and prospects?
Feed your brain to kick start conversations with people. Read what the people you want to communicate with read.
"If you want a prospect to invite you to the table to bring ideas, you need to position yourself as someone that can help."
Darrell Amy
Where do sales professionals get these ideas? They come from reading.
Sales reps sell products. Sales professionals deliver ideas. Ideas come from reading.
- How well are you driving conversation?
- How well are you reading to learn?
- How well are you sharing what you're reading?
"Sales winners educate with new ideas almost 3x more often than 2nd place finishers.", Insight Selling and the Rain Group.
Imagine the conversations you could start with your clients and prospects based upon the books you decide to read?
Give your clients a gift in 2019, your knowledge and insights based upon the books you read.
ATTRACTION
Inside a digitally driven, highly connected and socially networked business world... How well are you leveraging attraction and influence to help kick start business conversations?
What are you doing to attract people into conversations with you? How well are you getting out of the batter's box? Are you still stuck at home plate or are you standing at second base?
Attention sales reps, how well you... Capture, Converse, Collaborate, and Connect along with providing relevant and insightful Content to grab the attention of the executive buyer will determine your sales success.
Sales reps must leverage content as conversation bait in order to help facilitate business conversations. How do you cast it out there?
It comes from...
- The ideas you get through reading
- Then sharing the ideas through writing
What can you do with the law of attraction? How does this fit into your prospecting approach? Position yourself and leverage the power of social to kick start conversations.
Reality check, most prospects feel sales reps are full of sh%T. As you capture, converse, collaborate and connect with your prospects; share with them what you're reading, educate them and help by guiding them in the right direction. One direction you can point them to is to your LinkedIn profile. This is where you can promote your business professional brand, your story, how you have helped your clients and what your prospects can expect when the get engaged with you. You can check out my profile here...
IN THE END... BASICS DO WORK
Chasing the shiny bullet doesn't work in the long run!
Refocus your attention on the basics? Shiny objects and a trick sales play occasionally work. A trick sales play strategy is built upon a façade, not fundamentals. It is time to get “back to basics” and stick with what works.
My challenge to all of you... Re-focus your effort. There's work to do and it starts with sales 101.
I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and modern strategies into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.
Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.
You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.
In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Social Sales Academy and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.
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