I am from the old school of sales that told you to approach everyone and hope that something will click. We call it spray and pray. Fortunately for me, I am a lifelong student and through my eagerness to learn more I have now come across the new age way of selling where you simply get better at finding prospects and your sales become more of order taking than hard sells. In other words you enable prospects to buy from you rather than you selling to them. Simple.
When you decide to get into sales you need to first get good at knowing your product (inside and out) and then getting good at getting other people to buy it from you. Depending on what you sell and the length of your sales cycle this can be a long time. So what do you do in the meantime? You G.R.A.S.P.
G stands for getting with the right people. First of all if it took your manager or sales trainer 30 years to be an expect you can cut that time short by simply modeling them and learning at lightning speed to become good very quickly. They have already made all the necessary mistakes so you don’t have to. Cut right to the front of the queue my friend. Make sure you hang out with ONLY the people that can enhance your abilities and very quickly at that.
R stands for being Responsible. For what exactly? Everything. You will take charge of your sales training and classroom work and also take charge of your sales processes in your sales appointments. There is a lot of physiology and social dynamics that go into this one but for now just know that you need to take control of everything to do with your sales career. Be responsible for it.
A is for attitude. Have a great attitude. Never give up. This can never be explained enough. Salespeople are beaten down at every opportunity be it at family outings or dinner dates, every where. In fact the only place sales people are welcome is at their own sales awards ceremonies. OK maybe that’s a little too much but salespeople need to always be composed so they can deal with all the negativity that surrounds this profession and also the prospects that do not buy at times which can be most of the time!
S is for systems and what you are selling. You should know all your sales systems and procedures be it, your pitch, turning objectives, legal stuff or simple order form filling. At the same time you should know your product inside out so you can deal with sales objections and also the general sales process. You see in sales procedures if you forget your pitch or anything at all to do with your product people do not see it that way. Instead they think there is something seriously wrong with the product and steer clear from you. Always represent your product positively using your knowledge of it.
P is for profit. The most lucrative sales jobs are commission based or at least part commission. Do not be carried away selling something exciting and forget about the bottom line. After your commute, your payments for sales leads, your lunch, your suit, your fancy cell phone or PC or maybe your ostentatious vehicle that cost more than your house make sure you are left with a profit. Never forget this, no matter what they may say, we all know salespeople are in for the money.
So there you have it. Make sure you GRASP your sales career.
