The first step is to go from bad to good—merely arriving at a baseline of “good” puts you in a small category of salespeople out there.
You don’t have to be the best salesman or saleswoman who ever lived. Just be genuinely good at what you do. Bring real value to your prospects.
In this video, I’m going to show you how to be a good salesman or saleswoman. Check it out:
Being a successful salesperson requires much more than just having a persuasive personality. It takes continuous learning honing your skills, and developing habits that set you apart. If your goal is to become an excellent salesperson here are 15 tips that can help you get there.
1. Build Strong Relationships
At its core, sales is about forming genuine connections and relationships with customers. Make an effort to truly understand your clients’ needs and establish trust. This lays the foundation for long-term business partnerships.
2. Ask Thoughtful Questions
Don’t just rattle off prepared sales pitches. Instead ask thoughtful questions to learn about the customer’s problems and how you can offer solutions. Attentive listening shows you care.
3. Clearly Communicate Value
Customers need to understand exactly how your product or service will improve their lives. Learn to explain the concrete benefits in a compelling way that resonates with each client.
4. Follow Up Promptly
Being organized and prompt with follow up builds credibility with customers. Set reminders to check in post-sale and respond quickly if issues arise This level of service earns business.
5. Study Your Craft
Great salespeople never stop improving their knowledge. Read books, listen to podcasts, and learn from mentors. Continuously expanding your skills leads to mastery.
6. Know Your Competition
You should be an expert on competing products/services and how you measure up. Being able to explain your competitive advantage helps win deals.
7. Adopt a Learning Mindset
Each lost deal and every rejection contains a lesson. Analyze what went wrong and make adjustments. This learning mindset leads to steady improvement.
8. Have a Consistent Routine
The most productive salespeople have disciplined daily routines. For example, start each day by reviewing metrics and planning calls. A consistent rhythm drives results.
9. Exercise Emotional Intelligence
Self-awareness, empathy, and relationship skills are crucial in sales. Managing your own emotions and reading others takes emotional intelligence.
10. Collaborate With Teammates
Leverage the strengths of fellow sales reps, marketers, account managers, and others. Brainstorming and sharing ideas improves performance across the board.
11. Practice Active Listening
When speaking with customers, focus completely on understanding them without thinking about your response. This level of active listening builds trust.
12. Set Clear Goals
Establish specific, measurable sales goals and break them down into daily objectives. Detailed goals provide focus and motivation. Review them often.
13. Handle Rejection With Grace
When deals fall through, handle the rejection with poise and professionalism. Learn from it, but don’t take it personally. Resilience is key.
14. Stay Organized
Juggling multiple deals while tracking follow-ups is challenging. Use CRM tools and create systems to stay on top of your pipeline and tasks.
15. Maintain a Positive Attitude
Enthusiasm and optimism are contagious. Focus on the rewards of helping customers, not just making sales. This positive mentality drives energy.
1 No need to persuade.
Just as you don’t need to pitch, you don’t need to persuade prospects to do business with you.
Prospects are smart. They don’t need to be persuaded. They don’t need to be convinced. What they need is to determine whether there’s a fit. They want to see that you’re the right fit for them.
I like to use the analogy of behaving like a doctor who’s not trying to persuade patients to do surgery, but instead focusing on determining whether surgery is the right fit for the patient.
This is key to becoming a better salesperson. When you stop trying to persuade, you take all the pressure off of the prospect and set an environment where they can make a comfortable, informed decision.
Remember, it’s not about persuading, but rather engaging them in a conversation and asking questions to help you understand exactly where they are hurting, what’s going on, and what they really care about.
1 The best salespeople arm themselves with research.
The more insight you have into your prospect’s world, the better off you are. If your opening sales conversation is turnkey and cookie-cutter, prospects may go with it from time to time, but ultimately it’s not as powerful. Instead, start your conversations by demonstrating that you understand specific things about them and their organization.
Even in a business-to-consumer selling situation, understanding prospects and what might be going on in their lives is immensely powerful. Arm yourself with research—don’t use research as a crutch, but try to understand as much as you possibly can about prospects and their organization before you reach out to them.
Having that research under your belt enables you to demonstrate your value, and it gives prospects permission to allow you to go just a little bit further in the sales conversation.
5 Tips to Become the BEST Salesperson – Grant Cardone
How do you become a good salesperson?
There’s not one single way to become a good salesperson, but the habits mentioned above are essential to providing a positive sales experience to your customers. Demonstrating that you have passion, knowledge, self-determination, and adaptability can take you from an average sales rep to a high-performing success story.
How do I get better at sales?
Identify the salesperson who’s best at it within your company and ask if you can shadow a few of their calls. Learning from your peers is a great way to get better at your job while building strong relationships with your coworkers. Further reading: Why Coachability Is Key to Sales Success 11. Practice your people skills.
How to become a successful salesman?
1. Attend sales training. Sales training and professional development opportunities can keep your skills fresh. Being a lifelong learner gives you a competitive advantage in the game of sales. Besides purchasing in-person or online sales programs, you can take free certification courses through vendors like HubSpot Academy or Sales Engine.
What makes a good sales professional?
To be successful, a sales professional needs a deep understanding of the product or service their company provides and every detail about how it works. This knowledge creates authority on the product and allows you to provide customers with all the information they need. It’s easier to be positive and passionate about a product you use and trust.
