Colleen’s Blog

If you're taking time out of your day to read this blog, one thing is for sure, you are not meant for mediocrity. You are investing time into learning and increasing your knowledge, which is more than many salespeople can say for themselves. But, if you want to be a top performing salesperson, you may be interested in the following statistic: In North America, 10% of people will be top sales producers. We're defining "top salespeople" as those who are able to hit at least 110% of their quota every year. You should also know that there are top sellers who hitting as much as 200% and even 300% of their quota each year. That being said, about 20% of sales people are either too new to sales to measure, or they are so bad that they're on the way out.

Your health and wellness are important factors to consider if you want to increase your sales. As you know, it’s tough to focus and get things done when you’re stressed or working on a lack of sleep! Due to this, it’s so important to focus on you just as much as you focus on your sales and your business. When you’re staying in noisy hotel rooms, working late or pulling all-nighters, you must make an active effort to stay grounded and ensure that you’re not neglecting yourself for the sake of your career. Remember, your career doesn't exist without you!

You’ve probably had to deal with professional criticism at some point (or often) in your sales career. In such a fast-paced, high-pressure profession that is continuously focused on results, we are often subject to our fair share of criticism from colleagues, managers, clients, and prospects. If you want to be successful in sales, you must train yourself to take criticism and use it to your advantage. ← Click To Tweet It’s easy to get wrapped up in your faults when others are pointing them out to you. But, there are steps you can take to efficiently move past the negativity and actually create success through the criticism that you receive.

If you’re doing research about your industry, your market and your competition...well done! Successful salespeople always make moves based on facts, not assumptions. However, if you’re not tracking yourself on a regular basis, you may be omitting your most important pieces of data. ← Click To Tweet When it comes to prospecting, it’s important to set a goal. But, you must also track your progress towards achieving that goal. If you’re not collecting your own prospecting data, you risk falling behind and reaching a point in the year where you can no longer recover for lost time. That's why I strongly suggest measuring the success of your prospecting activities each month. The objective is to ensure that your efforts add enough prospects to the top end of your sales funnels so you can achieve your sales goals. After reviewing your progress, take one of the two following steps:

Are you selling the same way you were five years ago? Many salespeople have not adapted with the times and have not updated their sales process. As a result, their sales are suffering and they’re not selling as much as they used to. When it comes to your sales processes, it’s important to constantly stay on top of what’s working and what is not. ← Click To Tweet That way, you can identify and stick with the strategies that yield the best results for you and kick the “sales trash” to the curb! Here are five common practices that, in my experience, hurt sales and are often not addressed by salespeople! If your sales results are struggling, consider reviewing these five practices and identify whether or not you have recently updated these points in your sales process.

Is your market slowing down? Be sure not to get caught up in a “slow down” mindset! While most salespeople will complain about the market, the successful salespeople will be looking for ways to turn a negative situation into a positive one. The majority of salespeople fail to realize that a market slowing down is actually the perfect opportunity to revise sales strategies and increase sales activity. Think about it, the slower market does not just create problems for you, your competition is likely struggling as well. Chances are they're facing the same challenges your sales team is facing, so it’s important to capitalize on this opportunity. By switching yourself from a  “slow down” mindset to a “speed up” one, you are essentially taking the first step towards achieving prosperity in difficult markets.

Just like many other things in life, keep the word variety in mind when it comes to your sales if you want see greater results. If you’re only using one or two pipeline streams to create more success with your prospecting, you are likely either currently experiencing or will experience less than impressive sales results. Why? Because the goal of efficient salespeople is to fill their sales funnels with the right prospects using multiple pipeline streams. In today’s market, your buyers have access to information anywhere, anytime and on any form of media they desire. In fact, they are often gathering information about you in places you would rather they avoid, especially if you have little to no presence in those spaces. Therefore, you must be ubiquitous! It’s critical that you retain control of all pieces of information about you and your business by embracing all forms of prospecting tools and media. You need to continue using the traditional and direct prospecting tools that you’re used to but you must also begin using indirect tools such as social media and publishing to your advantage. By doing so, you also expand your presence in the market.

The top 10% are like the Heat. They accept responsibility, regroup, refocus, and come back charging. They hit the court / office, make note of what didn’t work and what did, and leverage their strengths. Sure, take a breather after a big loss. Step away from your desk. Go for a walk, lunch, or take an afternoon at the park. But, while you are away accept that YOU lost the deal and only YOU can stage a comeback. Comebacks start only when you take responsibility and then take action.

You know what needs to be done to achieve success. You know that it takes hard work and effort. In fact, I’ve never met a SUCCESSFUL salesperson who did not put in the time and did not take the action required in order to generate positive sales results Unfortunately, it is often easier to choose the safe, easy, and familiar route. I’ve seen entirely too many salespeople convince themselves that they will not be successful no matter what instead of working hard to prove that they truly can be. In fact, here are just a few of the common excuses I hear from salespeople and business owners who are asked to implement a new plan: