Could you or your team be missing the one key to being a top performer in sales?
Are you interested in sales because you want to make more money? When I ask this question to a group, immediately everyone’s arm shoots up. The truth is, wanting to be good at sales just to make more money isn’t all it takes to be successful.
In order to be successful, start by taking a close look at yourself. Finding the component of selling which makes you passionate is key to succeeding. If you don’t know why you’re selling in the first place you’re not setting yourself up for the greatest possible success. The first sale is ALWAYS to yourself.
When you enter a passionate mindset about selling, important things begin to take shape. Here are the key factors that people who are passionate exhibit which enable them to become successful with sales:
Passionate People Work Hard
I wish there were a magic formula which could allow us to work one hour a day and make fifty-million dollars a year. As nice as it would be, there are no legal (or ethical!) ways I know of which can make this magic formula a possibility!
Let’s face it, in every economy the sales people who are successful are those who work hard. If you’re not passionate about the product, you’re not going to work as hard to sell it. If you’re not passionate about the company you work for, you’re not going to work as hard to sell for them.
Passionate People Have The Courage To Get Back Up
It’s important to understand that in sales you will not close every deal every time. As a matter of fact, chances are you will lose more deals than you will close. If you’re a sports fan it’s no different than baseball. All of the hall of fame baseball players struck out way more often than they ever hit a home run and batting 500 (half the times you are at bat) is considered a record breaking performance If I were to give up every time I lost a deal I would never get out of bed!
If you have passion you will have the courage to get back up when you get knocked down.
Passionate People Try New Things
I love the quote by Einstein where he says “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The biggest frustration I have as a sales coach is getting sales people to be open enough to try new things.
A couple of years ago, I engaged with two people. Both salesmen were in the same market, learning the same material with me, they both used the same binder, and the same CDs! The profound difference between the two is that one was open to embracing new ideas and trying new things, and the other was so set in his old ways that he refused to try anything new. Can you guess which of these two gentlemen had a growth of 90% one year and 86% the next year, and which one of them had their business shrink by 10%? Success always belongs to those who are ready to try new things.
Being passionate about what you do is such a vital factor to accomplishing new heights in sales. It is important to figure out what makes you passionate about selling before trying to figure out how to sell.
What makes you a passionate sales person?