Some frank sales advice...

A few months ago I was at a friend's birthday.

He wanted me to meet his brother (David let's call him) who worked in sales.

He'd been struggling and hadn't hit target for months.

As I met him we got onto his sales role...

"I just can't seem to get any traction Scott, buyers don't seem to listen or engage properly with me. I'm not sure what to do."

"Do you make cold calls?" I asked.

"Yes."

"What's your opener?"

"Hi X, it's David here from ABC Ltd, how are you?"

"And then?" I asked.

"I tell them exactly what we do."

Turns out his emails were very similar. And when he did get some interest, this dynamic carried all the way through his sales meetings.

"Can I be blunt?" I said.

"Of course."

"The first 30 seconds is the key to unlocking new opportunities. But at the moment you sound like every other salesperson.

You don't really care how they are. It's disingenuous.

And then you proceed to talk about yourself & your company.

People couldn't care less - they only care about themselves and what you can do for them.

You need to enter their world, asking pertinent questions to qualify them in order to see if you can genuinely help.

You then need to take the time to truly understand their unique situation.

And this carries through your entire sales process.

Your solution only comes in once you've built a full picture of their situation, the associated problems & implications.

You need to stop thinking about you, your targets or your commission.

Detaching from the outcome means you will become more objective.

The key is NOT to sound like every other salesperson...which you will only achieve by not acting like one.

Always put your buyers interests first, but do so in a way that ensures you keep control.

This is how you help people - by providing leadership, insight and guidance.

And this is how you minimise ghosting, lack of urgency or any other disappearing acts."

We then did some more in-depth training over the following few weeks.

And as is usually the case, he also had various limiting beliefs holding him back.

He's now number 2 on his team...soon to be top.

If you want to unlock you or your team's performance then get in touch.

I'll identify the biggest roadblocks holding you back and how to fix them.