WARNING: If you are an entrepreneur or leader and are struggling with sales, this article may save your life. (Ok, not literally your actual life, but certainly your business one!)
Every day I work with business owners and other sales leaders on how to address sales issues inside their company or team. Some of them are small issues, some of them are major ones. Most deal with external clients or customers, others deal with internal ones, such as partners, vendors, or employees. I’m often shocked by stories I hear about how entrepreneurs or other leaders handle sales interactions of all types. The purpose of this article is to arm and prepare you for how to avoid the mistakes and guide your company or sales team to explosive sales success.
First things first: Go back to the headline of the article and read the first three words. Sell or Die. If you are an entrepreneur of any kind, you certainly know this. If you can’t convince investors, partners, employees, and clients that what you do or what you offer is special and valuable to them, you will FAIL. It’s that simple. Now, it’s not all doom and gloom. Nobody is saying that YOU exactly have to do it, but ultimately, someone has to. In fact, it’s not that uncommon at all for the visionary leader and creator of a company or product to struggle with being able to “sell” what they do. The good ones quickly realize they need to develop the necessary skills or find people that have them already. The GREAT ones often do BOTH.
That brings me to my second point: There is no such thing as a “born salesperson.” You see, no one is born with the ability to be a great salesperson. It’s completely learned. The best of the best are always learning. Even when they are performing at a high level, they are always looking to improve. You see, many people fail because they don’t work to develop the skills necessary to continue to grow. Sales skills are one of the most neglected developmental areas for professionals. Why? Because it takes work!
You see, we live in a world of amazing tools. Many can automate and make our lives more simple, but at some point, a SALE needs to be made. It’s that simple. Some are easy, some are much harder. But ultimately, the skills necessary to make the sale are critical to your success.
So how do you avoid falling in sales? Here is a simple checklist to remember:
#1) Be honest with yourself: Are you the best-qualified person to sell for the company you founded? Odds are you aren’t. Why? An example is your body. You know it personally better than anyone else in the world, but if you are sick or struggling, you find a doctor. You bring in an expert to help you fix it. That way you can focus on the business as a whole.
#2) Hire professionals: Recruit and engage experienced, valuable sales professionals. If you aren’t ready to do this in your business, then you must do #3.
#3) Invest in education and coaching: For you to avoiding failure in sales and to help you ultimately reach significant sales success, you simply MUST invest in education and coaching, for you and your team, on the subject of sales. The best in any professional endeavor always invests in growth and development. That’s the difference between average and professional.
#4) Create the right sales SYSTEMS: Once you have the correct sales skills, it’s crucial that you create the correct sales systems for tracking and momentum.
If you are looking for tips and direction on how to improve sales skills and create the right systems for EXPLOSIVE sales results in your business, contact me for a FREE sales strategy session at joe@thesalesactivist.com.
Happy Selling!