The Sales Industry and Me – When I finally realised Sales was more than just numbers! Based on my experience, a brief history into the psychology of sales and how being a salesperson is more than meeting targets.
I’ve worked in sales for over a quarter of a century! How did that happen and when did I suddenly become good at it.
I don’t know about you but for years I was on a bit of a never-ending cycle of finding a prospect, call them up, sell them something (or not) and find a prospect, call them up, sell them something (or not) you get the picture. A little like the hamster in Life of Pets 2 when he gets off the wheel, and he’s not moved from the starting place!
It was only after a course I did in 2007 that I suddenly realised that I had been successful completely by accident. I wasn’t modelling what I did, I wasn’t following a process, I was just doing what I felt was right. When I stepped off the wheel and looked back at the successes and really analysed what it was that I then began to repeat my perfect sales process.
You know what it’s like in sales, get a sales target, work out strike rate, ensure there are enough prospects in the bucket to reach said strike rate and so on and so on. And well that was only after many years of hitting and hoping and not really knowing the science behind the numbers.
Looking at each piece of the own business and understanding what I was doing and not that the science was working changed my whole approach. So what did I discover?
- The won business was genuinely with people I had really connected with
- I cared that my reputation with them was intact, they believed in me because I believed in me
- I asked for recommendations because I knew I had done a good job
- I thanked them for becoming my customer
- I stayed connected in some way (that is so much easier now with Social Media)
It’s ok knowing the science of sales, but if you don’t understand the science of you, then it’s just numbering on a page and no faces.
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Posted here with permission from our 2019 National Sales Conference Ambassador, Stella Round (NFU Mutual).
