Your sales process is a vital element of your success. A process that’s simple, sustainable, and scalable can make you the author of your own fate.
How does your process measure up to these 15 Dos and Don’ts?
Today’s blog brought to you as a sneak peek into the new masterclass: Roadmap to Excellence: How to Become a Top 1% Salesperson. Click here to see the course contents.
1. Don’t depend on your process alone
If you don’t have a process, nothing else is going to work. BUT just because you have a process, doesn’t mean everything is going to work.
Your sales process is critical, but if you’re not allocating your time right, if you don’t have your mindset in the right place, if you don’t have a strong network, or practice accountability–if you don’t have the other four elements, you can’t be successful.
In fact, top performing salespeople have a process that is really much simpler than people realize.
Read more about 8 Characteristics of a Top-Performing Salesperson.
2. Don’t overcomplicate it.
If you’re looking for this perfect thing that’s going to help you be successful, don’t. What you don’t realize is that the perfect thing is you. This is why all five elements are important.
Average salespeople have a process that just gets bogged down. Why? Because it’s just too complicated.
I was with a company recently, and they must have had 25-30 steps in their sales process. And I thought, “Really? You’ve got to be kidding me. I want it to only be a few steps.”
Top performing salespeople have a far simpler sales process.
3. Do make it sustainable.
Your process has to be one that you can repeat over and over and over again. This is what I find about top performing salespeople–they can repeat the same activity thousands of times, and it just works.
Truly, they’re so confident with it that they can do it in their sleep. But what’s the benefit of that? Well, it keeps them on track.
4. Do make it scalable.
A great process is also scalable, because it means that I can scale this to bigger and bigger and bigger opportunities. Therefore, if this is a process that works for this size of client, I can now move it up to the food chain and get it for 50% larger clients, or 100% larger clients.
Likewise, if this is what I’m doing 10 hours a week, I can scale it and I can do this 20 hours a week.
5. Do determine why you sell
Top salespeople know why customers buy from them.
If you don’t understand why your customers buy from you, I want you to stop and figure that out right now. Better yet, ask your customers why they buy from you.
6. Don’t forget who your ideal customer is.
Who’s your perfect customer? I want to make sure that I know why I sell, and who I sell to. As a result, I stay in that tight lane.
I’ve sat in rooms with top performing sales people, and it’s amazing what they’ll say no to. Somebody will be giving out leads and they’ll respond, “Nope, don’t want that. Don’t want that. Don’t want that either.” Because they stay very focused on who their perfect customer is and why they sell.
7. Do use multiple messaging methods
They are not so reliant that they only use one–email or social media. No, they can use email, social media, calls, texts etc. They’re very comfortable, and they know expediency works.
8. Don’t be afraid of the telephone
Top performing salespeople are more reliant on the phone than any other level of salesperson. Yes, that’s true.
They know there’s something about talking directly to somebody. So much more can be accomplished in a single conversation than in a slew of emails back and forth.
9. Do ask exact questions
The top 1% are very tight with the questions they ask; the information, the knowledge they’re looking for, what they want to share.
Remember, they know why customers buy from them. And they’re dealing with a very tight ICP, ideal customer profile. So as a result, they know their audience very well. Thus in knowing them well, they know what to ask, and what to look for.
10. Do have a routine.
What’s your cadence? Is it every third day? Every fifth? How do you rinse and repeat?
If you have a positive mindset and know you’re targeting the right people, and a need that you can help the client with, this will help you stay absolutely focused.
With a routine in place, problems, or getting no response, aren’t an issue. The best just keep calling, and moving forward.
11. Do create your own leads
Excellent salespeople know that they’re accountable for their own leads.
Sure, they’d take leads from marketing any day. But they know at the end of the day, their best leads are themselves, because they’re going to come from referrals or upselling of existing clients.
12. Don’t dwell on the internet
You can’t take clicks and likes to the bank.
Instead, set times every day or every week to be out on the internet. Other than maybe having to find a piece of information or do something for a specific customer, avoid social media during the workday. Focus on using social media platforms solely for selling.
I’ll admit, it requires a balance. Especially since your reputation arrives before you do, which means a good reputation on the internet is also necessary.
13. Do look at your goals every day.
I look at my goals every day and I ask myself, “What am I going to do to move myself closer to them?”
At the end of the day I ask myself, “What did I do today to help move myself closer to those goals?”
You’ve got to be focused and committed to that. Otherwise, it’s just simply going to fall apart for you.
14. Do sell first, negotiate second.
Top performing salespeople know that if they do everything else right in the sales process, closing becomes very easy. And negotiation actually becomes minimized. That’s why I say you sell first and negotiate second.
If I sell first and get to really know and understand you, guess what? You’re probably less likely to negotiate because there’s a high level of trust.
When you have a solid process and you’ve gone through the other four elements, in particular accountability, you create trust, and with trust comes integrity.
Accountability → Trust → Integrity→That has customers wanting to do business with you.
15. Do get the Roadmap to Excellence Masterclass.
If you think for a moment that you can’t see and achieve being a top performer, you’re the person I want to talk to, because I want to get you there.
Right now is when you need to get serious, because you have time.
Through seven videos and a detailed workbook, we’ll take a closer look at Time, Mindset, Network, Accountability, and Sales Process.
By the end of the course, you’ll have a strong foundation on which to build your success. This isn’t something you’ll do, forget, and move on. This is knowledge you’ll want to implement from Day 1–and share with others!
Aren’t you worth the $59 cost? I think you are. Click here for more info and get enrolled today.
This week on The Sales Hunter Podcast…
How do we achieve frictionless selling?
And how much is mindset actually involved in our success?
Mark welcomes guest, Gerhard Gschwandtner, to this week’s episode as they discuss everything mindset, how to reframe failure, and in the end achieve more.
New episodes every Thursday morning! Like what you hear? Leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
Copyright 2022, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
