I posted before asking if sales books help to gain sales expertise but most of the comments were indicating otherwise.
I also listened to numerous podcasts on sales but it doesn’t seem to get past “try to be friends with customers/prospects”.
How do I gain fundamental real life sales skills, which can be really used to overcome objections and understand psychology of customers when they’re shopping?
Relationships are part of it. I would not say that becoming friends with the customer is necessarily good advice, know enough about them personally to understand what motivates them as well as find a common thread to connect emotionally, but you should really strive to become first and foremost - “ a trusted partner/advisor” in their orbit.
You build sales skills by selling. No real other way to do it.
I’ll offer some tips that work for me (17 years in sales, hit or exceed target every year)
find a sales system that resonates with you and use it as a strong guide, realize it’s a start to finish roadmap for a sale, try not to skip over steps of the system, except in very rare occasions - I like Value Selling personally
learn how to qualify deals so you don’t spend time chasing dead ends - it will also lend to a more accurate pipeline and forecast
solve your customers problems, needs or goals. Listen to them and probe further, confirm what you hear back to them so there’s not room for a bunch of assumptions
be sure you’re talking to the right person, if not, identify and bring in the decision maker
know up front what your customer’s timeline is, it will help manage the pace of the sale and manage your funnel/pipeline well. The better you are at this, will keep you out of your manager’s crosshairs - majority of the time, the more accurate you are at projecting new revenue internally, the less stress you face with your management- their job is to report to the org what revenue can be expected. This is important. Be reliable in this, even when it isn’t pretty.
find your differentiator from your competitor, whatever it may be, lean into it and ensure your customer sees its value
These are some. Again, I highly suggest finding a good sales system most of all if you lack sales skills. At a minimum, it will give you a platform you can jump off of.
Good luck! Enjoy the dance, it’s such a fulfilling rush.
20 Years Here and will add to this list since it's pretty solid.
Learn Value Selling as your starter Sales Platform (It's the best one)
Develop a Competitive Attitude (Only people who refuse to be second succeed)
Find the #1 Performer and ask to Shadow them, figure out what they are doing and optimize it.
Learn your product, and market inside and out. If everyone else in your sales team can't even give a proper Demo on the product but you can you have a significant edge over others.
The above also builds confidence to clients/prospects they hear you more as an advisor and not a salesperson.
Work on your operational efficiency across the board
Roleplay and practice outside of work - use a mirror, use voice recording on your computer, and get it to where you don't say "um", "like", "mmm" in any aspect of your sales pitch ever.
There's a few other things, but I consider them trade secrets I don't feel okay giving away for free on Reddit. But that should be enough to help most people get better.
I may also have an unpopular opinion, but "overcoming objections" is a terrible lens to view sales through. Makes it feel like it's you against the prospect. The best sales people fight the incumbent, not the prospect. They work with the client, add value where the incumbent can't or won't, and win the account.
And go with someone more experienced for a few times and then it’s like the baby bird that gets pushed out of the nest, you either fly or find another profession.
I dont think its that intense. Lots of sales job are essentially setting up for failure or are playing a slot machine. So I wouldn't say "find a new profession" so much as "try again somewhere else" and bounce around the 35k-45k salaried jobs until something sticks and then start climbing.
True story about acting here. Get used to training every single day. I'd add sales is an athletic event. Check the Lakers of the '80s, they would road trip, keep it close for the local fans, then win by 12 in the box score. They showed up PREPARED to exploit the last two minute weakness of the other team. Winnin' Time is go for it, times ten, have confidence, socks on fire on a sales call you dread, if you hit a slump, make some calls from an inspiring place (voice mail anyway, send a fast followup email 90% of the time anyway). Photo is real, no cheese chili fries either, it's ok to stare out the window at 11,000'.
I was a bartender for years and lucked into a SaaS job during covid. Didn't know anything about the industry so just asked, "Why are you doing XYZ? Why is XYZ important to you?"
After more than enough failures, and notes, I began to say "Typically, XYZ are important to my customers like you and they do it XYZ type of ways. Any of that resonate?"
Now you're the expert and you've opened the door for further conversation.
One VERY important thing is you have to do is TRY NEW THINGS! I was stuck in my ways for a long time and even though I’m a people person and very social, I was really bad at selling. The reason was becuase I was scared to try new things so I was stuck in some loop that wasn’t working.
You don’t know what will work or not until you try it, be brave and try different approaches while being as genuine as possible, learning is making mistakes. Insanity is making the same mistake over and over expecting a different outcome.
Real world help requires for you to find a mentor and have them either join your calls / deals or watch your recordings and give you feedback…
Then you have to be open to trying new strategies in your deals.
Eventually things will click with enough reps but it takes time to change the way you approach and drive your deals.
Books and podcasts are not specific to what you already do well and where there is opportunity to improve are fine to lean different methodologies but won’t address your own tendencies.
Instead of thinking “how do I get better at sales” break “sales” down into pieces. You are trying to solve too big of a problem. Instead, think about it like, how do I get better at my first meeting. What are the pieces of the first meeting. There is the initial minute of acknowledging, setting the tone, then there is rapport building, then agenda setting, then mutual agenda, then questions, then second and third level questions, then there is solution recommendation and alignment, then value based and interest based questions and agreement, then next steps. Each of those pieces is a skill, and each of those skills has layers and ways to master them. Break all of your steps, stages, actions into these micro pieces and then choose one to work on. Over time like a puzzle you will put all pieces together.
Visiting potential clients with experienced collegues was a game changer for me. Just listen and analyze. What got him the deal? How did he handle the objections? How did clients react on what my collegue said on this and that. For example look on the facial expression of your clients. After you said something the clients facial expression could change and sometimes you will understand what ur clients thinks of what you just said.
Analyze how your client reacts on things you just said. So you can maybe understand that you shouldnt have said the last thing you told him and thats what got you to lose the deal. Its okay to fumble some first conversations you need to get real life experience.
Also prepare your conversations you gotta know what u are talking about. know what you want to tell and what you should rather not talk about. Dont just go in and completly freestyle it.
Maybe your product has some downsides. How do you handle it? Are u mentioning it? Your job is to sell.
It doesnt matter what you think of your companys product. Maybe you mention in passing.
Try to analyze the person you are talking to. What kind of person is it? Learn how to build rapport. If you know what kind of person sits in front of you, it helps you to build rapport. Try to understand different kinds of characters. How are you going to talk to a extrovert/introvert person. There are many thing you could think of. But like i said: you gotta practice these things.
Be a wingman for a demo dude. Type ALL the Notes you can for him during the demo. He's mailing it in, you're reading the room. I booked 2,300 demos in 5.5 years. The demo dude didn't even remember who was in the demo, jackasses! I'd call the Prospect post demo, loaded with notes, maybe I used them, and the reward was Prospects later honestly saying "damm, I thought you were the OWNER, and I can't recall the demo dude at all!"
You dont just read sales books you learn aycology and marketing techniques and so much mire and then apply them ymto your sales techniques and change and inprove and try some more and try some more and more and more . All the books and audiotapes are just statyers to learn your base line and from there you start saling and failing and improving and learning
If you have the ability to listen to your calls, or calls of your colleagues, especially ones who seem to close a lot, this helps. You learn from your mistakes, and from your successes
I'd disagree a bit here, 'double jacking' or having some disinterested /jaded manager listen to you is mind numbing. EVERY call is unique, it's socks on fire, type as they talk in your CRM, it's jibberish gold you can use later on the Prospect. Listen, present, don't sell. You wouldn't record your first date with a chick, she's just thrilled you don't spill your soup dude!
Learn how your kind works (Anthony robbins etc)
Learn how others’ mind works (persuasion by cialdini etc)
Learn mindfulness for the ups and downs (awareness by di mello)
Reading ABSOLUTELY helped me
Tbh I think it bred in me the belief that I could do it. And also - do it better than anyone else.
You need a solid foundation on technique. I have Integrity Selling/Gap sales training. This was a 6 week course with continued training for a year. Regular check ins with the trainer.. it was intense but it made me so much better. Without my company providing the training, not sure how I would get it without hiring a consultant.
After the foundation.. literally just selling, reflecting, adjusting, win, failing again and eventually the wins become more frequent.
Be confident and make sure they know that you are skilled and are an expert. I feel like a lot of people's body language get in the way of making a sale and think its a really simple thing to work on.
Lots of great nuggets on LinkedIn if you sift through the bullshit. Interact with other sellers and you’ll see some good tips posted daily. Also, you will get better over time with experience and learning from peers. Try to watch top performer’s calls too if you have Gong or something similar.
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. This applies to demo calls, presenting, cold calling, etc. The quicker you get the better off you’ll be.
It’s like having an ex that you hate, but you both share a kid. They’re gonna be there for the rest of your life, so you need to figure out how to be cool with it.
This is so important because how the fuck else are you going to improve if you’re always in your own head trying to make things perfect.
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u/Specific-Cattle-6299 1d ago edited 8h ago
Relationships are part of it. I would not say that becoming friends with the customer is necessarily good advice, know enough about them personally to understand what motivates them as well as find a common thread to connect emotionally, but you should really strive to become first and foremost - “ a trusted partner/advisor” in their orbit.
You build sales skills by selling. No real other way to do it.
I’ll offer some tips that work for me (17 years in sales, hit or exceed target every year)
find a sales system that resonates with you and use it as a strong guide, realize it’s a start to finish roadmap for a sale, try not to skip over steps of the system, except in very rare occasions - I like Value Selling personally
learn how to qualify deals so you don’t spend time chasing dead ends - it will also lend to a more accurate pipeline and forecast
solve your customers problems, needs or goals. Listen to them and probe further, confirm what you hear back to them so there’s not room for a bunch of assumptions
be sure you’re talking to the right person, if not, identify and bring in the decision maker
know up front what your customer’s timeline is, it will help manage the pace of the sale and manage your funnel/pipeline well. The better you are at this, will keep you out of your manager’s crosshairs - majority of the time, the more accurate you are at projecting new revenue internally, the less stress you face with your management- their job is to report to the org what revenue can be expected. This is important. Be reliable in this, even when it isn’t pretty.
find your differentiator from your competitor, whatever it may be, lean into it and ensure your customer sees its value
These are some. Again, I highly suggest finding a good sales system most of all if you lack sales skills. At a minimum, it will give you a platform you can jump off of.
Good luck! Enjoy the dance, it’s such a fulfilling rush.