Consider This: Pushing for Excellence
By Ken Hammock, The JoyFM
Average salespeople become average because they continue to do what they have always done. They conduct the same strategies and techniques which they’ve always trusted.
Regardless of the results, their system has become habitual, like a drug, and they cannot seem to shake it. But times change, strategies shift, people alter their decision-making processes, and the average sales person is left in the past. The system the average salespersons use may be familiar, but are they delivering results, today?
In contrast, above average (or excellent) salespeople sharpen their skills and learn to move with the new, the current, and emerging strategies to be ahead of the average. It is no secret that excellence comes through a well-crafted system, one that is constantly improving and perfecting. Strategies change and tactics shift. Are you using processes and practices from years ago? Or are you changing? Do you hope for the chance, or do you have a well-honed strategy for becoming better at what you do?
Excellence comes through knowing the customer, knowing how they communicate, developing strategies which fit their mode of operation and elevating his or her practices and processes to fit the customer. Excellence learns how to begin relationships on the best footing possible by asking the right questions, discovering and filling the needs of the customer, finding the right prospects and crafting solutions to fit the need of individualized assessments.
Seasoned sales reps will revise their handbook by utilizing digital platforms like blogging, industry-based groups, and LinkedIn-type resources with a profile that make it easier for decision makers to connect. They will learn to connect with already-known persons and begin setting a weekly target for tactfully requesting referrals from those contacts.
They will also learn the strategies for making calls, what to say in the first contact, how to leave a solid voice mail, when and how to follow-up by email, snail mail or social media, and how to make any contact about the client and not about themselves. They embrace and utilize new CRM systems, and they study and practice changing and emerging tactics and strategies. Simply, they get better and better by venturing outside their comfort zone, and bring their prospecting playbook up to date.
How are you doing? How am I doing? What are we doing to become excellent at what we do? What strategies and processes which you use have become average? What steps must you and I take to step across the line into excellence?
It’s gut-check time. Find a mirror and be honest with the person looking back at you. Let get off the drug of habit. Change and get better. Become excellent.
Let me know if I can help.
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Ken Hammock is a 30-year marketing veteran and is the Corporate Engagement Specialist for The JOY FM. You can reach him via email at [email protected].
