Using Consistency and Perseverance to Improve your Sales
Throughout my sales career I received thousands of tips from thousands of different people to improve my sales. Even during my career as a manager and since, as a sales and management trainer, its possible to read and hear as many new rules for making a sale as you can stand!
However, there are two pieces of advice that have truly stuck with me. From these I have seen the biggest improvement in my own sales and from people I have managed or taught.
Putting the work in
Rule number one is to put the work in! I always say this is like going to the gym; don’t go to the gym and after a week, look in the mirror and say “it’s not working” and give-up. Many people will do this and whether you’re going to the gym, learning a new skill or trying to improve any aspect of your life this won’t get you anywhere.
In the case of fitness, you should give it 6-8 weeks before you decide whether you can see or feel any improvement. Its the same for utilising social media; you won’t often get any instant gratification but what you should do is maintain consistency. This leads to gaining more attention and growing your audience, etc.
In the case of sales you should be committing to the same type of consistency. With customers you should put the work in and act as if everyone you deal with is going to buy. Treat everyone like they’re a buyer and more WILL buy! Make this a consistent part of your sales strategy and don’t switch it off!
Customers are on a sliding scale
Visualise every customer as if they’re at one of the points on a sliding scale. Between 1, when they’re first entering your store or answering your call, to 10, when they’re buying your product or service.
If they’re in front of you in your store or first answering your call that doesn’t mean they’re on zero! The fact that you’ve even got their attention instantly moves them off zero. Zero would be someone who is not at all in the market for your product or service.
With each interaction your aim should be to move everybody as far as up the scale as you can at that particular moment. This doesn’t mean that you can close every single person at that time. However, if you’re talking to someone who you view as a 1 on the scale and it’s, for example, a cold call the fact that you get the right person to speak to or the correct contact details will massively move them up the scale.
Any movement I can get to push the customer further up the scale and towards the sale, I take as a huge mental pat on the back to really give myself some motivation. Simply knowing that I’ve moved the process forward keeps me focussed and readies me for the next interaction.
You shouldn’t be after the close every single time but you should be after getting some more information and slowly moving that customer further up the scale.
Give these tips a try in the next few weeks and see what a difference it makes to your sales. These couple of simple rules really did help to improve my sales. I’d love to hear about how these work for you so please leave a comment or send me a message.