Sales Rep - Know Thyself

What is your greatest flaw as a rep?

Everyone, even the best and brightest sales reps, have flaws. Your willingness to have a difficult conversation with yourself about your shortcomings could be the most important discussion you have this year. What is it about your style that keeps you from being as successful as you really want to be? Are you willing to ask for feedback after sales calls? Do you take stock of deals that you lost to determine how you could have won them? If not, then you should.

I’ve discovered my key sales weakness over time, and I continually work on it. Unfortunately, it bit me again this year. My challenge is that I am very good at understanding the prospect’s problem and educating them on how to solve the problem using our tools. But that’s not enough. I'm in sales, not education. So, just today, I made sure that after I educated the prospect on how we could help solve their problem, I asked the questions about when they wanted to get started, whether or not they had budget, and who would ultimately make the go/no-go decision.

Blog continued below

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

Check out this latest review: "How often do you get to sit next the author of a book on a plane ride. Well I did. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sam Lorimer. Not sure how we got on the subject of "Click, Send and Sell" but we did. And am I glad we did. Out of curiosity I bought Sam's book the next morning and tried out his email strategy. Within 5 minutes of sending the emails I received responses from 2 customers that I have been trying desperately hard to reach. I could not believe it. I was so taken aback I sent Sam and email and shared the story. In all my years of reading business stuff, these are 22 pages of frankly the most powerful sales help I have ever received. For what its worth. I sell airplanes to really, really wealthy folks. These people are typically very hard to reach. I'm not sure if its coincidence, but, I don't believe in luck. Thanks for sharing such a simple piece of insight Sam."

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

___________________________________________________________________

Where are your sales weaknesses? What part of the sales process is holding you back? Years ago, as a new sales rep, I introduced myself to a new colleague. I asked him how things were going – how were sales? He replied that he was having a difficult time closing deals. He was having success through the entire sales process, but he was unable to get the prospect to buy. His problem was that he too was educating and not closing. In one specific instance, the prospect called to ask for hardware specifications in order to install our software. He obliged and gave them all of the information that they needed, and hung up. At that point, most astute sellers would have said something like, “It sounds like you’re ready to move forward with our solution. Should I send over the agreements?” or something like that. Instead, he just gave them the specs and hung up.

Sadly, I “lapped” the rep and he was terminated. My hope is that he had enough self-awareness to get the coaching he needed to improve his selling skills. But the questions remains. What are your shortcomings? What happened to the last deal that you lost or didn’t close? Do you rely too much on PowerPoint? Are you unwilling to ask the hard questions? Do you come across as insincere? Do you talk too much? Are you closing too hard too fast?

My suggestion would be to have a colleague or your boss observe you in action. Immediately following the sales call, get feedback. Honest, candid feedback. Shed the ego and listen. Don’t be defensive. Allow the feedback to sink-in. Then do something about it.

Talk too much? Keep quiet. Too much reliance on PowerPoint? Go to your next meeting empty handed. Selling too hard? Change the agenda of the meeting from a “closing” meeting to a “discovery” meeting. Use crutch-words too much (strategic, value add, blah, blah, blah)? Read my blog on being authentic (CLICK HERE)

Whatever may be holding you back, there is a fix. Be honest with yourself. Be coachable. You can improve.