4 Proven Steps to Sales Mastery
What is Sales Mastery?
Sales mastery is the ability to facilitate a process where a prospect realizes and feels an urgent need to change and takes immediate action.
Sales mastery represents pride of accomplishment and much more. Other than the obvious—high earnings and recognition, it also denotes admiral character traits. Top tier salespeople are often admired for their independence, creativity, self-sacrifice, and ability to help others. So, here are four ways to skyrocket your sales and gain sales mastery.
1. Create a Career Mission Statement (CMS)
You have probably stopped by a business and seen a sign posted regarding their Mission Statement which listed their core values like product excellence and outstanding customer service. Sadly, there are some of us who will spend more time planning a two-week trip itinerary than how we will live our lives. Related to high octane sales results, it will happen if we make a genuine effort to design and live up to a thoughtful blueprint for top tier sales success.
First, understand that there is a magnificent, extraordinary, and spectacularly effective word to understand and implement. It is a magic word that, when given absolute reverence, will practically guarantee your goals. You will enjoy immense career-long, exceptional sales results. It will be your rock steady hand to excellence and tremendous financial gain.
However, if you are interested in learning this word and how it is so enormously beneficial, I may have some bad news for you. You see, when we are interested in something, we will do it if it is convenient enough. The magic, powerful, results-getting word is commitment. The reason for its impact is that making a commitment empowers us to easily handle human foibles like succumbing to distractions and procrastination.
Your CMS is your vow to excellence in all phases of your life—personal, professional, and financial. These three are interrelated. After all, it is much easier to be calm and confident and act professionally with your client if you have money in the bank and a happy relationship with your significant other.
2. Embrace the two key attributes for Sales Mastery
Professional, high-achieving sales occurs when one makes use of two main elements of high sales achievement—the acceptance and involvement in a desire for learning and the willingness to develop a “professional’s temperament.”
Salespeople are made, not born.
Your Desire to Learn
Your Desire to Learn
You have the opportunity to:
- understand major elements of the sales process
- deal with different prospect personalities
- handle various obstacles to your final objective
You have the opportunity to:
- understand major elements of the sales process
- deal with different prospect personalities
- handle various obstacles to your final objective
Your Temperament
Your Temperament
This affects many outcomes.
- How well do you take rejection?
- How friendly or empathetic are you to the customer’s needs or wants?
- How persistent does your comfort zone allow you to be?
This affects many outcomes.
- How well do you take rejection?
- How friendly or empathetic are you to the customer’s needs or wants?
- How persistent does your comfort zone allow you to be?
While your employer provides initial training, this is not enough to soar to the highest levels. Through your commitment to excellence, which you established in your CMS, you must enthusiastically find other sources of information, motivation, and training. They can be found through publications, online searches, seminars, mentors and more.
Quotes are also an excellent way to gain new insights. They are often motivational or even inspirational. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” See what I mean?
A willingness to acquire knowledge and skills only goes so far. Salespeople deal with human nature and frustration can be a nasty visitor at times. Your temperament will determine how you handle the ups and downs of the sales profession. This is where your commitment to the CMS will pay dividends.
I once made the sale and was writing up the contract. The customer’s brother visited and asked what my customer was buying. The brother said he didn’t need it and talked him out of the sale. It was anger-worthy, knowing that I made the presentation an hour too early or too late. Now I had to go to my next appointment with this frustration hanging over me. How well could I handle it? A proper temperament must be learned and always in use to handle these types of situations. Sales mastery requires that you deal with these misfortunes. After all, your next customer deserves your enthusiasm and businesslike demeanor.
3. Think Broadway
I like to compare top tier sales professionals to accomplished actors.
They both:
- have roles.
- interact with other people through dialog and emotions.
- must be convincing.
- work with a structure.
The goal in sales is to persuade your prospects so that they are at the highest level of interest—desire. Actors stay with the script that gets audience applause night in and night out. Salespeople should keep their presentations virtually the same, as well. Why change what works?
Specific to selling, there are certain elements for high-impact presentations. You need a message that is both structurally and aesthetically sound. Use the two primary motivators—logic and emotion because they are the primary driving forces behind the persuasive nature of an effective presentation.
Structurally, your presentation is like an essay. It will have an introduction or front talk, a body or presentation and a conclusion or close. Usually, initial training provides the basic “spiel.” But the creative salesperson looks for better ways to communicate ideas. One of the most effective tools to use is generally not emphasized with initial training, yet it is probably the most powerful element of an artistic and creative presentation.
I am referring to storytelling. They can be very effective in getting prospects to see the benefit of ownership or to elicit some level of emotion, which is a great motivator. They should generally be less than a minute or two, but having 3 to 6 stories is a good yardstick.
When I sold educational material, when someone was hesitant to sign, I often told the “library” story. Before the age of Google searches, I explained that a customer immediately told me to sign her up shortly after I started to explain everything. She told me she was getting it before I walked in the door. Her niece was injured badly in a car crash on the way to the library to finish an assignment due the next day.
The emotion of an injury to a child along with the logic of saving time and money by having answers at home was very persuasive. There are different stories appropriate to specific objectives. People love stories, they spice up your presentation, and they should always be part of your sales calls.
4. Sell, Sell, Sell
That’s what it’s all about. Professionals are ethical and properly represent the features and benefits of their product or service. They know when a sale is made, the customer has far greater gain from that transaction than the sales agent.
Because prospects generally don’t get up in the morning prepared to spend a sizable amount of money later that day, sales resistance is often inevitable. There will be closing attempts and objections and it will be your enthusiasm and commitment to self advancement that will allow you to handle what comes your way.
Mainly, sales are more frequent when the sales rep, through their various resources, understands human nature. There are reasons or a psychology why people buy or not. Two main reasons for not getting a sale are procrastination and resistance to change. The top echelons of selling involve the use of logic and emotion, combined with giving customers adequate time to be ready to buy.
How do we get to the “promised land?”
The template is to answer any new objection, show more value, and try another closing attempt—usually in the form of a new question.
- accept the offer,
- emphatically reject the offer,
- show hesitancy
- INITIATE A SPECIFIC BUYING SIGN.
