Sales training ideas – 9 steps to sales success.

Whether you’re just learning how to sell, or have been selling for a while, these nine steps can make you more successful in sales. 

9 Steps to Top Sales Performance  

1)   Do what the top salespeople do.

If you take the same actions as the top salespeople, you will eventually also be a top salesperson. Find the top salespeople in your company, and everywhere for that matter, and pick their brains. Ask if you can have some of their time to find out what makes them successful. Absorb as much information as you can. Write it down and record it if possible.  

2)   Learn everything you possibly can about the subject of selling.

Read, listen to programs, watch videos, and study everything you can get your hands on that relates to selling. If you are new in sales, there will a lot to absorb. Even if you’ve been in sales for a while, there are always new ideas coming out on all aspects of selling. Be open and curious and realize that no matter how much you know, there’s always more to learn.  

3)   Learn everything you can about your industry and your prospects.

Read industry publications, newsletters, magazines, and the like. Pay attention to “local” sources such as newspapers, Chamber of Commerce letters, and other news bulletins that are printed in the geographic proximity of the companies you’re interested in. Look for breaking news, new products, new laws, regulations, or changes in legislation, interesting articles, stories on people making an impact in the industry, and other interesting information. Stay on top of the latest innovations and technology within your industry. Study the companies and individuals to whom you’re selling. 

4) Work on yourself.

To be a top salesperson, you must constantly improve personally as well as professionally. Make it a habit to think positive and stay motivated. Put as much positive information into your brain as you can and keep negatives out. Work on improving mentally, physically, spiritually, etc. You need to keep growing as a person. You’ll find that as your attitude about yourself improves, your sales ability will increase; and as you get better at selling, your attitude about yourself will improve. 

5) Set goals.

Goals are important because they give you direction. Your goals can be as simple as doing 120 percent of quota and making the annual awards trip, or as complex as a list of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual goals in all the major areas of your life. Some people find a complete list of complex goals overwhelming. If this is the case, simply set one or two major goals at a time.  Ask and answer the following questions: What do you want for all areas of your life five years from now? Ten years?  What do you want for your family?   What kind of person do you want to be?  

6) Record new ideas quickly and develop new information.

Always have a recorder and/or pen and paper handy. Have them in your car, by your bed, at your desk, and everywhere you go so you can record good ideas as soon as they hit you. A recorder is also great if you hear someone say something that you’d like to use. You can either have them repeat it or record it yourself. Take notes on information you read, see, or listen to. This helps to further reinforce the idea. Once you’ve captured some good ideas, develop them further and review your notes regularly.  

7) Practice, drill, rehearse, and apply new ideas.

Take sayings, closes, and other information you like and make them your own. Practice them on other salespeople, family members, friends, and practice them on yourself. Most important, once you’ve mastered them privately, look for places to use these new ideas in real-world selling situations.

Review motivational and educational information often.

Actively listening to tape and CD programs while taking notes is the optimal way to learn. However, this is not always possible, and when it’s not, passive listening in the car or elsewhere will also work well. With books and other written material, read them, take notes, highlight sections, flag pages, and then review your notes and highlighted sections ten to fifteen times. With videos, watch them, take notes, and then review. Again, you also want to be looking for ways to apply the new information you’re learning. Occasionally you will want to review resources you’ve already studied. As you need help in certain particular areas, you can return to several resources and get different ideas. 

9) Work hard and smart.

Obviously if you’re given a choice, it’s much better to work smarter than harder. At the same time, when you are just starting out and don’t know anything about the business, you simply must work hard until you figure things out. In order to get the most out of your hard work and understand things as quickly as possible, do what the top salespeople do, as we’ve already discussed, make more calls and work longer than anyone else, be persistent, use your time effectively and stay organized.  Your overall objective is to work smarter and harder than anyone else. If you combine brains with hard work, you’ll get to where you want to go. 

Keep these nine steps in mind with regard to your sales career. The more you focus on them, the more successful you’ll be in sales.