Being a salesperson has never been easy; demanding bosses, irritated prospective customers, and fierce competition have always put tremendous amounts of pressure on salesmen and saleswomen to succeed. Thanks to the disruptive nature of many of today’s emerging technologies, too, many salespeople are finding their jobs threatened by robots, and are trying to figure out how to get their selling back on track to remain relevant in the marketplace.
Luckily for those sales professionals who are struggling to make ends meet, there are plenty of ways you can retrofit your pitches and get your selling back on track. Brush up on the following tips, and you’ll be cashing in thanks to your newfound success in sales in no time.
Adapting in the 21st century economy
First and foremost, those salespeople trying to master their profession in the 21st century economy need to understand the importance of tech. Too many contemporary salespeople think they can outrun the impending robotic revolution, and think that old ways of doing business will prove sufficient when it comes to securing their jobs. Unfortunately, the recent disruption that the sales industry has undergone is only just beginning, and the future of the job market will be defined by even more automation.
This doesn’t mean that salesmen and saleswomen should get disheartened, however; rather than trying to beat the tech, you need to embrace it, and learn how to employ it for your own ends. Social media, for instance, is a great example of a newfound technology that can help salespeople achieve their goals in a quicker manner than ever before. If you learn how to master using social media to make connections (and thus, to make sales), you’ll quickly find yourself to be an irreplaceable part of any office environment.
Online marketing in general is becoming the standard across disparate industries, so brushing up on some of today’s best resources for online marketing strategies is important for your long-term success, too. You can’t possibly hope to succeed for long if you’re not up to date on all things tech, so keep a close eye on developments emerging from Silicon Valley if you want to be relevant in your industry a few years from now.
Not everything is about tech, however; countless salespeople are still finding social skills to be invaluable towards their long-term success as professionals, too, and in the era of online casino news, it’s actually grown more important than ever before to have adequate in-person people skills if you want to be a salesperson. Here’s how you can boost your social savviness in order to secure more sales in the marketplace of tomorrow.
Becoming the ultimate salesperson
The first thing salespeople who are in a slump should understand is that they can’t blame themselves for every little bit of failure they experience; if you’re too hard on yourself, you won’t ever be able to work yourself out of the rut you find yourself in. Be patient, and know that success can sometimes be elusive, and you’ll come to realize that being a successful salesperson is all about keeping your eye on the big picture.
If you’ve yet to brush up on your communications skills, you should stop and consider if a failure to deliver your message is the reason you’re been in a rut lately. Too many salespeople get lost in the clouds when making a pitch, and forget the basic lessons they should have learned years ago that could prove to be the key to a successful pitch. If you’re not putting your customers and prospective clients first, consider re-approaching how you’re making sales from the top down.
Examining how you make your sales calls, too, is crucial when it comes to reviewing the root causes of your recent failures. Far too many contemporary sales professionals wing their phone calls, doing little to no preparation beforehand, trusting in their own instincts once the calls already begun. It’s imperative that you draft some notes beforehand, however, especially since that means you’ll always have some information and lines to fall back upon if you get tongue-twisted.
If you’re not setting crystal clear objectives for yourself, either, it’s easy to fall behind without realizing that you’re failing to meet your goals. Clear cut goals and milestones that you can chip away at overtime are crucial to any salesperson’s continued success, so don’t be afraid to institute formal ways of progress-measuring when it comes to determining how well you’ve been making pitches in the past few months.
Above all else, relax and understand that success won’t come overnight. Getting yourself out of a rut takes honest introspection and serious time, so don’t be afraid to stop and smell the flowers in-between pitches. Take a more organized, slow, and tech-centric approach to your future pitches, and you’ll soon find that you’ve gotten your ailing sales back on track.
Jeremiah Ownyang is an online entrepreneur