Just Go: Tips for Rising to the Top in Sales

Just go and be the best. It’s easier said than done. You have to push yourself.

In sales and in life, it’s up to you to get better each and every day. When I started in sales, I decided going into my very first day that I wanted to be the best on the floor. I didn’t know how I was going to do it (and honestly I don’t think I ever actually became the best), but bare-minimum I was going to outwork and out-hustle the competition. I don’t know that I have discovered all the answers for how to become the best salesperson possible, but I have learned a lot about trying to get to the top of your game. You still have to get there on your own, but these four tips might give you a head start.

Learn the Game

To be the best, it takes more than sheer “want to,” but don’t for a second believe it doesn’t help.

In inside sales you don’t learn anything until you pick up the phone. You can read every sales book known to man and have all the technical knowledge in the world, but to really learn anything you have to pick up that phone and start running your game.

What is game? Game is all about who you are as a salesperson. As you get better, you develop your sales personality. I don’t think that your sales personality should be any different than the person you are every day. However, as time goes on you will develop more confidence and swagger. You can’t have apprehension about calling anyone new, you have to get on the phone and make it happen.

So that’s where I started. On my third day of work I started calling. I wasn’t completely sure what I was doing, but it didn’t matter. Two hundred dials a day. That was my goal. The way I looked at it, the more people I talked to, the more conversations I had, the more I would learn, and the better I would get.

Every no is one step closer to a yes.

Hone Your Craft

According to The Challenger Sale, “The Hard-Worker” is only a standout performer 17 percent of the time. So if working hard isn’t the final answer, what else is there?

To take your game to the next level you have to do the little things that others aren’t doing.

Since I came to memoryBlue, I have read more books and done more studying than I probably did in my four years in college. I never had the drive to be the best student at Old Dominion University, but I do have the drive to be the best damn salesperson I can make of myself.

I have read books like The Challenger Sale, The Sandler Rules, and E-Myth Revisited. I didn’t read these books for the fun of reading. I read them for one reason, to do things that others weren’t and to put myself in a position to be the best. The best sales people out there aren’t skating by on their natural abilities, they’re outperforming the competition by doing the little things.

You get out what you put in. If you have the ability to re-listen to your calls, do it. It’s the sales version of watching film. Learn what you did right and continue to do that, but more importantly, learn from your mistakes. Where did you lose control of a call? Where could you have asked a slightly better question that could have led to a more favorable outcome?

Nobody is going to do these things for you. You have to want to get better.

Never Be Afraid to Fail

If I told you I never got scared or nervous on the phone I’d be lying to you. To this day when I dial for a new client I get butterflies before my first conversation. Am I going to ask the right questions? Are they going to completely shut me down?

Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes you will get bullied off the phone and sound like you have no idea what you’re talking about. And what’s the end result? You still have a job, you still have a phone, and you still have researched prospects to call. The world didn’t end and you move on.

You can never allow yourself to be afraid to try new things and to have them blow up in your face. My best week ever was after listening to audio of John Costigan’s “What to Say and How to Say It.”

I tried out as many new tactics as I could. Maybe forcing some here and there, and definitely using some at inopportune times, but I added new parts into my game that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

I will never be scared to try something new and I guarantee it has cost me a few times, but that mentality is something I can’t change. To become the best, there are going to be times where you fall flat on your face. Pick yourself up, learn from it and get better.

Hustle

There are going to be days where you don’t want to outwork everyone in the office. That’s fine. You don’t outperform your competition in one day. I’m not asking you to make 500 dials and read a book a day. It’s the long haul. It’s doing the little things the most.

Work hard, read, study, and never be afraid to try something new. Just go.

If you think you have what it takes to learn the game, work hard, and hustle, get in touch with us at memoryBlue.