Being number one on your sales team just isn't that difficult. Salesmanship is a learned skill. You can perfect that skill. Yes, it does help to have an outgoing personality, high self-esteem and an ego. But, these attributes alone won't make you successful. Confidence in yourself, confidence in your products and confidence in your company is a key ingredient. The only way to gain this kind of ultimate confidence is by attaining knowledge. Study your products, understand your value propositions and understand what your competitive advantage is.
If you interview every sales person in your company, what you learn may really surprise you. The "Law of Averages" leads you to believe out of ten sales people - Two will be Stars, Two will Really Suck and the remaining Six will just be Average.
All ten would demonstrate different personalities, temperaments and each one of them will have created their own personal model for selling. Influence on the building of their personal model comes from past experience and the coaching, mentoring and training they have received.
A few of your sales people may seem to have lost their edge. Exploring the reason for this as a means of improving your entire sales force starts with defining what a real "Lead Wolf Sales Star" is.
The Lead Wolf Sales Star
The single factor found in all producers is consistent sales production, regardless of the time of the year or economic conditions. In this century, the customer expects you to understand their business, their marketplace, and their customers and most importantly, they expect you to understand how they make money. Ultimately, the biggest expectation they have of the sales people they choose to do business with is the ability of that sales person to enhance their ability to make a profit.
The "A" sales person (A Lead Wolf Sales Star) in today's sales environment understands this sales methodology and has the expertise required to succeed in this century. The Lead Wolf sales person has evolved, educated themselves, utilizes their resources and recognizes the necessity to embrace team-selling concepts. They understand their customers and realize it's really about what the customer is buying and what they are buying is not a product. Through their relationship with their customers, they raise their customers' expectations of them as a supplier to the point that they can create competitive advantage. Through this Lead Wolf methodology, they create trust, respect, value, and not only a personal relationship, but a company relationship that employs all the company's resources in providing value to the customer.
But, every Lead Wolf Sales Star under stands and demonstrates the following characteristics
Characteristics of the "Lead Wolf Sales Star"
• Appearance - personal, vehicle and sales material
• Pride - in yourself, your company and your profession
• Confidence - in yourself, your company and your product/service
• Sincere and trustworthy
• Desire to achieve - wants to help others get what they want and, in turn, earn a higher income
• Excels in time and territory management
• Does not ignore prospecting
• Creates definitive, comprehensive, documented sales plans for all major accounts
• Never visits a customer without a call plan
• Seeks self-development
• Enjoys selling
• Persistent and consistency
Attitude
Attitude is a key factor in becoming a "Lead Wolf Sales Star". Regardless of the number of years spent selling, or level of understanding one has in regards to sales techniques or strategies, without a strong conviction in oneself, the prospect's conviction in moving forward will not be there. Let us not forget that our attitude can affect the attitude of others and how others react to us can affect our attitude.
Most sales people think they have a positive attitude-unfortunately, many of those people are wrong. While some in the world of selling are consumed by the rejection, and high levels of negativity they are subjected to daily, the "Lead Wolf Sales Star" never allows anyone to diminish their confidence or their self-worth. The Lead Wolf star turns rejection and negativity into energy that drives them even harder toward success. If they lose one sale they begin a new search of their pipeline for a replacement. The old sales cliche that every "NO" brings you closer to a "Yes" is actually engrained in their psychic.
Unfortunately, the current recession has created an increase in the amount of negativity and personal rejection sales people experience. This negativity can affect many sales person's self-esteem, which in turn reduces the sales person's "level of expectation" for success. The Lead Wolf Star does not allow that to happen. They simply do not go through the motions, they move forward with consistent behavior in order to produce results! They have an ever present sense of urgency that is reflective of their positive attitude. A poor or negative attitude creates a snowball effect that eventually lowers the sales person's levels of performance.
"As long as there are cars in the parking lot ---- they are buying something. I am going to get the biggest share of that something as possible."
Anybody Can Sell
Anybody can sell to some degree and we all do it without exception. However, to be a professional "Lead Wolf Sales Star" accepting these concepts as truths is the starting point. Accepting the concepts described in this article will enable you to understand that salesmanship is not a born trait. Agreed, there are some personality traits that may help you create success quicker but true professional sales skills are learned. Sales is a profession that requires professionals. It's a profession to be proud of. It requires persistence, tenacity, confidence and understanding. Study yourself, study people, do your homework and never forget the fundamentals to succeed in this century. Targeting, goal setting, action planning, solution selling and follow-up never go out of fashion no matter how much of a star you become.
http://www.ceostrategist.com/ ? Sign up to receive "The Howl" a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. ? Straight talk about today's issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com. Don't forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business. E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for your special Howl discount order form. Get the CEO Strategist Interview Guide and Conducting an Effective Sales Training Session Guide just for signing up for "The Howl".
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