- All of the latest data shows
that selling is in fact a skill and not something
that people are just born with.
Let me repeat that, sales is a skill,
it's not just something that you're either born great at
or you're born not great it,
it's something that just like learning any other skill,
you need to develop.
So this means that even if at right now
you're not performing at the level
that you fell like is absolutely where you would love to be,
you can learn those skills,
you can develop those skills to get much better.
I've seen it done over and over and over again.
In fact, top performers are doing certain things,
they're using certain skills that they've developed
that are allowing them to close far more sales
than everyone else.
In this video I'm going to show you
seven keys to transforming your sales skills, check it out.
Number one, follow a data driven approach.
There are so many gurus out there
who I see on YouTube and all different places
that are sharing the secret to closing the sale.
Yet, so many of them are just using outdated ideas
that maybe worked 10, 20, even 30 years ago,
but in today's world of selling,
so many of those strategies simply don't work.
And yet at the same time, there are troves of data
out there now, available to us,
where we can now understand what is really working
at every phase of the sale.
So if you do nothing else besides use this
you'll be further ahead
which is to use and follow a data driven approach,
make sure that the data of what's working out there
in today's marketplace backs up whatever it is
that you're learning.
Number two, read or listen to one sales book each month.
Now you may be someone who loves to read books
or you may be more of an Audible,
I was about to say books on tape,
it doesn't really matter what the medium is
but you really want to be consistently
consuming at least a sales book each and every month.
This is something that I've been doing for my entire career
and it has led me so much further along
to ensure that I'm always on the cutting edge
of what's actually working.
Of course, you're not going to always be reading my books,
you're going to be reading lots of ideas
and what you can find is that there's always,
almost always, one good idea in every single book
that you can then go and implement.
Number three, execute new ideas.
Now I've just almost gave the idea away
just a second ago but you want to of course
be constantly sharpening your saw, learning new skills,
but you also need to execute those ideas.
I find that one of the biggest differentiators
between top sales performers and everyone else
is their ability to just consistently execute new ideas.
I find that when I do sales trainings at companies,
it's always the top performers
who are saying, "Oh, okay, yeah,
"I could see how I can use that,"
and then they go and immediately use it.
It's the bottom and middle performers
who are saying, "Oh, I don't think that's going to work
"for me and here's why it's not going to work."
It's the top performers that go out
and execute new ideas every single time.
Number four, map out your entire sales process.
The absolute best sales people know the entire sales process
from beginning to end.
Let me ask you a question,
when you went to school, did you learn about how to sell?
Did you learn about sales?
Maybe you even got an MBA,
did you learn about sales in your MBA?
I got a MBA and I learned nothing about selling
in that entire program.
We, as a profession, get very little practical
and tactical training in order to become sales professionals
and so as a result, most sales people
are just winging the sales process.
They're here, they're there, they're jumping around,
the end result is less than ideal.
And so what we want to do is make sure
that we map out our entire sales process
so that we know each phase and we know what we're doing
in each step of the process.
Now I have a ton of other videos
on doing exactly that, but at least in this video,
suffice it to say, that you want to map out
that entire process.
Number five, use a prospecting blueprint.
Most people's sales problems come down
to the fact that they don't have enough opportunities
in their pipeline.
If they simply had more opportunities,
the sales would be so much easier to come across,
but because they have so few opportunities,
they're just scraping by and they're scraping
and clawing just to close every single deal.
Whereas if you've got that prospecting blueprint
which is that entire plan of exactly what you're doing
at each phase of contacting a prospect,
you're going to be so much more successful
and you're going to get so many more leads
into your funnel.
So what you want to really do is,
just like earlier, I said map out your sales process,
you also want to map out your entire prospecting process.
So that way you know at what point you're going to be
making a call, and then you're going to be following up
with an email, and then you're going to be contacting them
with a LinkedIn request and then you're going to be
sending them a package or a letter,
and following up again with a call
and you know every single piece,
mapping out that entire process.
So that way you know exactly what to do
when and people don't accidentally slip outside
of your funnel, you're constantly,
you have that process or making sure
that you're contacting each prospect
at least about 20 times over the course
over a number of months.
Number six, learn one thing every single day.
Now you can see a theme in this video
where I've been really focused on consistently
sharpening your saw.
And that's how you develop your sales skills,
that's how you transform your sales skills,
is that every single day you learn just one thing.
This actually comes from my father,
he used to always tell me,
"Mark, you want to learn one thing every single day
"for the rest of your life."
And that is true both personally and professionally,
we need to be constantly getting better
and if you can at the end of each day say,
"You know what, I learned this today,"
you are going to be better,
because at the end of 250 work days,
over the course of a year,
you have now learned 250 new things.
Learn just one thing every single day,
sharpen that saw, refine, go back out,
do it again tomorrow.
Number seven, find meaning in selling.
You know my good friend, Lisa Earle Mcleod,
who wrote the book, "Selling With Noble Purpose",
talks about in her amazing book by the way,
which should be one of the books that we read,
talk about how we as sales people,
have one of the highest callings, professionally.
We are really helping the people that we're closing,
we're helping the people that we're selling too,
and so the more we can find meaning in what we're doing
when we're selling on a day-to-day basis,
the more we're going to love what we do
and the more we're going to want to continue
to sharpen our skills.
So find meaning, think through,
every time you're talking to a prospect,
how is this person's life going to be better
as a result of closing this deal?
And by the way, if you're in an industry,
or you're at a company where when you close deals
it's actually not improving the quality of their life,
or improving the quality of their business,
then find something else to sell,
make sure that you can find meaning in what you're selling.
So there the seven keys to transform your sales skills.
And if you enjoyed this video
then I have an awesome free training
on the data driven approach to help you crush
your sales goals, just click right here
to get registered instantly.
Seriously, just click right here,
this is an in depth training that will help you close
more deals at higher prices,
all while generating more meetings.
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