A colleague of mine recently discussed the 7 bad habits inside sales people practice. So in this edition, we’ll flip the coin and take a look into the actions and habits that make Business Development Reps successful.
- Prospect companies and accounts, not people. Successful sales reps will get a fresh list and immediately sort it by Company/Account in their CRM. They don’t call down a list of people and go from one on to the next mindlessly. The contacts are an entry point into the bigger picture – the company. They don’t rely on list vendors’ data but instead use that information as a means to dig into the company and find out who the right point(s) of contact are so they can qualify them in or out as soon as possible.
- Every company has problems, so why do they want to solve this particular one? Think about that the next time you uncover a pain with your prospect. Finding out what’s really compelling them to investigate your solutions is critical in ensuring your leads move farther down the sales process towards closing. What is making them consider spending money to fix it? So try asking what will happen if they don’t fix this problem? If there’s a repercussion you can identify then it makes your lead that much more valuable.
- Don’t be over-the-top, but develop a style to stand out. Successful sales reps have a way of differentiating themselves from the average person. Think of a few irrelevant but more personal questions that you can use in your dialogue. If it’s Friday, ask if they’re doing anything fun over the weekend. If the holidays are around the corner, ask about that. Yeah, it is small talk but it helps establish and spark a connection. It shows you just don’t care about the business, and they’ll tend to remember that.
- Track yourself in several ways. It’s not just about how many leads you pass that define what kind of sales person you are. Whether your numbers are high or low, always look into other metrics or variables that you can analyze. How many “good” conversations do you have per day, are you identifying new contacts or relying on the contacts on your existing list? What percentages of your leads derive from email versus an actual live conversation, are you relying on email too much? How many actual outbound calls do you make a day versus outbound emails?
- Be resourceful. Gatekeepers can be difficult when you have no person to reference. If this is the case, don’t throw this company to the junk box. At least try to get transferred to the general department where your ideal target works. In this day and age, use all those social media tools at your disposable. Jigsaw, LinkedIn, Facebook, Hoovers, Twitter etc. LinkedIn is the most accurate and reassuring since it’s updated by them. A simple Google search including the company name and target title always has the potential to yield good information as well.
- Be proactive. Successful sales reps know when they don’t have something they need. They’ll waste no time to express that need as oppose to using that as an excuse when they fall short of their goals. If something’s not working, they’ll relay that to the rest of the team or to their managers and are usually very collaborative on ideas to solve the problem, whether it’s reworking their scripting or messaging or creating better questions to qualify their prospects.
- “ASP”, Always Staying Positive. ASP? I don’t know, I just made it up now. But regardless, the most successful people in our world have an irrepressible sense of positivity. They don’t waste their much needed energy on dwelling on the negatives or getting caught up in the social hierarchy at the company. They see every problem as an opportunity to come up with a solution.
No company is perfect and the reason is because it’s comprised of imperfect employees. Accept the fact that there will always be problems that arise at your company and think about how you will let that affect your days. You either work to be part of the problem or work to be part of the solution and where you fall within that equation really determines what kind of person you are and what kind of person you want to strive to become. If you have finished reading this and can genuinely walk away and tell yourself that you are doing everything you can to do a better job then I salute you.
If not, just understand that for 5 days a week and at least 8 hours a day your company is your “present”. You might day dream from time to time about taking off to some Caribbean island but the reality is this is where you are, so why not make the best of it and perform to your max potential.
