Written by Sean McPheat | 
Take a look and let me know what your favourites are, and what other tips you would share with others.
1) Focus on what you can control, not on what you can’t.
That focus will drive you forward instead of holding you back
2) Invest in continual development of your skills, attitudes and abilities.
By slowing down in the investment of your own skillsets, you lose momentum and stunt your growth opportunities
3) Prioritise, prioritise and then prioritise some more.
If you are able to see what’s most important and apply those often, your time is well spent, and you achieve greater success.
4) Have a clear purpose for everything you do.
Whether it’s a cold call on a prospect or a follow-up email after a client visit, have the clarity to know exactly what you are trying to achieve.
5) Learn from every experience.
If you get a sale, learn what went right so you can repeat it and improve it.
If you lose a sale, learn what you can do differently, so you can improve it.
6) Rely on experts to help you out.
No salesperson can do it all on their own, so learn who can help you achieve your goals and give you back-up when things get tough.
7) Be realistically optimistic rather than persuasively pessimistic.
Seeing things from the optimistic point of view is always better than complaining about what isn’t going right for you.
8) Keep increasing your self-belief.
Your self-belief is a key driver to performance, so maintain your confidence in yourself.
9) Prospect at the right level within the business.
Find out exactly who the decision-maker is before you make contact, not during the call.
10) Discover the prospect’s buying cycles.
This means identifying when they might be in the market to be approached, rather than hitting the leads only when you get them.
11) Build trust at every touchpoint.
When you have contact with a prospect, do something that makes them grateful you called
12) Have an end result in mind for every contact.
Don’t just call in or drop in just to spend time; have a purpose with every interaction you have.
13) Keep in touch with past clients.
If you haven’t heard from or contacted a client for a long-time, find reasons to reconnect and establish the relationship again.
14) Accept rejection as a normal part of the sales cycle.
You’ll never get a sale from every call, so don’t expect it.
Instead, recognise that some people will not be ready to buy now, and work on getting in touch when they are ready.
15) Practice your prospecting calls with your colleagues or your manager.
They will be able to give you constructive feedback in a safe environment.
16) Improve your listening skills outside of the sales calls.
You know you need to listen effectively, so practice those skills in situations where it’s not vital.
That way, you will find it easier to adapt when you’re in front of prospects.
17) Don’t sound desperate in sales meetings.
As soon as you start sounding needy, you lose credibility and the prospect will start to take advantage of that.
18) Recognise that buyers have access to much more information than ever before.
So you need to understand their needs and how your products fulfil those needs.
19) Remember that buyers don’t buy your products or services; they buy the results your products and services give them.
So concentrate on proving those results rather than going over the features and benefits all the time.
20) Concentrate on building value in your solutions, rather than how good your products are.
Higher value will impress your prospects much more than cheaper products
21) Technology is changing the buying cycles of buyers, so build your knowledge of all the technological advances in your industry.
This will change very quickly, so remain up-to-date as much as you can.
22) Know more about your competition than your customers do.
You don’t want to be embarrassed when a customer tells you about special offers from competitors before you know about them.
23) Have a process for asking for referrals.
Most salespeople leave asking about referrals until the client offers them.
24) Become a valuable resource to your clients.
Sending them interesting articles, downloading podcasts that will interest them, holding coaching sessions for their employees and keep them up-to-date with industry news and views will help you become valuable to them.
25) Tailor every presentation to the specific needs of the prospect.
A sheep-dip approach will never hit the mark for new prospects, so ensure every solution you offer is personalised and adapted to their needs.
26) Put the emphasis on value rather than price.
Prospects will always concentrate on lowering your price if they haven’t seen specific value in your solution.
Highlight that value so price is not the biggest issue.
27) Think of the connection as a relationship-building exercise rather than a sales transaction.
That way, every contact will be built upon rather than a cheapest-deal experiment.
28) Build a sense of urgency into your discussions.
Many prospects will say they want to think about things and never get back to you.
Introducing a sense of urgency into the decision-making process will help you progress the sale now rather than in six months.
29) Uncover potential objections early on.
This means you don’t go through all the hard work of qualifying and presenting, only to find a big objection that stops you in your tracks.
See what potential hazards exist before they become issues later.
30) Practice dealing with sales objections in a safe environment.
If you don’t practice, you run the risk of being caught out, so prepare for any price or other objection before it comes up.
31) Keep your CRM system up-to-date.
If you don’t, you will forget things and it won’t give you reasons for follow-up or help you to generate more future business.
32) Have a robust and strong follow-up system.
Not following up routinely will mean a hit-or-miss result when you could ensure you are spending your time wisely by following up when there is future potential.
33) See your current customers as much greater prospects for further business than cold-calling.
Existing clients know much more about your capabilities than cold prospects, so build your reputation and keep searching for further business opportunities.
You’ll see more interest and greater potential by following some or most of these tips.
Let me know which ones you are following and any others you think would help our readership.
If you’re looking for even more tips and techniques to inspire you, as a Sales Training Provider we have multiple Sales Courses for you.
These include our Selling Skills Training, Account Management Training, as well as our Online Sales Courses.
Happy Selling!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training
Updated on: 7 December, 2017
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