Psychology of Selling Archives

Working with sales people on a daily basis provides me with a unique perspective on the emotional rigors and psychology of selling for sales professionals. I’ve heard all the advice, and given it, when it comes to emotionally detaching yourself from a sale, especially when the outcome is a lost opportunity. However, the emotional and psychological investment in the sale has a lot to do with the ultimate success of the sales person.

In new business development, you are going to lose more than you win. Those losses can come at a steep price for the sales reps on the front line of your company. Signed deals are the definition of success in the field of sales. If you care about something, and are emotionally invested, how much more often do you win? The downside, is that the losses hurt. The fallout of those lost opportunities can take a toll on a sales person’s self-confidence and enthusiasm. What we are forgetting is the lesson buried in each relationship that does not result in a sale.

Information truly is power, when you know what to do with it. If you close a deal, and you don’t know why, what have you learned that will aid you in earning your next deal? When you lose a deal, you become Sherlock Holmes and this is how you start improving sales performance. Here is a starter list of questions to ask yourself:

In walking through the process, what actions did I take?
What signs did my primary contact give to me? Did I misread them?
Did I listen? Sometimes the buying motivation is a few layers deep, did I ever really get there?
Was there ever a deal? Was I a third vendor to provide cost leverage from a preferred partner? (These can be the most frustrating because they take as much or more time and energy to support, with no real opportunity for business.)
What did I do right that shouldn’t change in my sales process? Often times we are trigger happy to throw out an entire process when a deal is not signed. This is folly. In most cases, for seasoned sales vets, fine tuning is all that is needed.
Are there patterns emerging from deals that I did not close? This is the gold mine for a sales person. If something is correlated with a lost opportunity consistently it must be addressed ASAP. By leveraging a CRM like salesforce.com, you are able to capture as much data as you are willing to enter into the system. I would recommend having a conversation with a consultant if you do not have a resident expert in how to leverage electronic CRM for tangible sales success.

This is obviously a short list, and one that can be fine tuned to your type of sales process and product/service. If you want to look into sales process training reach out to me at ADVISA or another credible firm. True victory can be defined in how you lose. If you stay active by investigating and analyzing when things don’t go your way, you are stacking the deck for future engagements. Do not get caught feeling sorry for yourself. That’s what your competitors are hoping for!

Everyday new business development teams take to the phones or the streets to make deals for their companies, and for themselves. The facts are that most sales representatives are not successful in most companies. Take your company for instance. How many reps achieve quota each month or quarter? How many times is the top sales person the same individual from previous months or quarters? Why though?

The number 1 reason the top stay at the top and the bottom are likely down for the count is self-confidence and humility. Neither of which, I feel, is mutually exclusive. In my work aiding managers in managing difficult people, executive team building, and improving sales performance both elements are critical to the superstars of sales.

Self-Confidence

This is the easy one of the two. If a person has the right P.I.® (Predictive Index®) profile for the job, and their manager is giving them what they need, self-confidence is a natural outcome. The logic is simple: You give me what I need the most + I get to do what I need to do each day = Self-confidence. If a sales manager leverages assessments this can be achieved in most sales reps.

Humility

This is the tricky one. I haven’t found any assessment for this trait, and it can take forever to learn. However, it can start with self-awareness. If someone is mature enough to accept who they are, and to realize that whatever they are is ok, they are on their way. Humility is also found in those who help others with no expectation of personal gain, those who do not feel belittled by the success of others. Those who are resolute that a career is important but falls way behind the most important priorities in their lives. They seem to be unshakable, rarely intimidated, and often the most likable and approachable people in the world.

Now back to your bottom 25% reps. They likely lack self-confidence because they are trying to be like someone else. They likely feel that the way one person realized success is the exact way that they must behave to do so. This is a recipe for little to no self-confidence. How can you be self-confident when you are working at NOT being yourself? They likely lack humility in that they must bolster small wins to earn praise and recognition. They become angry, emotional, and often times vacant in their roles. That is a helpless combination. When you profile your top sales representatives, consider both self-confidence and humility in their elixir of success. Odds are that if you give them what they need to be successful, and they have balanced and fulfilling lives outside of work as well, they’ll meet their balanced scorecard metrics.

Click the image below to get a complimentary profile on your top two sales people: