How can direct sales employees develop self-awareness?

To help direct sales employees develop self-awareness, you can encourage them to engage in self-reflection and introspection. Encourage them to regularly assess their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. This can be done through self-assessment exercises, seeking feedback from colleagues and customers, and setting personal development goals. Encourage them to be open to feedback and to actively listen and reflect on their own behaviors and actions. Additionally, promoting a culture of continuous learning and providing opportunities for self-development, such as training programs or workshops, can also contribute to their self-awareness and personal growth.

In the world of direct sales, self-awareness often comes from the nitty-gritty of the job. It's about facing rejection, learning from each pitch, and being brutally honest about what works and what doesn't. It's not just about hitting targets but understanding your style, adapting to different customers, and owning up to your mistakes. Realism in self-awareness for a salesperson means acknowledging the grind, celebrating the victories, and staying hungry to evolve in a highly competitive environment.

I always encourage sellers to be honest in their assessment of their skills. Success in sales can also blind a person to the areas where they need the most help, so be open to getting support for others in these crucial areas.

Direct sales professionals can cultivate self-awareness through consistent reflection on their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. Actively seeking feedback from both colleagues and customers, establishing personal goals, and participating in relevant training programs are instrumental in fostering self-awareness. Furthermore, honing the skill of active listening during sales interactions and conducting thorough self-evaluations enable these individuals to gain valuable insights into their communication strategies and refine their sales techniques effectively.

I think honesty is closely related to trust. People only buy from sellers they trust, personally and professionally. Being trustworthy means admitting any shortcomings you may have and being transparent. Being "authentic" in my personal life always carries over to my sales/professional life. I find that to be the best approach.

Seek first to learn from your buyers, and make a practice of it so that you can stay ahead of buying trends in your market. Start by reviewing your sales calls, or using AI summary tools, to pull out key parts of the calls. How do buyers react to certain questions or statements? Pay attention to their body language, changes in tone, or pace of speech. Take note of what they seemed to engage with. Where could you have dug in more? Then use the learnings from your peers to brainstorm and practice more open ended questions to encourage buyers to share more.

In my experience, team meetings are a really good opportunity to discuss experiences from the field and get different perspectives from your colleagues. Most people are happy to share and learn from each other and it's a "safe" place to test new approaches. For those less inclined to participate, it still offers a great opportunity to observe and learn.

The old saying, “you don’t want to be the smartest one in the room” is more true than just cute. We found the quickest way to stay efficient in the process and pick the fewest steps backward when working toward the goal is to have a team of contributors with different years of experience, type of experience, and of course, talents. Allowing everyone to have a voice who earned the right to be on the team and creating listening feedback sessions all along the way has helped us reach project deadlines on time and create outcomes that have the desired result. We can’t forget that just because we don’t agree or see things the same way doesn’t mean we don’t create stronger solutions.

Learning from other specialists and taking insights from the buying behavior of customers are key factors of sales. While doing so, you will be not only developing professional skills in handling complex situations, but also will be aware of the different buying patterns of the customers.

Direct sales is different for all. For some sales professionals it is building rapport, some focus on generating need, some map the product to client’s problems, and some are good at story telling. The best way to be a better sales person is to learn each good quality from others and implement it in yourself. Now days knowledge is the power and the best way to gain the knowledge is to learn from other’s mistakes and experiences. The more knowledge you’ll share with the client, more he/she will trust you and your product. While I was doing sales, we used to go with one of the best salespersons on the floor and observe entire sales pitch. Nothing can be more impactful than learning from live sales closure. Hence, constant learning is must.

As we all know, no one can master sales for a lifetime... One needs to keep improving with the insights and understanding of consumer behaviour. Experimenting with different strategies and approaches allow you to get the best one out for you to target your audience with a strategic plan by using your previous experiences and feedbacks. By using different tools available you can try some automations and check the outcome if it works for you. As we all know sales is considered as Art & Science at the same time and both of them require a lot of experience to see the end result. Likewise, if you want to achieve the goals and vision you have to make your mindset flexible to adapt new strategies and keep updating the same.

Every client is different in their business scenario and hence the adaptability as per the needs, culture and working style of the client is critical for direct sellers. Infact, the need for direct sales is to provide a tailored engagement to clients. Hence, it is important for absorb and adapt as per client. Along with adaptability, as business scenario is volatile and complex it is important to evolve through intelligent experiments based on needs and business scenario of the industry and client.

Absolutely experiment and take notes. Ask you try different things, see which feels more comfortable and what works better. If you are recording calls it's easier because you can listen to yourself and learn but you can also share the calls with others to give you feedback. Once you have listened you can adopt what worked best. It may not always be what you think or what was most comfortable.

If you are secure in yourself you can afford to experiment further and deeper, knowing and trusting that you will not recover and learn from the experience. The learning will make you more adaptable to further challenges. As we know, direct sales is one of the most challenging and adaptable environments.

Understand your product and its value proposition. Sincerely believe in your product. Understand your company and your role within it. Maintain contact with your prospects. Keep your eye on the prize and remain consistent. Prioritize relationship building.

One thing I learned from going through a few challenging situations with internal and external customers is the difference between "reacting" and "responding." Remember that things are not happening TO YOU, they are simply happening. To help me work with a high-stress team, I actually put a sticky note on my computer display that said "DO NOT REACT." I left it there until it became second nature. Trust me - this is one of the secrets of life: you are not the center of the universe - act accordingly.

As a former and “not quite where I’d like to be in terms of emotional regulation” 2x CEO, 2X founder, sales rep, etc. I can say this from personal experience, and I mean this with full respect. Therapy. In person not zoom. Get extremely honest and real. People who cannot regulate their emotions either are inexperienced or suffer from actual mental illness, (BDP, for example, can be common.) Personally, km likely not going to glean to the tips to emotional regulation outside of a fully immersive and consistent process. That’s me, and that’s how I’ve developed a ton of muscle here in 2024. It’s helped me in business relationship, personal relationships and all areas of life, not just selling more.

This is the most difficult step in self-awareness to honestly delve into the source of your emotions and objectively without judgment and with kindness create strategies that best serve how you wish to be and be known.

There is a great book that offers a strong strategy for regulating yourself… The Power of Consistency by Weldon Long. Although overall the book is about accomplishing goals through daily actions, this key concept has helped me (and helped me coach others): Thoughts lead to attitude, which leads to actions, which leads to results. For years I understood the power of positive attitude but struggled with how to actually get there. It’s the thoughts you tell yourself each morning that shapes your attitude which leads to actions that create results. When in a bad mood it’s often hard turn it around right away. But you control your prior thoughts which leads to better attitudes. The daily morning ritual Mr Long describes is powerful

Rejection can be hard. We can take the "no" personally. I had a sales trainer that taught me to treat the phone like an ATM machine. If you know you have a 10% close rate, and your product is $100, every no is $10. That changed my mindset.

Being great at sales requires a very lengthy skill set including presenting, prospecting, objection handling, knowing your solution, being savvy about your prospects' business, and business writing. To top it all off you have to be likeable. The only way to master all these skills is to continually look for opportunities to improve by asking for feedback from others. My rule for reps after every customer-facing meeting is that everyone who attended needs to go find a place to sit and exchange feedback. The key to this is the senior person goes first Often I'll self-assess to demonstrate it's ok to be honest. This ensures immediate correction of bad behavior and improvement by the entire team in holding a client-facing meeting.

When seeking feedback, make your ask specific to the goals you want to accomplish. For example, if you are working on asking for better open-ended questions, you could ask your buyer: What else should I know that I have not asked about yet?

There are two categories of feedback generally that can be practiced in firms. Regular periodic (quarterly, semi-annual, or annual) 360 and performance reviews. These are more focused on the employees' overall performance or team dynamics. These feedbacks help the salesperson improve his/her performance and become a more active and effective player in the team. This type of feedback is necessary, but more is needed to have a significant impact on the sales approaches. The second type of feedback challenges the salesperson on how to navigate the sales process and close. Black hat and green hat meetings create a safe environment for the sales team to get 360 feedback on their sales approaches and how to handle objections with a holistic view.

Self analysis can be done easily by using SWOT and then by taking the feedback as it is (unbiased). In most of the cases feedback and criticism is being taken negatively and this must be avoided.

I teach that feedback is a gift, not a right, and to embrace it like the pot of gold it is. You can learn as much about the giver as the receiver when seeking feedback. If you have done step four, then your emotions will guide you on how you receive and perceive feedback, why, or your intentions to give and how you deliver the feedback.

I recently learned that a vision is made up of small missions... Vision doesn't change but mission may keep altering! With every win in those missions you are closer to the vision you have set. Its always important to celebrate those wins ! Those rewards are not for single achievement but for acknowledging the goal!

Closing a deal gives a dopamine hit. We should definitely enjoy it, and reflect on it in a relaxed setting. Ask yourself how you can replicate those micro-successes into other customer engagements. Use success stories to build confidence.

Monitoring progress is facilitated by regular performance reviews. Examine sales data, successes, and failures to find trends and areas that require development. Celebrate every accomplishment, no matter how big or small, to keep motivation high in the hectic world of sales.

Celebrate the small wins and progress as you work to your goals. This will help boost your motivation and grit to keep going. New habits and behaviors are not formed overnight. Perhaps you need to increase your sales numbers and you've identified you need to get better access to economic decision-makers. In order to do that- you need to ask more questions that uncover impact and value. Each of those are steps you can accomplish and celebrate on your way to your ultimate goal- more sales.

Before going to the client meeting research which vertical their industry is in so you have a clear understanding of the types of communications or potential challenges the client may be experiencing.

In order to become self aware, it will require a level of extreme ownership of all your outcomes and results, or a growth mindset. When we make excuses, it limits the ability to understand the root cause of things and sets the stage for a closed mindset. When we take responsibility for our results, we will then look for ways to learn and improve because we believe we can change things.

I start by helping sales reps look outward. Good sellers are curious, compassionate, and creative. Are you being curious, or are you telling all the time? Are you being compassionate, or are you focused on what you want to acheive. Are you being creative or are you frustrated that your prospect isn't responding to what you always do? When sellers stop focusing on themselves and focus on their buyers they are more effective. Focus self-awareness on how well you are doing these three things with the customer.

Keep your eyes and ears open. Look for signs all the time. People knowingly and unknowingly keep telling you what’s working and what’s not. Look especially for negative reactions. Do you annoy people, are you too loud, do you not listen but talk, are you at loss for words when in the midst of certain aspects of the sale, etc? Acknowledging areas of improvement are surely the biggest step towards improvement.

In my experience one of the most critical qualities for all this to work properly is to NOT take things personally. Something I still struggle with at times but it’s like removing a barrier that you never fully knew existed “black ice” until one day you feel less road rash. Then the journey to self awareness becomes that much easier to adopt and address one self objectively.

To develop self-awareness as a direct sales employee, take time for reflection actively seek feedback, set clear goals, cultivate emotional intelligence, and commit to continuous learning.