Become a Great Salesman or Saleswoman to Boost Your Income

Once you know the sales strategy of how to become a great salesman or saleswoman, it’s surprisingly easy to follow the steps to get their yourself. I am obsessed—and I’ve put together an overview of the best sales strategy techniques great salespeople use.

With the right changes to your current sales strategy, you can master how to become a good salesman or saleswoman and start crushing your sales goals to make more money than ever before.

Read on to learn how to boost your income with the five steps to becoming a great salesman or saleswoman by changing your sales strategy.

Tip #1: Get clear on your “why” in sales.

All great salespeople know why they sell every single day, so knowing your “why” in sales is the first step to learning how to become a good salesperson.

Great salespeople are driven by powerful personal factors such as family, kids, or a fear of being poor again.

Whatever it is that motivates you, get incredibly clear on why you’re going to pick up that phone tomorrow, why you’re going to consistently perform great sales habits, hop on that plane to meet prospects next week, or ask for that next introduction.

Without a crystal clear “why,” you’ll never stay motivated when rejection comes—and in sales, rejection is going to come.

Tip #2: Learn to say “no” often.

If you want to know how to become a good salesman or saleswoman, you have to learn to say “no” constantly.

Great salespeople say “no” not because they’re mean, but because they understand the value of their time. Time management is one of the most crucial elements of any strong sales strategy.

“No” is a critical part of their strategy, just like it should be a critical part of your sales strategy.

Tip #3: Disqualify prospects who aren’t a good fit.

The secret to become a good salesman or saleswoman doesn’t lie in knowing how to sell to anyone.

Not all prospects are alike, and just because someone has a pulse and can buy from you doesn’t mean that you should spend time trying to sell to that prospect.

In fact, at least 50% of your prospects are not a good fit.

The best salespeople disqualify that 50% right away as part of their sales strategy, so that they don’t waste any more time on run arounds and dead ends.

While most salespeople will try to sell to anyone, learning how to be a good salesperson means you’ll reserve your time only for well-qualified prospects.

Tip #4: Prioritize big sales over frequent sales.

Did you know that 28% of salespeople call closing more deals their top sales priority?

Why? Because closing more sales isn’t nearly as important as closing bigger sales.

Focusing on big sales should become the lynchpin of your sales strategy if you want to learn how to be a great salesman or saleswoman.

It’s hard work to close a large number of sales, but the difference between closing small sales and big sales has very little to do with effort.

 Tip #5: Stop looking for friends.

When you’re learning to be a good salesman or saleswoman, you have to realize you can’t be everyone’s friend.

Great salespeople care more about challenging their prospects than befriending them, and they don’t care if they piss people off along the way.

If you want to close bigger deals more frequently, making friends shouldn’t be part of your sales strategy.

Bonus Tip #1: Use a systematic strategy.

Most salespeople feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of competing ideas on sales strategy. So, how can you implement the right selling approach? The answer is to use a systematic strategy that’s data-driven and proven to work.

 Bonus Tip #2: Utilize all the tools available.

Learning to become a great salesman or saleswoman means being open to new ways of doing things, and trying out different approaches to selling.

Some of the best salespeople out there are constantly updating their tools to make sure they’re on the cutting edge. That said, you don’t have to be ultra-tech-savvy and obsessed with widgets to take advantage of what’s out there. So don’t worry if technology isn’t your wheelhouse.

There are many simple tools you can use, such as Yesware, Rapportive, and Google’s G Suite, that are easy to set up and even easier to use every day when you sell.

Bonus Tip #3: Prospect with a campaign.

When you prospect, is it part of a strategic campaign? If not, you’re far from alone. If you want to know how become a good salesman or saleswoman, you need to start prospecting with a campaign. This means that you need to stop calling prospects without a strategy planned out ahead of time.

Instead, carefully plot out a prospecting campaign, with specific touch-points over the course of many months including phone calls, voicemails, emails, info packages, and other high-value content such as white papers, reports, and books. When you’re developing this campaign so that you can close more deals and never make a true cold call again.

Bonus Tip #4: Stop worrying about sales and focus on activity.

Nearly all salespeople focus on their sales numbers. But only the top-performing salespeople focus more on sales activities than they do on actual sales.

Sales activity is central to how to become a good salesman or saleswoman. You can’t achieve selling success unless you master the many different daily, weekly, and monthly factors that go into making sure you hit your sales goals.

These factors include how many leads you need, what the best method of getting leads is, and whether you’re doing the right activities at the right times in the sales process to close deals on a consistent basi, stop worrying about sales and focus on activity.

Bonus Tip #5: Focus on value, not product.

It’s time to stop focusing on your product when you sell. If that sounds counterintuitive, that’s because it is.

For the past century, salespeople have been taught to talk about their products ad nauseum and tell prospects about every bell and whistle that comes with every offering.

But when it comes to learning how to be a great salesman or saleswoman, it’s critical to start focusing on value, not product. When you focus on your product, you actually decrease its value in the eyes of the prospect. Instead, focus on how your product helps prospects—what value does it bring? out your product.

Bonus Tip #6: Don’t avoid budget.

.As salespeople, we absolutely must talk about money with prospects. Far from avoiding budget, you should establish a budget during the initial discovery phase by asking the right questions. For example, how much is the challenge at hand costing your prospect? And what would it mean to the prospect, in dollars, to fix that challenge?

Once you know the answers to those questions, ask point-blank: “Do you have a budget for this?” Asking this simple question of every single prospect is imperative if you want to learn how to become a great salesman or saleswoman. Otherwise, you’ll never really know if a prospect is qualified.

So, there you have it. Now you know steps for to become a great salesman or saleswoman (plus 6 bonus tips) by making a few changes to your sales strategy.

I want to hear from you. Which of these ideas did you find most useful? Be sure to share in the comment section below to get involved in the conversation.