Stop Doing These 8 Things If You Want Sales Success

The world’s most successful sales professionals and business owners never do these 8 things.

And if you want to make it into the top 1% of sales professionals, you should never have these traits or actions in your day-to-day life.

Now, these are not tips about how you speak to prospects or how to go about handling the sales process. We won’t be looking at things like techniques for talking to prospects and clients and what to say or not to say. These are topics I’ll leave that for future posts.

Instead, we are looking at overall factors that contribute to general success and how they apply to a sales role. These are more fundamental thoughts and behaviour patterns that can critically impair a sales professional in moving forward in their career. Or a business owner from building a thriving enterprise.

So, are you making these mistakes? And if yes, you need to stop doing these things if you want sales success.

#1. Stop looking for shortcuts

Sales is a process. Some prospects will take a longer time through your funnel than others. But that’s just based on the type of prospect and your lead qualification process.

Am I saying not to look for ways to reduce connection to conversion times? Of course not.

Yes, you can optimise your processes to make them more efficient, to move prospects faster through your sales pipeline.

But that comes from testing and analysing what works, what doesn’t and being willing to try new ones.

It comes from working harder at those processes that have proven successful.

Real sales success comes from the work you put in. Not from trying to shortcut the process using various ‘schemes and tricks’ to get more deals closed quickly.

#2. Stop blaming others

Inevitably, things will never always go the way you want it.

There will, of course, be situations where there really wasn’t anything you could do at all to change the outcome.

But in most cases, you had an involvement in the “failure” whether by failure to act, not following up or following through.

The buck stops with you whether you’re the business owner, sales manager, or sales representative.

You need to stop making excuses and take responsibility for your mistakes and failures. Only then can you take the necessary steps to prevent a reoccurrence.

And to learn from these mistakes or failures so you know what your next steps should be and to take advantage of the lessons you’ve learnt.

This brings me to number 3 on my list of things that you should not be doing if you want sales success – worrying about failure.

#3. Stop being afraid of failure

Everyone has failed at something. No one gets to the pinnacle of success without a trail of failures in their wake.

But the thing is they kept moving forward, learning from each mistake or failure.

It’s the same for any profession, including sales.

With a fear of failure, you miss out on so many opportunities to become great at what you do.

So, try the 6 steps in this post to tackle your fear of failure before it becomes a crippling impediment to your success.

#4. Stop thinking you have to do it alone

As Daymond John said, “being around like-minded people and mentors is the number one reason for success.”

The word’s most successful people have had mentors and coaches.

A support group that shares similar ideals and encourage each other to success. Surround yourself with likeminded individuals and stop trying to push through it alone.

#5. Stop thinking that sales is about you

You’re never the primary factor in a sales process – the prospect is.

What you say, do, and offer revolves around how the client sees themselves in relation to what you’re selling.

So, start thinking like your customer. Design your processes to benefit your customer’s journey, not what you might think, or feel is right.

Collect data to support your sales process and how you approach leads throughout your sales cycle.

#6. Stop thinking “I just can’t do it”

Your attitude determines your altitude. And sales success thrives on a growth mindset.

According to Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, it’s never a matter of how smart you are.

Dweck, a well-known research psychologist, has spent years looking at intelligence as a fixed trait.

What she has found is that when you think that your mental skills are malleable (“I can get this with time”) rather than fixed (“I can’t do sales”), you achieve more.

So, if you go into this demanding profession without a growth mindset, you have already ensured your failure.

Embrace a flexible mindset, and you’ll learn how to adapt to situations. You’ll quickly start seeing more success on your journey to the top of your field.

#7. Stop believing that you need to have all the answers

The top sales professionals do know a thing or two about their industry and being a good sales rep.

But they also know that they will never have all the answers. And that’s OK.

To enhance your relationships with your clients, never be afraid to respond that you don’t know the answer right now, but you will get it for them.

Then make sure that you follow up with the resources.

You are not afraid of learning and of admitting what constraints you may have.

This is not a sign of incompetence but one of mature sales professionals who understand their limitations.

#8. Stop staying still

Having a routine is good. But stagnancy can rear its ugly head and derail progress.

It leads to complacency, prevents you from learning new skills, of trying new things or taking on new challenges.

Stagnancy and complacency are also the home for fear of failure.

So, never stay still. Keep learning. Explore new ways of doing things.

That’s the only way you’ll keep moving forward and closer to finding that success you’ve dreamt of.

Becoming the ultimate sales success

You’ll realise that quite a few of my recommendations relate to what you think. That’s because all your actions result from your thoughts, so your thoughts matter. So, you need to manage what you think.

So, like I said in the beginning of the post, if you stop doing these 8 things, you’ll set yourself up for sale success, no matter if you’re a business owner or a dedicated sales professional.

Now tell me, which of these mistakes have you been making?

Or what would you add to this list? What should a sales rep or sales manager stop doing to entire the elite top 1% of sales professionals?

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Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article are my own and do not represent the opinions or views of my current employer or any entity whatsoever with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. This post is for informational purposes only and any advice should be followed at the reader's own discretion.

?2020 by Alex Alleyne | www.alexalleyne.com