Sales conversations are a vital part of being a salesperson. It’s quite difficult to sell anything if you don’t know how to have a proper conversation. However, there are very important conversations that are often overlooked when training salespeople. Bruce Wedderburn has some ideas on how to improve sales training using key sales conversations and shares them in this interview with John Golden.
This expert sales interview explores:
- The three key conversations you need to know
- Achievement drive, its purpose, and how to get it
- What salespeople can do for themselves to improve
These three factors need to work together. When they do, we begin to see truly elevated sales results and longevity in a performance that translates into very tangible metrics in organizations.
Three Conversations:
The vast majority of training that’s out there is on is focused on the conversation between the salesperson and the customer. This is essential, and it’s vital that salespeople continue to learn and improve their discussions with potential buyers. However, there are two other important conversations that often get overlooked. In addition to conversations with customers, the second question that training should focus on is a salesperson’s conversation with themselves. Research has suggested that this conversation is even more critical than their discussions with customers, and yet it is so often not held in high regard. The third question is the conversation with coaches. These three conversations need to work together for salespeople. When they do, you will start to see high sales results and longevity, and it will translate into tangible metrics for your organization.
Achievement Drive:
One of the critical solutions to improve salespeople is achievement drive. This is an energy that gets released when a person has clarity on their goals, has a sense of purpose towards achieving something, and feels as if they have goals that they can realistically achieve. 200 companies were asked what makes their consistently good performers successful: their product knowledge and selling skills, or their self-belief, attitude, confidence, and drive to achieve? The results were that 84% of organizations said that this achievement drive was more important than product knowledge and selling skills. And yet, only 26% of organizations are doing a good job promoting this achievement drive. But there’s more than enough evidence to suggest that it works – those salespeople who were trained on manifesting achievement drive outperform those who weren’t taught by 20%.
What do salespeople need to do for themselves?
While sales managers and organizations as a whole have work to do to improve sales training, the salespeople should not sit idly by and wait for their company to provide for them. The critical question is: what are you doing for yourself? Wedderburn has recommendations to self-improve sales skills. First, take responsibility for your success and your performance, and your happiness at work. This is versus waiting for your manager or CEO or business environment to give you those things. Second, recognize that you are responsible for your happiness. Third, set some goals for yourself, in addition to what your manager setting for you. Fourth, look at your manager as a collaborator. And fifth, invest in your skills and get better at doing what you do so that you will get better results.
About Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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