You are young. You are eager. You can change the world. No doubt about it. I have mentored more than 15 young people that have become hugely succesful as professionals and (more importantly) as people. The capacity for you to be a top notch sales person, top notch alliances professional, or a top notch technical leader are all within you. Here are some truths that you need to realize early in your career to maximize your potential:
Most sales skills are learned. Never stop learning. Read books. Read LinkedIn. Read Blogs. Read and Learn. You are never too old or too successful to learn something new. And most importantly, LISTEN.
Sales is a science. Like any other science, it can be learned. Dissect what you are trying to accomplish, study your workflow, and adjust your approach to what works best for you and your current role. Study the different sales methodologies (see the section on this site about Methodologies). My advice is that you do follow one. It will make you more money than any other thing that you can do in your career.
While methodologies can and should be adjusted to the product that you are selling, make sure that you get a very clear understanding of why and how you are using them. For me, I will tell you MEDDIC (now MEDDPICC) changed my life. I started using it at Oracle about 15 years ago and now I use it without even thinking about it. It becomes the opportunity qualification language. You discuss the opportunity with that language. I promise that if you adopt it, you will have a significantly more succesful sales career.
BE HONEST WITH WHOMEVER YOU ARE PROSPECTING. Don’t use crap statements such as “I’m curious about” because both you and your prospect know that you are not. Don’t say that you want to partner with them when you are trying to sell them. “Exploring Synergies” sounds like you have all the time in the world and accomplish nothing. Be real, be frank, and be straight forward. “Our Software Can Increase Your OEE by 30%” is a much stronger message than “Exploring Synergies”.
People will always tell you that working smart beats working hard. That’s not true. It’s not magic that the person that comes in before you and stays after is more succesful than you. The person that is not chatting in the hall while you are making your calls or doing your research will underperform you. You can, however, work smart while working hard.
Use technology. AI is a great supplemental tool that will help you focus your energies, but it’s nascent, so you have to verify every thing it does. Read the posts that it makes for you and modify them to sound like you. Look at the target lists and double check them in LinkedIn. Read the messages that you write with it to make sure that the message is correct.
LISTEN. LISTEN. LISTEN. When you do have that first call with your prospect, they have accepted to invest their time with you because they have a problem that needs a solution. They don’t want to know how smart you are or how well you need your product. Find out what they problem they are trying to resolve and ask as many “why’s” as you can to really understand the problem. There will be plenty of time for you or your company to explain how your product can solve their problem. I once spent 25 minutes of an incoming call with an SDR with them telling me how great their product was and how they were “allowing” other companies to do X, Y, and Z. The SDR did not mention my problem nor I could get a word to tell them. Their intro email rose the issue to the top but I ended up going with another product. LISTEN first. Remember, you can’t listen when you are talking.
Content beats style every time. Read that.
MORE TO COME...