3 Ways to Beat Sales Slumps

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3 Ways to Beat Sales Slumps

One of the biggest factors that will prevent you from achieving your goals is falling into the inevitable sales slump. We all go through sales slumps from time to time and sales slumps happen for various reasons. It’s important to acknowledge the circumstances and get out of them when they happen.

Here are 3 things to keep in mind when you find yourself in a sales slump so that you can refocus and get back on the right track.

Examine your selling patterns and habits

Take a look at your sales process from previous prospects and clients and examine where your issues and bottlenecks occur. At which points during the sales cycle did you have the most trouble? Once you’ve identified these issues you can begin sales training to correct them!

Work with a Sales Coach

Have someone you respect examine your sales calls or evaluate your sales presentations. It could be a sales manager or colleague but regardless of who you choose, it’s important that you ask them to be honest and that you stay humble and respect their advice.

Related Reading: 10 Benefits of Sales Coaching

Have Patience and Don’t Beat Yourself Up

Sales slumps happen to the best of us and is an essential aspect of growing as a sales professional. Don’t fall into bad habits of negative thinking. If you have to, take a break to recharge and reconnect with your goals.

Learn to Refocus

Sales slumps are an important aspect of selling because all salespeople go through it at some point in their careers. Take time to refocus and keep in mind that it will pass. The most successful sales professionals experience sales slumps. The difference between the top 1% that succeed and the ones that don’t is that they are motivated to learn from their failures while maintaining a positive mental attitude.

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July 30, 2018April 13, 2021

4 Cold Calling Scenes From Movies That Will Inspire You To Make The Sale

Sales Lessons From Cold Calling Scenes

You may have found yourself in many of the same scenarios and situations that you’ve watched in Hollywood’s most infamous cold-calling scenes. These feelings and frustrations that the characters are going through are universal to all sales professionals. Most, if not all, are uncomfortable and to relatable. Nevertheless, the sales lessons that you learn from many of these cold-calling scenes are applicable to a wide variety of sales experiences and offer valuable sales insights.

It’s important to consider how each scene portrays sales professionals and the behavioral tendencies they exhibit in order to overcome common problems in the world of sales.

One of the most important aspects of selling as a sales professional is making your cold calls. The process can be difficult if sales professionals fail to develop best practices.

These 4 cold-calling scenes from movies and tv shows will inspire you to make the sale and become more efficient.

Develop Proper Phone Calling Etiquette – The Office

It’s important to keep in mind that sales professionals make several cold calls during their workday. Going through a multitude of customer objections can be a frustrating endeavor as each call is different with its own rhythm and objections. While this hilarious cold calling scene from The Office should not be taken at face value, the message here is that it pays to be respectful with customers during sales calls regardless of how frustrating it may become.

Practice introducing yourself in a calm and collected manner. Deliver your pitch with clarity and speak loudly but at an appropriate volume. Take a cue from Dwight (played by Rainn Wilson) and ensure you don’t lose your cool during difficult sections of the call.

Set Yourself Apart From Your Competitors – Boiler Room

One of the most frustrating aspects of making cold calls is conveying the value of your product or service to customers. There are plenty of competitors competing for business. In this cold-calling scene from Boiler Room, Seth (played by Giovanni Ribisi) is at home eating breakfast when he receives a lackluster cold call from a newspaper sales rep who he immediately turns down. We see again in this sales scene that the sales rep does not have a developed sales strategy for dealing with rejection.

Being the professional sales rep that he is, Seth attempts to guide the weary cold caller with some solid sales coaching advice and asks him to try again. Notice how the cold caller sets his product apart from the rest of the competition by outlining the specific benefits and features of his newspaper (more photographs than any other newspaper and the most reliable delivery service).

Highlight your unique selling points when making your sales calls to ensure your product or service stands out from the competition.

Respectfully Educate Your Clients – JOBS

Does your prospect understand your product or service? One of the hardest aspects of making cold calls is making sure your customers understand what it is you’re selling. In this cold calling scene from Jobs, Steve Jobs (played by Ashton Kutcher) is having a hard time explaining the details of the Apple Computer to prospective investors.

Imagine trying to explain something as innovative as a personal computer during that time period. Unpack the details of your product or service by demonstrating how it can mitigate their specific problems or concerns but ensure you don’t talk down to them if they miss or don’t understand something.

Try and paint a picture with your words and explain your product or service in a way that is easy to digest. Ask your prospect about their knowledge of your product or service on a scale of 1 to 10. This will give you a clear understanding of how in-depth you need to be with your presentation or if the call requires another person for decision-making. Come up with a strategy to explain your product or service simply and in less than a minute.

Be More Efficient by Staying Positive– Pursuit of Happiness

Effort and dedication are the keys to making your calls and increasing your potential for making a sale. In this cold-calling scene from The Pursuit of Happiness, Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) shows how having a focused and determined positive mental attitude can help sales professionals be more efficient. He maintains a polite tone of voice during his sales calls and treats the Gatekeeper with respect even after getting rejected. The majority of sales calls will take you to the decision-maker’s secretary or assistant, so it is important to treat them with as much respect as you would the CEO.

Watch Related Video: Attitude is a Choice

July 16, 2018April 13, 2021

4 Key Attributes of Mentally Prepared Sales Professionals

The Mentally Prepared Mindset

Top salespeople don’t just have meetings; they are mentally prepared for meetings. Just as you would make sure you have the demo, the samples, the PowerPoint or brochures as well as the product video all keyed up on the tablet, top salespeople also take the time to prepare mentally. Are you mentally prepared for your next sales meeting? Here are 4 key attributes of mentally prepared sales professionals.

1) Mentally Prepared Sales Professionals are Organized and Focused

mentally-prepared-sales-professionals-keep-records

Top sales professionals keep a great record of their clients and their information. They have the names of their clients’ spouses, information about their passions, hobbies, and the industry they are selling into.

Mental preparation for sales presentations and meetings are a part of mental discipline. It is often not boring or a lot of memorization if sales reps are genuine and authentic. Get into a problem-solving mindset rather than sales mode with clients.

2) They Study the Unique Sales Problems of Their Clients

mentally-prepared-sales-profs-review-challenges

Mentally prepared sales professionals consider the information on the client already known, what would be helpful to know in this meeting, and how the product or service offers value.

In this way, mental preparation is a lot like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. In going over current information, the mentally prepared sales professionals may find missing pieces. Reviewing client information provides a framework for details and data for the sales rep.

This is vital to understanding the story and challenges that the customer is facing. By discovering these details in authentic and genuine conversations, the product or service becomes the solution rather than just a part of the puzzle.

WATCH NOW: Four Traits of Successful Sales Professionals

3) They Are Experts at Adjusting Their Sales Tactics Based on the Client

It is very common for a sales professional to find a method of selling which works very well with one client. A common mistake is to develop a thought that this sales technique or method is the “perfect” option for all customers.

mentally-prepared-sales-professionals-adjust-sales-tech

Customers are very different. This difference extends even to companies within the same industry. What works as a solution for one company may not be needed or effective in another company. Locking into a mindset of one sales solution for all customers is not only self-limiting, but it is likely to be self-destructive.

A better option is to maintain an open mindset about trying new things. This also goes back to not taking rejection personally. In some cases, the deal-breaker may be the approach that was used. Experimenting with different approaches and methods differently will keep the sales professional focused on the buying signals sent by the client.

For example, one customer may want to spend 10 or 15 minutes sharing personal stories and getting to know you as an individual. Another client may want to talk about the problems they are experiencing, and a third client may want to include a team approach to making a purchasing decision. Some customers may want information emailed while others will want to hear your presentation at the meeting. Understanding each customer will impact how you structure and plan your time with the customer.

4) They Communicate in a Relaxed and Genuine Manner

mentally-prepared-sales-professionals-vary-comm-styles

By being flexible and carefully discerning what approach is best for the client, top salespeople vary their presentations, communication styles, and interactions with the customers. This flexibility comes across as authentic, natural, and not stilted or forced. It also gives you additional ideas for how to be comfortable in trying new approaches with future customers.

Not being rigid also allows the successful sales rep to quickly read a customer and adjust their style in the first few minutes of a meeting. Challenging yourself to meet the best style for working with a customer is a great mindset for success and one which will have an immediate positive impact on any meeting.

July 5, 2018September 21, 2018

Handle Customer Objections: Key Sales Lessons from Tommy Boy

Key Sales Lessons From Tommy Boy

Sales professionals can learn a lot from sales scenes in movies. Hollywood may seem like an odd place to look for inspiration but rest assured, there are plenty of invaluable sales lessons to be learned from Hollywood’s cult classics. Learning how to handle customer objections during sales calls, dealing with difficult clients, or refining your sales strategy, can improve your selling skills. When it comes to handling customer objections, these key sales lessons from Tommy Boy can teach sales professionals a thing or two about how to effectively deal with customers’ concerns. Learn how to navigate the world of sales by taking a cue from these two classic sales scenes in Tommy Boy.

How NOT to Handle Customer Objections

There are key sales lessons from Tommy Boy that teach you how NOT to prepare for sales meetings. Tommy (played by Chris Farley) prepares for the upcoming sales presentation meetings by frantically pacing to overcome his nerves as Richard (played by David Spade) tries to prepare him with some classic sales advice: “We don’t take no for an answer.” What follows is a hilarious montage of sales meetings with Tommy bailing out of every sales meeting after getting rejected without even learning how to handle customer objections.

The fundamental message here is that with every sales meeting will come objections of all kinds. It’s important to be resilient with how you overcome rejections in sales. Pay attention to your clients’ reasonings and objections. Adjust your responses accordingly and treat every objection as a chance to ask more questions about their specific problems. A good sales tip is to know your product or service like the back of your hand.

Sales professionals must also learn to read their customers personality and adjust their sales presentation accordingly. One way to do this is to ask open-ended questions that reveal their specific pain points and problems. Pay close attention to the nature of their language (and body language), when they answer your open-ended questions. Adjust your approach accordingly to match their personality to improve your chances of closing the sale.

Both Richard and Tommy fail to speak the customers’ language in this specific scene. Richard relies too heavily on the technical aspects of the product or service and inevitably turns the customer off. Tommy, on the other hand, is too informal with his approach and unavoidably ends up ruining the sale.

How to Handle Customer Objections

Now let’s look at how Tommy Boy effectively handles customer objections. In a critical scene of the movie, Tommy closes his first sale with a customer by utilizing open-ended questions and asks, “Why would someone put a guarantee on the box”? This strategy moves the conversation forward and keeps the customer engaged and curious.

A key sales lesson from Tommy Boy is to take advantage of the belly-to-belly you have with customers. Tommy was able to effectively deliver a convincing argument as to why his product was superior. He was able to close this deal by handling the customers’ objections with relevant anecdotes and interesting examples. Tommy’s argument was predicated on the fact that a “guaranteed label” on a box does not always correlate with a quality product. Tommy learns how to handle customer objections and ultimately ends up closing his first sale on the road and goes on t save his father’s company.

If you enjoyed these key sales lessons from Tommy Boy and would like to learn more about how to handle your customers’ objections with The Sales Coaching Institutes One-on-One Sales Coaching program or our Professional Sales Training services.

June 21, 2018February 20, 2020

Mastering The Sales Mindset

Assess Your Sales Mindset

Mastering-The-Sales-Mindset-Affects-Your-Performance-Cycle — **Your Sales Mindset Affects Everything**

Mastering the sales mindset is an important aspect of developing as a sales professional. How often have you looked at salespeople and wondered why they were able to sell on a consistent basis while you struggle to simply get a meeting with a client?

Have you ever felt the latest strategies for sales may be effective for some people, but do not match your sales methods or sales experience? Do you ever find yourself thinking a sales meeting is a waste of time-based on your past interactions with customers or companies? If so, then it’s time to reevaluate your sales mindset. Thinking with the right sales mindset is a key aspect of selling that has helped successful sales representatives advance in their sales performances.

It may not be the tools, techniques or sales skills that are holding you back from realizing your potential. It may be your own thinking about sales and belief in your personal sales abilities that creates negative obstacles in your path to selling success. Your sales mindset affects all aspects of your sales performance.

Related Reading: 8 Traits of a Successful Sales Person

Passion Drives Performance and Mastering The Sales Mindset Fuels Passion

Selling is a passion for many people. It is an area of interest and personal growth with its own rewards. Selling goes beyond excellent compensation and lifestyle. Motivated and empowered salespeople are not driven by their income, but rather from the satisfaction, challenge, and personal achievement that the profession affords.

“A Passionate Sales Mindset Drives Purpose.”

For most, this is not an initial mindset. Sales professionals who learn how mastering the sales mindset affects their performance experience a more fulfilling sales career. These sales professionals have honed their internal vision of sales to create a sales mindset of success. They learn to develop confidence in their ability to work with customers in a meaningful and positive way. Successful sales professionals focus on relationship building, making connections, and understanding the client’s business issues. They listen to customer challenges and help them find value in the products and services they offer.

Create Solutions and Solve Customer Problems

Sales-Mindset-Solves-Problems — **A Healthy Sales Mindset Solves Business Problems**

In this way, highly successful salespeople are problem solvers and barrier breakers for their customers. They are not salespeople per say; rather, they see themselves as solution providers. Successful salespeople offer creative options and practical methods of overcoming challenges to their customers.

Turning from a sales-oriented approach to a problem solver perspective is one of the key factors in moving to a winning sales mindset. With the right internal vision and sales mindset, average salespeople can become great sales representatives and entry-level sales professionals can set a foundation for success throughout their career.

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