In the 90s the legendary rap duo of Dr. Dre and Flavor Flav sang “Don't Believe the Hype”, and I think as salespeople we need to take these lyrics to heart.
There is a tremendous amount of “Hype” around Sales 2.0, social selling, or sales without the phone. All of it suggesting that to succeed in sales you no longer have to make calls or work your butt off, you just need to tweet, spend time on LinkedIn and make sure you update Facebook on a regular basis. The premise is that the massive move in social media somehow absolves the salesperson of having to do their job. Just create content, put it out in the world and your customers will come to you.
Worse still, there are some people calling for the death of the salesperson in the next 10 years. In a recent report, Gartner suggested that by 2020 85% of all business transactions will be done without humans involved, leaving 14 million salespeople jobless, in the US alone.
Let’s all do a quick reality check.
The telephone meant the death of the travelling salesperson…….did not happen.
The computer meant the death of the phone sale…….nope.
The internet was the death of everything……still waiting.
Despite great advances in social media and online purchasing, sales is still sales, and there is ALWAYS going to be a need for highly effective salespeople. Why? Because people, like other people, and want to interact with them. Because highly effective salespeople bridge the gap between the information the customers get online and the insight they need to understand how that information helps their business. Even the company who is the poster child for social selling and Sales 2.0, and who I believe does the best job of content creation/dissemination, still makes cold calls, albeit very smart ones. Mark Roberge, the Chief Revenue Officer at Hubspot recently posted a presentation on Slideshare about how his sales organization goes about breaking growth records, and right in that presentation you see that even Hubspot makes cold calls. Why? Because despite all the hype, you still have to do what works.
Which brings me to the point of this blog post. Sales and Salespeople will be around forever. But to thrive, salespeople must ensure they are effective and valuable. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Salespeople breaks down the behaviors and habits today’s salespeople must learn in order to survive and thrive now and in the future.
1. Start Early: If you think sales is a 9-5, Monday – Friday job, you are already finished.
2. Work Harder: Top salespeople make more calls, meet more customers, send more emails and work their process harder than anyone else. The most successful salespeople are not waiting around for another lead, they are creating their success all the time.
3. Work Your Process: Professionals Plan, Amateurs Wing It! Top salespeople have a process; they work it; and they know their metrics and are constantly trying to improve them.
4. Have a Customer-First Mentality: Don’t pitch products! Understand your customer’s real needs and issues and then work to truly add value and help make their businesses better.
5. Continuous Improvement: Read, take courses, talk to others and constantly be adapting your skills and abilities.
6. Be Competitive: The most successful salespeople are incredibly competitive. They want to win, they HAVE to win and they won't stop until they do.
7. Be Creative: Top salespeople are always looking for and creating an edge that will help them succeed. They see every new “thing” as a way to enhance their value. Face to Face, Phone, Email, Social, Mobile, Networking, Direct Mail, Web, Trade-Shows, Friends, Family, etc. Top salespeople use it all, all the time, and when something new comes out, they are the first to use that too.
So there it is; a blueprint for how to be valuable to your customers and your company.
