“I’m not a sales person” “I don’t
like cold calling” “I can’t sell” “sales is not a strength of mine”…are all
typical to hear around the Entrée Recruitment office. My Consultants don’t see
themselves as sales people, yet we have just achieved our most successful
financial year in our 10-year history. They think sales is a dirty word
associated with the image of a used car salesman – someone who is annoying, not
particularly helpful and is just trying to make a quick buck! I roll my eyes
and mostly just laugh because my team can think they aren’t sales people, but
they are and they do it without reallising they are doing it. So how does
a team of non-sales people achieve such high sales results?
Observing the behaviours of these
Consultants, I have consistently found the following:
1. Action – the Consultants making the most sales are always taking
action.
They are never wondering what to do next, who to call or
procrastinating the
day away. They just do it. They get on the phone; they get
face to face and
make decisions quickly.
2. Feedback – I’ve got a Consultant who has worked in the industry longer
than me and she is still consistently wanting to know how she is going, what
could she do differently and is welcoming of joint visits and interview
observations. The benefits to her far outweigh the possibility of her
feeling
uncomfortable. She tells me it is a small price to pay to gain one
extra piece of
advice that may increase her sales and bring her more success in
the long
term.
3. Referrals – my team use an effective face-to-face technique that involves
asking existing clients to recommend other people that they think we would
enjoy working with. It takes courage to ask and discipline to follow up. Much
easier than making a cold call!
4. Relationships – building longstanding relationships results in repeat
purchase
clients. When you have a huge number of clients and are always
seeking new
ones, you can often forget about existing ones. Our strategy
is fewer clients
stronger relationships.
5. Curiosity in people – one of my team members says “I hate the sales stuff
but I do
like meeting new people and finding out what they do”. She has a
natural
desire to ask questions and learn about businesses and people, so the
end
result is that she is building relationships and selling without realising that
she is even doing it!
6. Listening skills – the best ‘sales people’ at Entrée are the best listeners.
They
usually have a ratio of 80/20 of listening and talking. They understand
they get
the best information when they actually shut up. The worst performing
Consultants I’ve had over the years like talking mostly about themselves and
clients don’t buy!
7. Reasons to call – you will rarely hear a top performer at Entrée saying “I’m
just calling to touch base”. No client has time for this, we certainly
don’t!
What is the purpose of the call? Get to the point as quickly as you can
as not
to annoy the other person with irrelevant chitchat.
8. Belief & confidence– top sales people have a natural self-confidence. They
don’t have huge egos and can articulate their
value proposition without
being overly pushy.
9. Organisation – people who are naturally good at sales always know what
they
need to do, write it down and work from 1 daily to do list. These tasks are
very specific and the hardest things are done first as not to distract them
from
their day. For example, one of my consultants the other day seemed a bit
off
her game. By 11am, she was noticeably irritable and when I checked in, she
hadn’t ticked anything of her list and she was feeling unproductive. It
turned
out that she had to make a difficult call to a client and was putting it
off. As
soon as she had made the call, she felt clear and didn’t
have this hanging
over her head, clouding the rest of her day.
10. Deliver
quality – you can’t be a top sales
person without delivering what
you promise at the pitch. High performing
Consultants at Entrée consistently
deliver what they say they will. If they say
they will call back in 24 hours, they
do. If they say they will be back in 3
weeks with a shortlist, they are. Some
sales people can talk the talk,
but fall down in the actual promise of walking
the walk.
In any business, being able to sell
is an essential skill to achieving long-term financial success. Being able to
communicate your value effectively for people to buy your product or service is
critical. In the early days of my career, it was a long hard road and
some days seemed impossible. The turnaround for me was being
persistent, consistent and determined. I made my sales activity an every
day task that I incorporated in my daily agenda rather than it being a one off
event when business was quiet.
At the end of the day, successful
sales is about building rapport initially and then establishing long term
relationships with people. Let’s not complicate this…. if people like
you; they will spend money with you. Ask great questions, listen, deliver and
your sales will sky rocket.
On reflection, maybe I should be
happy in the fact that my team don’t think of themselves as ‘sales people’ –
with this mindset they are focused on what really works – building
relationships, delivering a quality service and being passionate about what
they do. The outcome…increased sales!
Nicole Underwood understands what it takes to
create, build and grow a successful business. The essential ingredient is recruiting, engaging and retaining people.
Great people. Top talent. High performers. As a previous finalist in the
prestigious Telstra Business Women Awards, a regular blogger, coach and
entrepreneur, Nicole works with organisations to improve their results through
hiring and keeping the right people. 
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