“Motivation gets you started, habit keeps you going.” –Jim Ryun
Successful salespeople find ways to stay motivated. But what about developing good habits? You know, a tendency or practice that’s actually hard to give up. In my sales workshops, I teach sales reps how to develop 10 daily habits that eventually become so natural to do, they’re just part of your process.
Here are 10 habits that will improve your sales life and produce results:
Habit #1: Always be prospecting. Sales is a numbers game. The more you work at it, the more successful you will be.
Habit #2: Work as hard to keep the business as you did to get it in the first place. It costs 5x as much to attract a new customer vs keeping an existing one. (Source: invesprco.com)
Habit #3: You control the post meeting follow-up. Over time, studies show your level of excitement for the sales idea wanes. Follow up in the first 48 hours!
Habit #4: Understand, advertisers buy when they are ready to buy not when you need to sell. Sell audience not themes.
Habit #5: Know how to ask great questions. And before you ask your client questions, ask yourself these: What is one new customer worth to you? What is the lifetime value of that one customer to you? Then: “Mr./Mrs. Advertiser, when you think about competing in this community/industry do you want to have a presence, be competitive or dominate? Who do you feel does a great job of marketing?”
Habit #6: Know how to sell using ethical competitive angles. “What if I could prove to you that 700 of our readers said they are ready to buy your product in the next 3 months?” Use research or your own in-market buying surveys. (Be careful with data. It confuses some people.)
Habit #7: Become a time management master!
Here’s an example of a perfect, practiced sales day:
- 8am-9am Update to-do list, quick email followup
- 9am-10am-Retention
- 10am-3pm-Prospecting
- 3pm-4pm In progress sales follow up
- 4pm-5pm-Prospecting
- 5pm-6pm Update to-do list, final email reply and clean up
Habit #8: Manage advertiser expectations. “If we could create the perfect ad for you what would you want to happen from that ad?”
Habit #9: Handle Objections Like a Boss. Practice. Role-play. Use flash-cards.
Habit #10: You can handle most objections with success stories. 63% of people remember stories, vs 5% remember statistics.
You may have some of these habits now. Try all 10 each day and then let me know how it’s working. Remember, if sales were easy, everyone would be doing it.
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About Ryan: Ryan Dohrn is an award-winning ad sales training coach, a nationally recognized internet sales consultant and in international motivational speaker. He is the author of the best-selling ad sales book, Selling Backwards. He is the President and founder of Brain Swell Media and 360 Ad Sales Training, a boutique ad sales training and sales coaching firm with a detailed focus on ad sales training, internet consulting and media revenue generation. Ryan is also the Publisher of Sales Training World.
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