Mike Montague

A few years ago, we published a blog detailing how to maintain progress towards your new year’s resolutions. With the start of 2018 upon us, it’s a good time to revisit these tips and see how else we can help drive you to success.

In the blog post, Dave shared the importance of holding yourself accountable, partnering up for solidarity, turning your goals into a competition, finding a mentor to support you, and effectively executing your sales process.

While all of these tips are important, I want to share a few other insights that I’ve gained over my years as a Sandler trainer.

Getting started in sales, or increasing your success once you’ve established yourself, can be a very challenging task. One of the hardest parts of this process is securing leads. What’s even harder is ensuring those leads are qualified.

To grow as a salesperson, mastering this aspect of your career is key. Below I have identified three ways to get qualified referrals. Incorporating these simple tips will help you step up your referral game and uncover a path to new levels of success.

The biggest turning point in my career and in my personal life came when I realized my true value. When I broke through the mental barrier of self-imposed doubt, I truly began to shine. This breakthrough led me down the successful career path I have followed today, and it started with a change in focus.

Compensating the sales team is one of the toughest things to get right in your business. If you pay them too little, good salespeople will leave for better opportunities. Pay them too much, and they get complacent and stop growing revenue. To inspire and motivate top performing salespeople, you must use the Goldilocks Principle and get the compensation package “just right.” Let’s look at the pros and cons of some popular options.

Third-party stories, testimonials, case study, reviews, and other “social proof” can be a powerful technique in your sales toolkit. Storytelling carries a fair amount influence with your prospects and clients when done correctly. Stories can also redirect conflict, create an emotional connection, and help illustrate key features and benefits.

Watch the Numbers, Don’t Manage From Them

As a buyer, what comes to mind when you think of the word, “Salesperson”? Usually what comes to mind are things like… used cars, polyester suits, briefcases, and flip charts or PowerPoint presentations. Many people dislike dealing with salespeople, and some even shudder at the thought of being one. In our experience, more than half of the salespeople out there don’t like selling and work hard to avoid looking like a ”typical” salesperson. Few, if any, children grow up dreaming of being salespeople, yet it is the most common profession in the world. Why is that?

Customer service is an interesting aspect of any business. Whether you call it inside sales or customer care, your frontline employee may have the most difficult job in the company. Do you find that your most difficult customers and situations are handled by your least trained and lowest paid employees first? Have you ever cringed when listening to one of your frontline people on the phone? Do you find your staff to be too strict with the policies or too loose?

In regards to your business, the expertise you have gained over the years is completely worthless… until someone gives you money for it. If you have a medical doctorate, all you really have is a bunch of student loans until you have patients, and get paid for your knowledge.

Here is the problem: 99% of people out there are already doing what they think is in their best interest. Of course, there’s the 1% who hate themselves and are self-sabotaging, but for the most part, you are probably doing right now, what you think is best. But why is that a problem?

Well, if you want to achieve a higher level of success or happiness, no matter your current level, you are going to run into a problem.

David Sandler found three areas where people get stuck in their growth and development: Attitude, Behaviour, Technique