The Strongest Sales People Do These Five Things

Lots of people can be good sales people, but there are some sales people that are great. They’re the ones that excel beyond everyone else in the office, the record setters, the superstars. What is it that sets the most accomplished sales professional apart from everyone else?

 

 

Have Objectives

Accomplished sales professionals begin every day with a plan. An objective they plan on achieving before the day ends. How much business they plan on doing. How many people they’ll need to talk to in order to meet that objective. Plans for maintaining their attitude if they hit rough patches through the day.

 

The strategy for the day isn’t something they casually thought about on the way to work, it is a plan set out in advance, part of long term and short terms goals they have written down and to which they hold themselves accountable.

 

Outstanding Connectors

Accomplished sales people are outstanding connectors. Introverted or extroverted, it doesn’t matter. They realize the person they’re speaking to is currently the most important person in their universe. They know how to listen to that person and they know how to approach a conversation. They are adept at creating trusting relationships. Their interactions are sincere. They’re not put on in order to create a sale. They believe in what they’re doing, and they believe in their products. Rather than speaking at, they speak with. The person they’re speaking to reacts accordingly and participates in a discussion.

 

Strong Listeners

It’s impossible to build rapport or relationships or find out what makes the person in front of you tick without listening. Successful salespeople don’t just listen for the specific answer to a specific question, but listen to the way the other person speaks and what else they say. Then they use what they’ve heard to make the next question more specific. That way once they are ready to speak, instead of talking in generalities and hoping to catch a potential customer’s interest, they can zero in on exactly what they already know is going to capture the person’s imagination.

 

Excellent Problem Solvers

Successful sales people don’t try and sell products, they explain how what they’re offering can make things better, more interesting, easier, more economical for the person they’re speaking to. They offer solutions.

 

Close

So many sales people know what they want to accomplish. They’ve mastered the art of listening and rapport. They know exactly how their products can make life better for their customers, but when it comes time to finish the deal everything falls apart. They somehow believe that everything they’ve already done is automatically going to encourage the person to finish the deal on their own. That might happen sometimes, but certainly not most of the time. The most accomplished sales professionals are adept closers.

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Have A Chip On Your Shoulder? Good!

Usually when we talk about a person with a chip on their shoulder we’re not saying it with any positive intentions. She has a chip on her shoulder because her colleague was promoted ahead of her so she doesn’t work as hard as she used to.

 

Use it to outwork everyone

 

Having a chip on your shoulder can certainly lead to a bad attitude, but a chip can also lead you in the exact opposite direction. Having a chip on your shoulder can make you want to outwork everyone else in your circle. It can light the fire your belly that makes you want to get up earlier, stay later, learn more.

 

Use it to drive yourself

 

Have a chip on your shoulder about the car your neighbour drives? Good use it to drive yourself to work harder.

 

Use it to upgrade yourself

 

Have a chip on your shoulder about the person you went to school with who takes three vacations a year?  Focus on that while you’re upgrading your skills to get you to from one point in your career to the next.

 

Have a chip on your shoulder about having to eat the same sandwich every day for lunch? With every bite of that sandwich chew on ways you can improve your situation  – and your meal plan!

 

Use it to prove them wrong

 

People with a chip on their shoulder often go from the worst person on the team to the best. They are on a mission to prove the people who didn’t believe in them wrong, and prove to themselves that they are as strong and as capable as they told themselves they could be.

 

People with the biggest chips on their shoulders transform into people who cause others to have chips on their shoulders!

Choosing The Perfect Words For A Standout Resume

 

Passionate. Managed. Team player. You’ve heard these words before, and you’ve probably used them on your resume. They’re not bad words, but there is one problem with them. Everyone uses them. If you want to create a standout resume, you’re going to need to do better than just using the same, uncreative words that everyone else uses. This doesn’t mean you should go reaching for a Thesaurus to find the longest words. You still need your resume to be clear and to sound like you wrote it.

 

The trick then, is finding the right words for your resume. Creative words that clearly explain who you are and what you did in your past work experiences.

Words to Avoid

Words that are generic, common and don’t actually say much of anything are to be avoided at all costs. Words like go-getter, hard worker, proactive don’t say anything interesting about you. Of course you’re a hard worker. No one is writing “average worker” on their resume.

The Right Words

There is no shortage of lists filled with words you can use for your standout resume. You can find some here, here, and here. You don’t need to use words that sound smart, or ones that you’ve never heard before. You do need to find the word that best describes what you did in your role. Rather than writing that you “were responsible for” something, clarify whether you implemented it, formalized it, executed it or pioneered it.

 

Using the right words on your resume, and in your cover letter, will give the hiring manager a clearer idea of what you specifically did in your various roles. This will help them get to know you and your abilities, and put your standout resume at the top of their list.

 

Is Your Mindset Fixed Or Open To Growth?

 

When you look around those around you, you will see high achievers low achievers and many people in the middle of the spectrum, sometimes going all out, sometimes laying low. You might think of high achievers as having something special. Bigger brains, a larger allotment of drive, an ability to somehow squash twenty five or twenty six hours into a day.

 

The fact is we all have the same general tools at our disposal. Some of us are more mechanically inclined, some more artistically inclined, some are athletes and some are academics. Exactly what a person does or how talented they are isn’t of interest here.  What is of interest is how they approach their lives. Whether they have a fixed or open mindset.

 

Fixed Mindset

A person with a fixed mindset will decide from the get-go that they (and other people) are either good at something or they are not. They believe failure is a definitive answer to the question of their abilities. From a fixed mindset perspective, a person is pretty much born with a certain set of abilities and there’s nothing they can do to change that. So they avoid challenges, give up easily and look at effort as mostly a waste of time.

 

Generally people with a fixed mindset feel threatened by the success of others. They feel powerless to achieve comparable success on their own.

 

Growth Mindset

A person with an open mindset has a completely different approach to themselves and their potential. They look at where they at any given moment as a starting point. They believe they have the capacity to learn new things. That failure is simply and opportunity to learn and grow. They embrace challenges and are prepared to put in however much effort is required to get where they are going.

 

Rather than feeling threatened by the success of others, they are inspired to keep on trying.

 

Same abilities, different mindset

We may not have any control over our natural abilities, but every single one of us can determine our mindsets. We can choose whether we believe it’s important to keep trying. Whether it’s worth it to heed the advice of others. If we are going to feel threatened by others or inspired by them.

 

We change our minds all the time. It’s up to us to change our mindset.

 

Become What You Think You Can Be

Creating a legend

Many people think Freddie Mercury’s Live Aide performance of  Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the best live performances of all time. Freddie Mercury is a legend, still adored by millions of people around the world, his face still instantly recognizable, but who is Farrokh Bulsara?

 

Farrokh Bulsara was a young boy of Parsi descent who grew up in Zanzibar and India before moving to Middlesex England in his teens. He was a shy kid with an overbite so big he used to cover his mouth with his hand when he smiled. He was the kid with a huge voice with and even bigger aspirations who would become Freddie Mercury.

 

With every step he took, with every decision he made, every song he wrote, Farrokh Bulsara created the Iconic superstar Freddie Mercury.

 

Today’s choices create tomorrow’s person

You don’t have to want to become a superstar to think about how you can become the person you want to be. And you don’t have to change your name or reinvent yourself in any way aside from your intention to strive. Although if you want to change your name or reinvent yourself, go ahead and do it. This is your life.

 

That’s the part many people forget when they are not turning themselves into the person they want to be. They think about what their family wants them to be, or their friends or co-workers. This causes them to hold themselves back, to doubt themselves. To ultimately put limits on their lives and thoughts.

 

Striving for a goal is better than not striving

It is true, not every person who has a dream is going to achieve it, but how would you rather spend your life? As a person who is doing everything they can to create the rhapsody they’re after? Or as a person who only thought about it, but never did anything?

Happy New Year

 

A New Year is upon us. A chance to reflect on what came before and determine what we will choose to do going forward. An opportunity look at everything in our lives with a renewed perspective. A fresh slate without a word yet written.

 

To all that potential, to all the opportunities and fresh starts, to the do overs and the do for the very first times, we say bring it on!

 

Bring on the challenges. Bring on the adventures. Bring on the triumphs and the failures.

 

2019 -Welcome! We can’t wait!

Joys Of The Season to You And Yours

As always, the winding down year came with ups and downs, but as it comes to a close, and we think back on all that happened, it is the good things we should choose to focus on. The kindnesses we received and and ones we gave. Beautiful moments that shone through like the sun catching rainbow sparkles on fresh fallen snow. And joys sprinkled throughout.

Most likely there were people who helped you during the year, who offered support or guidance or an introduction to someone you’d been trying to meet. Maybe your boss gave you an opportunity to expand your abilities, or a co-worker offered a ride share while your car was in the shop. You can probably think of hundreds of things that happened through the year that made your days brighter.

Focusing on the positives shines a glow of thanks over the whole year. By bidding the year farewell with a thankful heart and well wishes, we set the tone for the one to come.

Until we meet again in the upcoming year, the joys of the season to all from all of us to all of you.