How to Ace Your Job in Sales

Everyone wants to earn more but most people actually end up looking in all the wrong places for extra cash. While you are putting your creative energies into making trinkets to sell online, you could be doing something to boost your earning power at work. And working in sales is a good way to push your earnings up. Sales is a highly competitive role, often driven through commission-based earnings. This means that if you want to earn a lot, you have to ace every call you make and refine every pitch you give. For all the creative ways there are to earn, spending your time wisely to boost your productivity at work will probably give you a better chance of actually earning the money you desire so how can you ace your job in sales?

Get the Process Right

Everything in business comes down to the process. Whether you have an awesome sales collateral management system or you simply have your wits and a brief script, refining and building your process is essential in sales. 

While you certainly need to be able to read the person you are talking to and adjust your approach accordingly, it is essential that you create a process you can follow consistently. This is because replicating your success is the best way to get better sales numbers and real in that commission. 

Repeat and Refine Your Method

Now you have a process in place, it’s time to repeat, refine and improve it. Getting the process right will take practice but once you have a good method you know will work, you will find your numbers increasing significantly. Start with a clear framework you can alter according to who you are talking to. This will give you room to manoeuvre without completely changing your approach every time. 

The real key to repeating and refining is data collection. After every call you make, or every meeting you have, make a note of the variables in your strategy and how they worked (or didn’t). This will show you more clearly what works and what doesn’t for different customer profiles as well as different products. 

Don’t Let Failure Bring You Down

It’s very easy to let sales get you down if you have a bad streak or a particularly bad call. But in sales, you just don’t have the time to feel sorry for yourself. You need to jump straight back into the game and start the whole process again. 

There are a couple of approaches you might like to use to help keep your head up. The first is probably something you will want to do instinctively: get up, go and make a coffee and have a quick walk. This is the signal your brain needs to reset and allow you to return to your desk with a fresh, positive outlook. Then, focus on the next call – what are you going to do to make this call a successful one?

Another good idea is to make a couple of notes on what went wrong. You might not have the solution right now but writing any issues you had down will help get them out of your head. You can also use these notes and the recording (if there is one) to ask your colleagues or manager for some pointers for next time. 

Build Strong Relationships

Some sales are all about taking advantage of impulse and instinct, others are much more about the slow sell. In the first case, you need to build a relationship immediately, encouraging the person you are talking to to trust you and keep listening. In the latter case, you can take much more time building a strong relationship that will last. 

In both cases, earning trust is essential. But this isn’t quite as easy as you might think. People tend to trust others because they feel that they know you well, because they understand you and believe you are legitimate or because they think you are an expert. This is why building trust is far easier in face to face meetings you have prepared for thoroughly than over the phone on your first day of following a script. 

The more you practise your craft, the easier sales will become. But never get complacent! Sales is all about staying on top of the work, knowing everything there is to know about a product and following your instinct. Do everything you can to push yourself up the ladder and watch your income grow with you. 

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