This Weeks 5 Actionable Takeaways

5 Actionable Takeaways To Maximize your sales

1. How can you better address the “six why’s” to maximize your sales?
   There are six specific commitments when forming a buying decision; I call them the six why’s. If one of them isn’t satisfied, the sale never occurs. If a sale falls through, identify which commitments you didn’t fulfill. This practice is impactful to do together with your team because you’ll find one or two commitments are costing you over 50% of your lost sales. This allows you to strengthen your sales process to answer and gain commitments preemptively. When you do that, the sales cycles speed up, and buying behaviors increase because now you’re better aligning how you sell with how people buy. Which of these commitments are you missing from your potential buyers?
   • Why change? Until we create the curiosity for change, our potential clients usually aren’t very interested in engaging very deeply because they don’t think they need to be.
   • Why now? Why should they make this commitment right now and not wait?
   • Why your industry solution? Why do they need your industry or your direct competitors at all? 
   • Why you and your company? Why should they trust and invest with you?
   • Why your product or service? Why are you the right solution for them? 
   • Why spend the money? Why should they spend the money?
2. How can you better understand your customer’s pain points in order to better guide them through the buying process? 
   The key is knowing what to listen for. It’s challenging to get the commitments necessary to make the sale if you don’t know what will have an impact on your customer. When you glean what matters most, you are beautifully positioned to present solutions in ways that will resonate directly with their problems. This practice results in a buyer who trusts you and is more likely to buy from you than a competitor.
   
   First, you want to understand their problem. What is the reason you’re talking? Understand it in scope and in-depth to speak directly to it and connect the dots. Next, you want to understand their dominant buying motives. What would they get out of this if they moved forward? What would they lose if they didn’t Lastly, understand their buying requirements. This pertains to the buying unit. Who’s involved in the decision? It also gets into the specific product or service parameters they need. What are the timelines they have? What are the budget parameters they may have?
    
3. How can you gain your customer’s trust in an increasingly uncertain world? 
   War or economic turmoil creates uncertainty and fear in the market. Research shows that people in uncertain situations will often default to the status quo when it comes to decision making, which is ultimately to procrastinate and do nothing. As a salesperson, the goal is to disrupt that mindset and hyper-focus on creating certainty for our customers. Make a strong business case for why moving forward now, as opposed to waiting, is in their best interest. Certainty is critical – we don’t feel the need to mull it over if we are certain about the decision. Certainty and stability create a low-risk feeling, and potential buyers are more likely to proceed with a lower-risk decision when there is uncertainty around them and in the world in general. 
    
4. How can you better leverage a growth mindset to level up your sales success?
   A growth mindset matters greatly in sales. If you treat your sales skills and abilities like a muscle that can strengthen and improve, you will become more resilient when negative outcomes occur. A growth mindset will even give you an advantage over the competition because someone focused on growth will always win over time. Try using these four actionable steps to put your growth mindset into action:
   • Identify what you can learn from each situation.
     No matter if you win or lose a sale, ask yourself, what can I learn from this? How can I use this to make myself better?
   • Use the word “yet” to overcome negative self-talk.
     You can overcome self-sabotage by adding the word “yet” to your self-critiques and  allowing yourself room to grow. I’m not good at handling objections, yet. I’m not good at presentations, yet.
   • Set aside time for action.
     Schedule a dedicated time to work on areas you’ve identified you can improve. If you have a planned date and time to work on growth, you are 300% more likely to follow through. 
   • Stay hyper-focused on delivering for potential clients.
     In the sales process, everything you do should be about potential clients. You should be focusing on how every single detail matters to them, connecting all of the dots. The only person you should be focusing on when you’re selling is whom you’re selling to.
5. ​​How can you enhance your grit?
   Grit is one of the most accurate predictors of both retention and success for those working on sales. Grit is the ability to stay persistent even when facing major obstacles. You can increase your grittiness by thinking through the why. Why does this goal matter? If you can’t think of a reason, reframe that goal. Asking why helps you qualify goals so when you face difficult obstacles, you have a clear why to give you the extra oomph needed to press on. Any goal you pursue will have challenges. Recognize that the price of success is always paid upfront. You want to anticipate setbacks and not be surprised when they happen. Grit helps to push through these roadblocks and keep going.