The best advice I can give is try to not take anything personally. If you’re in sales, I’m sure you’ve been caught off guard and knocked down a few times. Your reaction should be to get right back up and go after it again. If you’re able to maintain that mentality in work and in life, you’ll always be able to achieve the goals you set for yourself.
Before I started working in sales, I definitely bought into the widespread belief that sales can be hyper-competitive and at times cut-throat. While it is important to maintain a competitive edge and stand out, I think it's equally as important to join a sales team that has a collaborative and encouraging culture. I've found that more people are willing to help you learn and grow than you might think. At the end of the day, being a part of a strong team makes the wins a whole lot better and the losses not hit as hard.
Within every organization, there are a lot of different people with different personalities. I like to work through an organization, building relationships and bonds with key contacts. I have found that people, not companies, make the decisions at the end of the day. Focus on the people, and find those within an organization that you connect well with. It really is a differentiator in my experience.
Doing cold outbound calls and emails can get monotonous. I always find time throughout the day to make it more fun. Create a game within the work, craft a personalized cheeky intro email, leave a voicemail every now and again. Makes it all the more worth it when you get a great response.
Something we try to do at Malomo is not just get personalized, but remain relevant. eCommerce is an ever-changing industry and the marketers we're talking to are constantly being thrown new channels, ways to reach customers, etc. To stick out, we've seen that we need to do proper research into what matters to the individual we are reaching out to and be as specific as possible as to how we might be able to help them. Figuring out what other technologies they use that we could work with is one way we stay very relevant.
Over time I’ve found that embracing the “No” is one of the best things you can do as a sales person. “Maybe” in sales is the same as “No”, only with “Maybe” you end up wasting a bunch of time and effort chasing something that is never going materialize. “No” saves you time and energy, but also frees the prospect to speak more openly than they would have otherwise. Those insights gained can pay big dividends with the next prospect. So appreciate, embrace, and gain insights from “No”.
Block that calendar! It is important to stay organized and ensure that you are utilizing every minute of every day. I like to block off my cold call, prospecting, follow-up, etc. times to have a placeholder indicating when I should be moving on. This helps to stay organized and maximize results. Also, switch up those cold-calling/prospecting time blocks to different parts of the day to increase the chances of getting ahold of your prospects.
etailinsights offers a feature called Technology Spy that I use regularly. Part of that feature includes the ability to see when an etailer first started using a technology. Knowing etailinsights' 'first detected' date of a competitor technology helps me understand if a prospect is ripe for replacement and when it makes sense to target them. Additionally, etailinsights' Advanced Search feature allows you to search a date range of when a competitor technology was first added. With that search feature, I can quickly build a target list around a technology's first detected date. Having the date of when an etailer adopted a technology helps me time my prospecting efforts efficiently and effectively!
In my experience, most of the sales pitches I've attended are typically in the form of a slide deck about the company, history of successes, or a full-blown product demo. I've learned that sales calls are not always designed for (or around) the prospect. That's why I am a big believer in a "No Demo" sales call. This doesn't mean that on sales calls, we should avoid a product overview, but instead strive to be more conversational. Take the majority of the time to understand the current challenges or pain points of each and every prospect. Use that information to position how your solution can help solve these problems.
It's no secret that people buy from people they like. Which is why developing a relationship with a prospect prior to the sale, or the ask, is super important. Sure, sometimes you'll catch someone at the right place and at the right time, but overall it takes time to build the trust it takes to say yes. Do your research on LinkedIn, find unique pieces of information about a prospect or mutual interests, and weave it into your outreach. They'll appreciate the time and care you put into getting to know them and will (hopefully) want to return the favor.