Salespeople at the top of their game make the process of closing a deal enjoyable. Their habits and methods differ from their peers and help customers feel more comfortable because they focus on their relationships; in fact, they typically spend 33% more time with their customers each week. Even with this commitment, top sellers have a network that’s 30-40% larger than those of their peers, and they commit to strengthening the connections they have with others.
Beyond their expertise with building relationships with their network, master salespeople have an understanding of metrics. They monitor analytics in their CRM platform for customer engagement, internal networks, and data points that measure the overall time and effort they exert. Then they combine these external factors—their relationships and metrics—with their behaviours to make the sale.
Top salespeople are versatile, assertive, empathetic problem solvers who help their customers maintain a sense of balance even when things go awry. Learn more about these characteristics, and how to become a master salesperson, in the infographic below.
- They foster strong relationships with their customers
- Top sellers focus on building strong relationships with fewer customers (rather than having superficial relationships with many customers who aren’t engaged)
- They spend up to 33% more time with customers per week
- That’s typically 2-4 additional hours
- These metrics are not one-size-fits-all
- The right balance varies by company, based on what’s being sold
- Top sellers focus on building strong relationships with fewer customers (rather than having superficial relationships with many customers who aren’t engaged)
How to Shape Yourself into a Master Salesperson
Habits of Top Sellers
- They have a large company network
- Top sellers have 30-40% larger networks within their company
- That’s typically 10-20 more people they interact with regularly
- They keep commitments
- When they make a promise, they keep it
- This reinforces trust in their relationships
Master Salespeople Focus on Metrics
- Top sellers keep track of all their interactions in a CRM platform
- Streamlines the sales process
- Organize all of your data in a single location
- Spend more time selling—not searching for information
- Top salespeople have a mastery of:
- Customer engagement
- This includes:
- Number of accounts touched
- Time spent with each customer
- Frequency of interactions
- Breadth and depth of relationships
- This includes:
- Internal networks
- 3 sub-categories of internal network characteristics:
- 1. General
- Number of relationships within the company
- Time spent interacting with colleagues
- Influence within the network
- 2. Support resources
- A set of metrics focused on the relationships reps build with support staff, including:
- Pre-sales specialists
- Inside sales reps
- A set of metrics focused on the relationships reps build with support staff, including:
- 3. Management
- Metrics that reveal the relationships between reps and their direct managers
- Engagement with company leadership
- 1. General
- Energy
- Metrics that measure overall time and effort exerted by salespeople
- Customer engagement
- Versatility
- Want to improve your versatility?
- Observe first
- When you first meet someone new, note how they behave. Are they:
- Loud or soft?
- Fast-paced or unhurried?
- Outgoing or more reserved?
- When you first meet someone new, note how they behave. Are they:
- Shift your behaviours
- If you behave differently than the person you observe, try shifting your behaviours as you interact
- For example, if they are formal and reserved, and you are outgoing and informal, try engaging on their level of formality
- Shifting your behaviour does not mean changing your beliefs or values
- If you behave differently than the person you observe, try shifting your behaviours as you interact
- Observe first
- Want to improve your versatility?
- Assertiveness
- Helps you move a prospect forward without offending or frustrating them
- Assertiveness is a happy medium between passivity and aggressiveness
- Three basic responses when a customer delays a decision:
- Passive: "Could you give me a call when you've made a decision?"
- This response puts the sale on hold indefinitely
- This response puts the sale on hold indefinitely
- Aggressive: "If you don't buy right now, the offer is off the table."
- This response creates pressure and resentment
- Assertive: "Can you give me a specific time and date when you'll make your final decision?"
- This response sets up the conditions for the close, but doesn’t force the customer's pace
- Passive: "Could you give me a call when you've made a decision?"
- Three basic responses when a customer delays a decision:
- Empathy
- Adapt to the customer's moods and emotions
- Listen, observe, and feel what the customer feels
- This helps build a better relationship
- Depending on the customer, decide whether they would prefer to:
- Commiserate
- Complain
- Be distracted from the situation
- Adapt to the customer's moods and emotions
Behaviours of Successful Salespeople
- Problem solving
- Create new ways to satisfy the customer's financial and emotional needs
- Follow this four-step process:
- 1. See the customer’s situation as it is
- 2. Help the customer visualize a better situation
- 3. Devise a plan to take the customer from where they are now to where they want to be
- 4. Communicate the solution in a way that makes it easy for the customer to make a decision
- Optimism
- Helps you maintain a sense of balance when things go wrong
- For example: If the first sales call of the day goes poorly, it could affect your performance for the rest of the day based on your point of view:
- View 1: A bad first call means I'm off my game. This will be a bad day.
- View 2 (Optimistic): Every sales call is different. The next call will probably be better.
Conclusion
- It takes effort to become a master salesperson, but with the right attitude and actions, anyone can mold themselves into a sales machine. With time and patience, customers will take note and allow you to lead them through the sales funnel.
Want more insight? Read our eBook, “5 Secrets of the Most Productive Salespeople,” available below.
