What can we learn from the best salespeople?

by Dave Kahle

Do great B2B sales people, regardless of what they sell, have any practices in common?  In other words, do the best sales people all sell the same way?  Are there best practices in sales?

A number of years ago, a professional association attempted to answer that question.  They studied superstar sales people from a wide variety of industries and concluded: Yes!

In fact, the best sales people excel at the same things.  Here are the top five practices of the very best sales people:

1. They see the situation from the customer’s point of view.
2. They ask better questions.
3. They listen more constructively.
4. They are obsessed with time management.
5. They do bigger deals.

Let’s look at the relationship among these items to see if there are any lessons for us.

“They do bigger deals.”

That is both the result of their work (that is, after all, why they are the best sales people) as well as their focus from the beginning.  They start with an understanding that it is their job to bring revenue into the company, and that the more revenue they bring in, the more valuable they are to their companies and the more successful they become.  And this realization leads them to what becomes an obsession.

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“Spend 20 percent of your time planning for the other 80 percent.”

That was advice from my first sales manager as I was entering my first professional sales position.  It turned out to be excellent advice, and I have followed it for 30 years.

In that time, I’ve refined the processes, disciplines and tools with over 500 sales teams.  Now, I’m bringing what I’ve developed to you.

On November 8^th, at 12:30 PM, I’ll present a one-hour webinar for salespeople, sharing the principles, processes, disciplines and tools I have developed to make planning easy and effective for B2B salespeople.

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“They are obsessed with time management.”

That means that they intentionally and methodically strive to make the best use of their sales time by focusing the bulk of their efforts on the highest-potential opportunities and customers.  You won’t find them running an errand for a “C” customer just to be a nice guy.

     In my book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime, I make the point that this practice – investing in the highest potential prospects and customers – trumps all other sales practices.  If you are a great presenter, for example, and wonderful at closing the sale, your skills will be squandered if they are not exercised with the right people.

And what do the best sales people do with the time they invest in the highest-potential customers?

“Ask better questions,” and “listen more constructively.”

Amazing.  These two fundamental communication skills are, perhaps, the earliest communication skills we learn.  Yet, the best take these foundational skills and execute them better. And since they excel at these two fundamentals, they naturally gain a better understanding of the “customer’s point of view.”  Equipped with that competitive advantage, they formulate creative proposals that lead them back to where they started:  bigger deals.

     This should be immensely encouraging to sales people.  Unlike the promotional messages from legions of sales trainers and authors, the reality is that there are no “secrets” in sales.  Success comes not from hidden strategies and mysterious tactics, but rather from the... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE