Which of These Superpowers Do You Possess?
To be great at sales these days you need to tap into some skill sets that you might not have tapped into before. I call these Salesperson Superpowers. Here are four that I feel are imperative.
Superpowers!
- Creativity
Salespeople must be creative. In the past having creativity simply wasn’t required. You had to be good at getting appointments, know your product well, and do a good pitch. Let’s face it, customers are 70% into the buying process, before talking to salesperson. That means you have to be creative about how you approach the sale, and you need to have creative solutions to bring to the table. Most of all, you need to be creative about how to get the prospects attention. People who need your products and services don’t want to be spammed. They don’t want to be cold called. So how will you get their attention? Then how are you going to keep it long enough to make the sale? The creativity superpower requires understanding your prospect, their business and industry better than ever before.
- Resourcefulness
Salespeople must be resourceful. If you come up with a creative idea, you need the resources to deploy it. It is critical to understand how to employ the resources within your own company, the resources that may be available in industry organizations, and all of the resources available via the internet. If you know what’s out there to help yourself, you can add value for the customer by sharing these resources. Resourcefulness will help you get customers, and more importantly keep them. It’s not easy to be resourceful. Resourceful people make more sales. The resourcefulness superpower comes with staying on top of things, being a great listener, perusing social media and reading.
- Connectivity
Salespeople need to be well connected. You need to build strong relationships with your connections so you can leverage them. It’s useless to have thousands of connections on LinkedIn and thousands of followers on Twitter if they aren’t real relationships. When you are well connected, you don’t need to cold call, because you can ask for an introduction. Connectivity also allows you to connect your customers and prospects to valuable resources they may need. A connected salesperson is worth their weight in gold. Be nice, be genuine, be helpful, then people will want to connect with you. Get connected and stay in touch with people using social platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Make a plan. Figure out how to make deeper connections with the people you already know. The connectivity superpower requires that you continually meet people, and develop mutually beneficially relationships.
- Fearlessness
Salespeople need to be fearless. This may sound silly, but more than ever, fearlessness is a must. People tend to think that salespeople are naturally fearless and used to rejection. The truth is salespeople are not fearless when it comes to asking hard questions and gathering information. If you don’t know how to ask without seeming pushy, then you might ask at all. The secret to fearlessness is great preparation. When you know your stuff, have planned, and have practiced, you have the confidence to be fearless. Stop worrying about rejection. If you tell yourself you can’t get something before you even ask for it, then you won’t get it. Ask! What’s the worst that can happen? The fearlessness superpower only comes with the hard work of becoming an expert -plan, practice and execute extraordinarily.
Which superpowers do you possess? Which do you wish you had? Make a plan to exercise the superpowers you have, and acquire the ones you need.
Good luck developing your super powers!
Alice Heiman is a sales strategist, coach, training and speaker who has been helping companies increase sales for 20 years. Other sales experts may tell you how to increase sales, but few show you exactly how to do it and make it so easy. Alice will show you a simple process to generate leads, qualify opportunities, handle objections and close the deal.
Alice publishes on the topics of Sales, Networking, and Digital Business Strategy for entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and small business owners at http://aliceheiman.com/blog
