First of all I am writing this article in the past tense. During my career I've made some serious errors and learned from them. I now reflect on these pitfalls and became even stronger in my professional life.
The future is looking bright. Today I am part of the most international company and loving every minute of it. It is like they say: Ain't no mountain high enough...ain't no river wide enough ...
Making the right hires is very hard and once they come on board, the last thing you want to do is lose them.
I realise now that I came at a high price. I remember being very succesfull and creative in attracting and closing million € deals. In only six months time I won significant contracts for one of the companies I worked for. It were volume contracts (high volume low margin) that enabled local agencies to gain a lot of revenue and make promotion in their own professional career. I also attracted the attention of a broker who negotatiated for one of the top companies of the world. I managed to win the contract. Unfortunatly with no succes afterwards. Meaning the implementation and execution of the contract was very hard due to the high standards and complexity of the requirements.
What was the problem? Two things. On the one hand I acted as a diva with attitude. The amount of time, energy and egostroking behaviour were very intense for my management. This made my performace a lot more costly to the company.
On other occasions I didn't take company time seriously. I was the newcomer in a highly conservative company. Coming from a hyper dynamic and sales driven environment I was the one who'd made a lot of cold calls, I convinced prospects to try our services and my business development rate was higher than most. But I didn't take time seriously.
I realise now that I was a liability for these companies and they had to let me go.
What did I do right over the years and what makes a top sales , top sales?
A top-notch employee is concerned first and foremost with -earning colleagues' respect, earning customers' loyalty, and earning himself and the company euro's. An employee who is governed by a feeling of entitlement takes shortcuts, avoids responsibilities, and focuses on status rather than accomplishments
I think I know the difference between sales and service by now. Companies who think they can combine business development with account management in one and the same person are wrong. Account managers who excell in service focus on answering the customers's questions, being kind and being reactive. A sales oriented person focuses on being curious, being pro-active and on asking the customer questions. During my professional life I have always been driven by curiosity, wanted to know how companies work, how they see things and what their challenges are. It s all about getting the picture and understanding the business and thinking together about future opportunities.
It is all about listening and not talking. A while ago I wrote an article that was titled "stop selling".https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-selling-liesbeth-rosier
I comes down to analysing the success formula of your client, listening to your customer and developping relational excellence. Focus on the targets of the customer and make then your own. If you have a talker on your hands, you have the wrong person on your team
Top sales people set their own goals. This is something that I've learned over the years. A great sales person always has his eye on the price. If you can not tell what targets you are aiming for in very specific term (ie. number of customers contacted, new accounts closed, revenues generated, etc ) you are not going to be a success.
Sales are lost before they can be won 9 times out of 10 because they fall through the cracks: a lead is misplaced, a call doesn't happen when it should, etc. If your new hire wants to "make his own system" before he learns what works and doesn't in your already existing system, cut him loose. It is all about organising and planning
Follow up initiatives. You need to have the discipline to follow up on everything and anything right away. This is wat makes you strong, reliable and professional. Knowing your business and the business of your customer. That's what it is all about. I am always eager to learn as much as possible on the business. Today I am specialising in E-commerce and e-fulfilment. Knowing that online buying is booming business all over the world and knowing that supply chain represents 20 to 30% of the cost for e-commerce companies one knows immediatly what will be the impact of our (logistic) business for the future. In our company we already have built up a lot of expertize working with the most successfull companies within retail,luxury goods, electronics and fashion.
Sales don't happen on their own. People make them happen.
Evaluate quality as much as quantity. Sales is always about matching the right person with the right product. Take the time to coach your sales, go together to his clients, listen to his sales calls. Is he being specific and substantive or schmoozy and vague? This is the only way to confirm the quality of his interactions with your customers.
So hopefully you can appreciate my open and honest feedback. A good sales man or woman stands open for constructive criticism and learns every day.
So don't be dazzled by a lot of big talk and pie-in-the-sky promises prospective hires often use when trying to get hired.
Successful sales people are all about quietly delivering, not about dramatic pledges.
Successful sales people are all about quietly delivering, not about dramatic pledges.
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