Today we look at one of my favourite areas of Sales – educating yourself…
11. Self Education
Most sales people I know are interested in 3 things:
* Growing their clients
* Growing themselves and their career
* Having Fun
To motivate yourself in this circumstance, you need to know that you are not alone – everyone is thinking along the same lines, although not necessarily at the same time.
Now if you want to focus on growing your clients – then YOU are the type of sales person I want on my team!
Take any chance you have when you are with your client to learn more about their industry, their customers, their products or services and other things that are happening in their industry. You will find this easy to do because clients love to talk about themselves and their business.
If you have a career plan – then you will already know what you need to do to get where you want to go – from courses that you need to do, results you need to achieve and what and how you are going to achieve those goals. If that’s the case – well done, go to it and achieve those goals!
If you don’t have that plan in place then it pays to remember that today’s activities will link directly to tomorrow’s career.
That may sound a bit glib – but it’s true.
Map the path you want to take to achieve your goals career goals.
For example, to achieve the goal of doing a particular sales course workshop, you will need to achieve a certain amount of sales figures. To get there you might need to see X number of business owners, and get Y number to sign on. Given that 20% of those you speak to will sign on with you then you need to make Z number of sales calls. If you make more than that, then you might hit your goal earlier.
Instead of the big goal – focus on day-to-day activities that will build on your achievements already and give yourself the skills they need to achieve their long-term career goals.
How? I find audiobooks you listen to in the car are a great way to upskill yourself and motivate me to get out of the car and be pumped when I sit down with a client – maybe with new data or new information that I have just taken on.
And I listen to books and podcasts on psychology, sales, writing, poetry, different industries sales techniques, old sales books from the 70s and 80’s on cassette, and more – I will always get at least 1 idea from listening that I can put into action straight away, no matter where the source was from.
Above all – you need to learn more, no matter what stage your career is in – that way you can have fun when you are ready to have fun – and you won’t spend your time worrying about work and clients.
I really encourage you to learn more at every chance you can get – about everything and anything that might be related to your job, or a clients business.
Take the time to attend virtual and offsite educational events (not industry based and even client based) not even, but as well as: networking or selling events.
I once attended a client’s function with people in related businesses from around the state, I was the only sales rep there, and by the end of the night had 5 new clients and 10 new prospective clients. Why? Because I was interested enough to take the time to attend, knew what they were talking about, and, asked the right questions.
Seriously, watch webinars, listen to audiobooks and podcasts. Buy books, go to the library and borrow books. Do what you have to do to learn more. And what was relevant 10 years ago might not be relevant now – but you won’t know that until you stretch yourself and find out.
The more you learn the better off you will be both personally, but professionally.
