It’s your philosophy about sales that really makes the difference. Some people say “make 80 calls a day.” Some say, “pick 5 prospects and focus.” The fact of the matter is that these are very shallow philosophies on sales. I, for one, try not to over-do it when it comes to the number of prospects I am working, but then again, I don’t limit myself to 5.

When starting a sales career, or starting over, I have 3 main ideas to teach you, that come from the 3 main goals I have in my sales career.

1. Provide Value First - You’ve heard it before, but I say provide value first without expectation. That to say, don’t get frustrated when you’ve given something without getting in return. It will all come back to you one day.

Your prospect is not interested in your company, your product, or your service. You have to give them something they ARE interested in. Namely, themselves! Give them something about THEIR customers, THEIR productivity, THEIR profits. It could be research your company has done, a quote from John Maxwell, or Business Week article about their target market.

As Napoleon Hill says,

You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for

2. Build Long Term Relationships - Now, if you sell TV’s for a living, this might be nothing more than sending a Thank You Note after they make a purchase, but if you are in an industry in which you will being providing some service or support and hope for another sale down the road, I suggest you work on this. One great way to do this is to find out something about your prospect before calling them. Find where they went to college, if they have kids and how old they are, are they a golfer?

Can’t find this info out? Try calling your prospects company and asking for sales. The guys in sales will tell you things that the gatekeeper would not. Once you find these things out, you can bring them up in the sales call and hopefully find some common ground on which to build a friendship.

3. Enjoy Yourself - It’s your career! Why spend all your time doing something you don’t like? You can learn to like it if you don’t. Attitude is a choice, and you can choose your attitude about your sales job. It could be that you’re at the wrong company or in the wrong industry, but one way or another, you can train yourself to enjoy what you do.

I do know that when it comes right down to it, there will always be things you HATE to do. That’s okay, you can outsource the crappy stuff! Take your time and know that you don’t have to accomplish EVERYTHING TODAY! If you can become better at sales, you can spend less time at it and make more money! What a novel idea!

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