What’s the best way to develop sales skills? I acquired most of my selling skills due to the result of a mix of study and experience. When I was a new salesperson, I attended a rather detailed sales training program and left it motivated to succeed. Then, of course, reality hit!
- My one saving grace was that I had some courage and I also very much wanted to succeed.
- Against that backdrop I noticed that when I wasn’t out seeing new prospects, there was a large amount of free time available.
- I made a conscious effort to fill my free time with calls to new prospects.
- As such, I got a lot of practice on the phone looking for new sales opportunities.
In time, I learned that the lifeblood of sales is prospecting. Either you can learn to generate enough prospects to sustain yourself – or you will be out of business. I dedicated myself to becoming the best prospector I could be. The more I worked at it, the better I got. My sales skills developed through the hard work and the experience.
Two Types of Experience that Helped Me Develop.
The first was all the calling I was doing.
- I learned to be a master of the phone and to control any call reluctance I was having.
- I learned not to take rejection personally.
- I learned also that I could not always control the outcome of a call or whether a prospect was interested or not.
- I learned that about the only thing I could control was how many times I dialed the phone. So, I started making more and more calls and getting more and more prospects.
The next big leap in my sales skills came through joint work.
- I would find good prospects – and I would go out to see those potential customers with other, more experienced salespeople.
- I found a few other consultants at the firm I was working in who enjoyed working with me and who agreed to split our cases 50-50.
- I watched them work and I learned a lot about how-to-sell from them.
They were thrilled to be working with me because I was bringing them plenty of fresh business. In most sales organizations, you’ll find a mix of experience and inexperience. Often the older salespersons will be energized by the possibility of working a higher volume of new leads brought to them by a newer salesperson.
Over time, I became an expert in both prospecting and selling. I learned how to feed myself in the future with a constant supply of new, interested leads – and I learned how to close cases along the way. Sales skills are best developed through study and experience. With the right mix of hard work and joint work – you can become the best salesperson you can be.
