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To Sell to Customers This Year, Keep It Simple

Sales

You are probably "Covided" out. It’s exhausting keeping up with the reports on the ever-changing restrictions and recommendations. Hopefully you, your family, and your friends haven’t gotten sick, and if you have, it was with mild symptoms. Either way, right now you might be craving some simplicity in your life. To sell to customers this year, my advice is to keep it simple.

3 simplicity tips to sell to customers this year

1. Be honest with yourself about what's working and what isn't working

If you want to sell to customers this years, stop kidding yourself. The deals that you've been telling your manager over and over again will close probably won’t. Why are you wasting your time on them?

Instead, revisit whom you should be calling on and which sales prospects are most likely to do business with you. Resolve that you will spend more time on those accounts and less time on the ones less likely to buy from you. Look to prospects with shorter sales cycles, that are more profitable, and that will be easier for you to serve.

Sales managers should also accept responsibility when there is this lack of focus, and they should be asking specific questions to find out why their salespeople think certain deals are likely to close. They should be asking, Who can say yes to the deal? Who can say no? What is the existing problem that you can solve? How much does it cost the customer to do nothing about this problem? When the cost to do nothing is low, the customer is unlikely to buy.

The answers to these questions will indicate to both managers and salespeople if, in fact, the deal will close. And that’s keeping your selling simple.

The first step to focusing on what works is to see what isn’t working. Think about that. What frustrated you last year? What caused you the most problems? What was the most difficult? This year resolve to either fixing those issues or stopping them.

2. Do a better job of managing your emotions around lost deals and other setbacks

The Stoic school of philosophy recognizes that what exists is supposed to happen, both good and bad. I believe that everything happens for the best, even if it may not seem like it at the time. Your past failures and successes in sales make you what you are today. Do you recognize that you have probably learned something valuable from your experiences?

This year be kinder to yourself when things don’t go the way you want them to. Accept what you cannot change. Challenge yourself to calmly examine the failure instead of becoming angry or depressed. Yes, losing a big deal is disappointing, but it’s not the end of your life. Think about that the next time you berate yourself or others when something doesn’t go the way you want it to.

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3. Put yourself in a positive mindset about your sales career

If you want to sell to customers this year and feel successful, it's important to approach work with a positive mindset. Remember that nothing lasts forever, and sadly that includes good things, too. However, remember it’s the good things  (whether in your career or in your personal life) that contrast with the bad so you strive to appreciate the good things more. Try to be thankful for what you have had and what you will have.

Remember, life really is simple

As Confucius said, "Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated." Keep your selling simple this year and resist the urge to make it more complicated than it needs to be.

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Profile: Maura Schreier-Fleming

Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling, a sales training and sales consulting company. She works with business and sales professionals to increase sales and earn larger profits. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results and Monday Morning Sales Tips. Maura focuses on sales strategies and tactics that lead to better sales results. Maura is a sales expert for WomenSalesPros. She is part of their group of top sales experts who inspire, educate, and develop salespeople and sales teams.She speaks internationally on influence, selling skills, and strategic selling at trade association and sales meetings, demonstrating how her principles can be applied to get results. She successfully worked for over 20 years in the male-dominated oil industry with two major corporations, beginning at Mobil Oil and ending at Chevron Corp. She was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. and was one of Chevron’s top five salespeople in the U.S. having sold over $9 million annually. Maura writes several columns to share her sales philosophies. She's been quoted in the New York Times, Selling Power, and Entrepreneur.