Keys to success in sales: Doing the small things well is a surefire way to set yourself apart

I’ve been selling to businesses for a number of years, and there is no denying it: sales is a tough gig. There ‘s pressure, it’s complex (especially selling to enterprise clients), your pay is tied to performance, and you hear A LOT of nos. You have to develop a thick skin or you’ll never last.

But with all that said, I love sales. I love working with customers to solve their problems, I love the competitive nature of it, and I love the upside of having compensation tied to performance. The harder, and smarter, I work the more economic security I can provide for my family.

I’m a competitive person and that has me always looking for an edge, a way to set myself apart from the competition. And no matter how complex the product, prospect, or sales process is, doing the small things can get you way ahead. When I think about the things that make me successful in sales, it always comes back to a few small, but crucial, practices. 

Follow up and follow through

Without a doubt, the biggest factor to my sales success has been follow up and follow through. It seems extremely basic, but too many sales reps don’t do it well. Getting the easy, or otherwise small, things right goes a long way.

There are countless deals I would’ve lost without persistent follow up. Something I learned from @Steli very early on during my sales career was that if you and I have come to an agreement that there is real value to working together, and you go silent, I’ll follow up until I hear back.

I was working with a prospect last year that had been exploring our technology for more than a year. We’d finally got some momentum in the deal after several months, but then they went silent. I didn’t hear anything for 5 months. But I kept following up, and following up, trying different channels and messages. And when I finally heard back, we were able to get the deal done in three weeks.

Another best practice I try to follow: whenever possible is to send follow ups from meetings the same day. You’re already top of mind for the prospect, so don’t let that go to waste. Get them the content you promised or book the follow up meeting while you have that momentum. If you don’t, it can easily drag on for days or weeks.

Of course there are deals that don’t make sense to burn cycles on, but the more experience I get, the better sense I have of which ones are worth the effort (not that I’m always right by any means).

Copywriting

Largely due to my background and continued work with clients in marketing, copywriting has always been an interest of mine. I find it fascinating how words drive action and release emotion. 

Most recently, I’ve been deep into @Dave Gerhardt’s Laws of Copywriting. It’s a fantastic course/presentation on core concepts of copywriting that’s rooted in human psychology. Desires first then marketing tactics. Marketing tactics change ALL the time, but human desired really don’t.

I’ve been able to translate this interest and practice in copywriting to my sales outreach with great success. The two “laws” from Dave I’ve focused on most are: finding the selfish desire and writing short, choppy copy. Humans have a set of primary and secondary desires that drive almost all the decisions we make. Uncovering the selfish desire for the customer in your copy takes it to the next level. The second is pretty self explanatory.

Default to sales activities

One of the most difficult things to manage in sales is the emotional ups and downs. To ensure top performance, it’s crucial to not get too high on the wins and too low on the losses. It’s pretty easy to get into a dry spell, and we have a tendency to make it worse. Too much focus on it will guarantee you extend it. 

Whenever I get into a tough patch where things don’t seem to be going my way, I try to default to sales activities. I get back to basics. Prospecting. Calling clients to check in. Touching base on opportunities that were put on hold. 

One of the best analogies I’ve heard about sales was that the sales reps in an organization are like the high performing athletes. And what do high-performing athletes do better than anyone else? Fundamentals. Sales activities are the fundamentals.

Help first

One of the tools in my toolkit that I use the most to land new business is the goodwill I’ve built with my existing accounts. Since moving into sales full time, I’ve always tried to go above and beyond for every single customer. I help with things that others might pass off to another team, I respond quickly, and if they run into any sort of issue, I go to bat for them internally.

This consistency with clients has put me in the fortunate position of having the types of relationships where I can call any time for a reference or participation in a customer story/presentation. Existing clients are an often under-utilized sales and marketing tool. One conversation with a successful customer or two can move a deal along faster than all the selling I can do.

Something to add to this list? Let me know.