HTSS93 - What to do when you want to quit sales - Scott Sylvan Bell

What to do when you want to quit sales 

All salespeople go through a point where they want to quit sales. This is not an uncommon feeling to go through. You are not alone if there is a point where you get frustrated, angry, upset, panicked and even lonely.

If you are struggling right now there the best thing for you to do is figure out why you have the feelings. You may have to dig deep and go through feeling and emotions you don’t want to. If you really want to get to the bottom of your issues you have to make the decisions to pinpoint what is going on.  

You can clarify your problem when you look to:

• Is it the place you work?
• Is it the people you work with?
• Is it the product or service that you are selling?
• Is it the performance capabilities of the skills you don’t have or need?

All salespeople go through this feeling at one point or another. You are not alone when these feelings pop up. There is a silver lining when you do face problems and that is you do acquire new skills and or talents. You do have to make the decision to look for the ideas. If you get stuck in negativity and all of the reasons why you cant do it, then you will find them.

Sometimes the ownership or management hurt your feelings and you don’t like them. You may be overly sensitive to what is going on when you are being held accountable.

If you are not closing deals you may be caught up on fair and unfair.

The common problems about the leads

There are times where the leads become the conversation. You may have tough leads but even if you do take leads that are difficult you do get better at closing skills.

If you are price matching and discounting you may not be getting paid the commissions you could. The internal pressure you feel may be because of debt and or income issues.

You have to out in the work

Sales can be frustrating just while you are closing deals. There is pain, problems and frustration when you are not closing sales. Add in other problems and it compounds to the point of wanting to quit.

You really do have to ask “How much of this is you” because you could have not prepared to make your sales skills better.  You have to ask the question and it can be uncomfortable when you need to find the way:

• What have you done?
• What are you willing to do?

When you are frustrated you have to ask, how much pain are you willing to take? What actions are you willing to take to make your skills better to get out of your sales slump. There is a quick list of items you can look at right now:

• Role play with guidance or training
• Coaching from a mentor or master of closing
• Ride alongs with top salespeople while taking notes
• Record presentations when legal with clients if possible

Pain is time spent training and being coached. When you are with a good coach or mentor you have to know it can be painful.

Something to think about is the money spent on your own to get yourself where you need to be. If you are waiting for your manager or business owner to pay for you? If this is the case it may not happen.  

Your feelings and emotions can be your fault

If you went into a sales call and didn’t close because you didn’t do your job its not rejection you are facing its guilt for not doing the right thing. Most salespeople are not salespeople they are order takers and price matchers and this move happens naturally in a struggle.

One question you have to ask yourself is how much training or coaching have you really implemented? Be real and answer the question how much have you really done? How much sales training or coaching have you discounted or not implemented because you don’t like it or it makes you uncomfortable?  

Most sales struggles have common themes

There are go to moves in any sales struggle. When you take a look at sales as a whole there are only so many moves a buyer can make with you. There are between 5 – 7 objections and then everything else becomes a hybrid. Can you overcome the 5 – 7 most common objections::

• I want to think about it
• Right now is a bad time
• The price is too high – your price is too high
• I need to talk to someone about this
• I don’t want a contract
• We already have someone
• Just leave me some information

When you look at your sales presentations can you identify why and where you are losing people? Is there a point where you have issues and don’t know it?

There are common types of objections that you get in a sales presentation. Do you know where the objection is from?

• Is it a trust or Relationship objection?
• Is it a Price, Problem, Risk or ROI Objection?
• Is it a quality of service or product objection?
• Is it really a Stall?
• When you think about it was it a weak presentation and did you really do you job?

If you are struggling in the sales presentation here are the 3 most common places to look.

• How much time are you spending building rapport are you going after too much to stall out the sales call or are you not building enough to try and close quickly?
• How are you asking for the sale, how are you asking for the sale?
• How good are you at follow up and are you using more than one way to follow up?

If you are struggling in sales it could be outside influences or it could even be you. It does help to have a good friend or person to talk to so you can see where the problem is.

Scott Sylvan Bell

@Scottsbell

#sales #closer #podcast #Howtosellshow #Sacramento

This episode was recorded in Sacramento California