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A couple of weeks ago I was approached to be included in a Sales Hall of Fame publication.

The one thing they requested of me was a short video with my number one sales tip that they could include on the website. My number one sales tip? “No problem,” was my first thought. Then, the more I thought about it, the more of a problem it became. To make a long story bearable, I did finally come up with the “one,” but in the process, I thought of several others too, which you might find helpful.

My Key Sales Tips

When the people putting the Hall of Fame publication initially reached out to me, I was in the process of calling all of my previous clients and many previous contacts, something I do about once every three years or so. I was about 25 percent of the way through this process and it was already paying huge dividends. So, of course I thought, “That’s my number one sales idea.” Assuming you do good work, and people get far more value than they pay for, a call to previous clients always works well. So, while ultimately that isn’t my number-one tip, it’s a good one and one you should definitely follow.

Here are some other good tips:

• Get back to personal communication and build relationships. You will be most effective talking to people in-person and on the phone. Stop hiding behind social media and looking for easier ways to face rejection. Use the internet and social media to gather intelligence but then pick up the phone or go see someone. Email, especially on an initial contact, is one of the worst ways, if not the worst, to connect with someone. You can and should use email, but only after you call or stop by.
• Identify and eliminate your biggest road block. What is the one major sales bottleneck in your process? Identify it and laser focus on eliminating it. Research it, read books, watch videos, take a course, talk to people, get informed, and then get to work. Once you eliminate that one, find the next biggest issue and attack that one.
• Spend more time on your most important tasks, which as a salesperson are prospecting, presenting and closing. Ideally spend about twice as much time as you are now.
• Work hard and smart. You want to work smart, but in the beginning, before you have everything figured out, you’ll have to work hard to learn what you need to learn. Even then, in order to make the number of calls you need to make, you simply need to work hard.
• Know your numbers and plan your time. Know your annual, monthly and weekly goals, and the daily activity necessary to hit those goals. Then plan your work and work your plan.
• Make that call you’re afraid to make. Ask yourself, “What’s the absolute worst that can happen?” Decide to accept the worst and realize that, even if the worst happens, you’ll be okay.
• On that note, seek out rejection and discomfort. When you encounter them, welcome them, treat them like your best friend, as if you prayed for them.
• Charge headfirst at anything that scares you. Except of course if it’s a bear or something that can actually kill or maim you.
• Push beyond what you think is possible. Double, triple, quadruple, or even 10X the number of calls you make in a given week.
• Know your why. Why are you doing what you do? Who and what are you working for? Your personal, internal motivation, if strong enough, will drive you to accomplish anything you desire.

Last, and the exact opposite of least, is my number-one sales tip that I finally settled on, and that number-one sales tip is — get back to the basics. So what are the basics? First, activity. When someone fails in sales, 99.9 percent of the time it’s a failure of activity: they didn’t make enough calls, to get enough qualified prospects, to make enough sales. The other .1 percent of the time, they got hit by a bus. Sales is a numbers game: the more people you talk to, the more business you will do. Even a blind pig finds corn, so basic number one is activity.

Basic number two is get great at selling. The better you are at each part of the sales process, the more effective and efficient you’ll be during every part of the selling process which means you’ll spend less time with the wrong people, more time with the right people, and as a result, you’ll make more sales and build better relationships.

Basic number three is persistence and perseverance. Eighty-one percent of appointments are set after the fourth contact, 80 percent of salespeople never make it to the fourth contact. So, my number-one sales tip is to focus on the basics: activity, get great at selling, be persistent and persevere.

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