by Marcus Bentley Wise

Created on: April 13, 2010   Last Updated: April 14, 2010

Some people always seem to be better salespeople than others. And the reason for this you will find time and time again is that they really work at what they are doing. It is very rare that you just knock on the door, get to see the new customer and make a sale all in the first visit. You have to do a lot more than that.

If you want to be good at sales, then you need to start with a plan.

First set out your goals. What you want to achieve and what you want to see happening in the next month, next quarter and a year from now. To understand this you need to know what is going on with what you are trying to sell. Look back across past sales, current sales, customers and old customers. Study and understand what it is that you are doing and going to be doing. Once you have done that then you could look at trying to target what you can see as areas that you can break in to. Even pinpoint old customers that you could get back. See accounts that are not making what they should; see other that could make more. See if you did things a little differently to improve the performance of the accounts. It is with out this knowledge that you will find it very hard to do any thing.

Once you have got to know all that you can about what it is you are trying to do then you must get to know your customers. Meet them, talk to them but more importantly listen to them. What they are saying is more important that what you are saying. You need to know that they are doing. You need to know that a big contract has just come up and they have to tender to keep the business. Or that things are getting quiet. Understand what they are doing from what they are telling you.

On that information and your knowledge of your product and your company you then can best decide how you can help them. At that moment, it might not be making a sale, but just letting then know that you are there or prepared to help. But what you are doing is forging a relationship with the customer so that you can build on that and then that can lead to doing some business in the future. It is people who sell to people and a good relationship with the customer and understanding there need is vital to that.

And when you have master all of that, you need to keep on top of it all. Always try and be aware of what the competition is doing, prices and quality. Always look to developing more sales from new and existing accounts. And never ever take the customer for granted, no matter how long you may have dealt with them. Keep records and make notes of what you have done. All the information from birthdays to product launches. It is all important and you never know when it could come in useful.

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