Between pushing a product and solving a problem. Between a transactional mindset and a long-term vision. Maybe it’s time to think about your sales job in the radio business as something else entirely. After all, what is it you do if you are a really amazing salesperson?
- You are self-motivated and understand the math behind your success. You know, “The more people you see, the more people you sell.” It’s this simple. There are a number of sales calls you have to make to support a specific level of income. Ask yourself: “What do I really want to make this year?” Then, “Follow the money (math).”
- You never see failure as permanent. You only see it as a checkmark on the way to the ultimate yes – success. It isn’t personal. It’s taking the challenge to find a way to always make it about your potential client until you uncover the trigger that means “Yes.”
- You zero your focus in on one thing: Time Spent Selling. Almost every moment you are doing something other than interacting with a potential client is wasting your time. The great salespeople know that increasing your face-to-face selling time with potential clients IS what moves the needle. They find a way for more face time with more prospects and work to make themselves a part of the resources more clients depend on.
- You are great at generating your own research. This allows you to dig into a market, categories of business, and competitors to existing clients, so you can uncover more potential revenue opportunities again and again and again. This is continuous expansion beyond the clients who buy from you to grow your list. More clients = more money. Always.
- You are an active networker with business owners, market decision makers, and advertisers of all kinds. This means you are “tapped in” to the market. Chambers Of Commerce, Rotary, BNI, local business networking groups of all kinds. Are you a member? If you are tapped in, you know what is happening and you know before others.
- You are a great active listener. This is critical to understand what people care about and to identify problems that need solutions for advertisers. This includes social cues, visual cues, and what people say. It’s also about really getting to know people.
- You are good at paying attention to pain. This literally means you consistently look for pain points so you can identify problems that need to be solved faster than others.
- You think of your developed set of clients as “your book.” Taking possession of your “book of business” puts you in a stronger position psychologically to command better results. You may not think so, but try it for yourself for 60 days. When your brain considers something yours, you treat it differently.
- You set goals for yourself that are more than what you can do. In other words, you make yourself reach for the success you want. If you are not reaching for more consistently, you are falling behind.
Bonus: Salespeople don’t see themselves as selling only one category of products. That world is gone. Now we must use creativity to separate ourselves from all of the distractions that advertisers face day after day in the 21st Century. Today, we are one thing: Problem-solvers. To be the most effective problem-solver, you must be willing to self-educate and consistently grow more options to help your clients.
Think of yourself as a problem-solver that already works for your prospects. Change how you value yourself. You are as valuable as a psychologist, a high-level decision-maker, a lawyer, a doctor. The responsibilities of a great salesperson and the skill sets of great sellers are serious, life-changing and influential.
When you begin to see yourself in this way and use the 9 + 1 bonus above, your sales will grow.
