Are You Ready To Become Obsessed With Sales?
Shockingly, there are less than 90 days left of 2016, which means that it’s definitely time to hit high gear if you’re trying to reach your billing targets for the year.
Regardless of whether your billing targets are set by your manager or if they were aspirational goals that you hold for yourself, it’s not too late to make a final grab for those 2016 sales goals (and even shoot past them.)
According to famous motivational speaker Eric Worre, around 90 days is the perfect scale of time to revolutionise your career. So let’s get going with some tips on how to smash those sales targets before the New Year rolls around.
1. Get obsessed.
The first step is the one that everything else builds on, because it requires you to build the one thing that all great sales people have: passion.
So get stuck into learning your craft: watch YouTube videos and follow blogs of successful salespeople, emulate sales tactics of those you admire, study up on recruitment trends, keep a log of which sales tactics seem to work for you and which ones don’t; and above all, find your inner passion for sales.
2. Work on your listening skills.
So many recruiters fear rejections that they tend to talk much more than they should when pitching new clients in the mad rush to get the information out before the prospect terminates the call or meeting. The key to sales success is to listen far more than you speak so that you can tailor your recruitment service to the client’s individual needs.
Ask insightful, leading questions about the client’s recruitment needs and then listen patiently to the answer- you’ll learn a great deal more than if you just talk! You can then give them a killer pitch that resonates with them, rather than just giving them the same old sales spiel.
3. Be prepared to follow up and wait it out.
Most people don’t buy on the first call: in fact, nearly two-thirds of your clients will buy at about the three month mark (making your 90 day challenge just about perfect!) The problem is that many recruiters take the first or second ‘not interested right now’ as total rejection, and give up—not realising that it’s probably nothing to do you’re your sales skill or the service you’re offering: it’s just that people don’t buy straightaway in most cases!
Which means that you’re going to have to make repeated follow-ups. Don’t be shy, just do it. In some cases you might even find that you’re eventually passed onto the real decision-maker, rather than a gatekeeper.
4. Make friends with the gatekeeper.
All these calls you’re making to the gatekeeper should be put to good use. Too many recruiters call and immediately ask to speak to the person in charge of recruiting decisions without stopping to chat with the ‘gatekeeper’ PA or receptionist.
Remember, these people are your way into speaking with the decision-maker, so be friendly and try to strike up a rapport. Networking is the recruiter’s strength, so use that talent to open doors.
5. Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Many mediocre recruiters are held back by the fear, and make the mistake of thinking that what distinguishes them from top billers is their fear of sales.
The secret is though: top billers are worried about failure too- but the difference is that they use that fear of failure to propel them to great heights. They work hard because they cannot bear failure; and they accept that in order to be great, they have to work through uncomfortable feelings like rejection or feeling that they are ‘being a pest’.
It’s all too easy to just slip into slow gear as the Christmas season looms, and it’s even easier just to push your billing goals over to 2017. But that’s three whole months away, so it’s time to get cracking! You have the choice: do you want to start 2017 tinged with a ‘sense of failure hangover’ from the last year, or do you want to start it flushed with success and excited about setting new goals?
The next 90 days is a powerful window of opportunity to discover your obsession for sales and transform your recruitment career.
Until next time,
Cheryl