Higher earnings aren't the only reason for seeking out effective sales development techniques.
Sales development depends on changing deep-seated behaviours. Effective sales development techniques are those that cause rapid behavioural change.
In Groundhog Day Bill Murray keeps playing out the same situation, over and over, never finding a way to make the outcome different.
Do you ever keep making the same mistake?
I sometimes have to make a mistake many times before I begin to change my behaviour and react differently.
Traumatic events can have a galvanising effect on how we behave. Driving mistakes that nearly result in an expensive bill or a trip to hospital, tend to instantly change how I drive, for a few months at least.
Why does the immediate threat of personal injury or wallet surgery affect how we respond to our environment when any amount of self-admonishment has no effect or even the opposite of the intended effect?
In sales development, small changes can pay big dividends.
People can change. Almost everyone I ask agrees. It's just a matter of a little willpower and remembering to apply the desired change!
Take the pain. Alternatively, try an almost painless method that works like magic.
The only painful part is in facing up to your real behaviours - the small foibles, habitual phrases and spontaneous reactions that sometimes spoil otherwise excellent meetings.
For example, when you interrupt a customer while they are talking to you. If you truly never do this congratulate yourself. You are amongst a select few. When engaged in conversation about anything I have strong opinions on, I find it very challenging to curtail my desire to speak. Now that I listen to other salespeople in a professional capacity, It seems many others have difficulty with this.
Another common negative is failing to listen. It's true that some individuals seem to deliberately use thirty-five-word sentences when four would have been enough. Others speak in a monotone perfectly pitched to induce sleep. Which party in the exchange should make the effort to bridge communication difficulties, the customer or the salesperson?
Effective Sales Development Techniques
If you want to change behaviours all you have to do is pay attention. Once you focus on a thing that you are unhappy with and deliberately notice every occurrence of it (without self-administration) you will begin to change. It happens unconsciously without the need for reminders.
Here is a simple method for focussing attention on particular behaviours. Create a chart with a column on the left for headings and a further thirty to represent the next thirty days. Include weekends. Use a sheet of graph paper or make a spreadsheet. Divide the rows into two subsections headed 'Do more of' and 'Do less of'. Now write in the things that you intend to do less of and the things you need to do more of. You can express them in a positive or negative context. Try writing them from both perspectives.
Write a few headings rather than many. You will have more success with fewer things to concentrate on. Now simply make an appointment with yourself, in your diary, for five to ten minutes, on every one of the thirty days. If you skip this step, you will need to find some other way to remind yourself to review each day.
As you think about the day’s events, place a tick in the corresponding box, for each occurrence of each behaviour, both good and bad. Providing you are diligent and complete the review every day, by the end of the month you will observe a significant shift, away from the things you want to eradicate and towards the sales behaviours you have decided to cultivate.
Article by Clive Miller
If you are looking for sales development techniques or ways to change sales behaviours, we can help. Telephone +44 (0)1392 851500. We will be pleased to learn about your needs or talk through some options. Send an email to custserv@salessense.co.uk for a prompt reply or use the contact form here.
