How To Be Successful In Tech Sales
Whether you’re just starting your career into sales or a seasoned pro, there’s always room to improve and become the top contender in the office. But this can never be achieved without understanding your skills, understanding your target market, and breaking out of your comfort zone.
On our Changing the Perception of Sales Podcast Series, we asked every successful salesperson who joined us, “What makes a successful salesperson within Tech?”
Here’s what they said.
Connect with others in your position.
LinkedIn is your best friend. Not only to prospect to the clients you should be working with, but fellow salespeople eager to give their tips and tricks that have made them successful. This includes what email subject lines get your prospect intrigued, cold calling tricks that enable you to close and creative content ideas you can use on your LinkedIn profile to build your personal brand.
Express you can listen and communicate effectively.
When it comes to a cold or discovery call, the only way to successfully continue the relationship with the prospect is through listening and effective communication. Using open questions to get the prospect talking about their problems and what they need is so important. Without it, all you would get is yes, and no answers and no one wants that! Once you’ve collected everything you needed to know, repeating what they’ve said is crucial because it allows them to be reassured that you’ve listened, engaged and understood the specific problems they are facing.
Get Creative.
Every guest who joined us on the podcast talked about the power of creativity. That includes creating engaging posts or videos for LinkedIn, prospecting techniques or cold call styles. Having creativity within your role not only helps you find what works the best, but it makes it enjoyable because you’re having fun and thinking outside the box!
Be Analytical.
It’s never a bad thing to get things wrong. You’ll most likely complete hundreds of emails, calls, and texts throughout your week. So why wouldn’t you look back and find out how you can make them better? Take 30 minutes every week, listen back to your calls, work out what was engaging for the prospect and what made them switch off, play about your email subject lines, and work out what increases your open rate. Then, put all of them together and look at your conversion rate; we guarantee you’ll start to see a change. We recommend including your line manager whenever you’re going through your analytics which will show your dedication to refining your skills but also allowing them to give their feedback enabling you to become a better salesperson.
Understand yours and the prospect’s personality.
Having a sales personality type is great, but it is crucial to understand your prospect’s personality type and adapt your selling methods. Assertive, Amiable, Expressive, and Analytical personality types all have very different selling methods and will all react differently to your pitching styles. Utilising different techniques and approaches to each type is key to your success.
The more rejection you receive, the more success you’ll achieve.
You’re never to going close every deal; that’s part of sales. The word “no”, “not interested”, or “maybe another time” will be a common occurrence within sales, but it’s how you roll with the punches and keep on pushing. While it’s important to be thoughtful about how you can improve, it’s crucial to move on quickly and not sit in the past rejections.