Sales Grit: How to Toughen Up and Sell More

You probably have heard lots sales advice over the years. Maybe you were told, “If you knock on enough doors, eventually someone will say yes.” That advice only works when you have the grit to keep knocking on doors and never give up.

What happens when you start to doubt yourself? That’s when you need sales grit. Sales grit can keep you selling and just might stop a downward slide.

Quickly Learn From Past Events

What if a sales call goes horribly wrong? When things go wrong, that’s usually when all you want to do is nothing. Your brain gets immobilized and thinking about what happened is the last thing you want to do.

Give yourself permission to take a break. Just limit your time for a break. You have to come back and figure out what you did wrong that either stopped you or prevented you from being successful.

Here’s what to do if you just can’t start the analysis. Ask yourself, when you are feeling the most pain, “Do I want to do this again?” I’ll bet for most people the answer is no. The realization that you don’t want to repeat the mistake is often enough to propel you forward.

Learning what went wrong is the first step to gaining sales grit. There is no way you can avoid repeating the disaster unless you learn the cause.

Get a Second Opinion

Who can you talk with to get another perspective? Think of the people you know who are good strategists or critical thinkers; it’s not necessary that the person you speak with is a sales professional.

You do need to speak with someone who is able to analyze a situation without being critical of you. The person should understand communication dynamics to determine what you did and how the prospect responded. These people are often excellent listeners.

Look around at the people you work with. Consider the people whom others turn to when they need to bounce off ideas.

What you want to avoid are people who are negative and only focus on the downside of situations. You need someone who will ask you questions that will diagnose the situation for you. You’re looking for possible answers, not criticism. Those answers will help develop your sales grit because you’ll have an idea of what to do next.

Vince Lombardi said, “It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.” That was great advice for football–and for sales.

The post Sales Grit: How to Toughen Up and Sell More appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post Sales Grit: How to Toughen Up and Sell More appeared first on AllBusiness.com.