[Lessons Learnt] Sales and Networking

Here’s part 2 of the Lessons Learnt series we kicked off recently. In this video are my 3 tips on Sales and Networking, which I’ve learned over 37 years in the industry.

First one is that “Everybody needs to work on their Sales Skills.” The vast majority of business owners and salespeople have lousy sales skills. They assume they’re good at sales but often have little or no sales training, or they actually don’t apply the sales training they have had, or they have poor sales processes, and as a result get poor results.

We assume we’re good but we never measure and focus on improvement, and as a result, we accept mediocrity.

In my business, over the last 30 odd years, I’ve been able to lift my closing rate from 20% to 90% of qualified leads by doing some training, putting a good sales process in place and having a good conversation with people and understanding their needs. So what’s the impact on your business if you can do that same thing?

The second sales tip is “Don’t write proposals.” Have the conversation, ask for the business, talk about the money so that you actually get the chance to overcome people’s objections.

And the last point is to “Pick a networking group and infiltrate it.” I think people make a lot of mistakes of going to lots of different networking groups. My advice is, pick a group that fits with you and your business. You’re going to have to kiss a few frogs to find a group that you get a good fit with and that you feel comfortable in, and that has a good collection of target market clients for you.

Once you get a group that you like and you fit well in then my advice is inflitrate it. Ask to take on a position on a working committee. A couple of groups I’ve joined simply because I asked if they need any help and they said, “we’d love to have someone on the board, would you like to join us?” What it makes you then is part of the inner circle. It also helps you have deeper relationships with people that can help you grow your business.

So in summary, my top 3 sales and networking tips are to improve your sales skills, don’t write proposals but instead think about how you can have smart discussions around the business and money, and then pick a networking group and infiltrate.

For a range of free resources to help you grow your business, visit https://www.shifft.com.au/.