{"id":11925,"date":"2019-05-30T21:52:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T21:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandler.dsstaging2.com\/case-study\/four-lessons-for-new-sales-professionals\/"},"modified":"2023-07-16T14:58:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T14:58:09","slug":"four-lessons-for-new-sales-professionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/four-lessons-for-new-sales-professionals\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Lessons for New Sales Professionals"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

One of the most fun questions I like to ask salespeople is: \u201cHow did you find yourself in sales?\u201d\u00a0 The answer is always an interesting one because I never hear the same answer twice.\u00a0 What\u2019s the fastest way from point A to point B?\u00a0 A straight line, of course.\u00a0 But a straight line is not something that salespeople have the luxury of having in their careers. It\u2019s full of twists and turns, and highs and lows.\u00a0 We need to be able to roll with the punches and keep a strong positive mental attitude toward our roles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This is something that I learned quickly when entering the world of sales.\u00a0 Of course, I had plenty of people who told me \u201cLuke, you know it\u2019s going to be tough.\u201d Or \u201cYou\u2019ll get out of it what you put into it.\u201d And of course, I had heard it all before so it was sort of a shrug off the shoulder.\u00a0 But wow, did those things smack me in the face like a sack of bricks.\u00a0 Talk about super high highs and low lows, I remember in my first week going from making my first sale to having someone actually scream at me on the phone all within a couple hours of one another.\u00a0 That was a shock.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As salespeople we do not have the luxury of being surprised when something out of the ordinary happens, or being able to sit and work in the same office every day, make the same commute, and know exactly what we will be doing.\u00a0 We have to be on our toes, rolling with the punches because we know were going to get a lot of them thrown at us.\u00a0 As salespeople we need to be mentally tough enough to not let undesirable things affect us. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The second thing I learned is that you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know and there was a TON that I didn\u2019t know about sales.\u00a0 Like many other people, the only things I did know were the things that I was taught by my parents or the things I saw on TV.\u00a0 I associated salespeople with being deceitful, and pushy. However, since I didn\u2019t have previous experience, I wasn\u2019t technically doing anything wrong (or right for that matter).\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t formed any bad habits and I didn\u2019t know what were the right and wrong things to do and say.\u00a0 So, when I did start to go on sales calls and take on my own accounts, I was very cognizant of what I was saying and how I conducted myself because If it ended up being successful, I wanted to replicate that.\u00a0 In the beginning I was simply doing the things that my boss told me to do, I didn\u2019t know what other things I could be doing to produce new business because I had never been exposed to them before.\u00a0 So, solution to this problem: ASK.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t know something, ask.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t know why something is done the way it\u2019s done, ask.\u00a0 If you want to do something but don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the right or wrong thing to do, ask.\u00a0 Be vulnerable.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The third thing I learned was the importance of work ethic during work hours and non-work hours.\u00a0 If we think about any other profession in the world, there is always room to get better.\u00a0 The same goes for sales.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take football as an example.\u00a0 During the 2018-19 NFL season there were on average 70 plays a game.\u00a0 Now let\u2019s say that a player is either on offense or defense which means we know that one player has roughly 35 plays on average per game.\u00a0 Each play averaged about six seconds.\u00a0 Therefore, a single player has 3.5 minutes to make a difference in a game.\u00a0 Think about all of the hard work that goes into those 3.5 minutes per game: training camp, practice every day, late night film sessions, early morning workouts, etc. \u2013 all for 3.5 minutes.\u00a0 As a sales professional<\/a>, we should be putting in all of that same hard work so that when we get to our game time, which would be an opportunity in front of a prospect, we can perform to the best of our ability.\u00a0 This means that I\u2019d stand in the middle of my living room and record myself roleplaying different situations.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather make a mistake while practicing than in front of a prospect.\u00a0 In sales, our days are not 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM.\u00a0 If a prospect calls at 7:00 PM at night, we need to be ready for that phone call.\u00a0 I learned very quickly to put in as much \u201cpractice\u201d as a professional athlete would.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The last thing I learned was the power of discipline.\u00a0 Before sales I came from a job where I simply did what I was told.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t know what I was doing that day until my boss showed up in the office and told me.\u00a0 Now in a sales role, I was provided the freedom of creating my own schedule but still expected to hit my goals.\u00a0 It\u2019s like moving from high school to college.\u00a0 One moment you do what you\u2019re told and the next you have complete freedom.\u00a0 Discipline will free you, not hold you back.\u00a0 By this I mean that I never miss a meeting, an event, or a training.\u00a0 I am disciplined with my schedule to start at 8:00 AM every morning, to follow my sales process, make my calls, ask for referrals, etc.\u00a0 And by being disciplined enough to do these things it allows me to be successful.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry about the outcome of every opportunity, worry about following your behaviors which you know will get you to your goal.\u00a0 That was an eye opener.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Being new in sales is not easy, but that is no reason to scare anyone away.\u00a0 I have grown more in the past two years than the previous five due to being in a sales role.\u00a0 It allowed me to learn new things about myself and quite honestly, it\u2019s fun.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you but I\u2019d rather have a job where I can control my own destiny than a job where I am told what to do day in and day out.\u00a0 I control my success now.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Learn more about professional development and controlling your success, here!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most fun questions I like to ask salespeople is: \u201cHow did you find yourself in sales?\u201d\u00a0 The answer is always an interesting one because I never hear the same answer twice.\u00a0 What\u2019s the fastest way from point A to point B?\u00a0 A straight line, of course.\u00a0 But a straight line is not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":11926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1057,1154,1105],"class_list":["post-11925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-professional-development","tag-professional-growth","tag-sales-process"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFour Lessons for New Sales Professionals | Sandler Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the most fun questions I like to ask salespeople is: \u201cHow did you find yourself in sales?\u201d The answer is always an interesting one because I never hear the same answer twice. 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