How to Succeed in Sales (While Maintaining a Good Work-Life Balance)
As anyone who has worked in sales can attest to the fact that sales life is demanding. Sure, you can walk away with paychecks followed with multiple zeros, but at what cost? If you’re having difficulty creating a good work-life balance, you aren’t alone.
(BTW, have you tried investing in the right sales tools, like Spiro’s sales automation CRM, to help you work more efficiently and effectively, allowing you to maintain a happy work-life balance?)
You can still be successful in sales without abandoning all the other important aspects of your life. So sit back and learn how to succeed in sales without giving up your life.
Define Your Priorities
This is incredibly important, because it can mean the difference between missing your meeting and missing your child’s soccer game. You need to define priorities for your life outside of the sales office in the same way as you would prioritize customers. It’s also important to note that when you define your priorities outside of work, you should see how they fit with your sales goals.
Do your priorities mean that you can only work with clients until three o’clock so that you make it home in time to sit down to a family dinner? Maybe they mean that you won’t travel as often, or that you’ll need to figure out how to conduct more sales remotely. Whatever your priorities are, make sure they mesh together to avoid tension and create the right work-life balance.
Schedule Properly
If you really want to impress your customers, never keep them waiting. Time is the most precious commodity, and customers don’t like to have theirs wasted.
You’ll want to have a really great sales assistant, or better yet, an AI-powered automated sales CRM. This is crucial not only for your customer meetings, but also to your personal life. If you want a harmonious work-life balance, you will need to practice your scheduling until you are a guru.
Take Control
In a way, a salesperson is in control over their own time. This can be advantageous in settings where the customer is not dictating the meeting terms because you can schedule to meet with clients at your convenience. (You may even be able to fudge over certain times you may want to keep open in your schedule.)
Sometimes, the ball will be in the customer’s court and you can’t get a response or they are waffling on when they can meet. Remember, your time is precious, too. Don’t let anyone waste it. You can take the sales initiative, grab those reins, and… mush! Go out there and get them. Spend this time with those customers when you’ve scheduled (or popped in) so you’re free to enjoy your off-time later.
Ask Questions
“The more you know, the more you understand.” This old adage is in full-play when it comes to sales because if you want to make it in sales and still have some semblance of life outside of that, you need to be closing deals quickly. Your customers have questions because they want to understand how you can help them. It moves the proverbial train along, and the more questions there are, the more information is yielded.
The same goes for you as a salesperson. How can you expect to effectively close deals if you don’t know what their needs are? You can’t help anyone if you don’t know what they need. Save yourself time that could be better spent in your non-sales life by asking questions to help your customers in a more timely manner.
Learn To Deal With Rejection
You have to have thick skin to make it in sales. After countless hang-ups, curses, and other negative responses from prospects or customers, you learn how to get over the fear of rejection. While a thick skin comes with experience, you can start developing that armor by not taking the rejection personally. Remember, it’s just business.
As defeating as it may be to get turned down time and time again, with every rejection comes a new layer of armor that will begin to better protect you from yourself. You’ll experience a few victories as well, which can help boost your sales self-esteem. If you’re confident and persistent, you can’t fail.
Be Passionate
Before you put your mark on a sale, there is only a need and a solution. This is where the salesperson gets to be creative by way of presenting the solution to prospects/customers. You are unique. You have different ideas and ways to convey these ideas to others. This way you will close deals more easily, and be able to maintain the work-life balance of your dreams.
When you’re presenting your pitch, be passionate about it. Oftentimes, this passion can be infectious, and can lead to a sale right then and there. You must be resourceful throughout the sales process, as some customers will throw you for a loop. You have to stay on your toes. Not every sale is created equal, but if you create a sale that is worthy of their attention, you’ll have it.
Work Independently
Sales managers swoon over salespeople that take pride in working independently, because it takes a lot of weight off their shoulders. Independent salespeople have no problem taking full responsibility for their sales success. While they remain coachable, these salespeople typically have their accounts on lock-down.
If you’re more independent with your sales, you’ll want to take your sales manager’s advice when they offer it, and always be open to try new approaches, even if you’re a seasoned pro. Working independently also means being fully responsible for your actions. Accountability goes a long way with customers, and they want to know that you won’t shirk away from responsibility if that happens.
