By Lawrence Alter
Are you a technical professional who is
considering a career in sales? Are you wondering if your skills are
compatible and whether you are up to the challenge? How do you know
you're ready? Read on, this is what you need to know.
Most important, you must have a desire
to interact with others, enjoy being continually challenged, be
comfortable in handling objections, and understand that rejection
will be your constant companion. You will be interacting with people
at all levels, from the beer drinking crowd to those that drink
champagne.
If you are a shy person, you may find
it much more difficult to adapt your personality to the constant need
for prospecting, telephone contact, and interfacing with people you
have never met. For the introvert, a technical support
position may be much more desirable. However, if you enjoy
participating in or organizing peer group meetings, have been a
project manager, assisted the sales staff in technical sales
presentations, or been involved with either internal or external
customer support, it should be relatively easy to adapt those skills
to a sales career.
If you are determined and ready for the
challenge, the following tips can help you transition into sales.
Learn to be comfortable
interacting with others and try to develop a comfort level in
talking with people you have never met. Joining a few social groups
such as Toastmasters International that assist all types of
professionals in public/group speaking can help.
Consider taking a sales course at
a nearby college, entrepreneurial center, or chamber of commerce.
Develop a strong level of
self-confidence in your ability to speak effectively and sincerely
about your product or service. Believe that if you convince your
prospects to become your customers they will be better off because
of what you sold them.
Seek mentors who
have been successful in sales or sales management. Use them to
bounce ideas off of and share your enthusiasm for being in sales.
In the classic motivational and goal achievement book Think
and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill advocates the use of a
mastermind group. This type of mentoring and support group can be
wonderful in an advisory capacity. Think and Grow Rich is
one of the most successful motivational business books ever written.
Remember that everyone is a
salesperson to some extent and nothing happens in any company or
any relationship until something is sold. If you are married,
for example, you sold your wife or husband on marrying you.
Competent teachers are salespeople too. They're selling ideas and
concepts to motivate students.
Try to convince your boss (or a
senior sales manager in your company) that you can sell and motivate
others.
Ask your manager if you can assist
in a sales support role so you can observe how a sales
professional makes presentations and handles objections.
Learn to become a good listener if you are not already and remember that successful sales
professionals cannot sell anything if they don't listen and
understand the needs of their buyers.
Consider the possibility that you
may be more qualified than you realize. Technical managers, for
example, have sales skills because they are responsible for
motivating others, getting projects approved, and selling management
on larger budgets or additional tools.
Find out who your competitors are
and examine the merits and pitfalls of their products. You will be
selling against them.
Know your products and their
advantages over those of your competitors (i.e., price, ability to
ship, quality, or value-added concepts your company offers.
Learn how to use the sales
professional's most valuable tool- the telephone. Be
comfortable and confident in what you are saying. Don't be
disappointed by rejection. Have notes in front of you so you are
never thrown off track by unexpected questions- that way you can
always recover and return to your agenda. An excellent tool for
developing a sound sales presence is Phone Power: How to Get
Whatever You Want on the Telephone (sound ideas), by George R.
Walther.
Be prepared to handle rejection.
It may be hard to take in the beginning but once you gain
confidence, it ought to be a motivator.
Learn how to deal with objections
to setting appointments, objections to buying your products, and
finally how to ask for an order (close the sale.) If there are no
objections, there will be no sale. When prospects ask questions,
they are asking you to tell them why they should buy.
Always know that a sale is being
made. Either you sell your prospect on why they should buy and a
sale is made, or your prospect sells you on why they won't buy and
you lose the deal. Even a commitment for another meeting or
follow-up action is a sales commitment that can lead to the sale.
Author
Lawrence Alter is president of L.D.A. Enterprises, Ltd.; a
Minneapolis based outplacement and career management firm. He is a
recognized expert in career growth techniques and former columnist
for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Send ideas or questions via email
to: LDA@EmploymentClinic.com.
Website address: www.EmploymentClinic.
©Copyright 2007 Lawrence Alter. All rights reserved.
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