Your Greatest Sales Tool (It’s Not What You Think…)

What do you need to accomplish in your sales efforts? What about in your home? Office? Whatever you want to “get done” will be easier if you have the right tools.

From closing a sale, creating a lead gen campaign, sending a proposal…or even painting a room,; anything you need to get done is easier when you have the right tools…and use them correctly.

For example, I recently took a shortcut while painting my daughter’s room. She already had a brush and edger in her room and wanted help. I didn’t want to tackle two flights of stairs at 10 p.m. and thought “I’ll just use what’s here.” Not my best decision…

The morning sunlight showed how bad of a decision that was. The brush strokes didn’t fully cover and the two walls needed another coat. If only I would have put in the 5 minutes of effort to get the right tool, I’d have completed the job faster and better the first time.

I know this isn’t a home improvement blog, but this is also true in sales. The right tools make selling easier and more efficient. But which tool is the right tool? There are sales tools to help us through the entire process–from lead generation, to conversion, and to closed business. There are tools to make the right connections, focus on the best opportunities, track all the information to help us sell effectively make us more efficient, and for goodness sake, track our expenses.

In fact there are so many sales tools available it can become paralyzing. So, which is THE one tool you must have? The right tools for you will depend on your budget, tech ability, type of sale, and so much more!

Your Greatest Sales Tool Is…

A tool you already have at your disposal…YOU! Your abilities, experiences, habits, and belief in what you are selling are your personal tools. They don’t cost anything and you don’t have to wait for a new budget meeting or company investment to get your hands on this tool.

Ho hum, you might be thinking…this is not a big revelation.

Or is it? From our experience in working with many thousands of salespeople, there is more discussion about what they can’t do because they don’t have the right _________. (Fill in the blank with materials, support, CRM, organizer, car, headset, and a myriad of other “things.”)

Yet in those same environments some reps far outsell the rest. They have the same tools at their disposal, yet they find a way to close deals.

Thinking of your skills and actions as your key tool to sales success may not be sexy or techy enough, and that’s a shame. Because so many people aren’t thinking or this tool well…and that means HUGE sales opportunity for you.

When you focus on your skills, the actions you take, and the care you put into your sales efforts, buyers will see you as different. They’ll see the value in what YOU bring if they decide to purchase your solution. There’s a LOT of bad salespeople out there. Don’t be one of them.

Your Personal Toolkit

What are the tools in your toolkit that matter? What are the factors that lead you to higher sales, stronger confidence, and fatter paychecks?

According to the Objective Management Group, there are 21 core competencies necessary for selling today.

That’s a lot of competencies necessary for sales success. And while all these competencies are under your control, we’ll focus on two comprehensive factors: your Skill and Will.

Skill: The actions and behaviors that can be learned, evaluated, and measured. These are specific competencies important to getting the job done well.

Your personal skills for sales success:

• Productive conversations. From the start to the finish…being skillful in each part of the conversation makes it a very effective tool.
• Effective follow-up. Do you do what you say you will for follow-up? Persistence matters.
• Working through objections. Your skill in keeping your ego and assumptions out of the process helps to collaborate through these obstacles.
• Selling value. Connecting the dots for the buyer by sharing what you offer and tying it back directly to their problem, opportunity, want, need, motivator, or priority.
• Connecting with the people you sell with. No one sells to “companies” it’s the people in those companies that make the decisions.
• Using the other “tools” at your disposal. The tools are only as effective as the skill and habit you put into using them. Social selling is a good example, you can waste a lot of time or use it productively to get in front of more prospects, research opportunities and people to have a better conversation and compelling reason for them to talk with you, and to make yourself more efficient.

Will: The competencies and beliefs related to internal attitude and desire. It is the attitude for initiating the right activities, believing in themselves and what they are doing, clarity on their goals, and their desire to work through the emotional ups and downs. Some call this motivation. I call it the Success Drivers.

Personal tools, an asset you own and can leverage whenever you want.

I leave you with this parting thought about tools…

A tool is an “aid” in getting something done.  

Not a new something to be done.

So go ahead and use the tools such as your apps, tablets, smartphone, and software (or a good paint roller) to gain efficiency. But give as much time and attention to the greatest tool you own…all YOU need to do is dig it out and use it in the right way.