Great habits for sales people

The habits you see now will only become more ingrained over time

What a beautiful garden.

We recently moved into a new street.

I noticed that there is a house at the end of the street that has the most immaculate front garden.

Beautiful hedges, greenest of grass and never a stray leaf. Almost every time I walk past this house the owner is in his garden.

He is beavering away. Trimming, pruning, nipping, cutting.

It might be his hobby, a form of therapy, who knows? I would say that it has become a daily habit for him.

Are you still hosing your driveway?

I also noticed yesterday that not only was he watering his plants, but he was also giving his concrete driveway a well-deserved drink. Seems a bit strange - Not only is it illegal in Sydney, but it is also a complete waste of our drinking water.

Then I thought, well, he has probably always done it, so the chances of him stopping doing it in the future are very unlikely.

The older people become the more ingrained their habits will become.

So as a sales manager how does that help me?

Get them started with great habits from day 1. Recruit wisely and develop your people. Ensure you are clear on the behaviours you are consistently seeking.

10 habits I see in great sales people

1. They make telephone calls every day to potential and existing customers. (How about 10 by 10? 10 calls by 10am)
2. Always asking their satisfied customers for referrals
3. Working on getting better at using their technology - sat navs / blue tooth / blackberries / Iphones / CRMs etc
4. Get a commitment in their diary from their customers at the end of each sales call about the next steps
5. Constantly tracking their sales data, monitoring their funnel, filling up their pipeline
6. Updating their customers data after each sales call
7. Having a personal health and fitness regime
8. Always trying to get better at listening to sales CDs, reading widely, associating with the right people, etc
9. Have a system for generating new leads
10. Their sales calls follow a proven process and they are always looking to refine this

They should not be overly reliant on you to drive their results.

The longer I have been in selling, which is now about 32 years, the more I realise the best performers have created great repeatable habits for themselves.

They don't need to rely on you because the habits they have created drive their results.

Lazy sales people will go to the path of least resistance.

Please don't let them get good at being bad

If their habits are bad, they are just getting better at getting worse, each day! Imagine doing the same thing badly every day for twenty years?

Inspire your reps to create great repeatable habits.

Have you ever tried breaking a few of your own bad habits? It is not easy. How would you do it? Can you replace an existing bad habit with a new better one?

My new neighbour has some great habits, and a beautiful garden to show for it. He also has a terrible habit of hosing his driveway. If only he could replace his driveway hosing habit with something more beneficial.

Next time you're out with your reps ask them if there is one or two of their habits they think might be worth replacing.

You might also ask them if they have some feedback for you on a couple of habits you could replace

Posted in Sales; Tagged Sales, Sales Management; Posted 30 March 2010 by Steve Herzberg