Now that you’ve decided sales is where you want to be!
After reading my series on professionalism, I hope you agree that success in sales takes drive, perseverance, integrity, curiosity (combined with a willingness to learn and grow), communication skills, trust building, and persuasion.
In addition, being a professional – whether in sales or in any aspect of your career – means:
- Committing to be the BEST at something you can be.
- Actively working at being great at what you do – every day you’re working.
- Being valuable enough to others that they pay you for that something.
Here are some resources to hone your professionalism:
DRIVE
Motivation: The Scientific Guide on How to Get and Stay Motivated by James Clear. This is REALLY long. I personally had to break it into sections, which is okay, because he does that for you (and it even has sub-sections)!
- What it is and how it works
- How to get motivated and take action
- How to stay motivated for the long run
PERSERVERANCE
Dan Waldschmidt, to me, is the personification of perseverance. Start by checking out two of his posts:
- “If you can tough it out, you will figure it out”
- “1 Lie. 2 Secret Skills. And the path to getting everything you want from life”
INTEGRITY
It seems like every time I turn around, accountability and integrity are linked. The accountability is different than that which we typically think of in sales, because it is being accountable to another person versus yourself. That other person is your prospect or customer.
- Beyond influence – Creating Accountability, Integrity, and Teamwork (from 2011)
- Importance of Accountability & Integrity in Workplace by Flora Richards-Gustafson
CURIOSITY / LEARNING / GROWTH
- The Business Case for Curiosity by Francesca Gino in Harvard Business Review
- Schedule 59 minutes to listen to Austin Kleon talk about how “Creative is NOT a Noun”
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
For me, communication begins with listening… and then asking questions to give yourself the opportunity to listen again!
- Communication, It’s Your Responsibility – video of me talking about this
- If you’d like the Communication Trilogy that I mention – drop me a note with how you’ll use it, and I’ll send it along.
TRUST BUILDING
I mentioned Psychology Today and Positive Psychology Program when talking about trust, and here are two specific articles to check out:
- 5 Ways to Build Trust and Honesty in Your Relationship
- 10 Ways To Build Trust in a Relationship (+12 General Tips)
PERSUASION
As we get to the piece that an outsider might think is the ONLY thing relevant to selling, as sales insiders we know it is only one piece of the puzzle.
- Nancy Bleeke of SalesPro Insider comes up with a reading list every year… and here is a list of her lists.
- Herding Cats & Selling by Anne Miller
Professionally yours,
Lynn
ps. Looking for a program to put your team through to create a more professional sales reputation with your prospects and customers? Click reply and we will begin evaluating where you are, identifying where you want to be, and creating steps to get there.
Comments (0)