You don't suck at sales; you're just six things!

In this episode of the Next Level Selling Podcast, host Michael Paul discusses six things that salespeople often forget to do. The first is to listen actively to prospects and understand their needs. Second, it is important to consistently build and maintain a pipeline of potential clients. Third, asking open-ended questions and letting prospects speak is crucial for a successful conversation. Fourth, knowing when to walk away from a deal is essential to avoid burnout. Fifth, continuous learning and application of new skills is important for growth. Lastly, selling a product or service that one truly believes in can make a significant difference in sales success. Overall, salespeople should focus on these six key areas to improve their performance. Welcome to the Next Level Selling Podcast, where your host, Michael Paul, teaches you the concepts of high-performance selling and going from good to great in your sales game. Whether you're just getting started or have been pursuing sales greatness for years, this podcast will help you maximize your income while having fun along the way. Are you ready to take this thing to the top? Let's go. Now, here's your host of the Next Level Selling Podcast, Michael Paul. Hey, what's up, everybody? It's Michael here with your Next Level Selling Podcast. Hope you're having a great day no matter where you are. So listen to me. You don't suck at sales. You're just forgetting to do a few things. Actually, you're forgetting to do about six things. So let me talk about those six different things with you now. Look, selling, I always say, I've always said, if you ever listen to one of my podcasts, I always talk about how selling is a skill. Can anybody do it? I don't know. There's a lot of arguments on both sides of the fence. I personally think anybody can sell because, quite frankly, everybody sells. You may disagree with that, but I don't know. You may sit at a desk. You don't talk to anybody all day, but yet you go see a movie. You love the movie. And the next day you tell 15 people about the movie. I mean, like, you're so excited. You're telling everybody about this movie. So what do they do? They run out and see the movie. The only problem is, is you didn't get paid. You did not get a commission. But the bottom line is you still sold that movie. You sold it. People went to see it. And in the world of sales, you actually get paid to do that. So that's why I love it so much. So remember, you know, everybody, you know, we like we get so tied up in what we're doing and success, you know, when it comes to you and you start feeling it and you start earning the income and life is going the way you want it to, then we a lot of times self-sabotage ourselves. We literally stop doing the things that made us successful in the first place. So, you know, that's really this podcast is more or less just, you know, kind of a reminder of some of the things that you're forgetting to do. And I'm just going to talk about six of them. I'll probably talk about more as I digress and go off the rails here. But you're basically forgetting to do about six different things in one of them. And I know this is going to sound you're going to be like, really, Mike, really number one is listen. Yes, listen. So many times we get into the conversation with the prospect. We're so energized. We're excited. We want to share our knowledge. So you just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, forgetting about conveying what you need to to the customer, which is you care about their concerns. You care about their needs. The bottom line is, if you don't figure out where it hurts, the good old doctor analogy, if you don't figure out where it hurts, you can't solve the prospect's problem. So make sure you're listening. Learn to stay quiet long enough for the prospect to tell you everything you need to know. And you'll see your close rate go up. I guarantee that. I guarantee that number one is listen. Number two, build your pipeline at all times. Now, again, you may be thinking, Mike, but I do this, but a lot of people don't see if you do this and you're successful and you're making a great living and the money's coming into the bank account, then you're probably building a pipeline. You're probably following up. You're probably doing the things you're supposed to do as a salesperson. But I can't tell you how many times I've dealt with salespeople, worked with salespeople that they don't build their pipeline. They don't use their CRM effectively. They don't use it effectively. They don't follow up. So one of the hardest things in sales is to keep your foot on the gas, even after you've closed that sale. So once you close your sale, that was your best prospect. Your best prospect now becomes a sale. They're no longer a prospect. Now they become a client depending on what you're selling. So now one of the hardest things to do is keep your foot on the gas. Oh, you want to sit back, have a little siesta. Maybe it's taco time. Let's go grab a modelo, whatever the deal is, but it is not time to let up off the gas. Be building your pipeline at all times. The best sales reps keep their foot on the gas no matter what. Prospecting immediately after closing a deal. Prospecting every single day. There's simply no way, no way to become a top performer without a pipeline that's constantly full. There's no way to keep a pipeline constantly full unless you prioritize it every single day. Number three, ask questions. Ask questions. I'm not talking interrogation style. Don't sit your prospect down in a chair. Don't put a big old bright sun lamp in their face. You know, it's not about, you know, going through an interrogation, but you want to be asking questions. You know, I always say the one that asks the most questions typically wins, but that's not really true because you ever had those prospects that, you know, some of the questions they ask and you're thinking to yourself, where in the hell did that come from? But the bottom line is, is you want to ask questions. A conversation with a prospect is unlikely to get closed if you don't ask questions. And I mean, lots of them. You want to learn about your prospect. Make sure you know that you're doing this. And the best way to do this is by asking, of course, open ended questions, not ones that just require a yes or no open ended questions, and then taking a step back and listening to their answers without interrupting them. It just amazes me how I'm listening to a salesperson talk to a prospect and I'm thinking, wow, the salesperson is doing a great job. They're asking, they're asking, that's like maybe from the Matrix, the awakening, the asking. Okay, I made that up. Maybe that'll end up in Webster someday. All right. So I listened to a salesperson. They're asking their prospect some great questions. The prospect is answering those questions, you know, and they're open ended and they're interrupting the prospect. So the prospect starts to answer a question of yours and what do you do? You interrupt them. Well, let me tell you about that. No, no, no, no, no. Either one, take notes or two, make sure you remember what it is that they're answering. So when it comes time to cover this in your presentation, you have the information. If you ask the right questions and you pay close attention, the prospect will tell you everything you need to know to close the deal. Number four, learn how to walk away. Learn how to walk away. And you're thinking, wait a second, Mike, what are you talking about? Walk away. I'm here to close the deal. I'm going after it. I'm going for broke. I'm going to go all in. I'm going to do what I got to do. And that's great. And that is the right attitude. That's what you're supposed to do. You are supposed to be all in. You're supposed to be, you know, showtime is what I always tell myself. People, the second you get in front of a prospect, whether it's on the phone or you're in front of them, like if you can't tell, if you can't hear my voice right now, you don't hear my excitement. This is genuine. I ain't making this crap up. It's in my soul. I'm on fire and I'm on fire when I'm in front of my prospect and when I'm talking to them. But guess what? Lots of reps hold on to every deal for dear life, thinking that if they let the prospect go, they'll never find another deal ever again. You know, I don't really know how to explain this one very well, except for me personally, it just kind of comes naturally. I'm not talking about just picking the person when you don't think they're a buyer or you get discouraged or you think, well, I'm really tired. I don't want to work on this anymore. That's not how it works. But you have to just kind of know when it's time to let them go. I've been rhyming on that one. Pretty classy. You've got to know when to let them go. And you know, a lot of you out there know that, you know, letting people go is a closing technique in itself. So many, many times I very politely, very professionally tell the customer, well, maybe this is probably not a good fit. And I let them go. And what happens all of a sudden they start saying, what do you mean it's not a good fit? I can do this. I can afford this. I can buy this. So you'll be surprised. It's the takeaway close. So just make sure you know when to walk away. Otherwise you'll burn yourself out. What is it? Jim Rohn said, you know, I'll make them successful if it kills me. I almost died. Now, granted, that's talking about mentoring and training and coaching people, but it's the same concept when it comes to selling. I'm going to close all these deals if it kills me. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you, you're not going to close every deal. If you do, well, you're a billionaire. But for the rest of us out there, you're not going to close every deal. Know when to walk away. Number five, learn and apply. Another common mistake that salespeople make is assuming that they know everything. You know everything, you don't need training anymore. You don't need to do anything. Let me tell you something. I get so irritated. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. The basics, you know, in the military, why do they call it basic training? Anyone ever been in the military? No one has served in the military. No, anybody that left for the military, army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, I don't care what it is. Do you know of anybody? And where did they say they were going? I'm going to basic training or boot camp, but it's basic training. And why do they call it basic training? Because it's where you learn the basics. And I've told this story before. And if you've never heard me before, I spent 15 years in the United States Army. I'm not going to go through my whole resume what I did. But the bottom line is this. After I went through basic training, do you know every single year for those next 15 years, I was tested every single year on the basics, learning how to put a protective mask on. It takes about, well, it's so funny. I can't remember. I think nine seconds, but nine seconds to put on a protective mask that you're tested on. And you have to do this every single year. You always have to do the basics because, again, as I said in the very beginning of this podcast, many times we forget what makes us successful. We stop doing them. You forget to put on your protective mask. You could die in battle. So you want to make sure that you're always covering the basics. You're always learning. You're always applying what you learn. You're not smarter than your company's training. You're not smarter than anybody else out there. Well, you might be. But the point is, is that you've got to learn all the time. Take the mindset, no matter how, look, I'm 59 years old now. I just turned 59. So I'm still learning. I still research. I still listen to self-development. I still take time to figure out what I don't know. There's a lot to know out there. Is selling, selling, and a lot of it is the same. I mean, we always say in this industry that, you know, selling is selling. It doesn't matter what product you're selling. That's true. That's true. But you got to learn the lingo of whatever industry you're in. You got to learn the basics, whatever industry you're in. There's always a little bit, you know, different types of things that we have to maybe the product you're learning is, of course, going to be different. But at the end of the day, selling is selling. But don't take the mindset that you know it all. You don't know it all. Number six, sell a product you believe in. Now, this can be a little dangerous for me to say this because you might be listening to this podcast going, yeah, Mike, you know, I'm not really crazy about what I'm selling. I'm making a decent living. And then you jump up and you move somewhere else to do something you do believe in and you have a drop in income and it's not what you want. So be mindful of that. But at the end of the day, if you're not happy, chances are you're not doing that good. You might be getting by. You might be making a paycheck, but you don't go to work happy every day. You don't get on the phone happy. Prospects can tell you're not happy, you know, but it's one of the best things, in my opinion, that a salesperson can do for your career. And that is making sure you're selling something you believe in. Look, sales is difficult. It becomes much easier when you have natural passion for what you're selling and what you truly believe in. And when you believe in something, it comes through in your voice. It comes through in your dedication. It comes through because you're going to really talk about your product and you're going to add the value that is supposed to be there. It changes your prospect's life. Your prospect believes it because you are passionate. You believe in it. Do your best no matter where you're at in life right now, no matter what you're selling or if you're getting into the world of sales and you're considering it as a career. I highly recommend it. I highly recommend selling for a career. It's a great career. It'll change your life. And all you got to be is a people person. But just make sure that you do your best to sell a product that you believe in. I firmly believe this. So keep these kind of six things at your heart. And it's just so important to stick with the basics. You don't suck at sales. You don't suck at it. You're just forgetting to do six basic things. And again, that's listening, building your pipeline at all times, always ask questions, make sure you walk away when the time is right. Learn always and apply what you've learned. You don't know it all. And number six, do your best to be in an industry and sell a product that you absolutely believe in. Because if you do this, I will see you guys, every last one of you at the top go out and let's make it a great day. Thanks for listening to the next level selling podcast. Please be sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcast and check us out online at facebook.com next level selling podcast. Are you ready to go to the next level? Michael is currently accepting applications for one on one clients looking to earn a lucrative and predictable income in their sales career through his proprietary mindset methods. Book your one on one power call today. Go to my next level call.com choose a time that works for you and book your time with Michael. And remember, we'll see you at the top.