How to avoid Sales Failure

David Letterman has his "Top Ten List." Stephen Covey has "Seven Habits" and John Maxwell has his "Twenty-One Laws." Here are my "Top Nine Principles for Success or Failure in Sales."
Sales Success Principles:
1. Ask for Help
Average producers are not good at asking for help. This may stem from lack of confidence in not wanting to be transparent about a weakness in their selling process. Lack of asking for help may also come from not being committed to doing what it takes to succeed. If you ask for advice, people expect you to execute on the advice. Top producers, on the other hand, are confident and have no problem admitting they are not perfect. They are also committed to do what it takes to become excellent in their profession. Top producers seek out advisors and mentors. I have also noticed they are the best students during a sales training course. They bring case studies for review or call for extra coaching. Top producers understand that no one gets great by themselves.
2. Sales Activity
When I first entered the sales training profession, I had a sales coach. The first question asked during our weekly coaching sessions was, "Tell me about your sales activity plan." At first, I found this question puzzling. I was in the sale guru business. Wasn't he supposed to ask me about my ability to find "pain" on a call or uncover corporate decision making process? This wise coach understood that the sales training business is no different than any other business. If my sales activity plan didn't lead me to prospects, it didn't matter how good my selling or training skills were....no one would ever know! Top revenue producers understand that a consistent sales activity plan is the key to finding new clients and driving revenue.
3. Eliminate Excuses
Poor producers spend most of their time discussing excuses that prevent them from making their sales goal; i.e. increased competition, problems with operations issues at the company, or the current market. Top producers invest most of their time discussing how to achieve results, how to beat increased competition, ways to improve/work around operations issues, and how to sell regardless of economic issues. Top producers live by the mantra, "We are judged only by results, not by excuses."
4. Lose Your Mediocre Friends
Remember your mom saying, "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you what you are like." (Okay, so maybe it was just my mother.) This quote is absolutely true in sales. Tell me who you "hang" with and I will tell you what you are like. Mediocre performers like to "hang" with other mediocre performers. The bar for success is low and membership criteria is easy....expect and accept less. The weekly agenda for meetings is always predictable and preset: Bring one new excuse for discussion.
5. Get Rid of Arrogance
A top producer that has achieved the "top of the hill" status can quickly move to the bottom of the hill because of arrogance. Arrogant individuals stop learning because, after all, they are the best in the business. What can they possibly learn after 20 years in the profession? The real issue is that young, hungry, competitors haven't caught the disease of arrogance. The competition continues to learn, change and grow. The result is a new king or queen of the hill looking down at a stunned, retired past king or queen.
6. Get Focused
A poor producer can work very hard. Lack of sales isn't from lack of effort; it's that the effort is focused on the wrong prospect, activity and partnerships. Top producers have clearly identified their ideal client and have built a strategy around meeting, influencing, and creating value for that specific client. They are very clear on who they will sell and what they will sell. Top producers walk away from prospects that don't fit their ideal profile; leaving them more time to walk towards best fit clients. They leave the price shopping prospects to their competitors who get to invest all their time in writing proposals that go nowhere.
7. Manage Your Time
Top producers are good at calendaring. They set aside very specific times each week for business development (prospecting calls, client retention calls, calls updating referral partners, etc.). Top producers have discipline and don't allow outside distractions to deter them from their most important appointment - the appointment with themselves and working their plan.
8. Invest in Yourself
Top producers don't wait for someone else to make them good (I.e. I will only attend a sales training course if the company is picking up the tab). I am reminded of a client, "Jill," who came to me seven years ago. She was an administrative assistant desiring to enter the sales profession. Her current employer would not offer her a sales position because they just didn't think an administrative assistant could sell. Jill believed she had the ability to be very good in sales and invested her own time and money in sales training. She eventually applied for a sales position at another firm and became the number one salesperson at the new firm. (By the way, Jill also practiced all of the success principles listed above.) Jill did not wait to get good based on someone else's beliefs or dollars.
9. Get Going
Are you getting ready to get ready? Listen up: Perfection is highly overrated. While you are waiting to get all the research done on a prospect, perfecting your technique, or redoing your PowerPoint one last time, the salesperson that is showing up is getting the deal. Strive for perfection, but don't wait on perfection

Sales Management Training

Sales Management training is not as common as it used to be, as more and more organizations think the sales management should already know it all. However, lack of training is the root to most companies' bottomline problems.Sales management training is just as important, if not more than, salespeople training.Top executive management are the leaders of the sales force and need to be constantly demonstrating the appropriate behaviours for their salespeople to follow. It is really a monkey see, monkey do situation.Are your sales leaders demonstrating appropriate behaviours?Do they have goals and a plan of action to accomplish those goals? Are they disciplined, motivated, energetic and enthusiastic. Are they the type of mentor that you would like to have? Are they going on prospecting calls with their sales executives, or even handling accounts on their own?Are they debriefing after a prospecting visit and providing feedback / coaching? Are they investing in their team or are they investing their time in moving upwards in the organization?Without proper training, sales management is not half as effective as they can be. However, like most training, for the training to be effective it also needs to be customized to organizational objectives, it needs and should be conducted on an ongoing basis with one on one coaching.Sales Management training should include following a sales results system, and demonstrating that system with their salespeople on an ongoing basis. For example, if sales executive management is always telling their salespeople what to do, who owns the idea and who is committed to making it happen? Also, what are the salesperson going to do with the customer - tell them as well?What if sales management training provided a system whereby sales reps would be engaged, come up with ideas, take ownership and make it happen. Then who is committed? Is that not the way you would want your salespeople to be with your prospects and customers - engaging and buying from you versus telling and selling where there is no ongoing relationship.Most organizations provide sales training, which is great, particularly if it is ongoing, but they forget salespeople management in the process. It will help management to hire top producers, and then allow them to motivate, mentor, coach, delegate, obtain ownership and commitment, build high performing teams, run effective meetings and provide for ongoing training, creating more winners.Sales management training is the foundation to ongoing sales results from selection, to coaching, training, rewarding and promoting. It is absolutely necessary

Finding sales jobs

Do you think you are a non stop vending machine that can’t stop selling no matter what? Do you feel as if you have been molded perfectly for sales? Well, then a sales job is the perfect thing for you.
‘Sales’ is one of the channels of business that will continue to exist as long as businesses do. It will never go extinct. It might just switch modes but the need for the salesman will always be constant.
For all those who wish to make a career in sales, it is crucial to have the right beginning. If you start off with the right company, it is half the battle won. But how do you find the right company?
Sales Jobs websites
The internet is the best place to begin hunting for the right sales jobs. The ever growing demand for sales jobs has led to a scenario where there is the need for job portals or websites that cater exclusively to sales.
These websites are different from normal job portals and have the best sales jobs listed in them. These websites have such an easy to use layout that even the most inexperienced web users can easily list their profiles and get contacted by thousands of potential employers.
Advantages:
Boost your resume and give it maximum exposure.
List your resume within minutes and be contacted by the cream of the corporate world.
Use the website services to garner your resume and improve its visibility.
Sit at home and list your resume. You no longer have to go hunting around for the best jobs. They come to you.
Most of these websites are free. Where else do you get services like these for free?