8 Tips to Avoid Sales Slumps
Sales slumps are the bane of a salesperson’s existence. But how can you avoid sales slumps? With these 8 tips, we attempt to answer that question.
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In This Article:
- Make Sure It’s a Slump
- Stay Up-to-Date
- Revisit Positive Reviews
- Listen to Motivational Podcasts
- Micromanage Your Process
- Be a Helper, Not a Closer
- Teach Less Experienced Salespeople
- Open Up to Your Peers
Make Sure It’s a Slump
Before you try addressing a slump, make sure it’s actually a slump and not just a decrease in performance due to a totally different reason!
Keep in mind, for example, that adjustments require you to go through a brief period of decreased performance. Are you trying a new sales technique that you think will improve your performance in the long run? Then it will probably cause a lull that you might mistake for a slump in the short term.
There is a myriad of reasons for performance dip that might look like slumps but are actually not. Before you can start working on a cure for bad performance, you need to determine the cause.
Stay Up-to-Dateavoid sales slumps
Being out of touch with current trends is not a good position for a salesperson. If a salesperson loses touch with what their customers want at the moment, they may find they are suddenly unable to sell as efficiently.
To avoid sales slumps, be sure to stay up-to-date on what’s going on in pop culture and the wider world around it, especially if there are changes directly related to your target market.
Revisit Positive Reviews
To be the best salesperson you can be, you need to remain passionate about the product. Perhaps the best way to do that is by revisiting positive testimonials from your satisfied customers.
The other benefit of this practice is that you learn exactly what customers love about your product. That knowledge will improve your sales pitches since you will have a better feel for what consumers want.
Listen to Motivational Podcasts
It’s not easy to stay motivated in a profession where the vast majority of prospects give you a hard “no.” But salespeople need to find ways to keep motivated anyway because losing motivation will result in decreased job performance.
To avoid sales slumps, you need to surround yourself with encouragement. One of the best ways to do that is by listening to motivational podcasts. You can consume them while commuting, doing chores, walking the dog, or cooking, and audio is a fantastic medium to lift spirits if the host knows how to be inspirational.
There are lots of great motivational podcasts specifically about sales.
Micromanage Your Process
Sales is a very temperamental business. It’s very easy to throw off your sales rhythm with even a small change in your routine. Sometimes, the change can be so small that you don’t even know you made it unless you take some time to think about it!
To avoid sales slumps, try to maintain your work-related schedule as militantly as possible. If you do find yourself in a slump, systematically pick apart your plan to see what you are doing differently.
Be a Helper, Not a Closer
Sales slumps are usually preceded by periods of sales fatigue. If you deal with the fatigue correctly, you can often avert the slump from happening at all!
Possibly the best way to deal with sales fatigue is by focusing on helping your customers rather than closing. Give it a try: during your next few sales pitches, focus on helping the prospect understand your product and your market better. Don’t even mention the sale. If you take away the possibility of closing, you’ll be able to de-stress and focus on the other parts of your sales pitch. It’s a valuable exercise for every sales rep to go through every now and then in order to avoid sales slumps.
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Teach Less Experienced Salespeople
Teaching is actually an extremely effective method of learning; imparting some of the things you’ve learned about sales to less experienced salespeople is an effective way to cement them in your mind. It’s also a nice ego boost because it reminds you that you actually know a lot about your industry.
Remembering that you know a lot about sales is a self-fulfilling prophecy; the added confidence will help you perform better and avoid sales slumps.
Open Up to Your Peers
Salespeople are generally a pretty proud bunch, and they are hesitant to ask anyone — especially each other — for feedback on their technique. If you want to avoid sales slumps, you need to overcome that hesitancy.
Although sales can feel like a very competitive world, the truth is that it’s also a kind of family and people in it want to help each other out.
Avoiding sales slumps is an essential skill for sales professionals, right up there with knowing how to close. Everyone is different and is bound to have their own “treatments” to help them avoid sales slumps, but these nine tips should get you started.
TRY AS YOU MAY TO AVOID SALES SLUMPS, YOU WILL PROBABLY FALL INTO THEM FROM TIME TO TIME. CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO FOR HOW TO GET OUT OF A SLUMP IF THAT’S WHERE YOU FIND YOURSELF.
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