Five Essential Selling Behaviors

There is a lot of sales education and enablement available to us, there is always more to learn to help us sell more, sell more effectively and to sell at scale. Here I am sharing some insights into selling behaviours that I have observed from very successful sales reps that I work with every day. Some of this insight is focused on selling a new product in market and that is due to my personal experience having been part of the launch and early ventures of the two most recent products that LinkedIn has created. I feel very fortunate to have had these experiences, play a role in the go-to market strategies and be part of the teams that help enable the selling of these products. There is so much to learn in the early moments of a new product/solution that when applied, success is easier to achieve.

Here are 5 selling behaviours that can help you win:

1. Be Convinced

You really need to be or get to a place where you are convinced by what you are selling, whether that is a product, a solution, a service or something else. Some honest questions to ask yourself in the process are; Do you believe in it? Do you believe it works? Do you believe that it is the best in class? We all know that it is easier to sell something you are absolutely convinced with, alternatively, our customers and potential customers know very quickly when we don't have this conviction. The words we use, the tone of voice we have, the confidence we exude, all give strong signals to the person/company we are selling too. I personally would struggle to sell something I am not completely convinced by, something I don't think is best in class of offers a real solution.

Recently I ran an exercise with sales teams that I work closely with; I got one sales rep on each team to sell me season tickets to a sports team they didn't care for, an average team in the league. I then stopped the role play and got them to start again by trying to sell me season tickets to their favourite team. The experience in the latter was completely different and was almost like I wasn't talking to the same sales rep. I bought into their passion, their conviction and their confidence for the team they themselves supported,

One rep even started with "Are you free on Thursday? Come to the game with me, see it like I see it, experience everything that comes with supporting this team". Sold. Thankfully I didn't have to give my credit card information to them.

2. Use the Product

Do you use the product/solution/platform yourself? This can become a powerful story for how you use the product, why you use the product and what it helps you solve for. To be able to give real life examples can help share the experience in the results they might see. I would actually add the word frequently or often to this use of the product. "The product continually helps me, I use it daily/weekly, these are the results from using it myself". By using the product (or what you are selling), you can get so much more familiar and comfortable with it, you know it's capabilities, you can be transparent with what it can't achieve. For myself, I want to be involved in selling things that I am not only convinced by, but something I use often to help me achieve more.

3. Increase Your Knowledge Base

Using the product is a springboard into increasing your knowledge base. Use the time you have available to learn about the product or solution, discover the challenges or the gaps so that you can be more successful with objection handling. Learn about the technical elements that get asked often, find out about the main competitors in the same space. When you have a foundation of knowledge around what you sell, you can speak with more clarity, confidence and have greater conviction.

4. Leverage Cross-Functional Partners/Colleagues

We are often surrounded by successful people, leverage them when you have the opportunity. If you know someone who is selling successfully, ask them for some 1-1 time, listen in on their calls, ask them the tough questions. If you have a cross-functional partner who is an expert in the product, ask them for 20 minutes to brainstorm ideas with you, to simplify some of the technical jargon with you, ask them for examples where they have seen success. Rarely is success just one person, even successful one person sports or musicians have a team of people that have enabled and helped them get there. Let's be more radical in working together with people for greater success stories and on the flip side, be ready and available for those that are finding it hard or struggling in their journey.

5. Get In-front of as Many People as Possible

The more at bats, the more plays you have, the bigger your pipeline, the better chance of success you will have. If you only have one chance, one opportunity in front of you and it doesn't land, it is easy to become disheartened and lose your confidence. The idea here is to get incredibly comfortable about talking with your customers about what you are selling, they can be practice runs for your big opportunity. Success is rarely gained on the first attempt, you have to keep going, we want you to have as many opportunities to win as possible.

Success is rarely gained on the first attempt, you have to keep going

Hopefully these have been helpful or a good reminder for you in your sales motions and behaviours. I have worked across multiple industries, for both startups and global companies and what I have learned is that the successful people around me were successful for a reason. They didn't rely solely on luck or timing (which is sometimes important), they were actioning these behaviours consistently because they knew that there were some things that were in their control. There will always be things we can't control, whether that be market conditions, competitors, timing, or other things, but at the very least, we should be doing everything in our power to be successful.