How else can you improve sales performance?

One of the most effective ways to improve in sales, or in any are of your life for that matter, is to model the behaviors of what people who are already successful doing it are doing! Think about it.

 What do you do when you want to learn a new skill? Do you try to figure it all out yourself, or do you turn to the experts? Let's say you want to learn to play golf. The best way to go about it would be to take some lessons from a golf pro - to learn the best way to hold your club and hit the ball. Then, to hone your skills you could watch the pros - look at what they do, and then model their behavior. Of course, another option would be to pick up a set of clubs, go out on the green, and just try to figure out for yourself how to do it. Which approach is likely to be more successful? (Don't say the second approach!)

The same thing hold true in sales. If you want to improve your skills, look at what other highly successful people do and how they spend their time. And then, do the same things that they do.

So then, exactly how do successful spend their time, you ask? A survey conducted of salespeople who consistently performed in the Top10% of their respective companies shows the following:

ProspectingSuccessful salespeople spend45% of their time in prospecting activities. That's right;45%. Cold Calling, networking, researching new companies and people to speak to is the single biggest area of time spent in sales activity. The lesson here is that even once you've achieved a certain level of success in sales, you can't stop prospecting. Consistent prospecting is one of the most important things you can do to get and TO STAY successful.

Presenting20% of the successful salesperson's time is spent in front of prospects - understanding what the prospect does, and presenting solutions as to how their product or service can help the prospect.

Product Knowledge/Product MalleabilityAnother20% of time is spent on activities and skills related to product knowledge and product malleability.

There is an important distinction between product knowledge and product malleability: product knowledge means understanding the technical side of what your product or service does or how it works. For example, if you were selling computer software, product knowledge means that you have a basic understanding of how to operate the software, and what it is capable of. It would mean that you understand the technical requirements in terms of hardware and peripherals necessary to run the software you are selling.

Product Malleability, on the other hand, takes product knowledge to much higher level. In the realm of product malleability, you spend time studying the real-world application and uses of your product or service. It means understanding how your product can be adapted and used in a variety of situations that may not always be immediately obvious to the prospect. Product Malleability requires a much more subtle and thorough understanding of both what you are selling and of what your prospect does. To think of it another way, product malleability is a customer-focused, higher level version of product knowledge.

By hiring the appropriate sales force

by focus on target customers, promotional schemes like discounts, development of personal relationship with customer, by getting feed back of the customer about the product sold or services rendered and to improve the quality of products and services in the future.