Breaking Imposter Syndrome: Elevate Your Sales Process and Performance

What if your sales slump isn't about your product, but your approach? In our latest episode, we promise to equip you with the tools to turn your sales game around and break free from the cycle of frustration and diminished confidence. By honing your lead qualification process and targeting the right audience, you can stop casting that wide, desperate net and start focusing on realistic, potential customers. We'll help you understand the problem your product or service solves and pinpoint the exact audience that needs it, making your sales efforts more effective and less scattershot.

Ever feel like an imposter in your sales role? Join us as we tackle imposter syndrome and its detrimental impact on your performance. We dive into practical strategies for better lead qualification, identifying decision-makers, and understanding client needs. We'll guide you through the process of consistent self-assessment and debriefing after meetings to spot errors and improve your techniques. Plus, discover the power of feedback and metrics in refining your sales performance. From face-to-face meetings to learning from successful colleagues, we share actionable advice to help you achieve your sales targets and grow professionally.

Chapters

• 0:00 Turning Sales Around
• 5:24 Qualifying Leads for Sales Success
• 14:08 Improving Sales Performance Through Feedback

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

This podcast is about what to do if you're not making sales or you're worried about failure, or if you feel that you're failing so you're not hitting your target. You're not making sales and you're getting into a cycle where you've lost belief in your ability to make sales, and that can be very destructive, and I've certainly been there myself and I've seen other people get into that situation. So there is a way of getting back out of it Now, obviously, any business needs to make sales. So whether you're a salesperson, specifically, or you own a business and you're doing your own sales, it's really important to get out of that cycle because it gets very destructive if that's where you are, and that might be why you're listening to this podcast. So there's a couple of things I'm going to talk about, and I've already spoken about qualifying your leads, but that is one of the best ways to get out of that cycle. And the other thing that can be contributing to your performance is something called imposter syndrome. You're not right for the job, or you're not able to do the job, or you're getting some success, but you're kind of telling yourself it's all a fluke and sooner or later somebody is going to find out that you're faking it or you're just really, really lucky, or for whatever reason, you are not really achieving the results that the numbers say that you are. So that, in one sense, is a more difficult thing to deal with, because that comes into mindset, and I will talk about mindset in another podcast. But for now, I really want to give you something that you can apply straight away to start turning your sales around, and the first thing is to just step back. So step back from that cycle.

Speaker 1: 2:25

What tends to happen in that cycle is that if the sales aren't happening, you'll tend to start going after absolutely anybody just to try and make it happen. And what happens when you do that? You start to get under pressure to make sales, whether that's pressure on yourself or because your business is doing really badly, and if you don't make some sales soon, you're going to go out of business and you could lose everything. Or it may be that you're worried that your sales manager will lose patience with you or whoever it is you report to because of bad sales numbers, and if they're not the kind of person or you're not in the kind of organization that coaches salespeople when they have trouble, that's going to put a lot of pressure on you. So you start to get more desperate, and that will come across in the way that you speak to clients, whether you're trying to set up an appointment or whether you're doing a demonstration or whatever your sales process is. With some salespeople there's almost an air of desperation. If you watch the Simpsons, you'll know old Gil. You kind of get into that. Only, it's not funny when you're in that, because it's a very, very stressful situation to be in.

Speaker 1: 3:44

So let's look at ways we can deal with that. The very first thing is to, as I say, step back and look at your qualification process. I've already spoken about qualification, but it's really important, particularly if you're in a situation where you're not making sales, that you start getting realistic about who your customers are, because what will tend to happen is that you'll start spending time with people who are never going to be your clients, and it may be that it just gets your call rate up or however else you're being rated by your sales manager, or being busy makes you feel better, you feel like you're doing something, but in fact what you're doing is not the right action, it's just being busy, and being busy is not necessarily being productive. So step right back and look at your qualification process and if you haven't done that, look at either who are your current customers, who are the best customers you have, or if you don't have customers, you might need to rethink who you're selling to. So what sales comes down to always is what problem are you solving and who are the people who have that problem? So if you can't answer those two questions very simply and by simply I mean in terms that a 13 or 14 year old could understand very easily then you've really got a problem with your whole approach to your market. Do you even have a market? So you've got to get very clear on the problem that you're solving and who the people are who have the problem.

Speaker 1: 5:24

And then the next step is to look at where they hang out. So make sure you're spending time in the right places, so you're spending time where those people are going to be, and that way you're much more likely to get people who are likely to be clients for you. So all of this is marketing. All of this is another conversation, and I'm going to assume that that part of it you have sorted out, because this really is what you do if you're launching a business or if you're in a company, somebody in marketing will have done all of this, hopefully, because if you don't have a solution that people want, then you don't have a business, frankly. So that's what we get down to. So I'm going to assume that you do have products that are good products, services, whatever it is you're selling, that they are a value. You do solve a problem, just for certain people.

Speaker 1: 6:18

So the next thing is to get very clear on who those people are. Now, if you're in a business that's been running for a little while and you've already got clients, just look back at those people. Who are they? What? So your decision makers? Who are they in the company? Who are the influencers? Get very clear on that. But, most of all, where did you find those people? What are the problems that you solved and how do you identify them in the first place? How do you know someone's got that problem? How do you identify them in the first place? How do you know someone's got that problem?

Speaker 1: 6:53

Now, obviously, doing a general podcast like this, it's quite. I can kind of go so deep and then we're into specifics and that's where you have to fill in the gap, but that really is the key thing to do is to just step back and look at your qualification process. From my experience of it, what people tend to do is they lose sight of that and, as I've already said, they'll tend to try and sell to anybody. They just start feeling desperate. So the first thing to do is get out of that feeling of desperation, and the best thing to do for that is to either sit down and go back to basics, start requalifying who you're spending your time with. If you're under a lot of stress, go for a walk. Honestly, the best thing you can do is just try and break that mental cycle. If you're just sitting there going after random person after random person, that is not going to work. So find a way to step back mentally and just refocus. Look at who the people are that you need to sell to, whether it's individuals or companies, and then refocus your efforts there. But allow your qualification process to work for you and look.

Speaker 1: 8:05

It may be that you don't have very many leads and so if you're in that situation, you really have to use failure, if you like. So this podcast is called Handling Failure, and what I mean by that is failure to sell, and the first part of that is not having leads. Now the next stage is to have good leads, but you're just not converting. So you're getting in front of the right people, you've got a good solution for them, but you're not converting. So again, there's a questioning process that is definitely in the course that I offer and that tacks onto the qualification process. So, if you've done your qualification correctly, you will have identified that there is a need, you'll have identified that you can provide a solution to that need and you'll also have identified timescales and also budget, because you need to spend time with people who can become clients. There's no point wasting your time with people who don't have the money, which is a common one. So you've really got to be upfront in the qualification process as well to make sure you are going to be spending time with the right people.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Now, one of the things about that is time frame. So if there's somebody who does have an interest, but not for six months or a year or sometime in the distance, it may be worth going to see those people just to see if they're, if that is actually real, because sometimes people have a problem and they're kind of thinking of solving it down the track, but the reality is that it's costing them in some form. It might be costing them business, it might be adding to their overheads and if they take steps sooner rather than later, there is a financial advantage, a financial benefit to them in moving sooner rather than later. So that's definitely a conversation worth having Now. Personally, I prefer to do those face to face and I would set those meanings up fairly low key. But you do need to be absolutely sure about the timeframe and then stay in touch with those people, because you don't want to qualify them, have them identified as a good prospect, just to have the competitor come in because they happen to be talking to them at the right time. So you've got to be then working on your closing techniques to see if there is a potential close there. And this comes down to having the right conversation, knowing when to close, which I've already covered in other podcasts. And again, there's a lot more information on this in the course. So I will talk about the course I offer, because if you are struggling with this, it's a good investment to go through something like that, because then you have a lot more options.

Speaker 1: 10:59

Okay, if all of that stuff, if you're doing all of that stuff right, but you're still failing, then you need to step back and objectively rate yourself. So one of the things I used to do to myself and also I would do with salespeople I had working for me and I would encourage them to do it for themselves too is, just after a meeting, kind of just sit down and debrief myself or I debrief with a salesperson and be objective. So this isn't to nitpick or find faults that aren't really there, but it's to just try and identify if you're doing something fundamentally wrong and we've all had that situation where we've been in a conversation, it hasn't gone quite right and we've come away feeling that we've blown it somehow and then an you know an hour later you realize what you should have said. So that's the reason for doing something like this is just to be objective. And again this comes down to you specifically what are you doing? And hopefully you can begin to identify.

Speaker 1: 12:03

There are certain things you tend to do. Maybe you didn't listen to somebody, maybe you didn't involve a certain person in the conversation. Did you identify everybody in the meeting? That's another classic salespeople that I've seen. Common things is they'll talk at the client. They won't have the right conversation, they'll go through a brochure or whatever, but they're doing their pitch. They're not listening and as a salesperson, the most important thing to do is to listen to your client, because they are giving you all of the information you need to make that sale or to know when to walk away from it. But most sales people that I've coached, at least early, early on, make that mistake of not listening. They'll just go in.

Speaker 1: 12:42

A brochure is probably the worst thing to have with you because they'll just talk through it, because there's safety in that, and that's one of the reasons that salespeople do that that there is safety in presenting what they know, presenting what they know. It's not safe letting a client talk to you, in one sense, because they might ask you things you don't know or they might identify themselves as someone who isn't going to be a customer. Well, the thing is not to regard that with fear but to welcome that, because then you and there's absolutely nothing wrong with saying to someone look, I don't think we've got a good match here and I don't really want to waste your time and I don't want to waste my time unless I've got it wrong, I don't think we can really provide a solution for you. A lot of clients like that, by the way. They like people being honest with them and open like that, because most of them are busy people. They've got a problem they need to solve. They don't want someone wasting their time with something that just isn't going to work. And one of the nice things about that is that if you do that and you walk away and somebody else gets that deal, the chances are that client will come back to you and just sound you out next time they have a problem, because you've been honest and direct. Now, it's not going to happen every time, but it's a good way to operate because you don't want to be wasting your time.

Speaker 1: 14:08

If you're doing face-to-face meetings, you've got a certain amount of time. That means you can do a certain number of meetings in a week or in a day. However you want to measure it, and from those meetings you've got to hit your target. And you know, if you go back to conversion rates, that you might, and I don't know what your conversion rate is, but it might be one in four, you know, or it might be one in three. One in three in a lot of businesses is a really good conversion rate. It might be one in 10, in which case you've probably got a problem. There are probably, you know. You need to start going through all the steps of your process because certainly for the businesses I'm in, that's not a good conversion rate and it means that every 10 people you see, nine of them won't buy, so only one in 10. How many meetings you do in a week? How many sales do you need to make a week to hit target? You've got to kind of approach it this way and let the numbers tell the story.

Speaker 1: 15:01

So all of this stuff is really important to understand. Even if you do it once in a year, it's a good thing to do, or maybe check it again every six months to make sure you're making progress, or even once a quarter, whatever works for you. But you need to know your metrics, you need to know how well you're doing, and if you't know those, then the chances are that you're not doing as well as you think you are, because that pretty much is the golden rule almost. When people don't know what their numbers are, it's almost inevitable that they're doing worse than they think you are. So if you don't know what your conversion rate is, work it out, and if you don't know what your conversion rate is, work it out. And if you don't know how to do that, it's in the course. So you can do all of that. I might talk about that in another podcast, but you've got to know your numbers.

Speaker 1: 15:52

So how are your numbers doing? How are you qualifying? What is your performance like, either on the phone if you're qualifying on the phone or face to face, when you're with somebody? What are the mistakes you're making? What can you improve? What it's about continuous improvement? It's not about criticizing yourself to put yourself down. It's to identify where you're weak so that you can focus on that area, get some coaching in that area, get some help in that area, whatever form that help might take, and then next meeting, go in and do it differently and hopefully you'll get a better outcome, certainly if you start making that a habit.

Speaker 1: 16:32

So, like most things in life, sales is one of those careers where you need to be constantly improving. Things may change, people change. You might be early on speaking to people who are your generation or even older than you, and you've got to learn how to adapt to those situations so that they take you seriously, which can be a problem if you're quite young and you're dealing with a lot of older people. Some of the older people can be, you know, maybe not take you quite so seriously. So you've got to prove that you're professional, do a good job, and that will win them over in most cases. The ones that it doesn't win over, you probably don't want anyway. But as you move on, what happens is customers start getting younger, so you might have to change your approach. But this is all about learning.

Speaker 1: 17:26

But the key thing right now is to look at failure and treat failure as feedback. That's really the thing I'd like you to come away with from this podcast is to look at failure as feedback. It's an opportunity to learn something. Learn one part of your sales process. Focus on a part that isn't working which is why you're failing right now and then work on that and improve it. And take it one thing at a time. Don't overwhelm yourself. If you've got a number of things you're doing wrong, okay, start working through them. Start things you're doing wrong okay, start working through them. Start you know first, one first and do what you can with the others, but try not to overload yourself.

Speaker 1: 18:06

You might need coaching, you might need to talk to somebody, you might need to take part in the webinars or the live sessions I run. You might need to just sit down with a colleague who's selling it. If you've got a colleague who's doing really well, if you can, can sit down with them and just ask them what they do. Or even, if it's allowable, to go out with them and just do a joint visit with them so you can see them in action, see what they're doing. Now, that's probably the best thing you can do, because they're selling the same product, the same solution that you are, and they're selling to the same type of client that you are. So if you're in an organization like that or you're working with somebody who's doing really well at sales and you're struggling, just ask to spend a day with them. Just do two or three client calls whatever you would normally do in a day and just learn what you can from them. Look at what you're doing, all alternatives, alternatives. You've got the kind of sales manager or a colleague who can go out with you and and just sort of sit in with you. They can give you feedback, and give you direct feedback on what they're, on what you're. They see that you're doing either wrong or that they would do differently and see how you go with that. So yeah, it's saying failure is feedback. It's a little bit glib and when you're struggling it's not particularly helpful really, but those are my suggestions. So just to recap on that First of all, be aware that there might be things going on like imposter syndrome and the best cure for that is to look at your numbers.

Speaker 1: 19:42

So you do need to know your numbers. How many calls you're making as in telephone calls, set up meetings. How many one-on-one meetings. You know how many calls you're making, how many as in telephone calls set up meetings. How many one-on-one meetings you're doing. How many sales you're getting as a result of that. You know what's your conversion rate, because if you're converting, say, one in four, so you get one sale out of every four meetings let's say face-to-face meetings and you're getting one meeting for every four phone calls that you're making, that means to hit your sales number, you've got to be making about 16 calls, let's say a day or whatever it might be.

Speaker 1: 20:15

But start working those out, be objective about what you're doing when you can and if you're struggling with doing that, if you can. And there is somebody who, if you're working in an organization where somebody else is selling. Just invest a day in spending time with them or, if they're willing, have them come out with you and ideally do both, so you can see them in action, you can implement what they're doing and then they can also be critiquing you. And that's time very well spent, in my opinion, because if you can start turning your numbers around, it's great for the organization and kind of everybody wins. And maybe you buy your colleague dinner I don't know whatever, whatever works. Or dinner I don't know whatever works. If you're on your own, it's more difficult, so you need to be a little bit more objective and be a little bit more self-critical. So I hope that's helpful.

Speaker 1: 21:17

As I say, know your numbers, make sure you're qualifying the right people, make sure your qualification process is correct and then go through each step of what you're doing in these meetings and critique what you're doing well, and one way of measuring that is just look at what sort of response you get. Are you getting clients that are engaging with you telling you their problems, or are they kind of pulling away? If that's happening early, then you're probably having the wrong conversation. So you've just got to work that out. Obviously, we're getting into specifics here and I can only give you general things to try. So there you go. So I hope you found that valuable and I'll speak to you next time. Bye for now.