OK, you've made the decision to take a sales job at your company. For several years, you've worked at the technical end of the business. Now you're ready to embark upon a new but compatible career path. How do you know you're ready?
Most important, you must have the desire to interact with others, enjoy challenge and be comfortable in handling objections, says Lawrence Alter, president of the Arthur Group, a career consulting firm in Minneapolis, Minn. "You'll be interacting with people at all levels -- the beer-drinking crowd and those that drink champagne."
Typically, introverts find it difficult changing their personalities and may not be suited for sales, although they may be very good at technical support skills, according to Alter. But, "if you enjoy participating in or organizing peer group meetings, have led project management groups, assisted the sales staff in technical sales presentations, been involved with either internal or external customer support, it should be easy to parlay those skills into a sales career," he says.
Below, Alter lists 15 tips that can help any techie transition into sales:
1. Learn to be comfortable interacting with others and try to develop a comfort level in talking with people you have never met. Joining a couple of social groups such as Toastmasters International that assist all types of professionals in public/group speaking can help.
2. Consider taking a sales course at a nearby college, entrepreneurial center, or chamber of commerce.
3. Develop a strong level of self-confidence in your ability to speak effectively and sincerely about your product or service. Believe that if you convince prospects to become your customers they will be better off because of what you sold them.
4. Seek mentors who have been successful in sales or sales management. Use them to bounce ideas off or and share your enthusiasm for being in sales. In the classic sales manual Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill advocates the use of a mastermind group. This type of support can be wonderful in an advisory capacity. Think and Grow Rich is one of the most successful motivational business books ever written.
5. Remember: Everyone is a salesperson to some extent and nothing happens in any company -- or any relationship -- until something is sold. If you are married, you "sold" your wife on marrying you. Competent teachers are salespeople too. They're selling ideas and concepts to motivate students.
6. Be able to convince your boss (or a senior sales manager in your company) that you are confident in your ability to sell and motivate others.
7. Start by asking your manager if you can assist in a "sales support" role so you can observe how a sales professional handles preparations and objections.
8. Learn to become a good listener -- if you are not already -- and remember that successful sales professionals cannot sell anything if they don't listen to and understand the needs of their buyers.
9. Consider the possibility that you may be more qualified than you realize. Technical managers, for example, have sales skills because they are responsible for motivating others, getting projects approved, and selling management on larger budgets or additional tools, to name a few.
10. Find out who your competitors are and examine the merits and pitfalls of their products. You will be selling against them.
11. Know your products and their advantages over those of your competitors (i.e., price, ability to ship, quality, or value-added concepts your company offers).
12. Learn how to use the sales professional's most valuable tool -- the phone. Be comfortable and confident in what you are saying. Don't be disappointed by rejection. Have notes in front of you so that you are never thrown off track by unexpected questions -- that way you can always recover and return to your agenda. An excellent tool for developing a sound sales presence is Phone Power: How to Get Whatever You Want on the Telephone (Sound Ideas), by George R. Walther.
13. Be prepared to handle rejection. It's hard to take in the beginning. Once you gain confidence though, it ought to be a motivator.
14. Learn how to deal with objections to setting appointments or resistance to buying your products, and learn how to ask for an order (close the sale). If there are no objections, there will be no sale. When your prospects ask questions they are asking you to tell them why they should buy.
15. Know that a sale is always being made. Either you sell your prospect on the advantages of buying and a sale is made or your prospect sells you on the reasons for not buying and you lose the deal. Even a commitment for another meeting or follow-up action is a sales commitment which can lead to a sale.
