“What’s it take to be successful in sales?”

Over the years, we’ve been asked this question a lot. And the fact of the matter is that there’s no one size fits all response to this question.

There are different types of sales; products, services, solutions, the business segments that you target.

There are different types of sales roles, too; sales development, account executives, customer success (which more often than not has a massive sales component), leadership, and more.

That said, there are certainly some tricks of the trade that every salesperson can adopt to be more successful.

When you’re hot, you’re hot. 🔥

When you’re not, well — you can be ice cold. ⛄

So when the inevitable cold spell hits, what are some things that you can do to ensure that it doesn’t last for a prolonged period of time?

Investing and prospecting are two terms that aren’t often used in the same breath. But the reality is that there are quite a few similarities between the two.

The outsourcing versus insourcing question is one that’s been around for a long time — and sales is certainly not the only department where this argument is raised. Not unlike other departments, however, the reasons to outsource can provide an inordinate amount of value back to the business by:

Reducing costs

Greater focus on core business

Solving capacity issues

Improving quality

Accessing a greater pool of talents or skills

…and many, many others

A grossly overused saying in sales is this notion of “creating urgency”.

Once and for all, let’s put this to rest.

Sales folks: You can’t create urgency. Period. End of story.