10 Ways to Keep your Selling Skills Sharp

An axe never sharpened will eventually become dull and useless. In the same way, selling skills that lose their edge lose their impact. Unless you are constantly improving your skills and techniques, you will be easily overtaken by competitors will are willing to do so. Here are some tips that what most successful salespeople will never want to let you know:

1. Start up a personal library

Start to keep a look out on best sellers, recommendations from friends, colleagues or your bosses. Note down their titles and authors that they are discussing and check them out.

2. Subscribe to some business magazines or journals in your industry

There are a few well-respected ones in the marketplace, Business Week, Fortune and Forbes. They all feature cutting edge stories that will help you updated of the changing business world. Read the trade journal in your specific industry to learn about developments that may be affecting your company.

3. Set aside at least 4 hours a week for reading

After you have started your personal library and subscribe to those journals, make sure you read them. If not, it is as good as doing nothing. Having them will not change a thing. It is the contents in them that matter. As you are reading this, you are already on track. So keep it up!

4. Listen to enrichment audios while driving

Nowadays, you will realize that there are more and more great learning materials in the form of audio. Play them in your car while you are driving, concentrate on the road and arrive at the destination a little smarter.

5. Carry learning materials wherever you go

Just think back, how much time is been wasted while you are waiting to see the person you are meeting, your flight, your doctor and etc. Use the wasted waiting time to develop yourself. Take your books, audio player or business magazines and journals and start reading.

6. If you are a salesperson of a technical product or services. Make sure you have the latest updates from your supplier

If your supplier does not provide training programs, find those who do.

7. Join a “Mastermind” Group. If you can’t find one, form one

Serious salespeople join a “Mastermind” group with other serious salespeople. This group is a safe place to ask delicate questions and put the toughest sales problem on the table and get honest answers. If you cannot find one, you can also form one.

8. Keep an open mind

T. Harv Eker said this is one of the seminars that I have attended, “If you are not growing, you are dying.” You start to stop growing the day you think you know everything. You competitors start to catch up with you by constant learning. Anything that you do not know is an opportunity for you to grow.

9. Hire a personal coach/mentor

Find a professional to help you improve the image you project, comment on your sales presentations and coach you to success. If possible, model after that coach or mentor that you respected.

10. Attend at least ONE personal development seminar each year

There are many seminar organizers out there. Contact them and check out if they do have any seminars that may suit your needs. After attending the seminar, ask yourself:” What did I learnt in this seminar that I can use it for my next call to customer?”