Three months earlier, we had built a five-touchpoint system to engage current clients and drive referrals. This consisted of various lunches, gifts, and casual phone calls or sharing content. I’ve seen plans like this double existing client revenues in the past. While this salesman had experienced some great wins using a few of the tactics, not everyone had responded with a referral. While there was never an expectation of a 100 percent response rate, he was losing interest because he only had a few wins so far. The program wasn’t being executed to its full potential.

An outsider could easily look at this situation and say, “Clearly, if he’d just stick to his plan, he’d hit his numbers,” and in large part they would be right. But how many of us have not stuck to our plan, not completed our tasks, and then not been happy with the results? Willpower is about sticking to the process even when your mind tells you to quit. Sticking to a process is hard, but so is being great. Successful people execute day in and day out. They perform at a higher level because their willpower is stronger than others.

At our company, we build a marketing plan each year that includes the amount of content we are going to write, events we are going to host, influencers we are going to meet, customer touchpoints we will execute, and all other sorts of marketing initiatives. This year was the first year we hit virtually 95 percent of the activities we planned out, and it’s the first year our cash flow grew by 40 percent. 

Sales and marketing isn’t a “put one out, get one back” game. Rather, it’s about performing needed actions consistently according to a system that generates predictable results over a long period of time. It takes willpower to stick to these actions every day. I’ve found that the secret to developing willpower is to build systems that remove mental blocks. This focus on execution allows me to get out of my own head and just do the tasks. Here are a few of the habits I’ve built that strengthen my willpower and generate the results I’m chasing:

1. Find a group of like-minded people pursuing similar goals to meet with on a regular basis. This could be a mastermind group you set up with people who sell to the same audience you do, a networking group of an organization you belong to, a nonprofit organization, or a leads sharing group. All that matters is that the people in the room have similar goals and meet on a recurring basis, no more than two-to-four weeks apart. The more often you meet, the faster you’ll get results. The regularity of meeting will produce more opportunities and make it easier to stick to a consistent marketing plan, as you’ll be put in front of people who can both introduce you to those you want to meet, and hold you accountable to doing what you say you’re going to do.
2. Block out certain times for reading and generating content. I’ve always struggled to read just a few business books and write a couple articles a year. This year, I began blocking time off in the morning for reading, and time on the weekend for writing. To date, I’m averaging about two-to-three books/month and two-to-four articles/month. This has helped me hit goals in ways I didn’t even think were possible before. If, like me, you are new to writing, set up Google Alerts for key terms in your industry. Read the articles that Google sends you, write an opinion piece about that article, and cite it in your writing. I’ve found it’s often much easier to respond to something that was already written than to just conceive something out of thin air.
3. Set weekly goals for people met, leads generated, and proposals given. It’s amazing, but we see what we look for. The more we look for opportunity, like networking groups that cater to our target market, the more we find it. It’s hard to see an opportunity without meeting with people. And without looking for an angle on how you can serve them, it’s difficult to get motivated to push a proposal. Having written goals around the actions you are going to take drastically improves your ability to achieve them, because you are programming your mind to look for those opportunities. If you don’t write your goals down and don’t look at them regularly, you’ll simply forget about them and move forward without actually making progress.

Willpower is a muscle, and it has to be strengthened. Like working out, sporadic repetitions don’t build muscle. What builds muscle is creating a plan and executing on it. 

One way to offer more is to bundle your offerings. But what if bundling doesn’t always make sense for everyone in your audience? What if they don’t want more for less? What if they want less — and are willing to pay a small premium for the convenience of less?

Long gone are the days of being forced to purchase a whole music album: With iTunes, you’re free to build your music collection one song at a time. Media companies let you forego subscriptions in lieu of per-article pricing. And massive open online courses make it possible for students to take single lessons without the commitment of a degree program.

I’ve been observing these industry changes throughout the past decade, both as an employee in product management for a Fortune 500 company, and as a strategic consultant helping organizations rethink their products. Today, as the owner of a business strategy company focused on product management, I advise my clients to consider bundling (and unbundling) strategies.

Bundling can be a valuable part of product strategy, but it can limit your choices. By unbundling your products, you can give your audience what they want, while creating new revenue streams. Follow these five steps below to discover product unbundling opportunities for your business: 

1. Inventory Your Offerings

Before you can break your offerings into bite-sized pieces, you need to have a firm grasp on your inventory. You might already have a tidy list of all of your offerings, or you can pull one from your e-commerce site. If things are a bit more murky, you might need to sit down with your team and talk through everything you own and sell. During this step, don’t worry about decoupling: Just focus on documenting what you have.

2. Consider Your Audience

Next, carefully consider your audience’s needs. Why do they buy from you? What pain points are you helping them solve? If you haven’t already done the research to confidently know the answers to these questions, conduct a customer survey that helps you better understand your audience and their needs.

When I worked with a micropayment processor, we wanted to better understand consumer habits related to charitable donations — specifically micro-donations. After conducting market research and reviewing surveys on the topic, we found that men were more likely than women to be impulsive with micro-donations. By honing in on our target audience’s behaviors and motivations, we could create an unbundling strategy directed at the microprocessor’s target clients, non-profits, by incorporating micro-donations into non-profit business models with larger followings of men.  

3. Evaluate Your Products for Individual Components

Exploring avenues for new revenue requires an examination of each of your products. How can you make a decoupled product available in a way that’s profitable for your business (and useful for your audience)? If you sell a physical good or service, think about how to break your product into smaller pieces. For example, a flatware manufacturer might be accustomed to selling sets of forks, knives and spoons — but some consumers might be looking to replace a single spoon. 

While working with an online education company, our primary product was degree programs, but we had to think smaller — even smaller than individual courses. We asked ourselves: How can we break down a course to the smallest level? We started looking at learning objectives and divvied up the course materials in a way that aligned with each individual learning objective. For a digital marketing course, we could break it down to “identify the top social media platforms,” “create a social media marketing plan,” and “create a social media calendar.” 

Not only were we able to bundle and unbundle the course materials, but we could actually look at different types of learners, such as auditory versus visual. By breaking the course offerings down to such a finite level, we created a customized educational experience equipped with new products to sell. 

4. Determine Pricing

Once you have determined individual components to sell, strategize the price points that make the most sense based on your current bundled pricing and your audience’s perceived value.

Make sure that the bundled offering still provides a price break, but doesn’t underestimate the value of the decoupled products. If the most valuable piece of content in your e-book is a template, for example, don’t be afraid to make that template worth half the cost of the entire ebook.

To start the pricing process, I typically evaluate the current pricing model, the production time required, and the product’s perceived value. I also advise A/B testing to see how the market responds, and then adjust pricing accordingly.

5. Analyze and Experiment

After you announce your new products and pricing, it’s important to continuously monitor your market. What are they buying? What bundles remain big sellers? Which ones are no longer selling?

As you introduce new offerings to your audience, continue to experiment with bundled versus unbundled products. The market and your audience’s needs are always changing. Your ability to provide what the market demands relies on the effectiveness of your ongoing research and product strategy. Remaining static is not an option.

When I launched a community for “parentpreneurs,” I saw a need for family-friendly business events and conferences. After holding one in July, I have continued to be aware of the market. If someone launches a similar event, I can tweak my offering to remain competitive.

Not ready to unbundle your current offerings? You can still plan for future products. When you’re creating a new offering, be sure to design a product infrastructure that will ultimately allow you to sell products in a variety of ways later. By unbundling your product offerings, you have an opportunity to better serve your audience and create a viable stream of revenue for your business. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Last year, a healthy offer made its way to the table: one which promised a seven-digit payout and 10% ownership in the new joint company. Sure, the prospect of selling was appealing, especially after five years of hard work and a pretty dismal salary. Even though we technically wouldn’t be selling out entirely, we still felt the valuation was low. And in order for the acquisition to be successful, in addition to bearing additional paydays for us, the new joint company needed to be valued much higher, around $100M.

Understanding a Fair Valuation 

We learned a lot from this first opportunity to sell. First, there will likely be a discrepancy between how much you think your company is worth versus what others are willing to pay, especially in the case of small businesses like ours. To prepare for this, many companies take the “comparable model” approach. Look at other transactions that have taken place within your industry to see which terms are practical for your business. With this knowledge, you can make the argument your company should be similarly valued. Though these terms are often private and difficult to obtain, it’s important to do so.

At the end of the day, if you value your company at $100M but no one is willing to pay for it, then it’s up to you to become more realistic. When it comes to selling, your company is only worth what someone else is willing to buy it for. A general rule of thumb: If the discrepancy is within 15-25%, you should be able to make a deal. If it’s off by 50% or more, you’re going to have big problems.

Identifying Mission and Vision Alignment 

When it comes to selling, we want to find a partner who not only had deep pockets, but who is also on board with our mission and won’t steer too far away from this path. This can be incredibly challenging, since it’s difficult to find buyers in the first place. But when the time is right, we’ll spend a considerable amount of time reaching out to funds, companies and individuals we think we’d partner well with. If selling appears to be the right move, we’ll be working extremely hard to find a partner with the best potential.

Though money is certainly a dominant factor, it’s not our only driving force as a company. So we’ve continued to roll the dice, a decision based primarily on gut feeling and knowing what is best for the company — or at least what feels best. Having a great business partner makes this much easier, as we’re in constant conversation regarding when to sell.

Going With Your Gut and Sticking to Your Strategy

We knew that if we could continue to double our sales, we could hold off, keep scaling the business, and in the end be much better off. And we did just that. Still, after partly achieving what we set out to do, a sale seems inevitable.

Part of being an entrepreneur is taking on greater financial risks in order to operate and organize the business you set out to create. If we were to sell to a private equity company, one that would likely increase commissions to double profitability, our brand value would be damaged, and in a few years I’d likely find myself battling the same problems I had with the ticket industry five years ago. For the time being, we’ll continue “rolling the dice” for as long as the company can afford to, or until we meet the perfect potential buyer.

As of now, we can afford five more years of being our own growing entity without compromising our mission. If (and when) the time comes for us to sell, I hope that my driving motivations will be to maintain a company whose intentions are good and to keep the business on the path forward in this difficult industry.

After completing my graduate studies in industrial engineering, I researched the luxury real estate market and the increasing demand in natural stone. With Turkey having one-third of the world’s marble reserves, I took advantage of my heritage as a Turkish American and pursued my business plan with confidence.

The first thing I aspired to do is find the right kind of natural stone to sell. I knew I had to offer something that builders actually needed. That meant coming up with a niche product, marketing it the right way, and having direct access to the inventory.

Here are my own business strategies and practices that you can adapt for your own business:

Get Ahead of the Competition and Find the Right Niche Product

I was already aware that natural stone was becoming more popular in modern builds. Keeping this competition in mind, so I had to get creative and focus on selling a niche product. In my line of business, this equates to window sills and thresholds, which are interchangeable with any type of flooring.

To find your own niche product, find something people actually need, not just want. Make sure you can get that product at a wholesale price so that you can offer it to buyers at an even lower rate. Then, be sure you have direct access to the inventory. Eliminate any third party vendors who might cause delays.

Opt for Non-Traditional Marketing Methods

Traditional marketing strategies alone won’t work. National and international trade shows have helped us reach new areas at a lower cost than hiring an area sales representative.

But while trade shows and print ads are all part of our strategy, you must also strive to be the leading company online. You also shouldn’t ignore the word-of-mouth factor when it comes to referrals.

Think About the Details

You want to choose a niche product that is easy to stock and deliver — something that doesn’t make the customer wait too long. If you can offer it at a discounted price, then you’re really in business.

By making marble window sills and thresholds a main-line product, buyers have been more eager to come to us because they know that the product they’re looking for will always be in stock. Furthermore, they don’t have to deal with long lead times for custom orders.

Stay Close to the Source, Don’t Make Customers Wait

Strategically place your business near the manufacturer that supplies your product. If your product happens to be overseas, then make sure your business is based in a city that can readily receive your inventory, especially if you’re receiving it by boat.

Having direct access to our quarries and being based in South Florida near the Port of Miami (where we receive a consistent shipment of inventory) keeps our warehouse fully stocked at all times. Providing this kind of reliable service can quite possibly lead you to become the leading provider of your own niche product.

Seize the Moment, Give Customers More

Once I gained the attention of a vast amount of customers who learned about my niche products, I took advantage of the opportunity and expanded our inventory, providing additional options like travertine, glass, and engineered stone.

Consider providing new offerings directly associated with your current inventory to give your customers more. For example, if you’re in the business of selling sewing needles, find out where you can acquire lots of thread in a variety of colors at a wholesale price. It’s all about finding a relatable product that’s as equally in demand as your mainline product.

Make Your Business Scalable  

Another key factor in making millions of dollars is making your business scalable. As demand increases, vendors and production facilities play a key role in supplying timely orders with good quality. Therefore, you have to treat your vendors just as kindly as your clients; they are, after all, the backbone of your success.

Carry Strong Ethics

Buyers not only want to invest in a product that they can trust; they also want to invest in the business behind it. All of this means nothing if the customer — and in fact, everyone involved with your business — isn’t happy, or at the very least satisfied. It’s all quite simple: Keep clients happy, and they’ll keep coming in. If you instill the same ethics and service mentality for your multi-million dollar business in everyone involved (down to employees and vendors), your success will only grow.

Remember That It All Comes Down to Supply and Demand

Think about it this way: In the textile and garment industry, everybody sells shirts and pants. They typically keep some basic, standard size of buttons or zippers as an accessory in case it’s needed for an immediate supply. Marble window sills and thresholds are just like those buttons and zippers; however, the difference with us is that we stock all the colors and sizes you can imagine in large quantities.

If you want to make millions selling a product in a competitive industry, all you have to do is find your own version of buttons and zippers with a good source, a good marketing plan, and a good attitude.

Why Most Cold Emails Fail

If your cold emails look like this, you are doing it wrong:

“Hi Justin, hope you’re doing well! Can we schedule a short meeting to discuss our company services at your convenience?”

There are several reasons why cold emails fail: These can include anything from bad subject lines, to emailing the wrong contact, to not personalizing your message enough. Unfortunately, it is pretty easy to create bad cold emails.

A Simple Cold Email Framework

Because quality cold emails are so rare these days, I came up with a simple formula I call “QVC” to help people increase their responses.

• Q is for question. This should be one sentence.
• V is for value proposition. This should be one to three sentences maximum.
• C is for closing. This should be one sentence.

You don’t want to worry about introducing yourself in the very first sentence; this immediately tells the recipient that they don’t know you. Aside from the subject line, this is the single most important element of your entire email, because it’s what shows up in preview panes in their email client and on their phones.

You can introduce yourself and your offering in the next section. However, you want to focus on your benefit here. This means you should replace the “I” and “we” with a “you” in this portion of the email.

Lastly, you want to close the email with another question. Ideally, a question that is easy to respond to while helping the conversation advance to the next stage.

Using the QVC framework, I’ve been able to generate a 45% open rate on my cold emails. Even better is the combined 14% response rate (31% combined between the first two emails).

Nail the Subject Line

Two things need to happen with your cold email subject lines. One, you want to capture their interest, and two, you want to avoid being flagged as spam. Believe it or not, 69% of email recipients flag an email as spam solely based on the subject line.

Emails that have “Re:” perform higher than any other subject line. This is especially important for follow-up emails: Include your previous email correspondence in your follow-up for easy reference, while using “Re:” at the beginning of your subject line.

If you are having a hard time coming up with a great subject line, don’t stress. Studies show an 8% improvement in open rates with no subject line at all!

Send at Least Four More Follow-ups

Unfortunately, 44% of salespeople stop following up after two attempts. Meanwhile, 80% of sales occur after five attempts. Don’t just quit after one or even two emails.

You also want to avoid the typical “checking in” or “I haven’t heard back” follow-ups. Instead, try to bring value. Use a case study for one follow-up, ask a question for another follow-up, link to a relevant blog post for another, or focus on a different benefit than what you did in your previous emails.

Getting a Response

By writing cold emails with the intention of getting a response, you are helping your future email deliverability. This is because you are showing engagement. Any response is a good response (even when they request to never be emailed again).

In addition, by having a more naturally flowing email, you help reduce your risk of being flagged as spam.

Lastly, you won’t have to burn through so many of your ideal prospects, because you’ll be converting a higher percentage of them into actual conversations that move the sales process forward.

If they do respond and are interested in what you offer, I recommend sending them a link to your calendar to book a time to chat further. Don’t try to simply close the deal via email.

Whether you think the holidays matter to your business or not, they do. Nearly 20% of all sales happen during the holidays. As an e-tailer managing over a dozen e-commerce-only sites, I have noticed a sizable increase in sales starting in November. Now is the time to get the ball rolling for the holidays: Here’s what you can do to get your website holiday-ready.

1. Create Holiday Content Now

Before they turn to the internet to buy, holiday shoppers turn to the internet for ideas. They might know that a family member or friend has an interest in what you sell, but it’s likely that their knowledge stops there. Here are a few ways you can start creating content now:

• Create content designed specifically for holiday shoppers coming from the top of the funnel. For example, for one of our brands, we created an infographic about saving money for the holidays, which was pitched and leveraged for linking and media opportunities.
• Design visual content that answers broad questions about your product or service, which are likely to be asked by people who fall outside of your typical buyer profile.
• Develop a holiday-themed logo.

If you outsource your content, send assignments to your freelancers as quickly as possible.

2. Adjust Your Search Engine Optimization

Online holiday shopping begins with a Google search. If the enticing new content you’ve created is buried in the search-ranking abyss, no one will ever see it, and it’ll be worthless. 

Identify holiday-specific keywords and phrases that sync with your new content. Remember that people aren’t shopping for “camping gear,” they’re shopping for “camping gear holiday gift ideas.” For our jewelry brand, we identify searches like “holiday proposals” and “holiday marriage proposals,” which we start optimizing for early in the year.

But remember: It’s incredibly difficult to target keywords based on data from last holiday season. In the case of holiday SEO, just go with your gut. What would you be searching for if the roles were reversed and you were the shopper?

3. Tune Up Your Website

Load time and page speed have a big impact on your bottom line 365 days a year, but never more so than during the frantic holiday rush. A single second delay can trigger a 7% drop in conversions. For a retailer making $100,000 a day, that’s a loss of $2.5 million per year. But luckily, increasing page speed is a relatively quick and easy fix. 

You also don’t want Google or your users to discover broken pages or links, as this could reduce your credibility. To scan your site for broken links and 404 errors, use tools like Screaming Frog. Use Link Redirect Trace to make sure all of your 301 redirects are operating correctly, there are no unnecessary redirect loops, and you’re not sending Google or visitors to the incorrect pages.

Having a cheap, shared hosting company during the holiday shopping season is almost never worth the associated savings. If you’re doing everything right, it’s likely that you will see a big boost in traffic over the holidays. But if this increase in visitors results in crashes, slowdowns, or even worse, website shut-downs, then what have you gained by cutting costs? If you truly can’t afford a few dollars — or a few hundred dollars — a month for the critical service of a dedicated server, consider making room in your budget for better hosting for just a few months until the start of the new year.

4. Focus on Mobile

Holiday shopping often means shopping on mobile. Google recommends considering your users’ mobile experience, as it’s important to those who visit your website.

Take time to learn the difference between how content behaves on different devices, like tablets, smartphones, multimedia phones and feature phones. Upgrade your website to a responsive web design so that it looks good on all devices.

5. Prepare Your Coupon Codes

During the holidays, there’s intense pressure for retailers to get their promotional codes listed at the top of major coupon and discount directories. Directories want to offer the most valuable, useful coupons. For the holidays, up the stakes with extras like free shipping.

6.  Double Up on Checkout Security

As part of their “HTTPS everywhere” promotion, Google strives to make all websites more secure with the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure, or “green bar” URL strategy.

Not only does HTTPS make sites more secure during the critical holiday shopping season, but Google considers it an important search ranking signal. Better security at checkout doesn’t only benefit your customers: It also benefits you, as a single security breach can impact your website and traffic for many holidays to come.

With 20% of all business being done in a just a few frantic, critical weeks and months of the year, the holiday season is crucial for every website, even if a company does most of its business in a physical store. The holidays are right around the corner: Take the time to plan, prepare and prevail.

Street teams interact directly with consumers to get them excited about your brand and connect with it on a more personal level. This excitement translates into direct action – whether you want consumers to download your app, sample your product, attend an event, or use your service for the first time.

My company recently worked on a nationwide project for one of today’s top ride-sharing brands. The goal was to build brand awareness as well as have consumers download the brand’s app by offering coupon codes for their first ride with the company. We hired and trained event managers and brand ambassadors for mobile street team events in 11 markets and activated street teams on college campuses around the country. Brand ambassadors talked to almost 1,500 consumers during the 5-month campaign, with 20 percent of consumers downloading the app and using the coupon code.

When executed correctly, a street team initiative can increase brand awareness, build loyalty and increase sales. But when executed incorrectly, a street team initiative can waste money and damage a brand’s reputation. If you have ever encountered an untrained street team glued to their smartphones, clustered together and blocking the sidewalk, or shouting at you as you walk by, you know what I mean.

The following are my top nine tips for successfully using street teams to increase brand awareness and acquire new customers:

1. Set a goal. Setting a goal allows you to measure your success. How many consumers do you want to download your app, sample your product, attend your concert or event, sign up for your service, or take some other action? With our nationwide ride-sharing project, the goal was to get as many downloads as possible. By interacting with potential users, that’s what our street team set out to do.

2. Be strategic. Who are you trying to reach and where are they? Understanding your target audience allows you to put street teams in the best locations with the right messaging. You want your street team to interact with consumers for a long enough period of time to make a difference. When working with the ride-sharing brand, we sought high-traffic areas that had more consumers. We also gave our team incentives to work harder and connect with more users, like free t-shirts.

3. Set a realistic budget. Street teams are cost-effective when used strategically. I’ve seen companies cut corners by recruiting individuals through social media for a one-time event, telling them when and where to show up, handing them a stack of flyers when they arrived and expecting great results. But it doesn’t work that way.

4. Train the brand ambassadors. You want people to feel they are joining a street team that is not only fun but well organized and designed to achieve a specific goal. To kick things off, provide a welcome packet and an introductory orientation/training meeting so new hires feel that they are an integral part of the team. Training materials include talking points, information about the company and products, FAQs, etc. We focused on hiring outgoing and engaging people who were comfortable approaching strangers.

5. Have an event manager onsite. The event manager gets the team energized and prepared for the day and has the authority to deal with last-minute surprises, like no-shows and weather-related problems. Our event manager for the ride-sharing initiative was able to monitor the street team to ensure they were doing what was expected of them and to reiterate talking points throughout the event. They were also onsite to ensure that consumers were actually downloading the app and using the coupon codes provided.

6. Include a call to action. Make sure consumers know what to do during or after the meeting rather than hoping they’ll figure it out on their own. If your goal is for them to download your app and order your service for the first time, brand ambassadors can walk them through the process and answer questions.

7. Collect data. Make sure you have a way to grab consumer information for analytical purposes and to follow up. For example, you may find Gen Xers are more likely to engage with your brand than millennials or certain parts of the country like your brand better than others. This is good information to have.

8. Measure success. This can be done using sign-up forms, trackable coupon codes or links to landing pages, designating specific phone extensions for callers, and so on. We track our brand ambassadors and ensure that they are doing what they need to do. For our ride-sharing initiative, we measured our success via intensive recaps at the end of each day. We were also in contact with our client about the number of redemption codes used regionally to provide a better visual of success nationwide.

9. Fine-tune and repeat. If you want to ensure success, analyze what worked and what didn’t after each event. Make adjustments as needed to create a high-quality consumer experience.

Street teams are a way to bring mobile apps and other online offerings to life. Rather than staring at a screen, consumers get to interact directly with products and services, and their questions can be answered by the person standing right next to them. In today’s digital age, building a personal connection with consumers goes a long way towards fulfilling your brand’s goals.

A version of this post originally appeared on Forbes.

At the time, I was at CareerBuilder, heading the Pacific Northwest territory for the mid-markets division. I can clearly remember the uphill battle our team faced while calling customers and prospects to renew job postings. In order to succeed, we started learning about where our customers were failing and what they were still spending money on. We stopped having the same old sales conversations.

It turns out we had been focusing on the wrong competition all along. They still needed to hire talent, but the top or niche candidates they wanted couldn’t be found on traditional job sites. To remedy this, we pitched ourselves and our sites for the next two years on selling against recruiters instead of simply being a job site. We focused on hard-to-fill and executive openings and found customers willing to spend big budgets to solve key needs in their business.

Even with an economic downturn, we didn’t blame something that wasn’t under our control. Instead, we took a hard look at our sales strategies and found areas that would allow us to prosper even in grim situations. Here are some top tips to maintain peak performance in a downturn:

1. Use technology and data to make yourself as efficient as possible. On average, sales representatives are only spending one-third of their time selling. They spend the other two-thirds on research, follow-up, and administrative tasks. With the current sales tech environment, this should no longer be the case. There has never been a more exciting time to be in sales, given the amount of sales and marketing technology at our disposal. It seems like every week there’s another tool that can help to automate segments of the sales process that are normally manual and cumbersome. Whether it’s automating follow-ups using Rebump or logging all sales activity in Gmail with Streak, there’s a tech tool out there that can help you be much more efficient in your day-to-day.
2. Think and act positively. People can sense desperation through your communication and that desperation leads to a lack of credibility amongst your customers. Remaining honest yet confident under tough circumstances is key to continued sales wins. To remain confident and optimistic, remember the high of closing deal after deal and the way you felt and acted on those days. Attitudes, both good and bad, rub off on the people you’re speaking with, so always make sure you remain positive.
3. Focus on out-of-the-box business challenges. Like the CareerBuilder example above, it’s important to think about different ways to position your product so that its use cases are positioned to solve new or bigger challenges. When the current positioning isn’t working, it’s time to change the conversation. Strive to use the “Challenger Approach” sales style, which more than 50 percent of all high-performing sales representatives rely on. Ask questions, push your customers to areas they might be familiar with but don’t label as important, and find solutions to problems they didn’t know existed. Don’t be locked into a course of action that is failing and be always be willing to adapt and find new ways to position yourself when conditions aren’t in your favor.
4. Block out the noise from your negative peers. Most people want to be good. But being great is a burden very few take on because they aren’t willing to put in the extra work necessary to get there. There are specific traits that separate great salespeople from the good, but the biggest difference is that they look at a downturn or a rejection as a challenge that they have to overcome. Negative peers will look to a downturn as an excuse for poor performance, or worse, no performance. Block out the noise and focus on getting better and improving yourself.
5. Learn hard, work smart. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he frequently mentions the 10,000-hour rule: It takes around that amount of time to achieve excellence and mastery in a field. It’s not rare to find people who put in long hours and grind it out to achieve sales excellence every month. They either get the job done or come pretty close consistently. But as the psychologist behind the rule, Anders Ericsson, says: “You don’t get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal.”

The key to above-average sales performance is to do both. Work the hours needed but continuously improve your sales execution by always learning. If you put in more hours than anyone, focus on improving every day, and constantly be looking to learn, you will see the results pay off.