In my experience I’ve found that truly great sales people are also great mentors. They’ve spent enough time hitting the pavement that they have valuable insights they can provide to the next generation of sales people. They also tend to be known as an expert in their field.
The idea for my sales blog came about while mentoring another sales rep who was mostly new to professional selling. His skills sets, while ideal for the industry, were still not honed for the outside sales role he had been hired for. We became close friends and learned a lot from each other.
Because of my experience it was natural that I help him develop the sales skills that would be necessary for him to be successful in our positions.
I’ve found that I am naturally drawn to teaching people about sales. I love to do it and when the opportunity is right, I do so freely.
Most recently I was at a national conference for affordable housing manning the booth with a newer rep and handing out our cool trade show giveaways. The other rep ask for my advice on how to best target his prospects.
He may have regretted that decision because when someone asks me about prospecting I tend to be very verbose. I went into great lengths describing my mentality around cold calling, prospect emails, activities, cadence, and everything else I’ve talked about in my TREAT method of prospecting.
Again, I was passionate about mentoring this new sales rep so that could be as successful as possible in his role.
I’ve found that teaching and mentoring others about sales helps me be a better sales person. Not only does it solidify the ideas in my mind, but when talking them over with an outside perspective I am able to see flaws I didn’t recognize before.
Working from home I don’t always have someone to talk sales with which is why I use other mediums to share my experience. I do here on the Sales Pro Blog. On LinkedIn through groups and posts. And on Twitter by sharing links and insights I’ve found useful.
The point I want to make is that I do not teach because I am an expert, I am an expert because I teach. I try to mentor as many people as I can so that they and I can be better sales people.
~ Johnny Bravo
Image courtesy of marin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
{ 0 comments… add one now }