Not hitting your sales targets – 3 things to improve in your final week

Once again, we have arrived at that dreadful time of the month that is known to all salespeople as the FINAL week, before their sales are calculated for the month. One small week now stands between you and the fact that you will either HIT or MISS your sales target.

Most of the time things haven’t worked out as planned and you have a very stressful week of manic calls and meetings ahead of you.

That is unfortunately where a lot of mistakes can be made. So in this article, I’ll share my top tips for hitting your sales quota if you’re under the gun with time.

Hit Your Sales Targets: Relationship before task

Our natural instinct when time is of the essence, is to not waste any time and focus on our goal. Unfortunately in these times we tend to rush our normal sales process, and forget to nurture our relationship with our existing clients. Instead, most people focus on the task at hand instead of the relationship, and as a result your clients feel like they are being sold, not by a friend but by a salesperson. Nobody enjoys that.

So even though time is of the essence, don’t forget to put your relationship first, before your tasks and objectives. It’s worth the time if the deal ends up closed. After all, a person is more willing to buy from you if they like you.

Hit Your Sales Targets: Don’t forget to appeal to people’s emotions

On to the next point, one of the biggest mistakes salespeople make in general, but especially during the final week, is to sell logically. Using statistics, features, benefits to sell now will not be as effective as tapping into their emotional buying reasons.  You see human beings respond first with emotion then they use reason to back up why they chose that option.

How do you find out what their buying reasons are? Simple, you ask questions.

Never assume you know why they’re buying, ask them why and dig deep. Not only will you build a far stronger relationship with them but you’ll tap into information that will help the sales process.

Hit Your Sales Targets: Have their best interests at heart

Remember that the key to sales is trust. If your customers trust you, they will buy from you. But they need to genuinely believe that you have their best interests at heart before they make that sale.

Even if that means missing your sales targets instead of pushing something down a client’s throat that they don’t need right now. They will remember that and begin to see you as a partner, and not just someone trying to take their money.

An example of this is a one-use medical supply company in the USA, they supply products like catheters and the like.  If they contact a client and they cannot supply a product that their client needs, they will contact their own competitors and provide their competitors with their client’s contact details.  That is not the end of the road for the first company, instead they follow up with their client regularly and if their competitor is not delivering or their service is slow, they follow up with their competitor and manage the entire relationship.  This company is growing astronomically each year!

So remember in times of stress and high pressure when trying to hit your sales targets; pause, ponder, think of what you are trying to achieve and then react. This will ensure that you always make your clients feel comfortable so that their emotional side responds favorably to what you are trying to sell instead of their rational side.

Lastly, on a parting note I would like to leave you with the notion that in sales, a “No” today is not necessarily a “No” tomorrow. So keep your head up and keep going!