A Guide to Sales Success and Motivation

Sales success: It’s easier said than done, right? Besides the logistics of how to achieve and how to measure it, there’s one vital thing that’s the key to sales success — motivation. And that’s a whole different ballgame. 

For many, sales success means client success. When a client is happy after a positive interaction or outcome based on their professional relationship with your company, they’re not the only ones that’ve had success, you have, too. This shows exactly why sales success is just a lot more than scanning numbers on a page, meeting quotas, or understanding data analytics. 

This article will offer tips and tricks for achieving sales success from both a logistics perspective, but also a more personal one, giving you the motivation and inspiration to do so. Don’t forget, here at Surfe, we’re “selling good vibes,” and that positive attitude will radiate to your team, clients, and beyond, leading you toward sales success. 

The secret to sales success

From sales technology to really understanding your clients, here are some of the ways you can succeed in sales

• respond to real pain points
• manage time wisely
• favor quality over quantity
• use appropriate tools and technology
• provide useful and interesting content
• personalization is key

Now, let’s dive deeper into each of these points!

1. Respond to pain points

The trick to successful selling is responding to your clients’ needs. Are you fixing their problems? Is your product the solution? How can you adapt your product to fit their needs or problems?

When you fix your clients’ pain points, they succeed, you succeed — everybody succeeds!

2. Manage your time wisely

Time is money, so using your time wisely means you’ll hopefully end up on the right end of that ROI. We all know how precious time is as a resource — there never seems to be enough of it, so if you can figure out how and what deserves your time the most, there’s no doubt you’re on your way to sales success. 

But if you’re like most of us and struggle with time management, there are tools that can help. First, make sure you’re making good use of a digital calendar, such as Calendly, which can you help efficiently organize meetings and otherwise. 

Surfe is another way to manage your time. It automates tedious processes without violating LinkedIn rules by seamlessly connecting CRM to LinkedIn and integrating with other sales tools, meaning you have more time to focus on actually selling instead of mundane data entry. 

3. Quality over quantity

We really can’t stress enough how focusing on the right prospects (generating qualified sales leads) and making sure you provide quality service to each and every one of your customers is the best way to write that sales success story. 

When customers feel valued or have a positive experience, they’re not only likely to spend more (yes, 86% of buyers will spend more for a quality experience), but they’re more likely to recommend you to others, too. 

Retaining customers is much cheaper for companies than investing in new ones. After all, repeat customers tend to spend 67% more than new ones, so you may be able to upsell or cross-sell to a valued, quality customer. 

4. Use sales technology

Technology should be a tool that sets you up for success. Make sure you’re using a CRM, and one that’s a right fit for your business and brand. Things like email cadencing tools and meeting schedulers can be extremely useful, too. Just make sure not to go overboard with automation, especially sales automation tools, which could get you banned from LinkedIn and often provides you with only the quantity but not the quality. 

5. Provide useful and interesting content

Content helps keep customers and prospects engaged and can contribute to your brand’s overall image. Make sure to keep your content interesting and related to your business (yes, that doggie video is adorable, but it may not be right for your professional LinkedIn page!) in order to maintain your brand’s messaging and appeal. You can’t go wrong with case studies, videos, tutorials, and testimonials.

6. Keep it personal

We can’t stress this enough — personal relationships are what keep customers coming back again and again. Really listen to your customers and treat them in a personal and professional way. Make them feel valued and important. You can’t fix their pain points if you don’t know what their pain points are, and these types of solutions all come from the right types of relationships.

How to measure sales success

These sales tips will help you measure sales success.

Creating functional KPIs

• Establish relevant KPIs: Key Performance Indicators are quantitative indicators that are judged by a number. Establishing KPIs is important in sales in order to reach your sales goals. Some of the most general KPIs in sales are things like customer satisfaction, client retention, revenue growth, and profit margin.
• Match KPIs to your business objectives: Make sure your KPIs fit your business goals. For example, if you’re focusing on eliminating customer churn and maintaining current clients, client retention is a KPI you’ll really want to focus on.

Consider this when determining key KPIs

A strong pipeline and an accurate salesforce are key when it comes to measuring KPIs. A sales pipeline shows your general opportunities on a wider scale, but a forecast is focused on qualified opportunities where you can expect to close deals. Understanding these two things can help you hone in on which KPIs to focus on and how to best measure them. 

It might be most helpful to split KPIs into two categories: funnel development and quota/revenue-focused. Funnel development KPIs can be things like sales cycle length and length of time it takes to qualify a prospect versus quota-focused KPIs like average deal size and annual quota. 

Other metrics worth tracking can be things like opportunity-to-win rate, year-over-year growth, LTV, lead conversion rate, and many others. Figure out what’s most important for sales success and growth for your company, and track those metrics. 

Need inspiration? These motivational quotes can help

Sometimes, we all need just a little extra push, and these quotes for sales success may just do the trick.

 “Do not focus on numbers. Focus on doing what you do best.” –Cassey Ho

As we suggested in our first paragraph, it’s not always about metrics. Sometimes, you need to focus on yourself, your clients, and the process itself to make things happen.

 “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” -Tony Robbins

Remember those KPIs we mentioned? Yup. Goals. 

“It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.” -Mark Hunter

I think we could all say this one was made for prospecting!

 “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” -Napoleon Hill

He sure said it right — sales is an industry that often moves quickly, but a dream with a deadline sounds much more exciting than a goal, right?

“I never lose. I either win or learn.” –Nelson Mandela

Maybe you didn’t “lose” a prospect or client. If you learned something, that’s the most important thing. 

 “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” -Beverly Sills

Sales can be frustrating and discouraging, and sales success doesn’t happen overnight. But we promise, taking the high route means you’ll get there!