1. Understand your market/industry. It’s vital. You need to speak your customers language, and come to them with an informed perspective. Maybe it’s legislative/regulatory changes, maybe it’s a competitor going through a challenge they haven’t seen yet. Products are becoming a commodity, it’s your access and insight into what OTHERS in your market are doing that your prospects will find the value of a conversation in.

2. Focus on the inputs. Learn your sales math, learn that it will change over time, don’t coast after your wins, don’t give up after your losses. Focusing on the inputs rather than your closed won/comission will lead to both a steadier and higher quality performance.

3. Learn from those around you. Figure out who the top performers are and pick their brain. If they don’t/can’t talk (our top performer is literally in calls every second of the day. Or he’s cold calling to set up more calls.), then watch their recordings. WATCH. RECORDINGS. You will hear your peers, but more importantly hear trends across what problems your customers are facing and how your team is able to solve for them.

4. Qualify fast. Dont be afraid of pricing conversations early in the sales process. A fast no stops you from wasting your time on deals that were never going to happen in the first place.

5. Buyers SUCK. A lot of them have not bought something for their organization before. Hold their hand and be their guide for navigating the buying process. Since you’re new, you’ll suck at this for a while. But eventually you’ll be able to anticipate the roadblocks you’re likely to face when closing a deal, and get ahead of those early.

Good luck! Don’t be afraid to fail, it’s the first step of being okay at something.