We are constantly inundated with a barrage of information; wondering we know it all – only to find us a little unconvinced with our knowledge. You work so hard in crafting a sales presentation two days before the main presentation day at your prospect’s office– only to find that it was not ‘relevant’, ‘not that useful’ and ‘anticipatory’ for your prospect. You had a great conversation with your hot prospect – only to find that your follow-through call wasn’t that valuable as you missed some new numbers they made in sales a day before or they went through a crisis, which you weren’t aware of. (This implies you’ve to ‘tinker’ with your sales call to understand their immediate priorities.) Even as sales marketers, you are missing the information beat, which you believe will be critical for your customers in using your service/ product.

You somehow can’t get through the focal point where your client’s business goals intersect with your value preposition – in every single interaction! Where are you going wrong? Is it because:

  • You are not tapping into the trigger scenarios properly?
  • You think you know the game, and can amp up the sales process with whatever information you have of your prospect?
  • You aren’t intuitive enough while conversing with your prospect?
  • You are not proactive in learning about your prospect’s business?

And this could go on..

So what could be the aspirin for this chronic problem?

My personal suggestion: read a lot! Learn. And then implement. Sounds easy, right? Well, it’s simple, not easy. To become an expert in your field, you have to consume information more than you think. Even the best of experts have to burn themselves – yes, burn the midnight oil – to stay competitive.

Some of you might be established entrepreneurs – and some might start their way as an ambitious entrepreneur – the only way to gather business intuition today is by learning how others have failed and succeeded. If you read a recent article published on entrepreneur by Peter Gasca on improve your business intuition by doing one simple thing, guess what is it? For experienced entrepreneurs, it can very well be your practical work experience; but for inexperienced entrepreneurs, the best way gather business intuition is to read. I feel whether you are a battle tested veteran or a sales newbie, we all need to learn to read everyday!

The more you learn, the better you are at your work. But wait – it is not just consuming gallops of information and thinking you have achieved it all. It is also remembering that relevance has a caveat: you have to unlearn based on the situation. And that’s a skill, too!

The next question is: how do I manage to read so much and yet retain the specificity of information that is useful for my prospect or client? For dealing with this information overwhelm, I strongly recommend, read Jill Konrath’s Agile Selling. She talks about learning agility as the key (and this not even a sales skill) to get past the crazy-busy prospects whose default answer – most of the times – is: No (in all its possible variations).

In the end, your purpose is your why. Keep your why so strong that your quest for learning becomes your burning desire – it mustn’t stop – come what may. Earning money, that’s a skill; becoming financial independent, that’s a skill, writing great e-mails, that’s a skill; conversing, that’s a skill; making world-class presentations, that’s a skill. All of it is learnable – only if you invest in your personal development.

And to those you cannot afford to join expensive seminars/ workshops or conferences, you can always count on books!

There was a time in my life when I couldn’t afford buying even the most inexpensive books. Guess what? I still bought them, but on credit. When you really want to learn, nothing can stop you. Nothing. Today being curious is more important than being intelligent!

After all, the hungriest person always wins.

Learn your way to success – and be unstoppable!

Act now: Make it happen!

Photo credit: <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/anned/4280359318/”>Anne Davis 773</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/”>cc</a>