by Karen Wessels, founder of SnappSales and VA Connect

Sales really does get such a negative reputation sometimes, and I get it - most of us have a bit of a skewed understanding when it comes to sales, so we would rather steer clear than truly harness our sales powers.

Did you know that there is a tale that says there are two proverbial wolves inside each of us. The one wolf feeds on the negative and the other on the positive. The one you feed is the one that thrives.

Ask yourself, which wolf am I feeding?

As with anything in life where you focus your energy and attention is where growth happens.

Set aside your fears and negative feelings towards sales. Trust me, once you understand the power behind having sales skills, you will embrace it. Are you giving your sales the attention it deserves? If you aren’t focused daily on your sales activities how can you possibly expect your business to grow and thrive? Remember, without sales there can be no business.

In today’s blog I want to share with you some great sales tips that will help you feed the right wolf.

1. Make sales a daily activity

Yip, you cannot expect to prospect 4 days of the month and rely on whatever comes from that to sustain your business. Schedule a set time every day with yourself to focus on sales activities.

I generally recommend spending a minimum of 20 minutes per day doing quality outreach on a platform like LinkedIn. And an additional 20 minutes per day building a relationship with those that you have already done outreach with.

Your daily sales activities could be 10 prospecting calls for the day, or 20 minutes on LinkedIn, or 40 minutes setting up your email campaign.

Whatever your strategy looks like, be sure to be consistent on giving it daily attention. It’s the same with having a houseplant or a pet, you cannot get away with feeding them every other day. This same principle applies in business.

2. Always be prepared

Do not go into a sales meeting unprepared. This sales meeting could be digitally or in-person. And by saying unprepared, I mean, know what your expected outcomes are from the meeting. Do you expect to walk away with the deal? Are you on a fact-finding mission? What is your intention with this particular sales meeting?

Obviously you need to have done your homework on your prospect, understand their business and market better, where their pain points lie and how you can add value. This goes without saying.

You need to have a strategy for each sales meeting. Be prepared to handle objections, know where you add value and be sure to walk away with something tangible, whatever that may be for you.

3. Your Monday morning checklist

Every Sunday night take the opportunity to set aside time to create your checklist for that coming Monday. Believe me the better prepared you are entering the week the less daunting the new week will seem. Plus it sets the mind-set and tone for the week.

Work through your prospect list and determine who you would like to do outreach to for the week. Be sure to attend to new prospects as well as following up on prospects from the previous week. I find it’s easier to navigate the week when you have clear direction on what you want to achieve. Otherwise trust me that little pesky thing called procrastination will creep in.

An additional tip for the week:

Review and manage your calendar

Each week spend the necessary time on evaluating last week’s calendar. This includes how much time you spent on prospecting, how many sales conversations you had, where you spent time on customer work, did you spend time on following up and the big time eating activity, admin. Review this data to ensure you are better prepared for the upcoming week. This weekly catchup (instead of watching Netflix!) will show you where you are spending your time. You need to learn to start saying no to things that don’t align with your vision or cuts into your selling time.

Happy selling!

Karen Wessels is the co-founder and COO of VA Connect, a South African virtual assistant platform that provides outsourced administrative support; and is also the co-founder of SnappSales, a company that generates quality sales leads for its clients. Prior to establishing both her companies, Karen spent over 10 years in different sales, marketing & admin support roles. This experience has equipped her with the invaluable skills required to run her two successful business ventures. Follow Karen on her Personal Website | Twitter | Facebook | Google+