Do you care about what you sell?

by Shannon F.

In school, you probably learned more from the teachers who were passionate about their subjects, not the ones who just clicked through slides about cell division while droning on and on. The same goes with sales. The one factor that really separates mediocre salespeople from great salespeople is caring passionately about the product they’re pitching. Sure, your product might be so boring that it makes cellular mitosis look like Cirque du Soleil, but chances are that it solves some key problems for businesses. Here’s how to start caring more:

Find something that you love about your product

If there’s nothing to love about your product, you probably shouldn’t be selling it. Find something to get excited about! We don’t know what you sell, so we can’t tell you what that one lovable aspect might be. Our advice: search deep within yourself. Or get inspiration from listening to your company’s founder/CEO talk about the product.

Learn as much as you can about what you sell.

Knowledge=confidence. If you have questions or doubts about what you’re selling, get them resolved, because gaps in your product knowledge will sap your confidence during your sales call. And the more you learn about what you sell, the more interested you’ll be! Think of each sales call as a chance to consult prospects in how to make their company better using your awesome product.

Listen to the top salesperson in your company.

Chances are that he or she radiates enthusiasm for the product. Sometimes, it’s not even what you say—it’s how you say it. Pay attention to the top salesperson’s tone of voice on the phone. Can you tell she believes in what she’s selling?

Collect customer success stories

Telling a customer success story is a great way to get your new prospect interested in using your product/service. Plus, you can’t help but get excited when you relate an example of how your company helped another organization to solve a problem, grow, or innovate.

Fake enthusiasm, and enthusiasm will come!

It’s true—pretending to care about something is often the first step to actually caring. Just watch a rom-com where two people pretend to be a couple and then end up falling in love. That movie has to exist, right? So change your attitude and start liking what you sell. Before long, your sales #s (and your paycheck) will feel the love.