Best@Selling

Sales training and sales consulting to increase sales.

For A Sales Consultation

Info@BestatSelling.com

  • About
    • What We Do to Increase Sales
    • Sales Philosophy on Hiring Salespeople
    • Clients
    • Customer Comments
    • In the Media
    • Contact Us
  • Speaking and Training
    • Sales Coaching for Performance Improvement
    • Professional Speaking
    • Sales Training
    • Sales Consultant for Business Development & Increase Sales
  • Sales Products
    • Books
    • Audio CDs
    • Webinars
    • E-Books
    • Manuals
    • Booklets
    • Merchandise
  • Free Resources
    • Videos
    • The Selling Newsletter
    • What is your Selling Issue?
    • Recommended Reading
    • Free Reprint Articles
    • White Papers
    • Sales Pro
  • Upcoming Programs
  • Membership
You are here: Home / Blog / Think About Your Selling

Think About Your Selling

January 1, 2023 By maurasf

think about your selling

Did you make New Year’s resolutions? Why bother. Most people will break them anyway. Instead, why not take some time now (if you haven’t already) to think about your selling this year. Thinking about what you might do is the first step in actually doing the actions that get you better sales results. Here’s what you can think about.

Think about your selling skills.

One of the most important selling skills is listening. Listening in sales is not just hearing. It’s listening for understanding. Listening for selling successfully means paying attention.  You must be a careful observer of what your prospect and customers say and do. Loyal customers give you feedback when asked, return calls promptly and help you understand their business so you can serve them better. There are few surprises. 

It’s important as well to observe what they aren’t doing to support you. Customers who are not loyal are often shopping your competitors, looking to lower your price and keep you off balance with more and more special requests that are in their interests, not yours. Your listening and careful analysis will help you develop a strategic vision for your sales process and how you work with each prospect. Your skillful execution comes next. 

Think about your sales process.

Part of your selling is understanding situations change that make your business vulnerable. Asking “what if?” periodically during the year will help you prepare for a change in your business. Here are a few examples. 

Perhaps you have a strong supporter at a large account. Ask yourself, “What if he left?”  What would happen to your business? Would you be vulnerable to competition? Do you have enough back up supporters who would continue to buy from you? Your answers might force you to start building strategic alliances with additional supporters at that account. 

Another question is “What if a large customer lost its largest customer?” Do you know the strengths of your customers’ business and projections for 2023? Do you know what would happen to your sales if that customer lost a major piece of business? Your answer might force you to reexamine your 2023 prospects to gauge how strong they are and whether you have a sufficient cushion for your 2023 sales goals. 

Think about your improvement.

You may have had a great 2022. Congratulations! It’s now time to start over. Not getting to rest on your laurels is a feature of selling. I often see the successful sales professionals given more challenging goals than the less successful salespeople. It doesn’t seem fair. Selling isn’t fair. It’s often the result of hard work and a little luck.  Start thinking about what you can improve in your skillset this year instead of complaining about what is or isn’t’ fair.

Do you need to read more books on selling to help you improve? Do you need to sign up for a class to learn a new skill or improve an existing one? You should always consider improving your skills even if you don’t have tougher sales goals this year. Getting complacent or not working as smart as your competition is a good predictor of losing sales. The new year has begun. It’s time to think about your selling this year if you haven’t already.

Tweet
PinIt

Filed Under: Blog, Sales Strategy

THE SELLING E-LETTER® SIGN UP

Social media

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Selling Tips

*What was your last “mistake?” Did you make it before? There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes in sales provided you are making different mistakes. (You are learning from them!)

About the principal

Would you take auto mechanics classes when you buy a car? Maura did because she wanted to be able to work on her car. She takes that same approach to selling. She can show you how to get below the surface of selling to learn why and how different strategies work. She will show you which skills to implement that will shorten your sales cycle and increase your sales. She was Mobil Oil's first female Lubrication Engineer in the United States and one of Chevron's top 5 salespeople in the country. She knows what works for sales.

"I would recommend your work to other sales organizations who want to get better results from improved selling strategies."
Jamey Rootes
President
Houston Texans

Sales Expert at Allbusiness.com

Selling is the easiest job in the world. Just ask anyone who is not in sales. Read Maura’s ideas on “more brain…less mouth” selling to make your selling easier and more successful.

Maura’s Allbusiness blog posts

Recent Posts

  • The Right Words in Sales
  • How to Handle Disagreements in Sales
  • AI In Sales
  • Help! I Just Lost a Big Sale! 
  • Unforced Errors in Selling

Search

Copyright © 2025 · Best@Selling