This summer I’ve been given the wonderful opportunity to work for The Around Campus Group as a sales representative. Last Sunday I hopped on a plane and headed to The University of North Carolina to attend the sales foundation academy. For the past few days I’ve spent countless hours studying and learning all the necessary skill and techniques to become a top notch sales representative.
I’ll admit this is one of the more challenging tasks I’ve ever been faced with, and at one point I found myself becoming very negative and discouraged. I was having a really hard time accepting our scripts and began to criticize my performance as well as myself. I’ll admit I even began to doubt the overall program. Todays lessons however turned my entire attitude around. Today we learned the steps to handling our clients objections while on a sales call. If you are unfamiliar with these steps they are as follows:
1.Actively Listen
2. Ask Questions
3.Respond
4.Check
After going through the objection process and role playing different scenarios I realized lesson could be applied to a multitude of situations. So I began to apply some of the techniques to my own attitude and objections I had been feeling towards myself earlier in the day and the results were amazing.
Step 1: Listen
First I took a minute to really “listen” to myself and try and understand what it was I was really so upset about. I had to actually define what the actual objection was and once I knew this I knew I could easily use my new skills to overcome said objection.
Step 2: Ask
Once I realized what it was that was getting me so upset and what I was feeling so down on myself I began to dig a little deeper. I asked myself some fair questions like:
“What exactly is it about the script that you do not like?”,
“What is it about the script that you think is so hard”
“Why don’t you believe in yourself?
As I began answering these questions I realized I was being a little bit unreasonable. Just by asking myself these questions I began to feel myself letting go of these objections, just like a majority of clients out in the field will.
Step 3: Respond
Once I had asked myself these crucial questions I realized I had forgotten one important thing. The most expensive thing a person can own is a closed mind. I realized that I was being very closed-minded when it came to the script and that if I really gave it a chance it would only help my career. Furthermore I realized that I was being way to hard on myself and ultimately holding myself back by thinking I wasn’t good enough to master the script.
Step 4: Check
After mentally breaking down the first three steps I started to realize just how much my attitude towards the script and the overall program as a whole had changed. I checked in with myself and assured I had completely over come my own personal objection.
The biggest take away I got from todays lesson was that not only is this entire training process absolutely amazing, it is also applicable to a wide variety of daily situations.
As if the lesson in overcoming objections was not enough, after lunch the VP of sales, Jeff Stencel, came in to speak with my region today as well. He gave us a great presentation on how to become mentally tough, which is almost ironic how relatable it was to my prior situation. Jeff is an amazing guy who gave a great speech and was incredibly quotable. One thing Jeff Stencel said to us today that only made me more confident in throwing out my previous objections was that “You are what you think, you become what you believe”. This to me told me I can do this and I will do this! I could not have paid for a better sales training and I am incredibly blessed to be apart of The Around Campus Group.
If you like my thoughts and would like to hear some more follow my blog as well as like my Facebook page, follow me on twitter and use the #MTBJ. Also check out Jeff Stencel on Twitter and The Around Campus Group Blog for more inspirational quotes and sales tips. Thanks for reading.