OOH Sales Blog

Reframing OOH Sales: True Success Is Not As You Perceive

Think you can get by on your winnings mile and your outgoing personality to pave your road to OOH sales success? There's a widespread notion suggesting that if you're amicable, enjoy socializing, and have a pleasing personality, you were made to be in sales!

Common belief tends to exclude introverts and glorify extroverts. If you're sociable, you might feel you're already halfway to achieving success in OOH sales. However, the reality is that being a "people person" doesn't necessarily equate to being a skilled salesperson. In many instances, this attribute could even be detrimental.

Interestingly, the outgoing, affable people that we presume would be well suited for sales often struggle to perform the challenging tasks associated with the role.It is not unusual for this type of salesperson to have difficulty establishing a ‘peer to peer business conversation’ based on mutual respect with their clients or prospects. Usually because they are so caught up in wanting the prospect or client to like them! Can you push back when your customer wants torun creative that you know will not be effective? Wants to try outdoor for a month to see if it works for me?

At times, an effective salesperson must demonstrate toughness, even at the risk of seeming unlikable. Therefore,don't simply equate sociability with success. A proficient consultative OOH salesperson will probe, pose difficult queries to uncover their clients' business issues. They do this to offer the best possible solution, helping clients overcome significant challenges or capitalize on significant opportunities. Are you ready to undertake such responsibilities, or are you too preoccupied with the desire to be universally liked?

Here are some traits commonly observed in successful OOH salespeople. Reflect upon these and self-evaluate your competency in these key areas crucial for sales success:

• High Ambition/Drive

• Takes Action

• Adaptable

• Resilient

• Low Need for Approval

• Resistant to Stalls and Objections

• Accepts Responsibility for Failures.

Remember, don't aim to be a people person. Aim to be an effective salesperson. If you identify as a 'peopleperson', use that as a starting point. The real challenge lies in cultivating the many other traits that make a proficient salesperson.

_______

Need help with sales skills or coaching to take your out of home company to the next level. Learn more about OOH Sales Mastery at oohmastery.com or Contact Dan Nausley at dan.nausley@sandler.com, 423.702.5579.

Lisa & Dan Nausley of Sandler, Chattanooga have developed the OOH Sales Mastery Program after more than a decade of training/coaching scores of OOH Operators across the country in sales, leadership, and executive coaching.

‍

Read more Outdoor Sales Mastery Blogs

OOH Leadership

Be a Bulletproof Leader

Go ahead, be honest, do you have any leadership blind spots that have slipped up on you over the years? Are you really leading your OOH team proactively or do you find yourself tending to “react” to whatever the day/week has in store for us? Blind spots can adversely affect you or any leader. Frankly, they’re easy to miss – and capable of causing immense damage without ever getting noticed.

OOH Leadership

Five Best Practices for Leading High-Performance Salespeople

One of the mistakes that we see often with leaders of OOH sales teams is that they spend an inordinate amount of their time working with the team members that are not performing at an acceptable level. Sometimes spending as much as 75% of their time on the weakest performing salespeople. Trying desperately to raise the bar on their performance, often they will by in large neglect interactions with the high performers on the team.‍It may sound counterintuitive to not focus all your efforts trying to improve the reps who have the most opportunity for improvement. However, think of it this way. If you have to lose a salesperson, who would you rather see go? The high performer or the one that never seems to come close to reaching the minimum level of production you expect. The most valuable investment you can make in your salespeople is your time, your attention, your guidance and your coaching. ‍While we are not suggesting that you shouldn’t work with and spend time with the under performing reps, we must avoid at all costs the perception that the only way to get your attention is to under perform.