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Average reps deliver exactly what is asked of them. Remarkable reps deliver more, exceed their goals, and stand out in a sea of sales people. Going the extra mile—and becoming truly remarkable—isn’t easy. To realize your peak potential as a seller in 2022, it’s important to self-evaluate. Where do you fall on the performance spectrum? What’s holding you back from being better than last week, last quarter, or last year?
In June, SDR Kaitlin Leng, who has never dipped below 200% to quota in her tenure at Ambition, challenged our internal team to step away from the grind for one mile every day. Walking, running, peletoning, paddle boarding: each person could pick their method for 30 miles over 30 days. Why did this challenge prove to be so meaningful? It was the discipline of making one mile happen, somehow, someway, even when circumstances weren’t perfect.
According to a recent Ambition poll conducted on LinkedIn, 61% of sales professionals from companies like Clari, Toast, ADP, Highspot, and the Memphis Grizzlies choose to exercise or meditate to stay centered, focused, and positive when they’re up against all odds at work. In sociopolitical and economic times like these, it’s critical to do what you can to increase your employee value, secure every accelerator within reach, and feel fulfilled along the way. That’s why in the spirit of our 30-miles-in-30-days challenge, we put together a list of 30 ways you can go the extra mile for your prospects, customers, colleagues, leaders, and most importantly for yourself—starting now.
How to unlock your peak revenue potential:
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Control the controllables
Factors outside of your control can quickly impact your emotions—and your work. In these moments, remember sales is a numbers game that you can control. Make sure you’re building your pipeline (minimum 3x your goal) and doing your dials and connects every single day.
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Focus on expansion
In today’s selling climate, it’s important to lean into your existing customer base. You’ve already faced your biggest hurdles like building the relationship, getting it on paper, and proving ROI—now explore new ways to bring those accounts even more value.
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Define your “why”
Going the extra mile at work is only possible with greater purpose. Clearly defining your “why” or writing yourself a short mission or vision statement gives you a true north to point back to when you hit a rough patch.
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Strive to improve by 1% each day
Always think future-forward when it comes to the metrics that matter to you. Spend a couple minutes reviewing your scorecard from yesterday and ask yourself, “What is one KPI I could improve by 1% today?” Simple adjustments will lead to massive returns.
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Let your peers’ success drive you
Is an AE on your team exceeding quota month over month? Is someone in sales dev thinking outside of the box to build pipeline? Study what these high performers do to realize success and draw inspiration from them.
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Build momentum with a sales competition
Make sales fun by creating a competition that motivates reps during a slow buying season or encourages them to reach for a stretch goal. With Ambition’s Sales Gamification software, you decrease time spent running competitions by 96%.
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Get creative selling pilots and proof of concepts
In uncertain economic times, a lower barrier to entry or an option to “try it” will prove to be your competitive edge as a seller. A pilot or proof of concept isn’t expected from buyers, but shows your confidence in your product or service if someone is not ready to fully commit.
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Take mental breaks
Your best problem-solving won’t always happen at your desk. No matter how packed your calendar is, block time to step away to walk your dog, go to CrossFit, or pick up your kids from school. Turning work “off”, especially as a hybrid seller, isn’t as easy as it sounds. Schedule those mental-health breaks.
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Be the person your prospects remember
Seller, customer, prospect: everyone is human. Show the world who you are by being fearlessly vulnerable. Bring up commonalities on a call about a place or event. Attach emojis to your name on LinkedIn that represent your passions. These are the small gestures that will make you memorable.
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Make BFFs at work
According to the 2021 Workplace Friendship & Happiness Survey by Wildgoose, 57% of people say having a best friend in the workplace makes work more enjoyable, 22% feel more productive with friends, and 21% say friendship makes them more creative. Go the extra mile by building in 10 minutes before each team meeting to enjoy the people around you.
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Learn from your peers’ experiences
There’s no better way to sharpen your skills than by exchanging sales emails, call recordings, talk tracks, and big ideas with your peers. Be open about your wins and misses, ask mentors for feedback, and learn from the collective team’s experiences.
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Ask for referrals
Your network is wider than you think: ask for referrals. Reach out to past and current co-workers, customers you’ve already sold to, and longtime friends or family and ask them if they know one person in your ICP they could introduce you to.
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Tilt towards a growth mindset
Two mindsets exist: Fixed and growth. With a growth mindset, you push yourself to go the extra mile by believing you can improve every day through practice. Try not to focus on failures and instead make “no excuse just produce” your personal mantra.
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Develop productive work habits
To work smarter, not harder, it’s critical to build habits that lead to consistency. Take cues from yourself: what structures and atmospheres empower me to do my best work? To develop these habits, use reminders on your phone, calendar holds, or even ask your coach to check in on your progress at weekly 1:1s.
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Build communities within your industry and organization
A study by the Wharton School found that the lonelier people are at work, the worse they perform. To go the extra mile in serving yourself and others, strive to make deeper connections. Create an open Slack group for Women in Tech or have a monthly virtual meetup about a cause you and others feel passionate about.
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Prioritize the emotions of your prospect
Having a high emotional IQ will take you far in sales. Prioritizing your prospect’s emotions and perspectives will build trust and foster a healthy relationship that will have a lasting effect through all of your career highs and lows.
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Take the time to prepare
According to research, 57% of a purchase decision is complete before a potential client contacts the supplier, requests a demo, or asks for pricing. Now more than ever, sales reps encounter conversations that are much further into the decision cycle. To go the extra mile, take time to develop a pre-call plan.
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Never stop prospecting
Keeping your funnel full is key. No matter how busy you become getting a deal done, you have to continue prospecting for continued success. Ensure you have a minimum of 3-5x your pipeline goal and implement sales competitions like a weekly call blitz to ensure the momentum never stops.
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Document everything
If it’s not in Salesforce, did it really happen? Documenting everything throughout the sales process is critical for success. See how the Memphis Grizzlies leveraged Ambition to promote positive Salesforce adoption among their Ticket Sales Reps (TSRs) and AEs.
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Manage up
Having an amazing relationship with your leader is one of the first steps to going the extra mile in sales. Not only do you gain credibility and rapport, you can maximize your potential as an employee by giving them early warning signs of deals at risk or cluing them into unique roadblocks. With Ambition Coaching, managing up can become programmatic.
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Set mini-goals
David Stone, Senior Director of Freight Brokerage at Ryder, says it best, “sales is a marathon.” To feel like you’re making progress, give yourself daily and weekly mini-goals like making 10 calls or sending 10 LinkedIn messages before 10 a.m.
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Ask probing questions
To uncover real pain, approach your sales conversation like a journalist would uncover a story: ask probing questions like, how do you know your process is working? Or, how long have you been thinking about this? The more your prospect can paint you a picture, the better you can sell into their organization.
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Lead with confidence
Confidence is a make-or-break in sales. Leading with confidence doesn’t mean you’ll always have the perfect words or right answer. Instead, leading with confidence is your body language, authenticity, and vulnerability that compound to gain you credibility.
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Seek feedback and skill training in coaching sessions
Your sales manager is busy. Oftentimes, they can be bogged down by recruiting, interviewing, and running and analyzing reports. But the most important thing they can do is transfer knowledge, offer feedback on customer interactions, and collaborate with you on stalled deals. Seek to optimize every coaching session you have, so the latter happens. Learn more about this topic by watching this on-demand webinar.
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Strive to be an expert
It’s not uncommon to gamify sales, but have you ever thought about gamifying learning of the product or service you sell? Push yourself to the next level by tracking how you continue to sharpen your knowledge at work, and you’ll see incremental improvements in the way you handle objections and communicate ROI.
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Listen
According to a study conducted by Gong, the top closers spend the most time listening and the least time talking. The analysis revealed that by increasing your prospect’s talk-time from 22% to 33% (an easily attainable jump), you can boost your win rates significantly. Learn about the Ambition + Gong integration here.
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Reward yourself
Being at the top of the leaderboard isn’t always what you need. Sometimes you need a day off to recharge and reward yourself for a job well done. According to Inc, research suggests that if you push yourself through too many hours or days of work your brain will push back.
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Make a list
What’s the secret to going the extra mile (and achieving big goals)? Make a list. Writing down your daily or weekly tasks to complete clears your mind, helps you prioritize, keeps you motivated, and ultimately gives you more space for higher-level thinking and working.
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Aim high, fail high
For high performers, it’s natural to want to achieve and failure seems scary. If you’re constantly achieving, it is a sign that your goals can be bigger. With Ambition’s Revenue Performance Platform™, you can pace and path your people to reach their peak potential even when it seems too high.
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Ask yourself, “what can I influence?”
As a sales professional, it’s important to think critically about what your next right step is. Ask yourself, “what can I influence?” Share social proof or ROI with someone not ready to fully commit. Find the answer (or a helpful resource) to answer a question your prospect had. Send a thoughtful gift to a customer who was a reference. Remember the small things—and celebrate them—like a potential client’s birthday or the house they just bought. Never underestimate your influence—and you’ll go far.
