Last week, I spent two days with one of my clients, onboarding new business development representatives they hired to handle the growth opportunity that is in front of them.
This client was not hiring salespeople. They were hiring peers of their target prospect and enlisting me to help turn them into new business developers.
It was a fun two days and we covered a lot of ground, much of it specific to their industry and prospect.
But the one universal we spent a lot of time on was what I thought it took to be a good business developer. I gave them the following acronym:
H3
- Heart
- Humility
- Hustle
Heart: The most important sale a salesperson will ever make is to themselves. If they aren’t fully bought into their offering, they will struggle to get anyone else to buy it. They can’t let inescapable rejection dissuade them from that belief.
How? Motivation is like showering. What you did yesterday was helpful, but you must do it again today. Review customer testimonials, share wins as a team and continually remind yourself why you do what you do.
Heart also means that you must genuinely care about your prospect and their business. If you don’t, find something else to do because your prospects will feel that.
Humility: A good salesperson is coachable. They don’t think they have all the answers. They know there’s always more to learn. More to learn about their offering, their customers, their tactics and tools.
Good salespeople are infinitely curious and care more about their prospects than their products. They would rather ask questions than give pitches. They can know what their prospect needs, but lead them to that truth rather than beat them over the head with it.
Hustle: Great salespeople daily do the things that average salespeople are unwilling to do. They aren’t afraid to pick up the phone and make the tenth call when the previous nine didn’t go well. They find a way to spend the majority of their time on the high-value activities that lead to success rather than creatively avoid those things.
I recently read that the average business developer spends 36% of their time selling. Only a third! The great salespeople hustle and spend much more of their time on high-value activities by scheduling them in their calendar and building the habits that make them successful.
Heart. Humility. Hustle. If you have those three things, you’ll succeed at sales. (BTW, if you do have those, call me. I have several clients who would love to hire you).
What would you add to H3?