Weekly Sales Tips: 3 Things Sales Veterans Can Learn from Sales Newbies

Are you a sales veteran? Think you have nothing to learn from the sales newbies? Perhaps you’re right but I’m going to challenge you to read on just to make sure.

Every now and then, I hear a different version of the same story. The new salesperson comes along and just goes bananas, they’re just setting the world on fire, and it really shocks the entire team, especially the veterans. 

I’ve seen it happen over and over again. Unfortunately, many veterans are just going to blow it off. Ah, it’s beginner’s luck. They don’t know what they’re doing here, they just got lucky. I’m going to agree with you on the part about not knowing what they’re doing but that’s all. It’s not luck they are just doing what they don’t know anyway.

Tell me more you say?

What if there was something valuable to learn from that new salesperson? Maybe there can be a career spark if we look hard enough at the newbie. Veterans face the reality of career slumps from time to time. I’ve been there, you’ve been there, we know what it’s like. The job gets stale, the conversations start to sound all the same. We just lose our love for the business. But hang around the rookies and you just might learn something.

Three Lessons Veterans Can Learn From Newbies

Hunger

That new salesperson comes on and they’re just hungry. They want a sale. They want to get a sale so bad they can taste it. Sometimes when we are veterans, after a while, we got another sale, that’s nice. We stop appreciating what it really is. As a result, we stop appreciating how hard we have to work for it. Hunger initiates drive. If you feel that drive subsiding a little bit, watch a new person.

Curiosity.

You know, it’s really interesting, if you’re newer, you don’t have all the answers. That can actually work in your favor. Because I don’t have all the answers, it means that I have to ask better questions, deeper questions. As a new salesperson, I want my customer to talk. It’ll help me so much more, especially if I’m not equipped to handle every situation and know everything yet about my product, my industry, the marketplace, or whatever it happens to be. So watch that new salesperson and just see how curious they are.

Appreciation

New people are so grateful for the very opportunity to do what it is that they do. They’re so thankful that they GET to help somebody, they GET to change someone’s life. I wonder from time to time if we stop with that appreciation, we let that appreciation slide, and it makes us a little weary inside.

Now, look, if you’re a veteran, I appreciate you so much. I thank you so much for what you bring to our industry, including what you bring to the new salespeople. This is a tough business and you’ve survived, you’ve thrived, you’ve figured out how to be successful.

If you’re a sales rookie, I want you to expand on these areas. If you could find a way to bottle those things up and keep them on a shelf so someday, three years down the road, you could just take a big old swig and remember what it was like to be here.

The fact of the matter is we can all learn from one another. Sometimes it just takes some intentionality.

Until next time, learn more to earn more.


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About the Author: Jeff Shore

Jeff Shore is the Founder and CEO of Shore Consulting, Inc. a company specializing in psychology-based sales training programs. Using these modern, game-changing techniques, Jeff Shore’s clients delivered over 145,000 new homes generating $54 billion in revenue last year.