If you’re in sales (and we are ALL in sales of some kind), are you 100% satisfied with the effort your putting in compared with the benefits? You may be at the top of your game, but at what price…are you sacrificing your health, your family, your personal interests and hobbies.

Many sales people are getting frustrated in spending most of their time preparing reports and chasing down every lead that even seems like a potential customer. Clearly the most frustrating task is “hunting” for new prospects.

It’s funny, somewhere along the line there became two classifications for sales people, “hunter” and “farmer.” Neither of these labels really represents the style of top sales professional.

Think about it…a hunter chases and then kills it prey. I don’t see this as sales.

The farmer works a specific piece of land, never expanding out. I don’t see this as effective and efficient sales either.

I understand the need and importance for filling a funnel, but if you’re spending most of your time filling the funnel because too many prospects are dropping out…STOP! You are painting yourself into a corner of with no escape.

Let me ask you, do have customers, or do you have clients?

Let’s look at the definitions. According to Dictionary.com a customer is “A person who purchases goods or services from another; buyer.”

Not bad, you want people to buy.

Now, let’s take a look at the definition of a client is “Anyone under the patronage of another; a dependent.”

Do you see the glaring difference?

A client is decedent on you. This “dependency” is based on your level of expertise, respect for the client and allowing the client to decide on THEIR terms when and if to purchase.

This may fly in the face of most of the sales training out there. And this some of what top sales performers do differently. Below are the top 9 mental strength tips to improves sales performance.

1. Build Relationships and Make Connections: This is the KEY difference on how to have customers vs. clients.
2. Respect Your Clients and Honor Their Wishes: This approach allows you to build trust, respect and credibility quickly
3. Target Specific Groups of Individuals and the People with Whom You do Your Best Work: Just because a person can fog up a mirror does not make then a potential client…or as many sales training define “a suspect.” By highly targeting your marketing/sales message you’ll reach the exact people who are looking for you.
4. Make Relevant and Timely Offers: When you listen and hear what your clients are asking for (the message between the words) and allow the right time to unfold (the right time is NOT the last week in the month) there will be only one correct offer to make.
5. Increase Your “Likability Factor”: This does not mean to bring your clients to the most popular strip joint in town. This means that the old saying is absolutely true, “people buy from people they know, like and trust.
6. Practice Radical Transparency: Clients can see through all the sales BS, so knowing this and being completely open and transparent, you’ll gain their respect, hence their trust, and then the order :-)
7. Establish Yourself as a Trusted Adviser: This is at the heart of the difference between a customer and a client.
8. Collaborate with Strategic Partners to Leverage Your Efforts: Guerrilla Marketing founder and Guru Jay Conrad Levinson refers to this as “fusion marketing.” Find who else your clients purchase from (noncompetitive of course) and form an alliance to assist the client with their needs. After all, two heads (or more) are better than one.
9. Think Bigger about Who you are and what you Offer You’re Clients: Plying small does not serve your clients, your company or you. You are in a very unique position that only sales professional have; you have the opportunity to make a difference in the world. This comes for your product, service offering and by helping your clients solve their issues so that they can deliver a solution to the world. Stop playing small!

Well, I hope I have ruffled some feather; actually it’s not me alone. Many of the top sales professionals have been on our soap boxes about this for a long time.