Dmitry Zhilin – an experienced sales expert from Russia, whose knowledge and experience can become a real treasure trove for beginners specialists. Today we have the opportunity to talk with Dmitry about his personal path in the world of sales, how he started his path to success, and also get valuable advice for those who are just starting their way in this area.
- How long have you been working in sales?
Dmitry: In the field of sales since 2010. I got a job as a manager, got trained, and after a year and 6 months I opened my own branch and started selling independently, training to recruit people, teaching sales, i.e. I already worked as an entrepreneur not as a manager.
- What strategies do you use to attract new customers?
Dmitry: Strategies are always built based on a person's strengths. Basically, we have only four main sources of traffic: paid traffic (target, ad purchase, Avito ad platforms, and other possible types). The second source of traffic is affiliate traffic, when you come to someone and say, let's advertise me, if people come from you, I'll pay you, and you share a percentage of the profit. The third thing that works great right now is video content: shorts, reels, stories, VK clips, Yandex Zen, and so on. The fourth is manifestation, events, forums, exhibitions, speaking engagements, networking, masterminds, business breakfasts, and other various events where you manifest, you are noticed, and customers come from there. Here are 4 traffic sources. The strategy is built on the basis of a person's strengths. If they show up well and know how to get acquainted, then we build a strategy through the manifestation. If they can edit and shoot great videos, then we build a strategy through video content, and so on.
- How do you set sales goals and how do you achieve them?
Dmitry: I always proceed first from my desires, i.e., what I need to get. Based on last month's results. I break down the goal into smaller components, and according to the decomposition, I understand what resources are needed, how much I need to attract customers, and how much sales I need to make.
- How do you maintain relationships with regular customers?
Dmitry: To maintain relations with regular customers, I write and communicate with them every 2-3 months. I ask how things are going, what they are doing now, what projects they are working on, what is happening, what is not happening, what are the difficulties. And based on what problems they tell me about, I can already close their need and offer them some new product of my own.
- How do you assess the effectiveness of your work in sales?
Dmitry: Yandex. Checkout money and conversion rate. If I understand that I have held 10 meetings and I have one sale, then the conversion rate is very low and inefficient.
- What skills do you consider most important for a successful career in sales?
Dmitry: The main skills are sociability and perseverance. In fact, skills can be formed. You can get absolutely any skill if you set yourself such a task. The skill of communication, communicating with strangers and being able to negotiate, negotiate this is the sales skill. You will get what you can agree on. All this you can learn if you want.
- How do you respond to purchase rejections and how do you overcome customer objections?
Dmitry: I am a proponent of this method, that it is better to prevent an objection than to work it out later. I try to sort out and close all objections at an early stage, so that they simply do not exist at the conclusion of the transaction. And how do I react? Yes, great! I ask you, what do I need to do to make your "no" turn into a "yes"? What was not enough for you to buy?
- How do you monitor changes in the market and how do they affect your sales strategy?
Dmitry: I sometimes go and see who sells what, who has what offers, how they sell, but the fact is that if you know how to sell, then you will always sell, at all times. No matter what your strategy is.
- What is the best achievement in your sales career that you can highlight?
Dmitry: Probably the fact that I built my sales department of 42 people. Personally recruited and trained. The second achievement is that I made sales of 1.5 million rubles in two networking sessions. Few people can do that (laughs).
- What tips would you give to aspiring sales professionals?
Dmitry: Go to more experienced specialists and learn, learn from the experience of people who are more competent. Learn new skills. Don't go your own way, making bumps, making mistakes and wasting a lot of time, but buy the experience of another person and do it in the shortest possible period of time.
- Thank you, you!
Dmitry: And thank you, success and development!
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