There are many benefits of choosing a sales career. The compensation is usually top notch, with many opportunities to earn more if you’re great at your job. There are limitless opportunities in the industries you can work in and the products or services you can sell. You benefit from unmatched job security in an uncertain economy. You get added job freedom and flexibility, and so much more.

However, with these advantages come challenges in a sales role. Climbing to the top and being a successful sales rep isn’t easy. To succeed, you must learn to overcome the biggest challenges in a sales role, like the ones described below.

1. Prospecting

Many sales people will tell you the toughest part of their job is prospecting. Though marketing takes care of this function in some organizations, in others, it’s up to the sales people to generate leads on their own. Prospecting is tough. Cold calls get ignored and emails go unanswered.

To overcome this challenge, you must think outside of the box and try out different powerful prospecting techniques to stand out from the crowd. You should embrace social selling to get leads familiar with your name and company so cold calls can turn into warm calls. You should share your knowledge and establish your thought leadership in order to build trust and credibility before picking up that phone. You should send engaging content instead of just sending “checking in” emails to garner attention.

2. Offering Value

Far too many sales people cannot successfully overcome one of the biggest challenges in a sales role: offering value. Because of this, they lose out on tons of opportunities. Providing information about price and features won’t cut it.

To get the sale, you have to go beyond these generic basics and get a deep understanding of the client’s needs and pain points. You must ask probing questions and listen carefully in order to get to the underlying motivations for purchasing. This is the only way that you’ll be able to adequately provide value and close the deal.

3. Handling Rejection

Of all of the challenges in a sales role, rejection is the most universal. Getting rejected by prospects is just part of the job. But when you hear “no” after “no,” day in and day out, it can start to get discouraging. If you don’t know how to handle rejection in sales, you can quickly get into a slump, and your hurt feelings can end up affecting your future sales.

You can’t take rejection personally. Use it as an opportunity for improvement. Find out where you went wrong and what you could have done better, and try again the next day.

4. Gaining Commitments

How often do you lose prospects during the sales process? It happens all the time. You have a first meeting, and a second, and then nothing happens. Without gaining commitments from prospects, deals stay in a standstill and eventually get forgotten. You end up with a wealth of missed opportunities.

Instead of giving up, learn how to gain the next commitment to move the opportunity. Having a proper sales process in place can help you know what you need to do next. And using effective language to ask for the commitment can help you increase your sales.

5. Lack of Efficiency

It’s no surprise that you’re missing quota when you’re spending all of your time in front of your computer handling administrative tasks like data entry. You have no time to actually sell.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are dozens of sales tools and technology on the market that can help you increase efficiency so you can get back to what you need to be doing—selling. If your company hasn’t implemented CRM yet, then go out on your own and download free sales tools to make your job faster, easier, and simpler.