Report6-B2008
How To
Achieve Excellence In Sales
Most people are always striving to better themselves. It's the "American Way." For proof, check the sales figures on the number of self-improvement books sold each year. This is not a pitch for you to jump in and start selling these kinds of books, but it is an indication of people's awareness that in order to better themselves, they have to continue improving their personal selling abilities.
To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge. You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents. This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising.
In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learning about people. Just as with yourself, you must be caring, forgiving and laudatory with others. In any sales effort, you must accept other people as they are, not as you would like for them to be. One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective cus tom§er is slow to understand or make a decision. The successful salesperson handles these situations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for a date, or even applying for a new job.
Learning your product, making a clear presentation to qualified prospects, and closing more sales will take a lot less time once you know your own capabilities and failings, and understand and care about the prospects you are calling upon.
Our society is predicated upon selling, and all of us are selling
something all the time. We move up or stand still in direct relation
to our sales efforts. Everyone is included, whether we're attempting
to be a friend to a co-worker, a neighbor, or selling multi-million dollar
real estate projects. Accepting these facts will enable you to understand
that there is no such thing as a born salesman. Indeed, in selling, we
all begin
at the same starting line, and we all have the same finish line as
the goal - a successful sale.
Most assuredly, anyone can sell anything to anybody. As a qualification to this statement, let us say that some things are easier to sell than others, and some people work harder at selling than others. But regardless of what you're selling, or even how you're attempting to sell it, the odds are in your favor. If you make your presentation to enough people, you'll find a buyer. The problem with most people seems to be in making contact - getting their sales pre sentation seen by, read by, or heard by enough people. But this really shouldn't be a problem, as we'll explain later. There is a problem of impatience, but this too can be harnessed to work in the salesperson's favor.
We have established that we're all salespeople in one way or another. So whether we're attempting to move up from forklift driver to warehouse manager, wait ress to hostess, salesman to sales manager or from mail order dealer to president of the largest sales organization in the world, it's vitally important that we continue learning.
Getting up out of bed in the morning; doing what has to be done
in order to sell more units of your product; keeping records, updating
your materials; planning the direction of further sales efforts; and all
the while increasing your own knowledge - all
this very definitely requires a great deal of personal motivation,
discipline, and energy. But then the rewards can be beyond your wildest
dreams, for make no mistake about it, the selling profession is the highest
paid occupation in the world!
Selling is challenging. It demands the utmost of your creativity and innovative thinking. The more success you want, and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goals, the more you'll sell. Hundreds of people the world over become millionaires each month through selling. Many of them were flat broke and unable to find a "regular" job when they began their selling careers. Yet they've done it, and you can do it too!
Remember, it's the surest way to all the wealth you could ever want. You get paid according to your own efforts, skill, and knowledge of people. If you're ready to become rich, then think seriously about selling a product or service (prefer ably something exclusively yours) - something that you "pull out of your brain;" something that you write, manufacture or produce for the benefit of other people. But failing this, the want ads are full of opportunities for ambitious sales people. You can start there, study, learn from experience, and watch for the chance that will allow you to move ahead by leaps and bounds.
Here are some guidelines that will definitely improve your gross sales, and quite naturally, your gross income. I like to call them the Strategic Salesmanship Commandments. Look them over; give some thought to each of them; and adapt hose that you can to your own selling efforts.
1. If the product you're selling is something your prospect
can hold in his hands,
get it into his hands as quickly as
possible. In other words, get the prospect
"into the act." Let him feel it,
weigh it, admire it.
2. Don't stand or sit alongside your prospect. Instead,
face him while you're
pointing out the important advantages
of your product. This will enable you to
watch his facial expressions and
determine whether and when you should go
for the close. In handling sales
literature, hold it by the top of the page, at the
proper angle, so that your prospect
can read it as you're highlighting the
important points.
Regarding your sales literature, don't
release your hold on it, because you want
to control the specific parts you want
the prospect to read. In other words, you
want the prospect to read or see only
the parts of the sales material you're
telling him about at a given time.
3. With prospects who won't talk with you: When you
can get no feedback to
your sales presentation, you must dramatize
your presentation to get him
involved. Stop and ask questions
such as, "Now, don't you agree that this
product can help you or would be of
benefit to you?" After you've asked a
question such as this, stop talking
and wait for the prospect to answer. It's a
proven fact that following such a question,
the one who talks first will lose, so
don't say anything until after the prospect
has given you some kind of answer.
Wait him out!
4. Prospects who are themselves sales people, and prospects
who imagine they
know a lot about selling sometimes present
difficult selling obstacles, especially
for the novice. But believe me,
these prospects can be the easiest of all to sell.
Simply give your sales presentation,
and instead of trying for a close, toss out a
challenge such as, "I don't know, Mr.
Prospect - after watching your reactions
to what I've been showing and telling
you about my product, I'm very doubtful
as to how this product can truthfully
be of benefit to you."
Then wait a few seconds, just looking
at him and waiting for him to say
something. Then, start packing
up your sales materials as if you are about to
leave. In almost every instance,
your "tough nut" will quickly ask you, Why?
These people are generally so filled
with their own importance, that they just
have to prove you wrong. When
they start on this tangent, they will sell
themselves. The more skeptical you are
relative to their ability to make your
product work to their benefit, the more
they'll de mand that you sell it to them.
If you find that this prospect will not
rise to your challenge, then go ahead with
the packing of your sales materials
and leave quickly. Some people are so
convinced of their own importance that
it is a poor use of your valuable time to
attempt to con vince them.
5. Remember that in selling, time is money! Therefore,
you must allocate only so
much time to each prospect. The prospect
who asks you to call back next
week, or wants to ramble on about similar
products, prices or previous
experiences, is costing you money.
Learn to quickly get your prospect
interested in, and wanting your product,
and then systematically present your
sales pitch through to the close, when
he signs on the dotted line, and reaches
for his checkbook.
After the introductory call on your prospect,
you should be selling products and
collecting money. Any call backs
should be only for reorders, or to sell him
related products from your line. In
other words, you can waste an introductory
call on a prospect to qualify him, but
you're going to be wasting money if you
continue calling on him to sell him
the first unit of your product. When faced
with a reply such as, "Your product
looks pretty good, but I'll have to give it
some thought," you should quickly jump
in and ask him what it is that he
doesn't understand, or what specifically
about your product does he feel he
needs to give more thought. Let
him explain, and that's when you go back into
your sales presentation and make everything
crystal clear for him. If he still
balks, then you can either tell him
that you think he's procrastinating, or that
overall, you don't think the product
will really benefit him, or it's purchase be to
his advantage.
You must spend as much time as possible
calling on new prospects. Therefore,
your first call should be a selling
call with follow-up calls by mail or telephone
(once every month or so in person) to
sign him for reorders and other items
from your product line.
6. Review your sales presentation, your sales materials,
and your prospecting
efforts. Make sure you have a
"door-opener" that arouses interest and "forces"
a purchase the first time around.
This can be a $2 interest stimulator so that
you can show him your full line, or
a special marked-down price on an item that
everybody wants; but the important thing
is to get the prospect on your "buying
customer" list, and then follow up via
mail or telephone with related, but more
profitable products you have to offer.
If you accept our statement that there are no born salesmen, you can readily absorb these "commandments." Study them, as well as all the material in this report. When you realize your first successes, you will truly know that "salesman are made - not born."