Art of sale
Introduce
“Why Are Some Salespeople More Successful Than Others?”
I believe that when you are focused on benefiting others
from providing your excellent product or service,
you will not stop thinking about how
to bring your product or service to life,
reach more people,
so that more people benefit.
Then you’ll want to find out
why some people are so successful at selling,
while others aren’t.
Brian Tracy’s book Sales Techniques
that you hold in your hand will help answer this question.
Readers might say,
“I’m not a salesperson,
so I don’t need to read books on sales?”
In order to get hired,
we “sell” to employers what they are looking for:
our skills and qualifications,
to do the job they ask for.
To get support from our superiors,
colleagues,
and employees,
we need to “sell” our ideas and plans to them.
If no one needs what we have:
knowledge,
skills,
work attitude;
if we don’t need cooperation from others,
then we don’t need to “sell”.
Are you sure you don’t need to “sell”?
To be a great sales professional,
the #1 rule Brian Tracy wants you to keep in mind is the Pareto
Remember, your mind is your greatest asset,
so be careful what you put into it. — Robert Kiyosaki
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Principle: 80% of sales are generated by 20% of salespeople.
Does this make you determined to do whatever you can
to get into the top 20% of salespeople?
If you’re determined,
each chapter outlines the principles,
ideas,
and tools to help you achieve that goal.
The first reason why some people are more successful
than others is that they are fully aware of who they are,
what they want,
and what exactly they will have to do to get there.
Chapters like “Personal Management Skills”,
“Insight into the Product”,
“Analysis of Competitors”,
“Building a Competitive Advantage” will help you identify these.
Subsequent chapters have exercises just for you,
read,
reflect,
and complete each exercise,
you will surely be surprised at the amount
of useful information you receive.
Don’t just skim the book.
Read and practice it every day,
in every trade you make!
With many years of experience in introducing, selling,
and implementing Crestcom International’s Bullet Proof Manager
senior management training program in Vietnam,
we found Brian Tracy’s book Sales Techniques to offer.
Countless practical ideas help us focus
and succeed in bringing the program
to many leaders and managers in Vietnam.
We believe that you will also benefit greatly from reading
and applying the sales ideas in this book.
Good luck!
I fell in love with business
when I was 10 years old,
when I tried to sell Rosamel beauty soap
to make money to attend YMCA summer camp that year.
From that moment on,
I started researching,
reading books and trying to learn more about sales
because I wanted to be successful in business just like anyone.
Since starting my own business,
I have always wondered,
“Why are some salespeople more successful than others?”
Why is it easier for some salespeople to make more money,
in less time, resulting in more sales?
Why are they more successful,
living more affluently with houses, cars, nice clothes
and the fulfillment they get from their jobs
while the vast majority of salespeople are inefficient and unsuccessful?
Work as desired?
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Rule number 1
Then I discovered the famous 80/20 principle commonly
known as the Pareto Principle.
This principle states that 80% of sales
are generated by 20% of salespeople.
This means that the remaining 20%
of sales are generated by 80% of salespeople.
Once I grasped this principle,
I decided:
Do whatever it takes to get into this top 20% of salespeople,
and I did.
A few years ago,
a large insurance company with thousands of agents decided
to test the validity of the 80/20 rule in terms of revenue and sales.
The company ran aggregated data regarding sales and earnings
from all of its sales agents on one computer
and found the principle
to be very accurate 20% of dealers generated 80% of the revenue.
Company executives now wondered
what this meant in terms of annual earnings.
They found that on average,
the top 20% of agents earn about 16 times the income
of the remaining 80%.
Does this mean that the top 20 percent of dealers are 16 times better,
smarter,
or better than the 80 percent agents?
The answer is obvious:
No one is 16 times better or smarter than another.
It’s just that some people, over time,
always get a little better in some way.
Before you can become a millionaire,
you must learn to think like one. ― Thomas J. Stanleyt
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2 out of the 10 best
They also look at the top 4% of agents
(20% of the top 20% of the top 20%)
and compare their earnings with the remaining 80%.
As it turns out, the top 4% of agents earn 32 times more
than agents in the 80%, on average.
Taking this one step further,
they compared the top 0.8% of agents
(20% of the top dealers in the 4% group above)
and found that this elite group,
on average,
had import 50 times 80% of the remaining agents.
In every big city or office,
there’s only one person
who can earn 50 times (or more) on his own
than his colleagues
who sell the same product to the same customer segment,
in the same area price,
under similar competitive conditions.
When the average salesperson,
especially in percent-commissioned areas,
earns between $30,000 and $40,000 per year,
about 10% of the top salespeople in
This field makes more than 800,000 dollars a year
and some people in that group make millions of dollars.
Give decision because of this huge difference in sales and earnings,
every salesperson in every industry should set a goal
for himself to be in the top 20% of salespeople in the industry in there.
The 20% group always sells better,
lives more abundantly despite current market conditions.
They always have jobs, are always “desired”
by companies and are always most excited about their work.
Why are there such big disparities in sales performance?
In The Art of Selling,
I’ll share with you the answers I’ve discovered.
Developing advantage one
of the most important discoveries
about human performance of the twentieth century was
that the best individuals in all fields,
including sales, were only marginally better than their peers
in many areas certain important edge.
This very small difference in performance is called an “advantage”.
The leaders in each field equip themselves with advantages in that field,
and as a result,
achieve impressive performance and results.
I like to compare this to a horse race.
In a horse race,
the horse that finishes first wins about 10 times
as much as the horse that comes closest to it.
Will the winning horse run 10 times faster than the runner-up?
Or does the first horse run 10 times faster than the last one?
The answer is of course no.
The winning horse ran slightly faster than the second-placed horse.
In the photo taken
when the two horses crossed the finish line,
they were only separated
by a very small distance estimated at only 8 cm.
The salesperson who closes the order
for the company will get 100% of the revenue
and the entire commission.
Is that salesperson twice as good at closing orders
as the salesperson who can’t?
Whatever the circumstances,
the difference between people
The people who do the best and the worst are very small,
both in terms of skills and abilities.
The person making $250,000 a year in sales isn’t 10 times as smart,
talented,
or hard-working as a colleague who makes $25,000 a year
when they both sell the same product.
Intelligence is not the key in a study done in New York a few years ago,
researchers randomly selected 1,000 adults
and measured their intelligence quotient (IQ).
This study found that the difference
between the person with the highest IQ
and the person with the lowest IQ was 2.5 times.
However, the top earner in the group,
not necessarily the one with the highest IQ,
earns 100 times as much as
the lowest earner in this sample group each year.
The conclusion is simple:
Natural talent
or ability is not the key to great success.
Everyone has natural talents and abilities,
but your success will only be determined
by what you do with that natural talent and ability.
Magic touch top salespeople were analyzed extensively
to find out how they think and behave.
These studies show that the highest earning salespeople
easily have friendly relationships
with a wide range of customers and prospects.
They quickly build relationships
and high trust in the sales process.
In fact,
personal factors account for 80% of the success of each deal.
More than any other factor,
effective communication
is primarily based on the salesperson’s self-perception and self-esteem.
There seems to be a direct relationship
between self-esteem and sales success.
Salespeople who love and respect themselves
often value their customers as well.
In turn, these customers also have sympathy
and respect for them and are more receptive
to suggestions about their products or services.
The salesperson has to optimistically think
that the customer can pay for that product or service. —Zig Ziglar
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The feeling of victory
Psychologists use the term “performance-based self-esteem”
to explain the relationship
between self-esteem and personal performance.
The conclusion is simple:
The more you love yourself, the better at your job;
The better you do your job,
the more you love yourself.
These two factors complement
and interact with each other.
The more successful you are,
the more “winner” you feel.
The more you enjoy this feeling of victory,
the harder you work;
Meet more people and get better sales results.
In the pages that follow,
I’ll provide you with a series of specific methods,
techniques,
and strategies that you can use to dramatically improve your performance.
This improvement in performance will naturally make you appreciate
and respect yourself more,
thereby pushing your performance level higher.
You will be caught in a spiral of personal success
and power that can take you to the top of your field.
What are you waiting for, get started right now!
The only difference between a rich person and a poor person
is how they use their time. ― Robert Kiyosaki
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Chapter 1. Mastering the Basics
When Vince Lombardi was brought in from the New York Giants
to take over at the Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin,
the team had a mixed record for several years.
When asked if he would change
or do anything differently to bring his team to the finals,
he stated impressively,
“We are not going to do anything transient;
we just need to be the best runner,
kick,
pass and catch team in the National Football League.
We will strive to master the most basic skills.”
He continued,
“We will play every game so beautifully
and efficiently that even if the other team knew
what we were going to do,
they wouldn’t be able to stop us.”
Good salespeople are those who,
first,
must understand the basics of successful sales and then,
master those basics.
Approach each customer
with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal,
not of selling a product or service. ― Les Brown
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The basics of business success
There are seven key result areas that drive sales performance.
Rate yourself from 1 (low) to 10 (high)
in each of the seven arrays (listed below).
Remember that weakness in any area is enough
to prevent you from realizing your true potential in sales.
In fact, the weakest skill is the one
that has the most influence on your sales and income levels.
Sometimes, just strengthening your weakest core skillset is enough
to dramatically increase your sales results.
Here are the “Big Seven”:
1. Exploring potential customers.
Find and spend more time with more leads.
2. Build reputation and trust.
Take the time to learn
and share with potential customers
so that they gradually like you,
trust you and are willing to share their needs
and problems with you.
3. Identify needs.
Ask clear, purposeful questions
that uncover a potential customer’s real problems, needs,
and wants because they’re closely related to what you’re selling.
4. Presentation.
Go from common to unique
and show potential customers that your product
or service is the best option for them at that time
out of the options they are considering.
5. Respond to criticisms.
Provide reasonable and concise answers
to the usual complaints regarding product price
and features that most potential customers make.
6. Closing orders and requesting execution.
Bring the conversation to the point of satisfactory agreement
with a closed order or a signed contract.
7. Keep customers coming back and refer new customers.
Provide excellent after-sale service,
make customers feel satisfied
and come back to buy again
and recommend your products/services to their friends.
Add up your score and divide
by 7 to get your average performance score today.
If your GPA is lower than 5,
your sales results are probably below expectations.
And the array you scored the lowest on could prevent you
from achieving sales success more than any other factor.
Old and new sales models almost all top salespeople use
what I call the “new sales model”.
It is very different from the old model,
which is still included in many companies’ training programs
and widely used by many salespeople.
Each model, both old and new, has four parts.
The first part of the old model,
which accounts for about 10%,
starts with the approach pre-exposure.
Salespeople meet potential customers
and say something like
“Hi!” before opening the story with the latest football game or TV show.
The salesperson will then go straight to the sales transaction.
The second part of the old model involved a quick “quantification”
of the prospect to determine
if he or she could buy your product or service.
Salespeople have been trained
to use supposedly intelligent quantitative questions to ensure that
potential customers are likely to use
and purchase the product
before wasting time on any sales pitch in which goods.
The third part of the old model is to present your product
or service as clearly as possible
by showing potential customers
what your product does and trying
to find a way to get them to buy it.
Salespeople are taught to talk
as much as possible about potential benefits,
then respond to customer complaints
with a series of intelligent questions and answers.
The final part of the old sales model,
which accounts for 40% of the sales process is closing.
It is often assumed that effectiveness in sales is primarily concerned
with the ability of salespeople
to close sales using a variety of techniques.
New customers, new methods today,
the old way of selling is no longer effective.
Customer has changed
They are completely ignorant of their knowledge and complexity,
and successful salespeople,
the top 20% of salespeople,
know how to sell to customers the way they want to be served.
The new sales model is in the form of an inverted pyramid,
with the bottom of the pyramid rotating upwards
and the top of the pyramid at the bottom.
This pyramid is divided into four parts.
The first part,
which makes up 40% of the sales conversation,
is purely about building trust.
Trust is the most important factor in shaping purchasing decisions
and in any relationship.
The second part of the new model,
which accounts for 30%,
is to accurately identify the needs of the potential customer.
Take the time to ask a series
of well-prepared and clear questions,
potentially allowing you
to get a clear picture of your customer’s situation
before you even mention
or discuss the product or service your.
The next 20% of the new model is
where you present your product or service.
Based on what the customer has said,
you let the customer know
that your product or service can satisfy their need,
which has been clearly identified in your conversation
with the customer up to this point that, how.
The last 10% of the new sales model is asking the customer
to make a buying decision,
confirming that what you are offering is
what the customer needs and wants,
and inviting the customer to make an immediate decision in that day.
The more time you spend building trust,
the easier it will be to present an effective presentation
and close or confirm a final deal.
Selling relationship this new model is based on
what we call “relationship selling”.
The key to success in sales today
is developing high-quality professional business relationships
with clients.
This model requires you to build a high degree of trust,
identify needs carefully and accurately,
show customers that your product
or service will meet those needs,
and then encourage customers
to take action and close the deal.
Throughout this book,
we will talk about selling relationships.
We’ll constantly revisit these two topics:
1) the importance of building trusting relationships,
and 2) the importance of becoming fluent in the basics.
The starting point to becoming the best in your field,
moving up to the top 20%
or even the top 10% of your business
is identifying the critical skills needed to get there,
level of excellence in sales,
and then determine what you must do to achieve that excellence.
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PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. Rate yourself on seven important outcome areas on a 10-point scale and determine
which are your strongest or weakest points.
A. My strongest(10-point)
1.I love my job
2. I have good smell
3. I am handsome
4. I am young
5. I smile at customers
6. I talk sweet to customers
7. I make customers feel friendly, comfortable and happy in shop
8. Customers buy beers, give me big tips
9. My wife motivates me
10. I do for my love wife
A. My weakest (10-point)
1. I am a small cashier
2. I have to follow system
3. I can not choose goods for sell
4. I can not choose my customers
5. I need to learn skills of the best sale
6. I need to have some subsidiaries
7. I need to have authorization as boss
8. I don’t have any sale campaign
9. I work for 12 hours daily
10. I work by shift
2. Choose an important skill area where you are weak
and work to improve it every day.
I make customers feel friendly,
comfortable and happy in shop
The rich see each dollar as a “seed”
that can be planted to reap hundreds of dollars more,
which can then be planted to reap thousands more. – T. Harv Eker
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Chapter 2. Always Enthusiastic
The 80/20 principle is very successfully applied in sales.
Much of your success
– 80% or more –
will be determined by your attitude,
personality and motivation.
It is said that the key element in a sales conversation
is “the ability to convey enthusiasm”.
A transaction occurs when you infuse your own enthusiasm
and beliefs about the value of your product
or service into the mind of the customer.
Like an electric line,
when sparks of enthusiasm
are passed from you to the customer,
the transaction is made.
Enthusiasm is the key
to establishing good customer relationships and closing deals.
You need to be confident about yourself, your product,
and your company
in order to pass that belief on to others.
This enthusiasm is something you can work on to improve,
just like physical exercise,
no one is born with toned muscles.
Always keep your energy high there are a number
of techniques you can use every day to develop
and maintain your sales enthusiasm and enthusiasm.
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Have positive expectations
This is one of the biggest motivators.
Your expectations will govern your attitude.
And your attitude determines
how you treat others and how they respond to you.
Build an attitude of positive expectations
by always hoping to do well.
Hopefully every person you talk
to will be a potential customer.
Hope everyone will like you and welcome your presentation.
Be confident that you have the ability
to become the top salesperson in your field.
Motivate yourself with positive thoughts
Always motivate yourself in a positive way 95% of your emotions
are determined by how you continuously motivate yourself.
Successful people make it a habit of filling their minds
with positive affirmations for the way
they want to be and the goals they want to achieve.
Successful salespeople love their job.
They believe in their product or service.
They engage with the company
and their customers.
As a result, they continue
to reinforce these commitments in their minds
and combat negative experiences
by constantly telling themselves,
“I love my job!”
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Apply positive visualization techniques
Always cultivate your mind with clear images
of the kind of person you want to be,
do what you want to do.
“You get what you see.”
In sports and sales,
regular practice
of “mental rehearsals”
is a powerful tool that you can use
to stay positive and motivated,
and to be productive throughout the day.
In a mental rehearsal,
close your eyes and picture yourself
as the best salesperson you can imagine.
Every time you rewind this image in your mind,
it is accepted by your subconscious mind as a command.
When you are in a real sales situation,
your subconscious will give you energy,
enthusiasm, and a positive attitude
that matches your mental image.
This technique can help you more
than anything else for business success.
“People will forget what you said.
They will forget what you did.
But they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
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Use positive “spiritual food”
You know that if you eat healthy,
eat nutritious foods,
you will have more energy
and have a productive day.
Likewise, when you feed your mind with positive mental food,
what we call mental protein,
you will always think more clearly
and coherently throughout the day.
Here are three things you can do to improve your mind,
feel more confident about yourself,
and accelerate faster
to get into the top 20% of salespeople soon:
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1. Read for about 30 to 60 minutes a day.
Reading helps both mind and body get “exercise”.
Pick the best business books you can get your hands on
and spend about an hour each morning reading
and contemplating the sales methods, strategies,
and techniques that have been developed.
Read sales newsletters,
articles,
and magazines.
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2. Listen to educational CDs and audiobooks.
You can use your phone to listen
and learn more as you drive to appointments.
Turn your car into a “mobile classroom”.
As Zig Ziglar once said,
“Enroll in mobile college and dedicate it full-time
for the rest of your career.”
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3. Attend all seminars if possible.
Today, you can spend time attending four seminars a year,
which equates to about once every three months.
Sit in the front row and take full notes.
Talk to the instructor or speaker
and don’t forget to ask questions.
Take the time to meet with other attendees
and ask them what they found most important about the workshop.
When returning from a conference,
review all your notes,
ideally is weekly for the first month.
Think continuously about specific actions
you can take to implement the ideas
you’ve just learned.
Turn the workshop into an enriching
and rewarding experience for your career.
“When you serve the customer better,
they always return on your investment.” – Kara Parlin
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Surround yourself with positive people
The people you get close to have a huge influence on your thoughts and feelings.
For this reason,
stick with the winners.
Surround yourself with positive people
who are on the way to success in their careers.
As Zig Ziglar once said,
“You can’t spread your wings with eagles if you keep joining the turkeys.”
One of my students told me about his journey
from the bottom to the top of the sales force.
When he started out as a novice salesman,
he often mingled with other novice salespeople
who spent most of their time sitting in the office counting business cards
and talking about what they plan to do.
He noticed that top salespeople were rarely in the office,
and if they were,
they were busy making phone calls
and preparing presentations.
So he made a life-changing job.
He met with one of the top salespeople
and asked for advice on time management.
The top salesman was surprised at his request
because it was so rare,
he showed him how to manage his time every day.
The new salesman did exactly
what the top salesman was doing
and within a week he noticed that his operations
and sales results had improved dramatically.
Then he started asking other top salespeople
to advise him on what programs he should listen to,
what he should read and what to say in a pitch, and so on.
In any situation,
the top salespeople are dedicated to helping him.
Not surprisingly,
within six months,
he also became one of the top salespeople.
Now, he is making friends
with the top people in his company.
They meet regularly to share ways to improve sales.
Within a year,
he was one of the top salespeople at the company and kept rising.
“Choose to deliver amazing service to your customers.
You’ll stand out because they don’t get it anywhere else.” – Kevin Stirtz
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Become an expert in your field
Research your products and services carefully;
Read your brochures carefully from start to finish.
Equip yourself with the knowledge of
what you’re selling to confidently present
even if you don’t have any sales documents.
Research your company and industry.
Research your competitors.
Understand the product
or service they sell
and how what you sell is different
and superior to their product or service.
The more you know your products,
services, competitors,
and your market in general,
the more confident you will be in yourself
and the more respected your customers will be.
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Be serious about your work
Remember, as a professional salesperson,
you are part of an industry.
As you move up the ladder in your field,
you can earn more than a doctor,
dentist,
architect,
or engineer who spends years studying
and studying to practice in the university classroom.
The most senior professionals in their fields
invest a lot of time keeping up
with what’s happening in their industry.
They are very serious about their work.
They seek to stand out,
better than their competitors.
They want to be known as the leader of the field.
Above all, professionals are committed
to doing their best,
do their best to improve efficiency,
always strive to get better.
You should do the same as them.
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PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. From today, consider personal development as a lifelong job.
Start buying books on sales and spend time reading one chapter a day,
from now on,
for the rest of your sales career.
2. Say these words:
I love myself and my job!
I love myself and my job!
I love myself and my job!
I love myself and my job!
I love myself and my job!
Repeat this sentence over and over again throughout the day,
saying it to yourself as soon as you wake up and
whenever you have a problem or frustration.
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Chapter 3. Personal Management Skills: The Inner Game
To get into the top 20% of your field, then the 10%,
then the 5%, and even the 1% the big money,
you have to make everything work for you.
Today’s business world, in any field,
with any product or service,
is much more competitive than before.
Your goal is to win this race.
I like to use clear words to describe success.
In my opinion,
clarity accounts for 95% of your success
and achievement in whatever you strive to do,
both in your personal life
and in your business career.
The primary reason
why some people are more successful
than others is that they are fully aware of who they are,
what they want,
and what exactly they must do to get there.
Clarity requires constant thinking and reflection.
As Thomas Edison once said,
“The hardest thing in the world is thinking,
that’s why most people never do it.”
Set big goals for yourself
Start by setting clear monthly
and yearly personal income goals for yourself.
How much do you want to earn per month?
How much do you want to earn per year?
Those are your goals.
Everything you do should aim to reach or exceed these goals.
One of my sales students was quite successful.
However, she sets a goal to double her income in the next year.
Then she started figuring out all the things
she could do to sell and earn double.
A friend of hers advised that the simplest way
to do that is to double the size of each existing order.
That idea never crossed her mind.
She began looking around to determine the type
of customers who might double-purchase her existing customers.
In the following year,
she reoriented her entire sales process
to sell more and more often to larger,
more qualified customers.
By the end of the year,
her average revenue had doubled
from what she had made at the beginning of the year.
She still worked the same number of hours,
making the same number of sales,
but each time selling twice as many as before.
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Know your ratio
Once you have determined how much you want to sell and make,
you must determine exactly
how many sales you need to make to earn that amount.
Here’s a great find:
When and where you make personal sales is largely out of your control.
But your actions are exactly the opposite.
The good news is,
by controlling your sales activities,
you have indirect control over the sales results.
The three activities that are critical to sales success are:
exploration,
presentation,
and closing the deal.
Start by determining the number of new leads you must contact
and talk to every day,
every week to get the sales results you want.
To become a sales professional,
one of the first activities you need
to do is keep a record of the exact number
of calls you make each day and each week.
Record the number of presentations or face-to-face meetings
you make as a result of the exploratory process.
For example,
let’s say you have to call 20 potential customers
to get 5 face-to-face appointments.
(This is not an unusual number in a competitive market.)
The next part of the sales process is
to follow up and close the deal
and then follow up:
Let’s say you have to make 20 initial calls to get 5 appointments
and you have to give 5 presentations
to get the sale in 2 potential customers.
On average, from these 2 leads,
you will close 1 deal.
Now you have your ratios in place.
That’s 20:5:2:1.
You have to make 20 initial calls to get a real customer.
Next, calculate the average size of each deal
and the average commission
or personal income per sale.
With these numbers,
you have enough basis to define clear goals to aim for.
Your next strategy, first of all,
is to maintain a steady stream of new customers.
Make sure you continually grow your “sales system”
with a steady stream of new leads.
Second, always strive to improve,
perfect each important stage including exploration,
presentation and closing.
Call more leads and categorize them faster.
Deliver more engaging and effective presentations.
Track and close more deals.
Raise your rate in every process.
Make today worth remembering. — Zig Ziglar
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Set your priorities
Personal management is essentially just the ability
to set your priorities and stick to them.
Don’t forget to use the 80/20 rule.
Remember that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities.
Let’s focus on the effective use of the moment your time.
If clarity is the first keyword to personal success,
focus should be the second.
Be results-oriented instead of action-oriented.
Focus on the results you want to achieve,
and of those results,
focus on the ones that matter most.
Develop a sense of urgency
and distinguish priorities from different actions.
A sense of urgency is one of the rarest qualities in business,
or in any field.
Every top salesperson possesses a sense of urgency.
Act quickly whenever you have an idea or opportunity.
Sometimes just a few minutes can make the big difference
between a successful and a failed deal.
Always say to yourself,
“Why am I getting paid?”
The truth is that you get paid to… sell.
Your job is to find leads,
give presentations
and close deals.
And in the end, that work has to always deliver sales results always.
Always ask yourself the magic question:
“Is what I am doing right now leading to a deal?”
If what you’re doing right now isn’t leading to a deal,
stop immediately and start doing things
that can bring in sales instead of merely relieving stress.
You are the president of your own Professional Sales Corporation.
You are responsible for your own career.
You are responsible for everything you are and everything you do.
Don’t make yourself a “talker, do little”.
****************
PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. From today, accurately record your sales activities.
How many calls do you make per day?
O
How many customers do you see each day?
30
How many deals do you make per day or per week?
28
How much do you make in each sale deal?
10
2. Set priorities in your work and always ask yourself
“What is the best use of my time right now?”
If I have customers I sell goods,
If I don’t have any customer,
I read business and investment books.
********************
Chapter 4. Personal Management Skills: The Outside Game
High-earning salespeople in every field
often follow a certain set of habits and activities.
One of the most important rules in life is that,
if you follow what the most successful people do,
you will soon enjoy the results and rewards they get.
In every field,
the foundational skills
for success begin with learning
and following what the leaders in the field do.
This advice applies to sports,
music,
entertainment and especially sales and business.
Once you’ve mastered the basics
and achieved a certain level of personal and financial success,
you can begin to develop
and use your own methods and techniques.
But first,
learn from and follow the leaders in your field.
“If you work just for money,
you’ll never make it,
but if you love what you’re doing
and you always put the customer first,
success will be yours.” – Ray Kroc
********************
Start your day early
The first habit you should form is to get up
and start your day early.
A recent study of the highest-earning Americans found that,
with few exceptions, they all got up
before six in the morning.
They form certain habits and stick to them every day,
such as exercising,
meditating,
reading something educational
or inspirational,
dressing well,
planning their day on paper,
and start the day early.
A good habit to follow is
to have your first meeting at eight o’clock in the morning or earlier.
Many top salespeople invite a busy prospect
to join them for breakfast at a restaurant
or coffee shop near the customer’s office.
Since very few people have ever been invited out to breakfast,
most people will accept that invitation.
Just 60 minutes of sitting together in the morning also helps
you create the foundation for a long-term business relationship.
“If you just communicate, you can get by.
But if you communicate skillfully,
you can work miracles.” – Jim Rohn
********************
When will you work?
According to various studies from 1928 to present,
an average salesperson works only about 90 minutes per day.
The rest of the time is spent warming up,
getting ready,
chatting with co-workers,
checking e-mail,
reading the newspaper,
drinking coffee, and more.
But by the end of the day,
the average salesperson only spent 90 minutes working.
****************
Increase “face-to-face time”
You only work when you meet your potential customers face-to-face.
We call this “face-to-face time”.
Only face-to-face with a potential customer
will you have a chance to close the deal.
And because your job involves making transactions,
when you’re not in direct contact with customers,
you’re not working.
Do you want to double your income?
Very simple.
Double the time you spend face-to-face
with your customers and prospects.
Use personal organization
and time management skills
to spend more time meeting potential customers face-to-face.
If you double the amount of time you spend in face-to-face meetings
with potential customers,
you’ll,
on average,
double your sales and income.
Sell more things
Sometimes, I ask my clients,
“What motivates you to get out of bed every morning?”
After a bit of thought,
they finally agreed that the reason
they woke up every morning was to make more money.
I call it “the MMM theory of sales.”
The reason you get out of bed and go
to work every morning is
to make more money (Make More Money (MMM).
And how do you make more money in the business?
The answer is to sell more stuff (Sell More Stuff – SMS).
Your mission is to “make more money”
by “selling more things”.
By this definition,
you only work when you are selling more.
And what are the three components of selling more?
They are “exploration, presentation and closing”.
“So, by your own definition,
you’re just working on exploratory,
presentation and closing the deal.
You are only dealing face-to-face with people
who can and will buy or pay within a reasonable amount of time.
Anything else you can do during the day is a relative waste of time.
Do those things as little as possible.
****************
Make the most of every minute
Top people in every field,
including sales,
count their time in minutes instead of hours
or half an hour.
Low-income unsuccessful people count their time
by the hour,
day,
or even week.
Appreciate every minute,
especially during “critical times outside,”
when meeting with clients.
Allocate your time in 10-minute increments.
When you control every minute well,
then every hour will fall into place.
****************
Focus your energy
If the first word for sales success is clear,
the second word is focused,
then the third word is even more focused.
Be completely clear about what you’re trying to do,
focus hard on it,
and focus more on that it until it is completed.
Develop those three elements into habits,
and you will be more successful next year
than many people achieve in five or ten years.
“The more you engage with customers,
the clearer things become
and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” – John Russell
****************
Against distractions
Today, most people suffer from the “attraction of distractions”.
They are so busy with smartphones,
tablets,
e-mails, and calls that they are constantly distracted
from the essentially unchanging process of prospecting,
presenting,
and closing deals.
They are constantly thrown out of their game
by social media and other disruptions.
There’s a simple formula for success in today’s high-tech world:
Put everything down. Or better yet, turn everything off.
Put your smartphone on silent mode.
Don’t check your email in the morning.
And just check them twice a day.
Don’t allow technology to control your life and ruin your future.
Turn it on, use it as a communication tool
and then turn it off and leave it down.
Reaching further
Improve the quality of your work every day.
Always do more than is expected of you.
Even exceed your expectations.
Always try harder than your competitors,
both inside and outside the company.
Trying harder is never too much.
“Try again” even if the trade almost fails.
To repeat Vince Lombardi’s quote,
when you’re tired and bored at the end of the day,
give it another shot and try again.
Often, one more try,
one more call,
or one more question can be what turns the situation around.
As a young salesperson,
I’ve learned that the biggest sales are always earned
at the end of the most grueling day,
at the end of the hardest run,
with the last person you call.
I find this to be absolutely true,
and always has been.
Protect your health
An important part of succeeding
in the outside game is taking care of your health.
Eat the right foods – foods that can give you strength and energy.
Avoid these three foods that are considered “white poison”:
salt, sugar, and white flour products.
All three of these foods take a lot of energy
and reduce your enthusiasm and ability to sell effectively.
Instead, eat lots of high-protein foods,
which help strengthen your muscles
and nourish your brain to help you stay energized
and alert for peak performance.
********************
Chapter 5. Deeply Understanding Products
Your level of product knowledge is the foundation of trust,
confidence,
and sales ability.
Without extensive and detailed knowledge of
what you are selling,
sales success is impossible.
The best salespeople know both the ingredients
and uses of their products and services
and can describe them in detail even
when they don’t have the product
or service documentation or information on hand. mine.
Make sure no one can ask you a question about your product
or service that you can’t answer clearly and convincingly.
When you truly become an expert on your product
and understand how your product
can help your customers improve their lives or work;
when you can clearly and thoroughly answer any questions
or concerns a potential customer may have regarding what you are offering;
and when it’s clear that you have a deep belief in the goodness
and value of what you sell,
your reputation will increase.
***********************
Know your customers
Once you know both the ingredients
and the benefits of your product,
the next step is to understand your customers.
Instead of trying to call or sell to everyone,
you should think carefully about the most likely customers
for your products and services.
There are three types of information
that you need to learn before you start selling:
1. Personal information.
Describe your ideal or perfect prospect.
Your age,
education,
occupation,
marital status and experience of using the product or service.
These are the fundamental questions that cost more than $8 billion in market
research each year in the US.
If you want to be in the top group in terms of revenue and income,
you must know the personal information of your customers
before you intend to target them.
This makes it easier for you to categorize leads
and non-leads early in the conversation.
********************
2. Consumer psychology.
This is perhaps the most important area of business today.
It refers to the mindset of your potential customers.
What are their fears,
hopes,
desires,
and ambitions?
What problem can your product solve for them?
What needs does your product meet?
What purpose does your product help potential customers achieve?
Perhaps the best question of all is
“what problem or pain did your product or service help solve
or alleviate, for their money?”
********************
3. Ethnology.
This is a new area of sales research
and is emerging as one of the most influential.
It shows exactly how and when customers use your product or service.
What role does your product
or service play in your customer’s life or work?
By showing potential customers that your product
or service is a great fit for their daily lives,
you make it more appealing
and easier for customers to spend.
********************
Identify your competitors
Another part of product knowledge is asking
and answering this question:
“Who are your competitors?”
Who sells products or services
that compete with you?
Who are your biggest competitors
and who are your next big competitors?
Remember, each customer only has a certain amount of money.
Every offer is an attempt to win that money from the customer.
So every cost out to get this limited money
from the customer is a competition.
Ultimately, the customer decides to spend his
or her limited funds on a product or service that is more important
and desirable to them than any other similar
or competing product or service at the time.
How can you offer and position your product
or service as the best choice at this moment,
among so many other considerations?
****************
Customer’s point of view
When thinking about your competition,
the next question is?
Why would your customer
or prospect buy
from your competitor?
What are the benefits your potential customers get
from buying from your competitors?
How can you compensate customers
for those advantages or benefits?
How can you position your product or service
as a superior alternative to the products/services offered
by your competitors?
Many salespeople have had great success
by regularly asking and answering this question,
and then using this information to identify new customers
and balance their strengths,
neutralizing their buying impulses to customers
who are currently buying from their competitors.
****************
PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. What are the three most important benefits, results,
or achievements a customer can get from purchasing
and using your product or service?
Friendly
Comfortable
Happy
2. Three qualities or characteristics,
what is the most important of an ideal customer
for the product or service you provide?
Give me tips
Laugh
Say thank you
****************
Chapter 6. Analyzing Your Competitors
Sun Vu, a Chinese military strategist,
in his book Military Law Sun Tzu, wrote:
“Knowing others and knowing me,
a hundred battles is not dangerous;
don’t know people but only know me,
a win and a loss;
If you don’t know you don’t know me,
every battle is lost.”
Your competitors have a very simple strategy.
Every morning, they think about how to get rid of you
and every other company that currently offers competing products and services.
They are always thinking about
how to get their hands on your customers and keep them.
They think, talk, plan and strategize regularly
to deliver better products and services faster,
cheaper,
easier and more convenient than you.
They are willing to copy your ideas,
reduce their costs and even take a loss
if necessary to rob your customers.
To beat such opponents,
you have to think in that direction
and take similar actions.
Conduct a SWOT analysis of your competitors.
SWOT is an acronym for Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Just as a lawyer prepares a lawsuit
from the opposing side’s perspective
before preparing his counter-argument,
you should prepare your marketing strategy
by doing thorough research on your competitors.
Just as a general in command o
f an army spends most of his time studying the enemy’s formation
before coming up with a strategy of his own,
you should do the same.
In what ways are your competitors superior to you?
What are they doing to attract your potential customers?
Why would your potential customer choose
to buy from a competitor instead of from you?
And how can you offset these advantages?
****************
Identify their strengths and weaknesses
What are the strengths of your competitors?
Why is your competitor doing so well in this tough market?
What do they offer and how do they deliver them?
What areas are they doing well in?
Here’s an important life lesson:
Always admire your successful competitors.
When you admire your successful competitors
and respect them for the smart things
they do to attract and retain customers,
you are more likely to learn and improve your business processes,
so you can run your business even more efficiently than before.
Many business people and many salespeople have the habit
of criticizing or disparaging their successful competitors.
As a result, they never learned the smart things their competitors were doing
to become even more successful.
But when you admire your successful competitors
and seek to learn from them,
you will move much faster in your field.
Next, consider their weaknesses.
In what ways are your competitors inferior to you?
Why do customers buy from you instead of your competitors?
****************
Do your own research
Here is a very simple dual market research technique
that you can use tomorrow morning.
First, call back your 10 most recent customers
who purchased from you and say,
“I just wanted to call you to thank you
for deciding to buy from us.
We are very impressed.
We are doing a market research at our company
and would like to ask that you please answer one of our questions.
That is: What made you decide to buy from us
instead of one of our competitors?”
You will be surprised to find that 8 out of 10 customers
who buy from you will give the same reason.
You’ll often be even more surprised
to find that you didn’t know this reason when selling.
Most salespeople at most companies don’t really know
why their customers decide to buy
from them in the first place and not from anyone else.
With the information gathered
from this simple survey of 10 customers,
you can focus on the main reasons
that encourage people to buy from you.
You can then incorporate this information into your sales
and promotional and advertising programs.
****************
Call people who are not your customers
Second, call 10 of your most recent non-customers
who have decided to buy from your competitor instead of from you.
Tell them: “Hi, I’m salesman John.
I just wanted to call you and thank you
for considering purchasing our product or service.
I respect your decision not to choose our products.
I hope that you could please let me know
how you feel about the advantages
and disadvantages regarding our product.
Ask for me,
what made you decide to buy from our competitor instead of from us?”
Then, quietly listen.
Most of the time, customers will give you a single reason
why they decide to buy from elsewhere.
Whatever their response,
thank them again for their valuable time
and let them know that you hope to have the opportunity
to provide your product or service to them in the near future.
****************
Chapter 7. Building a Competitive Advantage
The most important factor in successful sales
is developing a competitive advantage.
To be successful in sales,
your customers must be convinced that what you offer is superior
and more desirable than that of your competition.
Differentiation is the key to sales success.
What is your competitive advantage?
What makes your product superior
to any other similar product in the mind of the customer?
****************
Your excellent side
What is your best aspect?
What does your product
or service have
to offer that makes it the most appealing option out of so many options?
What are the main benefits of buying
and using your product or service that make it a better choice
than any of your competitors’ offers?
The competitive advantage your
or your company’s product
or service provides is at the heart of all your marketing and sales efforts.
That’s what helps you survive and thrive in a competitive market.
That is the key to your success.
As Peter Drucker said,
“If there is no competitive advantage,
you must immediately develop one.”
If you’re not sure,
or if your product doesn’t have a competitive advantage,
ask yourself:
What could it be?
What should it be if you want long-term success?
****************
Unique added value
Michael Porter,
the Harvard expert on competitive advantage,
once said that you must have a
“unique added value” for your customers.
You don’t have to be superior to every competitor.
But you do have to offer something special,
different,
and more valuable to the specific customers you’ve decided to serve.
In what customer segments does your competitive advantage make a real difference?
Most products or services have certain advantages,
making it a better choice for certain customers.
Let’s say you sell Cadillac cars.
These Cadillacs have a competitive edge,
as they are known luxury cars
and a symbol of quality.
But you have to ask yourself,
“What customer segment does this competitive advantage matter to?”
The desirable qualities of a Cadillac will appeal most to those
who can afford to buy and drive luxury cars.
Your customer is not a driver of Fords,
Chevrolets or Subarus.
Your customers are luxury people with high income.
So what is the unique value added
that a Cadillac has that makes it a superior option over a BMW,
Audi, or Mercedes-Benz?
To secure a leadership position in your field in a competitive market,
your product must be different
and superior in at least four respects:
****************
1. Your products are of better quality.
However, quality is determined by your customer.
How do your customers define quality?
****************
2. Your product quickly delivers better results.
How does your product or service deliver better results faster
than what your competitors offer?
Why does it make sense
for your client financially
or personally?
What difference have they made in the customer’s life
or work compared to competitors’ products or services?
****************
3. Your product may be cheaper.
It can be cheaper than a competitor’s product in terms of cost.
It may be cheaper in terms of the lifetime cost of owning the product.
If it’s cheaper,
what does this mean for your customers,
and why is it better for your customers
to buy from you at a low price than
when buying at a higher price from a competitor?
****************
4. Your product may be easier or more convenient to use.
Customers are quite lazy so they always want a product
or a service that is easier to use.
How easy is your product or service to use?
Why is it easier to use?
How is it easier to use?
What difference has it made in the client’s life or work?
If all sales success hinges on your ability
to set your product
or service apart from those of your competitors,
and ensure that it is a more desirable option,
your competition will who are you?
****************
Maximize your strengths
All sales success hinges on your ability to set your product
or service apart from those of your competitors,
and ensure that it is a more desirable option.
Who are your competitors?
Why do customers buy from your competitors?
What advantages do they see?
In what ways do they feel your competitor’s product
or service is superior to yours?
Especially, honestly,
in what ways are your competitors’ products/services better than yours?
How can you make up for it?
What advantages do your competitors have,
or benefits your customers feel they have?
What can you say or do to showcase your product
or service to maximize your strengths and highlight weaknesses
and gaps in your competitors’ products and services painting?
In many cases,
the products and services are similar.
Think of restaurants that offer the same food.
In this case,
by providing better,
warmer,
friendlier customer service,
you will set yourself apart from your competitors.
In many cases,
especially when a product
or service is perceived as a ubiquitous commodity,
differentiated and high-quality customer service
will be a powerful competitive advantage with customers.
Sometimes, all you need to win a customer is
to be superior in a particular area that customers value.
Here’s an exercise for you:
On the back of your business card,
write 10 to 15 words that give a reason
why a customer might be skeptical
and understand your market instead from others.
If you can’t write your competitive advantage on the back of a business card,
chances are you don’t know what it is,
or you’re incapable of emphasizing your competitive advantage in a sales situation.
****************
PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. List two reasons why your product
or service is better than any of your competitors.
1. Quality
2. Open 24 h per day
2. List two results,
benefits,
or improvements that your customers
will enjoy when they buy your product
instead of a similar product from your competitors.
1. Famous
2. Buy any time
**************************
Chapter 8. Developing an Effective Sales Strategy
One of the traits of a top salesperson is a long-term mindset.
Instead of reacting and dealing with
what’s happening around them every day,
they take the time to observe their market
the way a general views the battlefield.
First, salespeople will become very familiar
with their products or services,
and how better these products or services can change
or improve their lives or work,
customers compared to competitors.
Then, top salespeople survey the market to define as clearly
and accurately as possible which customers are most likely to buy,
use, and enjoy the product
or service they offer.
Four pillars of sales strategy
There are four key concepts in a successful sales strategy:
1. Specialized product or service.
You may have multiple products or services of different sizes,
shapes,
and compositions in your marketable portfolio.
To be successful,
you need to have one or more specialized
or superior products or services.
You can’t sell everything,
so you have to excel at some products and services.
What products or services should you focus on?
It’s true that the world around you is full of potential customers,
but not all of them are your leads.
The second area you need
to specialize in is the customer segment you are targeting.
You will probably always be most comfortable selling
to people like you.
They are similar to you in terms of education,
background,
experience,
worldview,
even lifestyle and dress.
Your ideal customer will of course be someone you feel comfortable talking to
and conversely they are also comfortable communicating with you.
You can also focus on a specific geographical area.
One of the best salespeople I’ve ever met changed
from selling for IBM to selling and leasing commercial real estate.
His office is located in a building in the city center.
He knows this downtown area well,
with commercial real estate concentrated here.
Then he found a five-minute walk from his office in any direction.
He decided he would only work in the area,
which includes hundreds of office buildings with potential tenants,
and only deal with clients based
within a five-minute walk of his office.
With this philosophy and a strong focus on a certain geographic area,
he made more than $200,000 in his first year on the job
while other salespeople were struggling.
So you can specialize in a type of product or service your company offers,
a specific group of customers,
or a specific area or area of activity.
This is the first step in the process of establishing a sales strategy.
**************************
2. Differentiation.
Once you’ve identified a specialized product or service,
you should look around to pinpoint exactly
which potential customers are most likely to buy from you,
based on a distinct set of products
and services as well as your superiority.
Each customer makes a purchase decision,
a choice among many competing products,
often based on a dominant advantage
or benefit that he is being persuaded
to receive after spending money.
Your job is to identify the unique added value
or special benefit your product
or service can provide to customers,
and that specific types of customers value
that value enough to choose you
as a supplier over your competitors
and their wide range of products.
You can differentiate yourself
from your competitors based on product knowledge.
One of the reasons people buy a product
or service is
because they believe that the salesperson is an expert in the field
that provides that product or service.
They are more confident buying from someone
who seems to know more about his product
or service than another competitor.
You can also differentiate yourself
from your competitors on the basis
of your superior sales skills.
The biggest and best companies have long known
that the quality of training they provide
to their salespeople will largely determine the success
of their salespeople relative to the competition.
**************************
3. Market Segmentation.
What are the market segments
or customer groups that can benefit most from your expertise
and differentiation?
Describe your ideal or perfect customer.
What demographics are they?
What is the client’s age,
education,
job position,
marital status and current lifestyle?
Analyze the consumer sentiment of your ideal customer.
What are their hopes,
fears,
desires,
problems,
goals,
and aspirations for the future?
Then look for more and more people
who have characteristics that match your ideal customer.
The clearer you are about the factors relevant to your ideal customer,
the more such people you will find
and the easier it will be to sell products to them.
**************************
4. Concentration.
This pillar requires you to be highly focused on selling your products
and services only to the customers or groups of customers
who can and will buy and pay as soon as possible,
and who will appreciate the special features
and benefits your product has to offer.
Where should you focus your sales energy
so you can make more sales,
faster and easier today?
********************
Focus on results
Here is an example from my own experience.
A friend of mine graduated from college
and decided to enter the insurance industry.
Once he completed his training
and received his practicing certificate,
he began making random calls
to a wide range of potential clients.
Of course, the most potential customers are those with high,
regular income and don’t have a lot of time
and knowledge to make the right choices
and decisions about life insurance and financial planning.
He soon discovered that all the other agents had similar thoughts.
As a result, they focus most of their efforts on lawyers,
architects,
engineers,
doctors,
dentists,
medical professionals and business owners.
Because they think,
“Let’s fish where there are fish.”
To stand out from the crowd of competitive salespeople,
he argued,
he had to specialize in a specific group of customers
with a particular insurance and financial plan.
He opted for life insurance and estate planning,
and decided to focus on clients who are doctors,
dentists and other health professionals.
After that, he spent time studying medicine
to set himself apart from other salespeople.
He interviewed doctors,
attended medical association seminars,
read magazines as well as researched medical literature
and finally equipped himself
with a complete understanding of the needs and requirements
and the financial problems of doctors.
********************
Build reputation
In about two years,
he has built a reputation
as the most knowledgeable planner
in financial planning,
an insurance specialist for medical professionals.
He is invited to speak and speak
at medical conferences on specific issues facing medical professionals
and provides the best ways to organize their finances.
Within five years,
he was one of the top insurance agents in the world,
earning over a million dollars in commissions a year by specializing,
differentiating, categorizing clients
then focusing on the main thing.
Identify customers who represent the highest potential income group
in your business.
********************
PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. What products or services do you specialize in
and what are the most important benefits a person can get
from buying your product or service?
My shop service quality
2. What are the characteristics
and qualities of your ideal customer,
the person who values and values your specialist products
or services the most?
Laugh and happy
********************
Chapter 9. Surveying Potential Customers Like a Pro
Finding people who are intent on buying your product
or service is the most important part of the sales process.
The ability to effectively engage potential customers find people who want
and need your product or service,
and are willing to buy and spend money on it in the short term
is key to your success.
********************
Buy results, not products
People don’t buy products or services.
They buy outcomes
or benefits.
They buy the changes
or improvements they expect from buying your product or service.
Start the lead acquisition process
by sitting down and making a list of all the benefits
a customer can get by using your product
or service in different ways.
If you have a range of benefits,
prioritize them
and identify the biggest benefit the customer can get.
In addition,
if your product can offer several benefits,
each of which may appeal to its own set of customers.
The next stage in the lead acquisition process is
to pinpoint the leads who are most likely
to immediately purchase your product or service.
This requires you to shape your product
or service in one of four different ways.
********************
What problem can you solve?
First, what problem can your product help an ideal customer solve?
You look for people who are having problems
and they are willing to spend money
to help you solve them.
You uncover this problem
by asking the right questions
and listening attentively to the answers.
Problems fall into three categories.
The first is that they are obvious and obvious.
Customers know they have a problem and know what it is.
The second is not clear.
The prospect has a problem
but doesn’t know what it is
and therefore doesn’t know what to do to solve it.
One of the big breakthroughs in modern sales is
when you can show your customers
that they have a problem they didn’t know they had,
and at the same time, effectively solve it.
The third type of problem is the non-existence problem.
Often, when you call a potential customer,
looking for someone with a problem your product can solve,
you find that the customer really doesn’t have a problem.
They don’t need what you’re selling.
They are still fine.
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Finding core needs
Next, you look for potential customers with unmet needs.
A need is what stimulates desire and purchase behavior.
Many people have a need
but don’t know you are selling a product that can fulfill that need.
This is often why they respond
to your offer with words like,
“I’m not interested”
or “I don’t have that need right now.”
Exactly what need does your product
or service fulfill that your customers are willing to pay for?
Always be courageous and strong, and don’t fear. — Gabby Douglas
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Define their goals
The third characteristic of potential customers
is that they have an unattainable goal.
It could be anything from weight loss
to financial independence,
higher income or a quick career advancement.
What goals can your product
or service help customers achieve?
One of the best questioning strategies is
to ask customers about their long-term goals.
The more clear people are about the goals they want to achieve,
the more leads they will become
and also more quickly buy
what you are offering
as long as your product helps them achieve their goals
in a cost effective manner.
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Where do they have problems?
Finally, you look for a potential customer who has trouble,
anxiety,
or stress that you can help reduce or eliminate.
A very simple question like
“What keeps you awake at night?”
often opens up a wide range of sales opportunities.
In the final analysis,
from the time of the ancient Sumerians circa 5,000 BC,
customers have only and always bought one thing:
improvement.
In what ways can your product
or service improve a customer’s life or work?
Customers make purchasing decisions in anticipation
of how much more improvement they will get after purchasing
and using your products than they did
before they received them.
You must be clear about the benefits
or improvements your product or service offers
and make it clear to your customers that they are bound
to enjoy those benefits or improvements.
Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. — W. Clement Stone
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Sales for businesses
If you sell to businesses,
their needs are simple.
They both want to increase sales and profits,
while reducing costs.
They want to save time or money.
They want to improve their business in some way.
Business customers determine the value of your product or service,
and the price they are willing to pay,
by means of comparisons.
The difference between the price you offer
and the financial benefits they will receive
from using your product or service.
Both must be made clear to your potential customers
before they can make a purchase decision.
The good news is that if you ask enough questions
and listen carefully to the answers,
potential customers will tell you everything
they need to know to show that your product is the best choice for them,
in the long run, series of considerations.
If you want to change the visible,
you must first change the invisible. — T. Harv Eker
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The “hundreds of calls” method
One of the biggest challenges
of prospecting is overcoming the fear of rejection.
To overcome this fear, you can use a simple technique.
From today you can use
what I call the “hundred call method”.
This method forces you to go out immediately
and call 100 leads as quickly as possible.
The difference here is
that you don’t really care whether they buy or not.
Focus on the number of leads you can call instead of your sales results.
There seems to be a wonderful balance
between desire and reality achieved with every order.
When you reach the equilibrium point,
the point where you want to sell
but don’t particularly care about making a sale,
you become the most effective salesperson you can be.
When you apply the hundred-call method to your life
and call 100 different people as quickly as you can,
you will eventually become completely fearless.
You will become immune to any rejection.
You will have absolutely no fear of calling anyone at any time.
For the rest of your career,
you’ll really look forward to attracting leads
because you know that every call-to-contact brings you
one step closer to sales success.
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PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. Identify your ideal customers and the problem, need,
or goal that drives them to buy from you.
2. From today, double your “face-to-face” time
and spend more time each day with potential customers who can
and will buy from you within a short period of time to come.
If you want to lead an extraordinary life,
find out what the ordinary do and don’t do it. — Tommy Newberry
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Chapter 10. Assessing the Quality of Your Potential Customers
One of the biggest time-wasters in sales is spending too much time
with people who can’t
or won’t buy your product
or use your service.
The ability to clearly assess the quality of your leads
from the start of the conversation,
even over the phone,
can save you huge amounts of time
and dramatically increase your income.
Customers today are often overwhelmed
by about 5,000 commercial messages a day,
with only one message:
Buy my product/service!”
The mind is just like a muscle,
the more you exercise it,
the stronger it gets and the more it can expand. — Idowu Koyenikan
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Capture the customer’s attention
The most valuable resource in business is the attention of your customers.
To have a chance to successfully sell or score,
you have to get past your prospect’s concerns
so that they’re willing to listen to you from the start.
Whenever possible, open up your sales conversation
with a powerful question that instantly assesses
the quality of a lead and captures the person’s attention.
Ask a question to which the expected answer is “Yes”
to assess whether that person is your potential customer or not.
For example,
when selling to businesses,
you could open your offer by saying,
“Do you want to hear an idea that could help you gain
or save a lot of time or money?”
Since business people’s primary concern is
to save or gain time or money,
this type of question will immediately get their attention.
Most of the products
or services you sell to a business
will somehow provide a financial benefit,
a way to increase sales and profits
or reduce costs for them.
If you are selling residential real estate,
an effective opening question might be,
“Are you looking for the perfect home in a quiet neighborhood?”
Because this simple question covers the desires and concerns
of 90% of residential real estate buyers,
potential customers will most likely respond,
“Of course, that’s exactly what it is,
we are looking for.”
If you are approaching a sales manager
whose income is determined by the success of the sales force,
you can use the approach I have used over the years:
“Are you interested
How can I increase my sales
by 20% to 30% in the next 6 to 12 months?”
This question almost always elicits the ideal response:
“Of course. What is that?”
If your open-ended question doesn’t elicit a response like
“What’s that?”,
you must go back and revise your opening question
until it elicits that kind of response from a prospect.
The potential has been evaluated for quality.
You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe,
deserve your love and affection. ― Buddha
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Focus on potential customers
During your first contact with a prospect,
focus all of your attention and questions on them.
Don’t talk about who you are,
what you do,
or about your company.
Remember, the conversation is aimed at them, not you.
Customer-centered selling is a professional selling method.
You are considered a professional salesperson only
when talking to your customers about their wants and needs.
No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. – Regina Brett
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Ask the way to success
When you’re looking to attract leads,
the more information you generate,
the easier it is to evaluate the prospect and close the sale.
This is a time when it is very important to ask questions.
Your questions should be thought
through first and arranged in a logical order,
from most general to specific.
Once the prospect responds positively
to your open-ended question,
you should ask them questions about their business,
market and budget, etc.
Usually, people will provide you all this information in exchange
for the benefits you promised
to give them in the opening question.
The quality of your life is directly related to the quality of your thoughts.
Is thought helpful or harmful?
You have the power to change your thoughts and mental habits.
Awareness and action are the keys. — Akiroq Brost
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Cold-calling strategy
When you’re randomly calling
or calling a potential customer for the first time,
it’s a good idea to use the “simplest possible” strategy.
This means, at the very least,
that you should carry a simple brochure
instead of a briefcase full of brochures or samples.
If a potential customer is interested
and eager to hear about a product or service,
you can always go back to your car to pick up
what you need and bring it in.
But when you walk in without your serious briefcase,
you reduce the initial stress of the sale
and make the prospect more relaxed and open to you.
On the first call, don’t try to make a sale.
Focus on gathering information.
Unless you’re selling a product that’s inexpensive
and doesn’t require a lot of thought,
you’ll want to interview potential customers and ask questions.
Don’t forget to take notes
and tell them you’ll see them again
if you think you have some ideas that might help them.
Focus on building relationships
and showing your friendliness,
humor,
and sociability.
The more comfortable your potential customers feel,
the more open they will be to you,
and the more likely you will get orders in the long run.
You cannot have a million-dollar dream
with a minimum wage work ethic. ― Stephan C. Hogan
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Identify key benefits
For each customer,
there is a dominant interest that excites them
to buy your product or service.
At the same time,
there is a dominant fear
or doubt that prevents them from withdrawing.
Your initial job in the exploratory conversation,
and the key to assessing the quality of your leads,
is to find out exactly
what interests make them buy from you
and the fear or ambiguity
that stops them from making a decision,
intend to purchase.
Don’t be afraid to ask.
“Ask” is the magic word for sales success.
You could even say,
“Ladies and gentlemen,
we’ve found that there’s always an important benefit
or primary reason for a person to buy our product or service.
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What’s your reason?”
If you are open,
honest,
sincere,
and ask questions out of curiosity,
you will be amazed at the answers you get.
Potential customers will usually provide you
with all the information you need to make a sale.
It is important that you ask.
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PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. Ask an open-ended question or statement
that allows you to determine if this is really your prospect.
2. Identify the key benefit your ideal customer is looking for,
and make sure you include
that benefit at the beginning of the conversation.
3. The phone calls or visits to potential customers
that they don’t know you.
The purpose of random calls is to collect information about potential customers,
inform potential customers about the benefits of using your product
or service and in many cases to see you again.
Big thinkers understand the importance of saving and investing,
so they focus on getting rich by serving people and solving problems. — Steve Siebold
