Continuing Education

Education can take many forms. Obviously there are structured courses at accredited schools from vocational-tech to four year colleges that will allow you to get your degree or just audit the class. There is also seminars on motivation and product information lasting one or more days. But, there is another continuing education process that all successful people follow, READING. We should read to keep abreast of new and emerging products and services that pertain to our sales field. We should read just to keep up with current events, and how it affects our business. We should read about our customers and their competitor's products. We should read about our competitors and their products and services. Reading is an excellent way for a salesperson to turn idle time into money. Newspapers, news magazines, trade publications. Browsing through them regularly should be a part of your routine.

A top flight salesperson should be a pleasant, interesting person. Knowing his or hers knowledge doesn't begin and end with the product or service. If time permits, and the customer/prospect is interested, he can converse about most anything. Trends in industry, similar business, politics, sports, the theater, hobbies, etc. This makes him a welcome visitor regardless of whether they happen to need your product or service at the moment or not. Put yourself in the position of a customer/prospect, buying from two competitive sources of supply. Both companies products are good and their services excellent. Both salesmen know their product lines thoroughly. In the case of one salesman, however, once business has been discussed, there's not much more to be said. He makes the same routine comments about the weather, your health and his, and the conversation dies. you're relieved when he picks up his hat and is on his way.

The other salesman by contrast, always seems to have at least a few tidbits of interesting news about trends and developments in your business and his. When you discuss current events, he's well informed and makes some very pertinent observations. He even has taken the time to learn something about your hobby so the conversation becomes personalized, which makes you look forward to his visits. Under those circumstances, which of the two salesmen will receive the lions share of the business?

TIP: Consider the value of continuing your education through reading regularly not only to keep current in your industry but also to increase your ability to intelligently converse with your customers about a broad range of topics.

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Persistence

A twenty year old country boy, awkward and overgrown, was having trouble making his way in the world. He could barely read, couldn't spell accurately, and was painfully shy. He was fired from his first three jobs and couldn't find a fourth-no one would hire him. Not a likely candidate for success, you might say, but he had one unusual quality. He wouldn't stop trying. So he began making brushes and selling them from door to door. Eventually he did pretty well. He was Alfred C. Fuller, founder of the Fuller Brush Company.

Which reminds me of another young Fuller Brush salesman, who outsold every other salesman in the Carolinas and who once said; "I believe in my product, and sincerity is the biggest part of selling anything." He later became a salesman for Christianity. His name: Billy Graham.

Persistence doesn't mean to make a pest of yourself. Persistence means that if you believe in yourself, believe in your product, and believe that your customer/prospect needs your product then you have a morale responsibility to see that your customer/prospect gets this product.

Work Smart Not Hard
"Should I change the status quo?" A young route salesman asked himself when taking over a new territory. He found he faced an unusual problem. Two years earlier a very popular old timer handled that territory had retired. Since then the company had tried several different young men in the same area without much success.

As the new salesman made the rounds, he ran into the same story, "Since Charlie retired, they keep changing salesmen.Why should I buy from you?" he was asked. "Charlie was here for years. You probably won't be here next month." Obviously, it would take some time and repeated exposures before Charlie's old customers started to trust him.

To speed up the process, he decided to call more frequently. Instead of spending an hour in a customer's store every two months, he started spending 20 minutes and calling back every three weeks. On the third or fourth call, the old customers began to be impressed. "You're back again," they would say. "Well, if you're going to be our regular man, we might as well buy something." Within a few months nobody threw Charlie's reputation at him again.

TIP: Did you take over "Charlie's accounts?" Change something and make them your accounts not "Charlie's."

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Relationships

The partnerships that you have with your customers is like a marriage. In a good marriage it is a give and take relationship, about 50-50. There has to be communication/conversation that will serve both parties in a positive way. There has to be understanding of the needs and wants from both sides. Most importantly we need to act on these things and not give lip service.

We have to be sincere with what we say and do for our customers. We cannot have ulterior motives, i.e. selfish motives...such as, "How much commission will I make?"

There is a saying, that as sales people, we need to model our actions after: "If we help enough other people get what they want, then we will never have to worry about what we want."
- Zig Ziglar 

Think about it! If we give the customer the service they want and need. If we supply the customer with the quality product that they want and need. If we deliver the product on time. If we make the customers job easier. If we do all of these things then the customer will give us loyalty, consistent/on-going orders, present us with other product opportunities, pay their bills on time, and recommend us to other potential customers. This will amount to sales and commissions.

TIP: A good relationship is a give and take marriage, one that will last a long time if cared and nurtured for. Honor the relationship, cherish it, but most importantly be loyal to it.

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Winning Becomes a Habit. . . But so does Losing

Winning is not a occasional thing. . .or it should not be for champions. The one thing I have found  constant about winners is their desire to excel no matter who the competition is nor the obstacle. They want to finish on top. Consistent winners always find ways to overcome obstacles.

When a customer gives me a "no" answer to the question: "May I have the order? . . . It is because he did not understand the program I was trying to sell to him. I take that personally because there was something I did not explain fully. I begin to ask very direct and specific questions to find out just what he did not understand. I then zero in on the aspects he does not understand and explain them fully. Once the customer understand the program in its entirety I know he will make a rational and logical decision and purchase the product from me.

TIP: Make certain the customer knows and understands the program you are presenting to him and winning will become a habit for you also.

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Ask Questions-Don't Tell

Did you enjoy what you had for dinner last night? You are probably wondering what this question has to do with sales? Please bear with me for a moment. Think about what you did when you read the question. First, your mind flashed back to dinner last night. You very quickly re-evaluated your meal. You decided all over if it was a meal to remember or a meal to forget.

Here's the point. I was able to direct your thinking by asking you a question. You thought about what I wanted you to think about. This is a simple illustration of the power of a question. By wielding that power, you can direct an individuals thinking. That's what makes asking a good, well timed question the most EFFECTIVE SALES TOOL THAT YOU HAVE. The decision to buy your product/service takes place in your customer/prospects mind. A good question from you helps focus and shape the direction in which the buyers mind works.

Without first asking questions, you're reduced to working on assumptions about the needs and wants of your customer. Good questions give you the answers you need to make the sale. Asking good personal, not intrusive, questions of your customers will show your sincerity and will help build a strong relationship. The focus and precision of your questions do more to give your customer the perception of your competence than any product knowledge that you would TELL them.

The road to sales success is paved with good questions. Master the art of questioning, and you'll dramatically improve your sales.

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Check-up from the Neck up

Many of the problems you face in your day to day sales activities might lie in how you perceive yourself and your profession. At the root of our psychological resistance toward selling may lie false beliefs about other people and our performance. Answer true or false to the following statements. Your answers will help point up misconceptions that could be holding you back.

1. True or False: To consider myself worthwhile, I must be a winner in every sales situation.

2. True or False: Others are to blame for my poor sales performance.

3. True or False: When I don't get that big sale, I feel that it's the end of the world.

4. True or False: It's easier to delay hearing a possible rejection than to face it head-on.

5. True or False: I can't change my selling style.

According to Gary S. Goodman Ph.D. your answers should have been false. Here are the facts to replace the fallacies.

1. Not even the top pros come out of every sales interview a winner. Believing that you have to close every sale to be a success places an unnecessary and impossible burden on your shoulders. Expand your customer list-if your success hinges on getting an order from every prospect you call on, you aren't calling on enough prospects.

2. Yes, a prospect can refuse to give you an order. Yes, a shipper's foul-up can create a temporary customer relations problem. Yes, some of your colleagues and customers might rub you the wrong way. But, none of these individuals-not even all of them together can make you fail. Take Control-like success, failure is within your own power. The only person who can throw a monkey wrench into your sales achievements is the one you face in the mirror.

3. Avoid putting all your emotional eggs in one basket. Instead work on a large number of prospects simultaneously. Then, if a big order never reaches the closing stage, you'll still have a nice crop of medium to smaller successes to fall back on.

4. Sometimes you just know that the account you've been working on so long is going to say NO if you come right out and ask for the order. So instead of making that last call to get the buyers verdict, you avoid contact. Even if you do call on the prospect, you discuss everything except the buying decision. If bad news is coming, it's better to get it over with, close the sale. In fact it may be advisable to call a day or two early to expedite the process. Who knows, maybe a positive attitude vs. a negative will have an influence on your prospect/customer. Don't let your sale slip away. While you're procrastinating a competitor could slip in and get the sale. Besides, the customer/prospect might be willing to say Yes, if you ever get around to asking for the order.

5. Everything changes, including products, markets, and customers. If any of these factors changes and you don't, you will get left behind. Top pros know how to adapt their basic selling strategy to various buyers. Even the best selling approach can use a little fine tuning from time to time. Grow your career - If you stop growing and experimenting you'll fall behind the competition.

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