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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.
Bob Rada, C.I.S.
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."
Bob Rada, C.I.S.
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 ZiglarThink 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.
Bob Rada, C.I.S.