SELL AND GROW RICH pdf

And I emphasize the word “study” lest there be any lingering doubts that one of the important components of successful selling is the diligent and continuing acquisition of a large body

SELL AND GROW RICH

Achieve Unlimited Success in Selling

by Robert Stuberg

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Also by Robert Stuberg

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TABLE OF CONTENTSPreface

CHAPTER ONE: Personal Development for Success

CHAPTER TWO: Planning for Success

CHAPTER THREE: Engaging the Customer for Success

CHAPTER FOUR: Getting the Order

CHAPTER FIVE: Review

1 Don’t learn the rules of selling

2 Don’t practice the rules of selling

All you have to do to guarantee your failure is to implement those two ideas They will work every time without exception

Conversely, being successful in the world of selling just requires turning those two simple ideas around so it reads like this:

1 Learn the rules of selling

2 Practice the rules of selling

While this may seem like an oversimplification, I can promise you that it’s not

Becoming successful at anything requires that you learn and apply the fundamentals And what’s interesting to observe is how the top people in any field can always be found practicing the fundamentals The purpose of this small book is to provide you with the fundamentals for selling If you learn them and apply them, your success at selling is

We live in a world that operates based on laws and not on luck In fact, I like to remind myself often that luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity The truth

is that we each create our own luck with our own thoughts and actions

Becoming a great salesperson can be broken down into four major parts First, is the most important part that I call personal development While most people in the world are pursuing success, the reality is that pursuing success only leads to stress and frustration

Do your own analysis and see if you don’t come to the same conclusion Most people are chasing after success with the result being that the only thing they catch is anxiety It’s much better to learn how to attract success based on becoming more as a person In order

to open the windows and doors of opportunity, you need is grow as a person There is simply nothing more important than your ongoing personal development It is by

becoming more as a person that you attract more into your life People often have this

urgent cry to have more without realizing that the secret is to first become more.

The next part is developing a plan for what you want to accomplish We all need goals that are realistic, compatible, and attainable to keep us growing What are your goals? What would you like to accomplish? And why do you want whatever is on your list of objectives? If you know what you want and why you want it, you are well on your way

… especially if you have your goals written down!

After your plan, the next step is to learn exactly how to engage customers You need to learn how to work with and through people if you want to succeed at selling You need

to know how to select the right potential clients and then how to present your products or services It’s not that difficult but it does require a strategy Remember, selling like life

is a contact sport You need to be able to communicate effectively with other people This might first appear to be a scary proposition because people can reject you; however, each rejection is a step closer to a sale You have to remember what you knew as a child When someone said no, that didn’t mean you couldn’t change their mind Just watch the next time to hear a parent tell a child no and see if the child immediately gives up or ends

up with the candy Persistence always wins in the long term

This brings us to the last major part of selling which is getting the order or closing the deal There is a huge different between being a great presenter and being a great

salesperson The presenter might entertain but it’s the salesperson that gets the order In ancient times if you were a great speaker you would be called an orator It was said of one such man, Cicero, that he was a brilliant orator and people loved to listen to him But there was another man who was also admired as a speaker but for a different reason Demosthenes wasn’t just a great speaker or presenter, he was a great persuader While people might be awed by Cicero and say, “What great speech!” When Demosthenes spoke they would say, “Let us march!” The key is to get people to take action Even Cicero said of Demosthenes, “he stands alone among all orators.” That’s high praise coming from a colleague Cicero knew that if something required people to take action, the best man for the job was Demosthenes

So commit to not just being a great presenter, but to being a great persuader Learn to move people to action.

Now it’s time to take action I recommend not just reading this book but also getting a coach to work with you All of us need a coach We are too close to ourselves to really see what’s going on At best, we can only see a reflection of ourselves in the mirror A coach can give you a full view and an outside perspective that will really help you to grow So if you don’t have a coach yet or if you aren’t making the progress you would like to make and are capable of making with your current coach, sign up for a coaching session with us There’s no cost or obligation to try out our system

Here is the link to that FREE personal coaching session as well as some other FREE resources:

FREE personal coaching session:

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR SUCCESS

I’m going to tell you how you can achieve unlimited success in selling along with the unlimited rewards of wealth and satisfaction that go with that success

No other profession offers greater opportunities for individual achievement, wealth accumulation and personal satisfaction than a career in sales Competent, effective sales people are always in demand and will readily command not only the financial rewards that are due them, but also the recognition and prestige that come as a matter of course to people at the top of their profession

I don’t believe there is such a person as a “natural-born salesman” as the saying used to

go Just as in any profession, top sales people get to where they are as result of study, hard work, experience, and study And I emphasize the word “study” lest there be any lingering doubts that one of the important components of successful selling is the diligent and continuing acquisition of a large body of knowledge about your product, your

industry, your customers and your competitors, not to mention about yourself

Unfortunately, the classic stereotype of a good salesperson—perhaps “caricature” is a better word—is that of a fast-talking, glib manipulator who relies mostly on pressure to get a prospect to say “yes.” I think you know the type: Slick, short on facts and long on hype and lots of now-is-your-last-chance deadlines Regrettably, that stereotype still persists as a role model in sales for a lot of people.

What we will do in this message is step back from stereotypes, and back away from all selling “techniques” for that matter, and discuss what kind of person you first must become to achieve true success in selling and what you must do to become that person And by the time we complete this program, I expect you to believe, as I do, that you can become anything you want to be if you want it long enough and hard enough and are willing to work for it

If you’re the kind of person that sets limits on yourself, of course, those limits will hold you back If you’re the kind of person who is willing to change, who wants to succeed and will work for it, the future is anything you want it to be The only limits on your future are the limits you set on yourself

I’m willing to bet on the simple fact that because you are taking time to listen to this program you are the kind of person who will invest in yourself whatever it takes to achieve success in your selling career

Success in selling ultimately depends on your making a commitment to excellence in every part of your life I’ll also add that your ultimate happiness in life depends on that commitment to excellence

So what I’m saying is that nothing is more important to success in selling than the continuing pursuit of personal development throughout your career What talents you start with in life aren’t nearly as important as what you do with the development of those talents

We are all given different talents in the same way we’re dealt different hands in cards It’s what you do with what you’re dealt that makes the difference After all, fortunes have been founded on hands that held little more than a pair of deuces

Keep in mind that the market only pays excellent rewards for excellent performance To earn more, you must continue to develop the levels and quality of performance that justify those greater rewards

Someone has said, “You are earning exactly today what you’re worth today” which is a way of saying we are worth the sum total of all the choices and decisions we have made

in life up to this point

And if we’re not happy with what we have at this moment, then we darn well have to get busy and make the right choices and decisions that will make us better, more effective and move us forward to the level that justifies the rewards we think we ought to have

The truth is, at every stage in life, we must keep getting better, growing, expanding our talents to keep from falling back Our happiness depends on it We’re only happy when we’re moving forward, moving toward something important that we really want.

OK, what’s the most important goal in your sales career? I’ll tell you what it is As of right now, your goal is to be in the top 10% of your group, your company or your

industry, whatever your situation may be It doesn’t matter what your standing is at the moment, because you’re not looking back, only forward From this moment on your objective is to become the best, only the best

Keep in mind, though, the greater the prize, the steeper the price Nowhere else is the old adage, “You get what you pay for” truer than in what you’re willing to invest in personal development to become the best in your field And the real price is measured not so much in money as in what you’re willing to commit in time, effort, discipline and

perseverance to achieve your goals

This is an investment in the truest sense Nothing will give you a greater total return than investing in your personal growth to achieve your goals It’s the only “sure thing”

investment you’ll ever get

The people who never make the top 10% are those who aren’t willing to make that

investment because they aren’t willing to make the personal sacrifices it requires They aren’t willing to make the tough choices that the discipline of personal growth demands.But you know, every journey begins with a first step, and then another and another And personal development is simply a matter of getting better one step at a time Setting goals and moving toward them As someone once said, “By the yard it’s hard; by the inch it’s a cinch.” It really is that simple So start your journey now by taking the first step of making the commitment to a concerted effort of personal growth

There are 12 important characteristics that define successful sales people and I want you

to use these characteristics as targets for your personal development In all instances, personality and personal traits of character are more important to success than even the important factors of product knowledge, sales skills and the product itself Selling is a people business, the productive interaction of people in achieving a mutually beneficial exchange of value The top 10% of sales people are those who bring the highest quality personal attributes to that interaction

The first of these essential personal attributes is a high level of confidence and esteem The two concepts are inseparable Your self-confidence depends on your self-esteem or how much you like yourself And there’s a direct positive correlation between how much you like yourself and how well you do everything else It’s simply a case of

self-“You become what you think about.” The higher your self-esteem, the lower your fear of rejection The more you like yourself, the more effective you are in getting along with others The result is that people have more confidence in you when they feel you like

them and care about them.

One of the best ways of building self-esteem is backing your sales effort with the second important personal attribute, and that’s the will power of commitment and perseverance The primary reason for sales failure is people don’t stick with it long enough and hard enough to get the winning experience to maintain their self-esteem They’re willing to take “no” for an answer They accept rejection as a personal affront Selling, like so many other avenues of life, is a business of percentages Successful sales people know that success is directly related to the number of calls they make and that 80% of sales are made after the fifth visit to a prospect

It’s terribly important that you make an absolute commitment to succeed in your sales career This is a 100%, no compromises, take no prisoners dedication to become the best

in your field You’ve made an iron-clad contract with yourself And you see, once you’ve done that, failure is not an option There is no room for excuses, distractions or half-way measures All at once, you have set in motion the forces that will move you forward You will see the positive steps ahead, the path you have to take to get you to the top

This path naturally has its roadblocks and potholes People who don’t succeed, people who haven’t made that commitment, will let these obstacles discourage and defeat them Perseverance is the natural counterpart of your commitment to succeed Success means you keep trying You never, ever give up Remember, there is no traffic jam on the second mile Or the third, or the fourth Success in selling is a chain reaction as success breeds success

Successful sales people are successful because they like themselves, they like selling and they have decided to become successful at it and won’t stop until they are

The next important attribute successful people have is a positive self-concept It’s not only that they like themselves, but it’s the total picture they have of themselves First, they think that success is the natural consequence of the commitment they’ve made to be successful If the concept is unfamiliar, you may first have to practice what actors call the “suspension of disbelief”, but with time, you can adopt that same mindset of success Again, you become what you think about Project yourself into the realm of success you want to achieve as a means of achieving it

Customers will accept your image of yourself, so act the part you want to be, that is, act

in every way like a top sales professional Cary Grant—his real name was Archie Leach

—worked hard and spent years creating the persona of “Cary Grant.” And once when an admirer said, “I’d give anything to be Cary Grant,” Cary Grant said, “So would I.” You are what you think about How you see yourself determines your behavior and your success

When successful sales people see themselves in a role that’s helpful to customers, this is what the customer also sees For example, position yourself mentally as a successful

consultant to your customers, someone who is on call as a problem solver and advisor You no longer are just a purveyor of goods & services, but a highly paid specialist to help them increase their sales & profits.

Another useful self-concept is to be a “doctor of selling.” You see your customers as patients with complaints and you’ve been called in for consultation Your posture is highly professional and with a highly ethical approach you proceed to make an

examination, diagnose the problem and provide a prescription for a cure You do make house calls and insist on follow-up visits

These concepts are not mutually exclusive, because at the same time, successful sales people always see themselves as president & CEO of their own companies In that sense, they see themselves as self-employed and totally responsible for their own bottom line, the success of their venture They know that they determine their own income and what the future holds for them

Your self-concept is the basis of your customers’ confidence in you and what you can do for them Adopt the mindset of the person you want your customers to see

The next important attribute for success is the ability to set goals and pursue them Every successful sales person is goal- oriented, beginning with the goal of being successful Goals first of all are motivators, the spur to keep us moving forward, as well as the

reward for achievement Goals must be concrete and achievable, even if at first they seem a bit beyond your reach Goals don’t necessarily have to be grand and may be quite finite as stepping stones to a grander objective

Goals are a marvelous tool for organizing your time effectively Develop the nightly practice of setting goals for what you plan to accomplish the next day Prioritize these goals and go after your tasks in that order You can use the same technique for longer time periods as well

The great things about setting goals and the plans to accomplish them is how they tend to protect you from the irrelevant and time-wasting distractions that otherwise can bog you down Once you get in the habit of goal setting it will become an important way of life that you won’t be without

One example of goal-setting you’ll want to do is your annual income Once you decide

on what that figure should be, break it down into a monthly, weekly, daily and finally, an hourly rate If, for illustration purposes, that hourly rate is $50/hour, then you will only

do $50/hour tasks and will say no to activities not worth your time and plan your days accordingly

The key to effective goal-setting, of course, is writing them down and reviewing them frequently Go over them every day, if needed, to keep you on course and on your time table Be ready to make adjustments in your plans as necessary to keep you moving toward your goal

Set your goals and plans in the way the French philosopher, Teilhard de Chardin,

intended when he wrote, “Our duty as men (and women) is to proceed as if limits to our ability do not exist We are collaborators in creation.” Be a goal-setter Be a

collaborator in creation

But it takes courage to set goals and follow through on them and courage is the next important attribute of success Probably the greatest single deterrent people experience in achieving success is fear It is fear of many things, but primarily it is fear of the

consequences of acting It is the fear of failure Some think of courage as taking action without fear, but as Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, master of fear; not absence of fear.” Or, as we recall, Ernest Hemingway described courage as “grace under pressure.” The soldier’s badge of courage in battle is pressing forward in the face of overwhelming fear

While the fears we encounter in our careers seldom concern physical safety, the

consequences can be almost as debilitating if such fears aren’t faced squarely, challenged and managed In the simplest sense, courage is managing your fears and acting to

overcome them

You must have courage to take action on your goals, plans and values for as Winston Churchill said, “Courage is the foremost of virtues For upon it all others depend.” Think of courage, then, as a foundation for everything we do Courage frequently simply amounts to doing something to reach your goal that you intensely don’t want to do But

in all cases, do it you must, if you are to succeed

Courage is an absolute requisite to the next important attribute of success, the essential quality of personal integrity Of all human traits, it is the hardest won and the most difficult to sustain Little wonder that it’s the personal characteristic that people value above all else

My dictionary defines integrity as, “Moral soundness as it is revealed in dealings that test steadfastness to truth, purpose, responsibility or trust.” And the synonyms listed are honor and honesty

Note the important emphasis on “dealings that test steadfastness to truth, etc.” The point,

I think, is that we are constantly tested and the measure of our integrity is how well we stand up to those tests

How our integrity relies on courage was suggested by the noted author and columnist, Walter Lippman, when he wrote, “(A person) has honor if he (or she) holds himself to an ideal of conduct—though it is inconvenient, unprofitable or dangerous to do so.” Think

of your personal integrity in terms of that ideal of conduct that takes courage to maintain and defend

I consider personal integrity the magnetic north on our moral compass It’s a constant

reference point that assures a true course in life.

No appraisal of your business conduct will hold you in higher regard than being

considered a person of integrity by your customers and co-workers

We know, of course, “that dealings that test steadfastness to truth, purpose, responsibility

or trust,” as well as honor and honesty, apply as much when directed to ourselves as to our dealings with others It means being true to what you believe and stand for, just as in that famous admonition by Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “To thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

Take stock of what ideals of conduct you hold yourself to and how you stand up to the tests of steadfastness to truth, purpose, responsibility and trust, not to mention honor and honesty And most of all, be honest with yourself Make your name and reputation synonymous with integrity

The next important personal attribute of successful sales people is enthusiasm I like the definition of selling that says a sale is a transfer of enthusiasm It implies, of course, that the person doing the selling has enthusiasm for his or her product or service and has the ability to imbue the customer with that enthusiasm to the point of making a purchase The point being, that enthusiasm is an essential characteristic of every successful sales person’s makeup, much in keeping with Emerson’s dictum that “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

Enthusiasm in selling has many parents There is a one-to-one relationship between how much you like yourself and your enthusiasm That self- esteem is reflected in the

confidence and intensity of your presentations to your customers And similarly, your enthusiasm will largely be a reflection of how much you like what you’re doing and how comfortable you are doing it Enthusiasm also is a reflection of the goals you set and the intensity of your desire to achieve those goals Enthusiasm grows out of your knowledge

of your product or service and what it can do for your customer And enthusiasm will stem directly from how well prepared you are

Enthusiasm, like laughter, is contagious and the more you generate it, feel it and display

it, the more readily your customer will catch it and respond by giving you the order.Now, you may be thinking of enthusiasm in the same terms as Ethel Merman when she said, “Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice.” Or even like another writer who said, “Be fanatics When it comes to being and doing and dreaming of the best, be maniacs!” And if those approaches suit your temperament, great! Go for it What ever works That’s an expression of enthusiasm

But maybe the manic approach is not for you That’s OK, too Enthusiasm can be

conveyed just as intensely and sincerely with an earnest thoroughness and quiet fire that leaves no doubt in your customer’s mind about your enthusiasm for your product and what it can do for them

Whatever your take may be, think of the enthusiasm in your sales approach in terms of the energy behind it and what it takes to transfer that dynamic to the customer And make no mistake, when your enthusiasm is genuine and strong enough, your customer will get it And you will get the sale.

The next attribute of success is empathy, which is really the reciprocal or the flip side of enthusiasm Along with conveying your enthusiasm to the customer, it’s equally

important that you sharpen your senses about what the customer is feeling and thinking

Empathy is important as the process of shifting your focus from what you want to what the customer wants It’s a matter of opening your mind and your feelings to act as

powerful sensors to pick up even the unspoken signals and nuances that tell you what your customer is really saying

It’s awfully easy for selling to become a one-way street for the flow of information going exclusively from you to the customer After all, you know your product, you’ve

rehearsed your presentation and have it down cold and you can’t resist letting it all hang out

The obvious problem with this is if you do all the talking, you will lose important

opportunities to hear what the customer has to say about his needs, problems and desires This is the information you must have to position your product as an asset to your

customer Selling isn’t about you or your product, it’s all about your customer and his or her business

Empathy in action is asking questions Become proficient at asking questions and

following up with more questions to get the customer to tell you why he should buy your product And equally important, become a good listener Listen well and become a sponge for the information that will tell you how to present your product as an essential component of your customer’s business

Remember, empathy is giving the customer a chance to tell you how to sell him your product or service

The next important attribute of all successful people is the faculty for using common sense Now, this isn’t a rare gift allotted to a lucky few It only becomes rare when we don’t use it It’s an innate asset we all have and it’s just a question of developing it and using it But I think Will Rogers was exaggerating only a little when he said, “There’s an awful lot of common sense available in America today because nobody’s used any of it yet.”

Part of the problem is that common sense is one of those things that everyone talks about without a good idea of what it is Well, to start, common sense is taking time to see things through, to look at the end game of every transaction In a way, it’s always

looking before you leap It’s remembering that the law of cause and effect is still in force

and every action has an equal and opposite reaction It’s being aware that everything you

do has consequences and being ready to deal with those consequences

But another part of common sense is always looking after you leap, too It’s taking time

to reflect on all experiences, good or bad, and learning something from them The best teachers in life should be the mistakes we make

Along these lines, the famous pollster, George Gallup, characterizes common sense as,

“The ability to have experiences, to learn from those experiences, to derive lessons from those experiences and to apply those lessons to subsequent experiences.”

At the same time, common sense is keeping a realistic view of the world around you and dealing with it as it is, not as you would like it to be The self-delusion of unrealistic expectations rushes in when common sense takes a holiday

Your common sense is one of your hidden resources that is always there ready to use and develop when you need it

Perhaps one of the most obvious and most pronounced attributes of successful people is the discipline they apply to their work and achieving their goals Of all the qualities that affect your performance, your professional discipline may be the most powerful indicator

of your future success

Discipline has been defined as getting excited about making yourself do what’s necessary

to achieve a desired result It’s the exciting commitment, the motivating force, that makes constructive habits possible Discipline is the steel with which good habits are forged—and it’s our good habits that determine what we come

I don’t think I’m overstating the case in saying that discipline is the key to all human progress Nothing worthwhile is achieved with out the power of personal discipline If

we don’t have the firm hand of discipline to push us along, we can’t hope to accomplish much whatever our good intentions

Discipline is the will with which you control the circumstances around you in the same way Goethe wrote, “He who has a firm will molds the world to himself.” A good

example is in how we use our time How many times have we heard the familiar

complaint, “I didn’t have enough time.” The truth is, at any given moment, any one of us has all the time in the world Whether we gain by it depends on how well we apply the force of personal discipline

Procrastination is the common pitfall in the path of human progress that has sometime been described as the art of keeping up with yesterday Your antidote to procrastination

is using the force of discipline to keep you moving toward your goals

The attribute that is perhaps least understood in moving successful people ahead is the application of creativity to their goals, Creativity in this sense is essentially the constant

focus on finding better ways to do things It is the skepticism that refuses to accept the status quo or the most convenient solution to a problem.

This kind of creativity is not an esoteric talent that’s limited to a chosen few It is a genius that is naturally inherent in everyone, available to be called up and put to work It

is one of those inner resources we all have that we only have to recognize and energize

For example, think of creativity as your ability to look ahead, imagine and ask, “What if ?” It’s your ability to take time out and ask if there’s another way of doing this It’s your ability to anticipate questions, objections, obstacles and prepare responses ahead of time It is in all cases, planning the course ahead and providing resources for

contingencies

Like any unused talent, your powers of creativity improve with use and experience Apply your creative energies to every part of your professional life Look for the better ways, for example, of scheduling your time, finding prospects, making presentations or planning work And keep in mind, there is always a better way to do things All you have to do is look for it

In conclusion, the last, but certainly not the least, important attribute of successful people

is a commitment to a continuing program of personal improvement Besides focusing on and enhancing the attributes we’ve just discussed, it’s also a dedication to improvement

in what I call the important fundamentals of professional growth

First, work to improve your speaking and writing skills You will be constantly judged

by how well you express yourself Take stock of your present abilities and take the appropriate remedial steps that are needed to improve and maintain these skills

Next, continue your education, both broadly and specifically, to increase your sales knowledge and effectiveness Those who do not keep expanding their knowledge will be surpassed by those who do Read at least 30 minutes every day and build a library of books on selling (You’ll be surprised how many there are.) Listen to audio programs, especially in your car between calls Subscribe to professional and industry journals, attend seminars, and enroll in continuing education classes Make sure you continue to acquire the knowledge that is required to keep you moving ahead in your profession Let me conclude with the reminder that the kind of person you are, the quality of your personal attributes, is the most important factor contributing to your success in a selling career Regardless what your background may be and regardless of your current

qualifications, your future success depends on your continuing enhancement of the attributes we’ve discussed Please keep this book and your notes from it in a place where

it will be convenient for you to return to them and review them frequently

And finally, please keep in mind that you can become anything you want to be if you want it long enough and hard enough and are willing to work for it

Chapter Two

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS

The next most important step to success in your selling career is the planning you do before you make your first call

In today’s economy, products and markets both have grown more extensive, diverse and sophisticated and the challenges of selling in this environment have increased

commensurately Anyone who wants to sell successfully in the new economy must have

a realistic appreciation of these challenges You have to recognize not only the volatile dynamics of today’s changing markets but also how the temperament and attitudes of your potential customers are changing

In this session, we will discuss the kinds of planning and preparations, including your own mental preparations that will help you increase your effectiveness and ultimately, your sales productivity To begin, here is a quick run-down of some of the facts of life that you must be prepared to face in today’s selling world

First, sales take longer simply because of the increasing variety of forces affecting the selling process

For example, because the dollar-value of sales tend to be greater than ever before,

customers have a greater perception of risk than before

In addition, customers tend to be more knowledgeable about the availability of products and the market They know that they have options

However, they tend to view products as commodities with little product differentiation From their perspectives, one product may be as good as another

As a result, they are more wary, cautious and indecisive

Also, you can expect price to come up early as a critical issue which, if addressed too soon can kill the sale

Another point, you must expect to make multiple calls to make a sale, perhaps as many as

5 or 6, with each designed in a logical progression toward a close

You will also in many cases have to deal with multiple decision-makers with multiple presentations

And then, because of the proliferation of products in many markets, you can expect more competition.

And lastly, you can expect competition to be aggressive and tough

Facing and understanding such challenges in the market is the starting point Strategic planning is the key to turning them into opportunities This includes the things you must know and the preliminary steps you must take to prepare a winning approach So let’s look at some of the useful strategies that will help you achieve successful sales in the new economy

Deciding who your customers are is the first step on the road to selling success This is a matter of determining what companies you can do the most for, which of course means what companies will do the most for you in terms of sales Here are some useful criteria for qualifying your potential prospects:

1 Choose companies that are growing and prosperous, companies that have their future ahead of them, not behind them Investing your time and energies in companies with declining fortunes can only result in diminishing returns

2 Along this same line, choose companies big enough to be worth your while, where there is promise of substantial volume in the orders you get It may not take any more effort to get a big order than it does a small one It’s good business to fish for whales, not minnows

3 Choose companies that you feel you can help to grow, where your product or service will help them increase their market

4 Choose companies where you can help the customer help their customers through your product or service

5 Choose companies where your product or service will result in significant financial improvement to the customer

6 Choose companies that will be buying right now rather than sometime down the road

7 But at the same time, identify and keep track of those companies who might be buying in the future

Once you’ve selected potential prospects, the next step is researching them Success is equal to your knowledge of what you do and how you do it, as well as knowledge of your customers, what they do, how they do it; and in bringing all this together as second nature

to work for you

You have to learn everything you possibly can about your customer’s business, about both the products and the firm, as well as about the industry and your competitors and their products The more you know before your first call the more effective you will be and the more confidence you will have in dealing with your prospect

Look for information in the logical connections to your customer’s business Here are a few examples of where to find information:

1 People in your own company who have sold to that prospect.

2 Starting with the smallest firm in that industry, study it carefully and work your way up to the larger companies

3 Talk to non-customers in the same industry with similar problems

4 Talk to non-competitive suppliers who sell to that company

5 Talk to people in the trade association for that industry

6 Read all the available trade publications

7 Consult industry experts such as management consultants and lawyers

8 Read the companies own publications such as annual reports, 10Ks, newsletters and speeches

This is the way you earn the right to sell, by becoming informed in advance With this knowledge at your command you’re ready to approach your customers and say, “I have ideas that can help you.”

But you have to talk to the right person Do the detective work to find out the right person or persons to talk to It will save you a lot of time and disappointment to know this in advance Ask people in your company who have contacts Ask other industry or trade group contacts Don’t stop until you have a good idea who the persons are who can directly influence the purchase of your product or service And once you make contact, don’t be afraid to ask who else should be involved

Next, plan your approach to position yourself as a problem solver, someone who focuses

on results and the benefits of your product to the customer As someone used to say, “If you can see Joe Jones through Joe Jones eyes, you can sell Joe Jones what Joe Jones buys.”

Be prepared to listen to the customer’s problems and where he wants to go with his business Your challenge is to discover problems the customer has that are profitable for both you and the customer to solve In every case, the value of the solution to the

problems must be greater than the cost of your product or service In effect, you must be

in a position of offering your customer a free product, one that will pay for itself and more

Here is where you prepare to put on your independent consultant’s or doctor’s hat, so that the customer will want to hire you to make an examination, diagnose the problem and offer a prescription for correcting the problem

Next, the best way to be accepted as a problem solver is to position yourself as an expert

in your field People respect experts and want to buy from them because they have confidence that experts know what they are talking about You’ve done your homework and you know everything there is to know about your customer’s business and products And you also know everything there is to know about your product to the point that you know more about it than virtually anyone else This is a great confidence builder because you know more ways than anyone else how your product can help your customers

You will readily demonstrate your expertise by virtue of the preparations you’ve made for your presentation For example:

1 The excellence of your sales materials will be a positive reflection on the quality of your products and service

2 For prospective customers, the best evidence of a good product is satisfied

customers So you will have testimonials in the form of letters from satisfied customers, lists of existing customers and photos of customers happily using your products You’ll also have third-party endorsements as well as data on the number of referrals and re-sales you’ve had

3 Most important, as an expert in your field, you must be prepared to demonstrate the benefits of your product or service to the customer’s business

4 Your customer has one overriding question in mind about your product and that is,

“What’s in it for me?” How can your product help his business? Here is a three-step process to prepare yourself to answer those questions: (a) list in order the five or ten most attractive features of your product that are reasons why customers should buy it the, (b) also list the problems or needs that these features satisfy and then, (c) list at least ten reasons why customers should buy from you rather than anyone else In other words, what do you offer that no one else does?

Finally, you have to be prepared to quantify your answers in such terms as how your product will reduce costs, turnover and risk, or increase profits, satisfaction and security and at the same time pay for itself These are the quantitative answers to the question,

“What’s in it for me?”

It’s helpful, I think, to appreciate very early in your selling career that selling is a mental process, a matter of mind over matter It involves applying your intellect, knowledge and experience, as well as your personality, in successfully presenting your product as the solution to your customer’s problems

You must have polished communication skills, including the ability to influence and persuade others and to know when to negotiate and compromise One expert suggests that selling is 80% psychological and 20% technical As always, knowledge is your stock

in trade Your success will depend on your ability to assemble and integrate a greater amount of knowledge than your competitors

Of course you have to keep in mind that no one actually buys products or services Why

not? What your customers want to buy and will buy are solutions to problems or means

to other ends Psychologists tell us that the basis for all human action is a desire to

relieve dissatisfaction In business, dissatisfaction usually relates to frustrations in

reaching goals and very often a new product or service can be the answer to relieving that dissatisfaction Your job initially is to get to the bottom of that dissatisfaction by

analyzing the problem in relation to the goals and convincing the customer that you can help him achieve his goals

Another important strategic element in selling success is the continuing professional assessment of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it This is the process of

self-regularly stepping back and rating yourself and making changes for improvement where it’s needed

You can do this by preparing a list of the important factors in selling that are critical to success and rating yourself against them Here are several that should be on your list:

1 Your knowledge of your customer’s business and the industry

2 Your ability as a diagnostician in identifying the customer’s problems

3 Your skill in presenting your product as the best solution

4 How good are you in prospecting and getting appointments—the reason most people in sales fail

5 How well have you become a specialist in the industry?

6 Your preparation for selling against your competitor’s weak spots

7 Your preparation and skill in answering the customer’s objections and concerns

8 Your skill at establishing rapport, credibility and trust and making a good

impression on the customer How do you rate your personality?

9 How good are you at closing and getting the customer’s commitment?

10 How good is your commitment to follow-up and exceeding the customer’s

expectations?

11 Your success rate for getting re-sales and referrals All your business should be with existing customers and their referrals

12 How do you rate your personal health and your appearance?

13 How effective are you in managing your time and setting goals?

Rate yourself on each of these factors on a scale of 1 to 10 Go over your appraisals with others who know your work to get some objective feedback When you’ve identified areas where you need improvement, analyze the problems to discover how corrections can be made In each instance, you should be able to isolate a limiting function that keeps you from reaching peak performance in that area Approach each problem area with the question, “’If it were not for what?’ I could be doing better” until you isolate the difficulty and proceed with corrective action

Let’s take a few minutes to talk more about the importance of time management to your success It’s absolutely essential that you know the rudiments of scheduling your time and have a sense of how valuable your time is and how important it is to use it

productively

You may be familiar with the notorious, but incisive axiom, Parkinson’s Law, that says,

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,” which in its perverse way, is an accurate commentary on the tendency of human nature to squander time We have a remedy to Parkinson’s Law, however, when we commit to a disciplined effort of managing our time When we do that, instead of letting the work expand to fill the time available, we are really expanding our time to get more work done

The late humorist, Sam Levenson, gave a good prescription for using time effectively when he said, “If you want to kill time, why not try working it to death.”

Unfortunately, few people have ever been taught time management and fewer still

practice it A corollary of Parkinson’s Law also applies: That is, In the absence of effective controls on time, less and less is accomplished

To put this into perspective, you can take the position that you really are principally selling your time The logical next step is to figure out what your hourly rate of

compensation is and justify all your activities against that rate

Successful sales people place such a premium on their time with their customers that they believe that they only time they’re working is when they’re face-to-face with a customer

Here are a few examples of significant time wasters that sales people experience when they don’t manage their time well

1 The most pervasive time waster is procrastination, the master thief of time

2 Incomplete sales calls that necessitate time-consuming call-backs

3 Inaccuracies and deficiencies in information and paper work

4 Incomplete or lack of product or customer knowledge

5 Unconfirmed appointments that the customer probably has forgotten

6 Failing to cluster sales calls efficiently in convenient geographic proximity

7 Inordinate and unnecessary preoccupation with details

8 Failure to concentrate on what the customer is saying and missing cues that could help the sale

9 Fatigue from over work or lack of sleep that reduces effectiveness, causes errors

10 Failing to set goals

11 Failure to prioritize, putting last things first

Successful sales people seem to agree with the Greek philosopher who said, “Our

costliest expenditure is time.” They believe that managed time is a precious asset, that wasted time a deadly enemy They work hard to avoid time wasters and to make the most of their time

Here are a few tips on how successful people use time effectively:

1 Engage in goal-setting and advance planning They always know where they’re going and how to get there

2 Plan and prioritize each day the night before

3 Analyze each day’s performance to learn from mistakes and improve performance

4 Use a Day Timer notebook organizer or a digital equivalent

5 Join the “6 am club:” Get up early, get going early and get in a full day of calls

6 Use your days for seeing customers, not for paper work

7 Avoid coffee breaks and have working lunches The time saved represents 2 to 3 months income per year

8 Confirm all calls in advance; this will impress customers to the point that if they’ve forgotten, they will make a new appointment.

9 Memorize and practice your presentation; know exactly what your key questions will be

10 Read sales motivation books 30 minutes per day and listen to audio programs in your car to boost motivation and enthusiasm

11 Get at least eight hours sleep every night for maximum energy and mental alertness

An important step in taking control of your time is to make a serious assessment of how you’re currently using your time You can do this by setting up and using a Time Log This is a system of recording your daily activities and the amount of time spent at what you do You can do this either on paper or digitally, whatever is handiest

The key to keeping a useful Time Log is making a detailed record of everything you do

The more detailed the better From the time that you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed, make a note of every meeting, phone call, auto trip, whatever, and the time you start and the time you finish for each occurrence

Next, the important step at the end of the week is to analyze these records by preparing a breakdown between productive use of time and non-productive use of time You’ll readily see what the time-wasters are and how much of your day they’re stealing from you Most people who do a Time Log discover that the majority of their time is used up

on non-productive activities

Be sure then to take the final important step and use this valuable information in the planning and scheduling of your time Now that you know what the time-wasters in your routine are, simply eliminate or avoid these costly distractions to your sales productivity

We often refer to the passage of time in terms of how we “spend” the time and it bothers

me to think of it that way Once we simply spend time, it’s gone forever and can never

be recovered and that’s a terrible waste It’s as if we let our precious minutes and hours just slip through our fingers, leaving us with only the remorse of wondering where our time has gone

We’re a lot better off, I believe, if we condition ourselves to thinking of time as a

resource to invest rather than something to spend We never question the wisdom of investing our money for a profitable return We should think of investing our time in the same way Just as money returns us value when we allocate it wisely, our time will enrich us with the achievement of our goals when we use our minutes and hours

efficiently Only then are we investing our time rather than merely spending it.

Now, few preparations for selling success are more important than positioning yourself to understand why people buy You don’t have to be a psychologist to know that people

will buy a product or service for their reasons, not yours Your job is to do the probing to

find out what those reasons are

Everything that human beings do is aimed at improving whatever condition they happen

to be in They decide to buy something only if they become convinced that the product

or service under consideration will make them better off than they were before They’ll

be better off, they’ve decided, because what they’re buying fills a need People buy to fulfill their needs

The key to your selling success is finding out what it is the prospect believes or perceives will make him or her better off You have to discover whatever needs the prospect has that can be fulfilled by your product or service

The discovery process is called a Need Analysis and you simply are wasting your time if you attempt to sell before completing a thorough Need Analysis You must talk to your prospect long enough and carefully enough to find out what needs your product can satisfy What are the key benefits of your product that connect with the prospect’s needs?

As we’ve discussed, the decision to buy is motivated by the desire to gain or to be better off But what about the decision not to buy? The decision not to buy is motivated by the fear of loss or failure This is the fear that deciding to buy will make the prospect worse off than they are Obviously, no one consciously chooses to be worse off than they are

If fear is the dominant emotion, there is no sale But fears are also needs that can be satisfied

Now the interesting thing is that these two emotions, the desire to gain and the fear of loss, typically are interacting simultaneously in the prospect’s mind This tension

between these conflicting emotions is always present in any selling situation In every sales prospect there’s a tug of war going on under the surface, to some extent

unconsciously, between the desire to be better off and the fear of somehow getting burned in the deal

As a sales person, it’s your job, of course, to resolve that tension in the favor of a sale It’s your job to convince the prospect of how and why your product will make him better off and at the same time alleviate his worries about the possibility of losing His fears may also constitute needs that can be satisfied

So, by precisely positioning your product to meet his needs, you have increased the intensity of his desire for gain to the point that it has overcome his fear of loss And that means you have provided a powerful motivation to buy your product

For example, a person negotiating to buy a new car from you, is motivated by several positive and negative needs He may need a roomier car, or he needs to lower his costs,

or he wants more horsepower, or he wants more safety features, or maybe certain

accessories are important to him Or perhaps it’s a combination of needs But his desire

is pretty intense He really wants a new car

However, at the same time, he’s apprehensive about how he can afford the payments Will he pay too much? Is this the right time to buy? Will he get the right one? Can he

get a better deal somewhere else Will he get a lemon? His fear of loss and his fear of failure start to erode his desire for being better off so that the two emotions are pulling him in different directions.

The point is, several factors may be weighing in the prospect’s decision to buy the car Obviously, you stand a better chance of making the sale if you know what those needs are and can present your product in a the most favorable light to them It won’t help your sale to talk about horsepower or getaway speed if the buyer is primarily looking for dependable transportation It won’t help to focus on the automatic transmission if his chief worry is payment terms

You won’t learn what the buyer’s needs are in the sale if you do all the talking The old concept of the salesperson engaging in a marathon pitch extolling the product’s bells & whistles just doesn’t work

Through the Needs Analysis discovery process you find out what the prospect’s needs are

by serial questioning and serious listening Successful sales people are good questioners and excellent listeners With the right questions—and patience—the prospect will tell you just what his needs are And in most instances, this will include needs that he has never articulated or perhaps even been aware of before

In making a Needs Analysis, the good questioner will borrow the tried and true method that newspaper reporters are trained to use in getting their stories This is the use of the five W’s and an H: Who, What, When, Where, Why & How When you apply these six helpers carefully and patiently, the prospect will tell you everything you want to know

So remember, finding out why people buy is the important fundamental to successful selling The answers to why they buy are contained in the needs to be better off and their fears of failure The key to discovering those needs is a Needs Analysis where your secret weapons are questions and listening

The “end game” or bottom line to the Needs Analysis is to identify two key elements in the prospect’s decision-making process The first of these is the Key Benefit to your product This is the one benefit or feature that will cause the prospect to buy There may

be other, lesser features, that appeal to him, but this is the compelling one, the one that makes the difference Your purpose, once you’ve uncovered the key benefit, is to focus

on it over and over, keep coming back to it, so that this becomes the most important and most persuasive reason for buying your product

You discover the Key Benefit mainly by careful questioning It doesn’t even hurt at some point to simply ask the prospect, “If you were to buy this product, what is about it that would make you decide to go ahead?” Another possibility is to ask your existing customers what were their main reasons for buying the product

The other key element you must discover is the Key Issue in your prospect’s decision The Key Issue is the major objection or fear that keeps the buyer from saying “yes.” This