How To Achieve Excellence In Sales

Most people are always striving to better themselves. It's the"American Way". For proof, check the sales figures on thenumber of self-improvement books sold each year. This is not apitch for you to jump in and start selling these kinds of books,but it is a indication of people's awareness that in order tobetter themselves, they have to continue improving theirpersonal selling ab abilities.
To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, andconfidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge. You haveto know and understand yourself and your goals. You have torecognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your specialtalents. This requires a kind of personal honesty that noteveryone is capable of exercising.
In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learningabout people. Just as with yourself, you must be caring,forgiving and laudatory with others. In any sales effort, youmust accept other people as they are, not as you would like forthem to be. One of the most common faults of sales people isimpatience when the prospective customer is slow to understandor make a decision. The successful salesperson handles thesesituations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for adate, or even applying for a new job.
Learning your product, making a clear presentation to qualifiedprospects, and closing more sales will take a lot less time onceyou know your own capabilities and failings, and understand andcare about the prospects you are calling upon.
Our society is predicated upon selling, and all of us areselling something all the time. We move up or stand still indirect relation to our sales efforts. Everyone is included,whether we're attempting to be a friend to a co-worker, aneighbor, or selling multi-million dollar real estate projects.Accepting these facts will enable you to understand that thereis no such thing as a born salesman. Indeed, in selling, we allbegin at the same starting line, and we all have the same finishline as the goal - a successful sale.
Most assuredly, anyone can sell anything to anybody. As aqualification to this statement, let us say that some things areeasier to sell than others, and some people work harder atselling than others. But regardless of what you're selling, oreven how you're attempting to sell it, the odds are in yourfavor. If you make your presentation to enough people, you'llfind a buyer. The problem with most people seems to be inmaking contact - getting their sales presentation seen by, readby, or heard by enough people. But this really shouldn't be aproblem, as we'll explain later. There is a problem ofimpatience, but this too can be harnessed to work in thesalesperson's favor.
We have established that we're all sales people in one way oranother. So whether we're attempting to move up from forkliftdriver to warehouse manager, waitress to hostess, salesman tosales manager or from mail order dealer to president of thelargest sales organization in the world, it's vitally importantthat we continue learning.
Getting up out of bed in the morning; doing what has to be donein order to sell more units of your product; keeping records,updating your materials; planning the direction of further salesefforts; and all the while increasing your own knowledge---allthis very definitely requires a great deal of personalmotivation, discipline, and energy. But then the rewards can bebeyond your wildest dreams, for make no mistake about it, theselling profession is the highest paid occupation in the world!
Selling is challenging. It demands the utmost of yourcreativity and innovative thinking. The more success you want,and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goals, the moreyou'll sell. Hundreds of people the world over becomemillionaires each month through selling. Many of them were flatbroke and unable to find a "regular" job when they began theirselling careers. Yet they've done it, and you can do it too!
Remember, it's the surest way to all the wealth you could everwant. You get paid according to your own efforts, skill, andknowledge of people. If you're ready to become rich, then thinkseriously about selling a product or service (preferablysomething exclusively yours) - something that you "pull out ofyour brain"; something that you write, manufacture or producefor the benefit of other people. But failing this, the want adsare full of opportunities for ambitious sales people. You canstart there, study, learn from experience, and watch for thechance that will allow you to move ahead by leaps and bounds.
Here are some guidelines that will definitely improve your grosssales, and quite naturally, your gross income. I like to callthem the Strategic Salesmanship Commandments. Look them over;give some thought to each of them; and adapt those that you canto your own selling efforts.
1. If the product you're selling is something your prospect canhold in his hands, get it into his hands as quickly as possible. In other words, get the prospect "into the act". Let him feelit, weigh it, admire it.
2. Don't stand or sit alongside your prospect. Instead, facehim while you're pointing out the important advantages of yourproduct. This will enable you to watch his facial expressionsand determine whether and when you should go for the close. Inhandling sales literature, hold it by the top of the page, atthe proper angle, so that your prospect can read it as you'rehighlighting the important points.
Regarding your sales literature, don't release your hold on it,because you want to control the specific parts you want theprospect to read. In other words, you want the prospect to reador see only the parts of the sales material you're telling himabout at a given time.
3. With prospects who won't talk with you: When you can get nofeedback to yours sales presentation, you must dramatize yourpresentation to get him involved. Stop and ask questions suchas, "Now, don't you agree that this product can help you orwould be of benefit to you?" After you've asked a question suchas this, stop talking and wait for the prospect to answer. It'sa proven fact that following such a question, the one who talksfirst will lose, so don't say anything until after the prospecthas given you some kind of answer. Wait him out!
4. Prospects who are themselves sales people, and prospects whoimagine they know a lot about selling sometimes presentdifficult selling obstacles, especially for the novice. Butbelieve me, these prospects can be the easiest of all to sell.Simply give your sales presentation, and instead of trying for aclose, toss out a challenge such as, "I don't know, Mr.Prospect - after watching your reactions to what I've beenshowing and telling you about my product, I'm very doubtful asto how this product can truthfully be of benefit to you".
Then wait a few seconds, just looking at him and waiting for himto say something. Then, start packing up your sales materialsas if you are about to leave. In almost every instance, your"tough nut" will quickly ask you, Why? These people aregenerally so filled with their own importance, that they justhave to prove you wrong. When they start on this tangent, theywill sell themselves. The more skeptical you are relative totheir ability to make your product work to their benefit, themore they'll demand that you sell it to them.
If you find that this prospect will not rise to your challenge,then go ahead with the packing of your sales materials and leavequickly. Some people are so convinced of their own importancethat it is a poor use of your valuable time to attempt toconvince them.
5. Remember that in selling, time is money! Therefore, youmust allocate only so much time to each prospect. The prospectwho asks you to call back next week, or wants to ramble on aboutsimilar products, prices or previous experiences, is costing youmoney. Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, andwanting your product, and then systematically present your salespitch through to the close, when he signs on the dotted line,and reaches for his checkbook.
After the introductory call on your prospect, you should beselling products and collecting money. Any callbacks should beonly for reorders, or to sell him related products from yourline. In other words, you can waste an introductory call on aprospect to qualify him, but you're going to be wasting money ifyou continue calling on him to sell him the first unit of yourproduct. When faced with a reply such as, "Your product lookspretty good, but I'll have to give some thought", you shouldquickly jump in and ask him what specifically about your productdoes he feel he needs to give more thought. Let him explain,and that's when you go back into your sales presentation andmake everything crystal clear for him. If he still balks, thenyou can either tell him that you think he product will reallybenefit him, or it's purchase be to his benefit.
You must spend as much time as possible calling on newprospects. Therefore, your first call should be a selling callwith follow-up calls by mail or telephone (once every month orso in person) to sign him for re-orders and other items fromyour product line.
6. Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, andyour prospecting efforts. Make sure you have a "door-opener"that arouses interest and "forces" a purchase the first timearound. This can be a $2 interest stimulator so that you canshow him your full line, or a special marked-down price on anitem that everybody wants; but the important thing is to getthe prospect on your "buying customer" list, and then follow upvia mail or telephone with related, but more profitable productsyou have to offer.
If you accept our statement that there are no born salesmen, youcan readily absorb these "commandments". Study them, as well asall the material in this report. When you realize your firstsuccesses, you will truly know that "salesmen are MADE - notborn".