Achieving Sales Success 6: Launching your Career
Are you ready…?
Welcome back to your equivalent of ‘Cliff Notes’ on becoming successful in Sales!
The last thing we discussed in lesson 5 was to establish the right person to talk to; in Sales we call this person ‘The Decision Maker.’
This is SO significant and I will reiterate; this is a critical part of your ‘reconnaissance’ and you need to establish who makes purchasing decisions.
Now in addition to your looking like a sales professional, in probably your ‘business casual’ attire as you step out of your immaculately clean company car, you are going to need to be carrying something so you can better communicate about your products.
This is called a ‘Sight Seller’ and may be in the form either glossy brochures on your products or sample of it plus your business card! Remember, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
So, now you are almost ready meet ‘a buyer’ and ‘sell them’ your products and make OTE
Some critical touches to improve your performance
Right at the beginning of this blog series I stated that ‘The Western World’s economy would grind to a halt unless someone sold something a profit.’ So, the key word here is profitability and how you are going to maximize it…. for the customer!!!
So, at this point let’s recap. You know you are geared up to engage in the art of professional sales when:
1) You are dressed as a professional and so your attire is ‘business casual’ (https://amzn.to/4c2VyKf)
2) You have a ‘sight seller’ showing your company’s products (https://amzn.to/3P7levb) and also are completely knowledgeable about
3) You have a good understanding of your competitors’ products in comparison to your own
4) You have something relevant to leave your customer / client to connect back to you (Brochure & Business card https://amzn.to/48DRRrh … and most importantly you know you will be meeting with someone who can authorize a purchase from you – the ‘decision maker!’
5) You know how to effectively cover your sales territory or ‘patch’
6) You have a good work ethic of being on your ‘patch’ for a full working day
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How to effectively engage your customer
Now the first stratagem is to qualify for the customer for the benefits that you can offer them via the products you have!
So now you have to ‘uncover’ what it is that particular customer is looking to achieve for themselves. This will, of course, vary according to the industry you are in, the particular needs of the company and also the personality of the customer / buyer.
Anticipate and Act
As the sales professional you also have to know how to ‘overcome objections’ that you will encounter when you’re presenting your product. (This needs to be part of your ‘recon’ mission!)
Hopefully you can immediately see how knowledge of not just your own company’s products, but the competition’s products will become a critical part of your business.
Now the next critical feature of your training is to develop that which is actually invisible:
Success comes from your mindset.
You are, of course, a salesman, and you want to sell products.
However, to operate at the highest level of salesmanship you must see yourself as the ultimate ‘problem solver‘ for your customers and someone who can help them achieve their goals!
So, if your role as a sales professional is to help customers achieve their productivity, you should always consider yourself as an asset for your customers.
How do you achieve that? By remembering the three most important words you will ever hear as a salesperson:
Matching Builds Desire
Let your mind dwell on that three-word phrase right now …and I want you to consider some of the advertisements that you are deluged with every day.
I can guarantee that when YOU bought anything it was because you interest was piqued where the features of a product matched something YOU were interested in!
Everyone has one…but you can find it!
It is in seeing the accomplishment of a goal, desire, dream that causes the customer to make the purchase from you! Understand your role is to establish what it is that your customer really needs and then offer, by the inherent features of your product, a means for them to fulfill it!
In sales we call this ‘The Hot Button’
Every consumer has a ‘Hot Button’ and your task as a professional sales representative is to find that ‘Button’ and to push it!
How to find the HOT button….
To uncover the ‘buying’ or ‘hot’ button recall this funny phrase:
“W I I F M”
This stands for What’s In It For Me
This acronym, when used to put yourself in the customer’s position, will guide your questions to reveal what will motivate a customer to purchase. Then by matching features of your product to the fulfillment of your customer’s desire… a purchase decision is far more easily achieved.
An example from my career:
When I was working for the forms printing division of NCR, I would often speak to my customers about price and delivery of the products they wanted with limited success.
However, when I spoke to them about forms design and suggest that “a well-designed invoice attracted attention more than a boring plain one and therefore would likely get processed quicker.
My next question was to ask the buyer what type of design or company logo they would want to see on their company’s invoices. The ‘attraction’ was getting the buyer to decide their choice of an appropriate design! Then working with a graphic designer, we generated a ‘mockup’ design which incorporated the buyer’s ideas… and Bingo! The sale was made!
The hot button here was the buyer’s ego, promoting their design to be seen on the 10k to 50k of the company’s invoices. It was this stratagem which often allowed me to make sales even though my costs were often higher than those offered by my competitors!
So, your job is to find the “Hot Button!”
For other customers the Hot Button issue was product quality, for others the price and sometimes just simply being available to call in to see them quickly at their behest.
Please don’t do this…!
So, let’s talk about avoiding THE classic ‘selling error’ that a vast majority of new salespeople fall into when they start of. Early on my Sales training with the Alfred Tack organization we learned this key phrase:
Telling is not Selling!
Failing to find the hot button will quickly cause your potential customer to lose interest in you and your products!!
If a customer’s ‘hot button’ is how quick is the delivery time after an order is placed, then hearing about , discounts. warranties or superior quality over competitors is unlikely to spark interest that will result in a sale.
In other words, rattling off your products specification without matching those to the needs of the customer is pretty darned useless!
REMEMBER: You don’t sell a ‘product’… you promote a “benefit.”
This means that your number one strategy when you meet the decision maker is to ask questions… then match the answers to your product’s specifications.
This really is an art form in its own right… and there are many good books on this subject that may be found on Amazon https://amzn.to/3V1oFY0 . On this page you will find stratagems to help you rephrase your product’s features into benefits for the customer (the WIIFM principle). The key phrase you would be using is: “This means that!”
This principle is SO vital I am going to share with you this time-honored Sales Tip!
“The best way to sell sausages is … to sell the Sizzle!”
In my next post we will review all these themes together so when you launch yourself into the dynamic world of professional sales… you will be as successful as possible…
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Hello! In your article the emphasis on identifying the decision maker, presenting a “Sight Seller,” and understanding the customer’s needs contributes to a well-rounded approach to sales. The mention of professionalism in attire, knowledge of competitors’ products, and the importance of having relevant materials showcases a thorough preparation for sales engagements..Your focus on profitability and the customer’s perspective is a key takeaway, emphasizing that successful sales involve being a problem solver for the customer. The notion of seeing oneself as an asset for customers aligns with a customer-centric approach to sales. I liked the final point you made about selling the sizzle, not the sausage, emphasizes the significance of promoting benefits over features in sales. Well done!
Thank you Ella for reading my post and confirming that the advice I have given there, based on experience from someone who was (now retired) a successful salesman, is indeed sound.
Throughout my whole website I have tried to give an honest appraisal of what I know to be involved in what I term ‘Professional sales’ so that those who wish to enter this dynamic profession have a clear expectancy of what is expected.
The Sales Industry I believe does offer rich rewards to those who are prepared to meet its demands. I feel that in my website I have given an honest description of what is entailed in achieving these rewards.