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So I figured I'd do okay with my new sales
career.
I expected product training. And was looking
forward to it. But I wasn't quite prepared for the prerequisite sales
training the company used. To begin with, the company's training staff
made certain I understood my previous sales experiences were
amateurish. And would only make their job harder.
They were basically saying, "We're Some
Kinda Sales Professional Dudes. And you ain't...!"
Who was I to argue? I was the newbie.
Newbies are seen and not heard. No problem, Sales Professional Dudes,
I'm with you on that...
The product training went pretty good.
The sales training? I'm not real sure how
two weeks spent memorizing a 135 minute presentation was designed to turn
me into one of those Sales Professional Dudes. I'll admit to
knowing that presentation sideways. But so what? A reasonably smart
teenager could have.
Come on now, how does memorization equal
sales training?
As it turned out, knowing the presentation
was good enough to graduate. Graduation qualified me to begin making three
pre-set sales presentations a day. There were only three instances when I
wasn't required to give the entire 135 minute presentation:
-
I made a sale before I finished...
-
I was physically ejected from the home...
-
The home owners called the police on me.
Yeah, I AM exaggerating. But only
slightly...
Anyway, there I was, a Sales Professional
Dude,
doing 3 presentations a day without being a trained to make a sale. I did
so badly that I started doubting if I could sell candy to a rich third grader. Which presented a small
problem...
My employer was paying me to make sales and I didn't
want
to get fired!
"What's a poor boy to do?"
I did what I'd always done when I wanted to
learn something. I headed to the library. I checked out every book and
audio tape I could find that dealt with the art of selling.
Heck, I was soo gung-ho, I filled spiral
bound notebooks with handwritten outlines of the principles
and techniques detailed in the books and tapes.
Yep . . .
Before long I was up to my kneecaps in sales
presentation steps, selling processes, handling objections, re-stating
benefits, trial closes, pre-closes, pre-pre-closes, timed closes, handling objections, eye contact, body
positioning, assuming the sale, passive and overt sandwich maneuvers, etc, etc, etc...
I memorized the lot and practiced
using them... Not on a prospect, mind you. I practiced them in front of a mirror, with my tape recorder going, no less.
After a heap of practice, I started working some of them into my
presentations.
Guess what?
I still sucked at selling. I still got a sickish
feeling
before and after I asked for the sale. And I felt like the sales
techniques I was using was somehow
cheating. But the worse was how I was starting to feel like selling was a dirty word. Worth repeating...
I started feeling like selling was a dirty
word. (Remember this. We'll talk more about it in a minute).
When my boss found out what I'd been up to,
he pulls me aside, growls "You bleeping idiot, that
crap ya gotta out the library stinks and is outta date!"
Or words to that effect...
Talk about giving a guy support, huh?
<smile>
I can laugh about it now. But it really
ticked me off at the time. Which made me more determined to succeed. (I've
often wondered
if that wasn't his intend on the first place, to goad me into not giving
up).
But he did get me thinking about what I was
doing.
I figured ok, if the stuff from the library was
outdated, let's get going at the new stuff. Which is exactly what I did. I
started buying tapes, books and going to sales training seminars.
I really couldn't afford them, but I convinced myself it was a good
investment.
So there I was. Memorizing new selling
techniques, strategies and tactics from the likes of Tom Peters, Zig
Ziglar, Brian Tracy and a slew of other 'experts' who were peddling their
wares in those days.
At this point, your question is
"Did this help you get better at selling?"
Yes, it did. And... No, it didn't.
I was feeling a more comfortable in front of
a prospect. I could visualize in my mind the skills I'd practiced when I
was making presentations. I did use some of them. And, I was making sales. But, in all
honesty, the new sales training tactics were basically the same as I'd learned
from the library.
And I still felt like I was cheating when I
used them. Worse yet, I still feeling
'selling' was a dirty word.
Here's the happy ending of my story...
-
I didn't give up. Not bragging here. I was between a rock and a hard
place. I didn't have a choice. At the time, it was the best way I knew of
to make money.
-
One sentence on a Zig Ziglar audio tape, forever changed my life...And my
sales career. Zig's sentence...
"He immediately
moved around to my side of the table."
The 'he' Zig referred to, was his Cadillac
salesman. Zig meant the salesman put himself in Zig's "shoes". The Caddy
salesman wasn't worried about selling Zig a car. He was more concerned
with finding out exactly what Zig wanted...And helping Zig get it.
Wow! Bells and whistles seemed to go off
in my mind.
I still remember exactly where I was and
what I was doing when I heard that. I was mowing my lawn, listening to Zig
on one of those walkman type cassette players. Thankfully, Zig's sentence
caused me to clearly see the big picture.
I'd been doing it all wrong!
I was trying to sell.
I was doing more thinking about myself than I was about my prospects. I
knew what I wanted...I wanted to make a sale. I didn't give a hoot about
what a prospect wanted. Plus, I was willing to use any selling skill I
could learn, if it helped me make the sale.
Instead of finding out and solving my
prospect's problems, my focus was on me. "I" was always on the spot. "I"
was always performing. My entire professional sales career, such as it was, had been
totally about "ME".
No wonder selling made me sickish, huh?
It would make a good story if I could tell
you I took my new understanding and quickly became a top salesperson.
Sorry. It didn't happen. I still had more lessons to learn.
For example. It took me a long time to
un-learn the selling tricks/skills I'd worked on. Then it took me awhile
to discover there was another set of people skills I needed. For example,
The Number One Trick To
Selling Anything, is to...
Make absolutely certain you're 'talking' to
the right person, at the right time and about the right thing!
The Number Two Trick To
Selling Anything, is to...
Stop selling, and start solving problems!
Yep. We're back to "Making Money
Online" with your Internet Business. The honest truth is, you're not going to make a lot
of money online if you haven't targeted a niche market with money they're
willing to spend.
Until you know who you're talking to and
what they want, how can you possibly solve their problems? And how can you
expect to "Move Around To Their Side Of The Table?"
I've only scratched the surface here. But I hope this helps you in some way.
By the way. I still don't do much "Selling"...
But I do love solving people's problems!
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