Sales. I wonder when we decided to become a sales person.  I know
when I was at school all I ever wanted to do was join the Navy 
and see the world. My best mate wanted to be a truck driver or 
Fireman, Policeman, Soldier, Banker, Doctor, Pop star, Football 
player and so the list went on.

I have yet to meet anyone who knew when they were young that they 
were going to be a salesman or woman. So where do we learn our 
trade? Most of it will be through mentoring, reading and actually
learning ‘on the job.’ Here are a few tips to help you continue 
to grow your wealth and personal happiness through your sales 
efforts.


1. When cold calling sell yourself and the appointment. Do not 
   even try to sell your product or service. Your purpose for 
   the call is to find out if there is a need for you product 
   or service. If it seems likely there is then make an 
   appointment to introduce your product or service to your 
   prospect.


2. You have two ears and one mouth. Selling is about solving 
   problems. Solving problem is easy if you listen. Rule of 
   thumb: listen at least twice as long as you talk.


3. Your prospect is more interested in themselves and their 
   problems. Most really do not care too much about you and 
   what you have done. Give your prospect time to talk about 
   them and you will have ample opportunity to find out the 
   real problems, needs and wants and what you need to do to 
   make your prospect desire you, your service or product.


4. At your first appointment find out if the prospect can make 
   a buying decision. A simple question like “is there anyone 
   else involved in the decision making process”? Works great. 
   If there is, ask if they can be included in this and further 
   meetings. Doing this one thing at every appointment will save 
   you hours of wasted time selling to someone who can’t buy! 


5. Dig, dig, dig. Find out what the real needs and wants are. 
   Never ever invent one; you will have a reluctant buyer and 
   a difficult client for the life of the product or service. 
   You will also start to make a name for yourself and company 
   as hard or pressure sellers. This is now treated like a 
   contagious disease in the business world. Once tagged with 
   this label you need to find another career or move on. 


6. A positive way to get the most from your prospect is to 
   determine their Dominant Buying Motive (DBM). It is well 
   recognised that people buy on emotion. So why do we as sales 
   people insist on selling them the technical specifications 
   of our products and services?  Finding out WHY some one will 
   buy what we have gives us such a powerful advantage over the 
   competition it is almost a crime to use it! So find out what 
   emotion your prospect is going to use? As an example: After 
   asking some great questions such as “what annoys you the most 
   with your current method or service and why?” Listen to the 
   answers carefully; your prospect will give you a lot of 
   personal information using this simple question. The response 
   may be; “ well I hate the way three people have to work on an 
   order. I just want the computer to do it all. If I could do 
   that I would not have the problems with staff being stressed 
   out all the time and not making deadlines” From this the DBM 
   is clearly anger and fear. Anger at the inefficiencies and 
   fear of not having people doing the job properly because 
   they are too stressed. So how does this help you?

   Firstly, If your product or service can reduce the number of 
   people working on an order you can reduce the anger, so you 
   could say “ If my product or service were to reduce the number
   of people working on the orders to two how would that make 
   you feel?” Now you have the prospect ‘feeling’ and it is a 
   positive feeling because you know he wants to reduce it. He 
   will feel good about the solution even though he as of yet 
   does not know what that solution is!

   Secondly. Remove the fear. You could say for example “due to 
   the way my product or service operates we are able to automate
   most of the manual input required. This will reduce the 
   errors and allow your staff to concentrate on the tasks they 
   have do manually, however, they now have more time and are 
   less rushed so the stress levels for the staff are reduced 
   and the jobs go through the system faster with less trouble. 
   How do you feel about that?” Again he will feel good about 
   that and now he is ready for the sale, and because he already 
   wants the outcomes he is pre-inclined to want what you are 
   selling. Easy!!!

   Using the DBM is a powerful tool that will win you business 
   day after day after day.


7. Now ask for the order. So many times sales people have the 
   order and then talk them selves right out of it. Once you 
   have asked for the order and they say yes. SHUT UP. Stop 
   selling. Enjoy the feeling of success and use those positive 
   energies in providing the best possible after sales service 
   you can. 

by Geoff Payne - These are a few of the many ideas in a huge 
toolbox of strategies, actions methods and tactics, called 
“Selling Your Way to Success.” Why not visit my web site 
http://www.totalmanager.net and have a look. You will even 
be able to download even more of my book for FREE! 

Enjoy the day and if selling really is your destiny, the 
journey will be wild, amazing and very very profitable. 
Read, learn and reap the rewards!