To Sell or Not to sell

Super Sellers By Donald J. Moine
As Pat Knowles, one of the top oil and gas tax-shelter sales experts in the nation, told me, "Every day, my prospects and customers beat me and scratch me and kick me and claw me, but I persist, and I help them solve their tax problems. And I walk away with big commissions."

Top salespeople, McMurray found:
Use sheer persistence: The salesman is "stronger in character than his prospect."
Bill Kirk, now sales manager for Control Data, told me how he closed a sale for more than $1 million by telling a prospect, "I'll stay here all night to answer your questions and I won't leave until I have the order." He got the order.

Interrogate prospects at length about their needs and then adapt your presentations "so the prospect cannot rationalize a refusal to purchase."

Have a high level of energy, abounding self-confidence, a chronic hunger for money, a well-established habit of industry and "a state of mind which regards each objection, resistance or obstacle as a challenge."

Types of Sales Techniques
Closing sales call for intense, do-it-now selling, like that practiced by door-to-door salespeople. Since the seller usually has only one contact with the prospect, the likelihood of failure is high.
Closing superstars are self-starters whose overwhelming self-confidence helps them turn brief encounters into lucrative sales. To them, selling is a game, one they expect to win. Achievement-oriented and status conscious, they have tight control over their feelings; they use emotions as tools to influence customers, but do not rely on customers for emotional satisfaction.

Consultive sales usually involve expensive items, high technology or intangible, "intelligent" services such as law, consulting and advertising. Skill at interpersonal contact, patience and aggressiveness are the key ingredients for success. The salesperson emphasizes helping their customers with problems.
Independent and self-sufficient, like the closers, but they see themselves as highly skilled technicians rather than flashy, hard-driving extroverts. Although they are skilled socially and enjoy being with people, they have an equally strong need for solitude. When they do socialize, it is with intimate friends, who are usually not involved with selling in any form.

Relationship sales depend chiefly on building long-term relationships with customers. The best of these salespeople are hard-driving, conservative individuals who combine patience and perseverance in a sales technique that can best be characterized as low-pressure or hidden-pressure. They value customer loyalty and return it by making sure that their customers get good service at good prices. They prefer protected territories to open ones and are poor at bringing in new customers if it means taking them away directly from another salesperson.

Display sales require little personal involvement, seldom lead to personal rejection and offer rewards that do not depend directly on making sales. Retail clerks, for example, are usually paid a straight salary. The best display salespeople know how to approach different types of people in a friendly, low-key manner. They have a high energy level but lack the other salespeople's drive to move up the career ladder; their major goals and pleasures revolve around home and family. The stimulation they get from dealing with people is a prime motivator, although they also enjoy the challenge of "crossover selling," convincing customers to buy items or products they weren't thinking of when they walked in.

Ben Feldman, the most successful life insurance salesman in the world was asked, "What is the best shortcut you've discovered for getting to the top?" "Shortcut?" Feldman repeated. "I've never been able to discover any shortcut around hard work." Jim Sweeney, another top salesman, preached the same sermon. "Many people mistake and miss opportunity because it often goes around wearing overalls and disguised as work."

THE FIRE WITHIN
Profiles we've done on several thousand top producers point to seven motives that drive them:
Need for status: They enjoy power and authority, and are strongly aware of image and reputation.

Need for control: Successful sellers like people, enjoy being with them and delight in influencing them. But they seldom care deeply whether others like them, a trait which enables them to use emotion without falling prey to it.

Need for respect: They want to be seen as experts on what is right, best or appropriate. They regard themselves as well intentioned people, willing to help and advise others.

Need for routine: Contrary to the stereotype that top salespeople are impulsive and somewhat undisciplined, most like routine and hate having it interrupted. They prefer positive actions to positive thoughts

Need for accomplishment: Material comforts--a nice house, expensive clothing, a fancy car--are only the beginning. Money starts as a prime motivator, but the top salespeople earn so much that, as Ben Feldman says, "Money loses its ability to inspire you." The superstars constantly create new challenges, go after the "impossible sales," to maintain their enthusiasm.

Need for stimulation: Top producers are normally calm, relaxed people who thrive on challenge. They have more physical energy than most of us and welcome outside stimulation as a way to channel their energy in satisfying ways.

Need for honesty: The best salespeople have such a strong need to believe in the product that they will switch jobs if the company's reputation falls or they have serious doubts about a new product line.

Are Sales Winners Born Or Made
January 29th, 2007 by Steve Clark
Five qualities that great salespeople have in common.

Empathy
According to Herb Greenberg, “Empathy is the ability to sense the reactions of other people. It is the ability to pick up the subtle clues and cues provided by others in order to accurately assess what they are thinking and feeling. The salesperson that is able to sift through and find the true meaning of what is being communicated is able to more accurately uncover problems and present customized solutions.

Ego Drive
Ego drive is an emotional need to gain self-acceptance. Persuading others to our point of view fulfills that need. Top salespeople get their “fix” or “high” when they successfully persuade a prospect. Salespeople with high Ego Drive are motivated and driven to achieve tangible results from their sales efforts. They will work long and hard to close sales and produce positive results.

Service Need
Salespeople who rate high in service need have a psychological need to serve and please others. Because of their need to be liked they develop relationships easily and are able to create trust quickly. This need makes them a natural fit for sales positions that require them to service and maintain ongoing relationships with buyers that they sell.

Self-Image
This individual possesses the ability to accept rejection and failure as part of life without internalizing or without emotional damage. Salespeople with a strong self-image, however, are emotionally resilient. Rather than being crushed by failure, they are motivated by it. They can’t wait for the next opportunity.

Utilitarian Attitude
A person with a high utilitarian attitude is likely to have a great need to surpass others in wealth. He or she understands that wealth brings security for the salesperson, but also for present and future family.

Great Salespeople Aren't Born -- They Work At It
How to survive -- and thrive -- in today's competitive business climate.
By Anne Fisher, FORTUNE senior writer June 1, 2005: 3:20 PM EST

Q: What do you mean by 'create value'?
A: People buy something because it solves a particular problem. So, to succeed, you need to be adept at figuring out what each customer's problem is and how you can help solve it. Sometimes, to be truly effective, you have to enlist the support of other people in your own company as well. For example, you might arrange for your IT department to design a way for the customer to order and inventory your product more easily. Or your marketing people might pitch in and help a customer sell its product or service. Sometimes you can identify a way to build more unique customization into your product or service so that it fills a customer's exact need. But to arrive at anything like that, you have to be an excellent listener. Mediocre salespeople talk most of the time, during a sales call. Great ones listen most of the time.

Q: What else do great salespeople do?A: They plan each sales call meticulously rather than "winging it." They also conclude each meeting with suggestions for moving the process along, rather than using high-pressure tactics to close the deal. Incidentally, lots of people think that great salespeople are "born, not made," that is, that you have to have a certain kind of personality or you're out of luck. But all the behaviors of successful salespeople can be learned. In fact, anyone thinking of going into sales should take a couple of classes, partly just to see if they like it.