12 Great Selling Skills
Introduction
New facts of sales
Your current circumstances do not determine where you will go,
they merely determine where you start. – Nido Qubein
Welcome to the new world of selling!
In the future,
more and more people will earn more money
and achieve greater financial success
as they grow their sales career.
5% of self-made billionaires are sales people,
people who started very low
but have become experts in their field,
make a lot of money and become rich.
And what hundreds of thousands of people,
even millions of others have done,
you can do too.
You just have to learn how to do it.
While the middle class find way to gets rich by looking for investment opportunities
with quick returns,
the rich invest wisely,
knowing that a mountain of money will fall into their pockets
from the service they provide.
Most people are more interested in the return on their savings
and investments rather than
using that money to create a fortune.
My son, Michael,
and I have condensed in this book everything
we’ve learned from our experience selling many
of our products/services
for millions of dollars in total revenue.
Every method and tool presented
in this book is time-tested,
proven,
and practiced,
designed to help you sell faster
and easier in any market which school.
When I started my sales career,
I didn’t have any skills
or tools like what you’re about to learn.
I have not graduated from high school.
I worked as a manual laborer for several years.
When I couldn’t find a physical job anymore,
I switched to sales brokerage
and kept making random calls from office
to office during business hours
and to households in the morning and evening.
I participated in a three-part sales training program,
which is very popular around the world:
“Here is your business card,
this is the document used to introduce the product,
and here are the addresses that need it arrive.”
If I can’t sell,
I won’t have anything to eat.
Every morning I get up at 6 o’clock
and wait in the parking lot
when people come to work at 8 o’clock.
My sales results were terrible.
I only make enough money to eat and drink
and to pay the rent for a small motel room.
My shoes are torn,
my wallet is empty,
and I have no future myself.
Rich people think differently,
they know they have the right to become rich if they create great value for others.
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A life changing event
Then I did something that changed my life.
I went to see the man
with the highest sales in our company.
He was only a few years older than me,
but he had 10 times more sales
than any other salesman in the company.
He doesn’t even seem like a hard worker anymore!
He always had a lot of money.
He goes to fancy,
fancy restaurants and nightclubs.
He drives a brand new car
and lives in a beautiful luxury apartment.
I took a deep breath then went to this guy
and got straight to the point:
“How is what you’re doing different from what we’re doing?
How come your sales are so much higher than mine,
and anyone else’s?”
He looked at me in amazement and said,
“Okay, if you want help then show me your offer
and I’ll review it for you.”
Now I admit that I’ve heard something
like “for sale” a couple of times.
But it’s really something far away,
something I’ve never actually seen in reality.
I told the company’s best salesman that
when I called a customer,
I simply said whatever came out of my mouth at the time.
He said: “No. No. No.
Sales is a profession.
It is both a science and an art.
It follows a logical and orderly process from the first step
to the completion of the transaction
with customer satisfaction.
Let me show you an example of an offer.”
He then put me in the shoes of the potential customer
for our product,
invited me to sit down and asked a few questions.
Instead of talking incessantly like
I do in front of a potential customer,
he asked questions in a logical sequence,
from general to specific,
from treating me as a prospect
to close the offer.
What he did was really different from
what I’ve been through.
From that fateful day,
instead of talking nonstop,
I asked better questions about my prospects
and listened carefully to their answers.
And my customers react
to me in a completely different way.
I started selling
and then I sold many,
many goods.
I started reading books
and watching shows about the art of selling.
I started attending every sales symposium
I could find.
And every time I learn
or apply something new,
my sales go up,
and so on.
Within a year,
my income increased tenfold.
My life has completely changed.
What I discovered was an old but old rule
right – Law of Cause and Effect.
This law says that everything you get in this life comes
from a cause,
or a series of causes.
If you want to get anything in life,
find people who have already received it
and then do exactly what they did to get it.
In my sales seminars,
I often start with the question:
“How many of you want to double your income next year?”
Everyone in the room raises their hands,
and then I’ll explain that it shouldn’t be too hard
to double your income if you really wanted to.
What you need to do is find someone
who’s making twice as much as you
– and that person has certainly been making half
as much as you’re making now
– and watch him.
What did she do to double her income?
Then, if you do what other successful people do,
you will soon reap the same results.
That is not a miracle.
It also has nothing to do with luck.
It is simply a matter of one law
– the Law of Cause and Effect.
The rich know that most of their fortunes are built through ambition, effort, and vision.
*******************
Sales in current and future markets
Since that big day, the day I turned 20,
when I first learned how to sell more products,
I have founded, built, managed,
or transformed 22 companies.
I have trained, recruited,
managed,
and motivated hundreds of salespeople
in various organizations.
I have also trained over 2 million salespeople
in 61 countries around the world.
Thousands of my students have gone from falling poor
to extremely rich people,
from the bottom of the cliff to the top.
Lots of people have become millionaires and billionaires,
actually owning the company they worked for
when they first started using the ideas
you’ll learn in this book.
The good news is
that sales success is completely predictable.
When you do what other successful people do,
you’ll soon get the same results they did.
The first step is to understand the most important factors
determining the success
or failure of selling in the market today.
It seems that in every market,
every product/service in every industry,
there are sellers who have been increasing their sales day by day,
earning a substantial amount of income
to secure a full life for themselves and their families.
How did they get there?
They know that change in every profession is happening faster than ever.
Due to the increasing number of competitors,
the requirements for quality, form,
and price of products/services
from customers are increasingly high and strict,
the domestic and international markets
are changing incredibly fast,
so the companies
and individuals
that survive and succeed are extremely agile
and flexible with the ability to adapt well
to changing circumstances.
Charles Darwin once wrote:
“The person who survives is not the strongest or the smartest.
Survivors are those most likely to adapt to change.”
The market has changed
so rapidly that it is still changing.
All you need to do is change with it.
Seven new realities
There are seven new realities that you need
to keep in mind every time you act
to achieve business results
and income that
is truly commensurate
with your abilities and efforts:
In any industry,
the number of sellers
is always greater than the number of buyers.
Selling has become a lot more complicated.
Selling requires more focus and clarity.
Selling requires even more preparation.
Customers are demanding more and more.
To sell successfully,
you need to make more meetings.
Completing transactions is becoming a lot more difficult.
Rich people think that money comes from ideas.
They know that the more value they create in the market,
the richer they become.
Great people are masters at turning life’s most complex problems into simple recipes
that anyone can do.
To get rich in a free market economy just exchange the solution for money.
The bigger the solution, the more money.
Just that simple.
***************
IN EVERY SECTOR, SELLERS ALWAYS MAKE MORE BUYERS
The first new fact is that, in all spheres of life today,
there are always more sellers than there are buyers.
Competitors are fiercer and more determined than ever before.
The continuous improvement of existing products/services along
with the continuous appearance of new products/services makes
the amount of money spent on the use of each product
or service of customers greatly reduced a lot of.
And the things that got you
to where you are today,
no matter what,
won’t be enough to keep you there
– or get you further in your business.
The rich get richer because they know money hides the problems that need to be solved.
They know the free market economy is willing to exchange money for solutions.
The bigger the problem, the more society is willing to pay.
The more people benefit from your solution,
the more money you get.
The more you invest, the more money you have,
let the money work even when you sleep.
There’s another reason the rich get richer:
they know how to make their money work 24 hours a day.
And it’s not because they invested all the money.
******************
SELLING HAS BEEN GETTING MUCH MORE COMPLICATED
Second, selling has become a lot more complicated than it used to be.
The products/services offered,
prices and capabilities of companies are more complex than ever.
The needs and wants of customers
and the problems that customers face are also more complex.
Regularly contacting and meeting
with customers is an indispensable job
to be able to sell goods in the future
nowadays.
And, perhaps, selling is and will become even more complex
and demanding in the future.
You will need to run a lot faster just to stay where you are.
The ambition of self-made billionaires comes from confidence,
the ability to use thinking and patience to get what they want.
******************
SELLING REQUIRES MORE CONCENTRATION AND CLEARANCE
The third new reality is that selling today requires more focus
and clarity than ever before.
You need to develop an absolutely clear idea
of your ideal customer
– who can and will buy your product/service in the shortest time.
You can’t just live and die spending your time talking
to people who can’t
or won’t buy what you’re selling.
Once you have thought through
and identified your ideal customer,
then you need to ask yourself:
“Why would your ideal customer buy your product/service
instead of your competitor?
” What are your competitive advantages?
In 2012 alone, small and medium-sized companies spent more
than $8 billion on market research with much effort
to answer these questions.
The more clearly you have a clear vision of the ideal customer
for your product/service,
the more ideal customers you will find
and the quicker they will be recognized whenever they pass you by.
Focusing attention on the most potential customers
is the key to entering the world of the highest earners
and moving up from this position.
Rich people don’t care about the way things are done,
they only care about the results.
Solve the problem,
get the reward and repeat the process until you become rich.
******************
SELLING TODAY NEED MORE PREPARATION
Fourth, it is a fact that selling today requires even more preparation.
It is extremely important to prepare everything carefully
before visiting a guest for the first time.
Fortunately, with Google
and other online search engines,
you can easily get the information about the organizations
and individuals you want to find out,
quickly and completely.
With just a few mouse clicks,
you can access a vast amount of information
that would take hours to find in a library.
Sometimes, I ask my audience:
“What is the most important factor in selling today?
What determines how much or how little you will sell,
how fast or slow you will make,
how big or small your bank account will be,
whether the house you live in will be shabby or not luxury,
will your life be luxurious or poor,
and all that will happen in your personal life
as well as your financial life?
What determines all of this?”
And the answer is:
“Credibility!”
Your credibility with your customers
is more important than any other factor.
The more a customer trusts and trusts you,
the less anxiety they will have with a wrong transaction.
The more customers trust you,
the easier it will be for them to buy your products.
In fact, once you have a high level of trust,
customers won’t even care about the price
when buying your product.
And the better prepared you are,
the more credibility you will gain in the first meeting.
Be prepared before meeting.
Learn all you can about your customers
before you meet them for the first time.
When you meet potential customers and explain
to them how impressed you are
with their achievements
and mention some important information about
that individual or organization,
the trust they give you will be greatly enhanced.
Customers will be more open
and excited to talk to you
because you are clearly prepared for this conversation.
Also, before the meeting,
think and plan exactly what you are going to do
and what you want to achieve during this visit.
The more carefully planned the goal of the conversation,
the more focused and clear the questions you ask
and the information you want to convey in that conversation.
As a result, customers themselves will also have a better impression
of your appearance as well as the tone of your voice.
Finally, jot down everything
that was discussed in the conversation immediately after the visit.
The next time you visit this customer,
it won’t take too much effort
to prepare everything more carefully
because the contents of the previous conversation have been carefully recorded
by you and this will help
for you to become a lot more professional,
from appearance to conversation style.
The ultimate benefit of being well-prepared,
in addition to quickly building credibility from the first meeting,
is that it will help you become extremely confident.
And confidence is an extremely important factor
to help you get a successful trade.
The rich know that creative thinking is the world’s highest paying skill.
Creative independent thinking is the most valuable asset anyone can have.
**************
CUSTOMERS ARE QUESTIONS FOR MORE DAILY
The fifth fact is that customers
are demanding more and more.
Why? Because they can!
And there’s a good chance they’ll ask for more in the future.
Customers today are becoming much more skeptical
and skeptical because of their shopping experiences.
They fear that they will buy defective products,
will pay a price too high compared to reality,
will receive too little for their money,
will be abandoned immediately after completing the transaction,
like like what happened to them in the past.
Customers also receive a lot of offers.
Your competitors are constantly looking to them.
In their spare time,
your customers can go to the internet
and find all the same
or similar products/services
that you offer at the lowest possible price.
In the past, it was common
for a salesperson to be an expert
when he met his potential customer.
He knows more about the product/service he offers,
about the competitors in the market than the customer he is visiting.
Today, everything has turned upside down.
Customers will know a lot more than salespeople,
and what they don’t know,
they can easily learn within seconds.
In the end, customers are demanding more
and more because they are not rich enough
to make the wrong deals.
As a result, they will consider it more carefully.
They question every statement
or assertion you make,
they compare your offer with the offers of other competitors.
They delay making any purchasing decisions.
Rich people like to spend money and enjoy it like everyone else.
They have a lot of money so there are many opportunities to invest.
So instead of focusing on spending and saving,
focus on investing, invest some and spend the rest the way you want.
*************
SELL MULTIPLE-MEET
The sixth new fact is that you will need to make many encounters
in order to get a successful trade.
When I first started my career,
I went from person to person,
and it was a one-on-one sales process.
I would meet a potential customer,
ask quality questions,
make my pitch,
and ask if the customer would like to buy the product I offer.
The product that I offer is quite small
and there is a good chance that
the customer will not make the mistake of buying it.
However, today, due to the incredible complexity
and fierce competition of the modern market,
you will have to make an average of four to five meetings
with a real potential customer to get can make a sale,
and in any meeting,
the sales process can be immediately halted
by a single piece of new information.
The first meeting could simply be
to kickstart a relationship
and to discover if this customer really needs your product/service.
The purpose of the first meeting is
to separate those
who are actually potential customers from those
who have little interest in your product/service.
The second and third meeting may be
to get more information,
to make an offer or to make an offer.
The fourth and fifth meeting
with a potential customer could be to negotiate,
agree the terms of a sale,
and finalize the transaction.
The best organizations
and salespeople use what is known
as the “milestone method” of sales.
They carefully note the stages the sale has progressed through,
knowing that for a given number of leads
entering the sales process,
a specific percentage will become customers,
when the process ends.
The question is, where are you in the sales process?
Is this your first meeting?
Is this your second or third meeting?
How long until you actually make a sale and make money on it?
Rich people go to work with a respectful attitude
and passion for their work
and that passion drives their achievements.
******************
COMPLETE TRANSACTIONS ONLY
Completing transactions in this day
and age has become much more difficult than in the past.
Customers have less potential
and are not willing to change
or try something new.
Even if your product/service is appealing,
the customer still has to get out of her comfort zone
and “stretch” before she’s ready
to start using something new or different.
Plus, the price you pay for change can be physical,
mental,
or financial.
Sometimes, from the customer’s point of view,
buying your product/service
is too much of a hassle.
There are other reasons
why completing a transaction is more difficult than ever.
We call these “rules”.
The first rule is:
“No rights? No transactions!”
Imagine you’re talking to someone
who doesn’t have the power to make purchasing decisions.
He won’t be able to do anything
but kick you out the door by saying,
“I’ll think about this.”
Rule number two:
“No money?
No transactions!”
If the customer you’re reaching simply doesn’t have enough money
to buy your product/service,
no matter how attractive or good the product/service is,
you won’t be able to afford it can be sold.
The third rule is:
“No need? No transactions!”
One of the main reasons
why potential customers don’t buy a product
It’s because they don’t really understand
or appreciate how much better their life
or work would be if they had your product.
It is because you are not driving this customer’s desire to buy
or do not make your product/service attractive enough,
or the customer feels is the value they get
from the product/service.
Yours is too small for the time
and money they spent buying it.
Final rule:
“Not in a hurry?
No transactions!”
Because customers are always afraid that
they will make the wrong purchase decision,
if they can delay making a decision,
they will.
That’s why you always need to have “extra reasons”
to motivate customers
to buy your product/service today
instead of waiting until next time.
We sometimes call it a “push bar”.
You can ask for free shipping,
some extra services,
special discounts,
or same-day delivery…
But you should always save up some great offer,
to be able to offer at the last minute
to encourage customers
to buy your product/service immediately.
Here are some of the new realities of selling.
They are not personal things.
All sellers/providers of virtually every product/service
in today’s market must face these realities.
They are realities of life.
As the Marines said:
“Adapting! Adjust! React!”
Rich people think about money in a way
that motivates them to take effective actions
that help establish the foundation for financial success.
They know that the only way to get rich is to act.
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Learn what you need to learn
Your job is to learn what you need to learn
and do what you need to do
to become one of the most successful
and highest earning professionals in your business.
Fortunately, all the answers have been found.
There’s no secret here.
Your job is to do what top sales professionals do over and over again,
until you master those skills.
The good news is that your business results will start
to increase from the very first day
you apply these practical and proven ideas.
When the rich need money,
they don’t think about whether it’s possible or not,
but start coming up with ideas that can be sold.
They don’t spend mental energy worrying
or thinking about their earning potential,
but always focus on creative thinking.
***************
ACTION EXERCISES
What are the main factors influencing your sales
in this ever changing business world?
What do you need to start working on
and what do you need to do more to be successful in the futures market?
What are the biggest changes in customer
and product/service offerings that affect your sales?
What are the three main qualities
or characteristics of an ideal customer
for the product/service you sell/provide?
What is the most important thing you need
to learn about your customers before you interact with them?
Why are potential customers not buying your product/service?
What held them back?
What can you do to give your potential customers a sense of urgency
to encourage them to make an immediate purchase decision?
And finally, if there was one thing you wanted
to do right after you learned from the introduction of this book,
what would you do?