I was always
eager to put down the telephone when no one answered after a few
rings and congratulated myself on my good luck that I needed not go
through the ordeal. What a big joke this was to a salesperson when
my income depended on the number of sales I closed! Due to my fear
of gaining another rejection and bluffing through questions I did
not know, it was very difficult for me to start cold calling. Even
if I did manage to secure appointments for sales presentations, I
usually met the wrong prospects or would made a mess of the
presentations.
The thought of
another rejection often made me panic during presentations. My mind
would go blank and I would be speechless for a few seconds. The only
thing that I could think of to say during these moments was the
company’s standard sales speech. Other than that, I was completely
mute! There should be more that I could do to develop the buying
desire in contacts but I simply did not understand that people buy
for a whole lot of other reasons besides the standard product's
benefits that the product brought. Worse still, the benefits that I
introduced to my prospective clients did not seem to interest them.
Some only perceived these so-called 'benefits' as ordinary product
features.
This could mean
only two things: My company was only interested in making money and
did not care what needs or wants their product served to satisfy or,
I had the wrong selling concept! The latter seemed to be more
probable. Nobody told me that I needed to qualify my prospect before
closing in him or her! I simply assumed that the first person that
came along would buy my product if I tried hard enough.
After rounds of
futile sales attempts, any new salesperson like me would end up with
a bashed ego, feeling dejected and depressed. I have seen many new
salespersons give up because they have no strategy on prospecting.
Like me, they just assumed that everyone is the right person.
After some time, you will hear them say, ? Sales is not for me. I am
going to find for a fixed salary job.?
Yes! I know it
can be very demoralizing and hurting to know that you are not as
good as you thought yourself to be. If I did linger longer on these
negative thoughts, I would have dropped out of the sales line too.
I, too, have doubted my capability as a salesperson before and that
maybe I should just follow others and settle for a job with a fixed
pay. However, which line of work will allow you to earn the most
income?
Slowly, and
painstakingly, I came to realize the importance of knowing
customers' needs. If I was able to do just a little more to
stimulate their buying desires, deals would definitely close!
However, my insensitivity to customers' buying desires had led them
to purchase from my competitors. By the time I realized that people
do not just buy product’s features, I started to question myself
?which products or services will benefit some but not others? Why
you choose a particular supplier or product and not another? If I
could not even understand these basics of selling, I needed not
learn further about other things such as prospecting, objection
handling or sales closing.
There are no
"easy-to-sell" products in this world! What really works is your
ability to learn and apply the techniques of selling to real-life
situations. Indeed, the phrase Give a man a fish and you feed him
for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life's is truly
appropriate to these circumstances. You will not to sell anything if
you do not have the know-how.
However, I could
never get the complete selling knowledge or sales training from
attending seminars. Even my mentor, team leader and sales manager
were not willing to impart everything they know to me. Some did not
even have a complete understanding of the selling process
themselves! And of course, you can forget about asking your
competitors since it would generate no results.
I hate being
ignorant and thus left behind by others. Having inadequate sales
knowledge, communications skills and objection handling techniques
will definitely lower your chance of closing deals. The resultant
poor sales will often stir up thoughts of quitting the sales line
and moving on to another job or company. You will be distressed
because of insufficient income, little family time, no entertainment
and finally no joy in life. The fact that no sales mean zero income
will make all these happened unless you are aware of the selling
skills that I am going to reveal.
What
differentiate me from top salesperson in my company and other firms
are the selling techniques and skills they possessed. I can only
blame myself for being unprepared for the sales war. Somehow, I
survived. But what about others who were just like me, ignorant of
selling skills and techniques? Are they still struggling for
survival in the 'man-eat-man' sales line or have they already given
up and moved on to a job with a stable paycheck.
The
secret they don’t tell
Let’s be honest. Human beings are
selfish. The top salesperson will not disclosed their sales tactics
to peers selling the same products in the same company or industry.
They will either leak some tips or leave the rest as guesswork for
you to figure out or disclosed some irrelevant information just to
waste your time and mislead you. Why?
The answer is very simple. Nobody is
stupid enough to create a super salesperson to compete with him or
her for a slice of the limited market pie, especially in small
market areas. Salespersons would only teach you their hard-earned
experience if they get to share your profits- this is called
overriding commission! This is the usual practice in network
marketing and direct sales company.
High staff turnover in the sales line is
very common. The mere placement of a job advertisement is not the
end to a company’s recruitment woe. Very few salespersons will stay
in the same company for a long period of time, selling the same
products. When they find that they cannot generate sufficient sales
to cover their expenses, they will job-hop to another company,
selling different products. It is not uncommon to find salesmen
selling several products at the same time. However, these salesmen
don’t understand why they can’t sell. It is not because the market
is saturated or everybody already owned the product. It is because
they themselves don’t master the sales techniques and selling skills
that can help them close sales effectively. |