This is the all time best selling sales book ever written with sales in excess of 600,000 it is now in its 4th edition and 65th printing. It is also available in Spanish, Korean and Chinese. New salespeople love it and sales veterans swear by its value and contents.
- Selling is a Process -
One of the biggest problems for many salespeople is not understanding that selling is a process not an event. Effective selling is not just closing the sale, better prospecting or more effective sales presentations. Although, all of these are important in their own way, effective selling today is blending each of these together in such a way that the prospect trusts, believes, respects you and your organization and wants and or needs your product or service to help them improve the quality of their life or business enterprise.
For many years traditional sales training focused on the “close of the sale” as the most important element. Then the 70’s and 80’s rolled around and the hot topic was prospecting, qualifying and getting to the key decision makers. Then it was the nineties and consultative selling. What will the next decade bring? Who knows for sure. What we do know now is that to sell successfully is only have of the task. The balance is keeping the business. Organizations expend millions of dollars annually to attract and sell new business. Then they lose it for any number of reasons and have to replace it. So the saga continues.
Selling is about finding good potential prospects who can benefit from your products/services, and persuading them to buy from you and then maintaining positive ongoing relationships with them that ensure repeat, referral business as well as positive references.
Are you only focusing on any one particular aspect of the sales process as you sell? Are you weak in any particular part?
Each element of the process is intricately related to each other. For example. Let’s take prospecting. If you have a poor prospect it will be difficult to give them a solid sales presentation. It will be impossible to overcome their sales objections, and closing the sale - forget it.
How about the attitude issues in the sales process. Let’s say you lack confidence in the quality of your products. That will affect your willingness to find new prospects. If you do find some, it will impact your ability to give a confident sales presentation etc. etc. etc.
How about one more. Let’s say you have a fear of rejection. That will impact your willingness to ask questions and qualify your prospects, discuss sales presentation issues that may be perceived as less that ideal. And asking for the order? Well, not in this lifetime.
I am sure you see my point. If you are going to sell successfully you can’t just improve one aspect of the sales process. You can’t make up for poor prospecting with tricky closes. You can’t make up for poor product knowledge with fancy footwork.
Excerpt
Will the continuous advances in technology replace the profession of selling in the foreseeable future? I am not a fortune teller or a mystic, but I do believe that we will see dramatic changes in the roles salespeople play in their organizations and the economy in general.
During the next several years and stretching into the next few decades there will be dramatic and all encompassing change in every industry, field and profession. No one will go untouched by the swath that will cut across every age group and discipline.
We are rapidly becoming a society that no longer talks to each other. We communicate by fax machine, computer, E: Mail, answering machines and voice mail. We are losing the human touch. I believe there are a number of reasons why the sales profession is alive and well and will continue to be for years.
Here are ten reasons why salespeople will play a vital role in a growing economy. Salespeople are charged with any or all of the following:
One. They present new ideas, concepts, products, services to present clients/customers and to potential clients/customers alike. Two. They assess the marketplace i.e.. customer satisfaction levels and perceptions, general market attitudes, competitor strengths and weaknesses and consumer interest trends. Three. They witness and report on the emergence of grass root market shifts and interests. Four. They soothe ruffled egos of disappointed, frustrated and angry customers. Five. They provide bottom-up feedback to the management of their organization on any number of opportunities, problems and issues. Six. They are the front line of attack for any number of corporate marketing strategies and programs. Seven. They work the trade show booths (a grueling task, if you have never done it) in thousands of trade shows each year. Eight. They are on the look out for new product/service opportunities that a "corporate" person would never see. Nine. They solve customer problems caused by poor design, poor production, poor distribution, poor billing practices etc. Ten. They are ambassadors for management, building positive on-going relationships that can increase business and profits.
I challenge you to find a computer, fax machine, software program, customer service rep, or marketing person who can do all of this with the: Courage of a mountain climber, patience of Job, sacrifice of Mother Teresa, energy of a two year old, creativity of Frank Lloyd Wright, dedication of a mother, wisdom of Confucius, enthusiasm of a cheerleader, commitment of a Olympic athlete, and the persistence of a toddler.
Successful selling is a process of building positive and long-term relationships based on trust, confidence and belief in the salesperson and his or her product or service. The old paradigm of selling is rapidly finding its way to the scrap pile.
If you have not yet developed new attitudes and selling skills with this new paradigm as your template you will soon find yourself on the outside looking in.
Let’s take a look at the fifteen concepts that impact sales success in the coming years.
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