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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”
is truly appropriate to these circumstances. You will
not sell anything if you do not
have
the know-hows.
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.
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