THE BASIC RULES OF PROFESSIONAL SALESMANSHIP

© July 2008 – Joel Johnson

Marketing is a difficult thing to teach to a mass audience of business owners with diverse ideas, products and services, because the approaches necessary to reach the targeted consumer groups vary widely.  On the other hand, a generic approach to salesmanship, just one of the many steps in marketing, is not as difficult.

Webster’s Dictionary describes “selling”: to persuade or induce to buy.  

After many years of experience in the process of selling and teaching salesmanship, I have found the best description of “selling” is:  Selling is the process of transferring your enthusiasm for an idea, product or service to a customer or potential customer with a need to be satisfied.  Enthusiasm is contagious!  Like smiles and yawns, it catches own. 

True 21^st century salesmanship does not require high pressure selling, but, it does require good people skills.  If someone tells you that you are a great sales person, you should realize that you have been exposed.  If your customers feel they are being “Sold”, you have missed the mark of professionalism.  People do not want to be sold.  They want to buy!  Why not let them?  Naturally, in the world of commerce, nothing happens until a sale is consummated.  Without this, the world economies would come to a screeching halt.  By learning a few rules, sales will come to you.

Facts Concerning Salesmanship:

• People buy people first, then goods and services.  Work harder on yourself than you do on you job.
• People will run from high pressure sales tactics and they don’t come back.  You cannot push a rope.
• People prefer to believe they have bought something without persuasion.  How else will they brag?  How often have you said, “I was sold this car?”  Unless, of course, it was a lemon.
• People can read you like a book.  If you don’t believe in what you do, they won’t either. The truth is reflected in your eyes and in your face.  Look in the mirror!
• Honesty is the key to owning a customers loyalty.  If you feel you have to be dishonest to be a great salesperson, you are in the wrong business.
• On the average, it takes seven contacts to develop one repeat customer.  Since that is a fact (95% of the time) you had better spend time researching and understanding who your customers are before you begin contacting them.

• The main reasons people fail to buy is:

1. The customer is not qualified to buy.
2. Salesperson failed to establish common ground.
3. Salespersons only concern was making the sale.
4. Salesperson failed to establish trust.
5. Salesperson failed to present enough facts to make an intelligent decision.
6. Salesperson did not ask for the order.

• The main reasons customers don’t come back are:

1. Failure to establish common ground.
2. Failure to follow up the sale with “Thanks” and customer satisfaction analysis. 

        WE CARE!

3. Poor customer service.
4. Failure to ask.

• The main reason sales people fail to do well:

1.       Poor people skills.

2.       Negative attitudes.

3.       Lack of self-confidence.

4.       Lack of knowledge.

5.       Fear.

6.       Inability to follow up.

7.       Failure to ask for the order.

8.       They quit.

The Basics:

1. Common Ground – Barriers to friendship and customer resistance are lifted after common ground has been established.  Work on common ground first.
2. Listen - God gave us two ears and one mouth.  Twice as many sales are made by good listeners.  It is not important that you want to make the sale.  It is, however, important to know what the customers want.  You will not know unless you listen.
3. Never argue – Win an argument and lose a friend.  Selling is NOT the ability to win an argument.  It is the ability to earn agreement.
4. NEVER put down a competitors ideas, products and services.  It will only point to your obvious motivation and make you appear less than honorable.
5. Intellectual- You can appeal to a person’s intelligence by simply explaining the quality and benefits of the idea, product or service that fit the customers need.
6. Emotion- You can create an emotional desire to buy by finding the customers hot button, helping the customer visualize and by increasing your enthusiasm.  People don’t spend large amounts of money because they want to blow it.  They do it because it makes them feel good about themselves.  Why do some people spend $85,000 for a Mercedes when they can spend $10,000 and get there just a quick?  It is not just because they can afford it.  It is how it makes them feel. 
7. Pride of ownership – Paint a mental picture for our customer.  Put your customer in the picture.  Help them see themselves using the product or idea.  Let them test.
8. Fear of Lose – You can appeal to a person’s fear of loss.  What will happen if they don’t buy today?  This particular idea, product or service may not be available at this price tomorrow.  There are only a few left.  The special price ends today.  Just make sure it is true.
9. Assume the sale.  As a norm, most people do not get out of bed, get dressed and drive miles to your establishment to pass the time of day.  Realize even if they say, “I am just looking,” they WANT to buy!  Assume they are going to buy and let them.  If you don’t your competitor will.  When you know for sure your customer is going to buy, your whole attitude will change and that attitude will rub off on your customer.  The hardest word to say to anyone is “NO”.  Human beings want to please.  They want to say “Yes.”  Just get them to saying “Yes” over and over again.  It will then be very hard to say “NO.”
10. Ask for the order. -  Failure to ask for the order is one of the major reasons sales are lost. Most salespeople wait for the customer to say, “I’ll take it,” because they fear rejection. 

Have you ever watched a young child beg his mom for a sucker at the grocery store check out?  The mom says NO!  The child keeps asking.  The mom says, "NO you cannot have candy!" And when they leave the store the child is licking on one.   Children are great sales people.  We should watch them closely and learn from them.  When all objections have been met, ask for the order.   

When a customer says no, it just means they have not received enough facts to make an intelligent decision.  Determine what you left out.  Repeat the facts and ask.  Will this be cash or charge?  Where do you want this shipped?  When will you need delivery?  Just sign right here and I will handle the rest.  Never say, “Is that all?”  It may not be.  Always leave the door open to build the sale with needed accessories, etc.  Providing the customer with needed information does not imply that you are trying to pressure them into making a purchase.  You are simply supplying the facts needed to make the right decision.

In the end, salesmanship is all about building long term relationships.  It is not about closing the sale, running to the bank, and moving on to the next sale.  It is about building your business with a strong foundation.   It is about mining the existing customer base and adding new ones.  A business that is not growing is dying.  A business that is not attracting new customers is going backward.  From the shear fact of attrition, if new customers are not found, the business will fail. New customers are your lifeblood.  Retaining customers adds stability, but it is the NEW CUSTOMER that creates growth and balance.  Where is your plan for sales growth?

People buy people first, then goods and services.  Work harder on yourself than you do in your business and success in sales growth will come to you.