Determination Keeps You Moving Til The Victory Comes
The next submission in The Simplenomics of Sales People is without a doubt, one of the biggest single most important traits for all successful people, especially those in the sales arena.
Determination
Fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round - remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped. ~ James Corbett
Being an old boxer, like there’s any other kind, I’m always looking for quotes by the old-time boxing champions. They seem to be a lot more intellectual, a lot more balanced and a lot more interesting than today’s versions.
James Corbett summed it up pretty well, in the quote above, but I will add that the resolve to do right supplies the fuel needed for determination to take root and fire up my git-r-done muscles.
I get some sales purely thru the “will to win“. A “do or die” attitude keeps you pointing down the highway towards your next stop, even when you’d rather stop and play golf, stop and look at the sights, stop and shop or just stop.
My company expects me to keep moving and selling, so I do.
My family expects me to keep moving and selling, so I do.
My conscience expects me to keep moving and selling, so I do.
Knowing that the next call might bring a big victory keeps me moving.
Knowing that it’s the right thing to do keeps me calling when the victory doesn’t come.
Do You Have The Courage To Sell ?
The next submission in The Simplenomics of Sales People is an often misunderstood trait that is a real key for super sales people.
Courage
Not only do you have to have the courage to stand up for your company and it’s products, you have to have the courage to fight thru the constant stream on NO’s that all sales people hear.
From prospects, from current customers and from your own organization, the NO’s keep on coming !
You absolutely must be able to keep makin’ and takin’ calls, in person and on the phone, even after you have been inundated with negative vibes that started when you got out of bed and continued thru dinner.
Courage may seem to be a strange trait for sales people, but it’s high on the list of traits needed to succeed.
Sales Persistence Pays Big Dividends
The next submission in my newly named The Simplenomics of Sales People is one of the two or three real secrets of my success. Without this trait, you’ll really struggle in your quest for excellence.
Persistence
It takes persistence to break down resistance. Simple, but true.
Some prospects have been purchasing from another supplier for a long time. Rarely will you break thru in one visit.
They don’t know you. They don’t trust you. They don’t need you.
Get over it and then get to work making yourself useful.
Repetition, with some variations to your message, will eventually allow you to become a fixture in their inner circle.
Persistence doesn’t equal aggravation, so don’t make a pest of yourself.
I’m not alone in touting persistence, so check these links for more info:
My thanks go out to Glenn Ross, Mr. Customer Service, for helping me find the name for this series.
Confidence Is Essential To Higher Sales
The next submission in my (potentially named) The Simplenomics Guide to Desirable Traits For Sales People or maybe Mike’s Simple Guide To Desirable Traits For Sales People is one of the traits that some old time sales masters believe you have to be born with:
Confidence
Before you attempt to sell your prospect a product or service, you must first sell him on you.
Unless you portray confidence in your company, it’s product or service, you have little hope in selling something to anyone. You may be lucky to be the one taking the order from someone else’s previous work, but don’t fool yourself into believing that you did all the right things at the right time.
As soon as you let your voice crack or your confidence waver, you start down the slippery slope that has a big ‘ol NO waiting at the bottom.
To further your sales education, here’s three articles that will help you build your sales confidence.
Build And Protect Your Sales Confidence by Shamus Brown
How To Unleash Unstoppable Sales Confidence by Gerry Robert
Exude Sales Confidence by Tom Hopkins
Diplomacy Leads To More Sales Or Happier Enemies !
The next submission in my (potentially named) The Simplenomics Guide to Desirable Traits For Sales People or maybe Mike’s Simple Guide To Desirable Traits For Sales People is one of the hardest traits to master:
Diplomacy
It doesn’t matter if you call it tact or judgment, what matters is that without it, you’re never going to be anywhere near the top of your industry, sales wise, without it.
It’s simply saying the right thang at the right time and not saying the wrong thang at the wrong time. No more, no less.
What does in allow you to so that’s so important ?
It enables you to handle difficult, but profitable, prospects, clients and customers with a finesse that keeps you far away from those embarrassing situations.
It also gives you the ability to get rid of the difficult, but unprofitable, clients, customers and prospects, without destroying your credibility.
It allows you to answers sales objections without being argumentative, which turns prospects into customers and then into walking advertisements.
It also speeds your trip up the organizational ladder, without burning bridges.
Improving Your Creativity Improves Your Sales
The next submission in my (potentially named) The Simplenomics Guide to Desirable Traits For Sales People or maybe Mike’s Simple Guide To Desirable Traits For Sales People is one of the least understood traits:
Creativeness
If a salesperson has creative abilities, his or her future will be limited only by fear and/or willingness to take calculated risks.
The salesperson who can create desire gets the first opportunity to fill that desire.
I’ve been lucky enough to do this a lot in the past and when I caught on to the formula, which happens to work in my industry, I played it every time I could … and still do, with the clients it’s been proven to work with.
When a salesperson creates a feeling of optimism in a client, who then gets awarded a bid, that salesperson usually benefits from that feeling they created.
The least understood part I alluded to is this:
Stupidity is stupidity, even if you try to dress it as creativity or being different. Don’t try to be different, unless it’s necessary. Try to be creative, without going across the line into dumbdom.
I get salespeople calling on me all the time who bring up the dumbest, least thought out plans I’ve ever heard.
They attended a seminar or were told by some consultant to be different and the best they can do is to be dumb.
Lest I leave you without any actionable ideas, here’s the links I found thru Google’s Blog Search, pertaining to “being creative”
Copyblogger’s 10 Mental Blocks To Creative Thinking
How You Can Improve Your Creativity
5 Excuses For Not Being Creative
The Creative Approach To Marketing In Uncertain Times
Using Your Imagination Can Improve Your Power To Sell
Next up in my (potentially named) The Simplenomics Guide to Desirable Traits For Sales People or maybe Mike’s Simple Guide To Desirable Traits For Sales People is one of my favorite traits:
Imagination
When you were younger, slimmer and had fewer bills, you had a vivid imagination. If you still have it and can harness it, you can make a lot of sales, money, friends and have a grand ol’ time doing so.
Warning ! - if you hang around coffee shops all day and imagine things, without the effort to make things happen, you’re not on the right track, you’re basically a worthless fool, but the mental fitness type things in life are best left to my better half.
Somebody claims that Napoleon once said,” Imagination rules the world. “ Since I never met the man, I’ll take their word for it.
How can you rule the world of sales, using imagination ?
When you’re talking to a customer, use your imagination to help them visualize all the profits they’ll make when they use your product or service.
Tell ‘em a story that weaves in the facts about your cooperation, your service and your willingness to send them ideas and potential clients.
A constructive imagination will sweep away your competitors like yesterdays trash. Imaginative stories and ideas will seem like a breath of fresh air to customers who’ve only been “entertained” with dry details, facts, figures and me-me-me-ness by your former competitors.
If you’ll develop your imaginative powers to the utmost, you’ll develop your sales numbers in the same proportion.
You’ll also face fewer pricing debates and less resistance to your offers. Those might be good things.
Sales People Have To Be Enthusiastic
As entry number two in the soon-to-be-officially-namedThe Simplenomics Guide to Desirable Traits For Sales People or Mike’s Simple Guide To Desirable Traits For Sales People, I bring you…
Enthusiasm
Are you genuinely and simply slobberknockingly happy with your job, position or career ? Or are you just goin’ thru the motions.
I love what I do. I could sell, market, teach and educate all day, every day and be happy. I don’t even want to really ever retire. I want to sell !
Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm, so it’s easy for me to get my customers excited about their purchase.
Without enthusiasm, I’d be an advertisement, not a salesman.
With enthusiasm, I try every day to move a mountain … and then try to sell it !
If you don’t have it, start trying to find something you actually like to do and then find someone willing to pay you to do it.
That would simply be called success.
If You Want To Excel, Rather Than Just Sell
As I endeavor to fill the shoes of a salesman gone astray, I’m reminded that we’ll need to find a replacement for him fairly soon, or I’ll have to hire someone to blog for me !
While I was riding my usual 300-350 miles today, I started thinking about the qualities that the next salesperson we hire will need to have.
Right now, I’m up to 20-25 desirable traits that I’ve though of, so I might as well turn all that thinkin’ into some bloggin’.
And since I’m bloggin’, I might as well try to turn it into linkbait, so I’ve decided to call it The Simplenomics Guide to Desirable Traits For Sales People. Or maybe Mike’s Simple Guide To Desirable Traits For Sales People.
I’m open to suggestions, so if you a better name, email me or leave it in the comments. After I nail it down, I’ll create a Category for all the posts/traits.
These will be in no particular order, so #1 won’t be more important than #25. And I will put this into downloadable form after we’re done.
Feel free to add to my list with traits you feel are important or with additions to the traits I write in the comments section. Full attribution will be given in the downloadable form I settle on at the end.
The first desirable trait for sales people is;
Knowledge
Knowledge is power, it’s been said. So can we deduce from there that the lack of knowledge is akin to the lack of power, right ?
” Not so fast, my friend ! “, as the former coach and current college football announcer Lee Corso like to say.
Saying, ” I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you. “, has never really hurt me in my sales career.
Nobody expects you to know everything. And if they do, you’re probably better off if they don’t buy from you.
But you need, really, really need to know your product line inside, outside, upside and downside. You can’t know too much about your product.
More importantly, you need to be able to impart that product knowledge in an interesting, intelligent, impactful way, such as using stories and case studies to prove your point.
And if you want to excel, rather than just sell, you need to know your customers, your competition and you need to know yourself. You need to know your limitations, your powers, your strengths, your weaknesses and your capabilities.
On the flip side, you need to know your customers business, his potential, his possibilities and his desires.
The salesperson who’s in the know, knows that he knows and let’s the customer see that he knows, is someone who hears fewer “No’s” !
PS - Those trees in the photo are part of the view from the back deck of a cabin at Lake Barkley State Resort Park. I took that shot two weekends ago when two of my Inner Circle/Coaching Club students and I spent some time there on Labor Day weekend. Click on it for a full-screen view.
