Sales tips & tricks – there is no universal solution

“Life’s too short to sell things you don’t believe in” – Patrick Dixon

In the business world we all witness a fight even older than the concept of business. And that fight is between the sales force and everyone else. Those arrogant and obnoxious sales people, how they walk through the halls of the company like they own the place. Everybody has a moment when they want to work in sales, what they don’t know is that is one of the hardest jobs in the work field. And you can learn finances, accounting, engineering but you cannot learn how to do sales. I know you are going to say that there are a lot of sales trainings but trust me, you were either meant to work in sales or you should just pick something else.

                Sales people are under a lot of pressure, every day they have to earn their keep, to prove themselves and keep the cash flow coming. I am one of them and I can tell you this: things are always better from outside the window. Try and walk a mile in the shoes of the sales team and feel also the burden and the hard times not only the successes. Of course, in time, under all that pressure some of them turn into diamonds and the shine of those diamonds makes people around think they have it all.

                There is no general plan that you can apply and be successful in sales. You have to persevere and try and try again. There are some tips that can make your transition smoother to the diamond stage, not eliminating the pressure. You can find my favorite 7 below, verified and tested.

1. Don’t sell out of hunger. You have to keep yourself in a relaxed state of mind. Think of this as a game of poker. If you lose your concentration and forget to keep your poker face you can have a full house every hand, but you will never win a hand. It can happen to have a bad couple of months, no results, no commissions but those are the moments when diamonds are born. Keep your calm and close the deal.
2. Choose your battles. They say you can sell some things to everyone, everything to some of the people, but you will never be able to sell everything to everyone. Pareto’s principle applies also in sales, 80% of your earnings come from 20% of your clients. Don’t waste your time trying to get every client out there. Save your energy for the ones that matter, sort quickly through the prospects and don’t cry over spilled milk.
3. Sell only if you would be a customer. The story you are going to sell will be more believable if you believe in it. You cannot tell a story that doesn’t work for you too for a long period of time. Sooner or later people will see the doubt in your eyes and their doubts will become even greater. I tried also working in fields where the story didn’t represent me and I never lasted more than three months. Find something you can believe in, add passion and persuasion and wait for the inevitable success.
4. Don’t take your “mother” to a sales pitch. Supposition is the mother of all mistakes. I learned that the hard way. You know that moment when you talk to a customer and you feel like you know him? And you suppose you know what he wants. Don’t do it again, there is no harm in asking him what he wants. Don’t guess, don’t suppose, just find out exactly how things are and you will gain a long term customer.
5. Don’t sell, let them buy. One common mistake is going into the meeting aggressive and trying to make them buy, transforming everything into a fight. If you are at that meeting you know that they are interested in buying your product/services. Just ask the right questions and let them give the answers, let them be the ones who buy and I assure you they will want more. Be an expert that advises them, consult and just help them get the best solution. Because you both know by now you have the best solution.
6. Good is giving what they want; great is adding a bonus they didn’t expect. When you meet your clients ‘expectations he will be satisfied, maybe even contact you again sometimes. When you exceed their expectations, and not necessarily by offering something material, they will always contact you because they remember the great experience they had. Be great sale people and leave them wanting more.
7. Believe in yourself. What all those people around you mistaken for arrogance is actually confidence. You know what you know. You are what you are. And that should be enough for you to become what you are supposed to be. Set your own path, follow it with passion and confidence, there is no way that you will not make it. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. “The greatest danger for most of us is not that we aim too high and we miss it, but that it is to low and we reach it” – Michelangelo. Aim as high as you can set your sights on and believe is possible.

Sales are the force pulling businesses all around the world forward. Like it or not, the arrogant guys that don’t have an office or a 9-5 work day keep things going, get the money to pay everyone’s salaries. They are so rough and insensitive because they can’t be different or the world they live in will eat them up and spit them out. It is a world where survival of the fittest is not just a saying, is the defining truth.

You want to be in sales? Remember Mister Ford’s words “whether you think you can, or you think you cannot, you are right”.