43. Success Step by Step
Sales Success Can Be Achieved
Career. Select a career that you will truly enjoy and can dedicate yourself to.
Product. Select a product category (advertising, software, etc.) you have an interest in and hopefully some background education and experience in.
Company. Select a player, a company that is progressive, growing, has the best product line, great pay plan, opportunity for training and advancement.
Management. Ensure you are working with honorable, professional, competent people. If not, transfer or try another company.
Training. Actively take advantage of all offered training and seek out more if beneficial.
Befriend Top Guns. Find out who the winners are and get to know them. Offer to buy lunch for some pointers on how to be like them. Flattery will usually get you everywhere as Top Guns have boundless egos and love praise and recognition. It’s about them, not you. Shut up and take notes. You can talk when you’re the top gun.
Boss. There must be some reason he is there. Find out. Ask lots of questions, especially regarding how reps succeed or fail there. Having the boss as an ally is always good.
Target & Activity. Define your earnings target for the month. Calculate number of presentations required based on expected close ration and earnings per sale. Then calculate the number of calls need based on the conversion rate to presentation. Example: Target = $20K. Earn $1K per sale and expect 25% close ratio. Thus need to make 40 presentations each month. This is 10 per week or 2 per day. To get a presentation requires 10 phone calls (with any research). Activity level is thus 20 calls per day, 2 1/2 average per hour.
Pace Yourself. If you want to do 100 push-ups every day, the best way is to do 5 sets of 20. You rest between sets. Your arms develop without excessive strain that would cause you to skip tomorrow. 20 push-ups may seem like a lot. Don’t count to 20, count to 5, but do it 4 times (not resting between push-ups). Your rational conscious mind may think this is silly. Your subconscious mind loves it. Consistency is the name of the game. If you commit to 20 calls a day, do 5 before morning break, 5 before lunch, 5 before afternoon break, and 5 more before going home. This will add up to 400 per month, but only 5 at a time.
Follow & Master Process. If no well-engineered sales process exists, create one. If it does, follow it and add your improvements later. This process must lead step-by-step from prospecting to close. Follow on every call and make each call better than the last by ruthlessly critiquing each call.
Control the Presentation. You can’t follow the process unless you control it.
Close. Always close for a decision. May not be the yes you want but never take a maybe.
Callbacks. Never call back once you asked for the credit card number. NEVER. Research has shown that 80% of the sales happen fast and only 20% slow, with bs stalls and delays.