Top 10 Sales Myths Transcript
Sales Reps are Often Taught Myths
INTRODUCTION. Is sales a profession? No college degrees in sales. Mythology replaces rigorous academics. Comparison with true professions. Licensed sales positions only require technical training. Interlopers abound. Embarrassed to admit they sell for a living. No real training. Monkey see monkey do. Sales managers teach what they think they know.
6:11. #1 – POSITIVE ATTITUDE. Imagine if the professionals you rely on, often in life and death situations, winged it relying on hearsay myths. Professional defined. Biggest BS excuse. Pessimists can be best closers. Can you control your “attitude.” Artificial constructs don’t hold up.
12:51. #2 – ALWAYS BE CLOSING. All you have to do is force people to do something against their best interests and will. What does “close” mean? Sales rep or con artist? Defined – earn the right to ask for a decision.
17:16. #3 – WING-IT. If you have no real training this is what you have to do. Would it be OK if other professionals did so? Sales manager offers no systematic training but lots of slogans.
20:56. #4 – EXPERIENCE COUNTS. 20 years doing the wrong thing perfects the process. Often fewer years is an advantage. The prospects know the old closes too and think you’re a chump. If I had to choose …
24:20. #5 – MUST BE LIKED. “People don’t buy from people they don’t like…” Nobody ever accused me of being “nice.” Driven to succeed not to win friends. Demanding, high standards, professional. If no technology must rely on being liked, politics, their looks… I’ll bet the top rep was not well liked.
27:25. #6 – EXTROVERTED. Glad-handing, life of the party, blah, blah, blah. Some of the best reps I ever saw are introverted, analytical, and low-key – cranking out deals all day long. Other top guns were indeed extroverted, charismatic and equally successful. Go figure. No correlation exists. Pessimists – Happiest people in the world are the Danes – low expectations so they are rarely disappointed.
31:37. #7 – CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. They don’t know what you know but think they do, aren’t open to new ideas, or just plain stupid. Who knows better, the patient or the doctor?
34:17. #8 – MAKE MORE CALLS. Doing the wrong thing more often makes you an expert at doing the wrong thing. Call volume without close ratio does not a sale make. Managers that can’t teach exhort (or extort) you to make more calls. Call reluctance is based on negative reinforcement.
>36:24. #9 -CLOSERS MAKE MORE SALES. Not without making the calls. Call volume comes first. The best closer will not make even one deal if he’s doesn’t make a call.
37:04. #10 -INTERLOPERS. Just visiting until they can get a “real” job. Embarrassed to say they are in sales but not that they own a business –which is exactly the same thing. Weeding crashers. Imagine if other professions admitted anybody and let them loose with no training. We enjoy our bad reputation deservedly.
>39:46. SUMMARY. Making vague ideas clear and conscious. Hold yourself to these high standards.
40:43. Bonus Myth #11 BEST REP MAKES BEST MANAGER. Lose your best rep, gain a lousy manager. Nobody wins.
41:02. SUMMARY CONT’D. How the myths get started and keep going. What dogs do… Not a lot of science. Any other myths?
43:30. END.