Ten Random Thoughts About Selling

In my professional work I teach and train more than 120 principles and skills relating to selling.  I’ve written sales articles about all of them and through the years I have found new ways to apply and implement each of them.  Selling is a very dynamic profession.  We should always be finding new ways to apply its principles and skills.  It is difficult, however, to improve on things you don’t know and understand.  Salespeople should therefore find themselves in a constant state of learning.  The intent of these weekly sales articles has been to provide opportunities for learning and growth.  Buyers echo a constant cry for better salespeople.  I have listed ten random thoughts relating to selling and will take the liberty of expressing my thoughts on each one.  I hope that we can all learn something new and raise the level of professionalism in the world of selling.

1. There is no loyalty in low price. There is a sales myth that states you can buy the business by offering the lowest price.  You might make the sale but you won’t maintain their business.  You can’t buy loyalty.  That is the problem with lowest price.  There will always be someone willing to offer a lower price.  Lowest price providers prostitute the market and eventually go out of business because they sacrificed profit for market share.  Loyalty is found in relationships and providing the correct solution to the customer’s needs.
2. There are some sales you just don’t want and shouldn’t chase. All sales are not equal.  Don’t spend your time chasing a sale that requires more time and attention than it is worth.  Don’t chase sales that require terms and conditions outside your comfort zone.  Don’t chase low profit sales because you can’t compensate for a loss with higher volume.
3. There is more business, even in a recessionary market, than you can possibly handle. Focus you attention on the best opportunities you can find.  There is more profitable business in the market than you have time to sell.  Identify the very best prospects and spend your time earning their business.  Leave the spoils to your competitors.
4. Sales are earned, not closed. In today’s economy buys are more aware than ever before.  Top salespeople demonstrate that they understand the business of their prospects and customers and earn the right to provide solutions to their needs and problems.  When you can stand in their shoes and see their world from both your perspective and theirs, you have earned the right to do business with them.
5. People buy from people they believe, like and trust and if they don’t, they will eventually wish they had. All things being equal, everyone would make the decision to purchase from someone they believe, like and trust.  When things aren’t equal you have to decide which is more important, price or trust?  You take a risk when you stray from the relationship.
6. Knowing what you want, learning how to make it a reality and focusing intently on achieving it, is a pattern of behavior adopted by all top salespeople. Most salespeople work hard each day doing a lot of “stuff”.  Selling has never been just about activity, but rather, doing the right stuff.  If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll never know how to get there.  Learn and apply this three step pattern and you will become a top salesperson.
7. The easiest and most sure way to become the top salesperson in your industry is to do exactly as other top salespeople do. The sure path to success in any field on endeavor is to study the habits and actions of successful people.  This principle holds true in sales as well.  Read, study and apply the skills of the best salespeople and you will soon be one of them.
8. There is no secret formula, magic application or “little black box” that will make you a top performing salesperson. The sooner you quit looking for the “quick fix” to sales success, the closer you will be to finding it.  There is no substitute for learning, hard work and desire.
9. The best salespeople in the world look just like you or me.  The difference between them and you is found in what they are willing to do. I learned this lesson very early in my sales career.  I thought that some salespeople were somehow destined to be better than others.  Not true.  Success is determined within.  Successful salespeople have developed an attitude and a willingness to do those things that unsuccessful salespeople are unwilling to do.

For most people selling is easy, but for the very best, selling is the hardest work they have ever done. What can I say?  If selling is easy, you will never be successful because you are not working hard enough to achieve the success that you could enjoy.  I’ve never met a successful and wealthy salesperson that didn’t acknowledge selling to be hard work.