Are you hearing what I'm meaning?

It seems with Internet marketing there is always something to learn. Earlier this week I got another of those lessons. I was feeling really good about finishing my 8th lesson of the 9 lessons I’m giving people who join my community by opting onto mailing list. Then I noticed that not everyone on my list had received all of the lessons. And some lessons seemed to be missing – bummer.

So I started to make up the missing lessons. In the course of trying to create an autoresponder campaign to ensure this wouldn’t happen again, I discovered my error. I forgot that MailChimp sets up campaigns and autoresponder emails under separate tabs. Other than when the get sent, everything about setting up an autoresponder email and a campaign email is the same. I found that most of my lessons I had, in fact, already set up on the autoresponder, having only missed #7.

The lesson – double check your terminology

So what was the lesson here? It was a reminder of the problem with communications that all salespeople and marketers experience with customers: terminology. We often use terms, expressions, and words to mean slightly different things. This is why it’s so important to ask how people mean what they just said and to periodically during the conversation repeat back in your own words what you heard or read.

In this Internet marketing experience of mine today, I learned that MailChimp uses “Campaign” for what others call blast or broadcast. I actually like MailChimp’s term better than “blast,” which has a very war-like and unfriendly sound. To me, campaign applied to any marketing effort so I thought it covered both emails sent out “all at once” and autoresponder emails, which go out individually based on time since some event, like joining my community. I have no problem with MailChimp’s use of campaign to mean a broadcast to everyone. It merely meant a learning curve for me and a lesson I hope to recall the next time I decide to send an email to my community.

So while email marketing terminology tripped me up briefly, it was a great reminder of the importance of making the effort to be sure we are communicating in our marketplaces. Words and phrases have different meanings depending on our experiences. Salespeople have it slightly easier than marketers because they can ask their prospects what they meant and state it back to ensure they understand each other correctly. Marketers will have to take the extra step of contacting customers and prospects to talk with them to see if their product or service messages are coming across as what they mean for them to say. The effort is worth is it because you will find you’ve improved the level of trust with your potential customers. And trust means long term relationships, helping customers buy, and enjoying sales as fun, fulfilling, and mutually rewarding.

This squirrel blends in with his environment due to natural camouflage.

The First Step Is to Decide Who Your Ideal Prospects Are

To really help yourself get established in your sales and marketing efforts, study up on your ideal customers’ market or industry.  While you may have several different ideal customer profiles, pick one that you are most interested in, one which has a sizable potential for sales. Becoming an expert in an industry takes time and effort so be smart about your choice. Remember, your ideal prospects are companies like your best customers because they are most likely to have needs like those you are solving already.

Next, Learn about Their Industry or Market

Once you choose where you want to initially focus, start reading up as much as you can about it. Naturally, the Internet has a wealth of information on almost everything imaginable. The problem is that not all of it is accurate or true so you need to read broadly. A great source of information is to get a subscription to industry publications, most of which are free to people in that industry, including vendors. Also, get involved in one of the trade associations – one to which the people you want to contact actually attend.

Your Goals for this Research

There are at least three purposes to your doing this research and getting involved in a low key way:
1.    Learn the jargon, the words and expressions used in that industry so you blend in as one of them. Don’t just parrot the words. Be sure you understand what they mean and how they are used. Being an expert means you know the language.

• Every industry has terms unique to it. For instance, “flooring” to automobile dealerships refers to the manufacturers’ short term financing of inventory while to a housing contractor, it would mean what you lay down for people to walk on.

2.    Find out what’s important to the people you want to reach, i.e. what are the challenges they are experiencing that they want help with.

• This will enable you to look for solutions you can deliver that people actively want.
• It may be as simple as reframing how you approach what your product already does, or it may require adding something, like installation and training to your package or bundling someone else’s product to make a kit.

3.    Become known as someone who contributes to their community.

•  Volunteer for a committee where you are able to offer help.
• Unless you have a booth or table display at vendors’ night, be really low key about selling at most meetings. People want to get to know, like and trust you as a person first – that’s right, this idea predates the Internet.

o    I found when I was in credit union computer system sales that managers
who’d met me at several chapter meetings were likely to see me on a cold
call because they recognized me and my commitment to their movement.

Knowing How to Fit in Gives You a Base to Ask Intelligent Questions

If you want to fit in with your prospects, get to know their industry or market. Use their jargon properly yet sparingly. You want to blend as one of them. Read, listen, and learn what the members of this community care about. Then you will be able to offer a solution that they already know they want. Don’t forget, though, your heart-centered, soft sell sales approach means this industry information is only foundational so you fit in. You still need to ask prospective customers about their specific needs and interests. Then you’ll find sales fun, fulfilling, and mutually rewarding.

Here’s your opportunity to chime in: please comment on how fitting in with your prospects has worked for you.

Elaborate or simple, the screen’s job is two-fold

You’re wasting energy trying to get past the gatekeeper. For as long as I have been in sales and marketing, I’ve heard sales trainers teach techniques to get past the gatekeeper. Frankly, that’s a waste of energy and bound to tick someone off. Anyone who leans towards soft sell sales and marketing should instinctively appreciate this fact.

You Choose, Sales Myth or Sales Fact

Believing that you must get past the gatekeeper is a sales myth. If you change your attitude and approach, the gatekeeper can actually be your ally. Business owners and executives would be overwhelmed if everyone wanting a slice of their time got it. So I prefer to think of the gatekeeper as a screen.

A Screen Serves Two Purposes at Once

If you’ve ever been anywhere where homes have screen doors, you recognize this image. What is the purpose of a screen? – It’s to keep the pests out, right? What else? It’s to let something in; for a screen door, it’s to let in the refreshing breeze. In the sales scenario, the screen’s job is to protect his/her boss from people and things that will waste the boss’ time. Additionally, it is to filter incoming material and calls to find those that can contribute to the success of the business. I can tell you from numerous experiences, the gatekeepers I’ve met or talked with care about their companies and their bosses.

The Gatekeeper Respected Can Give You the Inside Track

Just Tuesday, my friends Robert Elliott and George Whitfield of Pathfinders Profit Consultants were chatting about the gatekeeper. Robert shared his experience last week when he explained his value to them to the gatekeeper. She referred him to the person he needed to talk with instead of the one he thought he needed. So his sales efforts are moving forward at that company.

Forget the Gatekeeper Obstacle Myth to Enjoy Sales that Are Fun, Fulfilling, and Mutually Rewarding

Soft sell sales and marketing are about building relationships and making connections with prospects. They are about creating trust. So, forget the sales myth about needing to get past the gatekeeper. Instead, discipline yourself to have patience on your sales calls. In the long run, it’s faster. The gatekeeper’s job is a tough and extremely important one. Invest a little time building your relationship with that person first. I have found that they are helpful when I’m trying to find out if their company has the types of challenges or desires I can help with. If they recognize the value of what I have to offer, they point me to the right person and help me get in. Selling becomes fun, fulfilling and mutually rewarding this way.

Listening Well Involves Caring Enough to Hear What's Being Said

I left that training really disappointed that I’d wasted my money. Talk about manipulation. Long before I heard Judith & Jim talk about soft sell marketing and their Soft Sell Marketers Association, I was a soft sell salesperson and soft sell marketer. My spiritual convictions are such that I’m responsible for my actions. If I control people subconsciously so as to take away their freedom to choose, I will eventually find my actions come back on me.

The irony is that when you use the soft sell approach and ask questions to better understand your prospects’ situation, to work together to help solve their problems or to achieve their dreams, you don’t need to memorize checklists of questions or drill yourself on clever, irresistible closes. You gain freedom to be yourself, to actually have fun relating with your prospects as people. Soft sell sales and marketing build relationships and make connections. There is something I find really satisfying about helping people improve their lives with my products and services.

I’ve closed major sales with this soft sell sales approach — everything from school districts to credit unions to Fortune 100 companies. One sale was worth $1,000,000 is service contracts over three years plus additional business — and I was working for a small computer dealer. When people have problems they can’t solve on their own, they welcome help.

The sincere use of questions to understand and to grasp the full problem or desire helps move prospects past skepticism. I fondly remember watching a prospect finally realize that I was for real. I wanted to give him the service contract he needed. When that happened, he started to tell me what we needed to do so he could get us the purchase order. Was that ever a high!

The point is, use questions to build relationships where your customers trust you to help them buy. Developing a checklist of questions to build closing momentum is unnecessary. Enjoy the freedom to just be yourself that comes with soft sell sales and marketing. Moreover, experience the fun, fulfillment, and mutual rewards that are far deeper and more satisfying than just the commission or profit alone.

If you would like to join a community of people who believe that sales and marketing are spiritual services — and can be fun, fulfilling and mutually rewarding, check out the Soft Sell Marketers Association.

Having a lifestyle is about fulfilling your dreams. Travel is one of mine.

At the same time, it is work, lots of work. Nor is it a get-rich-quick scheme. A career in soft sell sales offers a lifestyle of hard work rewarding success with much more than money.

Identifying your ideal customer profile takes digging into your records and analyzing them. Developing the understanding of your customers so that you can relate to prospects’ concerns honestly takes research, thinking, and listening. A life worth living in sales takes time and effort, study and practice. It’s my passion that makes it enjoyable.

I really agree with Randy Pausch in his chapter “The Friday Night Solution” The Last Lecture, when he praises hard work, “As I see it, if you work more hours than somebody else, during those hours you learn more about your craft. That can make you more efficient, more able, even happier. Hard work is like compounded interst in the bank. The rewards build faster.” (p. 156)

I got to hear an example of the rewards from years of hard work recently. I was listening to a client’s sales team as they practiced role playing. The “customer” said something that immediately flagged my attention. “What did he mean by that?” I wondered. The “sales rep,” who is actually very good, missed it. I was intrigued because until I observed their role playing, I had taken for granted my skill at listening. The “sales rep” reminded me of how far I have come in this particular ability. I can appreciate now that I have had years of training and years of practice to be able to automatically recognize something this “customer” revealed that needed to be probed deeper.

Experiencing sales as fun, fulfilling, and mutually rewarding is the gift you give yourself for persistence, for all the hard work to make handling sales calls flow smoothly. Find your passion because it makes the long hours invested to learn, to practice, and to visualize possible. The joy experienced from making a connection with your customers pays you back for the time and effort to develop the sense of curiosity necessary to build relationships. As the saying goes, hard work is its own reward — it is when it’s invested where your passion lies.

Soft sell salespeople ask questions to understand prospects' needs

Looking back, Scott realized he went in with no agenda other than getting to know this prospect, someone he’d not made any headway with previously trying to make a sale. Now as a result of asking questions to understand his prospect’s situation, Scott found the man opening up to him. The end result is that the prospect now wants to know how Scott can be of help to him with his challenges.

This point about going in with no driving agenda, like traditional sales calls have, can, from my client’s experience, work wonders. Soft sell salespeople and soft sell marketers look at sales calls and any client or customer interaction as a chance to know and understand their prospects’ concerns. Their goal is to be of service first. The sales flow naturally because people want to buy from those they know, like, and trust.

It’s not about controlling with questions. It’s about showing you care. You do this by asking questions, listening to the answers, and holding off on moving toward the sale. It takes practice to use open-ended questions smoothly and comfortably. One tip is to develop an attitude of really wanting to know what your customer’s challenges are. You will more naturally move into a discussion, which helps to build trust. You help customers buy because you genuinely want to help. The result is more than a sale, it’s a connection, a relationship, that makes selling fun, fulfilling, and mutually rewarding.

If you find these blog posts helpful, I invite you to go to the upper right hand side of this page to EZINE: Selling for Fun, Profit, and Mutual Rewards. Click there to sign up for my newsletters (ezines) then we’ll send you the link to download my article, “Easier Sales: 7 Steps to Winning Customers,” a report I only send subscribers.

There's time enough but no more -- if you manage it well

The point here is that none of us has an unlimited supply of time. If we’re sales managers, we can multiply it by hiring more people but then we usually get limited by money — or the time needed to help them and to manage them. So how do we grow our businesses then?

We do it by identifying our Ideal Customer Profile, determining which of their problems or desires we can help with, and understanding what they really want or feel they need to do about their situation.

That’s the first step: narrow down the suspects, which includes everyone in the world or in your community, to only those who are likely to benefit from your products and services. You’ll not only save time by being focused on the people or accounts that make for the most productive use of your time, you’ll find that you don’t need hard sell techniques of pressure, control, and manipulation. This approach is ideal for soft sell sales and soft sell marketing.

Just as understanding your customer is key to building a relationship of trust, it is essential for soft sell salespeople who want to find sales fulfilling, fun, and mutually rewarding. There is time enough, but no more — if you learn who your best prospects are and focus on them and if you show you care because you understand their situation enough to ask the right questions, and then you listen fully before you try to help the customer buy.

The people who thrive are those who identify their niche and tightly focus on what they do that appeals to that specific group. Last year I read a great example of this by Wayne M. Thomas in his book, The Sales Manager’s Success Manual. He described a plastic surgeon in Southern California who invested heavily in a state-of-the-art laser system capable of removing wrinkles and blemishes.

When he initially identified his potential patient base, he included everyone over 40 in Southern California. His advertising produced disappointing results. This is because the vast majority of the population over 40 did not feel they had a need to get rid of wrinkles. Furthermore, most of them did not have the finances to afford to even if they did want to. Changing his campaign to “I restore lost beauty!” and concentrating his advertising to where the best prospects lived, he appealed to those for whom their looks meant success or failure, people who also had the money to afford his services. In the example Thomas gave, the focused campaign was 13 times more effective.

In my experience, this is very realistic. That’s why I strongly encourage everyone in soft sell sales and soft sell marketing to determine your ideal customer profile. Prospects who match that have the greatest likelihood of wanting and feeling they need your products and services because such problems are common to people and companies like your best customers.

Beware the sensuous whisper of greed. It causes us to think we can appeal to everyone. Today, more than ever, the whole world is not your oyster when it comes to sales and marketing. Decide on the group of people who have the problems and desires, the needs and wants you address best. Help customers buy because it works for them. You’ll find your sales more fun and the results mutually rewarding.

Finally, if you’re looking for an excellent book on sales management, check out The Sales Manager’s Success Manual.

Soft sell sales and soft sell marketing look to understand the problems

There’s another cliché in sales and marketing that says, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” And for me, caring becomes immensely easier when I understand something about what my prospect is dealing with. It makes them human, not numbers, people with problems I can relate to.

This is why I stress the importance of defining your ideal customer. Sure, doing so narrows down the list of prospects from billions worldwide to a manageable size. But just having names doesn’t open many doors these days. Any outside sales person knows how successful he’s going to be knocking on doors without an appointment to ask, “Would you like to buy my product?” Even Brownies and Girl Scouts get rejected these days if that’s their sole sale pitch.

Knowing your ideal customer means you can study why they bought from you or your company. What were the problems they needed a solution for that you provided?

Their challenges give you a meaningful opening with prospects, such as, “Ms. Jones, 40% of our customers came to us to help them resolve a problem with excessive failure rates on the milling of …. Are your production people dealing with that issue too?”

Success in soft sell marketing and soft sell sales requires developing relationships. Crucial to doing this is the prospect coming to know, like, and trust you. This happens naturally when you show you care by understanding their challenges and problems then showing up to work with them on developing a solution that’s best for them. Caring can’t be faked for long in a complex sale.

So before you go prospecting that list of companies matching your ideal customer profile, be sure you understand their problems. That’s your second step needed to help customers buy.

Your Ideal Customer Profile is the center of your sales and marketing.

Ideal customers typically consist of the 20% who are responsible for 80% of your profits. Don’t get hung up over sales figures. You can go broke trying to get high sales numbers if you aren’t controlling your profits so why not just track profits to start with.

Look for whatever characteristics they have in common. You might have more than one industry. In that case, do two or more of these studies. Knowing these sketches enables you to know which types of companies — or if you work with individuals, what types of people — to really focus on. The more they are like your ideal prospect, the more likely it is that they will have similar problems to the one you are solving for your core customers.

By contacting people matching the pattern your best customers fit, you will find more prospects interested in at least talking with you. This makes your time more efficient because it’s not wasted trying to convince people to listen who have no need.

Soft sell sales and soft sell marketing are about developing relationships based on people who know, like, and trust you. When you speak to a real problem they want and need to fix, you are going to find them more open to discussing what you can do to help them. Provide information and show you sincerely care about them. You’ll be able to help customers buy. And both you and your customer will enjoy the process more and find it mutually rewarding. As one of my clients said Monday, that kind of sale is “a rush.” It’s not just about the money. It’s about the relationship.

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My friend, DeBorah Beatty, http://www.deborahbeatty.com/, just sent me a book she felt I would enjoy because she thought it sounded like me: Trust-based Selling: Using Customer Focus and Collaboration to Build Long Term Relationships by Charles H. Green. That’s what soft sell marketing and soft sell sales are all about. It’s wonderful having friends who care about you.

I decided to follow up on information she sent me with this book. This led me to an interesting blog post by Charles Green, “Is it Stupid to Be Trusting?” It’s common knowledge in sales and marketing circles that “people buy with their heart, and rationalize it with their brains.” Naturally, this can lead to problems when dealing with con artists and “slick” salespeople, which results in bitter customers who feel taken.

A couple years ago at the Los Angeles County Fair, Dorothy, my wife, and I watched a presentation on stainless steel cookware. I couldn’t wait to buy. Then I found out I’d just committed her credit cards to cookware I didn’t need when she’d been saving that money for a cruise to celebrate my 60^th birthday. Talk about quick buyer’s remorse.  I canceled that order that night before I left the park.

I’ve been in sales for over 25 years so why did I fall for a slick presentation? Well, admittedly, I really liked the salesman. And what a demo he had. Nevertheless, other people resisted ordering. Why didn’t I? Contemplating on that question, I realized several things.

First off, his presentation and stories played into images I believed in and cared about concerning healthy cookware. The demonstrations satisfied my logical mind. However, his manipulations to create a sense of urgency tapped into my greed. I wanted all of those bonuses and special pricing that he wouldn’t be able to offer again because …. So, the upshot was that I was predisposed to want what he was selling, — and — my own greed reacted to his pitch. Trust, yes, but use discrimination. Check it out.

I still believe that establishing trust makes it possible to help customers buy. A soft sell sales person avoids using these types of manipulations because they violate the trust relationship. But when I’m the customer and it appears I was taken advantage of by a “slick” salesperson, I need to step back and look at what really happened. Yes, I may have been manipulated, but I allowed it to happen, typically out of greed, attachment, or fear.

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As we were watching one of my favorite shows, Numb3rs, Friday night, I saw a fabulous demonstration of salesmanship and the use of benefit statements all in a non-sales role. In “Animal Rites,” Episode 19, Animal Rights Eco Terrorists attacked CalTech research labs and killed a professor. FBI agents David Sinclair and Liz Warner called on an animal rights group to find out where the terrorists hung out. At first, the leader did not want to give any information on fellow activists. Then Sinclair said to him, “They already killed someone, and they are hurting your cause.” After a pause, the leader told him where the people advocating violence gathered because Sinclair was right.

The point this program made so clearly is that salesmanship and benefit statements are not limited to people who sell for a living. Everyone sells, every day. It’s a natural part of life. The key to being good at it is to think from the viewpoint of your prospect or customer. The standard question that we all think about when someone is trying to sell us is, “What’s in it for me?” Sales professionals call that WIIFM.

That’s what Alimi Ballard’s character remembered when he sold the animal rights group’s leader on helping him. Their group was being harmed by the eco terrorist activities because most people who might care about supporting animal rights would be inclined to avoid violence thus be turned off.

Notice here that neither the sale nor the benefit had anything to do with money. Yet a sale was made with a result that was a win-win.  David Sinclair understood what his prospect cared about and aligned with his wants and needs. Both sides got what they needed.

That’s what it’s all about when as a salesperson you help customers buy. You think about their problems, their wants and perceived needs and then you help them get the solution that fits. The result is, you get a sale — in the process, you have fun, develop a good relationship with your customer who gets it that you truly care, and the sale is mutually rewarding.

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If your expressions about selling sound like a military commander planning for a battle, you probably learned from someone who taught traditional sales and marketing techniques. Their terms sound like a military engagement: overcome objections, take control of the prospect, and conduct a marketing campaign (which I still use to describe the multiple aspects of a coordinated program to find and sell to customers). Internet marketers have added a new one, squeeze pages. What a controlling sound for something as simple as inviting you to sign up for an ezine (electronic newsletter), usually in exchange for a gift. It’s no wonder business people call “old school” sales and marketing tactics hard sell.

People who believe, like I do, that selling is a spiritual service prefer farming analogies to war and fighting because, like farming, soft sell marketing sales and marketing nurture and cultivate relationships with perspective customers. Like farmers who care about their crops, soft sell marketers care about taking care of their customers.

For instance, when it comes to objections, like the farmer who weeds his field so that the crops can grow strong and healthy, a soft sell salesperson treats the connection with her prospect with respect and engages in a talk about what the real concerns are and how they affect the goals the customer wants.  She strives to help the customer buy – if it is right for the customer. After all, not all seeds planted yield a harvest even with the best care.

There’s tremendous nostalgia in America about the family farm. My mother’s family were dairy farmers in Wisconsin. I can tell you for a fact that I have no interest in that life. It’s hard work seven days a week.  But I understand this romantic view because what we are really yearning for is the connection with something greater than us.

I love that about selling as a spiritual service because I make those connections with customers. There’s a joy in helping others, even when it’s helping them buy because that’s how they’ll get the solution they want and feel they need.

So stop waging war with prospects. Start farming instead. Prepare the ground; plant your seeds; nurture and water them with sales calls and marketing contacts to offer helpful information, suggestions, and ideas. Weed out the misinformation. And prepare for a thanksgiving celebration of gratitude for an abundant harvest.

If you like this idea of making connections through soft sell marketing and soft sell sales instead of battling for control, join me in Judith & Jim’s Soft Sell Marketers Association. We’re building a community together of people who want to make a difference in our customers’ lives.

Have you ever noticed how little things in life can mean so much? That’s the way it is with compliments. How you give a compliment tells whether you’re sincere or just trying to make points. For some people, it seems they’ve read a book that says if you want to be a good manager or a good sales person or a good date, compliment the people you meet.

Personally, if it’s not sincere, skip it. Believe it or not, I’ll like you better for being more real. Insincere compliments come across fake. They put people off. Watch your own reaction when someone is “kissing up.” Your immediate reaction will normally be, “What’s he (or she) want?”  And nowhere is it more important to come across authentically than on a sales call.

How then do you give a compliment so that it builds trust rather than destroys your credibility? You do it by including an explanation in the compliment so that the person being complimented understands why you are complimenting him/her. For instance, “I really like your article in Success Magazine. I’ve been reading a lot lately on building trust in relationships and think your points were clear and on the mark, especially….”

Why is that more sincere than, “Nice article, John?’ It works because it shows the person giving the compliment actually read the article. Additionally, you understand what he liked in it.

Remember, on a sales call, prospects are naturally suspicious of your motives believing you’re there only for your commissions. To help establish that you care and to build trust, only comment on things or actions you actually noticed and that you related to. Then show that you were paying attention by giving a sincere compliment.

The Protagonist’s Internal Conflict Makes the Story Interesting
In every genre I read, the main people in the stories must be likeable enough that the reader will care about them. At the same time, they must have some flaws that make them human. Ideally, these weak character traits will help set up the tension for the conflict that they must overcome. Especially among Dorothy’s favorite authors but also in many of my preferred sci-fi/fantasy novels, the conflict takes place within the protagonist’s mind and emotions. In other words, the central character must overcome some fear or other weakness to win the prize, which can be anything from a kingdom to a battle to a relationship, such as a happy marriage.

All Salespeople Must Confront Call Reluctance
This is the very thing that I found when I started out in sales. Sales managers call it “call reluctance.” It’s a fear of cold calling and prospecting. Most people I know want to be liked. Some want it so badly they reject others before the others can reject them. So when we have to make cold calls, our mind starts to present a myriad of reasons not to make the effort: “I’ll look stupid”; “They’ll throw me out”; “What if they say no?” If you’re in sales, you probably have your own favorite lines your mind uses to undermine your prospecting. Part of it too is a fear of the unknown and worry about being unable to handle it.

Ten Ways to Get Control of the Fear of Prospecting
Over the years, I’ve found the following ten actions you can do to overcome your fears to become happy and successful as a salesperson:
• Acknowledge that call reluctance affects all sales people until they do it enough that the fear becomes manageable.
• Make sure your motivation is strong enough to keep you going during the tough times of your learning curve – great salemanship takes effort, discipline and practice.
• Know your products well enough you can answer most questions about them.
• Focus on people or businesses fitting your ideal customer profile because more of them will want and feel they need your solution than anyone else you can call on.
• Develop questions to open the discussion, questions to uncover whether or not your suspect has a need for the solution you can deliver.
• Memorize a couple opening lines to get the flow going.
• Look upon the sales call as an opportunity to potentially meet a new friend – and at a minimum, to learn something new.
• Make a game of prospecting.
o I used to keep a sheet of paper with tick marks for every dial, every person I spoke to, every contact with someone I wanted to reach or who moved me forward, and every appointment. I wanted to see what the average number of dials was to appointments.
• Recognize that when someone says no, it’s not a personal rejection.
o At that moment, they feel they have no need for your products or services or they have a far more pressing need that outweighs what you can provide.
o For instance, I don’t care how good the salesperson is or how wonderful the sale, I don’t need new tires when I have only 20,000 miles and great tread remaining on my leased car that I’ll be returning this summer.
• Practice, practice, practice
o You can get a tremendous amount of value out of visualizing your cold calls. The subconscious doesn’t discriminate between role playing visualized with feeling and physically making the sales call.
o You will reach a point where you have done so many sales calls that you will feel comfortable because you know that you can handle whatever someone throws at you. After all, you’ve already experienced it before.
• Focus on being of service.
o Don’t worry about winning the sales contest, unless that motivates you to get out there to see people or to pick up the phone.
o Concentrate instead on the other person. Is there some way you can help him out? Everybody needs help with some problem. You just need to discover if his needs are ones you can help with.

Serving Others through Sales Makes for a Fun and Mutually Rewarding Career
Prospecting or making sales calls is an inner game. Just like the protagonist in your favorite novel, you have fears and weaknesses to overcome in order to attain the success, joy, and lifestyle you desire. Above I’ve listed ten things you can do to master call reluctance thereby becoming a master of your fate. It takes effort, discipline, and practice to become great at anything. If you desire the life that sales can provide enough, you’ll find the drive to face your fears. Take it one step at a time. When your mind starts to throw up scenarios to paralyze you, use your imagination instead to see yourself handling the prospecting calls. Most of all, take your attention off yourself. Concentrate on “How can I be of service?” If you do that, you will find that selling is fun and mutually rewarding when you help customers buy.

Sales Involves a Bit of Detective Work
If the challenges are so great, why did I stay in this profession for so long? First off, I wanted more out of life than most jobs could give me, like control over my time and income. But along the way, I found that I really love selling — true, it normally provided me with an above average income; however, I enjoyed the people side of the business. There’s an element of being a detective involved in many of my business-to-business sales because I had to find out what was really important to them.

You’re Not Always the Most Important Person in Their Lives
Sometimes I found that my products or services were important, just not as important as something else at that moment. If they couldn’t pay the rent and payroll that month, I don’t care how much they wanted to upgrade their computer system to mine, they were not a prospect at that moment. On the other hand, if you could straighten out their cash flow or provide a business loan, you would have had their attention.

The Key to Selling Is Understanding the Customer’s Wants and Perceived Needs
Before I could serve them, though, I had to understand what their problems were well enough to see how my products could help them. I also had to know my products well enough to tell when they could do what my prospect needed and when they couldn’t. To get to the core issues, I learned to ask questions that got prospects to talk. I took notes. And I told them what I was hearing them say and asked for confirmation or correction. And when I was really in the zone, I would find out their real, underlying motivations. Because I did not try to channel them down a chute for the slaughter, we became a team seeking to improve their lives by solving a frustrating problem.

Customers Only Care about the Benefits to Them for Buying
People want to buy. There is something in human nature about that – I think it may be the “shopping gene.” However, we want to buy what benefits us most at the moment. Focus on answering “What’s in it for me?” When you earn their trust enough that you are now a partner to help them get what they want and feel they need, your sale becomes a cooperative effort. I’ve had customers tell me what we needed to do to get a purchase order approved. In one case, it was having a couple spare computers in place as loaners.

Selling as a Service Creates a More Rewarding Life
When you focus your sales efforts on service, life becomes richer. You expand your horizons. You come to enjoy sales calls because they offer the opportunity to make friends and to learn something new. You find yourself less nervous because you aren’t focus on you and how people are seeing you. People love being around others who care about them and who can help make their lives more pleasant and rewarding.

To Have a Full Life as Well as a Career, Help Customers Buy
So to have fun selling, master the servant salesperson style. Learn to focus on the customers’ needs not yours. Listen first. Ask questions to be sure you understand. Be sure you have the solution they want and feel they need. Then help your customers buy. Not only will you become successful at sales, making an exciting income, but you will have intangible rewards, like the job satisfaction many never find in sales. Your life will expand from all you learn from your customers. And you will gain repeat business, making your life less stressful.

If you’ve any length of work experience, you’ve had at least one boss who was a bully. If you are in sales, you’ve encountered them as customers. Sometimes they are normally nice people who are so frustrated with your company’s policies they lash out. But others bully people as a normal course of dealing with others.

I never felt comfortable that I knew how to handle them. Then I read Seth Godin’s blog for January 28, 2009. It rang true.

In a few paragraphs, Seth clearly defined bullies and then stated how to handle them. In essence, “A bully is someone who uses physical or psychological force to demean and demoralize someone else. A bully isn’t challenging your ideas, or working with you to find a better outcome.”

His solution is captured by the title, “Take the ball and go home.” I encourage you to check out this article at http://tinyurl.com/bhalav.

So what does this have to do with sales? Everything – if you want to become an extraordinary salesperson. You need to find sufficient desire and motivation to put in the time needed to become great.

Learning to Help Customers Buy still takes effort; it’s just developing a different sales approach than the Old School one. It takes an incredible level of persistence to perform 10,000 hours of sales activities, especially to do so with a conscious view to improve. You must constantly look for new and better ways to communicate and to grasp the real wants and benefits your prospect desires – without using control of the prospect, manipulation of his or her emotions, or pressure to buy.

Having a passion for what you are selling is vital to achieving world-class sales performance. After all, why would anyone put in years to master something they hate doing? To become an acknowledged master salesperson, you need enough drive to keep yourself focused on developing and improving your knowledge and skills – 10,000 hours’ worth of persistent practice.

I really value your input. Let me know what you think about this article. Does it jive with your experience? Please comment.