Tips On Becoming A Great Salesperson

Do you want to be the "top gun" in your company? Do you want to be considered a "professional" sales person? Do you want to make great money? There are dozens of tips will help you become a top salesperson -- these are afew that I feel stand out above the rest.


First:You must first develop and maintain a positive mental attitude (PMA) and learn to keep your head on straight, no matter what is happening with your clients or in the marketplace. Developing a positive mental attitude is one of the most written about self-help topics of all time. There's a reason for this -it works! Developing a positive mental attitude is the one critical attribute that is absolutely essential for success in any type of sales. Developing and maintaining a PMA will enable you to survive the rejection and adversity that is typical in the field of selling. Learning to control your attitude and emotional state of mind... regardless, what is happening around you, is an ability that will help you in all areas of your life. If you took "success in selling" and put it on a 100% scale -80% of success in selling is based on emotion. Having a positive mental attitude and enthusiasm for your product or service is essential for your success in the sales arena.


Second: There is one skill that stands out above the others as a chief cause of failure among most sales personnel... the lack of planned, effective, continuous prospecting. When I ask most sales personnel, "what do you get paid to do?" I get a myriad of answers. Some say, they get paid to overcome objections; some say they get paid to close the sale; others say they get paid to show or sell the product. Very seldom do I hear a salesperson say, "I get paid to prospect." When in reality, that is what they really get paid to do. Why is prospecting so important? You can have the best presentation of the world, you can have the best product in the world, you can have the best price in the world and you can be the best closer in your company... but if you have no one to tell your story to-you are unemployed.


However, if you have a fair presentation and average product and you are a mediocre closer, but you're willing to talk to more people than someone more talented than you...you can still make great money and even beat a better salesperson by simply talking to more people than he or she is willing to do. So if you do not have a continuous, sustained, prospecting system do some research on your own or e-mail me and I'll show you how to develop one. There are many great books on prospecting in your local bookstore.


Third: You must master the art of "asking questions." Selling is not about telling... it's about asking. The difference between a good salesperson and a great salesperson is the great salesperson has learned the art of asking questions. Think about this for a moment; your mind operates on questions. From the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment to go to bed at night. You were constantly asking yourself questions and answering those questions. It's how we decide, it's how we draw conclusions, it's how we analyze and it's how we buy. As an example, think about buying a living room set. From the moment you walk into a furniture store you start asking yourself questions. When you find a potential living room set, then you're questions become more detailed, such as: Is this the right color? Will this fit in our living room? Will it match the rug? Is it comfortable? Once you get through that first set of questions, the next set of questions are usually buying type questions, such as: How will we get this home? Do they deliver? How much does it cost to deliver? What days do you deliver?


The great salesperson anticipates those questions, asks any additional fact-finding questions necessary to properly qualify the customer. And then... and only then do they go to the next step of the sales presentation, which is presenting the product. If you don't learn to involve and qualify your customer by asking questions, then you are simply an order taker and will never achieve the level of success are capable of. The art of asking questions should be incorporated into every part of your sales presentation. Lead... don't push your customers to the close by asking questions.

Fourth: The fourth of vital ingredient to successful selling is goal-setting. Going through life without goals as like a ship crossing the ocean without a rudder or a Compass. One of my favorite sayings is "if you don't know where you're going in life, you will probably get there." Goals give direction to your dreams and aspirations. Goals activate your subconscious to action. They give your subconscious a target to shoot for. A simple illustration of this would be consciously trying to remember someone's name; at some point, you stop thinking about it consciously but your subconscious never stops searching for the name. When your subconscious mind finds the name, it pops into your consciousness. Your subconscious never stopped working to find the name. It does the same thing when you set a goal. Your conscious mind may stop working on it, but your subconscious never stops. If you don't give it a goal to work on, it will work on anything else you give it... including worrying. So, daily goal-setting is imperative if you want to become a great salesperson.

Fifth: I cannot over emphasize the importance of this fifth tip, which is "constant and continual self-improvement." You must read, study and learn all about your product, your competition, the company's history, your prices and sales techniques and principles. And then practice, drill and rehearse them until they are second nature to you become a part of your auto response system... in other words, just like breathing. Sales principles and concepts have to be a reactionary to be most effective. This requires a lot of study and practice. Like driving a car, you'll eventually be able to react without thinking, employing all the sales techniques that you spent time learning and practicing.

Sixth: The six requirement for your success in sales is to have a great work ethic. Planning and time management are essential components of a good work ethic. If there's any other area were salesperson is weak (next to prospecting)... it is the area of time management. Too much time is wasted talking to coworkers, shuffling through leads, spending too much time in wrap-up, taking breaks, being late for work and generally spending time doing unproductive things. Be transparent -do you have a good work ethic? Ask yourself, "if I were the boss, what I keep me, fire me or give me a raise?" Until you develop a good work ethic, you will not reach your ultimate potential in sales.

Bottom Line: We're all here to make money... we all want to be successful... and we all want our company to grow and prosper! Master these six essential tips and you will go a long way to making that happen.

Bob LaBrie

How to Use Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) Modeling in Business

Eight years ago before launching Maximum Potential, I worked in a call center for short period of time and sold an Accessory Package for Ron Popeil's Rotisserie Oven. When I first began selling at the call center, I had a difficult time with this type of selling. I was much better at face-to-face selling, so this was very different. It was more of a "one-shot" closing of a product over the telephone rather than consultative selling, which I was used to. There was an individual at the call center, who I will call Ron for the purpose of this article. Ron was the top salesperson in the company and was out-producing every else in the call center at a ratio of two-to-one.

Before defining modeling, I should explain what Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) is. NLP is a concept that was developed back in the 1970s by Robert Bandler and John Grinder. Neuro-Linguistic Programming is the study and coding of subjective human experience that results in your self-programming. It is also a study of the conscious and subconscious processes of your mind that combine to enable you to do what you want to do with your life.

After working there for a week or so and struggling (this was before I tried the Modeling technique), I decided to interview and record Ron and see what he was saying to close so effectively.

I had just read about the concept of NLP Modeling. In a nutshell, Modeling means "find out what successful people do exactly and do it exactly as they do it." So I audiotaped John's presentation over the telephone, took it home and studied it. At first, I only copied and used his script, which was basically the same as everyone else's in the call center, except for some very minor changes. I did a little better than before, but still not as well as he was doing.

I then took two tape recorders and put them side-by-side. I listened not only to "what" Ron said, but also to "how" he said it exactly. When I heard him breathe on the tape, I breathed. When his voice went up, mine went up. When he spoke softly, so did I. I tried to model every one of his nuances while tape recording myself saying, the very same words. I then played it back at the same time as the tape of John's voice. When my voice sounded exactly the same as his, I tried it on the phone with live customers. The results were phenomenal!

My sales immediately shot up. By adding closing techniques, anchoring, and embedded commands... I became the number one telemarketer in the company was promoted to corporate trainer. It wasn't until I modeled Ron's nuances, "precisely" that it worked. I think sometimes people feel that if they just say the same words as another person, they will work for them as well as they did for the person they took a script from. If that were true, everyone would be successful, because they all would be saying the same words. It's not just "what" you say, that is important... it's all so "how" you say it that makes all the difference in the world.

If you look at your wife, partner or significant other and say "I love you" with the same tonality as "pass the mustard" she won't hear "I love you" (even though that's exactly what you said), she will hear "pass the mustard."

During my interview with Ron, I also discovered that he came across as a very caring individual on the telephone. He unknowingly applied the concept of "people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." When I asked Ron why he felt he was so successful, he asked me if I'd ever tried the product? I told him no! He said try it and then get on the telephone. A couple of us at the call center tried the product, which is designed to enhance the flavor of the meat you cooked in the rotisserie oven. What we discovered is that it really did enhance the flavor of the meat... considerably!

So another lesson learned was that "you have to believe that what you are selling really works and will benefit the customer" before you can sell it with conviction. In other words, "know your product" ...intimately!

Precise Modeling is not easy to do, but it is well worth the effort. As the corporate trainer of this call center, I used Modeling to train all the people at the call center and currently teach it at at virtually, every sales seminar I present. Robert Dilts book titled "Modeling with NLP." Is an excellent resource to learn the techniques of Modeling.

Bob LaBrie

Book Review

Every once in awhile, I write a book review for the Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE), so I thought I would post them on my Blog periodically. This one is titled "The Go-Giver."

The Go-Giver
(A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea)
By bob Burg & John David mann

I discovered this book during one of my weekly browse sessions through Borders.

Every once in awhile there comes along a book that really makes you think. If you like books like “Who Moved My Cheese,” you will enjoy this book immensely.

I've always been a big believer in giving; and …not giving to get … but giving for the sake of giving. It is probably cost me a lot of money in the beginning, but has been incredibly rewarding in the end. One of the reasons I love sharing the books I have read is because …if someone really takes the time to read some of these book recommendations, it will both enrich their life and help their business to prosper.

That's why enjoyed this book immensely, because it's all about the concept of giving and sharing! The book is written as a story about an ambitious young man named Joe, who desperately wants to be successful at all costs. He feels that the harder and faster he works - the further away from his goals he seems to get.

So he seeks the advice of a man named Pindar, who is a sort of legendary, extremely successful consultant, (the word consultant caught my eye) who has retired and spends his time helping other people become successful.

He introduces Joe to what he calls The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success, which are: (1) The Law of Value, (2) The Law of Compensation, (3) The Law of Influence, (4) The Law of Authenticity, and (5) The Love Receptivity. He also introduces Joe to five individuals who employ each of these laws successfully. Each of these laws operate under the concept of giving and sharing to others.

Once Joe learns the laws, he realizes that changing his focus from getting to giving, in other words, putting others' interests first and continually adding value to their lives, leads to unexpected returns and, ultimately, wealth.

You may have heard slogans like “if you help enough people get what they want, you automatically get what you want” or “you sow what you reap” or “people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.” All these slogans center around the concept of giving and sharing.

This book will help you reevaluate how you do business, how you treat clients and maybe even how you live your life.

This is a wonderful book for your reference library.

Bob LaBrie