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