A Salesman's Tricks of the Trade Book

Introduction Sales is first and foremost the art of persuasion. A salesperson persuades someone to part with his or her money in exchange for a product or service. This is done by convincing the customer that he wants the product or service more than he wants his own money. Often this is a formidable task because the goods and services offered by professional salespeople usually cost a lot of money. The good news for the salesperson is that the approach used can significantly improve the odds of success. Like any profession, a sales job becomes a lot easier once you learn the tricks of your trade. I believe that how well a salesperson learns the tricks of the trade can have a big effect on his success, income and career. The degree of success can also affect the salesperson's happiness, family life and sense of self-worth. I am convinced that learning these tricks can be financially rewarding and prudent for any salesperson's career. Perhaps Wesley Autrey, a New York construction worker, understood achievement best when he simply said; "Good things happen when you do good." This book is designed to help you do a good job at selling people things. It describes, explains, and provides examples of the best tricks of the trade I have used in the real world for over twenty-five-years in my sales career. Several (but not all) tricks of the trade require specific rhetorical techniques. In those cases, I will explain the recommended rhetorical procedure as well. When needed, I will explain what questions a salesperson should ask, when to ask these questions, and why we ask these particular questions. I will explain not only the tricks of the trade but I will explain when and why we use specific tricks. I will also do my best to explain how and why these tricks actually work. All the tricks will work for most products and services sales professional typically are asked to sell. They work for inside salespeople as well as outside sales representatives. I have years of experience in both types of sales and the tricks in this book are important and valuable regardless of your sales environment. My own career attests to how well these tricks of the trade can succeed. Because I have used them while working for some of the largest corporations in America, I have frequently won incentive trips to wonderful resorts in the United States as well as those in Cancun, the Bahamas and even Europe. My goal in this book is to suggest ways in which salespeople at any stage of their careers can improve their techniques, hone their strategies, and ultimately, succeed more fully in sales. Vernon Law once warned: "Experience is the worst teacher; it gives the test before presenting the lesson." In this book I am going to try to change the natural order of things. This book is designed to give you the lessons first, thereby leveling the playing field between rookies and experienced salespeople. The way I am going to do that is by letting out the secrets I have learned in the real world to everybody in this book. Over the course of my career, I have been to several conferences set up to train the beginning salesperson. This book takes what I have learned in those classes to a more advanced level with concrete suggestions based on my years of actual sales experience. As a result, this book is designed to benefit both novice and experienced salespeople. While each chapter focuses on a different fundamental principle of selling, I also give a very practical spin to what else---in addition to fundamentals---salespeople should understand. This book explains not only how to make a great presentation but all the other things you need to know to be an effective salesperson. Let me give you an example of the type of insight you can expect to gain by reading this book. Usually the first thing a new salesperson receives is training on how to explain what eventually he is supposed to be selling. This includes a detailed study of the features and benefits of the company's products and services. This is definitely an important part of the sales process. Often there is only time allotted to teach the nuts and bolts of what is supposed to be presented to prospective customers. Unfortunately, product knowledge is just a portion of what a salesperson needs to know. For the purpose of this introduction, I want to point out just one of the glaring omissions that are often made in these initial-training classes. What most salespeople find missing from these classes is a good understanding of what questions they should be asking. In the real world salespeople have conversations with prospective customers. These conversations definitely include explanations but they also include questions and answers. Sales trainers invariably leave out these questions. However there are really important questions that I am going to teach you to be asking throughout the entire sales process. Sales trainers give lectures and they aren't likely to tell the rookie salesperson that they should never ever do that. They themselves often find questions to be a distraction delaying them from getting to what they think is the really important part of their lecture. It's not surprising that trainers have their students spend a lot of time practicing and in some cases memorizing what they are going to say, just like the trainer did before he started doing his classes. The idea for all this is so the new employee can soon be polished when he makes a presentation to a real prospect. Who would argue with that approach? When the training is finished the rookie salesperson is understandably anxious to demonstrate to everyone his newly acquired knowledge. The rookie wasn't told to ask the appropriate questions, and so at the first opportunity he prematurely spills his guts to a prospective customer. Experienced sales people ridicule this behavior by calling it: "showing up and throwing up." This strategy, of spilling your guts, rarely works if the products you have are hard to sell. Remember that most the time these products are hard to sell and that is why they hired the professional salesperson in the first place. Not everyone can sell these products in sufficient quantities; in fact a lot of people can't! Experienced salespeople know that one of the salesman's tricks of the trade is to take a consultative approach to selling. They try to ask the important questions before they present what they have to sell. There are three primary reasons for their delay. First, the devil may be in the details, so they don't want to bring up possible objections right at the beginning of a sales call. A lengthy explanation at this point might trigger a real head butting confrontation. Secondly, no matter how well rehearsed a salesman's presentation is, most people simply don't like to be sold. Fortunately, they like to buy things. Moreover, this important distinction makes the whole sales process a very tricky situation. Third, all of us have heard all our life the advice: "buyers beware." Most people are very cautious before they buy anything that is expensive. There are a lot of people out there who are naturally leery of salespeople. People often put their guard up as soon as they are approached by a salesperson. Some people have a stereotyped idea of what a salesperson is. At best this stereotype is a flamboyant character with the gift of gab, much like those enthusiastic snake oil salesman portrayed in the old cowboy movies. At worst he is an annoying intrusive pitchman whose goal it is to trick them out of their money. Unfortunately some people think of a salesperson as a trickster, a charlatan, a huckster, a con artist, and a person of low moral character. Just be aware that as salespeople we have a long history of negative stereotypes to overcome. It's no wonder that a lot of people have a built in prejudice against salespeople. Certain types of salespeople are still held in low esteem by much of society. They include used car salesmen, carnival pitchmen, door-to-door salespeople and telemarketers. It is no wonder that in this day and age a professional salesperson had better be a lot more than just a person with the gift of gab. If a salesperson is too talkative a prospective customer has a lot of reasons to tune out what the salesperson is trying so hard to explain. Some of the best sales pitches ever devised have unfortunately fallen on deaf ears. The best way a salesperson can avoid being too verbose is to ask questions. Asking questions can turn a monologue into a dialogue and that should be every salesman's goal. There is an old Native American saying that best sums this idea up; "Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand." Asking questions is the simplest way to get people "involved" in your web of persuasion. Eventually every salesperson learns that that there is one great irony that seems to occur on every sales call. That is, we seem to think that what we salespeople say is the most important thing. In fact, it is what the prospective buyer says that actually turns out to make all the difference. After all, it is the buyer who makes the decisions and salespeople are merely advisors. Ultimately salespeople must go along with what the buyer says he will or will not do. In my first chapter I have chosen to explain how questions will help us get the prospective customer talking to us. I will also explain how we can best get the prospect to say the things we want him to say. In this same chapter, I will show how and why the right question can magically help you make sales.Read More