SELLING THE SALESMAN (eBook)

CHAPTER ONE

I did not sit up in bed one day and decide that I wanted to be a Salesman. It sort of just happened to me. In fact, to this day when I think of a Salesman, I think of a somewhat shady character trying to slick me into a fast deal. The truth is, everybody has to be a salesman and the better you are at it, the further you can go in any career. Now I’m not a shady character, and I would be the last one to recommend that you ever misrepresent yourself or anything that you may be selling, because once discovered you’re selling a “Bill of Goods” you’re finished. We hear it all our life, honesty is the best policy and such it is to be a successful salesman. “It takes a good person to make a good salesman”. No matter what you’re selling if it meets the needs and the expectations of the buyer, then your representation has been honest. Everybody understands that you get what you pay for and you pay for what you get in the long run.

As children we discover that a smile can get us what we want as quick as a wink. Add a wink and well, expect extra special results. Selling yourself to someone who already loves you is easy and doesn’t do much for honing your selling skills. One of the greatest rejections we ever face in life is when we first discover that not everyone thinks we’re as special as our mother. We learn that we must be patient and manipulative in getting what we want from others. So, our journey into sales begins.

Outside of your siblings, an aunt, an uncle and maybe a neighbor that you’ve habitually annoyed, teachers can be the hardest sale. I didn’t know it then, but human nature plays a huge role in selling yourself. I came to realize that some teachers immediately like me, while it seemed that there was something about me that just pissed other teachers off. I learned in Grade school to take it on the chin, to be submissive, lay low and to just get along with the teachers that didn’t like me. The teachers that liked me, well let’s just say that I took full advantage of the situation. I have been forgiven for habitually disrupting the class, seldom having my homework complete, being excessively tardy, bending and breaking all the rules. Having those in charge show you favoritism is like wind fall sales. You really don’t have to do anything special and you capitalize.

Selling someone that likes you and wants to do business with you is pretty easy, provided that your product meets their needs and your price is acceptable. Their business becomes yours to lose. To keep it is the constant repeating of the first step in building any relationship,” doing what you say you’re going to do, when you say you are going to do it”. Break that trust without a reasonably good excuse and you open the door to losing that business. Too many salespeople make the mistake of taking advantage of their good customer relationships. They lull themselves into a false sense of security with the customer’s business, when really; extra concern should go towards preserving those customers that are always repeating sales. A family emergency is about the only forgivable reason for not following through on a commitment, and that should be communicated timely, with alternative actions to satisfy the customer’s immediate needs already set into motion. Building customer trust should be the first consideration with every order. That means making sure that the process is as smooth as possible, confirming that the order can and will be “in full and on time”. This doesn’t happen 100% of the time due to out of stocks, freight delays and many other possible failures. Just because you don’t have or can’t get what the customer needs when he needs it, doesn’t take that need away. The toughest call a salesperson can make is to tell the customer that their order will be incomplete or delayed. This is however an opportunity to build even a stronger relationship. Understanding that and exhausting all sources even up to checking to see if a competitor has the product, speaks volumes for your desire to take care of your customer. Having answers and solutions before calling to inform a customer of a failure takes some of the pressure off and if handled correctly can even wow the customer with your commitment to servicing his account. You may be the customer’s favorite salesperson, and as long as his needs are met then he will usually turn the competition away. Never allow the customer to think that you are taking his business for granted. Let your actions and communication remind him it is an honor to service his account and that his business is appreciated.

My first real exposure to selling something other than myself was All Occasion Cards. I was about ten years old when I responded to an ad in my older brother’s comic book to sell these cards. There was no upfront investment. All I did was complete the order form, mail it off in an envelope and in a few weeks a box arrived full of these All-Occasion Cards. I couldn’t wait to get started. As I sold the boxes of cards, I had to send half of the money back to the company in envelopes that came with the cards and the reorder forms. Just the thought of having my own money to spend made me feel grown up and independent. Making the sales was not so easy. I awkwardly went door to door in my neighborhood struggling with my spiel. I used every suggestion the company had recommended, but only sold one box my first day. My second day wasn’t any better and I was getting pretty disgusted with the whole process. Maybe it was out of desperation or perhaps the desire to have someone walk with me, but I convinced my two younger sisters to help me. Eureka, I hit the mother-load. There is something about little girls selling anything that touches the hearts of folks. That’s probably why Girl Scout Cookies do so well. That was more than just my first shot at Sales; it actually introduced me to entrepreneurship. I learned the bringing together of all the elements necessary to produce commerce. Splitting the money with my sisters made my All-Occasion Card business not so lucrative, summer vacation was up, school started, and I closed shop.

If you’re selling items that people don’t have to have immediately then you must demonstrate that it will satisfy certain appreciated values. It must be appealing, it must offer a convenience, it must be reasonably priced, it must meet some future expected need and it must give the buyer peace of mind. Much like trying to sell coats and sweaters during the summer they had better be very appealing and have a great price in order to get anyone’s attention. Merchandisers will display impulse items next to the checkout knowing that if the customer has ever had a need for latch loop, super glue, double face tape, magic markers or any of the hundreds of other impulse items, they’ll snatch them up even though the items will probably end up in a junk drawer or a cluttered cabinet. People will buy what they think they will need not knowing when they may need the item next. With this, people are buying more than what the merchandisers are selling; they are buying peace of mind. Selling can be tough and competitive. Selling something that there is not an immediate need or everyday use is even tougher.

When I was eleven there was a lady that lived next door who sold Jack and Jill donuts. She hired me to help her on Saturdays sell these donuts door to door. I had door to door sales experience and while it wasn’t something I necessarily enjoyed I thought that I would give it a try. She had a crew of six and would put two of us out per street. She would give each of us two boxes of a dozen each of donuts and have one of us work one side of the street while another worked the other. She would drive up and down the streets checking on our progress and replenishing our stock as we sold these donuts. Funny thing, people would buy donuts Saturday mornings like crazy. I was one of her best salesmen. I remember this one kid being so frustrated because he couldn’t sell as much as I could. He would beg me to tell him how I sold so many boxes. I honestly told him everything that I would say, but he still couldn’t sell as much. I had sold out and was waiting for the lady to come back around and had a couple of opportunities to go up to a few houses with him. I had told him that I would say “would you like to buy some Jack and Jill donuts”? “They’re delicious and still warm”! He would repeat the same thing, but he sounded like a robot, insincere or phony. I realized that my own desire to eat those donuts made Sales. I made those people feel like they had better buy those donuts before I ate them. I learn from that kid that “you have to be sold before you can sell”.

As fate would have it, I did work in a few different Donut shops as a teenager. The interesting thing about selling Donuts from behind the counter is you must exercise a lot of patience. People simply have to process the variety. Donuts are covered, sprinkled, topped with nuts, filled with fruit, filled with cream and shaped in different varieties. The customer may already know what they stopped in to buy, but they scan the display over and over as if there may be some new and undiscovered donut. In almost every case, if a customer bought the fancy donuts, they also bought the regular glazed. Donut shops price by the each, but the best value is sold by the dozen plain or mixed. If you try to rush a customer through the donut buying process, you lose opportunity. I discovered that people wanted to know my opinion of the various varieties. I really liked all donuts in all varieties so when asked I was quick to reply “that is one of my favorites”. I...