Business Sticky Beak

I remember the first job I had selling I had very few sales, in fact I was the worst person on the sales team – I had spurts of sales (usually the ones that wanted to buy despite my involvement!) and sometimes I would even make my budgets, it wasn’t all bad I did have the one key that I needed, that was great relationships with my customers.

I was fine with building rapport with people – I didn’t even have a problem making an appointment, however, when it came to selling I turned into an utter babbling goof! My heart would race, my palms would sweat and I would have ringing in my ears so loud that I could hardly hear anything the person I was with was saying.

I would hear myself saying things that were not my words or beliefs and I would procrastinate on the list of “possibles” sometimes for days.  I would go over that list thinking – “I wonder if they would be interested?” or “They already have X why would they want to buy from me” or “What if they don’t like me?” or ” What if I don’t know how to answer one of their questions?”or “They might not need it” “they might think it’s too expensive” and the list went on and on and on……

I had actaully built an image in my mind of selling that was based on experiences I had encountered while I was buying products or services …the image of the car salesman that sold me a car that cost me an additional $2,000 in repairs! …the image of a telemarketer trying to sell me a timeshare that I had no interest or desire in …the salesperson that tried to bluff their way through some questions I had when I was buying a new stereo …the image of the salespeople I worked with.

Not one thing in my mind was about the customer, their needs or the belief and passion in what I had to offer. It was all about me and my buying experiences and my PERCEPTION of sales and how to do it! – After all, I had been exposed to many examples good and bad, I’d had sales training, I’d read sales “How to” books and I’d seen the salespeople around me sell and the techniques they used. So what was missing?

Two things 1. Belief in my product and 2. Ownership of my natural style.

I had doubts about what I was selling and instead of facing those doubts and seeing how they could be overcome I allowed them to cloud what I was doing. And I found myself employing “sales tactics” and using text book solutions, and trying to emulate how others sold. Bottom line, ignoring these two things had created a fear of selling.

So every time I opened my mouth I lost a potential sale, and of course there were all those other factors… the other sales people had better lists, bigger customers, the ecomony was bad, etc, etc. So I went to work for another company that had better systems, etc, etc, etc. Now I had 18 months good experience, fantastic relationships and still the same results. To cut a very long story short this is how I managed to find the key to overcome my fear of selling…

Belief in my Product
I listed all my doubts about the product/service I was offering, then I counter balanced this list with reality. I discussed my doubts with the sales manager and the other sales people to get their PERCEPTION. I even asked potential customers what their doubts were. Now I had a big list that could be assessed logically, I managed to eliminate the doubts and began to get results.

Ownership of my Natural Style
The second and most critical thing I did was I asked my manager to come on a sales appointment with me to give me feedback on “my technique”. Immediately after the first appointment we went on, he simply said “where is Sue Henry today? I have just sat through that appointment with a sales text book, sure you followed the steps to closing a sale, however, you never used words or phrases that you normally do, your tone of voice changed and you looked frightened”.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – I could clearly see where I had made my mistakes I was trying to be a sales person and close the sale! The next time I went on an appointment, I talked passionately to the customer about what I had to offer, I even discussed all their concerns and yes you guessed it I made the sale.

For every sales job after that one and in my own business today I discuss passionately what I can offer and the sale happens naturally.

Have a great day

Sue Henry!!