Muscle Memory in sales

One of the joys of my life is playing double bass in a big band.  Some of the music we play is at a very high speed.  I have to 1. read the notes; 2. have my left hand play the notes at the proper position on the neck; and 3. have my right hand pluck the proper string to have that note make a sound.  All at two to three times the speed of a heart beat.  You just can't do this if you have to think about what you're doing.
In sales, muscle memory is just as critical as in performing music.  When you're in a situation with an aggressive customer who has given you a couple of minutes of his precious time, you had better be able to present your case without stumbling--just like a musician performing before an audience.
A standard question and answer among musicians is: "what are the three things a musician must do to get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice."
In sales, being able to state the best qualities of your product in a couple of sentences, without hesitation and with conviction, is critical to success.
Step 1:  ask the smartest people you know to give you the 5 sentences you need to memorize that describes the best attributes of the product you're selling.  Step 2: memorize these 5 sentences until you don't have to think about them.  Step 3: be able to expand on each of these 5 sentences.  Have these sentences so deeply engrained in your brain that they are automatic.
And, if you're selling more than one product, you need to repeat this process for each product.
I can't emplasize enough the importance of this process.

Powerful Selling: Body Language

I am going to focus on body language to promote good selling for the next couple of weeks of this blog.  I strongly suggest watching this Amy Cuddy TED talk video.  What she says is critical to success in any field, but especially in sales.

"Always On": key to success in sales

I was talking to the owner of a landscape company who was replacing the trees at a location.  He was asking me--"who makes the decisions at this location.  I want to do the mowing.  I'm very reliable and can promise a great job.  Just introduce me to the decision maker."  He didn't know who I was or what I could do.  But he was "always on",  always selling.

A good sales person is always selling, primarily because you don't know know where your next sale is coming from.  A good sales person combines the "referral" with the "always on" concept.   Talk about your product with anyone who will listen and see where it goes.  

Sales is not a job.  It is a lifestyle.  It is a career.  Being always on and always selling is the lifestyle.  The important thing to remember is, when you're always on, you need to be very informational about your products, rather than direct. Your're letting people know what you do; what you sell.  Let them take you further; let them think they're helping you by referring you to someone who needs your product. 

Getting a Referral

I referred to an excellent salesman I know in a previous blog.  His name is Mike.  He taught me another important thing a sales person has to do: ask for a referral.  You have made your pitch; you have been successful--or maybe not successful.  You have the opportunity to turn the sales call into something more important--ask for a referral.  Ask your customer if he knows anyone else that can use what you're selling.  I can't make enough of a point about this.  We lose great opportunities when we don't explore the knowledge of our customers.  Maybe they belong to trade organizations or a local group and can provide an introduction.
This is an opportunity that is too often lost--the opportunity to ask the person we've just made a presentation to if there is someone else that can benefit from our service or product.
Ask for a referral and ask for an introduction to the referral.  Or you're missing out on potential sales.

The Perfect Salesperson: a blend

We've talked about the three types of sales person: the relational sales person; the route salesperson (or "order taker") and the transactional sales person ("get the order at any cost").   The perfect sales person is able to blend all three types into one.  

I used to have a plaque on my desk that stated: "It All Starts With The Sale".  The sale triggers everything; the sale creates jobs; the sale supports manufacturing, engineering, invention--everything. The sales job is critical to our economy.  A relationship sales person creates a feeling of trust; the route sales person creates a feeling of stability; the transactional  sales person creates a feeling of urgency.   Trust, stability and urgency are the three legs supporting the sales process.  The seat of the stool is a joyful attitude that what you are doing is important.

The customer wants to believe you, wants to know that you'll be there for the duration, and that you really want the order--you still have to ask for the order.  Can't get away from that.

That salesperson has "attitude"

I was discussing my blog today with someone I consider in the category of "excellent" in the sales profession.  Our conversation revolved around attitude, but not in the negative sense of "he's got attitude", but in the positive sense of someone who loves what he's doing, who loves to be alive, who loves to meet people and help them out, who is cheerful and confident.
Give me a person with a good and cheerful attitude, who is happy selling stuff, and I'll teach him the product and show him where to go to sell it.  You can teach product, but you can't teach attitude.  And selling, like many professions, involves rejection.  Dealing with rejection with a positive attitude, an attitude that says "I'll keep coming back until he gives me an order", is the essence of success in sales.
Give me someone who says--"I love to meet people and get to know people and to understand their  business", give that person product training and you have an unbeatable combination.  Hire a "Debbie Downer" with an engineer's knowledge of your product and he will fail as a sales person.

Transaction Man

If you've ever been to a timeshare sales event, you know what a Transaction salesperson is.  The Transaction Salesperson knows (or thinks) he'll never see you again, so anything if fair game--play on your guilt, play on any weakness he's been trained to spot.  He knows this is a one time shot and that sales is a numbers game:  talk fast and furious to enough people, and you'll land your quota.
So, the transaction salesperson is a popular style in situations where there is a one-time event with virtually no chance of seeing the customer again, so anything goes.  Beware of Transaction Man.
Never put your sales team into a situation where they feel that getting the sale is all there is. 
This style can be a danger to a commission only sales team.  If one's living is solely determined by commission, if the only way a sales person can survive is to close the deal--then you may be inadvertently creating Transaction Man.  A sales person has to be able to make a living with a base salary; a sales person has to be able to pay for his gas and expenses with an allowance.  If not, he may turn into Transaction Man and hurt your company's reputation.
Next, we look at blending the three sales types into the perfect sales person.