Sample Pages

36 Sample Pages

Sample pages are as follows:

Chapter 3, How to Become Great at Selling (complete chapter – 16 pages)

Chapter 6 – Sample Page

Chapter 6 – Another Sample Page

Chapter 18 – 2 Consecutive Sample Pages

Chapter 21 – 2 Consecutive Sample Pages

Chapter 24 – 3 Consecutive Sample Pages

Chapter 29 – 3 Consecutive Sample Pages

Chapter 30 – Sample Page

Chapter 40 – Sample Page

Chapter 41 – 2 Consecutive Sample Pages

Chapter 47 – Sample Page

Chapter 3

How to Become Great at Selling

Eleven Steps to Greatness

Here’s what to do to become great at selling.

1) Do what the top salespeople do.
     This is arguably the most obvious, most basic, and most important step to
becoming a top salesperson. The premise here is simple: If you take the same actions
as the top salespeople, you will eventually also be a top salesperson. If you do the
same things as a mediocre salesperson, you will be a mediocre salesperson.
Find the top salespeople in your company and pick their brains. In addition to top
salespeople in your company, get advice from top salespeople in other industries.
Start by approaching each of the top producers in your company and asking them if
you can have some of their time to find out what makes them successful. Most will
be happy to share information with you. Have a recording device with you so you
can record their answers to the following questions:
• What has made you successful as a salesperson?
• What has made you successful with your customers?
• What books, tape programs, and other training resources have you found
helpful and/or do you recommend I read, listen to, or reference?
• What are your answers to the following objections? (Have a list prepared
of all the objections you’ll encounter in your business.) Can you think of
any objections I may have left out?
• What are your best closes?
• How do you handle competition?
• What is your best technique for cold calling?
• What sales tools do you use? This could include anything from
questionnaires and Return-on-Investment models to brochures,
specification sheets, scale rules and measuring tapes, sample parts,
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software programs, boiler-plate presentations, and the like—any tools that
you should carry with you or have close at hand at all times. Note: If they
do have questionnaires, Return-on-Investment models, and other items
they carry with them, ask if you may have copies of these.
• What motivates you?
• What other advice do you have for me?
• Is there anything you can think of that I’ve missed?
• May I have a copy of your cold call, or may I record it?
• May I make a copy of your presentation or record it?
Then, after you’ve turned off your recorder, ask:
• If I run into a situation in the future that I need some advice on, may I ask
you for advice?
Later, after you’ve asked these questions and recorded the answers, type them into
a document and print it out.
Next, assemble a binder that contains the cold call, presentation, answers to all
objections, closes, and other items you need to convey—written out and organized.
Over the years, there has been some controversy over this point. Some people believe
that having a written-out cold call, presentation, and other information is too
unnatural and you may sound rehearsed. The best way—really the only way—to
avoid this is by practicing, drilling, and rehearsing to the point where you know the
information verbatim and thus can concentrate on how you’re saying something
rather than what you are saying.
There are several advantages to having everything written out:
• You won’t forget to mention anything.
• You can work on how to say something instead of trying to think about
what to say.
• You won’t be thrown off track if you are interrupted in the middle of a
cold call or presentation.
• Knowing what you’re going to say will help you stay focused, and help
ensure that you are prepared to handle any situation that arises.
• The alternative is being unprepared and “winging it,” and that’s not how
you want to present yourself.
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In our experience, the quickest way to get to the top is to have all your material
written out and eventually memorized.
Following are some steps for putting your binder together:
a) Start with a three-ring binder that holds 8” x 11” sheets of paper.
b) Buy dividers with tabs. Label one of the tabs Cold Call, then label tabs
for each presentation you have. Make a tab for each objection and another
tab labeled Closes.
c) Finally, take the pages you typed up with all the information you recorded
from the top salespeople, punch the pages with a three-hole punch, and
insert them into your binder under the appropriate tabs.
Behind your Cold Call tab, have some responses to questions, comments, or
objections you might encounter during the call, and get them memorized. For
example, suppose you sell office supplies and the prospect responds with, “I’m not
interested,” strike at the objection quickly with, “Bob, if I could save you 40 percent
on your office supplies, would you be interested?” He may decline but at least you
took a shot at it.
It’s possible that you may have more than one cold call for different products or
circumstances. If so, have a tab for each cold call and label each tab so you can
quickly tell them apart.
Next is the Presentation section. Some businesses will require you to have
several different sales presentations, depending upon the product and/or the prospect.
For example, if you are an investment advisor you may have presentations for several
different stocks, bonds, annuities, REITs, etc. Each presentation should have its own
tab and supporting information.
Note: If you have an array of products, it may be easier to have separate binders
for each product you sell. If the objections and closes vary widely from product to
product, it would be advisable to have several binders.
Your Objections tabs, which follow your presentation, will include tabs such as:
• must talk to spouse first
• I have to think about it
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• I want to check around
• it costs too much
and all other objections you may encounter. Behind each tab, have a page with
several answers to that objection along with an appropriate close to use after
answering each objection.
The next tab in your binder will be Closes. These will be additional closes that
were not used in your Objections section above. Following your Closes tab, have
several pages with many different closes that can be used in almost any situation.
Note: In addition to the above, you may have other items you need to convey.
For example, you may want to have your guarantee written out if it is something that
arises with frequency. In this case, take another divider, make up a tab with the word
“Guarantee,” type out your answer and put this information toward the back of your
binder.
Preparing a binder in the way we’ve described may seem like a lot of work.
However, the very process of assembling the binder will assist you with the
memorization of its contents. Following are some guidelines for using your binder:
a) Know your binder inside and out; know all the information in it by heart.
While you obviously can’t have the binder in front of you if you’re in
face-to-face selling, having your material memorized will serve the same
purpose—that is, to be using proven material that works. In telephone
sales, you will have your binder in front of you.
b) Update your binder from time to time. As you come across more, better,
or different responses, get them into your binder.
Note 1: In the beginning, it’s important to say exactly what the top salespeople
say. One of the biggest mistakes new salespeople make is learning valuable skills
from the top salespeople and then putting those lessons into their own words and
style. In the process, they lose the very effectiveness they are trying to achieve. Only
after you have proven yourself with consistent solid numbers should you consider
tweaking the experts’ approaches to make it better.
Note 2: Watch out for the mediocre or poor salespeople who may be anxious to
help you. Many times these people are more than willing to help. The only problem
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is, if you do what they do, you’ll end up with the same results they have—precisely,
mediocre or poor.
Note 3: Most of the top salespeople will be very helpful, although some may not.
Be persistent, but considerate of their time. Above all, don’t bother someone during
prime calling time.
2) Learn everything you possibly can about the subject of selling.
Read, listen to programs, watch videos, and study everything you can get your
hands on that relates to selling. If you are new in sales, there will be a huge amount
of information to absorb. Even if you’ve been in sales for a while, there are always
new ideas coming out on handling objections, cold calling, and all other aspects of
selling. Be a sponge and absorb as much information as you can. Be open and
curious and realize that no matter how much you know, there’s always more to learn.
3) Learn everything you can about your industry and your prospects.
Read industry publications, newsletters, magazines, and the like. Pay attention to
“local” sources such as newspapers, Chamber of Commerce letters, and other news
bulletins that are printed in the geographic proximity of the companies you’re
interested in. Look for breaking news, new products, new laws, regulations, or
changes in legislation, interesting articles, stories on people making an impact in the
industry, and other pertinent information.
Stay on top of the latest innovations and technology within your industry.
Study the companies and individuals to whom you’re selling. Obtain annual
reports, look in Who’s Who, and tap the Internet and company websites for
information.
Get creative by sitting down and brainstorming by yourself and with others to
come up with ideas to sell more effectively. Share best practices and competitive
information.
Information is power. The more information you have on selling, on the industry
you’re in, and on the people to whom you’re selling, the more confident and
successful you’ll be.
4) Work on yourself.
To be a top salesperson, you must constantly improve personally as well as
professionally. Following are some ideas for both personal and professional
development:
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a) Make it a habit to think positive and stay motivated. Pick up some books
and audio and video programs on psychology, motivation, and staying
positive. People like to be around and do business with positive people.
Put as much positive information into your brain as you can and keep
negatives out.
b) In order to stay motivated in the long term, you need to be growing. To
sustain a positive attitude, you must focus on becoming a better, more
accomplished person. You must be working toward something that is
meaningful to you.
c) Your highest values and ideals must be reflected in your daily life. Your
job and personal life must be in line with your highest values and ideals.
d) Ask yourself what is most important to you in each area of your life. List
your values such as honesty, integrity, loyalty, trustworthiness, etc., and
place them in order of importance. Decide which values are most
important from a standpoint of family, money, career, health, and so on.
Are you living those values in each area of your life?
e) Discover what you ultimately want to do with your life and what you have
a passion for. If you love your present job, great; if you don’t, can you use
your present job as a stepping stone to develop the skills you need to get to
the place you ultimately want to be? Discover where you want to be and
develop a plan to get there.
5) Set goals.
Goals are important because they give you direction. Your goals can be as simple
as doing 120 percent of quota and making the annual awards trip, or as complex as a
list of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual goals in all the major areas of your life.
Some people find a complete list of complex goals overwhelming. If this is the case,
simply set one or two major goals at a time.
Here are some guidelines for your goals:
• Make sure your goals inspire and motivate you.
• Your goals must be clear, measurable, and believable. “More cold calls”
isn’t measurable. “Ten percent more cold calls” is.
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• Break each goal down into small pieces. Break a goal down into monthly,
weekly, and daily goals.
• Don’t just list the goal, list its ultimate benefits to you. Who will you
become and how will your life change?
• The most important factor is why you are striving to achieve a goal. Come
up with many strong reasons why this goal must happen.
• Take some action on your major goal(s) every day.
• Have a timeline and deadline for your goals.
• Envision yourself already there. Act as though you are already there, or
“fake it until you make it,” and imagine yourself as the person who has
already achieved your goal.
• Keep your goals in front of you. Put reminders on the bathroom mirror,
bedroom mirror, refrigerator door, and other places where you will see
them every day.
• Be flexible. Things won’t always go exactly as you plan. Be flexible in
your approach, and manage roadblocks and other obstacles with optimism
and an open mind. Make it a habit to turn problems into solutions.
• Reward yourself. You can reward yourself not only for reaching your
goal but also for reaching milestones on the way to your goal.
Here are some good questions to ask regarding goals:
• What do you want for all areas of your life five years from now? Ten
years?
• What do you want for your family?
And the most important question:
• What kind of person do you want to be?
Note 1: While it’s nice to have material goals, it is more important to have goals
in which you become something. “Becoming” goals such as becoming more selfconfident,
creative, or knowledgeable in a certain field do much more for your
happiness, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Yes, becoming more self-confident will
give you even more self-confidence. These qualities build upon themselves.
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Note 2: It is important to own a knowledge library. You should have a collection
of sales and motivational books, audio and video programs, and other related
information at your home.
Note 3: Find a mentor, hire a personal coach, or do both. If you have someone
with whom you have to check in regularly, you’re more likely to work harder and
achieve more.
Note 4: Ask customers, peers, and even family to evaluate you. Ask only those
who truly care about you and ask them to be completely honest with you. As well,
your manager should be evaluating you at least once a year.
The point to remember from all we’ve just discussed is that you need to keep
growing as a person and continually work on yourself and your attitude. Once you
have a strong foundation in place, you’ll notice your sales ability will increase
tremendously. This is a positive Catch 22: As your attitude about yourself improves,
your sales ability will increase; and as you get better at selling, your attitude about
yourself will improve.
6) Record new ideas quickly and develop new information.
Always have a recorder and/or pen and paper handy. Have them in your car, by
your bed, at your desk, and everywhere you go so you can record good ideas as soon
as they hit you.
A recorder is also great if you hear someone say something that you’d like to use.
You can either have them repeat it or record it yourself. Use your recorder in the car
when you’re listening to sales tapes or compact discs and you come across ideas you
like.
Take notes on information you read, see, or listen to. This helps to further
reinforce the idea so you’ll remember it more easily.
Once you’ve captured some good ideas, develop them further and review your
notes regularly.
7) Practice, drill, rehearse, and apply new ideas.
Take sayings, closes, and other information you like and make them your own.
Practice them on other salespeople, family members, friends, and practice them on
yourself. Most important, once you’ve mastered them privately, look for places to
use these new ideas in real-world selling situations.
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Review motivational and educational information often.
Actively listening to tape and CD programs while taking notes is the optimal way
to learn. However, this is not always possible, and when it’s not, passive listening in
the car or elsewhere will also work well. To absorb tape and CD programs through
passive listening, listen to them ten to fifteen times.
With books and other written material, read them, take notes, highlight sections,
flag pages, and then review your notes and highlighted sections ten to fifteen times.
With videos, watch them, take notes, and then review.
Again, you also want to be looking for ways to apply the new information you’re
learning.
Continually look for new material on selling and motivation.
Occasionally you will want to review resources you’ve already studied. As you
need help in particular areas, you can return to several resources and get different
ideas.
9) Work hard and smart.
Obviously if you’re given a choice, it’s much better to work smarter than harder.
At the same time, when you are just starting out and don’t know anything about the
business, you simply must work hard until you figure things out. But even in the
beginning, there are some basic rules you can follow that will ensure you get the most
out of your hard work and understand things as quickly as possible. They are:
a) Do what the top salespeople do, as we’ve already discussed.
b) Make more calls and work longer than anyone else. There are no
shortcuts here. This is an area in which you simply must work hard.
c) Be persistent. Persistence is most important when you are just starting out
because you must remain driven and motivated through the trial-and-error
period. You will run into most of your challenges, both real and imagined,
in this beginning stage.
Persistence takes the form of hard work, hard thinking, and hard
planning while staying positively motivated and keeping your emotions in
check.
Persistence is necessary in order to stay disciplined. You must remain
disciplined in your work ethic, in learning, in chasing the top producers
down to find out what they’re doing right, and in every other aspect of
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your job. Without persistence and discipline, you simply will not last long
in a sales career.
d) Use your time effectively. An entire book could be written on this subject
alone, but we won’t go into a lot of detail here. Just remember a few
important items:
• Use travel time to get things done.
• Do non-time-sensitive tasks during off hours, not during prime selling
time.
• Try to eliminate “fire drills.” These are usually tasks that could have
been handled long ago and weren’t.
• Have a plan for each day.
• Use the 80/20 rule. Spend as much time as possible on the most
important 20 percent of your tasks that will produce 80 percent of your
results; delegate the other 80 percent—those that produce only 20
percent of your results.
• Use e-mail to save time and money and have information documented.
• Use the fax machine to expedite items and update customers.
• Take vacations and spend quality time with family, friends, and loved
ones.
• Organize your schedule so it makes sense logistically. Divide your
territory and make multiple calls in a particular area.
• Carry work with you just in case you get “stuck” somewhere.
• Hire a personal assistant to run your errands for you.
• Hire a sales assistant whom you can train to do virtually everything
you do and who can run the business when you are away or tied up
doing something else.
• Take a course, read books, and listen to tapes or CDs on managing
your time most effectively.
Following are some key questions to ask about your daily tasks:
• Is this the best use of my time right now?
• Is this something I can delegate or even eliminate?
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• Is there a quicker, easier, or more efficient way to get this activity
done?
One of the most important items we talked about above was delegating tasks.
Ultimately, you are trying to achieve two goals by delegating.
• The first goal of delegating is to allow you to spend your time on only
the most important tasks.
• The second goal of effective delegating is to be in a position where the
business can run smoothly even when you are not around.
e) Stay organized. Here are some ideas to help keep you organized:
• Have a weekly call sheet listing whom you will call on during the
week.
• Have a monthly calendar handy so you can keep track of appointments
you’ve already scheduled. You can buy computer software that
specializes in scheduling and contact management.
• Set up a contact schedule to stay in touch with customers and
prospects.
• You may use a Daytimer along with a calendar, some sort of filing
system, a computer, Blackberry, or similar system that will keep you
on track with all your contact informationand follow-up items.
• Set up a reminder system to follow up on important tasks.
• If you have projects, each consisting of the same tasks, make a
checklist of items that are required for each project.
• Manage information properly.
• Keep your work area organized.
• Take a few minutes at the end of the day to organize your work area
and prepare for the next day.
• Keep proposals, customer files, and other records in one location in
alphabetical order.
• Have daily and weekly goals for the number of calls, prospects, and
sales you want to generate.
• Take good, clear notes, and keep them in one location.
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• Keep backup copies of important records at a separate location.
• Take a course, read books, and listen to tapes and CDs on getting
organized.
f) Come up with “smart” ideas and alternatives. One particular day, we
found ourselves in a real jam. We were preparing to demonstrate some
technical equipment when we had a problem. We tried to reach the
technician who had set the equipment up, but to no avail. We tried to get
to several other people who could help and still no luck. We had
customers coming in less than an hour and our equipment was dead. Just
then, one of us had an idea. We called an engineer who had been laid off
about a month earlier due to budget constraints. Although you’d think that
a person in that position would not be willing to help, guess what? He
helped us. It took him about five minutes and we were ready to go.
Bottom line: in order to work smart, you need to think smart. You
need to be creative when solving problems. The best way to build your
creativity is to develop your brain. Read, play games that challenge your
brain, and work on your problem-solving skills. Also, make sure to get
enough sleep, eat right, and exercise. Finally, obtain books and other
information on developing the brain. Your brain is like a muscle; the
more you use and develop it, the stronger it will become.
Hopefully, the above ideas will help you to work smarter as you go through your
day. But while it is definitely better to work smart instead of hard, there are some
areas in which there is no substitute for hard work. All of us have to work hard to
acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to become top salespeople. There is
simply no substitute for experience, and the only way to get experience is through
hard work and making many calls.
Your overall objective is to work smarter and harder than anyone else. You will
achieve this by copying the successful habits of the top salespeople, making the best
possible use of your time, making more calls than everyone else, putting in more
hours, and going the extra mile. If you combine brains with hard work, you’ll soon
get to where you want to go.
10) Pick the right product and company.
As we discussed earlier, in order to be successful it takes a good product and good
support. If you don’t have a good product, or you can’t service that product
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effectively, any success you have will be short-lived. Pick a reliable product you can
believe in and a company with people and support that will back you up. Obviously,
it’s important to be able to get along with your manager and other people you work
with. It’s also important to represent a product or service that works well, provides
value to your customers, and makes you and your company look great.
Try to get some objective opinions of the company you are considering working
for. Find out as many details as you can through annual reports, the Internet, and
other information sources. Talk to customers, employees, and former employees if
possible. Find out who your manager will be and who you’ll be working with most
closely, and determine your compatibility with those people. Discover the company’s
values, beliefs, mission statement, and objectives, and see if they match your own.
After some research, you’ll develop a gut feeling as to whether you and the company
are a good fit.
11) Follow the principles discussed in chapter 1 and review this book often.
The list of twelve principles in chapter 1 is long; however, all elements are
necessary to become a top salesperson. Review the list often and keep close track of
where you are in the process. Focus on strengthening each principle.
Refer to this book often and try to reread it in its entirety at least once a year. It is
our hope and our belief that this book will become your favorite and ultimate
resource. At the same time, in today’s dynamic world, new information and new
ideas are constantly being created, so you want to stay on the lookout for new sources
of information on selling and business. Always keep looking and keep learning.
Becoming great at selling involves working hard to gain knowledge and
experience. It also involves working hard to make lots of calls and working smart to
be most effective at every aspect of your job. Ensure your success by staying
positive, being persistent, working hard, working smart, and refusing to give up.
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Rules of Top Salespeople
These are the habits or “rules” to which top salespeople adhere:
• Be customer centered with a sincere interest in helping the customer—
make this your number one priority.
• Be motivated, enthusiastic, and positive.
• Show up to all appointments early.
• Be honest and straightforward.
• Be empathetic.
• Find out what people need and how you can fill their needs.
• Sell benefits.
• Follow up.
• Ask thought-provoking questions and listen well to the answers.
• Return all calls and other correspondence promptly.
• Sell to others as they would like to be sold to.
• Have goals.
• Work hard and smart.
• Believe in yourself and what you are selling.
• Continue learning and getting better.
• Listen to educational and motivational tapes and CDs in the car.
• Try new ideas as soon as possible.
• Don’t argue or be defensive.
• Don’t make up answers or pretend to know answers you don’t know.
• Be a team player and work well with others.
• Anticipate and be proactive.
• Take good notes and read them back to make sure you’re on target.
• Be persistent, yet not obnoxious.
• Develop relationships and continue to build upon them.
• Ask for the order, then say absolutely nothing until the prospect responds.
• Know your product, your competition, and your industry.
• Expect things to go your way but realize things won’t always go as
planned.
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• Be prepared by having a plan and backup plan, and being ready for
anything.
• Keep good records.
• Act with confidence, speak with confidence.
• Have meaningful conversations.
• Send thank-you notes, newspaper clippings, and other items of interest to
customers.
• Give them something to remember you by.
• Know your customer—interests, children, etc.
• Keep your name in front of the customer.
• Personalize customer relationships.
• Deliver more than expected, earlier than expected.
• Demand more from yourself than your customer could ever expect.
• Go the extra mile.
• Take responsibility for your life and your business.
• Be balanced in your life and work.
A Day in the Life of the Successful Salesperson
What follows is a typical daily schedule for a successful salesperson:
6:00 a.m. – Get up, make sure the attitude is in check and look forward to the
day ahead. Read, listen to, or watch either something positive, something
about the industry, or something sales related. Often it will be a
combination. Also, review your major goals and brainstorm solutions to
your biggest roadblocks.
7:00 a.m. – Review the day ahead and mentally rehearse and picture a
positive outcome to all upcoming calls and meetings. Use positive
affirmations while showering and dressing to further increase enthusiasm
to tackle the upcoming day. Eat a well-balanced breakfast—not too
heavy—and drink some water.
7:30 to 8:00 a.m. – Off to work, prepare materials, review daily goals, set up
for the first calls of the day, and check for any early morning messages.
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8:00 a.m. – The selling day begins. It is time to be in front of the customer or
prospect, or on the phone with them. If there are any “unpleasant” tasks to
be handled, such as breaking bad news to a client, handle these first and
get them out of the way. From 8:00 until about 11:45, spend time on timecritical,
client-related tasks, such as prospecting, presenting, and closing.
11:45 a.m. – Check for messages, return any calls, e-mails, or other
communications that need to be taken care of.
Noon – A light lunch with some protein and a glass of fruit juice or water.
12:30 p.m. – Back to prospect/client time-critical tasks.
4:45 p.m. – Check for messages, return calls, e-mails, or other
communications that need to be taken care of. General wrap-up of the
client-related, time-sensitive tasks of the day and a positive and objective
review of the day’s events.
5:30 p.m. into evening – Exercise, a good dinner, relaxation with the family.
An hour or so before bed, work on non-time-critical tasks such as paperwork and
follow up on e-mails, communications, proposals, etc. Read motivational or salesrelated
material, do some mental exercises such as positive affirmations, plan the
following day, and check messages one more time.
Use the above example to design your successful day. Keys to designing your
day are:
• Planning
• Organizing
• Time management
• Balance throughout the day
To summarize this chapter, stay positive, work hard and smart, and refuse to give
up if things get difficult. You can and will succeed in sales if you pay the price for
success and decide that nothing will stop you.