The 3 Rules of Successful Selling

Businesses succeed because of high sales; businesses fail because of low sales. All else is commentary.

Therefore the most important thing you can do if you want your business to survive and thrive is to learn to sell. Selling is a skill that can be learned by anyone. You just have to follow some simple procedures and obey three simple rules. Here are those three simple rules. If you follow them then your success in selling is guaranteed.

Rule 1: Your customers (and customers to be) are not stupid.

In today's world people are more educated and informed than ever before. People are more sophisticated and discerning. People just don't fall for blatant and manipulative tactics. I get a little frustrated when I am told that "the sale ends on Friday". I know, and you know, that it is immediately replaced with a new sale that starts on Saturday! People know that there is no such thing as a free lunch. No-one is very surprised when they get selected to enter the Reader's Digest free prize draw. The successful salesperson treats their customers and customers to be with respect.

Rule 2: Sell how you like to be sold to.

When I ask people how they like to be sold to, I always get some very similar responses. People like to be treated with respect and courtesy. People like to be listened to. People like the salesperson to be interested in finding out what they want. People want the salesperson to put their interests first. People want to be helped to make a decision that is right for them. Why then would anyone attempt to sell any differently? To a certain extent you already know what good selling is!


Rule 3: People are convinced that salespeople want to sell them something. They are right, so tell them!

Perhaps because of previous encounters, people can be rather suspicious of salespeople. In the back of their mind they are worried that the salesperson will try to push them into buying something. To overcome this fear, just tell people what you are doing.

Tell them that your company exists by engaging in commercial transactions or relationships with customers. You provide products and / or services to customers and they pay money for them. However, what you do first is to understand what is important to the prospective customer. When you understand this, you will see if your products and/or services can help them. If they can, then you will recommend an appropriate solution. The customer can then decide to say "yes" or "no" to the proposal. By being up front with the customer you remove any fears they may have and establish trust with them.

Mastering the art and science of selling is one of the best investments you can ever make to ensure your business succeeds in today's competitive modern marketplace. Secure your future prosperity and become a master of selling.

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Successful Selling and the Theory of Relativity

Are you as successful as you can be? Are you limiting your personal growth? In this article, you will learn how to remove all barriers that prevent you from maximizing your success.

Albert Einstein formulated the theory that says that space and time are relative concepts rather than absolute concepts. For example, consider a car speedometer reading at 65 miles per hour. How fast is the car going? This question seems like the beginning of the joke of who is buried in Grant’s tomb and you are expecting a punch line. No joke here, I assure you. As a matter of fact, most would respond 65 miles per hour. This is the correct answer if and only if you are comparing the car to someone who is not moving. However, if you compare that same car to the car driving next to it that is driving 55 miles per hour, your car is only moving at 10 miles per hour.

So, what does that have to do with sales? When you look at your sales performance, to what standard do you compare yourself? Is it to the others on the sales team? Is it to your quota? Is it to a sales record that has stood for 10 years in your company? Maybe you look at your performance relative to your income goals?

While any of these comparative points are important, they all have one thing in common. They limit your potential. How good can you be? If you set a ceiling to that, you will never know. Yes, hitting your quota is important. Achieving your income goal is also important. But could you achieve more? Could you be better? The car moving at 65 miles per hour is moving pretty fast, but only relative to a non-moving entity. Your competitors are moving right along with you. Maybe you are in the lead, but competition does not stagnate. To them, maybe you are only moving at 10 miles per hour.

Compare that same car to a jet. The speed of the car is not overly impressive. The jet can get you from New York to Florida in a couple of hours. The car needs 24 hours to reach the same destination. Competitors get smarter. Customers get smarter. And you have to get better if you are going to be successful. What worked yesterday is not going to work tomorrow. Self improvement is the only way to do it.

There are no ceilings in sales unless you place them there. One of my favorite quotes is, “When someone says it can’t be done, it only means that HE can’t do it.” Every day people accomplish the seemingly impossible. How do they do it? Simple. They don’t compare themselves to any standard. They have no limitations. As I write this, I’m flying on a plane. If the Wright brothers believed in ceilings, I’d be driving. If Bill Gates believed that people would never own a personal computer, I’d be writing this on a typewriter.

To further make this point, I thought I would share a personal story. When I was in the eighth grade, my family moved from New York to New Jersey. (Where to start with the jokes…) At the time that we moved, I was an excellent student, A’s across the board. Shortly after moving, I injured my knee playing baseball. I ended up having two knee surgeries and spent my entire freshman year of high school on crutches. Here I am living in a new state, going to a new school, knowing next to no one. I lost my focus.

I became friendly with a few kids who were not very good students. They were nice kids, not troublemakers, but they did not perform well in school. During my freshman year of high school, I set my personal worst records for grades, but I was able to rationalize my performance. My grades were nothing to write home about, but I was scoring better than my friends. From that relative point of view, I was doing fine.

Towards the end of my freshman year, I became friends with a different group of kids. These friends later attended Wharton, Harvard, Emory, and Bates. All prestigious schools… Relative to them, my grades were a disgrace. They never made me feel badly about it, but I felt uncomfortable. Their success drove me to rediscover myself. During the remainder of my high school and collegiate career, I elevated my game to top of the class. I credit much of that with changing my approach to relativity.

Nature also uses the theory of relativity. If you put a fish in a 10 gallon tank, the fish will only grow to a certain size. The surroundings of the fish limit its size and growth. Put that same fish in a larger tank and the fish will continue to grow. Want to get better at golf? Play with better golfers. Want to run faster? Train with better runners.

What limitations are you putting on your sales success? Are you failing to achieve your quota? Are your friends on the team missing their quota too? Do you accept that because you are all failing? Or do you compare yourself to a higher standard? What are you doing each and every day to improve yourself? Is your goal just to be better, or is it to be the best?

You are the only obstacle to your success. Get out of your own way and enjoy the results.

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