Pay-off: Clarity on your next important sale (it could be your next job!)
Investment: 2 minutes
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Many people in sales are blind or unclear about this. So let’s just clarify, regardless of your job title…
You’re not really in sales
If you’re selling something that people are already lining up to YOU to buy, you’re not really in sales, you’re an order taker. (And on that note you should probably order your product and marketing team a bottle of wine and a massage and consider your next career move for when they lose their edge and that queue begins to shorten).
You’re in sales
But if you’re selling something that people are already lining up to your COMPETITION to buy, you’re in sales.
You’re not really in sales
If you’re selling something that not enough people want or need, you’re not really in sales, you’re in trouble.
You’re in sales
But if you’re selling something that enough people would or should want or need (they just don’t know it yet) you’re in sales.
You’re in sales after all
If you thought you were in sales but you’ve just realised you’re not in sales, you should consider the shelf-life of your current role and how you might sell yourself into your next career position where you can grow.
(Now all of a sudden, you are in sales, and you can read on with everyone else…)
You’re in sales
You’re in sales. So you need to figure out whether your next ‘sale’ is to:
1.help people understand, trust and believe that they’ll be better off with what you sell than they will be with the money in their pocket. (Then to remove their fear of commitment to buying and then ensure that they are glad they did).
or
2.help people understand, trust and believe that they’ll be better off with what YOU sell than they will be with what your COMPETITION sells.
Each requires a different conversation and approach. So don’t confuse the two.
Whoever you are, someone out there needs and wants what you sell (whether it’s your businesses product/service or your own service, ideas or value as an employee). So how are you going to find them (they do want you after all), get their willing attention and respect, and help them to think through, understand, trust and believe the relevant point (1 or 2) above?
Do you have a clear defined but adaptable and repeatable approach that’s proven to work for you, your business and your market?
Are you using it habitually, efficiently and consistently? Those consistently succeeding in sales probably are.
Increasing sales (or non-sales)
Give me a shout if you or your team (whether sales or non-sales) need some help with that. I’m in England BTW. But I can fly. (Given the appropriate equipment).
Cheers,
Mark
http://helppeoplebuy.com/
http://epi-learning.com/
P.S.Someone you know out there may benefit from this, so please share if you think they’ll find it useful. Thanks.
Some more of my posts you may find useful:
- The art of building a plan that can’t fail
- How to stop worrying about what others think of you
- Increase sales by increasing your confidence
- The (hidden) way to win people over
- How to apply what you learn
- The art of introducing yourself
- 7 common thoughts that hurt intelligent non-sales people (and damage business!)
- How to get 10 times more out of what you learn
- Learn up to 10 times faster
- The smart way to increase your probability of getting “yeses”
- Should you be likeable to succeed in sales?
- How to comfortably step out of your comfort zone
- How to improve at pre-empting objections
- How to eliminate sales objections
- Are you misunderstanding what persuades people?
