My first sales experience was in high school, selling chocolate bars door to door as a fundraiser for a school club.
Not much interested in the club but interested in the prizes for top sellers, I hit the pavement. Each day after school, I knocked on doors and sold chocolates to starving mothers and their teenage kids.
Succeeding took determination, persistence, the lure of prizes, and competition between myself and two others (we outsold the rest of the school combined). I won a big prize for top sales.
I realized recently that I’ve spent my life in sales of one form or another. Whether it was advertising, inventions like the Winetux, books, recreational services, houses, investments, vitamins, gifts, cleaner air and water, or coaching services, it’s been sales.
I’ve never had any formal sales training but I wish I did. Proper training in sales can go a long way to ensuring your business is successful. Sales training can ensure you know how to deal with customers, and their questions and objections. Pick up any sales book or take any sales course and you’ll almost immediately reap the benefits in increased sales and happier customers. Sales are a science, not an art.
According to my friend Dennis Bonagura, whom I consider the king of sales, the key to building huge sales in a short period is having a great sales model that uncovers the customer’s needs. If you don’t understand their needs, how can you offer them a solution?
Sales techniques can be learned, but many businesses fail because they haven’t mastered the sales model and fulfilled their customers’ needs. According to Dennis, a major reason businesses get into trouble is that owners think they’ve built the best mouse trap and that like the movie Field of Dreams, customers are just going to flock to them.
That’s not reality. No one just buys stuff. You need a concrete sales model based on what the product does, its advantages and the values it brings to the marketplace.
I often work with owners who were successful with great sales techniques, but now seem stuck or slipping backwards. One key way to turn your business around is to think of all the things that brought you to the level of success you have today. What sales model got your business to this point? Has that changed? Or has the business environment changed so that sales technique is no longer effective?
Chances are you just forgot your reasons for success. Once you start focusing on those key ingredients, you’ll be effective.
There are two types of sales staff: those who know they’re in sales and love the process, and those who are in sales but don’t want to think they are.
The second type is usually in a service-based industry – perhaps retail, hospitality or food service. Because of the perception some people have of sales reps, these staff might not want to be associated with sales.
But every one of your staff needs to understand that they’re in sales, just as you are if you’re the owner of any business. Every business needs to sell something to stay in business. This is the business model you need to sell and to profit.
If you have customers banging your door down, you might forget the need to develop the selling skills necessary to ensure your long-term success.
If you’re fortunate enough to have a great location, unique product, or a commodity that’s always in demand, you might get a certain amount of sales just by being lucky.
However, developing a proper sales system for your staff will ensure your long-term profitability and increase the value of your business. And by training staff in sales and customer service, you’ll have happier and more loyal customers, and prevent the loss of revenue to your competitors.
Training in sales leads to more profits. Find a good sales training company and start moving some product. It’s good for your staff and great for your bottom line.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is an award winning business coach and a partner in the firm Pivotleader Inc.
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