Are You in Love with Selling?

Selling has to be a passionate match between — Who you are and What the selling profession requires you to do.

"The joy of winning and the rewards of winning are in direct proportion to the difficulty of winning. One of the significant difficulty factors in selling has always been rejection! If you never experience rejection, you will never share or appreciate the victories. — Lloyd Allard

Are you comfortable asking for the sale?

In the last 23 years of being in the Sales Business, I can tell you that customers never just come out and say, "OK, I'm ready to do this; sign me up." No matter how interested they may be, they usually walk out the door unless you specifically ask them to move forward; you have to ask!

I understand that asking someone to buy from you, write the check, and sign on the dotted line can be scary and uncomfortable, especially if you're relatively new to sales.

The trick to overcoming this fear is gaining the head knowledge and understanding that the customer IS there to buy, and they need you to give them additional insight and ask for the sale.

Too many salespeople are afraid of being seen as pushy or sounding like what they think is a used car salesman.

You don't have to be pushy to make a sale. If you've done an excellent job of moving them through the sales process and solving their problems as you go, asking for the sale will be the next logical step.

By the time your presentation is complete, your goal should be to have given them valuable insight into your product, successfully listened to their story, and answered any objections.

Once the customer is convinced, asking for the sale is as simple as saying, "Great, let's start filling out the paperwork."

Do you listen to understand?

"The major dilemma is that we tend to listen to reply, while all we should do is listen to understand and feel."― Akilnathan Logeswaran.

Understanding people's stories or problems is more about how you make them feel than anything. They want to feel understood and believe you get them and understand their story.

In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, Dr. Stephen Covey says, "Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply."

Here are a few ways successful salespeople listen:

• As the customer is talking, they're working on understanding what they want and why they want it, i.e., their story.
• They listen to understand better who the customer is, what's important to them, and what problem they're trying to solve.
• They pay close attention to how the customer feels about their answers.
• They repeat the words they use, verbatim if possible, because it lets them know they're truly listening.

Every customer comes in with a problem they're trying to solve. They want you to listen carefully enough to understand that problem.

Successful salespeople know that understanding people is about genuinely listening to them and their stories and what they're trying to accomplish.

Once you know and understand the customer's story, Asking for the Sale becomes the logical solution to their problem.

Are You OK with Rejection?

Refuse to attach a negative meaning to the word 'NO.' Its feedback. 'NO' means changing your approach, creating more value, and trying again.— Anthony Iannarino

Sales Professionals are in front of hundreds of people every year, yet the tendency to have low sales rates persists because they're only asking for the Sale from those they believe will say "Yes" instead of "No."

Successful salespeople expect rejection and know that very few customers, if any, will say yes the first time. You should also expect rejection, especially if you ask for the Sale after every customer encounter.

Expect a "NO." Understand that rejection is part of the game. "No" is how you find all the information you'll need later in the closing zone.

Practice and prepare your responses for when you get a “NO.” Because it’s coming.

Never be surprised by a "NO." It is not something to be avoided but sought after as you gain precious information that moves you closer to your goal, another sale.

In truth, if the customer says "NO" and they're still standing there, they haven't left or thrown you out, it's not a "NO"! It's a "NOT YET!" They want you to push through the "NO" to another question, give them more INSIGHT, and keep going.

Are you in love with selling?

If salespeople think of what they do as at odds with who they are or what they want to achieve in life, they will fail. If they are comfortable with it, they will thrive. Nothing matters more in sales than how a salesperson perceives their role and how selling protects, inflates, or undermines their sense of self.

Yes, there are underlying traits in every good salesperson — notably optimism and tenacity — which lead to resilience in the face of adversity. But beyond that, a salesperson can succeed because they've found a match between who they are and what they are required to do. — Philip Delves Broughton HBR

These are two of the most remarkable paragraphs I've ever read on sales success. I want to emphasize what he's saying. Selling must be a passionate match between — Who you are and What the selling profession requires you to do.

Let me explain this way. The biggest thing standing between you and your next Sale is your negative thinking about Asking for the Sale.

If you believe that selling and Asking for the Sale is manipulative and self-serving, then you will let people walk out or walk away.

What if you took a different view and looked at sales as an opportunity to do what's suitable for your customer and what's in their best interests? The beginning of the sales process is just a conversation to discover their problems and help them solve them genuinely.

To truly help and serve people, you'll need to genuinely connect with them and understand their hopes, fears, challenges, and dreams. You have to care about them honestly, and they have to feel and believe you care.

This includes being willing to tell them if your company or product needs to be the right fit for them and pointing them in the right direction. However, if you are a good fit for them and your product fits them, you must do the right thing and Ask for the Sale.

You can have all the sales knowledge, skills, and experience. Still, if there is no genuine love of selling, no love of the sales process, no love of genuinely helping people, no love of Asking for the Sale, and no love of winning and achieving your goals and success, you WILL struggle to be successful at the game of sales.

Successful, highly-paid salespeople love their Sales Careers! Do You?

Fall in love with selling, and commit yourself to becoming excellent in pursuing the sales profession.