I'm Crushed! My son Doesn't Want To Be A Salesperson

I have always dreamed of my son following in my footsteps, but it does not look promising to say the least. I would never force my children to do anything they did not want to do, but rather, provide the example and let them choose for themselves. As a young pre-school toddler he was a jet setter traveling great distances to visit grandparents and other relatives, on a salesperson’s income. He loved Disneyworld, Hilton Head, Hawaii, Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington DC on a salesperson’s income. Among his friends, he was the first to have video games, bicycles, remote controlled cars, a VCR and his own stereo, all on a salesperson’s income. As a young adult he has marveled at the beauty of Hong Kong, hiked the fabled Inca trail at Machu Picchu, fished for piranha on the Amazon River while exploring its rain forests, experienced the exotic culture of Thailand, climbed the Pyramids of the Yucatan, sailed the turquoise waters of the Caribbean and soaked in the golden rays on Hawaii’s perfect beaches, all on a salesperson’s income.

Salespeople at the top of their field enjoy a paycheck in the top five percent of all wage earners. Top salespeople can earn an income greater than Doctors, Lawyers, CPA’s, and Businessmen. I work with many salespeople who are earning six figure incomes who have yet to celebrated their thirtieth birthday. They own their homes, drive late model automobiles, save for their children’s education and travel to the finest tourist destinations in the world. A career in sales provides an amazing life style. Salespeople don’t have to ask for a raise, they create their own. Work harder, smarter, focus more intently on your sales process and watch your wealth increase. Excellent salespeople are never unemployed; they make their own opportunities. Any business owner or corporate president would gladly hire a salesperson that has demonstrated the ability to create wealth for his or her employer. Excellent salespeople are always in demand whether the economy is up or down. They call the shots and can write their own ticket while making demands that others can only dream of.

I was talking to a salesperson the other day who told me what a joy it was to be able to attend his children’s school programs, sporting events, take his wife to lunch in the middle of the day, and to be able to arrive at the office a little bit late on occasion or leave a little early, as needed, to accommodate family situations. He was not abusing his responsibilities or taking advantage of his employer. This privilege was earned because of his outstanding performance and financial contribution to the company. People who perform, call the shots. The story is told of a baseball player who had a batting average of 187. He was paid the league minimum of three hundred thousand dollars a year and was wishing he were paid more. Following a game where he struck out three times, he met with the team owner and asked for a raise. The words hard barely left his lips when the owner told him not to let the door hit his rear on his way out of the office. That same day, another player who was also making the league minimum wage met with the owner about his income and to discuss a new contract. His batting average was 327 and he had just made three hits out of four “at bats” in his last game. He asked the owner for five million dollars per year and walked out of the office with a four-year contract worth more than twenty-five million dollars including bonuses. Top salespeople, just like top athletes call the shots and write their own ticket to financial success.

Pay a salesperson a commission on their gross profit sales and you can be guaranteed that they are worth every penny you pay them. The more they sell, the greater the profit they bring to the business and the greater the commissions they earn for themselves. Salespeople create wealth not only for themselves, but also for the companies that employee them. Nothing in this world happens until a sale is made. Once the sale is completed, a product is manufactured or a service is rendered. The sale of products and services makes the world go ‘round.

I’m crushed that my son has not caught the vision of what he could become if he chose to follow in my footsteps. My next best hope is that he will become a business owner who will hire and train excellent salespeople who will create wealth for themselves and his company.

A Great Relationship Makes Selling Easier

There are four levels of relationships that sellers have with buyers.  Consider the level of relationship you have with those you attempt to sell.  The first level of relationship is the Vendor.  A vendor is anyone who has a product or service to sell.  The second level of relationship is a Preferred Vendor.  This is someone who has been specifically invited to offer his or her product or service.  The third level of relationship is the Assistant Buyer, defined as someone who has the ear of the buyer and is invited to make recommendations regarding the products or services to be purchased.  The fourth and most sought after level of selling relationship is the Partner.  A partner works side by side with the buyer to write the specifications for the products and services being purchased and is part of the buying decision.  The partner will typically make the sale unless their product is not the right solution.

Consider the following exercise to improve the relationship level you have with your customers and prospects.  Identify the one customer with which you have the best relationship.  Then evaluate everyone else against your best customer relationship.  Give each customer and prospect a ranking of one through ten.  Then put together a strategy that will allow you to develop a “ten” relationship with each customer and prospect.  In preparing your plan to improve the relationship with each of your customers and prospects you might consider including some of the following ideas:

1.     Understand the depth and breadth of the buyers responsibilities

2.     Know the difficulties and challenges of the buyer

3.     Become familiar with their likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests and family

4.     Spend productive time with them

5.     Find subtle ways to teach and train them to know and do their job better.

6.     Become their confidant

7.     Compliment them and be their cheer leader

8.     Truly care about their success and be a part of it.

It is possible to make a sale when you don’t have a great relationship with the buyer.  However, making the sale takes a lot more work and a lot more time.  Let me share an example of what I mean.

A few years ago I was building a deck on my cabin.  My sister came up to help me put down the deck boards.  I gave her a drill and a box of three inch deck screws, showed her how to line up the boards, and drive the screw thru the deck board into the joist.  After a couple of attempts she was doing just fine.  I went around to the other side of the cabin and continued screwing down my deck boards.  About ten minutes later my sister came over to me and said she was unable to drive the screws as quickly as I had shown her and wanted to know what she was doing wrong.  I walked back over to where she was working and she showed me the screw that took her five minutes to drive into the deck.  I told her I had no idea why it took her so long and then picked up her drill to drive a screw into the deck board and see for myself.  As I picked up her drill I noticed that the thumb lever for the drill was in the reverse position.  Without saying a word, and without her noticing, I put the drill in the forward position and drove a screw into the deck in about two seconds.  She couldn’t believe it and mumbled that it must be a “guy” thing.  Then I told her the drill had been in reverse and said that I had never known anyone who had ever driven a three-inch deck screw into a deck with the drill in reverse.  Hard work, perseverance and determination were responsible for her success.

Yes, you can make a sale if you don’t have a great relationship with the buyer, but it is about as difficult as driving a three-inch deck screw with the drill in reverse.  Making a sale to a prospect that you have a partnership relationship with is like driving a three-inch deck screw with the drill in forward (quick, easy, efficient).  Other degrees of sales relationships might resemble driving a screw by hand.  It can be done, but requires more effort, can be painful, and takes more time than using a drill in the forward position.

If you want to make more sales with less effort, build the relationship first.  Once you have developed the relationship the sale will come with much less effort.  Simple rule:  put the time and effort into the relationship.  Too often, salespeople forget the relationship and only put time and effort into making the sale.  The proper tool for effective selling is building the relationship.  Hammering a prospect to buy your product is not effective selling.  To go back to the analogy of driving a three-inch deck screw; first spend the time to put your drill in the forward position and driving the screw will be quick, easy and efficient.

The Equation For Sales Success

The equation for sales success is not rocket science and will certainly not receive the same acclaim as Einstein’s equation E=MC2 (energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared).  However, the equation for sales success can deliver some pretty amazing results.  Here is the equation, the formula that every salesperson has been waiting for since the beginning of time:  S=(EQ+PS)x(P+CE).  So what does it mean and how can you use it to increase your sales?  Let me first explain the equation and then describe the significance of each element.

Success equals effective questioning plus problem solving multiplied by planning plus consistent effort.  There you have it!  Understanding it and applying the equation will change your sales career and increase your income forever.  The equation must be applied exactly as it is written.  It is precise, that’s what makes it so powerful.  Let me discuss each element.

EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING (EQ):  Plain and simple, salespeople talk too much.  They believe that telling is selling; nothing could be further from the truth.  One of the keys to selling is discovering the needs, wants and the desires of the prospect.  This can only happen through effective question.  There is no opportunity for a sale unless you discover a need.  Needs are uncovered through questioning.  Relationships are built through questioning.  Find the need and you are in a position to make a sale.  Built rapport with the prospect through questioning and you are in a better position to making the sale.  Reveal and resolve their concerns about your solution and you should make the sale.  Nothing else you can do will replace effective questioning at the beginning of a sales opportunity.


PROBLEM SOLVING (PS):  As I mentioned, if there is no need or problem, there is no sales opportunity.  Likewise, if you don’t solve the problem or meet the need there is no sale.  Your ability to solve the prospects problem or meet their need is the pure essence of selling.  Too many salespeople find themselves presenting their products and services to a perceived or assumed need, never knowing for sure because they never asked.  Remember, the order of the elements of the equation are critical; find the problem through effective questioning first and then solve the problem.  Sometimes the solution will not involve your product, so give the prospect an honest recommendation and move on.  You will gain credibility for your honesty and will be respected when future opportunities come along.

PLANNING (P):  Very few things of any significance have ever occurred without first planning.  Sure, there have been some great discoveries or successes that happened by accident or some other event.  However, those successes were the result of planning even though the subsequent result was not anticipated.  Games are won in sports and armies are victorious in war, as the result of planning.  Planning suggests preparation and without preparation you can only dream of success.  Planning every minute of the day in addition to every sales encounter will ensure your success.  Failure to plan will guarantee your failure.  Don’t wing it; plan it.  Planning takes just a small amount of time but will save you time and effort ten fold.

CONSISTENT EFFORT (CE):  Be committed, selling is a full time occupation requiring five days a week and a minimum of eight hours a day.  Selling isn’t for the weak or timid, or those not willing to give a hundred and ten percent.  Salespeople need to be engaged constantly to find success.  True salesmanship is not just a job but also a lifestyle.  The ultimate rewards of satisfaction and wealth come to those who consistently apply their skills and knowledge in solving the needs of others.  The great sales practitioners realize that the next new sale comes on the heals of the last one.  Take a vacation, rejuvenate the sole and rest your weary bones, but not during the sales day.  Likewise, when you schedule your vacation, rest from your sales labors.  Clear your head and prepare yourself for the next round of consistent daily sales effort.

Selling Requires that You Just Do It!

In the world of sales there are those who think about it and talk about it and then there are those who just do it.  Admittedly, there are many principles and skills, that when applied correctly, will produce excellent results.  Many salespeople commit themselves to the study and philosophy as well as the psychology of selling.  However, study as they may, it is the doing of sales that produces success.  In sales, nothing happens until the salesperson does something.  They may know what to do, how to do and when to do, but until they actually do something, nothing is the ultimate result.

When my children were young, they had their chores to do around the house and the yard.  They received an allowance for doing their chores.  They didn’t, however, always comply willingly and happily to their assigned tasks.  As parents we were continually reminding them of what need to be done and that it should have been done days ago.  The standard answer we would hear was, “I know, I know, you don’t need to tell me.”  I would remind them that the solution to getting their chores done was not in knowing what needed to be done, but rather in doing what they knew! 

Selling is a lot like doing chores.  We may know what needs to be done, but a sales is never made until we take control of our knowledge and “JUST DO IT.”  How long will you know what needs to be done before you just do it?  Doing it is not nearly as entertaining as talking about it and thinking about it.  What is “It”?  “It” is those things that should be done but never seem to get done.  “It” is every one of the dreaded sales activities that never seem to be done or at least done on time.  Think of all the sales that you would close if you would just do “It”.  Here is a list of some of the more critical “Its” that salespeople should pay more attention to doing and not just thinking and talking about them.

1. Plan your day every day.  Make a list of what needs to be done and “just do it.”
2. Follow your plan.  Having determined what needs to be done, commit to doing it.
3. Prospect every day.  Finding new opportunities for the sale of your products and services is the life-blood of success.  Don’t rationalize, just do it.
4. Follow-up every day.  You may not like to do it, but do it anyway.  Poor follow-up is the number one reason for poor sales results.  Just do it.
5. Search for and resolve the prospect’s concerns.  Some sales are closed due to extreme need and concerns are over shadowed by urgency.  More sales are lost because you don’t resolve concerns than are closed due to urgency.  Resolve concerns.  Just do it.
6. Track the progress of each prospect.  Use an effective “prospect data system”.  Don’t believe you can remember every detail relating to every prospect.  You can’t!  Just do it.
7. Set daily performance and activity goals.  Don’t settle for just doing your best.  You’ll never know what your best is unless you set goals.  Just do it.
8. Write out a game plan for closing every opportunity you find.  Don’t wing it believing you are so good you don’t need to plan and prepare.  No one is that good.  Just do it.
9. Learn something new each day to improve your sales performance and then apply it.  Never settle for wishing you were better.  Do something about it today.
10.  Every day assess your strengths and weaknesses.  Identify those things you do well and do them regularly.  Openly and honestly admit your weaknesses and seek to turn them into strengths through practice and application.  Don’t just think about it, do it.