Can’t get the appointment?

Cold calls failing?

Getting excuses you have a hard time getting past?

Getting rejected?

Frustrated?

Welcome to the club. The “Rejected and It’s Your Own Damn Fault Club.” In sales, it’s a bigger club than, “Made the Sale Club.” Reason? You’re following the bylaws of the wrong club. All clubs have bylaws. Follow them and stay in the club. Violate them and get expelled (or join another club).

The “rejected” club is full of a bunch of ordinary salespeople selling the same old way. Following bylaws established in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. They still work, but not very often. Their motto is, “Sales is a numbers game.”

The small club sells with daring and creativity and their motto is, “Sales is a SMART numbers game.” Relationships and referrals abound.

Which club are you in?

OK, so what are the bylaws of the Sales Club? What are the foundation of rules by which an INITIAL call must be made? (assuming it isn’t a referral)

Here they are and there’s some great news attached. Hot, cold, or lukewarm, the same bylaws (rules) apply.

Because these rules are so critical, I’ve taken a bit more space and time to elaborate and example them. And whatever you do, please DON’T JUST READ THEM. Self-assess each one by the “How good am I at that?” standard. Run your sales meetings around them, one rule at a time. The bylaws are not answers in and of themselves. They are realizations for which you must create your own answers and adapt your product, service and selling style to each bylaw. If you do that, you can get in The Sales Club. And if you don’t, don’t worry, you’ll never know the difference. But there’s a clue: you’ll be whining about your prices are too high, of getting put off by prospects, or getting a high percentage of “satisfied with present supplier, no reason to switch.” If that’s you, you’re in trouble. Here’s the way out:

Jeffrey Gitomer’s 7.5 Sales Club bylaws to sell or fail by…

1. Get interesting. “Jeffrey, too many prospects tell me they’re not interested.” Boo, hoo. Real easy remedy: get interesting. Stop the same old drivel about who you are, and what you do, and that you want a few minutes of their time to…CLICK. Instead of getting “hung-uped” or “door-slammed” or “not interesteded,” why not take a more creative approach? Walk in or call up with a question, a survey, or something to test their present use or value.

EXAMPLE: If a copier salesman walks in with 10 sheets of paper, spread them out and tells the receptionist that if she can guess which ones are the copies and which are the originals she gets a miniature bottle of perfume, you’ll have the whole office playing. Then give them the five originals and tell them to copy the same five originals and see if they can tell the difference. Now have them take the entire package to the boss and offer $100 if the boss can tell the difference then show him his own copies. Then ask how much his image is worth? The result will be interested (and involved) people.

2. Say it in terms of them. So often the start of a sales presentation or sales call or cold call is: “We do this, we offer that, we’ve been in business since, we are the greatest we…we…, This is what’s known as a we-we (spoken very quickly) presentation.

SALES TRUTH: No one wants to hear about, much less, care about, you.

3. Prospects want to know all about how they can succeed, not a bunch of crap about you. Which do you think your prospect wants, a copy of your brochure, or things and ideas to help build their business? If the answer is obvious, why are you still giving out your brochure? Answer: No homework done by you before the sales call.

EXAMPLE: Tell the prospect things about use of product or service. Tell them about the three things others overlook that can boost productivity, or reduce costs. Bring in a new idea, or something you saw working elsewhere in a similar business. One thing about THEM will be 1,000 times more interesting to them than 100 things about you.

4. Take a risk. All of life is a risk. Sales is just part of life. You’ve heard the old saying, “No risk, no reward.” That statement is wrong. I say, “No risk, no nothing.” If you’re getting rejected, it’s probably that you’re so bland, no one can perceive a difference. If that’s true, the customer will stay with their present supplier, or outright reject you, or fight your price, or worse, jerk you around without an answer.

A RISK IS: A daring or humorous voice mail to someone who won’t return your phone call. A high powered question to begin your talk. A try for a higher authority on the first call (it’s where the decision is made anyway. May as well start there).

The rest of the bylaws next week.