Question one: Think you’re pretty good at sales? Sure you do. Making a good living – at the top of your game or team. Driving the new car, got the perks and business is good.
Question two: Any room for improvement? Sure there is – more than you think.
Question three: Got a game plan to double your sales skills and sales revenue this year? Ouch.
Don’t feel too bad, most people don’t. most don’t believe doubling is even possible. These people are in the category of “too smart.” They already know all the answers. And even if you’re good, someone else is better. Your biggest hope is that they don’t work for your competition.
“OK, Jeffrey, get to the point. How do I get “way” better? How do I double?” you ask (hoping for the two sentence panacea).
I’ll give it to you in one sentence: Get every customer you have to bring you one new customer just like them. There it is. Assuming you maintain your level of business with existing customers, your business will double.
But that’s just an answer. Pay attention here and I’ll give you the game plan. That’s what you really want: the How-to.
We’ll break down the game plan into two parts:
1. The Action-Formula
2. The Realities and the Strategies.
“Sounds like work, Jeffrey.” You begin to moan.
“You bet, baby.” Says I. “BUT – I guaranty that you will beat your competition, AND earn more than you have ever earned before – as long as you’re willing to learn (and try) as you’ve never learned before. And work a little harder than you’re working now. Learning, trying-new, hard work, and earning go hand in hand. I should say hand-in-wallet.”
And let me be clear. There are no sales techniques in this formula. This is not how-to-sell per-se. This is how to succeed. If you learn how to succeed, selling becomes MUCH easier. How to succeed will help formulate and clarify your philosophy and strategy of selling. Once you realize that you “sell to help” instead of “selling to total up your commissions,” you’ll need a calculator with more zeroes.
The Action-Formula. Here are the 10.5 action elements that will get you from good to great – then from great to greatest:
1. Read about positive attitude 15 minutes a day. Two pages a day from Carnegie, Hill or Peale. Your attitude determines everything you do. If you don’t start there, you can never get anywhere. (quick self test: If you’re constantly blaming other things and people for your failings, it’s your negative attitude that’s in the way.)
2. Read one sales book a quarter. Reading helps you expose yourself to new sales information. Look at my website, www.gitomer.com for a complete list.
3. Read one personal development book a quarter. Rather than just work on sales techniques, work on yourself. Health habits, personal skills, personal growth, life understanding. Best books: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
4. Read one creativity book a year. Sales people separate themselves with creativity and enthusiasm. They create attraction by being different. This is a learned skill. Best book: Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko.
5. Attend 4 sales seminars a year. Invest in yourself-learning. Learn new things and meet other learners.
6. Listen to sales tapes twice as much as listen to radio in the car. Repetition is one of the keys to mastery. The other is practice what you learn as soon as you learn it.
7. Record yourself reading a book on sales. By recording a book yourself, you will master the sales skills AND hear your presentation skills at the same time. It is a powerful exercise. Read and record 30-minutes a week.
8. Post your goals in front of your face and say them twice a day. I post my goals on my bathroom mirror, to give myself a way as I start my thinking for the day. SECRET: When I achieve one of my goals I take it off my bathroom mirror and re-post it on my bedroom mirror, so that each morning as I dress I can see my success. Goals are your roadmap.
9. Have real sales training for 30 minutes a week in sales meeting with your friends or c-workers. Weekly meeting sales training helps you build your knowledge in a real learning environment. Give yourself the gift of new knowledge, strategy reinforcement, and inspirational material you can use the minute you leave the meeting.
10. Record yourself making a sales presentation. THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE FORMULA. If you do all the other parts of the formula, and never hear how you sell, you’ll never improve. The day you hear yourself trying to make a sale, is the FIRST DAY of your success quest. Caution: It’s as painful as it is powerful.
10.5 Tear out this list. Study it, copy it, post it in several places, and turn each action-element into a goal. Make it part of your being for one year and it will be part of your life forever.
Now for the realities and the strategies – the daily action part. Or should I say the “delayed” action part. The realities and strategies of this success formula will appear here next week. Same sales time. Same sales channel. Stay tuned…
FREE GitBit… Want the sales meeting agenda that will begin to create your weekly dose of sales success? Sure you do. Go to www.gitomer.com – register if you’re a first time user, and enter the words AGENDA in the GitBit box.
Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at www.gitomer.com, 704/333-1112, or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com
2000 All Rights Reserved – Don’t even think about reproducing this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer o 704/333-1112 www.gitomer.com
