I’d like to look at the table of contents from a great book on selling skills…

Chapter 1…Begin by Talking to Him: Learn Your Customer’s Hobbies Personal Likes and Dislikes. Base Your Approach on These Then Show Goods.

Chapter 2…Use More Ear and Less Tongue: Give Your Customer the Center of the Stage. The Main Thing Is not to Talk but to Sell.

Chapter 3…Put Service before Samples: Study Your Customer’s Problems and Needs. Try to Help Him to Move His Goods.

Chapter 4…Mention Quality before Price: You Must Know Your Goods Through and Through. Art of Dramatizing a Sale.

Chapter 5…Don’t Take No For a Final Answer: Difference Between Making and Taking a Sale. Some Examples of Real Salesmanship.

Chapter 6…Get Down to the Brass Tacks Quickly: Watch for a Chance to Talk. Details of Delivery. Techniques of Making a Sale.

Chapter 7…Build Goodwill for Your Firm: Sell Your Company As Well As Your Odds. How to Earn a Promotion.

Chapter 8…Constantly Search for New Markets: Make Several Missionary Calls Every Week. Don’t Become a Jog Trotter

Chapter 9…Classify Your Time: How to Value the Different Hours of The Day. The Best Time to Make a Sale.

Chapter 10…Keep Mentally and Physically Fit: Vaccinate Yourself Against Worries. Your Job Is Not a Routine One. It Is All Creative Work.

Chapter 11…Have a Stout Heart: Be a Bit of a Philosopher. Buck Up to Your Customers. A Tip to Wives and Sales Managers.

Chapter 12…Create Welcomes For Yourself: Turn Your Customers Into Friends. Keep Your Selling on a Personal Basis.

Pretty timely information I’m sure you’ll agree. A book you’ll want to run out and purchase. The title of this book is “Tips for Traveling Salesman” by Herbert Casson and it was written in 1927. WOW!

It’s great information that’s been rewritten 50 different ways since then. Why? To get salespeople to act. You see sales people already know everything, the problem is, they don’t do it.

Here’s a couple of examples of knowing everything and not doing it:

You know you should prepare for every sales call by doing research on the company and the person you’re meeting with before you make the call. Do you?

You know you should listen to sales podcasts/books an hour a day in your car. But do you?

But hey, I’m sure you’re different. You always take the right actions don’t you? You always implement the right sales strategy don’t you? You always know what to do in every selling situation don’t you? You’re constantly improving your professional and personal skills aren’t you? When the prospect doesn’t buy it’s always his fault not yours, isn’t it?

It must be because in 42 years of training salespeople, I’ve never had someone come up to me and say, “Jeffrey, I didn’t make the sale, and it was all my fault.” Salespeople always have someone else to blame for their shortcomings.

There’s a big difference in knowing something and doing something. It’s the difference between mediocrity and success.

The self-discipline to use your knowledge must be employed daily with the self-discipline of patience. The change in your sales skills won’t come overnight but I promise if you put your knowledge into action every day, and stick with it over time you will win. And win big.

Make the New Year’s resolution to gain one new idea or skill each day and put it into practice as soon as you learn it. Gain the patience and the self-discipline to implement this wisdom: You don’t get great at sales in a day, you get great at sales day by day.

 

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