The first and most important sales you’ll make all day, everyday!
“Matt, I’m having a hard time actually selling this warranty, it’s not very easy!”, John cries. “Understandable John, can I ask you something, when did you end up purchasing the warranty on your vehicle? What did you do to get your day off on the right foot?”, I all too often say sitting back with a quite grin on my face.
This, is the start to a conversation I have every single day with a variety of my clients! It’s a sad reality many Salespeople face. They wonder why they can’t cross the threshold of the top 10% of Salespeople within their organisations, and they don’t seem to own the product themselves!
There are many other factors that play into getting off to a successful day to start, but this is the first one! Ownership! If you’re not willing to own the products you sell then you might as well leave the Business because you’re conning people into buying something you aren’t supporting yourself!
Buy your product, I promise, it’s going to be the best money you’ve ever spent! Being able to talk about YOUR experience is going to have a tremendous effect on the buying experience of your clients!
If you can’t own your product (too expensive for even normal human beings — I’m thinking lear jets.) then take the time to buy your companies stock so at the very least you are supporting your product in some way! If you believe success in your organisation isn’t an option, then owning your products or company shares shouldn’t be either!
Here are some additional sales you’re going to have to make before you ever get a product into your clients hands:
The belief of a good day — unadulterated enthusiasm
The first sale you’re going to need to make during the day is the simple belief that today is going to be a good day!
When I have a Sales Professional walk into my organisation it I perceive some that seems like they’re feeling a little “off” I ask them what is wrong! Sometimes they tell me “nothing is wrong” while still maintaining a poor attitude! These Sales Professionals are sent home for the day!
The Sales Pro’s in my organisation that come to me and tell me that “things aren’t going well at home…” or “they really don’t feel well…” or “they’re just having a tough time with (insert topic here)…” are often talked to because they need to be positively managed and shown that their success that day depends first, and most importantly, on the attitude of that Sales Professional! As a Manager or owner, it’s important to show them how a good day is going to make that all better and come up with a couple of long term or short term strategies for their success that day, week or month!
Having an irrational sense of optimism, while simply said, is oftentimes not easily done as an individual! It takes intentional practice and effort, and maybe a couple of conversations with yourself in the mirror! If you know that you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, that is the moment to practice taking a few minutes to really develop your “happy muscles”. As Sales Pro’s we have to be able to turn it on at any given moment, this is the only industry in the world as the great Zig Ziglar said “where your attitude, determines your altitude!”
The belief of product
The next sale you should make is a strong belief in your product!
You have to believe in what you represent, your service, your prices, and anything else that your company might be pushing!
I worked in an organisation for years that had a credit option that was oftentimes much higher in their interest charges than what Visa or Mastercard could offer!
But time and time again, people who couldn’t afford the products that we had, by paying for them out of pocket, found solace in the fact that we were able to offer them financing options, as, in the Jewellery industry this was almost unheard of in my particular marketplace!
Everyday, people would say to me “You can do that?!” And everyday, I would tell them excitedly that they could! Everyday, people would get approved for more than what they could afford at the time, and everyday people spent a tremendous amount of money on getting the things that “they REALLY wanted” instead of the things “they thought they could afford” at that time!
Sure, the interest rates were higher than some cards out on the marketplace! But they knew that they were “our cards” where they could pay them off, and that they could afford to pay them off after being explained all of the options that were available to them!
It took a lot for me to train my Sales Team out of the belief that people could just “put it on their own card” because it was up to us personally to drive our own credit results, but by the end, the Salespeople saw the tremendous advantage that it offered our customers!
And yes, I eventually got every single one of the team members to sign up for one as well!
You need NEED to believe that every single product you own is the BEST option for your customers! If you don’t, this is going to represent a tremendous problem in your overall success! You won’t be able to push it as the best option for them, and a SalesPro that doesn’t push, is a skinny SalesPro! You need to either find a way that it’s different from your competition, what makes it better than everything else in your marketplace, or you need to be working for your competition, it’s as simple as that!
The most important thing anyone could possibly buy that day
Branching off the belief in the your products is the belief in what your product does for your customer!
I often enter into my day thinking first, “Where is my money today?” and second; “Who’s life am I going to change by selling them my product today!”
I was in the stick Business (furniture), and what ultimately happened would be that my team would sell a TREMENDOUS amount of furniture on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis!
Every once in a while, we had a customer that would come in and profusely thank the Sales Professional that was working for me for bringing everything in their life together! One particular instance was of a lady who was happy to have her house put together before the Thanksgiving season for when her family arrived. She tearfully described that she had never owned new furniture before and couldn’t believe all of the compliments she got from her family when they arrived about how comfortable they were!
It doesn’t seem like much, but this lady had her life changed by furniture!
You never know who’s life you’re going to change that day by making a sale! So the idea is that you need to make a sale as if it’s the most important thing that your prospect is ever going to make that day, the most incredible decision that someone is going to make with you that day!
You never know when it might be!
Summary:
- If you haven’t already bought your product, whip out the bank card, and own it. Simple as that. If you can’t own your products (I know someone who sells personal jets for a living) go and buy stocks in the company that you are selling for.
- Learn the art of “forcing yourself to smile”. Unadulterated enthusiasm is going to determine whether or not you have a good day at first!
- Believe that everything you sell is the best product your prospects could possibly own. Bar none. If you don’t believe that you have the best product in your category and can’t find the difference, you need to go and work for your competition.
- Treat your product like it’s going to be the best decision your clients are going to make all day! We seek out buyers motivations as Sales Professionals, but we often miss some underlying factors that motivate them to know they made an absolutely exceptional purchase.
Matthew Gourley is the CEO and Founder of Salestraininc.com — A company that specialize in making you Salespeople money, growing your Business, and helping you achieve the freedom you deserve!
