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How To Make A Fortune In Sales
by Gerry Robert
I happen to know some very clever people. I happen to know some very creative people.
I even know some people whom I would consider brilliant. And, I know some people who have
made a fortune in sales.
The funny thing is that some of the brilliant people are broke and some of the rich
salesperson are not particularly bright, some are even rather dumb.
Do you have to be intelligent to make it in sales? Not really, I'm a pretty good proof of
that fact! So, what does it take to make a lot of money in sales?
Well, as I see it, you need two things - an ability to dream and a good selling strategy.
Both are important, just think about it for a moment.
I know some pretty smart people with lofty dreams but they don't make a lot of money.
I know a lot of pretty good salespeople who don't make much money because they haven't
learned the skill of creative dreaming and held that mental picture long for them to see it
materialise.
Dreaming should not be confused with goals, goal setting or goal-achieving.
Dreaming is holding a mental picture of an ambition or an idea. There is nothing wrong with
dreaming. We were often punished as children for dreaming.
So, many of us have stopped doing it. We don't do it enough because we have to be "realistic".
Hogwash! Every good idea started out as a dream.
Two friends of mine, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, dreamed of selling millions of
their books. I remember dreaming with them about it at a hotel in Hawaii. They have earned
over US$10 million from their dream. Their book is called Chicken Soup for The Soul.
Often we teach and train on how to set and achieve goals. But we need to realise that there
is a level about goals that is a great motivator and that level is called dreams.
So, maybe it's time for us to stop for a while and dream some good dreams.
How would you spend your days if you had exactly the life you wanted?
I mean perfect! Who would you spend time with and where would you go? What would it be like
there? How would you feel? Let yourself go with your dreams.
Surf the dream level. For a moment forget about obstacle, plans, money or anything else that
"realistic" people will remind you about far too often!
Fear keeps people from dreaming
Napoleon Hill, in Think and Grow Rich said fear of rejection is the second biggest fear
we all have in common.
Salespeople know this far too well. So do you do to overcome the fear? First, like any fear,
you confront it head on.
Anthony Robins said, "Feel the fear and do it anyway!"
I like that kind of advice. People fear speaking in front of others more than almost anything.
That's why I recommend that people join Toastmasters. It's an international organisation that
helps people have confidence in this area.
We help people confront their fears all the time in our seminars. We get them up in front of
the seminar audience, and we get them to pat a six foot boa constrictor.
Confront your fears. Forget your grandmothers' advice that when you fear something, "it's an
indication to stop and think things through."
I was telling a friend the other day that I felt he was at exactly the right place emotionally
because he was afraid of the goal he had just set. A good measurement for growth is fear. Fear
is not something to avoid. Not confronting the fear of rejection in selling is a costly
(and cowardly) choice.
Make a list of the things you fear the most and set a plan in motion to conquer them. Deal with
them straight on. Don't retreat, move forward.
This positive feedback will allow you to move forward in the dream process.
Stella Mann said, "If you can hold it in your head, you can hold it in your hand."
She was right when she said that. Many people will never hold a lot of money, or anything else
for that matter, in their hands because they have never learned to develop the mental skill of
persistence in the face of adversity.
It doesn't cost anything to dream. So, why not dream often and in grandiose terms? Most of the
highest paid salespeople dream loft dreams.
No more effort is required to aim high and dream big dreams. So, get your mind focused on great
dreams even if it seems ridiculous. Even if it seems "impossible" today. You are just an idea
away from total and fabulous success.
The skill that is needed is what I call dream focus. You can have your heart's desire and earn
a lot in selling but you've got to stop looking at today's bank balance, your current problems
or sales sheets.
Stay focused on where you want to go and you will get there.
The second ingredient is a successful selling strategy.
A wise professor once said, "Ambition without application only leads to frustration."
You can be dream-focused but if you have a bad selling strategy then I think you will be very
frustrated.
Let me outline some of the worst selling strategies that I have observed in my work with
salespeople around the world.
No flow
If you are going to make a lot of money in sales, you will need to develop a system of
constantly attracting a flow of good, solid, qualified leads. The proper selling strategy says
that you must commit to a system of lead generation regardless of how busy you've become.
Many sales people have a "prospect a little, sell a little, prospect a little, sell a little"
routine going on.
We train salespeople to "prospect a lot, prospect some more, prospect even further, now sell,
sell, sell."
"Bite off more than you can chew, then chew like crazy!"
Find out how many prospects you need to get one sale.
Then do whatever you have to consistently attract that amount of prospects to you.
For example, if you need 23 prospects to make a sale, then you better block every Wednesday and
Thursday morning for telephone prospecting and stick to that regardless.
You might decide that you need to send out 50 sales letters every week to get the number of
appointments to close the amount of business you need. Do that no matter what! Keep the flow
coming.
One-on-one selling
I would much rather sell to 400 or 500 people at a time then one at a time.
Make sense, don't you think?
Then why are so many of you still selling one-on-one? Why don't you put together at an
Attraction Marketing Event(AME) and have 100 prospects come to you, identify themselves as a
predisposed to buy what you are selling and make a presentation to them all at the same time.
An AME is like a seminar, a trade show or a conference. This will work for many of you.
We have clients who have used AMEs to sell everything from automobile repairs to beauty saloon
equipment.
Shaking trees selling
The approach most people take to selling (which will pretty much guarantee failure) is the
"shaking tree" method of selling.
They are told that selling is a numbers game and that if they shake enough trees, some fruits
will fall.
The problem is that it takes time and energy to shake trees. Sure, selling is a numbers game
and the more you shake, the more fruit will fall.
I think it's smarter to make the fruit come to you. This is easily done by selling with
Attraction Marketing Devices (AMD).
An offer of a free special report or a free audio cassette is a good example of an AMD.
They are inexpensive and if you done correctly will make the prospect come directly to you.
Little actions produce little results
If you want to win big in selling, then get moving. You can do a lot more than you are doing
now. You can do it faster and you can do it smarter.
I am not sure how in every case but you have the ability to do massive action.
Think bigger and demand more from yourself and those you work with. My former mentor would
never stand for excuses.
"Just get it done," was his motto. And we did!
So, make a decision to increase the amount presentations you make. You can make more calls!
You can see more people. You can sell more. You can.
Poor presentation
"A person becomes your friend not by what you say but by what you allow him to say.
Someone approached me recently for advice about selling success. This person had long hair,
jeans, and a leather coat.
I told him that I didn't know anyone who made a lot of money in sales who looked like he did.
As a salesperson, you must look good, sharp and clean. You are a reflection of not only the
product or service you sell but the company that employs you.
If you are going to err, err on the side of crispness and sharpness. Then the verbal presentation
needs to be just as alive and enthusiastic. Never tire and never get bored with your message.
Now not forever
Selling isn't about closing the deal. It's about developing a long-term relationship. Selling
isn't like a date or a one-night stand. It's more like a marriage.
You'll starve in selling if you are focused on now instead of forever.
If you only contact your customers when you want something from them, like a referral or
another order, you are focused on now.
If you remember their kids birthdays and send a card with a nice note, you are focused on
forever.
If you get a referral from them and never call to say thank you, you are focused on now.
If you keep them updated as to the status of the referral and buy them a nice bouquet of
flowers after the referral buys, you are focused the forever.
One-off selling
If you are selling a person only once, you will not make much money in selling. It's so hard
to keep finding the one-only sales.
Instead, you should concentrate on building a "Winner's Circle of Influence" which consists of
people who can refer others to you.
By keeping in contact with past clients, (and that doesn't means calling them every two weeks
looking for referrals), you can have them repurchase and tell their friend about you.
It's called word-of-mouth selling. It someone buys what you are selling, you can bet your last
dollar that he or she will have friends or colleagues who will buy the same thing.
You must find a way to satisfy customers enough to get the friends too!
Have courage to dream big dreams. Go ahead, cruise the dream level.
Allow yourself the pleasure of dreaming about the life you with to live. This isn't a practice
run! This is the real thing. Then, examine your sales strategy.
The danger of dreaming is that it will motivate you. Motivation that is misdirected kills part
of the soul of a salesperson.
Just think about the friends you have who have quit sales and given up on their dreams.
It's often not about them but about the sales strategy they are using. Keep learning and keep
selling!
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