The Rules of Sales
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 - 4:47 pm - Sales
Anyone who has been around me for more than 10 minutes has heard me say “The First Rule of Sales is that the answer is always ‘No’ until you ask”. I thought I would take that and expand it to list the key rules of sales.
- The Answer is always no until you ask – Be Bold – Someone once told me that I will fail to close 100% of the sales I don’t try for. Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale. Most salespeople miss deals by just not saying “So would you buy this?”
- If you want the fruit to fall you have to shake the tree – Persistence overcomes resistance. If you don’t like to hear the word “no” you should not be in sales. Work each and every lead until you have nothing left to give – then get someone else to take a pass just to see if it was you.
- No matter how good you are as a salesman, you’re only as good as the people and product behind you – This works in two ways: 1) don’t put your team in a bad spot by constantly overreaching their time, abilities, or commitments; 2) The product or team you’re selling for is going to make a big difference in how successful you are with your pitch.
- Ask for forgiveness not permission – This does not erase the last rule but goes on top of it. Don’t be afraid to do something before asking for explicit permission – but know your limits as well.
- Always carry a pen – ALWAYS – you never know when you’re going to run into a potential client or contact and need to write down a phone number or note about them or for them. Ideally you’ll have something to write on (your business card?) as well.
- Sales is not a 8-5 job – I don’t care what your boss says, you’re always on the job as a salesman. Make it to local meetings that are relevant, be a part of the community. Even if you don’t make an active pitch every time you talk to someone, you’re at least getting recognition in case one day they know of someone who needs what you sell.
I’m sure the sales minded among you can come up with more – or criticize these. Post below
7. Never, ever be too good to wear a nametag.
Had to add one I thought of on the way home after posting.
Great post on the Rules of Sales from @conrey -> http://tinyurl.com/7xj3bx
I’m glad I’m not a sales guy. These are not the things I want to think about all the time. However I am doing some consulting and these are especially good tips for that line of work. Thanks.
Chris,
good list. One that’s conspicuously missing though IMHO is the concept of “hurt & rescue.” You need to cultivate the need first before you offer the solution. I may not be the most qualified sales person but I’ve made about 500 phone call followups for our company and consistently the theme that works is by listening intently and drilling down to the need that originally compelled them to try the product. Then spiral out from there and prospect for other latent needs around that topic and activate them. Once you have gotten them to admit enough pain, you can engineer a vision for solving it that’s biased towards your product. There’s a great book I read recently on this subject called “Solution Selling” – I highly recommend it.
Sean
ps. just found this post through the ReadPhx feed and noticed you’re rocking the icon in your sidebar- niiiice!
Agreed, you have to find the customer’s pain and then show them you can solve it. Well said! I found the icon on your blog and threw it right up, team phx!
Great “Rules of Sales” blog article posted by Chris Conrey http://tinyurl.com/7xj3bx
[...] The Answer is always no until you ask. [...]
[...] If You want the fruit to fall, You have to shake the tree. [...]
[...] No matter how good you are as a salesman, you’re only as good as the people and product behind you… [...]
[...] Ask for forgiveness not permission. [...]
[...] Sales is not a 8-5 job [...]
[...] Thanks for being a part of this! You should keep reading via RSS or Email or follow me @conrey.If You want the fruit to fall, You have to shake the tree. [...]
[...] Thanks for being a part of this! You should keep reading via RSS or Email or follow me @conrey.No matter how good you are as a salesman, you’re only as good as the people and product behind you… [...]