On the Sales Side

It is my pleasure to start writing this monthly column for Sanitary Maintenance magazine.

We invite our readers to share their ideas on the sales profession in the coming months. Fax, e-mail, phone or mail us your thoughts. We will try and share them with everyone.

My late and great partner, Oscar Koeppel, taught me many things, among them the following: “If you steal from one, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.” I’ll tell you right up front that I’m the greatest researcher you will ever meet.

I will give credit to any research source and I hope that you will do some research, including reading this column, to help increase your business and your income.

In an earlier writing life, several years ago, I addressed the subject, “What does it take to be successful in the selling business?” These thoughts come from many years in the selling business, plus lots of research and interviews. We would like to pass along some of these ideas early in this series of articles to lay some groundwork. We will refer back to these “characteristics” from time to time.

These characteristics are not listed in any order of priority, with the exception of the first one. So let’s review a few:

Desire: A burning desire to get your job done right. If that burning desire isn’t there, I’m afraid the sales effort will fail when the pressure is on and things aren’t going exactly right.

Organization: A sales manager of mine said to me a long time ago, “Plan your work, and work your plan.” I thought at the time that this was just more sales-manager jargon. However, over the years, I have come to believe that this little piece of advice was one of the best ever given to me, and it is something every salesperson should strive to perfect.

Imagination: Harvey Mackay writes in one of his books, “ You have to concentrate on not falling into the deadliest trap of all: predictability,” the mark of an order-taker. “Sooner or later the order-taker always loses out to the true salesperson.” Then Harvey says, “Write on the bottom of each day’s planning sheet, ‘Astonish.’” Harvey says this with the assumption that everyone uses a daily planning sheet. Do you?

Think about this: the more creative you become in your selling, and the more creative you have to be to get the order, the more money you will make. It doesn’t take any creativity to sell a commodity, but you won’t make much money selling commodities either. Be creative, be different, sell value. Don’t sell commodities. Play the game in your field and let your competitor try to follow you.

Enthusiasm: The last four letters, I, A, S and M, mean, “I am sold myself,” and that’s what enthusiasm says to your customers and prospects.

We are not talking about false, phony enthusiasm. We are talking about a true belief in your products and your ideas that shows. Enthusiasm comes from within. It’s contagious, and enthusiasm sells.

Persistence: Believe in your product, your systems, your service and your company, and you will be persistent. Again, your customers and prospects will have to believe that with all that persistence, you really must have something they should look at.

However, there is a fine line between being persistent and being a pest. A very successful sales rep in the janitorial business once told me that you have to be “pleasantly persistent.”

Self-Image: Remember, you cannot outperform your own self-image. If need be, there are any number of ways to improve your own self-image. Using self-help books, audio and videotapes and the numerous seminars available in most major markets are some of the ways. We’re not talking about a major ego trip here; we’re just talking about a good, healthy self-image.

Alertness: Be alert for selling opportunities. Use your eyes, your nose, and your experience in the business. Many times you will recognize a need that isn’t apparent to your customer or prospect. Point out the need and suggest answers to address it. More importantly, demonstrate your ability to fill the need and write the order.

Cooperation: We would all bend over backward to cooperate with our customers, but what about the inside people within our own companies who support us every day? Do we cooperate with them? I suggest that cooperation within your own company is just as important as it is outside the company.

Teamwork: Just start using the word “we,” not “I,” when discussing your business with your customers. Zig Zieglar writes in one of his books, “Anyone with ‘I’ trouble really has a low self-image of themselves.” As noted earlier, low self-image is not one of the characteristics that makes salespeople successful.

These are a few thoughts on what it takes to be successful in the selling business. We will cover more next month, and will refer to these characteristics from time to time in future columns.

We hope to hear your thoughts on what it takes to be successful “On the Sales Side.”

To share your selling ideas, fax: (414) 228-1134, contact Mr. Dixon at (877) 379-3566 or e-mail Seiche Sanders.