You are in the major leagues — the major leagues of selling.

Sports fans expect the best performance out of their favorite players every time out. Whether the sport is football, basketball, golf — you name it — nobody is satisfied with their favorite team or players if they’re just going through the motions. We all expect the pros to perform at their peak all of the time.

I believe that selling in the janitorial business, whether it’s products or services, is the major leagues of selling. Top performance is expected all the time. You are a professional — you are being paid for your profession and, like the paid professional athletes, high performance is expected.

A few years ago, I made a presentation to a college class of sales and marketing students. In the textbook they were using, the authors identified seven levels of selling. The seven levels of selling went from an entry level sales job up through route sales, retail clerks and so forth. The top of the seven levels was identified as those selling intangibles such as insurance, consulting and advertising.

Right below that level, at level six, they identified people selling tangible products such as airplanes, vacuum cleaners, etc. That puts us into level six, or maybe even at level seven if you are selling janitorial services. Whether you fall under level six or seven, it is definitely the major leagues of selling.

So what is required to succeed in the major leagues of selling?

First comes desire. Desire overcomes the lack of what may be considered “natural ability.” Many athletes have overcome their lack of size, speed or agility with desire; the same goes for salespeople. There are no “born salespeople.” Our parents gave birth to baby boys and baby girls not baby salespeople or doctors or lawyers or athletes.

Once we have entered the professional area of sales, like the professional athlete, we must start to identify and work on the attributes required to be successful in our chosen profession. Desire will help keep us working on those needs.

Practice. Over and over. Not on just one aspect of selling but on all aspects. Habits formed early in life, whether good or bad, are hard to break. The habits that we form early in our professional lives are the same. Identify and form good habits, which, like bad habits, will be hard to break.

What are the good habits needed to be a top producer in the selling profession? How about asking the right questions — preplanned questions — and being ready to handle the objections that you encounter. Be able to ask for the order when the time is right. This has to be done in a professional way so as not to come off as a hotshot used car salesman.

In a consultant role, I recently sat in on a meeting where two salespeople were making a presentation. Neither one had a pad of paper or a pencil to take notes, which told me that whatever the customers said to them was not going to be remembered for very long.

After the meeting was over, the customers expressed a similar concern. They worried that the salespeople wouldn’t remember anything that they talked about since the salespeople hadn’t taken notes — not very professional.

The professional approach must be well thought out in advance. You need a “game plan.”

The needs of the customer should be researched ahead of time; you might peruse notes from past meetings or find company information on the Internet. The presentation should be directed at the individual customer’s needs.

The professional athlete practices every day: batting practice, hitting golf balls or shooting baskets. Perfect your craft with practice. That way, when the pressure is on, you will deliver and walk away a winner.

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




POSTED ON: 1/1/2006