“In the past, salespeople were taught to be problem solvers. In our modern business climate, if you only solve concerns you will struggle to sell. To stand out from your competition you must now be skilled at problem finding and at problem solving.”
― David Hoffeld,
A lesson in Occupational and Financial Wellness
As an Amazon Affiliate it is policy to inform you that this is an advertisement. However, this is still a reflection of a great book that I’ve read many times over. I believe it would benefit any who may read it. You can find the link for it in my references located at the bottom of this page.
A broken skill…
It’s about time that we went over a very important skill. In many ways, it is THE most important skill. You could ask any of the top business moguls of our current time. If they had to do it all over again, what would be the first thing they’d do? They all said the same thing. They would get a sales job. In any video game, “sell” is the very first game breaking ability that you have access to. Sales is one of those skills that changes your life the very moment you figure it out. Sure, it’s possible to get through life without the ability. However, you will constantly find yourself at the mercy of the people who do know how to pull it off. You came here seeking freedom, correct? Then continue to read…
Manipulation is not an artform. It is a science. You must theorize and research. Instead of being compelled by passion, you are acting with cold logic. Instead of the need to express yourself, you are seeking a specific result. You must combine numerous fields of psychology. It would also help to have some knowledge of neuroscience and physiology as well. Everything you’d need to reach a finer understanding of sales is already here for you. I can only lead you to the water. Drinking is up to you.
Selling is hard work. Even for professional salesmen. Half of the salesmen you will encounter are losing their shirts out there. All salespeople have a monthly quota. Most just barely manage to meet them. Only the best can manage to stay hot year round. Mastering sales could take years. Hopefully, what I have to share will aid you in your efforts. But it’s on you to figure it out. You either have what it takes or you don’t.
For those who are wondering what I mean by “having what it takes.” Am I speaking of some special talent? No. Sales is a skill, not a talent. Anyone could become a remarkable salesperson. By “having what it takes,” I am speaking of the fighting spirit, which I have already described in detail over the course of many previous briefings. Your perspective is also very important. You are going to encounter failure a lot. You’ll experience more negativity than you’ll be able to handle at times. Once it clicks, it becomes easy to explain, but it is still hard for others to grasp. Your colleagues may even accuse you of wasting their time if you give them advice. That’s what makes sales a lot like magic. It is a science that has yet to be fully comprehended.
Everyone’s different…
There is no actual proof that extroverts are better suited for sales than introverts. It’s just an easy assumption to make. It typically doesn’t matter whether you are introverted or extroverted. Extroverts put themselves out there more but are typically bad listeners. The problem is in reverse for introverts. So there is no need to worry about going against your nature. No matter which one you are, you’ll have issues that you’ll need to work on.
How one expert sells will not match how another expert will sell. Once you become an expert, chances are that your insights will be just as unique. It is unfortunate that there aren’t many reliable programs that teach people how to sell. Most sales jobs or seminars just offer you a lame sales script, an incorrect theory, and a bogus simulation. When learning how to sell, most people either copy what they’ve seen other people doing or they learn from trial and error. Trial and error is often ineffective because much of your time could be wasted learning things that will not serve you. Copying what you’ve seen other people do doesn’t work either, because what you are doing isn’t organic. And the buyer will sense that. Any advice you would receive from experts is just that. Advice. And it is often wrong. Whatever advice you’ll receive from one expert will be contradicted by the next. Sales always had very little to do with what you want to accomplish. It’s all about what your target wants to do. You shouldn’t concern yourself with learning a sales process. Your time would be better spent learning how to hijack a buying decision.
If new to sales, you will have difficulty identifying a buying decision. You will only make your best guess without the proper training. A buying decision is typically made well before the closing of a sale. During an engagement with a potential buyer, there is a middle ground that must be reached. You are going to want thorough answers to 3 questions while your customer is going to want quick answers to at least 5 questions. Your customer is looking for a solution, but first you must understand the problem.
The Method…
The first question you should concern yourself with is, “Who are you?” Your objective is to get a summary of your customer. This also slows the customer down a bit for you. You are not settling for just a name. Again, you are looking for thorough answers. It’s not just the name you’re looking for. You also want to know where they came from. You want to know what they do for work. You want to know how old they are. If they are single or married. If they have children. You’d want to know their price range as well. All of that matters. You are making sure at the very beginning that you have no reason to disqualify the customer. You can’t go around treating everyone the same. It doesn’t make you a “good person,” it only makes you a bad salesman.
The second question you ask should be, “What happened?” Your next objective should be to harmonize with the customer. You want the customer to tell you a story. Once you’ve slowed your customer down, have them take you back to the beginning. When did they decide that they needed your services? What problem or problems are they trying to solve? What caused these problems? What other issues have been caused by this problem? You want the customer to paint a full picture. Not only will this help to clarify what they need, but it also highlights any other problems they might not have considered. Perhaps there are additional services you could offer. Moreover, this will place the target’s mind in the past. The pain that brought them to you in the first place will become fresh in their mind. This will urge them to answer your next question.
Your final question should be, “How can I help you?’ Now, your objective is to strategize with the customer. You are ready to negotiate the specifics of your role in this dilemma. Most salespeople like to lead with this question. But how can you expect to truly help someone if you don’t even know who they are or what happened first? You should only ask this question once you’ve extracted the full story from the customer. It’s good to be strictly professional when engaging a target, but that doesn’t mean you can’t show any sympathy. When making initial small talk, it should be about how they are doing. Where are they coming from. About what brings them to you. When did they come to the idea that it was time to start looking for your product? And of course, their name. It’s basic stuff, but people screw this up all the time trying to be all about the business.
Summarize, harmonize, and strategize. That’s the basic order of objectives for any successful consultation. During the summary, you’ll have successfully slowed the customer down. While Harmonizing, you are taking the time to answer one question at a time while the customer gives you details in return. There are 5 basic questions every customer will need to know, regardless if they explicitly ask you or not. Each customer will have their own unique curveballs to throw at you, but you must never fail to ease these 5 concerns. Unlike you, your customer typically won’t have any particular order of questioning, and they would prefer if you answered all of them at once, you can’t allow the customer to bombard you with their own questions. You want to move quickly, but you shouldn’t be rushing. So do not allow yourself to be rushed. Once the customer is convinced that you are the right person for the job, this will establish enough trust to strategize with you.
What to expect…
The first question the customer is likely to ask is, “Who are you?” Same as you. However, they do not require the same level of depth in description. The customer isn’t interested in hearing a monologue about how awesome you are. They just want a name and title to go with the face. There’s no need to lay it on extra thick.
The next question the customer will have is “How much?” This is likely the main question on the customer’s mind. You don’t want to talk about price right away, especially if you have not uncovered the customer’s price range beforehand during your summarizing. If you still dont know your customer’s price range, figure it out before you begin strategizing. Once you answer this question, keep it simple so as not to disturb the harmonizing process.
Another huge question you must answer is, “Can I trust your authority?” Your customer won’t have much faith in you if you don’t know what’s going on in your field. Authority pertains to information more than status. It’s not about who’s telling people what to do. It’s about who knows what’s going on. Whoever it is the people look to when a problem occurs is the person with the highest level of authority. Your customer has a problem, and they are looking at you.
Your customer will also be curious to know, “What is the best bang for their buck?” If the customer does not perceive that you have their best interest in mind, you will not earn their trust. It would be wise to have a full understanding of the range of your product or service. Be aware of how your services could benefit other industries. Say you were consulting a business. If your insights could give them a competitive edge over their rivals, you would become more than a salesperson. You would become an asset.
The fifth question you must be sure to answer is, “Is it worth it?” The money your customer has represents the sacrifices they had to make. They need to know if they are making the right choice. They need to make sure they are getting it right the first time. This question will be answered once you’ve answered all other questions the customer has for you. Your customer will be ready to negotiate at this point.
You may only hear one or two of these questions from your customer during your consultation. But make no mistake, you must be sure to answer all 5 of these questions whether you’ve been asked or not. Neglect them at your own peril. If you have not answered these questions, you will be faced with an objection that you must give a perfect answer for once you attempt to close. And you will not have a lot of time left on the clock to pull it off. If you’ve neglected to summarize and harmonize, everything will fall apart during the strategizing. So make sure you get it right the first time. There is no other way to establish distinct value to your customer.
You must offer value that the customer cannot get anywhere else. This is how you create scarcity in a world full of variety. The product or service may not be scarce, but there’s only one you. What is it about you that is so hard to find? Offering distinct value doesn’t mean becoming a one trick pony. It means finding out what it is your specific customer values the most and then insinuating it through your actions and character. But this isn’t to say you should lie to your customer. Whatever trait your customer is looking for, that must actually be you. It’s the only way they’ll keep coming back to you. If you have already fully awakened as a liberator, you won’t have to worry too much about figuring this out. For those who have not, we will spend the rest of this briefing breaking down what makes the 3 phases of questioning work and how.
Control the narrative…
The game of sales is constantly changing. There is more competition than ever before, so standing out becomes an ongoing process. As this world gets faster, people have less time and patience for the numerous salesmen who compete for their attention. Technology has made the research process simpler for the customer and has taken away much of the consultant aspect of the job. In reality, you will only have one shot to close any given deal. So that means we must increase our odds of success before making an offer. There are many ways to accomplish this. The most powerful of them all being the commitment statement.
Through commitment statements, your offer becomes one that the customer cannot refuse. You would acquire these statements naturally during the first 2 phases of questioning. The more commitments you obtain, the stronger your offer becomes. A commitment will help you to predict future behavior. They have a way of compelling us forward. Commitments come with mental imagery. Each commitment the customer makes creates a clearer picture in their mind. Once the picture is as clear as it possibly could be, all you would need to do is ask them if they want it.
You don’t have to wait until something goes wrong to hold someone accountable. You can do so before it happens as well. Once you have completely identified your customer’s criteria, hold them to it. This is another one of those important steps you must take to ensure that you get it right the first time. You want the customer to talk more than you during the entire consultation. You’d want to maintain a 70/30 ratio. Let me explain. The more your customer speaks, the more commitment statements you can extract. As your customer tells you their story, you want to keep them as the narrator, but you want to be the one controlling the narrative.
Questions control the narrative. As your customer tells you their story, engage with them. Don’t interrupt, of course. But whenever you hear something interesting, slow it down even further and get the play by play. Compliment any wise choices they made. Whenever you interject, make sure to keep yourself out of it. The conversation shouldn’t be about you, no matter how much you can relate. Let them have the floor and allow them to tell you everything.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Without proper questioning, you will never get a customer to act. Questions facilitate thought. Thoughts become actions. I’m sure that most of you have heard that if you never ask a customer if they want something, they likely will not ask you for it. This is 102% correct. The moment you see a potential customer, your curiosity should go into overdrive. One of the reasons sales makes a fun profession is because it enables you to get nosey without being labeled as intrusive. It’s sort of your job to be.
In the beginning, you will have to put quite a bit of thought into your line of questioning. There will be many protocols you will have to develop. As long as you remember to recalibrate yourself after each engagement, it will eventually become easier. We’ve already covered how important it is to recalibrate yourself constantly. You’ll never reliably hit a target if you don’t tighten up your shot group during downtime. People will only trust you to solve their problems once you’ve shown that you understand them. It’s hard to show that you care when you are rushing. Be thorough with your questioning. Once your customer trusts your guidance, this will allow them to move at full speed. Once that happens, you want their mind to focus on a singular idea. You want that idea to be the buying decision. So not only must your questions be good, they must also be well-timed.
When it comes to manipulation, your questions determine everything. There are two things you must keep in mind whenever you word your questions: insinuations and invitations. Your insinuations should set up for your invitation. There are two types of invitations you can make. Personal and projected. We covered the personal invitation in detail during the manipulation posts. A few examples of a projected invitation are ad campaigns and catchy slogans. For example, Walmart’s slogan is “Save money, live better.” It’s a mass offer to anyone watching. Any politician will have some sort of “vote for me” campaign as well as some sort of slogan to call their supporters into action. That’s right, a good slogan could give you enough momentum to run an entire country. In short, you need to think of a commercial and figure out where and when to advertise it.
It gets easier with practice…
So, how do you develop your line of questioning? It starts with the message you would like to send. What is the statement you are trying to make? You would start with turning that into a question. Then, you would work backwards from there until you’ve reached the introduction. Hidden messages have a way of intriguing people into continuing. It causes an extreme “need to know,” which is the most potent driver of dopamine. Insinuation has a way of keeping the target mentally and emotionally invested in the conversation. The attention is undivided. There are many ways to get a message across without saying it yourself. You know when people say, “Your actions speak louder than words?” they are trying to teach you about insinuation. It’s not all about clever wordplay. Even though smooth words could help, it is recommended that you prioritize clarity over cleverness.
Once you’ve become better at insinuating your messages, people become a bit more predictable. You’ll be able to keep one step ahead of them. Making yourself clear does not mean being explicit. The moment you speak explicitly about your plans for the target, you just made it awkward. Most salesmen fail to close because they made the process weird at some point. Perhaps your confidence faltered near the end. Or perhaps your enthusiasm was snuffed out by their resistance. Maybe there was something off about your first impression. Regardless of the nature of the misunderstanding, the moment you insinuate the wrong message, your sale will slip away. Get better with your subtleties and make sure you are sending the right message.
What other people say about you is another excellent way to insinuate a message. It still counts as you not explicitly saying something to make the sale awkward. When we see a bunch of people doing something, we will assess that it is safe to do. If everyone took off running, so would you. If enough people say the same thing, you would start to believe it. The more positive reviews you gather, the likelier the odds your reputation will precede you. Building a brand is critical to your success. This is why you see people resort to fake followings and fake engagements. A bunch of websites are full of fake testimonies. Most are obvious. Some are pretty well crafted. But this never works. You might have visitors but no actual subscribers. They will see that no one is actually spending money. So, it wouldn’t be safe to give you any. Which leads to my point. Any insinuation you make will only intrigue the shopper for a short time.
To endlessly intrigue the shopper, you need to make insinuations from the introduction until the invitation to close the sale. You can insinuate all you want, but without making an invitation, the chances are higher that the customer may overthink their way out of making a deal with you. If you take too long to make an invitation, another player can swoop in and hijack your sale. This doesn’t mean you rush. But you must move quickly.
Making money is the desired result, as is with any profession. But it should not be your primary goal. A professional’s primary goal is to be the best at what they do. The job of a salesman is to make a buying decision easier. “To sell” is the ultimate problem solving ability. People love to buy stuff. As a salesman, you must ensure that the customer is making the right decision. Because that’s what will bring them back. That’s what they will tell others. Since you will likely only get one shot per customer, it’s essential that you get it right the first time. Until you know the message you want to send, you aren’t selling anything. You make things quicker by making the process smoother, not by rushing.
You get one shot…
When consulting a customer, you have to merge two forms of conversation. The first of them being small-talk. The other is the deep-dive. You aren’t just listening. You are also watching. How have they presented themselves? How are they acting? What does this person expect? What sort of questions are they asking? Where else have they been? Once you’ve engaged the customer, slow them down and figure them out. Customers are getting better at limiting their own choices, but they usually fall short of identifying other problems they must solve. If you can identify these other problems for them, it will give you first dibs at helping the customer to solve them. This will also shock the buyer in a way that inspires respect and loyalty. Once they’ve given you their story, relate it to a common problem you encounter with various clients. Instead of just saying, “I understand,” prove your authority by showing that you actually do.
You aren’t waiting just to move on to the next thing. You are the guide. There are three ways you could screw up and talk too much while trying to harmonize with the customer. You could’ve interrupted them one too many times. You could go off on a monologue about yourself. Or you could throw too much at the customer at one time. Don’t risk boring or confusing the customer. Focus on their problem and getting it right the first time. While your customer informs you of their suffering, they are creating their own sense of urgency that you can subtly add to through the commitment statements you collect. Relating to the customer is also important for identifying any alternatives they may have to making an agreement with you. If the customer sees an agreement with you being better than any other alternative, then you have made a sale.
You must be aware of your competitors. If your customer has options, you must ensure that you are the best option. You can’t just settle for explaining what makes your service great. You have to show why you are better. This doesn’t mean trashing the rival, but you should point out flaws in their design. You should highlight any common complaints they receive from unhappy customers. You should make the customer aware of the mistakes your competitors typically make and swear that you would never. In addition to rival players, there are also pirates who offer services outside of yours to offer solutions that you cannot. The only way to beat this is to give better service than the pirates. You could also point out the risk of wasting time trying to find a roundabout way to fix something that you could handle expediently. Dismiss your customer’s other options in a way that lines up perfectly with the message that you are trying to get across.
Keep in mind that you aren’t the only one who can make insinuations. Actions will always speak louder than words. Yes, you should pay very close attention to what your customer tells you. But you should pay closer attention to any inflection in their voice. Watch what they do. People say one thing while thinking another all the time. You’ve done it, I’ve done it, and we will most likely do so again. So you should always be looking for any subtle tells the customer can’t quite suppress. Any smirk or fidget or bracing could be an indicator of their true emotional state despite what they might tell you. Though looks can be deceiving, you can often assess someone’s emotional state within seconds. A majority of the communication we do is nonverbal. We can convey an entire message through one gesture. Our positioning and distance from each other convey our level of trust. We could smile while our eyes remain cold. If you try to close a sale while a customer is in a negative emotional state, they will not make an agreement with you.
The best salesmen are the ones who are capable of uplifting the client. You will encounter many customers who will come to you in a foul mood. If you can’t elevate your potential buyer, your chances of closing are slim. This is why we make proper accomodations. You should make your environment as comfortable as possible. Your domain should be an extension of yourself. The music should be fitting, but not too loud. The temperature should neutralize whatever the weather is doing. All areas should smell nice and must be spotless, especially the restrooms. Your energy must be genuinely welcoming. Refreshments of various preferences should be available. If you don’t think you could win someone over with a stick of chewing gum, think again.
Energy is infectious. Excellent customer service could be the highlight of someone’s day. Everyone wins playing your game. Never allow a customer’s negativity to impact your mood. You’ll only accomplish ruining the next sale. The best way to transfer emotion is through your tone of voice. Make sure to speak clearly at all times.You have to gain control over the inflection of your voice. You’ll be able to project your energy onto your customers more effectively once you do. But your energy shouldn’t be an act. People can sense fake energy. You should be at peace with the other aspects of your life if you want your default mood to become upbeat. Make sure you aren’t neglecting your other dimensions of wellness. Your tone should always be upbeat, not just when you smell money. Not to say that you should be “in their faces,” especially if that style of communication doesn’t suit you. Bottom line, your enthusiasm should never be extinguished. You might as well hang it up for the day if that happens.
Sometimes, a customer will not allow you to make an inquiry. They may refuse to answer any questions you may have for them to avoid being taken for a ride. Some people out there think that salesmen are no different than theives. For example, let’s say you’re a car salesman and approached a potential buyer who adamantly tells you that they are “just looking” before you even started to qualify them. What should you do? Sell to them anyway, of course. Ask them “what they are looking for?” Try saving them some time. Don’t be afraid of chasing them off with your inquiries. If anything, you escorted them off of the premises without having to get tough about it. If they aren’t here to buy anything, then they are loitering, correct? You should hold them to a higher standard than that. Of course, they’re here to buy. So kill them with kindness and help them as best you can. You might just win them over. It happens all the time. Any resistance you encounter can be used to your advantage if you can see it coming.
Further considerations…
“Yes” normally occurs once there’s no other reason to say “no.” If resistance is something you should expect at all times, it makes sense to have a protocol in place in the event that it occurs, correct? Maintain your spiritual fortitude. Remain focused on your customer’s story at all times. Once you’ve managed to extract a complete story out of them, they wouldn’t want to be there much longer. The natural question will eventually present itself. Can you help or can’t you?
Switching from consultation to negotiations should be smooth. Their criteria should’ve already been made clear, and you should have made sure to hold them accountable to it before proceeding. The worst time to encounter an objection is while attempting to close. Once you begin to negotiate the payment, there can’t be any other reason for them to say no. Or else they WILL say no. You want to get it all in one take. If an objection does arise during an attempt to close, it’s not over yet, but time is a factor. Quickly recap everything you’ve been told. Remind them of the values that they claimed to have via the commitment statements you collected. Then finish with “Is there something I missed?” Then give them a silent moment to weigh what you’ve offered compared to what they are missing.
A common tripwire salespeople tend to forget is asking the customer about any others involved in the purchasing decision. It’s not always possible to meet with each party involved. But if you win your customer over, you could arm them with the argument they would need to sway their associates. A customer may also have someone who is not involved in the purchase but will still have a major influence on whether or not to trust you. Like a protective friend or a cynical mentor. These people will never trust you until you meet them and win them over as well. This may not be necessary once you’ve won the customer over, but it would guarantee the sale.
If a trusted source gave you their opinion on another person before you met them, it would alter your perception of them. Regardless of what you hear being the truth or not. Depending on the level of influence of this source, you wouldn’t give this particular person too many chances, if any. This is why everything you do must inspire gratitude in your customers. Gratitude is earned through being an excellent resource. Gratitude could even trump likability. If your savior was an asshole, you’d still look out for him if he needed it.
One of the best ways to become a resource is through free content. What you give away shouldn’t just be basic. It must be freemium. Anyone who looks you up should leave with a better idea about what they need. Your content is also an excellent way to advertise your services. If a customer mentions your content, you could guide their thinking from there. Gratitude doesn’t convert directly into a sale, but the customer will be more receptive to your questions. Never fail to see the best in your customer. The customer will feel this and reciprocate. Even a stubborn customer would put their best foot forward if properly encouraged.
A genuine compliment is closer to an acknowledgment than flattery. You actually have to be listening to have enough material to give a good compliment to someone. Giving a good compliment is an excellent active listening practice. Another one of those things that’s harder to do than it sounds. A compliment expands the dialogue while flattery often goes nowhere. When you compliment your customer, follow up with a deep dive. Take some time with your target. You shouldn’t be rushing, and neither should they. You must insinuate that you see the customer for how great they truly are. If they see you holding them to a higher standard, they wouldn’t have anything to gain by proving you wrong.
While learning your client’s history, listen for any memories they speak of with fondness. Take some time to expand on the good memories the client has. Don’t derail the conversation too much, but you want to see your customer smiling. If you have the opportunity to look into your customer’s history before making contact with them, this would be an excellent advantage. Not only could you think of some solutions for them preemptively, but you will also have some topics to set a positive tone for the dialogue.
Help the customer to tell you a story you’d like to hear. The mind can only focus on one thing at a time, no matter how good of a multitasker you claim to be. As long as the customer is preoccupied with answering your line of questions, they will arrive to their buying decision of their own accord. You must keep an eye out for when the customer starts to become decisive. Help them to limit their choices, and then let them make their decision. Normally, you would want to limit your target’s choices down to two. But this may still be enough to cause a freeze in their decision. If they are stuck between two choices, you can cut one of the desired choices into two inferior separate solutions. It may appear that you have given them 3 choices, but you’ve actually only given them one. You’re just encouraging decisiveness.
After each engagement you’ve made, even after the successful encounters, you must consider what could’ve gone better. When engaging a customer, you never just want to pitch your thing. You want to pitch the thing that pitches your thing. Your message will go a bit further that way. You may even be able to increase your sales. If it helps to make sense of what I’m trying to tell you. You must set yourself up for an “at least you could do this” or an “or even better you could do this” kind of offer. Always shape your words so that the client has a choice on how to proceed. To make things even simpler, you could say something like, “We are having a limited-time fire sale.”
When it comes to communicating, you should prioritize clarity over cleverness. But cleverness is still an x factor in getting your point across like no one else. It’s that “something about you” that cannot be replicated. You should always have an idea about how to get your idea across. For the times you don’t, go back to the drawing board and see how you can reword your message to get it right the next time. Your delivery matters. The greatest manipulators of all time were also the greatest storytellers of all time. Nothing captivates the mind like a good story. And nothing irritates us more than a boring story. Once the customer is finished with their story, it would be your turn to tell them a story that they would want to hear. What does the customer want to hear? About how you are going to help them fix their problem. Now that’s a damn good story!
Why are stories so powerful? Interpretation can be described as creating a picture in the mind. We make ourselves clear so that the customer’s picture won’t become clouded. An even easier way to put a picture into your customer’s mind is by showing them an actual picture. In fact, it is suggested that you engage your customer with some kind of portfolio they could flip through as you make your presentation. You must also have an idea of how much time the customer is working with. The customer may not have the time to tell you a story. Desperate customers are the easiest sales, but they are the most likely to become unhappy customers. They weren’t happy to buy from you to begin with, so the chances of buyers’ remorse are pretty high.
You shouldn’t hold off until the very end to speak of your price. It is unwise to lead your consultation with pricing, but it is still something you should figure out fairly quickly before getting too deep into a dialogue. If what you have to offer is out of their price range, then you may have to disqualify them. There are methods for adjusting your price to suit your customer. Instead of making a premium offer, perhaps they could make due with a more basic package. Or maybe you could create a custom offer that falls between those options. You could even form a payment plan if you have a reliable system in place. Either way, have solutions prepared to deal with difficulties regarding price. If you have to disqualify a customer for being unable to afford your services, you could help them think of a strategy to get the money. Perhaps there’s something in their budget they could do without for at least a little while. You could refer them to a trusted financer. Or they could always just come back with a cosigner or after they’ve saved up the adequate funds. Add their email to your list just in case you are having a sale they could take advantage of.
The magic
Even once you get all of this information down to a science, chances are high that you are going to encounter failure a lot. The best salespeople typically close around 20% on average across any given industry. There’s only so much that is under your control. You aren’t going to be compatible with every customer you meet. There will be things you won’t be able to do for your customer. Or you might’ve screwed up and that’s okay. Because there will always be another customer.
Failure is your best friend as long as you pay attention to it. Failure will show you specifically where you need training. The top salespeople are the best because they’ve been at it for the longest. Even talented upstarts have had extensive experience in closing a deal before doing so professionally. Perhaps she was in the girl scouts or had a lemonade stand when she was younger. If you haven’t given sales 10000 hours of your time to learn, how can you know for certain that you lack the capacity? The biggest difference between a master and a novice is that a master has failed more than a novice has tried. Keep pounding the stone. Eventually it’ll break.
Gaining even a basic proficiency with the magic would change your life drastically. It doesn’t matter if sales is your main job, or just a part of the job, or even a side hustle. Everyone needs to find their preferred way of turning their time into money. Anyone can learn it, so that means that anyone could become great at it. The sales landscape is constantly changing. Once everyone starts to catch up, some master always comes around to change the game again. That’s the one thing you can be certain of in the future.
We have to continue to adapt, but that doesn’t mean that we do whatever it takes to make a sale. The people are getting tired of the lies. No matter how much you change your approach, your values should remain clear. Sales used to be studied as closely as marketing way back before any of us were born. You’d be hard pressed to learn anything about selling from colleges today. At least there’s no shortage of marketing courses. Good marketing nearly eliminates the need for a reliable salesperson. But this doesn’t change the reality that an underperforming salesman could still cost you money. Moreover, freelancing has become a popular path for those seeking life satisfaction. It doesn’t matter if you want to walk your own path or if you want to lead the pack. If you can’t sell, then you won’t be able to do either.
So how can you know for certain that you have acquired the magic? It’s not from successfully closing a sale; that’s nothing special. To describe it accurately, your way of looking at things changes. You are happy because you helped someone, not because you made some money. You’ll become patient. Time becomes your ally. Since you understand that you only get one chance per engagement. You wouldn’t do something as foolish as rushing the customer. Talking too much and awkward silences would become a thing of the past for you. You become a performer with nothing to prove. You would speak clearly and present yourself without fear of rejection. Everything we’ve discussed so far would become one motion for you. Everything you do becomes data to study and refine. You’ll be able to maintain a cool detachment while remaining present. Instead of studying “how to sell” you would preoccupy yourself with other matters such as current events or any news regarding your industry or adjacent industries. You’d still be sharpening yourself, but it would be as a master instead of as an amateur. You would become a skilled communicator at least when it comes to your occupation. But chances are high, that the magic would benefit all areas of your life. The only dimension of wellness that it would have no effect on would be your physical wellness. But improving your physique would make the magic even more potent.
References and photos
The science of selling. – David Hoffeld,
SpongeBob- Nickelodeon Studios