How to sell more than you thought possible

As I have preached time and again, there is no better way to learn to cope with rejection than by selling door-to-door. I’ve done it with fresh veggies. (I used to raise asparagus and rhubarb, and when I was a kid, I sold what I harvested.) A good friend, Charlie Gunkel, sold Bibles door-to-door during college vacations. Not only did Charlie help defer college expenses this way, he earned enough to buy, as I remember him telling me, a shiny new Pontiac.

Both Tracy authors are masters. Here’s an example: “Another reason for customer defection is lack of responsiveness to inquiries or questions. Remember, we talked about the need for speed. If customers call your company with a question and nobody calls them back — promptly — customers can become irritated and agitated.” I would make that “can” into a “will.”

Here’s another nugget from the same book: “Selling out of sequence kills the sale. Even if you do the right things, if you do them in the wrong sequence or order, you will kill the sale. New salespeople with little experience often violate this principle. When they meet with a customer for the first time, they introduce themselves and immediately begin talking about their product or service. Instead of asking a series of well-organized questions to understand the customer’s needs, they start making product or service recommendations. As a result, their customers quickly become guarded or back off completely. No trust or rapport has been built. It is clear the salesperson has no other thought or concern except talking about and selling his product or service. He does not care at all about the customer.”

This is so important, one of the most important principles. It is the reason I function like a consultant or diagnostician — I never worry about a sale; I worry about solving problems for others.

These three books are part of what Amacom calls the “Brian Tracy Success Library.” Consider this from “Motivation”: “You cannot motivate other people, but you can remove the obstacles that stop them from motivating themselves. All motivation is self-motivation.”

“Negotiation” offers more of the same Tracy wisdom. All three are an essential part of a library. If you don’t know how to appeal to customers — no matter how good you are as a planner or tactician — you won’t thrive and prosper. You could put the word “sell” as a substitute for “appeal” in that last sentence and it would still be accurate.

I think of selling as helping people, however one needs to interact and work the way prospects need. Otherwise, you will never get far enough along the pathway to help them become customers. The focus of financial planning is helping others to help themselves.

For more from Richard Hoe, see:

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