A great salesman

There are many things which make up a good salesman: you need to be able to talk to people, you need to have confidence, you have to be persuasive, and you must know your business. But there is one aspect to becoming a better salesman that nearly all the teaching manuals and books miss. This is a shame since it's probably the most important quality a person needs to become a great salesman and it has little to do with anything you say to a customer.

It has to do only with you.

The quality I'm referring to is being able to hear this word over and over again: "NO!"

You must be scratching your head and wondering what on earth I'm talking about, but trust me that this is important. You see, even great salesmen fail more often than they succeed. In fact, the acceptable statistics for salemen are that even if you're good, you only have about a 10% success rate. This means that you only make 1 sell for each 10 people you approach; 1 Yes for every 9 No's.

Most people simply get discouraged by these frequent rejections, lose heart and confidence which lowers their selling abilities even further. If you wish to be a better salesman, you need to break free of this notion and to learn to take these No's in the right way.

Here's the way to think about it: For each 10 people you only make 1 sale, right? So instead of thinking of the 9 rejections as failures, which can easily lead to demoralization, think about each of them as a 10% success. I mean, for each person you talk to you make 10% of a complete sale since 1 person in 10 will end up buying. When you think about it this way, you have no problem of hearing the occasional NO which will lead to increased confidence and in turn bigger selling success.

So the first thing you need to do to be a better salesman is to feel comfortable with hearing NO. Do that, and you've taken an important step towards being a successful and lucrative salesman.

[aisyah: I once read this article about ‘selling skills’ being the most important skill you would ever need, not only for a good paycheck but to be successful in life. I totally agree on this and how I regretted the immature mindset when I graduated and was looking for a job back then. Nyesal that the first NO NO dalam job hunting was anything to do with sales. Macam la kerje SALES itu keje xde class and memalukan. I know, there’re still people with this kind of mindset. I realized this when I was back in ambank. I envy gile bebudak institutional sales. They know their products like the back of their hand. Datang office sempoi, kenal ramai big corporate people, hence their level of confidence and network cam harem J.. tup tap, 2/3 kali setahun, go to ridiculous trips- afrika la (with frens).. and its not incentive, its with their own freakin money. And now, when doing product development in Kenanga, one of the challenges is the ability to sell the product. Aku rase product yg kitorg nak offer da baiiikkkk dah. But sales?? Very important.

So, my new year resolution is to be a better GREAT sales person. X semestinya on selling product, selling your skills- bile job hunting, selling your ideas to ur bosses, selling a task to ur subordinates, selling selling and selling. So, kenkawan, mari la kite menyemai this skill.. J]

Oohh, twitt! Another thing pasal bebudak institutional sales tu- another key point for them is that they LOVE their work. Oohhhh, how I envy those ppl not having to dread in the morning getting their S to work.