HTSS69 - 10 things about sales I wish I would have learned earlier - Scott Sylvan Bell

Top 10 sales lessons I have learned

Since being in sales since 2002 there are plenty of things that I have learned. I wanted to share with you the list of the 10 items I wish I could go back and talk to myself about almost 20 years ago.

The first 10 lessons:

1. Out of all of the lessons this would be the first. It is important to focus on your own skills and not what everyone else is doing. It is you against you first and you against everyone else second. Its not you against 100% of salespeople its you against the top 20%.  
2. Its not a sales call it’s a performance. This means each performance is treated as the work needed to close the sale. Mailing in a sales presentation is one of the fastest ways to have major concessions or losing a deal.
3. There are common trends for salespeople when they struggle. Most salespeople speed though sales presentations when they struggle. The whole thought process is to get to the close and give a discount. Sadly, most of the time this doesn’t work and creates more of a sales slump for the salesperson.
4. You have to pay for your own coaching and training. In the world of sales you have to believe you are the person that is coming to save you. There are times where what you ay for gives you and edge and sometimes it doesn’t work. There is an statistic out there that sales most salespeople will not spend $20 on themselves annually and the is the equivalent to a hard cover book. You can easily outwork your “competition” with just a little effort.
5. You sell how you buy – you buy how you sell until someone points it out. Your own selling process and style is really influenced on how you make purchases. Most salespeople never figure this out and are only able to sell to one segment of buyers.  
6. Deep down inside buyers want to know they will be taken care of. How you treat your buyer before, during and after the sale does matter. This is the idea to sell to and not the price of the product or the service.
7. At some point(s) you will get burned in business, you will lose and it hurts. You cant stop this the more deals you do the bigger your risk gets. This gets chalked up to part of doing business.
8. You will lose friends over your success and or your new sales skills. These haters will be mad that you make them look bad. The fear is that if you can do it and so can they. Since you are doing “it” and they are not the anger rises. You will make friends over your skills who will push you to be better.
9. Have a good follow up plan. Most deals are lost because salespeople do not follow up in a meaningful way. If you want to close extra deals learn how to follow up in multiple ways.
10. The riches are in lists. When you maintain your list for the long term you have a base of people to market to and work with. Make sure to get referrals and testimonials as often as possible as well.
11. Make sure you keep your reputation clean. There will be a time where someone comes to you with an offer that is too good to be true but it will make you a bunch of money. There is no shortcut to success only a shortcut to problems.

I believe that these are the best items to cover and go back in time with. There may be a few others that you would choose or you would pick. If you are new to sales this is a good base for you to start from.

Scott Sylvan Bell

@scottsbell

#sales #closer #success #Podcast #howtosellshow #Sacramento

This episode was recorded in Sacramento California