Top 10 sales rules that really work

Gary Harvey //August 1, 2012//

Top 10 sales rules that really work

Gary Harvey //August 1, 2012//

Here are my top 10 sales rules that I believe in and live by. Maybe these will help you, too.

1. Become a product of the product. If your prospect can’t see that you walk, eat, breath and believe the talk about what you offer, you’re a phony. It’s that simple.

2. Selling is not to get your emotional needs met. It’s to go to the bank.  I care passionately about helping my clients and potential prospects “if” it’s the right fit for them and me. However, I am not meeting with potential clients to get invited to their family dinner and get my emotional needs met because they say they like me. Keep your “need for approval” at home. Your sales job is to find prospects, determine a fit, care about helping them, fix their problem and go to the bank doing so. Your company did not hire you to be a professional visitor.

3. A minimum of two appointments/dayHave a prospecting awareness. Become what I call a “behavior animal” and focus more on the behaviors necessary to get appointments. Lack of sales results is not just a lack of a selling skill. It’s usually tied in to not doing the proper behaviors “daily.”

4. Be willing to fail and learn from it.  We have a rule: “In order to win, you have to be willing to fail!” The notion that “failure is not an option” is absurd. This old notion stops people from getting out of their comfort zones and trying new things. Do you think we would have iPods and iPhones if Steve Jobs was not willing to fail and learn from it?

5. Remove negative influences from your life.  Read the concepts about The Law of Attraction. I assure you if you allow negative influences in to your life, you will have negative outcomes. Positive influences in your life equal positive outcomes.

6. Stop using the word “can’t”. Re-read # 5 and see the connection here between # 5 and #6.

7. Accept only five allowable outcomes of a sales call:

          -Yes,

          – No,

          – a CDF (clear distinct future) that is firm and concise about next steps),

          – a Lesson Learned,

          – a Referral.

Note that I did not list a TIO (think-it-over) as acceptable. Why? Frankly, in 33 years of selling, I have found that 95 percent of the time, TIO’s are actually what I call a “slow no.” So stop chasing prospects that say TIO and hope you just go away so they don’t have to tell you “no.”

8. Become a prospecting animal  and referral machine.

         Engage in three to four minimum  prospecting behaviors

                 -Associate with others

                 -Cold calls

                 -Ask for referrals

                 -Networking

                 -Book talks/seminars

                 -Strategic alliances

 9. Stop selling! Stop looking, sounding and acting like every other salesperson out there. Learn how to get out of your own way and facilitate a process that allows your prospects to “discover” why they need you rather than trying to “sell” them.

10. You are a 10! Believe in yourself. No one can take that away from you unless you allow it. Do not let no’s from prospects diminish your self-esteem and self-confidence. Remember, they are not saying no to who you are – only to what you offer.