JAJT
Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Worth mentioning:
There's a massive distinction between understanding sales, and getting good at it.
Books are great, great resources to understand how the sales process works. The psychology of it. How pros do things differently. Technical aspects. Negotiation tactics. Why "this" works better than "that", Etc...
What sales books ARE NOT GOOD AT, is actually making you a good sales person. Only SELLING can do that.
What's that old phrase? You don't learn to swim by reading a book on it? Same thing here.
If you are reading sales books because you "think they are important" or "might help one day" you are almost certainly fooling yourself.
My best recommendation is to get in the shit and start selling. Once you are selling - pick up the top recommended books on the subject and start tweaking your process as you go. One or things at a time. Tops. Even one small tip from any of these books can increase your sales like crazy but it will absolutely take you 25 - 50 - 100 calls or meetings to ingrain even the smallest tip into your process.
I'll tell you - at previous jobs I've tried spending 1-2-3 hours perfecting the "script" (or flow) I would use on my first calls and I can tell you 99% of the time they were useless pieces of paper the second someone said the first "hello".
Wasn't it Mike Tyson who said "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"? Same thing.
After 10-20 calls, however, I was able to re-write it entirely in a realistic way. Then I'd read the resources (books, blogs, newsletters) on selling and integrate one small change "here", one minor tweak "there" and conversion rates started improving.
Case in point - changing your voice inflection and intonation is a huge selling tactic but I guarantee you no amount of reading will help you do this. It's one of the most annoying, hardest things to change for something that reads so easily on a page. Oh, don't raise your voice at the end of a sentence? Easy! Call 1: F*ck. Call 10: F*ck, almost. Call 20: Ohh that one sentence was actually pretty awesome. Call 100: I'm getting good at this...
Sales resources are only useful once you are selling. They do very, very little beforehand. It may be fascinating and you may be able to reference them after you start selling, yes, but I implore you not to spend too much time reading if you aren't in a position yet to start selling.
There's a massive distinction between understanding sales, and getting good at it.
Books are great, great resources to understand how the sales process works. The psychology of it. How pros do things differently. Technical aspects. Negotiation tactics. Why "this" works better than "that", Etc...
What sales books ARE NOT GOOD AT, is actually making you a good sales person. Only SELLING can do that.
What's that old phrase? You don't learn to swim by reading a book on it? Same thing here.
If you are reading sales books because you "think they are important" or "might help one day" you are almost certainly fooling yourself.
My best recommendation is to get in the shit and start selling. Once you are selling - pick up the top recommended books on the subject and start tweaking your process as you go. One or things at a time. Tops. Even one small tip from any of these books can increase your sales like crazy but it will absolutely take you 25 - 50 - 100 calls or meetings to ingrain even the smallest tip into your process.
I'll tell you - at previous jobs I've tried spending 1-2-3 hours perfecting the "script" (or flow) I would use on my first calls and I can tell you 99% of the time they were useless pieces of paper the second someone said the first "hello".
Wasn't it Mike Tyson who said "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"? Same thing.
After 10-20 calls, however, I was able to re-write it entirely in a realistic way. Then I'd read the resources (books, blogs, newsletters) on selling and integrate one small change "here", one minor tweak "there" and conversion rates started improving.
Case in point - changing your voice inflection and intonation is a huge selling tactic but I guarantee you no amount of reading will help you do this. It's one of the most annoying, hardest things to change for something that reads so easily on a page. Oh, don't raise your voice at the end of a sentence? Easy! Call 1: F*ck. Call 10: F*ck, almost. Call 20: Ohh that one sentence was actually pretty awesome. Call 100: I'm getting good at this...
Sales resources are only useful once you are selling. They do very, very little beforehand. It may be fascinating and you may be able to reference them after you start selling, yes, but I implore you not to spend too much time reading if you aren't in a position yet to start selling.