The Beginner's guide to Sales + AMA

[Scot]

Over the past few weeks, I've been very fortunate to have some great conversations with fellow forum members about the topic of sales. A few people here reached out to me for advice on sales as they know my Slowlane job is in sales. I wanted to take a little bit of time to throw together a Beginner's Guide to sales for people who have never had any significant experience. Also, I'll open this up to an AMA on sales techniques and approaches.

Disclaimer:
I am not claiming to be THE expert in sales and have every answer, but I will do my best to answer any questions to the best of my knowledge and experience. I have spent the past 5 years working in the Pharmaceutical industry in field sales. In the past year I was given a secondary position as a field trainer, responsible for the entire Southeast US. I train new hires, managers, as well as tenured reps. I also have about 5 years experience in retail commission sales prior to this.

Sales is one of the most valuable and important skills you can have
There it is, my polarizing statement. It has been said by entrepreneurs more successful than I, that sales is one of the most important functions and skills you can have to run your business. I will cite both Rich Dad, Poor Dad, as well as Ready, Fire, Aim as my back up. Of course, if you're building an SaaS platform, a website or app, you need the technical and design skills to create the product, but what next? You're a great author and want to publish your book, you know this has Pulitzer written all over it. Ok, you launch to crickets. Why? Because its the New York Times best SELLER list, not best Author list.

At the end of the day, you need to get your product to people, business, enterprise, who ever you're selling to and they need to make the decision to buy. At the end of the day, that is the foundation of every business. Yes, you need to provide value and that alone will lead to some movement, but even the most valuable products and services need sales to drive business.


How to start selling

When you boil it down to its bare roots, sales is a conversation. This conversation can either happen via email, in person, over the phone, through a video presentation, written copy or advertising. Whether your product needs to have some or all of these elements to drive sales is up to you as an entrepreneur. The most important factor is to start.

Cold Calling: We have some great fastlaners here that excel and thrive in the cold calling world. Cold Calling is one of the quickest ways to get over your fear of rejection. If you’re running a Cold Calling campaign, expect to be told no 1,000’s of times. After that first 100 times, it suddenly wont matter and you will not fear it.


In person sales: Whether you are doing door to door sales, following up warm leads, or networking at events, this is my favorite form of sales. Lots of factors come into play here: Body language, tone, and instant feedback. Body language plays a big role in conversation, so if this is a week point, study up on it. I have seen several sales pitches crash and burn because a rep did not interpret the customer’s body language.


Online Sales: Get your landing page and copy up and running! There’s no excuse to avoid this type of sales. Copywriting is only a form of sales. A great tool to have is an FAQ. FAQ’s aren’t there to answer dumb questions, they’re there to overcome objections. After you’ve spoken with enough customers, you should know what objections they have over your product, answer them in your FAQ! This will already cover all their fears.


The Pitch

I am a fan of being straight to the point and being succinct. People have very short attention spans and if you want to tell your life story, your product’s life story, and every feature and benefit (that they may or may not want), you’re going to watch their eyes glaze over. You never want to talk for more than 30 seconds, you’ll lose them after this.

Control the conversation. I get it, you’re excited, you love your product, they should too, right? This is a problem I routinely have and have to be hyper focused on during a sales call. I want to tell you EVERYTHING. You should let your customers do the 75% of the talking. I’m going to steal a line from my old employer Verizon. Earn the Right. At the end of your pitch, you need to earn the right to close the sale. How? Your recommendation needs to have a foundation to stand on and you build that foundation one brick at a time by LISTENING to your customer.

Ask questions. This is one of the most important parts of sales and often over looked. Play stupid, stroke their egos. “Hey Mr Smith, you’re obviously the expert on widgets, can you tell me what some of the common problems you run into when installing widgets?” You’ll get their life story about widgets. And if you pick up on the conversation, you’ll find opportunities to tie your sale back into. “Suzy, what do you typically look for when buying a new back pack?” Suzy says, “Well I use my packs primarily for hiking, so I need them to be comfortable. A lot of packs are comfortable, but most don’t focus on lower back support, and the ones that do are always so boring and bland” Here’s what the final pitch looks like just from that sentence, “Well Suzy, I know you need a great pack to take on your next hike, here’s why I think the Hiker 5000 is the best option for you. You said that comfort is your number one priority, these cushions here feel great after those 20 miles, plus they’re breathable too. Also, we focus on back support which you said is important too. Oh, and did I forget to mention, we have a fully customizable pattern, no more bland packs for you!”


Objections

You will not close every sale, but you can do your best to find out why they wont buy. Every person has objections when looking at a product or service. The problem is, many people won’t tell you. Worse off, they use what’s called a “smoke screen”. Smoke screens are generic objections like “Oh I don’t need a new one right now” or “I’d buy it if it wasn’t so expensive”. What you’re seeing here is that you did not sell them on the benefits well enough.


An easy way to overcome these objections is to probe deeper. My favorite probe is, “Mr Smith, lets pretend that cost isn’t a factor right now, what else would hold you back from XYZ?” Take their objection off the table and pretend like it doesn’t exist. A lot of times this is enough to get the real reason out. You need to follow the age old WIIFM, whats in it for me. Customers need to know how this benefits them. And many times you need to show them the benefits outweigh their worries of cost, difficulty, interruption, or complacency.


Over time you will naturally see objections surface during your sales pitches if you’re doing face to face, email or phone marketing. The best course is to follow the above guidance, to dig deeper into the conversation, ask questions and get these out of the way early.


Coffee is for Closers

Ok, great, you survived the sales pitch, now its time to get their money! Not so fast. The close is still a very delicate part of the sale that can make or break you. Here are my favorite types of closing techniques.

Presumptive Close: Proceed as if you already got the yes. This can look something like “I’m glad you like the Hiker 5000 Suzy, lets get this bad boy ready for hiking season. What’s a good shipping address” This gets the buyer in the mindset that they’re ready to buy. But be warned, if your pitch was not solid or you didn’t overcome all objections, you will get some bad feedback on this.


Soft Close: Ask permission here. “Mr Smith, we’ve talked about how our new ABC widget will improve your business, would you like to order 20 for next week?” It’s a passive type closing, but you’re asking permission. This one works well, if you use the next type of close early on.

Trial closes: These will help you get to that soft close above. Throughout the conversation throw in little questions like “Does that sound good to you?” Always use yes or no questions. “Does this sound like it will be a benefit to your company?” If you get yes, you move on one step closer to the soft close. If you get a no, circle back and ask why, this is an objection moment.


Hard close: This is only to be used when proper rapport is established. Never use this close on a first time sales pitch. This is your “sympathy close” or “scratch my back, Ill scratch yours” close. “Mr Smith, you’ve been a great customer to us over the years, but I’ve noticed you haven’t ordered any widgets since November, lets place an order for you with a 20% discount” or “John, this month has been really rough for us and partner is breathing down my neck, could you do us a favor and order 5 more next week?” It works, but do NOT abuse this or use it without rapport.


This enough for now, I’ll include some more sales techniques over the next few days. I hope this can help some of you.

 

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[Scot]

Quick Tip - Gate Keepers and Ice Breakers

Getting past a receptionist or front desk, especially when doing cold calling is always a journey. Here's how I do it.

Research: Get the name of the person who calls the shots. Instead of asking for Mr Smith, ask for John. Already know something about their business, bring it up in conversation, it shows more credibility.

Ask for help: People always want to help. I always play up the new guy card the first 6 months in a new territory. Act lost and ask for their help, apologize that you "don't know the rules around here" Pity goes a long way, milk it.

The Follow Up: You're not there for a sales call, you're following up. "Good morning, I'm just here to follow up with Mr Smith, we talked at an event/over the phone/whatever last week. I wanted to check up on how things were going with his service/sale" Odds are, they're not going to communicate that to the target, they'll just pass you along.

Ice Breakers: Make it all about them. People LOVE talking about themselves. If you've ever had a PM with me, what's the first question I always ask? "How's business going?" People will open up and tell you all the good, and the bad. Capitalize on that. Another one I learned lately I like is "Dr, if you weren't a doctor, what would you want to do?" You'll get some crazy answers, but they're open like a flower.

And my favorite Gate Keeper trick...
Pretend like you know what you're doing. This works great for face to face sales (and for pretty much anything). If you act like you belong there, people just assume you do. Big office building with a reception desk? Just walk past it and go to where you think your target is. Act confident like you belong there. I do this all the time at hospitals and offices with rules against reps. The staff want to see me, but the receptionists take their job too seriously. I just walk through the door and go talk to the staff, no ones stopped me yet. If you get caught, feign ignorance.

Disclaimer. Huge disclaimer. Do NOT break any laws or trespass with this last one. This will NOT work in places with actual security. This will only work in places that are open to the public.

 

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[Scot]

Quick Tip
I use this all the time, at least once a day. Do a dress rehearsal of your sales call. If you're waiting for your appointment or you're sitting there staring at the phone and psyching yourself out, go over it in your head.

I carry a notebook with me and will write down key bullet points I want to make during my call. I do research ahead of time, called a pre-call plan. I look at any past business from the target. For another sales gig I'm working on outside of pharma I researched his business online, checked his website for clues.

Have a plan and a script. Sit there, take a deep breath, and have a conversation aloud if possible, in your head if you're in public. Run through potential objections so you're not surprised if they come up.

Most importantly, rehearse your opening line or statement at least 10 times. The worst thing you can do is stumble and stutter the first thing out of your mouth.

Then, suck it up and pull the trigger. You lose every sale you don't try.

 

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[Thiago Machado]

@Nicoknowsbest

When I wanted to learn how to sell I read all those books too.

Don't waste your time.

I pasted the only material that worked for me below.
I'm sure @Scot would agree with the concepts on there.

I give the notes below to anyone whose looking to learn how to sell.
Read it, internalize, and apply the concepts.
You can only learn sales by going out there and doing it.

Save your time and the mental masturbation of reading sales books. (I fell victim to this. Never again.)
Just read the notes below, understand, and apply.


The Secret to Selling Anything - Harry Browne

1 - Discover the prospect’s motivation. Ask leading questions that encourage the prospect to talk about those areas of his life or business that will reveal the motivations to which you can appeal. Take an intense interest in all relevant problems that face the prospect. He’s telling you how to make the sale.


2 - Summarize the prospect’s motivation. Sum up the material presented to you in step one. Define the problem or summarize the objective so that you understand together what must be done to achieve his goals. In effect, you are confirming the qualifications you’ll have to meet to make the sale.


3 - Present your product. Now that you know what the prospect wants, you can present your product as the answer to that quest. Build your presentation around those matters (and only those matters) the buyer has said are important.


4 - Answer questions. Handle any reservations or objections the prospect may have; make sure he fully understands the proposal and the way it will satisfy his motives. In handling objections, don’t try to overrule the prospect’s thinking. Instead, use the listen-agree-suggest technique outlined in chapter seven.

5 - Close the sale. You should never find yourself locked in a life-and death struggle with the buyer when it comes time to close the sale. If you’ve done your job properly in the first four steps, you only have to encourage him now to do what he wants to do.


The Go Giver - Bob Burg

The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success
1. The Law of Value — Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
2. The Law of Compensation — Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
3. The Law of Influence — Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.
4. The Law of Authenticity — The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
5. The Law of Receptivity — The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.

P.S. - Of course the sales process differs. Your first point of contact (outbound) is usually never to make a sale, but to establish a relationship. To schedule an appointment / second meeting. But overall, I found that these concepts are the foundation of sales and all the training you need to go out and sell.

 

[Scot]

I can't quite remember the post I saw this in, but I thought it was excellent advice!
"Don't be the one to say no"
Obviously, it might not work for all business types, but it helps your customers not be offended if you need to refuse or reschedule for some reason and it makes it feel as if it was their choice to refuse rather than yours.

If you need to say no or not say yes and delay, blame it on someone else. "I'll have to check those numbers with my partner first" or "while I agree that's a good deal, unfortunately corporate won't let us pull the trigger on that" Then you can always counter offer and make yourself out to be the hero. It's a common tactic for car sales, it's cheesy but it works "my boss didn't want to let this car go for less than $25,000 but I talked him down to $24,500 for you"

 

[Scot]

Great thread thanks for creating it. Bookmarked.

I did sales for about 3 years or so, phone and live appts. VERY eye opening experience!!

I learned about hot streaks and cold streaks.

When you're hot you can't miss and it's the most fun and easiest money ever!

When you're cold..................not so much.

A must for entrepreneurs to get some kind of sales experience.

Cold streaks suck the life out of you. Your mood is everything when it comes to sales. Your customers are like wolves, they can smell the fear haha

I had a great boss at my retail job that gave me this quote "positive thoughts lead to positive results" (@AndrewNC maybe she was on to something?) At the time, I shrugged it off. But one day I decided to force myself to be positive and enthusiastic. Sales rolled in.

You have to create your own winning streaks. The more excited about your product, the more excited your prospects will be too.

If I try and sell you a car and I seam unsure or bored with it, do you want that car? Nope.

 

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[G-Man]

What I've learned about sales is from pure real life like @Scot. I really think it's pretty simple. I suppose it's more complicated if you're new and still afraid of rejection, etc, but here are my 3 super top secret selling rules that will make me a legend here:

1. Know your market.
2. Know your product.
3. Don't be a dick.

I will be elaborating on these rules in a 34 part Udemy course that will be available for $999 soon.

 

[Andy Black]

"How's business going?"

I use this all the time. No-one asks a business owner how business is going, and if they are asked, no-one hangs around to hear the answer.

In the forum my PM will be "How're things going?" (recognising not everyone has a business).


Now... 75% of them doing the talking? I'm screwed...

 

[Scot]

As promised, here is the article I mentioned defining the 5 categories sales people fall into. Article can be found here
Selling Is Not About Relationships

• Relationship Builders focus on developing strong personal and professional relationships and advocates across the customer organization. They are generous with their time, strive to meet customers’ every need, and work hard to resolve tensions in the commercial relationship.
• Hard Workers show up early, stay late, and always go the extra mile. They’ll make more calls in an hour and conduct more visits in a week than just about anyone else on the team.
• Lone Wolves are the deeply self-confident, the rule-breaking cowboys of the sales force who do things their way or not at all.
• Reactive Problem Solvers are, from the customers’ standpoint, highly reliable and detail-oriented. They focus on post-sales follow-up, ensuring that service issues related to implementation and execution are addressed quickly and thoroughly.
• Challengers use their deep understanding of their customers’ business to push their thinking and take control of the sales conversation. They’re not afraid to share even potentially controversial views and are assertive — with both their customers and bosses.

Harvard Business Review found that Challengers by far make up the majority of top performing rep's. They do this for 3 reasons,the most important one being that they take control of the sale. A challenger is able to drive the conversation to the points they want to hit on and then be assertive when needed.

Check out the article, it made me rethink my ideas on selling.

 

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[Scot]

Always agree / be agreeable. Don't say "no"

Definitely. I could go on for about four hours with the fine nuances and semantics when it comes to negative and positive words in conversation. Little things you say can heavily influence a persons attitude.

 

[Scot]

That's a really good point: you should have the presentation already laid out in your head.

It's not that you don't have the material in front of you, it's that it hasn't been internalized yet.

Paint a mental image...record a mental video/audio.

Makes sense - Thanks!

I had a call I did today for my side gig, before I dialed the number I had 4 bullet points written out on a notepad. I made sure to navigate the conversation to each point.

5 P's. Proper planning prevents poor performance.

 

[Scot]

Awesome, thanks for clarifying.

Looking forward to that study.

On that matter - any books you'd recommend?

I read "Spin Selling", "The Ultimate Sales Machine" and "Sell Or Be Sold".

I just received "How To Sell Anything To Anybody" by Joe Girard, but haven't made my way through it yet.

I'll be honest, I've never read a book on how to sell. Learned everything either on the job, from other reps or from my father.

The best thing you can do to develop sales skills is cross pollinate. Talk to other salesmen and pick their brains. Try and listen in on their sales pitches. I like to think I'm a Frankenstein of all the great pieces of technique I've picked up over the years.

 

[Andy Black]

I'll be honest, I've never read a book on how to sell. Learned everything either on the job, from other reps or from my father.

The best thing you can do to develop sales skills is cross pollinate. Talk to other salesmen and pick their brains. Try and listen in on their sales pitches. I like to think I'm a Frankenstein of all the great pieces of technique I've picked up over the years.

Interesting.

I refuse to read a "sales" book. I learn from a conversation here and a nugget there, normally that makes me face-palm because I suddenly realise what I've been doing.

Personally, the trick that helps me is to just try and help people. If you're genuinely trying to help people then you end up doing a lot of the right things anyway.

The least natural thing is to stfu, especially when it comes to closing time.

 

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[Anon1351z]

Great advice in this thread so far. Here are two tips from my experience selling:

1) Different selling strategies work better/worse for different price points/sales cycles

For instance, someone selling a $20 HR software over the phone to an HR manager and someone selling a $250,000 OSS/BSS to the C-Suite should probably not use the same strategy.

Take a look at your target market. If it's going to take 6 months and corporate buy-in to get the sale, you should probably build relationships. If you're selling something that is a market disrupter and you'll have to convince the decision maker that they're looking at the problem from the wrong perspective, try the challenger method. Figure out what will work for your model.

2) Play to your customer

I was selling billing software to telecommunications companies, typically someone in a CFO or CTO role. I made it my objective to come across as (and be) an intelligent individual who could speak to the nuances of the technology and the financials. That worked for me.

Then, I switched companies and ended up selling continuous improvement software to plant managers. I tried being the same technology and finance expert with this group and it failed miserably. It was only when I realized that these are blue collar guys who worked their way up the ranks and started talking to them in more of a relaxed conversation with less focus on the nuances, then I started having success. As a side note, I ended up enjoying selling to these people a lot more than the previous group.

Basically, it's not about you, it's about them.

 

[Scot]

@Scot, thanks for all the great info so far.

I am wondering if you have some thoughts on conversational selling? No script, no tactics, just a friendly conversation with an open outcome.

I prefer this way of selling much more, because I hate being sold to, especially if I get the feeling I am talking to a phrase-robot.

This 100% my selling style when I sell. I don't want you to misinterpret when I say have a script or have a plan.

Script for me means to plan out potential objections or questions the target may have and already have a way to answer it. Always answer it in your own words and honestly, but you don't want to be caught off guard and wish you'd done better as you're walking out the door.

And for plan I just mean to have certain bullet points and a roadmap. For my product, there are three things I definitely want to hit on. I'm going to find a way to steer the conversation naturally to make sure we talk about them.


I'm a relationship style seller. I build rapport with the staff and the target so that I can work into those hard closes down the line. Instead of being a salesman selling to you, I become the friend asking you for a favor.

When I get a chance today, there was a great study on sales by Harvard business review that I want to share that goes over the different sales styles really well.

 

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[Scot]

Thanks for the AMA!

Let's say my target customer is a business owner who does $500,000 per year or more in revenue.

The service I offer is a $3,000-$5,000 12-week program which eliminates stress, allows them to know exactly what steps to take next, and get rid of the mental/emotional struggle of owning a business. 1 call per week for 12 weeks.

So far, I sell the service through the internet slowly building rapport (book -> magazine -> email newsletter -> etc.)

Do you feel sales in this price range are commonly closed in one call over the phone? Or should the sales process be stretched out?

Thanks again!

That's a difficult one. If you were selling a hard program that could show documented sales inscrease or revenue increase, you could potentially close with 1 call from a warm lead.

When it comes to an intangible, that's a difficult sale from 1 call.

If you were able to target higher value executives with face to face I could think of a few avenues to take there.

Personally I would take a "fremium" approach here. If you get a warm lead, follow up with a call, use my steps to get past the gate keeper. Ask him about the stresses he deals with at work. The "how's business?" Has a great chance to open up those answers. At that point offer him a free copy of the book or magazine to see if he's interested in learning more.

Get the follow up once they've read it, then close.

Hope that gives you some help.

 

[Scot]

When a power-point or script isn't available, have you experienced instances where you weren't concise?

Definitely. As noted before, I have the gift of gab, I can get carried away. I always make a point to take a deep breath after a good chunk of talking to evaluate where I am in the conversation and think about it I've let them talk enough.

This is why rehearsing before hand can help a lot. It helps you to summarize your key points. It's kind of like when you wrote essays in school, you want to bullet point out a map so you have a plan to follow in your head.

 

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[Chazmania]

Cold streaks suck the life out of you. Your mood is everything when it comes to sales. Your customers are like wolves, they can smell the fear haha

The more excited about your product, the more excited your prospects will be too.

Exactly.

Conviction and being congruent (words, body-language, voice inflection, etc) = sales. You don't even need to know anything about selling if you're convinced yourself.

I sold products via appointment for a company and when i first got out of training I was absolutely convinced that we were the best. No question. I sold left and right! I almost couldn't not sell - it was comical.

Easy money.

Once I started to learn that there actually were comparable products in the market, and started seeing through a lot of BS the company was peddling to us, I started to do worse. Lost that absolute conviction.

Some people are better than others at manufacturing that state and it's a very subtle and slippery thing for others.

 

[Scot]

Quick Tip:

Complacency kills. While you may not have a set Territory and customer list, where you see the same 100 accounts every month like me, odds are you can still fall into a routine.

Making cold calls or sending out cold emails? You can fall victim too.

You use the same lines over and over

And over

And over

And over

...

If it bores the hell out of you, how do you think your customers feel?

You need to keep changing and evolving, whether your talking to a particular customer for the 20th time or you're making your 30th cold call of the day.

This is important for two key reasons.

- If you're bored and you feel like this is a routine, your enthusiasm is either gone or faked. Customers can smell it on you. Genuine passion and excitement is contagious and closes sales. Faked enthusiasm or malaise turns customers off.

- This puts you in a very complacent mindset. If you're expecting the same conversation and pitch, you won't pick up on sutle cues. You'll miss important parts, you'll zone out. And you won't take risks. If you're not feeling challenged, nervous or on edge, you won't feel the urge to push the envelope and do something scary. Don't be boring!

I say this out of experience. After walking into an office for what feels like the hundredth time with the same boring line, it sucks! It's like a bad marriage. The only action happens on anniversary of birthdays, and it's an obligation. Spice things up!

 

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[JAJT]

yet not one single reply .

I'm pretty good at cold emails but a big question I have is: why aren't you picking up the phone?

The phone works WONDERS at talking to small companies. If you have a good value-add, you are shooting yourself in the foot by filling up their email inbox asking who to speak to.

Also - your emails are likely going to get a LOT better after you talk to 100 potential customers on the phone. You realize what they REALLY care about, which person in the org ACTUALLY handles your business, and what the shortcuts are to get to the point quickly.

Your sales process should be:

1. Call them. Ask for the marketing guy.
2. Talk to the marketing guy. Say how you can help them and why they need you and what you've done for others in their position. Have a conversation.
3. If they tell you to email them information - ask them what information you should send to make this partnership an "obvious yes" for them. THEN you email them info tailored to them.
4. You call to follow up on the information!

I could write a literal essay on effective email communication for someone in your role but literally nothing I say would help you as much as picking up the phone. Email should really be a supplement to calling in almost any sales process that involves cold contacts.

Also - have you tried targeting these companies with highly targeted facebook ads? Imagine if the marketing guy was F*cking around on facebook and saw "Hey marketing manager from tuscon - you're reading this because I know what I'm doing, click here to learn how I can help you send messages like this to your customers" (or whatever, you get the idea).

 

[juan917]

Always agree / be agreeable. Don't say "no"

 

[MidwestLandlord]

If you've ever had a PM with me, what's the first question I always ask? "How's business going?" People will open up and tell you all the good, and the bad.

Haha, you did exactly that with me, and I responded with good and bad. (I think I put some good in there) I love talking shop, so yeah...I opened up when you asked that.

Interesting. Good stuff @Scot

I have a lot to learn with sales.

 

[Scot]

I use this all the time. No-one asks a business owner how business is going, and if they are asked, no-one hangs around to hear the answer.

In the forum my PM will be "How're things going?" (recognising not everyone has a business).


Now... 75% of them doing the talking? I'm screwed...

It's a great opener! People want to know they're cared about and they love talking about themselves.

And yeah, I agree Andy, I have this problem all the time. I'm a salesman, I want to talk. But I have to pump the brakes and let them talk or I'll miss some valuable Intel.

 

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[AmericanSpartan]

First, a thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread and elsewhere on the forums. I have learned so much!

At the beginning of this month I got a job "in sales" in that I "sell" memberships to a health club, but really I am a guide to bridging the gap between where people currently are in their health (overweight, low energy, over-medicated, etc) and where they desire themselves to be. All I do is listen to where they are, how they got there, and show them how with our facility and coaching we WILL get them to where they want to be. I'm a problem solver first and foremost. The hard part is that everyone needs to be healthy, but no body wants to put in the hard work and go through the transformation. This is where creativity and good ol' fashioned "sales techniques" come into play.

I have only been doing this for... 24 days now, but from day 1 to today, BIG differences in how I perform and my success rates. Here is what I have learned and am continuing to learn:

A lot of you guys mentioned that sales books are not worth the time or money. While I agree that nothing beats first hand experience, or mentorship, BOOKS ARE THE NEXT BEST THING! When you think about it, books are conversations with the authors through their written word. Zig Ziglar, Jeffery Gitomer, Niel Rackham, Robert Cialdini... all those guys have taken YEARS of experience and condensed it into a few hundred pages to take advantage of at anytime, anywhere. Reading helps build 'tools for the toolbox' for a new "Solutions Engineer" like myself. It creates questions that I will write between the lines or margins of the book, and see if the answers are elsewhere in the book, or allows me to experiment out in the field to test what I want to know. Besides, we can only be in the office for so long before we have to come home. Time not spent improving yourself can be time wasted. Why not fill it with a good book?! Don't just focus on "sales" type books either. Read books on body language, books on psychology/NLP, books on philosophy (Epictetus is highly suggested), and also entrepreneurship (which is what we are all ultimately working toward anyways- financial independence through our own businesses). We are not here to sell a widget, we are here to improve people's lives, so why not read books that do that in ALL areas of our lives?

Next, you have to believe in what you are offering. You must own or use your product. You might not think this is a big deal, but there will be subtle incongruency in your presentations and when you talk about what you offer in general. In order to be a product evangelist, you first be fired up about it! DRINK THAT DAMN KOOL-AID!

This brings me to the next item. ATTITUDE! Attitude is EVERYTHING! You HAVE to have a positive, excited attitude when you are with prospects. People want to know they are making the best choice for themselves. Negative minded people are protective and guarded. They are afraid that something bad will happen, and their attitude is a natural defense to prepare themselves for what may come. The problem is that since the mind is on this 'negative filter,' it will be constantly scanning for threats to 'confirm' what they are preparing themselves for. It lays the groundwork for self-fulfilling prophecies! With the excited aspect, it is possible to 'blow out' the prospect with TOO MUCH energy. A good tool is to estimate what 'level' of excitement they are on, and always be ONE LEVEL HIGHER than the prospect. This way you are constantly raising their energy and excitement to the point you get them in such a state of mind that they will feel comfortable and protected when they make the 'right choice' for themselves after you hit them with all the logical reasons to buy what you offer. I highly suggest Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude By Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone for improving in this area. Also listen to motivational speakers such as Zig Ziglar or Tony Robbins! *Quick word on motivation... it doesn't last! Motivation is like fuel in a tank; it has to constantly be refilled!*

I had a big problem my first couple of weeks on the job. I come from a military background where I had to harden my mind and emotion for the rigors of combat. I highly suppressed my emotional capabilities because stoicism is a crucial tool for survival in those situations. I also have a highly logical thinking pattern in how I learn and act. My initial problem was that I was so focused on presenting information, that I didn't engage or stir ANY emotion in my prospects! I thought, "ALL THE BENEFITS OUTWEIGH THE PRICE OF NOT GETTING STARTED! WHY ARE YOU SAYING 'NO!' " I learned the valuable lesson that INFORMATION PRESENTED WITHOUT EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT IS A DEAD DEAL! I will caveat this in that there are people out there, like myself, who operate more on a logical thinking level, and all you have to do is present the information that it is better to act now than not to act, and they will buy, BUT (and BUTTS are ALWAYS BIG!) even with those people, if you add emotion to it, you will double it's effectiveness! I managed to solve this by forcing myself to act in ways that happy excited people do. I forced myself to smile more, and smile BIGGER than usual. I forced myself to be more animated in my body language and facial expressions. I learned to MOVE MORE, and just be more ACTIVE. I listen to music that GETS ME FIRED UP! I listen to motivational speakers that make me excited and chomping at the bit to get to work. And you know what... it works. I am starting to actually feel emotions again. The best part? My life has improved as a result! I get so much more enjoyment from EVERYTHING! IT'S LIKE I AM ON DRUGS! *I am... it's called a positive attitude.*

Currently, I am working toward improving my cold calls. The biggest advice here is NEVER SIT WHILE ON THE PHONE! Be up on your feel and be animated when you talk EVEN ON THE PHONE! SMILE when you greet a prospect and say hello. Your voice, while you may not be aware of it, is HIGHLY reflective of our body language. If you are stiff and stagnate sitting in a chair, your voice will show it. If you are UP ON YOUR FEET, SMILING, EXCITED, ANIMATED... your voice will reflect that too! People think I am calling old friends by the way I act in the office on the phone, but I am just trying to make new friends .

Another important aspect is GOAL SETTING. How do you know where you will be in the future if you don't even know where you want to go? Setting goals creates a map you can use to navigate your present moment toward bringing your future into being. Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. : Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Once your goals are set, ask yourself what actions are you taking toward completion of it. This is where you may realize that NEW actions are needed. Make sure you ACTUALLY DO IT! Don't mentally masturbate here. If the action requires a resource, then start asking where you can get it. If you don't know, start asking WHO can help you get it. If you still don't know, start asking who do you know who might know someone who knows, etc. Basically, instead of asking WHY you can't do something, start asking HOW you can take action toward moving closer to achieving your goal. It doesn't matter how small of an action it is, you just have to make the first step.

Lastly, I always end my night and start my day by successfully SELLING myself to... myself! When I go to bed, I essentially set an 'appointment' for me to wake up in the mornings. I soft sell myself by saying that tomorrow will be a fantastic day, that waking up will allow me to go to work to help people improve their lives, and I will be able to see dozens of prospects! I set the "Opportunity Clock" (taken from Ziglar) for when I want to wake and close the appointment. I get a FANTASTIC night of sleep with amazing dreams to entertain myself with. When I wake, trouble starts and the objections rise with me. "I'm tired, I can sleep for five more minutes, my body aches, it's so cold and this bed is so warm..." I start my day with a sales presentation. I start to take the objections and provide solutions. "If you get out of bed, and start to move, you will feel more energetic, the aches will disappear, and you can warm up with a hot shower." Still, there is emotional reluctance, so I find the pain point and dig into it. "If you don't wake up RIGHT NOW and go to work, you will be fired and not make any money!"

THAT ONE NEVER FAILS!

While I am brand new to the world of sales a.k.a. PROBLEM SOLVING, it has been one of the BEST DECISIONS of my entire life. In just a month, I have learned so many skills and knowledge that are CRUCIAL toward success in my entrepreneurial journey. Not only that, but by interacting with prospects AND improving my emotional output, my quality of life and happiness has increased TENFOLD! I feel that I can do ANYTHING, because damn near everything we do in life is 'selling' in one way or another. This job has improved my self-confidence immensely. Within the span of 24 days, starting with ZERO sales experience, I have become the #3 membership rep in sales for my franchise group of 20+ locations this month, and the margin toward being on top is small and shrinking even more! (I'm going with beginners luck on this one, and it being 'New Year's Resolution' season.) I have five months with this job till I set sail out west in search of adventure and success, but I know that in these five months, I will be building a foundation for success that will last a lifetime!

 

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[Fox]

My apologies to not getting to this faster. I’ll be the first to admit, my strong suit is not cold email contact.

I’d check out threads by @Fox as I feel like he’s done the best with this type of sales. Selling FB marketing is hard, but my biggest tip would be consistency and tenacity. Don’t just send one email and assume you’re done. Have you tried setting up an email campaign where you can send a series of emails?

Just because they didn’t respond doesn’t mean they aren’t interested, just send them another one.

Thanks Scot.

Ya I land a lot of big clients through cold email so I will give some general advice...

One email is just the opener so the goal is not to sell, it is to get interest. So the content should be to get them wanting to get on a call and showing a lot of free value up front. Very little sales content (if any) in the email. Then the real selling is done on the phone call.

Why?

Bigger price sales have a lot of variables and you want the person you are selling to believe that it is a custom solution to them. At the very least that you understand their problem. Pushing for a sale too early implies that its a one-fit-all solution which no one really wants these days (unless its cheap - not a good market to be in).

So write emails that build trust, spike interest, and get them to take action.

You can build trust by NOT doing what every other cold emailer is doing.
Dont use a script, dont use a sales letter format, dont be weird or spammy.

Write an authentic email that speaks to them in terms of what they care about.
- why you think they could be doing better
- how they could be doing this
- what this might mean for them
- some free advice they can use right away
- some possible insight into their industry/niche which shows them you know their stuff
- a simple non-salesy call to action "id love to go over this on the phone so I can get your feedback and see if it makes sense to go further with this together"

In general people should really believe you wrote this just for them and that you can be trusted.
Sales come later when you get on the phone.

Then send it off and wait a day or two.

No response - call them anyway
Some response - move it to a call ASAP
Great response - move it to a call

If you want to sell then you got to start getting on calls too. Cold emails are just to warm it up a little first but you should move forwards either way.

Hope that helps.

 

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[MidwestLandlord]

This enough for now, I’ll include some more sales techniques over the next few days.

Please do add more!

Good stuff.

 

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[Scot]

Please do add more!

Good stuff.

Definitely will. I had a great conversation with another forum member, I'll have to dig through it and repost some on here.

 

[AndrewNC]

Personally I would take a "fremium" approach here. If you get a warm lead, follow up with a call, use my steps to get past the gate keeper. Ask him about the stresses he deals with at work. The "how's business?" Has a great chance to open up those answers. At that point offer him a free copy of the book or magazine to see if he's interested in learning more.

Get the follow up once they've read it, then close.

Thanks!

Quick follow-up on that idea. I could do a 5-10 minute call to have them experience an immediate benefit of the stress-reduction, and then talk about how that's one tool for about 100 different (major benefit-oriented) things. Then hand them a book showing them how to do some of them..

Then follow up with a more hard close in 3 days where I offer my services so they won't have to learn how to do all the techniques themesvles.

 

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[Scot]

Thanks!

Quick follow-up on that idea. I could do a 5-10 minute call to have them experience an immediate benefit of the stress-reduction, and then talk about how that's one tool for about 100 different (major benefit-oriented) things. Then hand them a book showing them how to do some of them..

Then follow up with a more hard close in 3 days where I offer my services so they won't have to learn how to do all the techniques themesvles.

Exactly! When you run them through a technique, the intangible becomes tangible. Once you've got a concrete product to offer them, it's much easier.

The follow up is such an important tool. And don't be afraid to be persistent either.

 

[Scot]

@Nicoknowsbest

When I wanted to learn how to sell I read all those books too.

Don't waste your time.

I pasted the only material that worked for me below.
I'm sure @Scot would agree with the concepts on there.

I give the notes below to anyone whose looking to learn how to sell.
Read it, internalize, and apply the concepts.
You can only learn sales by going out there and doing it.

Save your time and the mental masturbation of reading sales books. (I fell victim to this. Never again.)
Just read the notes below, understand, and apply.


The Secret to Selling Anything - Harry Browne

1 - Discover the prospect’s motivation. Ask leading questions that encourage the prospect to talk about those areas of his life or business that will reveal the motivations to which you can appeal. Take an intense interest in all relevant problems that face the prospect. He’s telling you how to make the sale.


2 - Summarize the prospect’s motivation. Sum up the material presented to you in step one. Define the problem or summarize the objective so that you understand together what must be done to achieve his goals. In effect, you are confirming the qualifications you’ll have to meet to make the sale.


3 - Present your product. Now that you know what the prospect wants, you can present your product as the answer to that quest. Build your presentation around those matters (and only those matters) the buyer has said are important.


4 - Answer questions. Handle any reservations or objections the prospect may have; make sure he fully understands the proposal and the way it will satisfy his motives. In handling objections, don’t try to overrule the prospect’s thinking. Instead, use the listen-agree-suggest technique outlined in chapter seven.

5 - Close the sale. You should never find yourself locked in a life-and death struggle with the buyer when it comes time to close the sale. If you’ve done your job properly in the first four steps, you only have to encourage him now to do what he wants to do.


The Go Giver - Bob Burg

The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success
1. The Law of Value — Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
2. The Law of Compensation — Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
3. The Law of Influence — Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.
4. The Law of Authenticity — The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
5. The Law of Receptivity — The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.

P.S. - Of course the sales process differs. Your first point of contact (outbound) is usually never to make a sale, but to establish a relationship. To schedule an appointment / second meeting. But overall, I found that these concepts are the foundation of sales and all the training you need to go out and sell.

Really good summation.

What I've learned about sales is from pure real life like @Scot. I really think it's pretty simple. I suppose it's more complicated if you're new and still afraid of rejection, etc, but here are my 3 super top secret selling rules that will make me a legend here:

1. Know your market.
2. Know your product.
3. Don't be a dick.

I will be elaborating on these rules in a 34 part Udemy course that will be available for $999 soon.

Fear is what holds back most people. Rejection sucks, but you eventually get over it. What's the worst that happens? They say no. Ouch.