Universal Principles For Selling Professionals
Mindful of your dress
Choose your dinnerware carefully.
When making your pitch
Spoon feed the details slowly.
Table any issues
You can’t address to completion.
Cut your pitch
Into bite size amounts.
Be careful not to have the horse
Follow the ala carte.
And when you come to a fork in the conversation,
Pick it up
Lest the listener gets bored.
Water is soft to touch
Yet can overcome the hardest of granite
An authentic desire to help
Can overcome the hardest Gatekeeper.
I was in the area.
Thought I would stop by.
Here is some information, you may find of value.
Would you like to learn more?
Not pushing, not bullying,
not rushing the moment.
A genuine desire to help and befriend
Opens doors to opportunities.
When prospects think that they know the answers,
they are difficult to guide.
When they know that they don’t know,
they can find their own way.
If you want to learn how to sell,
avoid being clever or slick.
The direct path is the clearest.
Sharing features,
Showing benefits,
Giving prospects time to self discover
allowing them to find their own way
to your service or product.
Sellers have strengths.
Sellers have weaknesses.
This is true of both you and the competition.
If you understand who you are,
And know your competition too,
You needn’t fear losing deals.
If you know yourself, but not the competition,
You will win some deals, lose others.
Yet if you know neither yourself, nor the competition,
You will fail in the marketplace.
Know what you know,
Know what you don’t,
Move the unknown to the known,
Knowing you will never know everything.
This is the great challenge,
and the great joy,
Learning.
Like all performances
Each sales call draws to a close.
Knowing few things solve all situations
The Master Seller asks
Do you think we’ve uncovered all your concerns?
Do you think our product solves the issues we covered?
Do you think we can start in two weeks?
Matching solutions to problems
the purchase comes naturally.
This is the no close close.
To understand
We label buyers by what we see
But the names have limits
Only the effects of something subtle.
When you see beyond the label
You can sense the true nature of the buyer,
Better share the benefits of your solution.
Look beyond the obvious
Awake to the true nature
Speak to it.
Stay awake to the news
Seek referrals from clients
Set goals on drop-by’s
and dialed cold calls.
Knowing there are no prospects
without leads
Listen
Look
They are there for the seeking.
Not assuming a prospect’s desires is strength.
Knowing what’s good for them is weak.
Taking for granted and presuming instills weakness
Awake, the Master Seller knows the cure
Finding solutions that match needs
Conscious that prospects are unique as snowflakes
with their own struggles and frustrations.
Two weeks ago we wrote:
“Knowing your product is intelligence
Knowing your market is true wisdom
Mastering selling is strength
Mastering yourself is true power.
Tenacity, Patience, Focus,
Discipline and Confidence,
Empathetic with Humor
These are the keys
to true power.”
Since that time, we’ve gone into each skill, and examined them detail. Â Take a moment and reflect on these skills and consider how they relate to you.
The table above is a Leader Board. Find your greatest strength and make it a 1. Then consider the next greatest strength, make it a 2. Continue to do this for the rest, and if there is a tie, give them the  same value. Repeat this process until all of your skills have been ranked.  Now examine and reflect.
Do you see room for improvement?  Is there opportunity not yet tapped? And are you sure this is how the world sees you?  Now comes the real test.  Forward this to three friends, people you can trust and you believe will answer  honestly and  fun have them rank your skill set.   Once complete, how do they compare to your list, is there a disconnect?  What is your True Power?
The Tao Te Ching of Sales 