Without This You Will Fail at Sales – Part 1

Fail-at-Sales

In this two-part special report, I reveal the one thing that has helped me sell more than anything else. It took me 10 years to find out that I needed this particular item and once I harnessed its full power my sales career never looked back.

We all?go?through that stage in our sales career where we want to go to the next level, but we're not quite sure what we need to do to make the necessary changes which will catapult us to the next level of selling success.

If you are struggling in your sales career or maybe you're not satisfied by the level of success you are achieving, I would suggest you switch off the mobile phone and give yourself some time to think through what I am about to share. Because I know that the following information I will share in this two-part series turned my sales career around!

What I Learned at the Beginning of My Sales Career

When I first started in sales some 20+ years ago my sales training was incredibly in-depth. When I started?my first sales job, on day one I was given a brief overview and synopsis of what I was selling and then told by my new sales manager to take the Yellow Pages and start calling as many people as I possibly could. To give me a head start, my boss at the time, suggested I started calling from the back of the Yellow Pages as he felt most salespeople normally started phoning from the front of the Yellow Pages. With this incredibly valuable sales training and insider knowledge as to the complexity of using the Yellow Pages as a sales tool I started my sales career.

As the years went by, I started to add a variety of sales jobs to my?resume and it soon blossomed into a considerable sized document. Where as most people spend three or four years at a position, due to the powerful sales training I was receiving in each of these jobs I found myself consistently going through a revolving door every 6 to 12 months. With every job offered, there was the?promise of great riches. Only to find that having gone through the extensive one-day sales training course, I was no better off than the position I had left behind. By the fifth sales job I knew a great deal about a number of products, but had no clue as to how to get an appointment let alone sell?the?product or service I was representing. It seems that every sales manager I had worked for?had operated with the belief that they did not need to teach me how to make an appointment or what to say when I got?a prospect on the line.

Finally realising that none of the sales managers I was working for were their help to me succeed, I decided to take control of ?my own sales education and with the little savings I had left signed up for the best sales training courses available.

How Sales Training Turned Around My Results

Back when I started my career in sales in the mid-90s, I read?a full-page advertisement in The Sydney Morning Herald promoting a one-day sales training spectacular by Tom Hopkins - the internationally acclaimed sales trainer to be held at the Sydney Town Hall. From memory, the price for a ticket was the?equivalent of nearly a quarter of my weekly salary. Having convinced several relatives to lend me the money as?I desperately needed this training, I paid for my?ticket with all my hopes riding on this one opportunity.

Seated amongst 600 other conference attendees, Tom Hopkins took to the stage stating that if we?used his sales scripts Word for Word ? success was basically guaranteed.?Even though I was not known for my note-taking ability at school, that day at the Sydney Town Hall?I made copious notes. Remember, Tom Hopkins had assured us all that if we learnt this material Word for Word success was ours for the?taking and as I had spent the last three years living week to week with hardly any success, I was determined to get the most out of this?sales conference - if Tom could do it so could I.

The following morning, I arrived at work ready to put my new-found knowledge to the test. I summoned all the courage I had and put my new-found cold calling script to work. I telephoned a chap by the name of Larry McCabe who?was the general manager at a large company.

In a matter of seconds?I jumped the first hurdle as I got past his sales secretary (the dreaded gatekeeper) and in no time at all I was speaking to Mr McCabe. As I went through each stage of the sales script, all seemed to be going according to plan. Finally I reached the closing point asking for an appointment and waited from Mr McCabe's response.

"Ken, your name is Ken - is that correct? Said Mr McCabe.

"Yes, my name is Ken," said I nervously waiting his response.

"Ken, that was very good. Your delivery of that sales script was superb. As a matter of fact we were just practicing that same script in our sales meeting, none of my sales reps delivered that script as good as you have. You must have been practising that script all night, great delivery. What did you think of the Tom Hopkins sales conference??Said Mr McCabe.

Thankfully, for my sake, I got past that moment and successfully booked my first sales appointment with Mr McKabe thanks to my new found sales knowledge.

Since then I have made tens of thousands of sales calls and as the years have gone by I have learnt the?power of having the right set of words to get the right result.

Why do sales reps do it? And why do sales managers let this happen?

Having trained hundreds of sales teams, I am always amazed at the fact that sales people can be given a script and when it does not work after the first couple of attempts, they give up and revert back to sales approaches that make them sound no better than an order taker.

The other day I took a phone call from?a sales rep selling financial services. As soon as I answered,?they launched into a history lesson of why their finance company was the best in the business. Having finished, they asked me if I needed finance. When I said "No", they promptly hanged up before I could ask a question.

It is this type of approach that prompts the community to sign up for the "No-Call Register".

Keep doing this and your sales career will be short-lived. But it doesn't have to be this way.

In part two, tomorrow I will share with you the key ingredient which took me 10 years to develop, implement and perfect. Once you get this concept and put it into practice your sales career will definitely go to the next level.

Question: What has been?the one thing you have learnt that has turned around your sales career?

I would love your feedback.?I have a policy of responding to everyone's comments as it is an opportunity for us to share and learn from each other's experience.?Share your thoughts below in our comments section.

Trainer Ken