How Do You Become an Effective Salesman?

A new business owner asked about how to become a salesperson—that dreaded person stereotyped in movies as a big-talking, sleazy person who makes big promises just to get the sale.

Would you want to fit into that stereotype? The challenge is that the popular understanding of sales is about pushing people into a decision that is good for the salesperson but not the buyer.  Nobody likes being sold to but most people like buying.  That belief resulted in shopping malls. 

There is an alternative approach.  Sales can be defined as professionally helping people buy. 

So, we discussed the truth about successful sales:

• Ask questions to learn about the prospect and get to know them
• Learn what is important to them, what is not important, and what they want to avoid
• Learning why they want these things
• This knowledge enables the salesperson to determine if what he/she has to offer is even relevant for this prospect
• If it is relevant—then the salesperson needs to educate the prospect about how to make a good decision for themselves

What kind of salespeople do you like to work with?  What kind of salesperson do you want to be?  Let’s talk about how that’s achievable for you.