An amateur's guide to Successful Professional Selling: The Smile and the Alter-Ego

An amateur's guide to Successful Professional Selling: The Smile and the Alter-Egocourtesy of Peanuts.

The Smile and the Alter-Ego

We have covered the knowledge and the confidence part of it (the requirements for a successful professional sales career). Now let us take on the other stuff.  All the remaining stuff can be possessed by just and being practical and thinking of Charlie Brown (Who? Why? What the? etc..as you must be thinking if you have been with me till now..). I'll explain.

Let us make a resolution that whenever you feel that you are weighed down by your information, lack of-confidence, the criminally partial behavior of your boss to a dumb cow, office politics etc. and you are starting to sink, just mutter to yourself "Charlie Brown".. Why Charlie Brown?  Why not? 

Just tell me does Charlie Brown has any problems with anyone?. No. What will his reaction be if he was called by the dirtiest phrase there is?... Nothing. Charlie will shrug it off. Does Charlie have any jealousy or any kind of negative feelings? No .How do you know that? From his face! Think of Charlie , picture him and think that if Charlie was visiting this customer today, what would his approach be when he meets the security people. Cool and polite ! Charlie does not have a rude bone on his body.

(It is my personal opinion that Charlie , Calvin and Hobbes are philosophers. The world will be a much better place if students are taught about Charlie, Calvin & Hobbes instead of Plato & Aristotle)

So the third thing you need to have friends is “Charlie Brown”!! Finally, always be polite to the security staff-they are just doing their duty. Maybe someone is being overzealous and you are feeling the first pangs of anger! 'Charlie Brown'. well, at least someone is doing his work over-zealously then the opposite. Give your anger the bird, and  stay in your Charlie Brown mode-you will be able to go in faster inside the plant than those snobs calling themselves salesmen who want VIP treatment. Don't believe me ?Try it out! You will see that it's not fiction. It's fact! "Charlie Brown"!

I have always been Charlie Brownish in my professional life and I think I have almost saved a year of my life- counting up all those 5 minutes to 30 minutes delay that an  average VISP (very important sales person) wastes trying to convince the security chief how great he or she is and why they should therefore be allowed in without delay.

So-now you are all prepared; maybe we will venture out and maybe meet a customer very soon

Till then, it's bye from Bilbo.

And remember,

“Charlie Brown”! And once more....all together

 “ Charlie Brown”..

THE ALCHEMY OF CONFIDENCE

WE START WITH A BANG HERE -FRIENDS! The women opposite has it in her.. has what? ... confidence..of course. (I have by intent termed the model as a woman and not a lady ...cos Kenny Rogers. LRB..and even Eric Clapton  has not painted a confident feminine personality in their songs.). Do you think that she can do anything possible for her to do? Do you think her capable of kicking ass? Do you think that she knows everything?...
Well, I don't know about you guys but my answer is yes. Look at the eyes and lips-the body language. This is a picture of one hell of a confident lady. This is confidence friends. And it comes with a little homework. Say, you are going out to sell pumps then you should know something about pumps. You may say "what's something"here-its that amount of  information related to the values of the product which a sales person should know like the difference between two models in your product line. Also,its the answer to the question by the customer " so, what's my cut-or what am I going to get out of it". Here the first person means the customer's organization. So, you should know what will satisfy him or her,
which will be in 99% cases..money!You can say "low maintenance" or "energy savings" or whatever, but its the dollars , which are meant

Before approaching the customer, make a mental check list and tick out the squares connected to product knowledge, technical matters which may be discussed, what are the customer's existing pump makes? What is the customer's application? Can I offer him something which will save him money in the future and is the offer provable with other customers? Do that, just try to kill all those butterflies in your stomach, open the door after knocking and ask him permission to come. ( Yes, butterflies fly in the stomach of all salespeople despite the experience-your boss has them too. There are different ways to solve this affliction. Mine is to tell myself that OK what is the maximum that the person inside can do to me. He can't arrest me or hit me. At the most, he can throw me out of his room..so what am I so nervous for...and the butterflies just stop flying....you can do that if you want and the technique is not patented!)
Now the last point that is, your product saving the customer money. It may be so that there is no way. Both your and the competitor products are equal in quality. This will happen in a majority of your cases. You can still replace your competitor. How to do that ? just wait for my next post
Love
BILBO