What is a sale?

I thought I would write a little bit about sales today. It’s interesting to see what people think of a sales person or what defines a sale. Several years ago, I ran a small internet company. It was very small. You might think that it would be easy to get new business in the door for such a small company. Others might reason that the product I was selling might have been oversaturated for the market I was in. Back then I had too many people giving me bad advice. At the time, I was really having trouble with focus and I didn’t even know what a sale was.

Oh, I had my share of people giving their opinions within my company. Let me tell you, there were no shortage of opinions. It’s as my father used to say:”Opinions are like buttholes, Everyone has em and they all stink.” So what I learned is that you really don’t get anywhere by asking a bunch of buttholes a questions. All you get is a bunch of hot air. (Don’t worry, I’m not going any further with that thought)

After that frustrating period in my life, I was glad to meet some really sharp individuals. Most of the insight I use on a daily basis comes from these guys. I learned that there are actually two parts to new business. There is Selling which we all think we know and then there is closing where most think they are strong yet they fail miserably!

The Selling part is easy, you do it every day without even trying. Some days you try too hard and you know when you do it. That’s the experience most “non-sales” people refer to selling. They are not any good at it so they hate it. Once a person realizes that there is more power in developing a relationship they begin to understand sales.

When you get to the point of mastering the close then you are really getting somewhere. Most of us do not like to ask for money. As you know, we miss 100% of all the shots we do not take. If you don’t ask, you probably won’t get it. I have already told you about the suit negotiation, Do you think that I would have had the clerk offer up a discount if I never opened up my mouth? Ron Legrand says that the Highest paid profession in America is flapping your lips. Guess what he is right.

Even so, people do not really buy your product because they think its superior. Sure that helps, No one wants an inferior product. If someone calls me and establishes a relationship with me first, I am more likely to do business with that person. I am not looking for an hour long conversation; I am simply drawn to people who seem genuinely interested in what I am doing and how they can help me.

When you are selling remember that its not all about what you are selling its more about how you interact with people. If you really care about them as people and what they do you will find that it is unnecessary to be a pushy sales person. They will want to work with you.