Can you learn Sales?

H

HatDaddy

1,000+ Posts
I'm pursuing an opportunity to start my own business and it will come down getting out there and selling a product(s) I know and have worked with for the last 10 years.
I haven't had any experience other than retail sales in college.
Numerous people tell me I would be great at this just based on my work ethic and personality. I've worked for about 10 years on the operations side of things.

So my question is, can one learn Sales later in life, or is it something you are a natural at?
 
I haven't worked in sales, but it seems like a lot of it is just being able to talk to people and gain their trust.

My mother in law was a teacher for 30 years. She retired, moved to Austin, and took her first sales job ever at Crate & Barrel. Now she is their top seller there.
 
Yes you can. Your best asset is your knowledge and enthusiasm for the product. Your weakness is that you probably have no idea how to close the sale right now. THAT is where you can indeed learn some simply closing techniques that WILL result in sales.

1) Listen to your client and determine THEIR NEEDS. Telling them how wonderful your new product is that doesn't address their needs not only wastes time but is annoying.

2) Value versus price- it's the either/ or scenario in that your product is on one side of the ledger or the other. You position your sales pitch accordingly. If you can't convince a customer that the value of your product more than justifies the price you are going to have difficulty anytime your price point is higher than that of the competition

3) Closing techniques- "How to master the art of Selling" is a good one, based in real estate but with excellent principles. "the alternative close" "or the alternative close with the silence close" are the best two I think for most sales situations where you have identified your cutomers needs. Or you THINK you have. The alternative close gives the customer an either/or scenario- Oftentimes the only variable is the quantity- "So Bill, what better fits your needs. 5000 or 7500 of our new widgetmaster? Then SHUT THE **** UP!!!!
Do not utter a word, do not fidget, let Bill answer the question posed. The person who speaks first loses here as the "tension" is what creates the buying decision. If you speak you blow the sale opportunity. If they speak you have either a sale, or you get to find out the reasoning for objection. Identifying WHY they aren't buying is the only way to sell them. This info is valuable and can help you overcome this objection and move closer tot he sale.

If you are passionate, put an organizational system in place that continually moves you in the right direction, and LEARN TO CLOSE, and all will be good. Learn about closing techniques, as that is your area of biggest weakness. I also think you need to try and get "on their side of the table." By that I mean you need to work with them, more than simply see to them. You genuinely want to help them find a way to save them money, improve their productivity, or other benefit that makes buying your product a wise decision for them. Think of yourself is a collaborator and you will develop longer lasting (and profitiable) relationships.

You can learn- but knowing and working on your weakness is the best way to improve your odds of success. I think that most rookie salesmen have to battle two things- 1) nervousness 2) the desire to talk rather than listen.

In the first case make your first sales calls on smaller customers to build your confidence. In the second case ask questions!!!! Find out how you can HELP THEM solve a problem, save them money or whatever problem solving they are looking for. Until you can identify why they took your appointment, you honestly do not know the proper information to help them. When you help them, you make sales..... if you don't miss closing opportunities. Most sales are lost by the rep continuing to talk IMHO, after the sale is made they "unsell" it. If you view your job as "helping people" utilize your product, rather than selling you will be more successful in the long haul. Closing techniques are crucial though in actually booking the sales that feed the business engine,,, yes?
 
Agree with the previous poster. You will NEVER learn sales. Sorry. Try something else.

wink.gif
 
Personally I think sales is easy if you have a product you know, if you totally believe in the product you are selling, and you have excellent customer service after the sale.

An easy example are school fundraisers except for the customer service after the sale because there is none. Whiich could you sell easier to friend, relatives, and co-workers? The chocolate almond bars for $1 or the five sheets of wrapping paper for $10 that you can buy anywhere else for $3-$4. I hated fundraisers that offered stuff similar to the latter. The candy bars, cookies that were reasonably priced, or thermal mugs with local team emblems and records that were close to regular retail items in price all were sold with ease. My son won $100 for the most mugs sold two years running and he did 90% of the sales. The overpriced merchandise in the beautifully expensive catalog did not sell at all. It is very hard to sell something when you are embarrassed by your products poor quality yet having a steep price.
 
Yes, you can learn. I'm definitely not a "natural", but through hard work and constant education, I've become the top salesperson in my organization. It helps that I'm perceived by customers and employees to be the most honest person around.

Building trust in the first few minutes is so key. The customer has to buy you before they'll consider your product or service.

Also, Sales isn't for everyone. Are you someone who can succeed in a 100% commission position or are you wanting a base salary plus commission?

The first is far more lucrative than the second. Also, job security is much greater in 100% commission sales, because you are getting paid exactly what you are worth. With a Base plus position, you'll need to justify the salary you're receiving.
 
It will be 100% commission.
I'm looking into opening up an insurance agency.
I appreciate the responses so far, keep 'em coming.
 
I never went out and sold myself or my services until about 9 months ago. I made like 40 cold calls and had about a 25% success rate, which I've been told was very good.

At first, it was brutal, and I sat in my car not wanting to go in praying for help. After a while, it still wasn't something that I really liked doing, but it didn't make me sick to my stomach so much either.

The thing is, whoever talked about value creation was right. You can have the greatest product or service in the world, but if it doesn't add to the bottom line of the business you are trying to sell to or the personal happiness, or make life easier for an individual it's not going to work.

What you need to figure out is who you are trying to sell to and how what you have is going to help them.

I run a title company so I have banks, realtors, mortgage brokers, homebuilders etc that I coudl try to sell to. I only concentrated on Mortgage Brokers b/c I felt like I offered something in a niche (closings at nights, weekends, at thier houses or offices) that other title companys could not or were not able to add. I explained how that would add value to their business. I even charge more (not a ton, but a bit) then many of my competitiors but explained it was due to platinum level service that was going to make the process ridiculously easy for their buyer, not have them have to take off work, and would result in referalls later.

That was my business model for sales- find a niche and then exploit that and explain how your prodcut/service was going to add value to or make life easier for your potential customer.

If you have a good prodcut or service, you think about your market and approach it with the idea of trying to structure a win win proposition for both parties that add value to their bottom line you almost can't lose.

If you can't add value to the person you are trying to sell to in some way or another my advice would be don't go talk to that person. You might sell them something but it won't be to their benefit.

I closed every sales call by saying- look I don't want you to commit anything more than 1 deal in the future to me. If it isn't the easiest deal you've ever had and spectacularly successful I won't ever bother you again. I want to earn your trust so please send me one.

i probably got 10 customers of which 8 were still with me and are repeat over and over customers.

I didn't mess up the other 2 per se, they just had other people they used and threw me 1 deal as a courtesy for coming and talking to them, but I was super impressed with my success rate.

Remember:

1) Find a niche
2) Target your audience
3) Explain to them how your product will create value to their business or their life
4) Ask them nicely to give you a shot by buying 1 product or service
5) Call first to set up an appointment. I forgot to mention- I called all these people before I showed up and brought brekfast with me- I promised them it would only take 10 minutes of their time, I would bring breakfast (so they get something out of it, and breakfast is cheap) and it would be at the begginning of their day before the press of work gets too busy to give a salesman some time.

Good luck.

can I ask- what product/service are you trying to sell?
 
A lot of my post was a re-iteration of Summer's.

Conceptually he is absolutley spot on with pretty much everything he told you conceptually.

Putting yourself in their shoes is so important, that's the point I was trying to convey with Value creation and a win win transaction. Only go talk to people you can give actual value to. How do you figure out if you can give them value- by thinking about the world from their perspective and asking yourself- if I were them would I want to buy my product or service.

Also- practice, practice, practice and don't give up, you will get better. I play acted with my dad some before going out (he loves that kind of thing) sharpened my apporach and put in bullet points- 1 piece of paper what I was going to do for them.

Also- listen. Spend the time thinking about what you think they want before you go in, but be flexible when talking to them. Don't think of it as you selling to them, think of it as you are trying to help them make life better.

I think it was summer- which like I said read his post and really take it to heart, that said think of yourself as a collaborator with them not selling something to them.

That's what I mean when I say win win.
 
IMO, you can learn how to sell anything if you are knowledgeable about the product and your market. Even better if you are passionate about and/or believe in the product.

The type of selling "ability" that can not be taught is an innate one which enables the seller to be unaffected by rejection. This sales person can be ignorant or uninformed about thier product and will peddle anything to anyone without reserve or acumen. These sales types you'll typically find selling used cars, childrens toys at gas stations, speakers out of a van, timeshares, Xango..you get the idea.
 
You can learn the techniques but I believe the skill that makeup a top notch salesman is inherent. Some people just have the gift of gab and are more affable than others.
 
There are some people that were born to sell- I have a dad and a brother like that.

I was not, that's the perspective I was trying to give.

I didn't like it, but I was successful doing the stuff I said to do and that summer talked about. It isn't as easy for someone not born to do it, but with hard work and intelligent thought and approach you can succeed, especially with a good product, if you put in the effort.

You might not succeed to the extent someone that loves to do it will, but you can beat out the lazy asses and form a nice career I'd say.
 
I wonder what the hell most of you guys sell...if you do. Some of the worst advice I've ever heard regarding sales on this thread.
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interesting thread...

there is definitely a difference between enterprise / b2b sales and personal sales...

if you're going to sell insurance, than all of that stuff about closing techniques applies more. if i were to try that, i'd get laughed out the door. i sell enterprise services for a fortune 15. my top customer is fortune 1. fortune 2, while not my top customer, is one of my top 10.

yes, you can learn sales, if you have the personality and fortitude for it. that doesn't mean you can learn to be good at it.

the best advice on this thread, so far, was to have a system and methodology, but i don't know how to apply the method i know to insurance. i'm sure there is one and the company or companies you sell will let you know about it.

100% commission is a game i'm not interested in... although, a 10% commission for me would be the shizz nizzle... i'm on a base + commission, and I do ok.
 
I was a one to one salesman for Dell for awhile. I'd say I was average, but my heart wasn't really into it. The great ones, and one of them posts here, follows the script well and rarely calls an audible. I was pretty loose, if that makes sense.



Listening is such an underrated tool.
 
I'm not in sales but have spent quite a bit of time w/sales persons. One thing that drove me crazy was their optimism - every call they made went "great," and they were always "this close" to closing. I came to discount everything they said, feeling it reflected the BS that they had to peddle, always being "on." In fact, a pessimistic signal was good news - if they said something like "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, the CFO still needs to approve" - that was a sign that the opportunity was real.

After time passed, it dawned on me that it was the approach that best suited what they did. To suggest an analogy - if I need to knock down a free throw to win a game, I don't want to go to the line thinking that I shoot 90%. Instead, I want to imagine the cheerleaders rushing the floor after I win the game.

While the sales persons I've known would, I think, agree with everything written above, I think they would add that you need to KNOW that you're going to find the client need, you need to KNOW that you're going to do a great job listening, and so forth.
 
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