Selling Fundamentals - The Preparation
...ideas originally found in my book, Guaranteed Retailing and presented here, no strings attached.
We're covering the basics - the Selling Fundamentals.
We've discussed The Prospect & The Seller, The Product. Up next is Preparation.
#4. The Preparation.
I like to race.
Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a race car driver. I lived that dream, and for six months each year I raced almost every weekend on an oval track against 23 other drivers who are there for one purpose. They want to beat me.
I showed up with my shiny car with its 800 horsepower engine and I raced. I race for one reason. I want to beat them. But, I learned the hard way that winning is not about wishing. Winning is not a shiny car and a big engine. Winning is about preparation and practice. It is impossible for me to accurately estimate how many hours of preparation is spent for each minute on the track.
Teachers, musicians, dancers, pilots, artists, doctors, athletes, singers, ice-skaters, public speakers, trapeze performers and professionals in every field of endeavor spend hundreds, often thousands of hours in study, training, and preparation.
When we see them perform, we are amazed at how effortlessly they do what they do. Preparation makes the difficult look easy and the impossible possible.
At an airshow, powerful jets streak across the sky with their wings close enough to touch. We say, “How do they do that?”
The answer is, preparation.
You may have stumbled into a good product and live next door to the ideal Mr. Prospect. Still, lack of preparation will make you look like a bumbling, ill-prepared least-likely-to-succeed person. Nobody wants to do business with a "loser." Why? Losers don’t last. Eventually, they’ll quit. That means the customer will have no service, no link to the company that made the product, and no one to stand behind the promises you made.
Preparation is one of the elements of selling well and it includes many things.
The seller must look the part, dress the part, and conduct himself in a manner that will create relatedness with the prospect. Not everyone agrees that appearance really matters all that much. I think it does. If you can see that it would be poor judgement to wear pajamas on a sales call, then you believe that appearance matters. Appearance, first impressions, clothes, car, handshake, eye-contact, and many other details that the buyer tends to notice are all important reasons why people do or don’t buy from you.
If you can’t afford a car that supports the dream you’re selling, you may have to do what I did. When I first got started, I was driving an old junk Ford with the rear window broken out. When I went on a sales call, my car was not an asset. To keep prospects from seeing the car, I often parked way down the street and walked to my appointment. It was a sacrifice but I knew the importance of first impressions, so I walked. Soon, my company gave me a new car for outstanding performance.
Preparation includes a thorough understanding of and belief in the product. A part of the selling process is an actual transference of feelings. When you feel great about the product, you convey that feeling to the prospect. A seller needs to “own” the product. They should use what they sell and know from personal experience the benefits their product provides.
How can you transfer a feeling you don’t have about a product you don’t use? Nobody wants to buy a Ford from the man who drives a Chevrolet. This is vital. If you’re trying to sell something you won’t buy yourself, you’re a short-timer.
Preparation is the hallmark of the professional.
We're covering the basics - the Selling Fundamentals.
We've discussed The Prospect & The Seller, The Product. Up next is Preparation.
#4. The Preparation.
I like to race.
Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a race car driver. I lived that dream, and for six months each year I raced almost every weekend on an oval track against 23 other drivers who are there for one purpose. They want to beat me.
I showed up with my shiny car with its 800 horsepower engine and I raced. I race for one reason. I want to beat them. But, I learned the hard way that winning is not about wishing. Winning is not a shiny car and a big engine. Winning is about preparation and practice. It is impossible for me to accurately estimate how many hours of preparation is spent for each minute on the track.
Teachers, musicians, dancers, pilots, artists, doctors, athletes, singers, ice-skaters, public speakers, trapeze performers and professionals in every field of endeavor spend hundreds, often thousands of hours in study, training, and preparation.
When we see them perform, we are amazed at how effortlessly they do what they do. Preparation makes the difficult look easy and the impossible possible.
At an airshow, powerful jets streak across the sky with their wings close enough to touch. We say, “How do they do that?”
The answer is, preparation.
You may have stumbled into a good product and live next door to the ideal Mr. Prospect. Still, lack of preparation will make you look like a bumbling, ill-prepared least-likely-to-succeed person. Nobody wants to do business with a "loser." Why? Losers don’t last. Eventually, they’ll quit. That means the customer will have no service, no link to the company that made the product, and no one to stand behind the promises you made.
Preparation is one of the elements of selling well and it includes many things.
The seller must look the part, dress the part, and conduct himself in a manner that will create relatedness with the prospect. Not everyone agrees that appearance really matters all that much. I think it does. If you can see that it would be poor judgement to wear pajamas on a sales call, then you believe that appearance matters. Appearance, first impressions, clothes, car, handshake, eye-contact, and many other details that the buyer tends to notice are all important reasons why people do or don’t buy from you.
If you can’t afford a car that supports the dream you’re selling, you may have to do what I did. When I first got started, I was driving an old junk Ford with the rear window broken out. When I went on a sales call, my car was not an asset. To keep prospects from seeing the car, I often parked way down the street and walked to my appointment. It was a sacrifice but I knew the importance of first impressions, so I walked. Soon, my company gave me a new car for outstanding performance.
Preparation includes a thorough understanding of and belief in the product. A part of the selling process is an actual transference of feelings. When you feel great about the product, you convey that feeling to the prospect. A seller needs to “own” the product. They should use what they sell and know from personal experience the benefits their product provides.
How can you transfer a feeling you don’t have about a product you don’t use? Nobody wants to buy a Ford from the man who drives a Chevrolet. This is vital. If you’re trying to sell something you won’t buy yourself, you’re a short-timer.
Preparation is the hallmark of the professional.
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