Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness: How to Make Sales Forever

by Jeffrey Gitomer

1. I like my sales rep. NOTE WELL: Liking is the single most powerful element in a sales relationship. I got a quote the other day from someone claiming to be a sales expert. It started out saying, “Your customer does not have to like you, but he does have to trust you.” What an idiot. Can you imagine the CEO of the company, when making a buying decision, saying, “I trusted that guy, but I sure didn’t like him.” Like leads to trust. Trust leads to buying. Buying leads to relationship. That’s not the life cycle, that’s the life cycle of sales. 2. I understand what I am buying. 3. I perceive a difference in the person and the company that I am buying from. 4. I perceive a value in the product that I am purchasing. 5. I believe my sales rep. 6. I have confidence in my sales rep. 7. I trust my sales rep. 8. I am comfortable with my sales rep. 9. I feel that there is a fit of my needs and his/her product or service. 10. The price seems fair, but it’s not necessarily the lowest. 11. I perceive that this product or service will increase my productivity. 12. I perceive that this product or service will increase my profit. 12.5 I perceive that my salesperson is trying to help me build my business in order to earn his. My salesperson is a valuable resource to me.

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Instead of thinking end of month, begin thinking end of time.

Become valuable. The more valuable you become, the more the marketplace will reward you. Give first. Become known as a resource, not a salesperson. Your value is linked to your knowledge and your willingness to help others. How valuable are you to others?

10. Take responsibility. We all blame others to a degree. Blame is tied to success in reverse proportion. The lower your degree of blame—the higher degree of success you’ll achieve. Get the job done yourself no matter what. Petty blame is rampant and the biggest waste of time. Don’t blame others or yourself. Take responsibility for your actions and decisions. Blaming others is an easy thing to do, but leads to a path of mediocrity. Successful people take responsibility for everything they do AND everything that happens to them. Do you blame or take responsibility for your actions?

Take a moment right now and look at your sales resource library. What kind of books do you have, what kind of tapes do you have on the subjects of selling, presentation skills, positive attitude, creativity, and humor that you read and refer to every day? Let me give you the answer. Not enough.

But here’s the bigger secret: work your ass off. All the rest of the principles can be taken to the highest level by working your ass off. Working your ass off leads to selling your ass off, and selling your ass off leads to banking your ass off.

When you’re in a slump, you begin to press for orders instead of working your best gameplan (which is: “sell to help the other person,” and let your sincerity of purpose shine through). When you have the pressure to sell, the prospect senses it, and backs off.

Proper preparation takes time, but I assure you it’s impressive to the prospect. He or she knows that you have prepared, and is silently impressed. It’s an advantage that very few salespeople use. They make the fatal error of getting all their own stuff ready. PowerPoint slides, samples, literature, business cards—you know, all the same things the competition is doing. Biggest mistake in sales. And almost every salesperson makes it. And it’s not only preparation about the sale it’s your personal preparation for sales—your personal training. How ready are you? Get ready baby. Turn off the TV and get ready.

“HEY JEFFREY, GET SPECIFIC!” you scream. OK, OK. Here’s some branding information you won’t find in any textbook. It’s the actions I have taken over the past 15 years to build my brand. I cannot guarantee that they will work for you. But they do work. I can tell you that first-hand. Here’s my personal formula for developing a personal brand: Register your name.com…go to www.obtainyourname.com or some name registration site, and register your name as fast as you can. Register your kids’ names, too. Be willing to give of yourself—first…It’s not the only way, but it is the best and most long-lasting one I’ve found.

Do everything with a creative flair…Something that makes the time and effort you gave worth remembering. Memorability is a vital link to building market awareness. Get the best business card money can buy…It’s your image—and it makes an impact every time you give one—either wow, positive, mediocre or negative. Engrave it, blind emboss it, foil stamp it, logo it, graphic design it, multi-color it. Here’s the acid test: When you give out your card, if someone doesn’t look at it and say, “Nice card,” get it redone.

In sales, it’s not who you know. In sales, it’s who knows you.

And here’s the reality about people who buy price only: Cheap bastards are also a pain in the ass.

Start your sales call at a higher level. The higher up the corporate ladder you can get, the less price matters. The higher the officer in the company, the more they are able to see the big picture of profit and productivity as opposed to price. Here’s the acid test to see if you’re talking to the right person: When someone starts to hammer you for price, you simply say, “Price or profit Mr. Jones. Which would you rather have? Price lasts for a moment Mr. Jones, profit lasts for a life-time.” All executive corporate officers are interested in making more profit.

Make friends before you start, or don’t start. When I meet a prospect on a sales call, the first thing I do is establish some kind of rapport that includes finding some common ground. I laugh with them, I talk to them about them. I establish some credibility with them and then I begin my sales presentation.

2. You have a “they don’t pay me enough money to do this” attitude, and you are doomed to negativity and mediocrity.

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Don’t sell the product. Don’t sell the service. Sell the appointment. They can’t push a contract or a check through the phone - just sell the appointment.

Instead of studying TV at night, you need to become an expert in the industry or categories you cover, you need to know where your prospect or customer uses your product or service to build their business and make a profit As a result you may need to become an expert in branding, customer loyalty, use of media, customer response, delayed response, publicity, public relations, converting responses to sales, image building, and EVERY element that the customer is seeking as he or she plans THEIR sales campaign, or their business.

THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE OR NEED TO BE EDUCATED. They want answers just like you do. THEY DO NOT WANT SOLUTIONS. They want answers. THEY DO NOT WANT TO TAKE THEIR TIME TO HEAR ABOUT YOU. If they give you time, it better be about them.

When others need to “final approve” the deal, besides learning to qualify the buyer better, you must take these five action steps or the sale is in jeopardy… 1. Get the prospect’s personal approval. “Mr. Prospect, if it was just you, and you didn’t need to confer with anyone else, would you buy?”(The prospect will almost always say yes.) Then ask, “Does this mean you’ll recommend our service to the others?” Get the prospect to endorse you and your service to the others, but don’t let him (or anyone) make your pitch for you. 2. Get on the prospect’s team. Begin to talk in terms of “we,” “us,” and “the team.” By getting on the prospect’s team, you can get the prospect on your side of the sale. 3. Arrange a meeting with all deciders. Do it any (ethical) way you have to. 4. Know the prime decider in advance. “Tell me a little bit about the others.” (Write down every characteristic.) Try to get the personality traits of the other deciders. 5. Make your entire presentation again. You only have to do this if you want to make the sale. Otherwise just leave it to the prospect. He thinks he can handle it on his own, and will try his best to convince you of that. If you think you can get around these five steps, think again. (It’s obvious you’re looking for shortcuts or you would have properly qualified the buyer in the first place.)

Here are 9.5 benefits to make sales by: 1. Qualify the buyer. 2. Establish rapport. 3. Create prospect disparity. 4. Eliminate or differentiate from the competition. 5. Build credibility. 6. Know the customer and their business. 7. Identify needs. 8. Find hot buttons. 9. Get personal information. 9.5 Close the sale.

Here are the 7.5 questioning success strategies: 1. Ask prospect questions that make him evaluate new information. 2. Ask questions that qualify needs. 3. Ask questions about improved productivity, profits or savings. 4. Ask questions about company or personal goals. 5. Ask questions that separate you from your competition—not compare you to them. 6. Ask questions that make the customer or prospect think before giving a response. 7. Ask Power Questions to create a BUYING atmosphere—not a selling one. 7.5 A critical success strategy: To enhance your listening skills, write down answers. It proves you care, preserves your data for follow-up, keeps the record straight, and makes the customer feel important.

Here are some bad examples: What type of life insurance do you have? Do you have a pager? Who do you currently use for long distance service? All stink. Here are some good examples: If your husband died, how would the house payments be made? How would the children go to college? If your most important customer called right now, how would you get the message? If your long distance charges were 30% higher than they should be, how would you know?

To use questions successfully, they must be thought out and written down in advance. Develop a list of 15 to 25 questions that uncover needs, problems, pains, concerns, and objections. Develop 15 to 25 more that create prospect commitment as a result of the information you have uncovered.

Humor not only helps make the sale—it also helps build the relationship. Laughter is mutual approval, and mutual approval is at the fulcrum point of selling. If you can make them laugh, you can make them buy.

If you have not read the classic Michael Michalko’s book Thinkertoys, or his new book Cracking Creativity, or any Edward de Bono book, Six Thinking Hats, Lateral Thinking, or a compilation of his thoughts entitled Serious Creativity. I recommend you start from there and immediately progress to Dr. Seuss, the champion of creativity for both adults and children.

The easiest example of the model is a concept brought out in Thinkertoys called S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Scamper is simply a new way to look at an existing idea, and asking yourself questions to improve it. Each letter in the acronym represents a different perspective to see creative ideas. The letters represent Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Maximize, or Minimize, Put to other use, and Reverse or Rearrange. If you take any object, thought, or project and put the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. model to use, you will come up with new and creative ideas. The object of the model is to learn the practical science so that you can see there’s a way for you to learn creativity, rather than simply be creative. Learn rather than be. One does not replace the other. One is simply an additional method or supplement to the other. Sometimes you do things or think things without really knowing “why.” The “why” is never as important as the “is.”

Change your ordinary imaging and branding. Voice mail, fax cover sheet. List the ordinary things you do and change them today. Some other areas to get the thought process going? Your telephone greeting, your business cards, your business card title, the way you transfer a call, the way you take a message, your promotional items—and YOU!

Fix your voice message now!

Make the message short. Thirty-five words maximum. Script it. Rehearse it. Then record it. Change the message often. Weekly is best. Listen to the comments carefully—they will tell you how good your message is or isn’t. If you claim to be different from your competition, a GREAT place to start is your recorded message.

Eliminate risk and prospects are more likely to buy.

What is the definition of risk? What is the cause of risk? How much risk am I asking my prospects to take when they make a purchase? How do I uncover risk factors? How is risk taken away, removed, or eliminated?

The strategy is called: What’s the risk? What’s the reward? When a prospect hesitates, you simply ask him or her to list the risks of purchase. Actually write them down. Prompt others. If the prospect says “I’m not sure,” you ask, “Could it be…” After you feel the list is complete, ask the prospect to list the rewards. Write them down, and embellish as much as possible without puking on the prospect. Then eliminate the risks one by one with lead in phrases like: Suppose we could…did you know that…I think we can…Then you simply ask, “can you see any other reasons not to proceed?” One at a time, brick by brick, remove the risks that the buyer perceives as fatal mistakes in his decision-making process. Then drive home the rewards, both emotionally and logically.

To be most effective, testimonials need to have a specific message. General messages have little “act now” impact.

There are 8.5 negative senses that the subconscious mind presents and projects when selling: 1. The sense of fear. 2. The sense of nervousness. 3. The sense of rejection. 4. The sense of procrastination or reluctance. 5. The sense of justification/rationale. 6. The sense of self-doubt. 7. The sense of uncertainty. 8. The sense of doom. 8.5. The sense of “I’m unlucky.” Beware of these negative senses—they’re mental blockers and will prevent the success (sale) from taking place.

Everyone will tell you to focus or to BE more focused, but very few will tell you HOW to focus. The easiest words to describe “focus” are “be aware.” Be aware of what is around you and be aware of who is around you. Sounds simple, but it means you have to divert selfish and insecure for open-minded and self-confident.

It’s important for you to understand that focus and selling yourself are not about tactics. Selling is not about techniques. Selling is about focus and creative verbal exchange. And the only way to master focus is to work at it.

You must believe that you work for the greatest company in the world, that you offer the greatest products and services in the world, and that you are the greatest person in the world, or you are in the wrong job.

NOTE WELL: I wish there was a way I could explain the power of the written word. The only thing I can say is to re-enforce my earlier statement that every piece of business good fortune for the last 13 years has in some way or another come from writing.

It all begins with you. Prospects must first believe in (and like) the messenger, or the message has no credibility.

Go to the nearest bookstore, buy Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Don’t leave home until you read it.

It Starts with a positive attitude…Learn how to achieve one. Gather the information of positive people in your library. Napoleon Hill Dale Carnegie W. Clement Stone Maxwell Maltz Wayne Dyer Earl Nightengale Norman Vincent Peale Jim Rohn

Join Toastmasters—90 minutes of speaking and self-evaluation a week.

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