Be honest with yourself on every sales cycle. Ask yourself, “Why didn’t I get that sale? What could I have done differently? Where did I miss it? How could I have better justified the cost? Where could I have gotten them financing? Why didn’t I get in front of the decision maker? I only asked for the order twice …” Be honest, brutally honest, with yourself, and take complete responsibility for the outcome. Don’t let your coworkers console you that it’s all right, the customer wasn’t ready, they didn’t have the money, they are cheap, they are a difficult group to sell, they never buy, they can’t make decisions, our product is too high, we don’t have the right inventory, the economy sucks—please stop it. You are boring me and killing yourself by not being honest.
Your sales success will come about as the result of your mental, spiritual, and technically prepared claim to create and own it, followed by taking necessary actions that persist over time until you succeed in reaching your sales goals. If you are not able to be brutally honest with yourself about why you didn’t make the sale, you will forever find your results dwindling. And when your success dwindles, you will see your actions start to do the same.
In order to demand consistent sales success, you have to:
Decide you are ultimately responsible for the sale.
Make it your duty, obligation, and responsibility to make the sale.
Take massive amounts of action, followed by more action until the sale is made!
Accept no excuses, reasons, or logic, and figure out how to make it work!
Prepare yourself daily to handle all obstacles, stalls, reasons, and barriers you will encounter with a client. See Cardone University at www.CardoneUniversity.com.
CHAPTER TWENTY
SALES-TRAINING TIPS
It is not enough to just read a book or listen to an audio program; you have to practice, drill, and rehearse. From astronauts to athletes they all practice, drill, and rehearse—over and over again until each move, response, and reaction has been worked out. A Navy Seal submerses himself in his training so that he not only knows exactly what to do in any situation, but also to give himself supreme confidence so that when a situation presents itself he can move aggressively into victory rather than having to back off.
If you find yourself backing off anywhere in the sales game, it is because you are not submersing yourself enough in training and education and then practicing-drilling-rehearsing. When I got serious about sales, I watched videos of sales instructions before I left my home, listened to audio programs on the drive to work, and then recorded myself in closing situations each day. I immersed myself in situations and handlings.
I would tell you to spend as much money and time on your training each month as you do on your wardrobe. Let me tell you, what you say and how you act will have more to do with a sale than what you wear. I could wear anything to work and sell my products when my game is tight. If you played professional baseball, would you go to the batting cage every day? Of course you would.
While it is agreed that training can improve production results, most people don’t know the right way to train. And before you consider the cost, what you need to think about is the time you will set aside to train, because that is a bigger issue. If I get you on the right training schedule that truly builds sales muscle, training that results in increased sales, the money issue will be resolved. Did you know that most salespeople don’t even read one sales book in their entire career? Did you also know that even fewer people spend any quality time practicing selling? And even those who do don’t know how to train effectively to get results immediately. What I am talking about here is giving you a training regimen that will turn you into a super salesperson.
Before you consider the cost of sales-training books, seminars, videos, audio programs, workshops, and travel and lodging, you should calculate the immediate costs of mishandling opportunities that result from not training. Regardless of how long you have been in sales, if you are rusty, you are rusty. A dull saw might cut the tree down, but it will take much longer than is necessary. To keep the sales saw sharp, you have to spend time sharpening it. Sales training has failed companies and individuals because it has been incorrectly implemented, not measurable, outdated, not relevant, and wasn’t readily available to solve sales problems when salespeople needed it the most.
After working with individuals and companies for more than twenty-five years, I have found that for any training program to be effective, there are certain criteria that must be adhered to:
Train daily! The material salespeople should read, listen to, or watch should be focused on selling situations, not just motivational ones.