My Skills Journey Simplified
Starting out in sale was a fools gambit. Most people start young and are easily sold on the 'dream' of being financially secure, rich, wealthy and even own houses and cars. In other words, passionate and courageous young people who happen to be ignorant jump into sales because the end goal literally smashes all their hot buttons. They just can't help it. And this is how I got started. It didn't matter what the product was, how hard the process really was or the long learning curve. All I knew is I was going to get there as fast as I could. 30 years later............... First giant upgrade for me was learning how to get VIP and C suite people one the phone. Internet was young back then and usually the admin assistant intercepted the emails anyway. I read books, attended networking meetings and bought courses. Not much help there. The networking was all bums like me, the courses where too general and dated, and the books where all cheaply repackaged psychology lessons. My breakthrough was to find CEOs, Presidents and the like and hang out with them. Guess what? They are regular shmucks like you and me. You couldn't pick them out of a crowd to save your life. So I abandoned my old trainers and techniques and just insisted on being around these people. And sure enough, I learned their language, routines, personal interests and the like. It was so easy to reach them after that, but not necessarily on the phone. Next major mile stone was learning to sell. Man I got so good at selling. Particularly at group presentations and Q/A. Secret is knowing your material inside and out. One major key to selling is being a nice person to the point that your prospects enjoy your company and they make friends with you. I also did a lot if KTA (kitchen table appointments) and that's where you really learn to sell good and ask awesome questions. KTAs help you develop about 5-7 core questions for the prospect to position them into a buying mode. Not my favorite selling style but it worked at the time.