Disappointment

I majored in sales for my first college degree and I aced all the sales courses. In my first sales job, I came to realize that what I learned about sales in college didn't work. After taking many other sales courses, I learned that most corporate and commercial sales trainers can not teach effective selling, either. Ironically, almost everyone is still teaching the same sales methods today, but with new, modern-sounding names.

So, I set out to find the best salespeople and observe what they did that other salespeople did not do. Over the years, I've gone out on sales calls with hundreds of the best salespeople and learned that the top 1 percent of all producers don't sell the way the other 99 percent sell. Nearly everything they do is different from the way most "experts" teach sales.

Discovery -- Honesty is the "silver bullet"

The most surprising thing I discovered is that most of the top producers are totally honest in their work. They're honest with their prospects and clients and they're honest with themselves. They have learned that deception in all its forms, including self-deception, is the enemy of success.

Real measurements -- real results

You've often heard that sales is a numbers game. One of the big differences between the top producers and the other 99 percent is they know their numbers; their real numbers. Top agents keep records of their sales activities and they analyze their statistics every day. They know exactly how and where to focus their efforts for the best results. That kind of knowledge defies uninformed logic.

False prospects

Most agents spend most of their time on appointments with "interested" prospects that apparently have great potential, but seldom buy from them. The average agent goes through all of the motions -- on multiple appointments -- that seemingly will result in a new client. However, they fail to bring in much business.

Most of those agents believe that more appointments is the solution, but they are too busy to make that happen. Average agents seldom truly qualify their prospects. They rarely disqualify prospects, either. If they did, they would need to find new prospects -- but they don't know how to prospect effectively, efficiently and enjoyably.

Top producers know that getting more appointments is not the answer. They make fewer appointments; but with better prospects -- prospects who are ready willing and able to buy now. And, they easily do business with most of them.

Real relationships -- real selling

We know what top agents actually do when they're selling. We know what works and what doesn't work. Building rapport does not work; it actually creates much of the rejection most agents have to live and suffer with every day. Anything that you do to try to get prospects to do something they don't want to do will create resistance. Developing sincere relationships of mutual trust and mutual respect is what works.

"Overcoming objections" is useless

Preventing objections is what works. The way top producers sell, their clients and prospects don't find it necessary to object or to resist buying their products and services.

Dealing with rejection

If you are experiencing much rejection, the way you are selling is what is creating the problem. Top producers seldom encounter rejection because the way they communicate does not cause rejection.

Closing is not a manipulation

Top producers close dozens of times during each sales visit without any pressure or discomfort on their prospects or themselves. They don't use trial closes, alternative choices or other closing techniques. It's much easier than that. And, they don't wait until the end of the sales process to close. That is much too difficult.

An uncomfortable reality

Most agents don't know how to sell very well, but they often think they do. One of the biggest barriers to their success is that they don't know their numbers and they don't want to know. That makes it easy to lie to themselves about what is working and what isn't.

When asked, almost all agents report -- and really believe -- that their closing rates are at least twice as high as they actually are. They also don't know the average number of visits they make to their prospects. If they really knew their numbers, they would have to face the truth about their skills and beliefs. Then, they would have to consider changing how they think and what they do.

Discomfort can be good

Change can be very uncomfortable. Reality can also be uncomfortable. It's far more comfortable to lie to yourself than to go through the discomfort of changing what you do every day. That's why most agents fail, and most of those that survive continue to struggle to make a good living. However, top producers thrive on discomfort.

Well, with that being said, I must run as I have a ton of things to do.

Take it easy.

Michael