How Does a Ten Year Old Close a Sale?
Have you ever had a conversation with a ten year old? I can remember what I used to act like at age ten. Believe it or not I was more ambitious and probably a better salesman at age ten than I am now. The reason being I knew less sales techniques, less about sales psychology, and less about "closing." Instead what I did was simply approach a prospect, tell them what I was doing, and then ask for their business.
Is usually went something like this:
"Hi Mrs. Jones how are you today?"
I would then wait for her response, smile, and then say
"I'm asking everyone in the neighborhood if they would be interested in buying some cookies for my school fund raiser. If I do well I'll be able to get this new stereo. Would you be interested in taking a look at our catalogue?"
And that was it. There would be no special "closing trick" that I would use all the time. Instead I would approach my potential customer, open up the conversation by asking how they are. They would then be speaking openly and freely to me. I then told them exactly what I was doing and what I would get out of it. The results of my efforts were always directly related to my sales. The more people I spoke with the more customers I got. I never thought about playing a game with the "no's." I never thought about what their body language was telling me and never thought about objection handling. Instead I was directly focused on my goal of selling more baked goods and cookies than anyone in my class so I could win that big prize. I didn't consider the ratios or anything else.
This worked really well for me. So good in fact that when I started working in a sales environment and opened my first sales focused business I went back to doing that after everything other professionals told me to do had failed.
So how could this work for you? You simply have to learn two things. The first is that people buy from excellent communicators not salesmen. If you are the professional in your area (insurance, cars, health products, doesn't matter) and can communicate it well you will have a steady stream of customers through consistency and patience. The second is to get over the fact that people will say "no." Some people like to play games with how many "no's" they can get. The types who do this don't really need to play the game at all. They are thick skinned and already driven. But for the people already on the fence, focus only on the prize at the end of the tunnel. Whether it's the joy of the sale, the paycheck, the eventual new career. Make that be the reason you keep at it and leave the rest of the tips and tricks to everyone else. Sales, I have found, is more fun when it's simple.
Mikhail Hutton http://www.thehilgroup.com
Mikhail Hutton is owner of The HIL Group, a leadership think tank that helps people and organizations manage the change associated with growth and transition. Their mission is to help organizations create better results through strong vision, communication, and simple leadership. He runs classes, speaking events, and workshops dealing with the above topics.
More from his blog at http://www.thehilgroup.typepad.com/
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/
Added: June 5, 2008
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