The 9 Sales You Must Make First

The first sale that any salesperson must make is to themselves. And the phrases that you use when talking to yourself are, in fact, the first set of phrases that you will really need to master. If you don’t deal with your own sense of direction, self-worth, self-image, and self-belief first, all else will fail. That is precisely why the very first phrases we will dig into will be the phrases you need to master in order to sell yourself on yourself and your future, your product or service, and the value you deliver to your prospects and customers.

It’s a basic reality of sales. If you’re not sold, no one else will be, either.

If you have no prospects you will fail—guaranteed! Prospecting is the key to your sales career. The single, most fundamental reason why most salespeople fail, no matter what they sell, is they lack a sufficient supply of qualified prospects to whom they can tell their story. How about you? Have you ever examined your pipeline only to discover you definitely have too few prospects? Or, perhaps you have a lot of prospects—but they really aren’t qualified.

They have a need for your product or service and legitimately want it to solve a problem, fill a gap, give them pleasure, or resolve an issue.
They have the position, power, and legitimate authority to pay for it.
They have a legitimate, self-defined sense of urgency to obtain it.
They have some degree of trust in you, your product or service, and your organization.
They are eagerly willing to listen to you.

Once you have identified those qualified prospects, you will have to deal with some very specific challenges or unique situations in trying to get face-to-face with them. The first interaction will define the level of receptivity with which that prospect will consider you and whatever you are selling. It will also, in large measure, define the level of trust that will forge your ongoing relationship.

Are you fundamentally an approval seeker? Do you say things that you believe allow your prospects to identify with you and you with them? Do you ask them about their collection of antique cars, framed autographs, stuffed fish, or family pictures?

People want to buy from someone whom they trust, someone who inspires confidence. Quite simply, they merely want to believe they will receive everything promised to them in exchange for a fair price. Unfortunately, glad-handing approval seekers don’t fit that expectation. They may be glib, friendly, and positive, but they don’t necessarily come across as being totally trustworthy, 100% honorable, and completely professional.

On the other hand, a salesperson who matches the pace and attitude of the prospect, understands what that prospect really wants, allows the prospect to engage in small talk if he or she chooses to do so (but doesn’t force it), and allows the process to move at the prospect’s pace will generally sell better.

Sales is all about what you ask, not what you say. Unfortunately, most salespeople believe that it’s all about the presentation, their ability to be persuasive, the smoothness of their delivery, and the “power of the close.” All of this is important. However, what if it’s the wrong presentation? What if it’s a great presentation to the wrong person? What if it’s persuasive, but it persuades someone to make a decision that’s not in his or her best interest? What if it’s a presentation that falls on deaf ears?

There are definite questions you must ask yourself as you prepare for your prospect. There are questions you need to know that are on your prospect’s mind as you first approach him or her. There are questions to make sure your prospect is ready to hear your presentation. There are questions you’ll need to ask to determine what your prospect will buy, when he or she will buy it, how, and under what conditions they will buy. There are questions to determine when and how to present your price, justify your case, and ultimately finalize the transaction.

You’re not selling products or services. You’re offering solutions. Your prospects and customers deserve the wisdom of your best, most thoughtful recommendation – a recommendation to help them maximize whatever they are trying to get from your product or service. And for you to fail in that responsibility is simply a failure to understand the essence of professional selling.

The secret to professional selling is to be in front of a qualified prospect when he or she is ready to buy and then to present your product or service in such a way that it solves his or her problem, addresses his or her need, or satisfies a want he or she may have. It’s that simple. Selling is really all about presenting your product or service persuasively within the context of how it addresses your prospect’s stated, implied, or implicit need, want, or circumstance. Then base your recommendation on fact and articulating it with persuasion and emotion to create a compelling story that allows your prospect to see, feel, understand, and value your solution.

In most cases a prospect will object, stall, or use other delaying strategies only if you haven’t built trust or you haven’t asked the right questions or you’ve asked the right questions but haven’t listened to the answers. Or you’ve presented the wrong solution or you’ve failed to create value that offset the perception of price or you’ve moved the prospect through the sales process too fast or your prospect just doesn’t believe the claims you’ve made.

So, if you want to eliminate such problems, deal with each of the aforementioned issues one at a time as you move through the sale. However, to presume that prospects won’t object to things like price, terms, delivery, or conditions would be both irresponsible and naïve. Therefore, you need the tools and skills to contend with the experienced, trained buyer who absolutely believes it always boils down to some sort of hand-to-hand
(or at least verbal) combat. Yet it is possible to at least minimize the intensity of that combat by applying proper and professional selling strategies before the prospect begins to resist.

Closing is essential, no agreement, no sale. No decision to purchase equals a failed effort. In the grand scheme of things, however, the value of learning scores of closing techniques, memorizing closing phrases, or mastering power closes is far overblown. If you have followed a sales process and done everything to this point successfully, finalizing a sale is not, will not, and never should be a major difficulty.

The real secret is to make prospects actually happy to buy from you. It is an old, but proven sales truth that people don’t like to be sold. They like to buy. Your job is to make them happy to do that. But never forget: you’ll have to ask them to make a decision to do it. And that takes knowledge, skill, tenacity, and frankly, some real old-fashioned courage. Courage comes from confidence. Confidence comes from preparation. So, it all goes back to preparation and knowledge.

You can make the first sale without follow-up strategies—but just don’t expect to sell to that prospect again. Make it easier for yourself to keep selling: deliver what you’ve promised ... and more!

And never forget one very important thing: you are first and foremost your prospects’ most critical link to your organization. When things go right, you have a great chance to sell them more. If things don’t go well, you need to bear the brunt of their dismay.
The onus is on you to win or lose prospects and to retain or lose customers. And those stakes are too high to risk by being lazy, lethargic, or irresponsible.

There are many unique circumstances that you will have to master if you ever hope to be a super successful salesperson. And those circumstances center primarily around two specific issues—handling price and dislodging competitors who are already providing products or services to your prospect. Without a doubt, these two issues most often prove to be the most difficult for salespeople, no matter their level of experience or expertise.

The first, price, really requires an entire book to explore. Handling the myriad questions and problems that revolve around price will be one of your major challenges. And here’s why. Sales is most fundamentally all about margin. Highly professional salespeople know that the secret to a long-term sales career is how well they deal with price issues and maintain margin despite the efforts of prospects to get them to reduce the price.

The second issue, dislodging a competitor, requires tact, patience, and skill. Ironically, that skill is really far more a matter of pre-call planning and intelligent questioning than of persuasion. One key truth should be both clear and implicit: your best customer is someone else’s top prospect! So defend the high ground. And you should simultaneously make someone else’s best customer your top prospect, too. That’s just the way it is in sales, isn’t it?