The harder the training the easier the battle

Basic training

In the army this motto gets an entire new meaning, but in sales this phrase is important as well.

Since the last financial crises 2 years ago it seems that the economy is still limping, sales people all over are in the middle of a war, a war to success, a war to earn, a war to stay.

In war only the well trained, well equipped and well planed survive.

If you want to win you need to practice, hard. And the meaning of practice in the world of sales is similar to the way we use to practice in the army.

First – we start be learning and practicing the basic, and in sales the basic practice start with listening, perhaps the most important skill in the sales world. My advice is to start practicing by simply asking someone a question (it can even be a complete stranger) and listen to him, try to see how much information you can remember from that talk. Try to practice your memory, try to remember without writing, that way you will be able to look at your client while talking.

Another important skill one most practice is, well, the most slandered field: cold calling.

Unlike what many people think – cold calling doesn't necessarily involve phone. A cold call can be (in my opinion) walking into someone's office and asking for a meeting, calling a number someone gave you – any interaction you have with someone how don't know how you are – that's clod call.

How to practice? Well, that's not that complicated task. Pick up the phone, take a drive and try to get some appointment simply by walking into someone's place.

The importance of the basic training is to get used to the felling of doing it. You need to be able to do those thing naturally, as if you've doing it your entire life.

We'll meet again for the second part of basic practice.

Write me and tell me how you deed: nitay.alon@gamil.com

 

Does doing like everybody else really help you?

Allow me to open with a question: if an expert would have told you that the best writers in the world are left-handed – would you start to write in your left hand tomorrow?

No, and why? Because it won't work for you! Your hand write will be unreadable and you'll achieve nothing – definitely not becoming a known author.




But hey! An expert told you…so what went wrong? The answer is this: the expert forgot that we – people are different one from the other.

The things that will work for someone won't work for the other.




The same can be told on sales. We try our best to do the same things like the others do. We try do act against our personality and against our character and we convince ourselves that this is the right thing for us! That we have to try harder!




It's like trying to jump to the moon and getting mad because we can't do it! So why do you keep on trying to use tools that don't work for us? Only because someone said so? Why do try over and over despite the fact that we don't see any fruit to our labor?




Some of us – sales people can sit for hours and make cold calls even if we hate it! Even if it doesn't work for us – because the expert said so!




This is not the way thing are working with people! We are not computers! If something is working for you – good! Stick with it; don't try to be something you aren't.




If you can sell more because you can establish relationship and friendship go for it! If you can get more meetings from referrals just do it! If you hate to cold call, send mail or walk from door to door – stop doing it!




I'm offering an alternative – try to focus on the things that you are good at. If you're good in cold call – do it, if you're good in d2d sale – good for you! But stick to it – even if everybody else doing the opposite.




Do what you're good at. That will make you happier, more successful, richer and a better salesman.