CHAPTERONE

I did not sit up in bed one day and decide that I wanted to be a Salesman. It sort of just happened to me. In fact, to this day when I think of a Salesman, I think of a somewhat shady character trying to slick me into a fast deal. The truth is, everybody has to be a salesman and the better you are at it, the further you can go in any career. Now I’m not a shady character, and I would be the last one to recommend that you ever misrepresent yourself or anything that you may be selling, because once discovered you’re selling a “Bill of Goods” you’re finished. We hear it all our life, honesty is the best policy and such it is to be a successful salesman. “It takes a good person to make a good salesman”. No matter what you’re selling if it meets the needs and the expectations of the buyer, then your representation has been honest. Everybody understands that you get what you pay for and you pay for what you get in the longrun.

As children we discover that a smile can get us what we want as quick as a wink. Add a wink and well, expect extra special results. Selling yourself to someone who already loves you is easy and doesn’t do much for honing your selling skills. One of the greatest rejections we ever face in life is when we first discover that not everyone thinks we’re as special as our mother. We learn that we must be patient and manipulative in getting what we want from others. So, our journey into salesbegins.

Outside of your siblings, an aunt, an uncle and maybe a neighbor that you’ve habitually annoyed, teachers can be the hardest sale. I didn’t know it then, but human nature plays a huge role in selling yourself. I came to realize that some teachers immediately like me, while it seemed that there was something about me that just pissed other teachers off. I learned in Grade school to take it on the chin, to be submissive, lay low and to just get along with the teachers that didn’t like me. The teachers that liked me, well let’s just say that I took full advantage of the situation. I have been forgiven for habitually disrupting the class, seldom having my homework complete, being excessively tardy, bending and breaking all the rules. Having those in charge show you favoritism is like wind fall sales. You really don’t have to do anything special and you capitalize.

Selling someone that likes you and wants to do business with you is pretty easy, provided that your product meets their needs and your price is acceptable. Their business becomes yours to lose. To keep it is the constant repeating of the first step in building any relationship,” doing what you say you’re going to do, when you say you are going to do it”. Break that trust without a reasonably good excuse and you open the door to losing that business. Too many salespeople make the mistake of taking advantage of their good customer relationships. They lull themselves into a false sense of security with the customer’s business, when really; extra concern should go towards preserving those customers that are always repeating sales. A family emergency is about the only forgivable reason for not following through on a commitment, and that should be communicated timely, with alternative actions to satisfy the customer’s immediate needs already set into motion. Building customer trust should be the first consideration with every