Salesman to Superstar: Out Sell, Out Close, Out Earn Your Competition!

By James J. Kolins

Salesman to Superstar, like mixed martial arts, teaches the perfect combination of skills and techniques that create superior salespeople. From novice to professional this results oriented book will dramatically improve your sales call- to-close ratio and consequently your earnings potential will sky-rocket. If you want to be the best you can be, succeed beyond your wildest dreams and make more money than you ever thought possible, you need to learn the skills, techniques and methodologies presented so expertly in Salesman to Superstar.

Just as art is much more than paint and a canvas, the art of selling requires knowledge of skills, techniques and methodologies far beyond the basics. To be a superstar you need to learn much more than how to make a cold call, how to present a value proposition, how to handle objections and how to close. Sales experience is not the same as sales training. No other profession, from doctor to lawyer to engineer would allow someone to practice without extensive training. How can you hope to maximize your earning potential without having comprehensive training in your craft? If you have been selling for a number of years, you may not know what skills you’re missing that would catapult you from sales professional to sales superstar. Those who master Salesman to Superstar will out earn, outperform and out sell their peers guaranteed!

If you want to be a top 5% performer in not just your company but in your entire industry, Salesman to Superstar is your resource for salesmanship excellence.

Own this book today!

If you are from a country outside the USA and want to learn how to sell like the top producers in America, this book is a must have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483512129

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COPYRIGHT

Copyright © James J. Kolins 2013

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Author. Requests to the Author for permission should be via email at [e-mail]

Limit of Liability / Disclaimer or Warranty: The Author makes no representations of warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaims all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional material. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the author is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the author shall not be liable for damages arising therefrom. The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author endorses the information the organization or the website may provide or the recommendations it may make.

ISBN: 9781483512129

TWO BOOKS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!

When I was interviewing publishers for this book, I was told that it had too many pages, was too thick and looked too intimidating! The suggestion was to cut it in half. Doing that would cheat you out of half the information you need in order to master the art of selling and become a Superstar. I am unwilling to do that. So they told me to make two books out of it. So I did. However both books are so important that contrary to the advice of my publisher and for as long as I can get away with it, I am offering both books for half the price of the two books had they been sold separately.

If you are making a career of sales, and want to be a true professional, I doubt that you would be intimidated by the amount of information you need to learn. If you are, there are jobs that require much less training and much less effort. Of course, they provide much less opportunity and much less income.

The amount of learning associated with becoming a lawyer, doctor or a stockbroker is by far greater than that required of a sales person. Salesman to Superstar, while comprehensive, is very short by comparison. Thank your lucky stars that you do not need a three year post graduate degree and years of internship. What is truly rewarding is that these two books on selling, will prepare you to make more money than most doctors, lawyers and stockbrokers.

Don’t short change yourself. Master the concepts and techniques in each book. The time invested in learning your craft will come back to you in the form of significantly higher earnings and a successful career.

If you are serious about your career and really want to be a professional Superstar, this book should not be too thick, too heavy or too intimidating. This book is exactly what you need to succeed.

To chop a tree quickly, spend twice the time sharpening your ax. Chinese proverb

Superstars are not born, they are made – James J. Kolins

The more you learn, the more you earn – Proverb

If you think education is expensive (in terms of effort) think what ignorance costs you. – Anonymous

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Kolins has benefited from a long and varied background that involved many types of sales experiences. Mr. Kolins was first exposed to sales when he was in grammar school and worked in his father’s shoe store after school. While in high school he worked part time as a salesman in the men’s department of a local department store, as a sales clerk in a jewelry store, and spent summers as a camp counselor. During his college years, he worked as a life guard, a waiter at a high-end resort, sold bulletproof cars to the wealthy and advertising for a lifestyle magazine in Palm Beach. After graduating from college, Mr. Kolins had a choice: Work on Wall Street or work for IBM. He chose IBM, where he attended a number of sales and technical training sessions before becoming a sales representative. After IBM, he served his country in the military and then returned to IBM after discharge. From there Mr. Kolins was employed by Xerox and then NCR, all the while learning different sales models and techniques.

Wanting to experience what it would be like working for smaller companies, Mr. Kolins then moved on to manufacturers of computer peripherals, holding various sales management positions including Director of Sales and Director of Distribution. Moving into software sales, Mr. Kolins became a business development manager for the fifth largest software firm in the world, before becoming President and CEO of a communications software company in Silicon Valley.

Tiring of the high tech world and seeing enormous potential in high end residential real estate in California, Mr. Kolins got his real estate license and sold homes valued at over a million dollars, later graduating to selling businesses as a business broker.

Always wanting to start a business of his own, Mr. Kolins partnered with his wife and formed Bonkers Performance Teas, a company that has been selling nutraceuticals infused teas successfully for over ten years. Ambitious and energetic, Mr. Kolins concurrently attained a life insurance license and sold life insurance for one of the largest life insurance companies in America. Ever looking for something new and challenging, Mr. Kolins became a master hypnotist and opened a practice as a hypnotherapist. His intellectual curiosity led him to studying Neuro-Linguistic-Programming and had him attending lectures by the founding fathers, Richard Bandler and John Grinder. In addition to all this personal experience and always in a learning mode, Mr. Kolins has read dozens of books on sales, been to numerous seminars, and listen to too many tapes and CDs, to mention. This book is a distillation of all his accumulated experience and knowledge. The principles and techniques you will learn from Mr. Kolins are powerful and effective. There is no doubt that by putting what you learn to use you will attain significantly greater success as a salesman or saleswoman and will make you more money than you ever dreamed possible.

IMPORTANT NOTES

There are men and women sales people, obviously. I started writing this manual using the nouns and pronouns he/she and him/her and salesmen/saleswomen and salesperson only to find that it disrupted the flow of the text as well as the rhythm and tempo of the reading. So, I had to choose a gender. Even though I am referring to both genders, I use the male nouns and pronouns most of the time since I am a male and it comes easier to me. I also thought about how we are no longer separating the sexes in the names of certain professions, for instance we no longer have actors and actresses, we only have actors regardless of sex. I use the term ‘salesperson’ and ‘salespeople’ where it makes sense.

That said I want to make it perfectly clear that I fully believe that saleswomen are equal to their male counterpart in every way. Both genders have equal talent and equal opportunity to excel. It is not the sex of the salesperson that will determine success but how well trained and prepared they are.

Women and men will encounter different experiences in the sales world simply because of their sex and the mentality of the people to whom they are selling to. That is a fact and it is better to address it than to shove it under the rug only to have it rear its ugly head during the sale and kill an opportunity. I have outlined a number of those differences so that either sex can overcome whatever situations they may find themselves in. And, the longer you are in field sales, the greater likelihood of encountering less than professionalism from a client. This has nothing to do with being a sexist but being a realist. The key is to be prepared and to handle any situation professionally even when your client doesn’t.

You will notice that I frequently interchange the titles client, prospect, buyer and customer. They all refer to potential sales opportunities. Different businesses use one term over the other. Lawyers like the term client, while industrial companies and retailers use the term customer and commercial and real estate companies use the term buyers. A client or customer can be a prospect or a buyer for a new product or service, so don’t get hung-up on nomenclature. The principles work just the same regardless of the title.

BOLD on the concepts that are key and deserve special attention.

There is a great deal of information packed into these pages. Do not get overwhelmed. You will learn a great deal more than you may realize on the first reading. Every time you put a concept into practice, it will become another arrow in your quiver. The more arrows the better armed you will be to overcome more and more obstacles, and the more confident you will be in any selling situation.

This book is not intended to be read like a novel that you finish and put on a shelf, it is intended to be read, reread and then read again. The concepts are to be studied and practiced. The more you read it, the more you practice it, the better you get.

The difference between an average sales person and a Superstar is the depth and diversity of his skill set. - James J. Kolins

If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions. – Chinese Proverb

SUMMARY CONTENTS

BOOK ONE & BOOK TWO

INTRODUCTION

BOOK ONE – HOW TO BE EXTRAORDINARY

PART 1: How To Be The Best

Chapter 1: Masters of the Universe

Chapter 2: What is Sales, Who is a Salesperson

Chapter 3: Get Your Priorities Straight

Chapter 4: Put Your Career in Prospective

Chapter 5: Your Company & How to Be Successful in It

Chapter 6: The Secret to Success

Chapter 7: Professional Sales Training

Chapter 8: What It Takes

Chapter 9: The Road to Success

Chapter 10: Knowledge

Chapter 11: How We Learn

Chapter 12: Dress for Success

Chapter 13: How to Have Charisma

Chapter 14: Jack up your Attitude & Enthusiasm

PART 2: Winning Communication, Superpowers of Persuasion, Subliminal Selling

Chapter 15 Persuasive Communication

Chapter 16: High Impact Communication Skills

Chapter 17 What Not to Say

Chapter 18: Wordless Communication

Chapter 19 Rapport

Chapter 20: Super Powers of Persuasion

Chapter 21: How to Create Compelling Dialog

PART 3: Psychology, Persuasion, Manipulation, Win any Argument

Chapter 22: Sales Psychology

Chapter 23: The Art of Persuasion

Chapter 24: Manipulation

Chapter 25: How to Win any Argument

Chapter 26: Congratulations

APPENDIX

Goal Planning Template

BOOK 2 – MASTER THE SALES PROCESS

INTRODUCTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1: Sales Call Mastery

Chapter 27: How to Find Buyers

Chapter 28: Identifying the True Decision Makers

Chapter 29: Setting Appointments

Chapter 30: How to Master the Sales Call

Chapter 31: Multi-Call, Multi-Meeting Sale

Chapter 32: Up-Selling

Chapter 33: How to Replace an Established Vendor

Chapter 34: Annihilate Objections Part 1

Chapter 35: Annihilating Objections Part 2

Chapter 36: Negotiation 101

Chapter 37: The Pre-Close

Chapter 38: The Close

Chapter 39: Referrals – Your Rocket Ship to Success

Chapter 40: The Exit

Chapter 41: Eradicate the Competition

Chapter 42: The Magic of Questions

PART 2: Inside Information

Chapter 43: How to Manage Your Client

Chapter 44: Women in Sales

Chapter 45: Manage Your Manager

Chapter 46 Words of Wisdom

Chapter 47 The Fast Track to Promotion

Chapter 48: How to Sell Ice to an Eskimo

Chapter 49: Summary

Chapter 50: Parting Thoughts

INTRODUCTION

The goal of war is peace, of business is leisure - Aristotle

Salesman to Superstar is a Mixed Martial Arts compendium of invaluable information, techniques and skills, designed to make you the best you can possibly be and invincible in any sales situation. It has been referred to as The Salesmen’s Bible. Salesmen to Superstar is the ultimate sales training and reference manual. Whether you are just starting out in sales and want to learn to be a great salesperson, or you are already a great salesperson and want to become a Superstar, Salesman to Superstar is your consummate resource. All the information necessary to take your talent to an extremely superior level is contained in the two books that make up Salesman to Superstar. Mastering the information in these two books is like getting a black belt in karate. This book is designed to cut though mediocrity, past average, beyond good and into the realm of true Superstardom.

Sales is the greatest profession in the world. If you want to make a lot of money sales is the place to be. It is not just the money but what the money can do for you. Money is a measure of success, it can buy you the pleasures you desire, it can give you the ability to help others, which in turn makes you feel relevant, and it gives purpose to your life. While you can give your time without money, you can give so much more with it. There are those who pooh-pooh the desire to earn lots of money, but they are usually the ones who either, don’t have any and therefore need to justify their position, or those that have a great deal of it and can afford to be hypocritical. Let’s face it; money is what makes the world go round and the more you can get ethically, the better.

Beauty is potent but money is omnipotent - Proverb

Sales can be challenging, frustrating and rewarding all at the same time. No position is more critical to an organization than its sales force, yet there are few college sales courses, there are no degrees in sales, and very few formal training programs to learn the craft. So in order to be a Superstar you have to take responsibility for learning the skills upon yourself, or you can contact me to find out where I will be having my next sales skills training session. If you have the right strategy and employ the correct tactics you will be more successful than you could ever imagine. If you take this book seriously and not only read it but put its strategies and tactics to work for you, you will see your close to no-close ratio improve markedly. You will make more money than you ever dreamed and it will take less work to get it.

Many people ask me what the secret is to being a successful salesperson. I tell them that there are many, but most salespeople know only a few of them. The big secret is not just knowing all of them, but putting them into practice in a smooth and free flowing sales package. Have the right strategies and tactics and you can sell anything to anyone that has a need. I don’t believe in selling something to someone that really has no need just so I can close a deal and make money. That is unethical and always comes back to haunt you.

Let me illustrate my point. I was working with IBM in their New York New Business office when they were having a contest whereby the more computers you sold over a defined period the higher the bonus you earned. You had to sell at least three systems to be eligible. The bonus got exponentially greater the more you sold over the initial three. One salesman sold seventeen computers during that period. A feat no one had ever accomplished before. Keep in mind, in those days even the smallest computer was many thousands of dollars. The salesman made a tremendous amount of money and won all kinds of awards. He was a hero in the eyes of IBM, but not for long! Of the seventeen computers sold, all but two came back within ninety days. Now the salesman was in the unenviable position of having to pay the company back thousands of dollars of his commission money and losing his job on top of it. He wound up quitting the best company and the best job he ever had because he oversold the product to win the contest and make more money. He did not fill a need with demonstrable value and consequently he did not get what he needed either, his money nor his job.

Zig Ziglar one of the finest motivational speakers ever born, and who I will quote repeatedly throughout this book, said, When you help others get what they want, you will get what you want. That should be the motto of every salesperson. If you want lots of money, simply show your clients how they can get what they need and/or want using your product or service and you will close more business than you ever dreamed possible.

SALESMAN TO SUPERSTAR

Selling is ubiquitous. Everyone sells many times nearly every day. Selling is not just a salesperson hawking products or services; it is a mother trying to get her teenager to do homework, or a couple trying to get the best table in a restaurant. We motivate, influence, persuade and manipulate all the time. We may not realize that whenever we are getting someone to think or do something that we want them to do we are selling. This book focuses on selling in the business world, yet the same principles apply to our everyday lives and will therefore be of benefit to everyone.

New verses historically successful techniques: We do not sell product, but the mind of the buyer. We sell visions and ideas. We sell his emotions, and we sell the results he believes he cannot do without. .Your product or service is merely the vehicle necessary to realize a desired outcome. Understanding what motivates people and how you can influence them to your way of thinking is the key. This book contains the principles and techniques that highly successful salespeople use. Some of the techniques have been around for many years because they work; others are principles that people knew about but were too politically correct to discuss; and others are new or represent a new prospective on existing techniques. Some unique techniques are derived from hypnotherapy and others from Neuro Linguistic Programing. As we learn more about how people think, new and even more skillful techniques will evolve. Being a Superstar is an ongoing evolutionary process.

Two salespeople selling the same product to the same person will have vastly different outcomes based on the skills they employ. This book is dedicated to teaching you the skills necessary in order to have a greater impact on the mind of your buyer so that you will be significantly more successful. We are not talking about mind control or forcing a buyer to do something against his or her will or best interests. The skills you will learn will show you how to communicate in such a way as to make your message so irresistible that the client will be compelled to buy because he wants to.

The communication skills you will learn here will serve you well not only in business but in your personal life as well. The difference is that in business, when dealing with clients, you have little or no leverage. All your client has to say is No. A Superstar is a person who can communicate the value of his or her product or services so effectively that the client is compelled to say Yes. He is completely organized in his personal and business life and knows exactly what needs to be done every single day to meet and exceed his goals. A Superstar will close more accounts with fewer sales calls, enjoy higher average sales dollars per close and will earn more income. If you were a Superstar would that make a difference in your life? By implementing the strategies, skills and techniques presented here, you will radically improve your performance. Superstars are not born, they are made and you can transform yourself into a superstar in 90 days or less. Believe and you will succeed.

Why have you not closed more deals in the past and made the kind of money you had hoped to make? Maybe it is organization. Maybe you are lacking enough product knowledge. Maybe you don’t know your competition well enough. Maybe you are not correctly building rapport. Maybe you are trying too hard to sell. Maybe you are communicating improperly. Maybe you do not have your prospect sold long before the close. Just maybe you are going about selling the wrong way. Maybe you just don’t know why.

Rest assured that after you learn the techniques laid out in strategic fashion in this book you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams. This book contains more exposed secrets to successful selling than you will find anywhere else. You will learn concepts even seasoned sales trainers don’t know.

A Superstar is constantly asking himself Is what I am doing right now, making me money? A Superstar earns a lot of money for himself and his company.

The average salesman spends more time making less money – James J. Kolins

You have the potential to be the best salesperson that ever lived. A bold statement! Sales is a process and by mastering the concepts in this book you will know as much if not more than every great salesperson ever knew. But knowing is not enough, learning and practicing is what separates the average from the truly great. Once you have mastered all the skills of this very enjoyable, challenging and rewarding career, you will have all the tools necessary to be a true Superstar. You do not need to be born with a special genetic makeup. Everything about the sales process can be learned. You have the talent within you; it just has to be cultivated. You will amaze your family, your bosses, your peers, but most of all you will amaze yourself on how successful you can be. There is no magic to being a Superstar. What it takes is desire, dedication, determination, drive, persistence and a willingness to learn, practice and hone your skills.

This book guides you through a step by step process that can turn even the most uninitiated to the most experienced salesperson into a Superstar. Rest assured that of the tens of thousands that read this book, only a handful will actually spend the time and energy to become a Superstar. Most people are looking for a magic trick, or the revelation of a list of secrets that will instantly make them successful. They purchase book after book, DVD after DVD, go to all the seminars looking for an effortless way to instant success. Don’t be one of them. It doesn’t work that way. They turn out to be average at best. They are the first to get cut from the team. You only get out what you put in.

One of the best ways to conceptualize, absorb and learn the material presented in this book is to break down your personal training into small manageable segments, master each segment before moving on to the next one. This will build confidence and make your learned information a natural part of your repertoire.

Superstars are not born, they are made. The two books contained in Salesman to Superstar are for those who believe that mediocre is unacceptable.

Please let me know how you are doing and how this information has been of benefit. You will find my contact information on the last page.

"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more luck I have. - Thomas Jefferson

I am not going to say Good Luck, because it is not about luck. In the words of Nike founder Phil Knight, Just Do It.

PART 1

HOW TO BE THE BEST

CHAPTER 1

MASTERS of the UNIVERSE

If you want to be super successful, analyze what successful people do that makes them so super successful. What makes one person a master of his universe while others can barely get by? Read on to find out and be prepared to become the master of your universe.

It is a well-known fact that 80% of the sales are made by 20% of the salesmen. Which means that 80% of the salesmen are selling only20% of the business. Why are so few salesmen successful? We will address that in a moment. The top 20% of the salesmen in a company obviously make the most money and the top 5% of the salesmen in an industry make an extraordinary amount of money. What makes them such Superstars? How is it that they are that successful? Think about it. No, I mean really think about it! What is it that they have, or do that you don’t have or can’t do?

The unqualified answer is nothing! They do not have anything that you do not have nor do they do anything that you can’t do. If that is the case, why are they in the top five percent and you are not?

Let me diverse for a moment. Sales, unlike sports, or surgery, or engineering, does not require extraordinary genetic gifts. Selling can be learned by anyone with the desire to learn. So whatever skills the Superstar has, you can have as well. I can honestly and unequivocally say that you have the potential to be the number one salesman in your company.

Since there are many salesmen selling the same or similar products as you are, there are an abundance of sales that you are available to you that you are not getting. That should tell you that there is no lack of opportunity. If you have the same opportunity as the next person, again I ask, why is one person bringing in considerably more business than you are? The excuse that he has a better territory than you have doesn’t hold water since there are other salesmen from your same industry in the same territory closing business. Business that should be yours.

There are three reasons the Superstar is so successful. Every one of them is critical. Every one of them is readily available to you. And, once you incorporate the behaviors and skills of a Superstar, you will be a Superstar. Your income will soon triple and even quadruple and you will be in the top 5% of not only your company but your industry.

Salesmen have asked to me, If everyone became a Superstar, how could we all be in the top 5%. While that is a true statement let’s look at it from a different prospective. If the top salesmen in your company is making $200,000 and the bottom salesman is making $45,000, the top 5% would probably be making between $165,000 and $200,000. If everyone in your company were a Superstar, the numbers would be very different. Let’s say the top salesman is still making $200,000. If everyone were Superstars, they would all be earning between $165,000 and $200,000, BUT, The top 5% would have to be making between $190,000 and $200,000 and the other 95% would have to be making between $165,000 and $190,000. That is a huge difference from the $45,000 that the bottom person was making before. Now we all know that having every salesman in a company, let alone an industry become a Superstar would be a dream come true, but that is highly unlikely. The bottom line is you do not have to worry about what other salesman are or are not doing, You have the opportunity to become a Superstar if you decide that is what you want. Yes, it is that simple. You just have to make the decision to do what it takes and I guarantee you, you will become a Superstar. Whoever is currently in the top 5% of your industry is no better than you are.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

The questions many people ask are, What are the differences between the not very successful and the highly successful person? Why does one person with limited means become a multi-millionaire while someone else in similar circumstances does not even come close? What do I have to do to become successful like them? What am I missing? Many studies have been done on these very questions and the results show that there are three necessities required for extraordinary success.

SELF-ESTEEM

The first and most important attribute of successful salespeople is that they subconsciously know that they have a high level of self-worth. They feel they are entitled to their success because they are worthy of it. They believe in themselves without a scintilla of doubt. Think Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, and Bill Gates.

We will be talking extensively about the subconscious mind of the buyer throughout this book. However, the most significant determining factor of your success is the upper limit you subconsciously put on yourself. People, subconsciously become programmed as they grow up as to what they believe they should expect out of life and that becomes their barometer. Once they hit the high spot they cool down so as not to exceed their own expectations. Most of us consciously say we want to be millionaires, but we don’t believe subconsciously that we are entitled to be millionaires. I know it may be hard to believe that we subconsciously put a ceiling on our success. We may want to be more successful but we don’t believe we deserve to be in the top 5% let alone the top 1%, and so we subconsciously sabotage our own success. Once we hit our arbitrarily established ceiling, we start going into work later, making fewer calls, end our day earlier and a whole host of subconscious sabotaging behaviors creep into our work day. As our productivity declines, we become more comfortable until we go below the level we believe we deserve. Then our motor begins to rev back up and we shift temporarily into high gear. Our subconscious is like a thermostat always keeping us within a predetermined range. If we are set at and comfortable at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, when the temperature goes up the air conditioner will come on to get it back down to 77degrees. When the temperature drops below 77 the heater will come on to get us back up to our comfort zone.

That is why poor people usually stay poor, and middle class people stay in the middleclass. They intuitively believe they belong in that class and that is where they are subconsciously most comfortable, even though it may be highly stressful and consciously uncomfortable. The problem with most kids in the ghetto is not that they do not have the talent to be successful, it is that they have low self-esteem. They do not believe they can achieve.

Billionaires are billionaires because they have no upper limit and believe that they are entitled to anything and everything. They never get out of high gear. Today, there are billionaires investing in mining minerals on comets so that they can become trillionaires. It is obviously not because they need the money, but because they are driven to finding their upper limit, of which there is none. This concept of entitlement comes from a high level of self-worth, which is another word for Self-Esteem. So before you can expect to be making the big bucks, you have to have the mindset that you are entitled to be rich and successful. First and foremost, that is what is necessary to become a Superstar. The Superstars of our world believe in themselves, believe in their abilities and believe they deserve high income and everything that