Secret Manual of the Sales Warrior: Winning Strategies to Turn Sceptics into Advocates

By Maxine Teo

To unveil the secrets of this Secret Manual, you need to be a Warrior. One who is brave to try out new ideas, learn new approaches, and apply them in the battlefield of the business world —relentlessly.

 

Whether you are a Sales Professional or an Individual Contributor, if you are looking for winning strategies to…

•  Get customers and bosses to say YES faster

•  Harness your strengths to supercharge your success

•  Win respect and trust from your customers, bosses, and co-workers

•  Manage your stress and thrive on it

•  Think fast and speak with impact when put on the spot

•  Stay positive and resilient in the face of constant challenges

… then this Secret Manual is for you. When you have acquired the kung fu or skills compiled in the twelve power-packed chapters, you will be on your way to become a formidable force in the business world.

 

Are you ready?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Candid Creation Publishing
• Release date: Jul 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9789811472190

Maxine Teo

MAXINE TEO is a trilingual motivational speaker, corporate trainer, and performance coach with a passion to colourfully impact and inspire lives. In the past two decades of working with diverse teams across the globe, she has successfully helped countless leaders, sales professionals, and individual contributors from diverse industries to raise their game in their respective fields. She is an active sales practitioner and has vast experiences from having worked in financial services, real estate, events management, and the media. Maxine brings practicality, relevance and relatability to her audiences. She is highly regarded for her ability to turn complicated concepts into easily digestible applications in a fun and engaging way. Maxine has received multiple awards from various international training and education institutions, in recognition for excellent work delivered to her corporate clients. She also received the Best Personal Brand Award in 2017 as a “Colourful Inspirer”. She is a Certified True Colors® facilitator and an accredited trainer with professional certifications from the Singapore Training and Development Association. Her fluency in spoken and written English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, together with her colourful personality and magnetic high energy, makes her a highly sought-after speaker and trainer everywhere she goes.

Book preview

Preface

Hello my dear reader. Welcome to your very own copy of the Secret Manual of the Sales Warrior. In the pugilistic world of ancient China, pugilists, swordsmen, swordswomen, and kung fu masters would always be in search of the 武林秘籍 which directly translates to Martial Arts Secret Manual. It contains all the secret and powerful martial arts movements. When one can master these techniques and strategies, one will become the most powerful person in the pugilistic world. Analogically, when a Sales Warrior is able to master the winning strategies and apply the knowledge I have compiled in this manual, he or she can become a formidable force in the business world.

Having had the privilege to have travelled to more than thirty cities in the world, worked with and trained thousands of working professionals, I have culminated an immense wealth of experience of how people communicate and engage one another. Coupled with my decades of being in the selling field and working with sales teams, I have developed a natural instinct and empathetic understanding of the challenges faced by Sales Professionals and appreciate the dynamics and issues faced by Individual Contributors at the workplace.

For fifteen years, I have dreamt of becoming an author. To write a book on a topic that I am passionate about. Over time, life got busy and dreams got shelved — including my dream of being an author. My loving mother, Elizabeth, would always ask me every now and then over the years, Baby, when are you going to write your book? I did not know how to answer my mother until last year, in 2019. I was invited by 938 Live FM, a popular news radio station in Singapore, to share on topics that I teach in my training courses, such as selling skills, managing difficult people, stress management, and other relationship management topics. After the first interview, I was invited to another and another until it became more than ten interviews! Inspiration struck like lightning. At that point, I knew exactly what I wanted to write! Not one, not two, but all the topics that I am passionate about and have so much experience and ideas to share! Inspired by the conversational and relatable style of the radio interviews, I decided to write my book in a question-and-answer format, spread out over twelve chapters — each a different lesson — and compiled into a power-packed secret manual! Thanks to my mother’s constant encouragement and this wonderful book idea that magically presented itself, I finally did it!

In the final chapter on reframing and resilience, I share about how my mother is such a warrior in life, with her indomitable and relentless spirit to overcome her health challenges. I am constantly inspired by her to be brave and have the courage to be the best that I can be. This is why I decided to name my book, Secret Manual of the Sales Warrior.

As you read this book, you will notice that I share stories, examples, and case studies centred mainly on two groups of readers, the Sales Warriors and Individual Contributors.

If you are a salesperson, selling any product, service, or solution, I salute you. It’s a tough job. You are a Sales Warrior!

If you are a C-level officer, team leader, professional, or in any other role that is not directly sales related, you are an Individual Contributor, contributing to the whole of your organisation. You are selling ideas to people at the office daily. You too are a Sales Warrior!

I am dedicating this maiden book to my loving mother who has been and still is my number one Advocate in life! Her love, encouragement, and constant support have helped me in my journey of putting this book together, not to mention keeping me going in life. Thank you Mummy dearest! You are truly a Warrior!

I would also like to specially dedicate this book to my beloved father, who is now in heaven. The man who has always taught me the importance of filial piety, honesty, hard work, and the value of speaking and writing Chinese. Thanks to my father’s vision and constant coaching in the Chinese language, I am fluent in my spoken Mandarin and written Chinese. My mastery of the Chinese language has also given me the opportunity to expand my business into the North Asian market. I have used several Chinese words in this book as they amazingly summarise my thoughts in just a few succinct characters to bring my point across. 爸爸，感谢您的 爱与教诲; 我会永记在心, which means, Papa, thank you for your love and teachings; I will always remember in my heart.

There are people who were instrumental in my journey of making this book happen and I would like to sincerely thank them. The publisher of this maiden book of mine, Kok Hwa, whom I had approached five years ago to help me publish my book. I had dropped the ball on him then. He waited patiently until I was ready to reconnect with him again. His cheerful demeanour, creative ideas, suggestions, and encouragement together with my editor, Patricia Ng, who has been putting in extra hours to appraise and edit my book in express time; friends who helped to give me suggestions about my book title — you know who you are; and back to my family: my younger sister Katelin, who has helped me with ideas on my book title and giving professional suggestions on my book cover design; my elder sister, Naomi, cheering me on; my mentors, friends, and clients-turned-friends who have put in kind words about me and my book as reflected in the praises at the start of this book; and finally, my precious son, Coen, for editing this Preface, for being my driving force in life, and for believing in me.

How Should You Read This Book?

I have arranged the chapters of this Secret Manual to be in a natural sales process, from getting new business with winning strategies in Networking, all the way to staying positive and resilient with tips on Reframing.

Every reader has a different style of reading a book. Some of you may prefer to read a book from the start to the finish, chapter after chapter. Or you may like to pick and choose and zoom into topics that are of interest to you. It is your choice. If there is one chapter that you should dive into first to appreciate and understand other chapters starting from Chapter 5, it will be Chapter 4 on Speed Profiling. In this segment of the Secret Manual, I share about different personality types and how we need to adjust our communication approaches based on the different personality types. By recognising that different folks require different strokes, it gives us a more strategic approach to double our chances of success as a Sales Warrior and Individual Contributor.

At the start of each chapter, I have written a quote to inspire you and provided a short introduction to give you a taste of what to expect. At the closing, there are a few questions for you to self-evaluate, to stimulate your thoughts, and to encourage you to pen down some action steps to bring the winning strategies to life.

May you enjoy the journey of exploring the Secret Manual of the Sales Warrior. Remember, YOU are a WARRIOR!

1

Networking

Give and Receive More

Build your emotional currency and you shall be wealthy in more ways that you can imagine.

Does the idea of networking send tingling paralysing shivers down your spine? Do you dread having to make small talk and network in order to get some connections that could help you in your business? At the same time, you may have no idea how to go about it and what to do at a networking session. Business networking is the start of the sales cycle. To get your name out there, to know what is out there, and how to spot the prospects out of the suspects, it all starts from here. Let’s find out how we can get rid of this fear, doubt, and uncertainty around networking and turn it into an instrument to help you build connections, keep in touch with the pulse of your industry, and boost your career.

Question 1

How can business networking help salespeople and individual contributors at the workplace?

Let us first define business networking. It is the process of establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with other business people and potential customers on the same wavelength. Many people think that business networking is about collecting as many business cards as possible so that you have more prospects to follow up with after an event. On the contrary, the secret to effective networking is not to take, but to give. To build emotional currency. As the quote at the start of this chapter states, you shall be wealthy in more ways than you can imagine, when you build your emotional currency. Let me elaborate on this in a while.

One of the objectives in business networking is to inform others about your business or your job function. For Sales Warriors, the ultimate goal is to turn suspects into prospects into customers and to get them to give you more business. For Individual Contributors at the workplace, the goal is to make yourself visible, get recognised for your contribution, which could translate into opportunities for you to take on a new job role and advance your career.

There are, of course, many benefits of networking that can help Sales Warriors and Individual Contributors. This includes helping you to build confidence as you speak to more people in public, and there can be an exchange of new, fresh, and innovative ideas from people in the same or other industries. You can even get career advice and gain new connections that could lead to more knowledge and progress in your career.

Back to my point on emotional currency. As the term currency relates to money in our bank accounts, there is credit and debit. Every time you offer to do something for another person, with no direct benefit to yourself, you are crediting your emotional account. At networking events, there are many ways to build up your emotional currency. For example, if you are aware that one of your contacts, say, Jenny, is starting out in the fashion industry and would appreciate some advice on how to do so, you introduce Jenny to one of your clients, Michael, who is an established fashion retail chain owner, who is also at the networking event. By playing host and linking Jenny with Michael, you have just credited your emotional account with Jenny. In time to come when Jenny is more established and successful, do you think you can withdraw on this account and approach Jenny to offer your business solutions? Of course, you can. Just like making introductions for two people to start a romantic relationship, it does not always end up in a marriage and happily-ever-after. On one hand, you need to be mindful of the compatibility of the people whom you introduce to one another; on the other hand, make it known to the parties that it is just an introduction, the rest is up to them. Focus on the currency you have credited at that point of the introduction.

Think along these lines: keep giving and keep building your emotional currency and you will have a lot of credit to withdraw from in time to come.

Question 2

What do we need to prepare before going for a networking session? Can we just walk in there and see how it goes?

Sure, we can do that! If you are an experienced networker who meets new people every day, you can definitely walk into any networking event and still shine like a star. For those of us who may not be as experienced or comfortable to do so, it will certainly help if we do some preparation beforehand.

Strategy #1: Discover Your Why

Stephen Covey said it well in one of the habits of highly effective people, begin with an end in mind. What is your WHY? Why are you attending the networking event in the first place? What do you hope to get out of the networking event? To collect at least ten business cards? To get to know at least three new people? To practise your public speaking skills with at least one person? Having clarity on what you want to achieve will give you the motivation to network and help you to strategise how to go about it before you get there.

Strategy #2: Know Your Who

Once you have discovered and established your Why, you need to know your Who. Who are the people attending the networking event? You do not necessarily have to know them personally, but at least know the business background of the audience. For example, are they all working executives from the pharmaceutical industry? Or are they sales professionals from the real estate industry? Knowing who you will be networking with will help you be more prepared on the topics to start conversations with. You could also do some homework beforehand and research on the recent industry trends, be aware of the theme of the event or the topic of the keynote speech that will be delivered. Having all these information will certainly boost your confidence to walk in there, armed with a bunch of topics that you can pull out at any time to start a conversation.

Strategy #3: Strategise Your How

The next natural step is the how. Depending on your networking goal, you can strategise your approach accordingly. For example, if you are a Sales Warrior and your networking goal is to gain at least three new prospects for your business, you need to strategise how to work the room. It will be most ideal if you know the host of the event, so that you can request that the host introduce you to the key people whom you have identified as prospects for your business. If you are on your own, prepare yourself with conversation openers, as suggested earlier, as part of your networking preparation. Be mindful of the amount of time you spend talking to one person. The commonly made mistake at networking is when we spend too much time with one person and as a result, have little or no time left to mingle with the rest. A reasonable amount of time with one person is about 15 minutes. Depending on how the conversation goes, if it is promising, you could close the conversation with a suggestion to meet up at an agreed date to continue with the discussion.

Refer to Chapter 3 on Small Talk for more tips on how to start, sustain, and close a conversation.

Question 3

We have all heard about the elevator pitch. How can we introduce ourselves to sound interesting enough to encourage the prospect at a networking event to want to continue the conversation?

Just to ensure that we are all in sync with what an elevator pitch is, it is a brief and persuasive speech to spark interest in what you do and your organisation does. Why elevator? It is because this type of short speech should last no more than 30 seconds, which is about the time of a short ride in an elevator.

What is interesting to one person may be boring to another. In any case, an effective elevator pitch consists of three elements:

•Who you are;

•What you are looking for; and

•How you can benefit the person you are networking with.

Here are some strategies to keep in mind that will make your elevator pitch punchy and effective.

Strategy #1: Shortlist Three Diverse Traits About Yourself

When sharing about who you are, shortlist at least three diverse traits about yourself that you can pull out at any time. For example, the opening line in my elevator pitch is, I colourfully impact and inspire lives around the world with the spoken and written word. In just this one line, you can pick up on three things about me: (A) I have a colourful personality. If you have met me in person, you will know how colourful my dressing and communication style is. (B) My job seems to involve travelling around the world, which in this case is true. I have travelled to more than sixty cities to deliver my training solutions and keynote speeches, and for my vacations too. (C) I mentioned the spoken and written word which implies that my job or business requires me to write and speak well, which in this case are part of my traits. The way I introduce myself typically gets people to be curious about me and they always probe further, asking me to share more about myself.

Strategy #2: Tailor Your Pitch

You have to tailor your pitch to the person you are networking with. If you are talking to fellow salespersons, they would not want to hear about your cooking expertise or ability to make paper cranes. They want to know about the people you know and the connections that you can potentially make for them. Facts tell, stories sell.

Take for example if you are networking with a Sales Professional specialising in selling medical supplies, Instead of saying, I have worked with hospitals such as Company ABC and XYZ and we have very good relationships, which will make you sound like you are bragging, you could share it in a form of a story. When I first met the Managing Director of Company XYZ three years ago, it was during a time when the we were facing tough legislations from the medical board. But we managed to overcome the challenges and we have since become trusted partners. A good pitch is essentially a good story. It makes the listener keep thinking to himself, I want more, I want more.

What if you think that you do not have a story to tell? The fact is that if you were not born yesterday, you would have lived on earth for some time, and you would have a story to tell. It can be the experiences from your internship during the time of your tertiary education, relationships with your children, or encounters in the office. Adapt your story based on what you think the other person is interested to talk about. For instance, your boss talks about how having to motivate all of you is just like having to motivate his daughters. From this comment, you pick out the fact that he has daughters. You are trying to find common ground, yet do not have any children. But remember, you have been a child before. Tell a story about how your parents guided you as a child and that you can relate to how he feels. From this story, your boss can tell that you are an appreciative child who gives credit to his parents, and most likely to the people in life who have helped you. This helps to strengthen your brand