The Simple Salesman

By M J Pitts

This book is intended to help anybody who is considering a career in selling, it covers from basic selling skills right through to Account Managing larger accounts and larger sales opportunities, there is even a section on how to pass an interview.

Joe Pitts wrote this book based on his own experiences of selling during a 30 year plus career and at some stage he has carried out all of the roles contained in the book as well as some others not mentioned.

Joe was once asked by his Director why he had been successful and at the time could not find the words to answer the question.

If asked now he would say preparation, practice and work hard to be the best you can be.

He would never claim to be the best ever salesman, but by using the tools and techniques which he would like to share with readers of this book, he became a respected sales person.

Joe achieved minimal qualifications at school but his education really started when he moved into selling.

If you have the right approach and the desire to be the best you can be, read this book and then put it into practice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Oct 3, 2007
• ISBN: 9781467013383

M J Pitts

Joe left school at 16 with no real career in mind, his only real work experience was selling green grocery with his father Percy from the back of his fathers van. Joe started as a clerk in what was then Post Office Telecommunications, which was a job he hated, he was a keen Rugby League player and this was his love, he played for Bradford Northern, Bramley and Batley as well as several other amateur sides. He moved into selling in the seventies and his career started to blossom, he had found something he enjoyed and was good at it. Over the years Joe won many awards for his selling and management skills and also he won some major contracts which he was also recognised for. He found that his education or lack of it did not stop him, he could learn techniques and skills that directly helped him to be successful and by applying those consistently, he was successful more often than not. When asked now what worked for him, he would say "preparation, practice and the desire to be the best I can be". He is still applying the same tools and techniques which he has learnt and developed over a career covering more than 30 years.

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AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

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Central Milton Keynes, MK9 2BE

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

© 2007 M J Pitts. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 10/8/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4343-2132-9 (sc)

ISBN: 9781467013383 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

INTRODUCTION

SECTION 1

COMPANY, PRODUCT AND YOU

SECTION 2

BASIC SELLING SKILLS

SECTION 3

IMPACT

SECTION 4

PRESENTATION SKILLS

SECTION 5

MANAGING AN OPPORTUNITY

SECTION 6

WINNING THE OPPORTUNITY

SECTION 7

MANAGING THE LARGER ACCOUNT

SECTION 8

ACCOUNT DEVELOPMENT PLAN

SECTION 9

MANAGING THE SMALLER ACCOUNT

SECTION 10

SELLING OVER THE TELEPHONE

SECTION 11

THE JOB INTERVIEW

SECTION 12

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

SECTION 13

THE SALES MANAGER

SECTION 14

THE BEGINNING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

Many people believe that a salesman is born to sell and that for some reason it is one of those things that you either can or cannot do, you will hear the expressions such as she could sell snow to the Eskimos or he could sell coal to Newcastle. Well my belief is that although you certainly need some basic natural skills which I will talk about, selling skills can very much be learnt and then applied.

So what natural skills do you need to have, well the following are very useful.

•   Ability to learn

•   Able to listen and hear what is being said

•   Not be too introvert

•   You need to be able to articulate what you mean

•   The desire to achieve or add value

•   Confidence in your own ability

•   Common sense

The list above is by no means everything but if you have those, you already have the ability to learn to sell and also to do many other things I might add, such as just about any activity within your physical capability involving other people.

Some of the best sales people I have met have been successful because they are prepared to learn and work hard, you don’t suddenly become a sales person you continue to develop all through your career, but again that could be said of any profession.

A former employee of mine and now a friend Chris Willmott was very raw when I first interviewed him for a sales job, he had bags of enthusiasm and was focussed and willing, but he lacked some of the sales skills that he would need to be successful. He has some qualities though in abundance, the desire to learn and improve and be successful.

Chris over the years has been very successful and won many awards and now has a senior management job at O2.

Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods didn’t just become great golfers they had to continually practice and receive coaching so that they always played at their very best. I believe it was Gary Player who having just played a miracle shot was heard to say you know the more I practice the luckier I get.

Now it might be that we will never be as good in our chosen profession as other top professionals in theirs, but with application and some belief we can all become better at what we do.

In the following pages of this book we will look at lots of different areas of selling and some of the skills that you can learn and practice from selling commodity type products to a buyer to selling complex solutions to a Board of Directors and although not everybody will ever need to do this the skills are basic and common which is why the title of this book is The Simple Salesman, not because salesmen are simple, but because the art of selling can be and is very much based on applying common sense.

SECTION 1

COMPANY, PRODUCT AND YOU

When you are selling you are generally selling three things your company, your product and yourself; not necessarily in that order, but that is the order in which we will cover them.

Company

It is important to do research on your company and be able to speak knowledgably about it and to understand what is important to a potential customer when doing business with your company.

•   How long as your company been established?

•   Are you profitable?

•   What is your pre-sale service like?

•   What is your delivery like?

•   What is your post-sale service like?

•   Does your company conduct customer satisfaction surveys?

•   What is a customer billing experience like with your company?

•   What is the Management/Organisation structure?

•   What is the escalation procedure?

•   If your customer has a problem who in your company takes ownership?

•   Do you have a list of customers who would write testimonials for your company?

•   What is your company’s marketplace?

•   Does your company have a differentiator in that market place?

•   Does your company focus on quality?

•   Does it have any quality qualifications?

•   Does your company focus on value as opposed to price?

•   Who are your company’s suppliers?

•   Does your company do its own Research and Development?

•   Does your company manufacture its own products?

•   Does your company develop its people?

•   Is there a company web-site?

•   One simple question is why would a customer want to buy from my company, because if you can’t answer that, why should they?

Now the above list is not exhaustive and maybe you would not be expected to know all of this, but if your company does have a web-site, your customer might very well expect that you would know what is on that site.

At the end of the day your customer wants to know that a company that they are dealing with are credible and that they can be relied on to do what they say they will do also that they are in a financial position that the customer can be confident of future support.

It may be blunt, but I have heard customers in the past say as long as this company is viable to be sued I can do business with them.

When you look at the above information, it is quite comprehensive and prior to going for a job interview with a company, if you were to do research on the above bullet points, they could not fail to be impressed at your interview, if you brought some of those key points out.

Product

As a sales person one of your main jobs is to bring out all of the benefits of your product/s to a potential buyer, to do this you need to understand the product features and its advantages over other products.

Once you understand these features and advantages and when you describe them to a customer, the key phrase is which means to you.

Examples:-

1)   A feature of the cap of this medicine bottle is that you have to squeeze the sides whilst unscrewing it to open it. This means that your children will not be able to open it and they will be safe from taking the medicine by accident, which is obviously very important to you.

2)   An advantage of dealing with our company is that we are local, which means to you that any issues can be resolved more easily because we are only minutes away from you and at any time you will have minimum disruption.

3)   My company is ISO 9001 registered which means to you that we apply quality procedures to ensure that you will get the best experience when dealing with us.

A good sales person will have made sure he can articulate the company and product benefits and if he/she does that better than the competition there will be a better chance of winning the sale.

In understanding your own products and company, it is also beneficial; to understand your competitors and their products if you can do this are you able to apply your own differentiators over the competition. That is not to criticise the competition, but to bring out the strengths that your company or its products have. It is not normally good practice to mention your competitors. Let them do their own advertising!

Customers are still likely to mention your competitors and will expect you to at least have a little knowledge of them, but as I have said previously it is more important to speak about your strengths and not your competition, you are the expert on your company and products not the competition again let them do their own selling.

Don’t forget if you are doing research on the web of your own