The Twenty Top Selling Hacks: How to be successful at sales in 20 easy steps

By Amy McCoy

Real estate is more that just a for sale sign. Your craft should start with understanding key customer service skills that are vital for success. You and your client should share equal respect for a lasting relationship.

It is my desire that you are inspired by this book and will engage with future publications.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BooxAi
• Release date: Aug 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9789655783933

Book preview

Introduction

Don’t just talk that talk, walk it and go forward. Also, the walk didn’t have to be long strides; baby steps counted too. Go forward.

–The Pursuit of Happyness

Everything in life is about sales. No matter what you do, you are selling or buying something every day. From the minute you walk out of the door, you are engaging in some kind of transaction. Whether that’s buying a coffee on your way to work or selling your labor for a monthly paycheck, your whole day will be made up of transactions: either by buying or selling.

Of course, you don’t consciously think about this every time to buy a new hair product or share your ideas with your boss about an upcoming project. It doesn’t occur to you that the more persuasive you are with your partner, the more likely they are to agree with you. Neither do you go around thinking that if you help someone out, they are going to owe you. But ever since we humans began exchanging cows for corn, we have been perfecting the art of selling (and buying).

A brief history of sales

Before money was ever part of our lifestyle, we used to barter goods – you give me three cows and I’ll give you 3 bags of corn. That was the deal, and it was a fair exchange. When money came into circulation about 5,000 years ago, it was a game changer. Now, 3 gold shekels were the equivalent of my 3 bags of corn and if you only had 2, then there was no sale.

This system worked great until the Industrial Revolution when lifestyles changed. People moved away from their rural communities into the big cities and began to sell something new – their labor. Around this time, the ‘traveling salesman’ evolved: the guy who went from town to town selling what people needed. He even sold what they didn’t need, promoting his goods with often exaggerated claims and a whole lot of gusto! This was a time of booming consumerism, where everything and anything could be sold.

We’ve come a long way since then and sales as a serious profession really came into its own when Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People came out in 1936. ¹ It got the ball rolling on how to master the art of salesmanship, how to connect with people, persuade people, and influence people. Not surprisingly, it became a bestseller, stirring up excitement amongst anyone in the sales profession (and not only). A self-help bible on how to achieve success in life, most of what Carnegie wrote is still relevant today.

Not long after that, the image of the foot-in-the-door salesman began to emerge, especially in the US. Thousands of men were traversing the country plying their wares to bored housewives who were eager to keep up with the neighbors. This was the 1950s and you had to keep up with the latest trends in consumer products. The seller was king during this time, able to spin their sales talk to a buyer who would believe almost anything (this was in the days before you could check out reviews online or do your own market research). It was a one-way street and a lot of salespeople (and companies) made a whole lot of money. The shine began to wear off after a while, though, when aggressive sales pitches began to make customers feel they were being bullied into buying without having any real information about the product.

By the time we get to the 1960s, strategy selling began, which means that salesmen were taught to do an effective analysis of what the customer wanted and make them feel like they were making a sound decision. This strategy worked pretty well and by the 80s, sales focused on SPIN, which is an acronym for Selling/Situation, Problem, Implication, Need, then pay off! Consultative Selling also began around this time, which involved asking the prospective customer to find out what they were really looking for. The foot-in-the-door salesman evolved into a caring, compassionate, trustworthy friend who was there to help you find a solution to your problems. The customer’s pain now became a way for any salesman to connect and, of course, sell.

Then, boom! The internet was born, opening up the floodgates of the consumer revolution. Now, there are a zillion ways to sell products and sometimes the consumer doesn't even need a sales pitch. They are ready to buy after five minutes of online searching for what they wanted, with salesmen being taken out of the equation in many sectors.

BUT, and this is a big BUT, there are still some markets where the salesperson is paramount to the sale. Think of Real Estate for example or Life Insurance. Customers still want to be convinced they are buying the right product for them and need an expert to guide them. That gives you a lot of power and opportunity, so why waste it?

Nowadays, buyers have all the information they need, as well as a global marketplace to sell and buy in. But good salespeople can still earn a living and be successful if they learn how to use basic soft skills to their advantage. That’s why I decided to write this book. After being in real estate for 18 years now, I have seen changes in the way things work but there are still some essential principles that help generate sales. They aren’t highly technical sales strategies full of incomprehensible jargon or formulae. You don’t need to be a tech guru or understand complicated digital algorithms. You simply need to get back to basics, but with a twist.

In the following chapters, I'm going to be sharing my top twenty hacks for success in selling that have worked for me. Believe it or not, we need to get more personal, more emotional, and more connected with our goals if we want to succeed. And then, we must get personal, emotional, and connected with our clients. People (customers/clients) nowadays want honesty, reliability, and integrity. They can smell bullshit a mile off and have inbuilt radars that can detect when something is value for money or not. In fact, value is at the top of everyone’s list and that’s what your clients are looking for, first and foremost.

As we go through each chapter, you will learn how to nail transactions that bring benefits to you and the customer, and discover the secrets to building profitable client-seller relationships. I’ll be taking you through the strategies you need to implement if you want to manage your time, money, and effort, as well as telling you how to establish meaningful goals on your way to success. We will be looking at the importance of knowing your product and consistently broadening your knowledge and skill set. There are chapters on how to close sales, bounce back from failure, and stay motivated, as well as guides on how to think big and step up your game on a daily basis.

Everything you ever wanted to know about making sales is here, with practical steps on how to achieve success in both your professional and private life. One tip I want to give you off the top is this: do what you do with passion and see each day as a new, golden opportunity. There are plenty of them out there and if you go after them with enthusiasm and persistence, the world is your oyster.

Are you ready to make those sales? All you need to do is get started, so let’s go!

Chapter 1

WHAT IS SELLING?

How you sell is more important than what you sell. –Andy Paul

Most people are turned off by cold-calling, email blasts, annoying ads, and uninvited sales reps knocking on doors or calling them on their cell phones. No one wants to buy from a pushy salesman/saleswoman who comes across like a bully. The consumer is much more sophisticated than that nowadays, so you have to follow suit.

Customers want to feel like they have a choice, that they have options, and that they can make the right decision based on the information they have before them. But they also want that human element – someone to advise them and even take on a problem-solving role. That’s your job.

Selling is NOT about gaining financial rewards at any cost. Neither is it related to making customers buy something they don't want. Sure, you want to meet your monthly or annual sales target, shift products, gain commission, make a bonus, or whatever your motive is. After all, you want to earn a living and be successful at what you do, and that’s fine. The problem is that you are competing with educated consumers (most of the time), a powerful digital marketplace, and colleagues who are way ahead of you in the game.

Successful sellers are the ones who:

Know how to make a sale while letting the customer think it was their decision

The customer will keep going back time after time because a relationship of trust has been established

Know their product and are committed to improving their knowledge day after day.

Understand that buying is an emotional process not always dictated by the size of one's wallet or bank balance.

What do they also know that you don’t? Let’s read on to find out.

The definition of selling

Everyone agrees that ‘selling’ refers to any transaction where money is exchanged for goods or services. In