THE 33 LAWS OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE SELLING: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BECOMING A SALES SUPERSTAR

By DEAN HARMAN

Now for the million-dollar question: "Why are some salespeople 100X times more successful than everyone else?"

What do they know or what do they do differently that makes their sales explode while their competitors struggle away in quiet
desperation!

The 33 Laws of High-Performance Selling is the essential guide book for anyone who wants to know exactly what it takes to
become a high-performance sales superstar.

If you want to make your sales life much easier and a lot more fun, this valuable book will reveal the time-tested and proven mindsets and tactics you need to know to attract the boundless opportunities in the business world today.

Each chapter has a fundamental law for you to master, and as you begin to recognize the hidden and overlooked opportunities all around, you can develop your skills in order to get the results you want.

BOTTOM LINE: If you want to close a lot more sales and have an unfair advantage over your competition, this book will unlock the hidden principles and insights you need to become a high-performance sales leader.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667882383

Book preview

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The 33 Laws of High-Performance Selling

©2023 Dean Harman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

ISBN 978-1-66788-237-6

eBook ISBN 978-1-66788-238-3

I dedicate this book to Margot Williams.

Thank you for your love, grace, and kindness.

Contents

Introduction

Law #1 Selling Is a Skill Everyone Requires

Law #2 Selling Something You Don’t Like or Believe In

Law #3 Rejection Is Just a Firm Beginning

Law #4 Telling versus Selling

Law #5 The Short and Long Sales Call

Law #6 Real Listening

Law #7 A Great Trip Needs More Than Just a Ticket

Law #8 The Persuasion Pyramid

Law #9 Customer Micro-Tells

Law #10 Frame Control

Law #11 The Peacock and the Cuttlefish

Law #12 The Five Customer Types

Law #13 Never Bad-Mouth the Competition

Law #14 Tone, Topic, Pace, and Word Choice

Law #15 The Ten Most Common Mistakes Salespeople Make

Law #16 People Buy with Their Eyes

Law #17 Introverted versus Extroverted Salespeople

Law #18 The Story of the Three Little Gardeners

Law #19 Reach and Frequency

Law #20 Crashing Down the Rabbit Hole

Law #21 Close like a Warrior

Law #22 Teams Always Outsell the Lone Wolf

Law #23 Be Proud to Say No

Law #24 The Difference between Grinders and Hustlers

Law #25 If You’re Not Real Good, You’d Better Be Authentic!

Law #26 The Five Percent Rule

Law #27 Handling Adversity

Law #28 Action Is More Important than Passion

Law #29 Your Reputation Is Your Responsibility

Law #30 Standing on the Other Side

Law #31 Selling Your Story

Law #32 Affirmations Are the Fertilizer of Success

Law #33 Routines Are the Tigers and Schedules Are the Mice

Law #34 The Big Talk

Introduction

I think the best way to start a book like this is to reveal a deeply personal secret….

For better than forty years, I have carefully hidden something from my friends and colleagues. Only a handful of people know this secret, and I’m sure it will come as a big shock to many who are about to read this book.

I have competed for over two decades in an industry full of highly educated, talented, dynamic, ambitious people. In arenas like mine, any weakness or perceived disadvantage would have eliminated my chances to succeed in the corporate sales world.

My dyslexia created a lot of suffering early on in my life, but it also helped forge my resilience and develop a tenacity that soon became the touchstone for the advantages and success I now enjoy.

With all learning disabilities there is a spectrum of degree, and I just happen to be one of the lucky ones who has it rather bad. How bad you ask? Frankly, most of the time I spent in public school was literally torture for me. Although my IQ is high, my inability to read and write was so paralyzing that most of my teachers simply gave up on me, and I became a sort of lost soul suffering away in the system.

I am telling you this not to seek sympathy or to use it as an excuse. I feel it is essential to start this book with my secret because my learning disability became my catalyst for change. I wrote this book for anyone looking to make real changes in their life and career by facing their challenges head on.

You see, all those years of rejection and feeling like an outsider gave me no choice but to find a totally new way of learning in order to have a chance at a successful life. I knew that whatever everyone else was doing wasn’t going to work for me, so I had to search to find the best shortcuts available if I was ever going to reach my goals.

When I started deconstructing and rebuilding everything in my life, everything changed. When I broke free from worrying about what everyone else was doing, I was able to set my own rules. My new freedom gave me the opportunity to strip away all the old, antiquated ideas that everyone else seemed so invested in. I was no longer a slave to process and instead began years of experimenting with new ideas and systems that eventually opened a whole new world to me.

I believe with all my heart that everyone is born with at least one superpower. My superpower is the art of persuasion, and my natural abilities to influence and persuade have been my ticket to a better life.

It wasn’t until I found the right school and sat through a few thousand hours of specialized tutoring that I started to believe in myself. I eventually managed to get into a small community college where I worked hard to catch up with my peers. When I stumbled into subjects I liked, I thrived, and my natural curiosity eventually led me into the business world.

When I landed my first pharmaceuticals sales job, I was the only person on our entire sales team without a full four-year degree. Many of the people around me had multiple advanced degrees from the best universities in the world, and on paper there was every reason to think they should be successful in sales. But after just twelve months, I was the only sales rep in my hiring group of eight still working in the territory, and I can assure you it wasn’t my pedigree or educational background that kept me employed. It was my performance and my results that built my reputation and gave me the chance to work in an industry I love.

Sales has always been easy for me, and now, when I see others struggling, I want to help them because I know just how they feel. Whether you’re a professional salesperson or just starting a new business, I know without a shadow of a doubt that selling will be the toughest hurdle you’ll ever have to overcome.

It has taken me two decades to earn this opportunity to share what I have learned along my journey. Trial and error have been my best teachers, and I want to pass on the strategies and tactics you are going to need to be successful.

Sales has given me an incredible life. I want this book to inspire and teach you how to become a high-performance salesperson so that your opportunities will be limitless. Hard work and sacrifice are essential to a successful journey, but I can tell you from experience that knowledge is the escalator to your aspirations and dreams.

I have filled The 33 Laws of High Performance Selling with my most entertaining stories, but I have also packed each chapter with valuable insights and information so that you can begin to see exactly what is important and what is not.

I want you to know that I admire anyone who tries to improve their skills, and I realize it’s not easy stepping out into the unknown. But I also know that comfort zones are the problem, and getting uncomfortable is the only solution. Meaningful change occurs only with practice and training, so I want you to push yourself to try these new and fresh ideas when you’re out in the field.

Enjoy! Think! Learn! I’m with you all the way!

Law #1

Selling Is a Skill

Everyone Requires

I remember sitting in a cold gray room with only the sound of a coffee machine dripping away behind me. I had just finished filling out some kind of a personality test when the sales manager walked into the room asking me if I was all done. Yes, I said. I’m all done.

It was my second interview with the company, and the manager handed me an envelope with an NHL ticket inside. He invited me to the game that night so I could meet the CEO as well as some of the company’s key accounts. He folded up the test and tucked it into his suit pocket. He smiled and shook my hand. If everything checks out, he said, you can expect an offer sheet in the morning. This would be my first real sales job. The problem was that some of the sales experience I had conjured up over the long hours of questioning was not built on a bedrock of real experiences. I’d not outright lied, but I had certainly exaggerated—a lot. Although it was December, I remember a trickle of sweat rolled down my back as I walked down the viaduct to the rink. I was sure that at some point in the evening, I would be found out, surely escorted to one of the loading bays, and pitched out into the streets like a whipped dog.

This all sounds quite impressive: a young man just out of college ventures out into a big-time corporate sales job with all the perks like private boxes at hockey games.

Right?

Well, reality can sometimes be a harsh master.

The suite was little more than a few folding chairs on a concrete slab jutting out of the rafters with the VIPs hunched over the black railing peering down on speedy little ants sliding around on the ice below. I should probably also let you know exactly what I was selling. I was representing what is known in the industry as piss-pucks—in other words, urinal-cakes. My official title was Janitorial Services Account Manager.

I was introduced to the ten or so people squinting over the railing and downing endless fountain pops and ketchup-flavored chips. I quickly realized that wearing a suit and tie made me stand out like a sore thumb and that I was way overdressed for the occasion. I would have probably been better off wearing a terry-cloth robe with a Hello, my name is Deer-in-the-Head-Lights badge on the front. I stood fidgeting until finally one of the older clients called me over and asked if I wanted to take a seat beside him.

As the first period went by, I was able to calm myself a little. It turned out the old-timer in the metallic-blue tracksuit just happened to be a very successful commercial developer in the city. Halfway through the second period, he asked me if this was my first sales job. I craned my head around to make sure my potential new bosses were out of earshot.

He leaned back in his chair with a big grin on his face. That’s a resounding ‘Yes’ then.

Twenty-one years later I can’t remember that gentleman’s name, but I do remember him saying, Don’t worry about it, kid. You really only have to know one thing about sales.

What’s the one thing? I asked.

You just need to know what the hell you’re talking about.

When the third-period siren sounded that the game was over, I made my way over to the managers milling around saying their goodbyes to the VIPs.

Once the old-timer got his jacket on and wrapped his scarf around his neck, he came over and announced, Well, boys, looks like you’ve got a good one here.

The CEO smiled. We’ll see. He starts tomorrow.

The developer looked me in the eye. Remember when you wake up tomorrow morning that you really only have two choices. You can either be a buyer or be a seller, and it’s always better to be a seller.

Over the next ten months, I wore out a set of Hush Puppies spending more time than I care to remember selling cleaning services and odor control in every conceivable situation. I learned that the number one concern most building managers have is the dreaded disgusting bathroom complaint. They would all grumble about the animals who used the building’s facilities and moan that eventually some busybody with nothing else to do in life would come unglued after squishing their delicates against some unimaginable foreign substance. Eyes bulging, they would lash out at the shamefully incompetent cleaning service and then threaten to make real trouble for anyone and everyone.

But as one grizzled restaurant owner once told me, We scrub our washrooms from top to tail before every shift. We don’t make the mess. We just clean it up. The owner paused as he looked out over his staff setting up the dining room for the lunch service. "You see, young man, it will make perfect sense to you when you