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The 18 Disciplines of Selling: Part 5: The Finale

Guest post by: Danny Creed

Article Overview: This is it, the final elements of the 18 Disciplines of selling. Our four previous articles covered what I believe to be the fundamental building blocks of sales success that a businessperson must understand in order to just survive let alone thrive in todays markets. The Disciplines have been to many very simple and they are but that is where the challenge is. How tough are you? How disciplined are you to do what must be done, what you know needs to be done every day, whether you want to or not? Here are the last of the 18 disciplines. In our last article we covered the skills necessary in selling with Disciplines #7 through #11. In Part 5we're going to discuss disciplines #12 through #18

The 18 Disciplines of Selling: Part 5: The Finale

This is it, the final elements of the 18 Disciplines of selling. Our four previous articles covered what I believe to be the fundamental building blocks of sales successthat a businesspersonmust understand in order to just survive let alone thrive in todays markets. The Disciplines have been to many very simple and they are but that is where the challenge is. How tough are you? How disciplined are you to do what must be done, what you know needs to be done every day, whether you want to or not? Here are the last of the 18 disciplines. In our last article we covered the skills necessary in selling with Disciplines #7 through #11. In Part 5we're going to discuss disciplines #12 through #18.

Selling Discipline #12: Be consistently Persistent! Once you find a prospect that's interested and willing to take the necessary steps to be your customer NEVER let them off the hook, be consistently persistent in everything that you do. Most salespeople quit too early through fear, assumptions or sheer laziness. Here are the facts:

• 48% of all salespeople NEVER follow up with a prospect
• 25% of all salespeople make a 2^nd contact and stop!
• 12% of all salespeople only make three contacts and stop!
• Only 10% of all sales people make more than three contacts.

Here is the bottom line;

• 2% of all sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of all sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of all sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of all sales are made on the Fourth contact
• 80% of all sales are made on the Fifth to Twelfth contact

So if the prospect is in your target audience and they've given you the buying signs, stick with them because the odds are your competitors won't.

Selling Discipline #13: Understand the Customers needs from the Customers point of view ! In other words, become a master of the art of listening. Shut up and listen. Shut up and listen to your prospect and customer. Ask them lots of questions and shut up and listen. If you can master this simple act an amazing thing happens. Your prospect and customer will tell you how to sell them! Very few people today listen to anyone else. If you become the one that does, then your prospect and customer will tell you things about their business and themselves that will earn you the right to do business with them. Then you simply satisfy their needs (not always problems) from a unique perspective. You satisfy their needs from their point of view which makes the solution remarkably powerful.

Selling Discipline #14: Close early and often! What's so hard about asking a prospect to buy? Or, asking a customer to buy more. Understand that closing is NOT a big event. Closing a sale is very incidental. If you've earned the right to get to this point by asking questions and listening; If you've tied your USP to the prospects specific and exact needs then you have earned the right to simply; casually and logically ask them to buy. It should just make sense as a natural progression. The problem is that many salespeople do the work but many also never ask the prospect to buy. When this happens it's the first salesperson that walks through the door with a similar logical solution that gets the order.

Selling Discipline #15: Understand clearly what you're willing to give up to get what you want! It's the first rule of negotiation. There's negotiation in every selling situation. You negotiate with your kids; friends; parents, relatives, potential employers, employers and of course business prospects and customers. So be prepared. Don't walk into any situation without clearly knowing what it is that you are willing to give up to get the deal. Is it price; is it time; is it scheduling or payment terms? Whatever it is know what you're willing to give on before you ever get into a situation that could cost you money. You can build your conversations around this knowledge, just as you can build your presentations around this knowledge. When you clearly know what you're willing to bend on then you've instantly got the upper hand in the deal and can then move to a ideal win/win situation.

Selling Discipline #16: Track everything! Every truly successful salesperson can tell you their KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) and where they currently are against them. This begins with goals that are clear and precise. With some very simple charts and graphs you can track the goal and your progress, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly. It's imperative. As the wise man once said, "How do you know where you're going if you don't know where you're at?"

Selling Discipline #17: Work really, really, really, really, really, really hard! Don't listen so some of the new age blather that says that if you just clearly understand what you want that you can simply sit down and wish for it and it will happen. It just doesn't happen that way. Yes you must clearly understand what you want in your life (goals) but once you know, you must work for it and work hard. Particularly in sales, your report card comes out every week. If you want to earn more, go out and sell more. Planning, goal setting, working the phone, working prospects, networking, marketing, workshops, sales calls all take time and effort and planning. Nothing replaces hard work. Nothing!

Selling Discipline #18: Repeat Discipline 17! Nothing replaces hard work and focused effort. What you put into it is what you will get out of it, so get to it!

There are three things that I know to be true:

• 1. This is the best time in history to be in business and be in sales
• 2. This is the best time in history to maximize your potential, whatever leve your are at.
• 3. If you're passionate about the success of your prospects, you will sell them!

Good Luck!

Related Articles
  The 18 Disciplines of Selling: Part 2
  What Simple Easy To Do Daily Activity Can You Do To Improve Your Life
  Traditional Sales Training is a Waste of Time and Money!
  The 18 Disciplines of Selling: Part 3
  The 18 Disciplines of Selling: Part 1: Rules

Article Tags: businessperson, disciplines, sales success, todays markets



Related Forum Posts
Patent information - I'm also interested in Part 2. Thanks.
Patent Process - Interesting to hear your experiences with the patent process - what's Part 2?
Re: Kevin's Case Study #10 - When to become an entrepreneur? - When the bug bite you. A lot of successful entrepreneurs started in their teens or at school. Selling sweets to fellow students or lemonade to firends in the neighbourhood.
Re: This is Marketing Warfare! - Hey GT, I guess this was from a while back, and it'll test your memory a bit but could you possibly elaborate on Unique Selling Proposition? Can you give us some examples of good USPs?
Blog pinging - Thanks Martin - yes, I do ping and it has been very effective. I'm currently on the first page of Google for Mastermind Group and on the second page for Selling to Small Business.


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