Sales Advice in April Inc. Magazine Hits the Spot

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
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Everyone Can Sell. Not Really. Top 10 Reasons Why Not - By Dave Kurlan

I wouldn't normally recommend Inc. for your Sales Force but the April 2010 issue actually has some helpful articles.

Their Trio of stories, beginning on page 83, have some good quotes. The first story is about a nuclear power plant salesperson who sells the right way. Here's a great quote from him that your salespeople can use if they're selling something complex or very expensive:

"I never ask for money. I ask for an emotional commitment. I let someone else nail down the details of the contract. Then I come back in to get everyone feeling good again."

Here's another one that all of your salespeople can use:

"Never worry about how you're doing in a meeting. Focus on the other guy. Otherwise, it's like watching your feet while you're running. And be emotionally prepared to be slaughtered - it helps make you bulletproof."

Quotes don't get any better than that!

Their second story has advice from a psychoanalyst. He identified the best salespeople as happy losers! He said "A Sad loser goes down and never comes back. A happy loser comes back. The first no stimulates them." Here's a good quote from him:

"We've had regular meetings with salespeople and asked them, 'how many nos did you get this week?' The ones that got nos got points. Then, after a month, we made the correlation: The more nos they had, the more sales they had made. Because they were trying more things, taking more chances. The response was almost Pavlovian. The more mistakes, the greater the reward."

The third article in the trilogy contains sales tips from the world's toughest customers. While some of it is common sense and some of it is nonsense, there are some good points. Here's one quote I liked from the director of supplier diversity from UPS:

"People will say, 'I've got this really exciting proposal I want you to look at.' I'll say, 'send it to me.' Then they send it to me by FedEx. It happens every day. Just be smart. Know the company you are pitching to and know their likes and dislikes. You get such brownie points with me when you come in with a UPS envelope and have an account all set up. It's just the little things like that, the icing on the cake."

The common theme among all three articles is that there wasn't any mention of low pricing. Isn't that exciting? Here are some call-outs to a few of my friends and clients:

Joe, UPS is looking for printing services...

Matt, Coca-Cola is looking for packaging materials...

Deborah, Intuit is looking for Marketing Services...

Phil, Dell, Northrup Grumman and Intuit are looking for IT services...

Chris, Dell is looking for staffing services...

Howard, let our friends know that Valero Energy is looking for beverages...

Quit Swinging the Bat and Start Hitting the Ball

Analyzing Your Website Traffic – Visitors v. Hits

Sales Tip – Selling Without Follow-up with Your Customers or Prospects Gets Poor Sales Results

Hits, Visits, Conversions and other Stuff!

Sales Secrets - The Best Advice

How to Maximize Local PR

‘Your benefit is my challenge’ - in inter-/national marketing and sales, especially towards Europe

How, Why and When to File a Tax Extension

Why he’s not making Clickbank sales on his blog?

How To Assess Your Sales Intelligence Quota

The Death of the Sales Magazine

Leasing Equipment versus Outright Purchase - New 2010 Example

The "Cold Call Presentations" Myth

Effective Business Communication Counts On Lean Writing Skills

Are You Still In the Game

Home Business Affiliate Programs - Where to Start?

Beware of april 1st announcements

But You Do Need To Be Smart Enough to Buy It

A Spectacular Sales Example of Something REALLY Stupid

A Magazine - How Do I Get It Established?

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Everyone Can Sell. Not Really. Top 10 Reasons Why Not - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

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Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
Click here to visit Dave's website.

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