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Professional Selling

Written by: Jim Meisenheimer

Article Overview: Professional selling is the difference between preparation and improvisation.

Professional Selling

In professional selling "There are three types of salespeople; those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who are wondering what happened." You've probably heard that one before.

Actually, there are only two types of salespeople and they are easy to tell apart.

The first type is the improvisor. He seldom prepares, his preferred style, is to take things as they come. He likes to be spontaneous. He relies totally on his instincts and counts on his intuition to carry the day.

His days are fun filled and exciting, because he literally treats each day and every sales call like an adventure.

He's the Indiana Jones of selling, foot loose and fancy free, what ever that means.

The second type is the professional. He's into professional selling. He also enjoys his work, but for different reasons.

He anticipates everything, especially the routines. He turns these routines into systems that gives him an advantage over his competition.

For example, he handles recurring objections. He knows he'll get them over and over again, so he prepares in advance how he will deal with them. He plays with words, until he creates power phrases that work.

Once prepared, he knows that in order to execute the delivery, he must practice what he has prepared.

He records his power phrases into a recorder and plays them over and over until they are anchored.

He treats all sales calls as unique opportunities not as adventures.

Two types of salespeople and two different results. Each one follows a pattern, one is unstructured and one isn't. Each can be seen as a formula.

One formula gets better results than the other. Here they are:

I + I = I (instinct + intuition = improvisation)

P + P = P (preparation + practice = professionalism)

The secret to achieving professional selling success is that there are no shortcuts, no quickies just plain old fashioned hard work.

These are the formulas, and you get to choose. One doesn't require much preparation. One pays better than the other.

Remember this, you can never improvise as well as you can prepare.

Also remember, your sales prospects and customers can always tell the difference between improvisation and preparation.

When you prepare and practice everything that counts, you will become the best you can be!

Preparation always trumps improvisation!

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Article Tags: choose one, different reasons, formula one, improvisation, indiana jones, instinct, instincts, intuition, objections, phrases, preferred style, professional selling, professionalism, quickies, salespeople, selling success, there are no shortcuts



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