What Are The Qualities Of A Good Salesman?

Today we’re going to dive into the question “what are the qualities of a good salesman or saleswoman?”

First I’m going to share with you two concepts that I embraced when I was dead broke, in personal foreclosure and needed to make more money. Next I’m going to share with you the pivotal book that helped me change how I viewed sales. Lastly I’m going to share with you the four principles of being really good at sales.

What are the two concepts?

What are these two concepts that I embrace? Just to give you some background….when I got serious about sales, I was dead broke and in personal foreclosure. I was sleeping on a buddy’s couch, had been through a divorce and was deeply depressed because I had lost it all when the real estate market crashed. I had to do something. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.

There were two words that I embraced, the word ‘until’ and the word ‘despite’. I’m going to show up until I reach my goals and I’m going to show up despite my obstacles or my past.

I don’t know if there’s two more powerful words because if you really embrace until and despite, you are going to be successful. You see other people…...it’s not that they either succeed or fail, it’s that they succeed or quit.

You either succeed by figuring out your path and you keep showing up or you quit. There is no fail because even in the businesses that didn’t work out and on paper were failures, they really were lessons. That may sound cliché, until you’ve been through it. From the outside it may seem “yeah, that sounds like a failure.” In fact one of the greatest things that ever happened to me that helped my finances and helped me was foreclosure.

To some people that’s the ultimate failure but looking back and connecting the dots, that foreclosure taught me so much that I couldn’t have learned with success. I needed that because back then I wasn’t a good steward of money. I embraced the concept ‘until’ and ‘despite’ and that is what helped me get good at sales (among some other things that I’ll share in this post).

What is the pivotal book?

What is this pivotal book that helped me look at sales differently? It’s called “Go for No.” It doesn’t sound great…that certainly doesn’t sound like some hype-y sales book, does it? “Go for No,” right? There wasn’t a Lamborghini on the cover or someone with 100 bills. Instead it teaches you the concept of getting over yourself when it comes to rejection. It’s not a big deal.

One of the things that they shared is the year that Babe Ruth broke the home run record, did you know he also broke the strikeout record? Think about that! That means he swung the bat the most times.

Well guess what? In sales, if you swing the bat the most times, you’re going to be one of the top producers in your company, in your team or with whatever it is that you’re selling. If you just ask more people, that’s the swinging of the bat. You’re asking people if they’re open to taking a look at your product, service, opportunity, whatever it is that that you’re selling. When I read that book, it made sense to me.

Now full disclosure, I’ve actually now become very good friends with Richard and Andrea, the authors of that book. In fact we co-authored a book together called “Go for No for Network Marketing” which you can check out on Amazon.

When I read that book I decided I was going to come up with a no goal. So, I set a goal of 20 no’s a day. I had to have 20 people every day tell me no, that means I had to reach out to a lot of people. You don’t reach out to 20 people and get 20 no’s, you have to reach out to 50 people, maybe 60 maybe 100 people because not everyone replies or says no. Some people say maybe, some people say I’ll think about it, some people don’t reply at all. The majority of people I reached out to didn’t reply at all.

Twenty no’s a day is very aggressive. If you’re not very serious about whatever it is you’re trying to sell, then 20 probably isn’t the right number for you…..But maybe two or five is the number for you. That book changed the way I viewed sales. It helped me not be so addicted to a yes and instead just collect no’s…so that’s what I did. That’s what helped me make over a million dollars in that company and just absolutely crush it despite starting from a very, very bad position.

Let’s hear from you.

Before we get to my last point, I would love to hear from you. What’s an example or a scenario where you encountered someone who was really good at sales and you loved it? I’ll give you an example. My wife and I, were down in key west and we went to this Tommy Bahama store. This “oh my god,” this lady worked us but we loved it. She was funny, she got us to buy all kinds of stuff but she was really, really good at what she did. She really made me want to hire her….but whatever. What is your scenario? What’s an example of something someone did do that was a really good job at selling made you feel good about the experience? We hear plenty of bad experiences. I would love to hear about your good experience.

What are the four principles of being good at sales?

They all start with the letter P. Pipeline, posture, position, perspective.

Pipeline is simply how many people you’re reaching out to, following up with, setting appointments with etc. and the nuances of it will vary by industry. For example if you’re a realtor, it’s how many houses did you show, how many listings did you show, how many open houses etc. Depending on where you’re at, you’re going to have a little bit different type of activity, but at the end of the day, it’s how many people. How many people are you seeing if they are open to your product, service or opportunity and how many people are you following up with. Pipeline is such a simple concept but so many people aren’t making money in sales because they don’t understand this concept.

When someone says “I’m not making any money,” I say “well what’s your pipeline look like?” and they’re like “what?” I’m like “well how many people are you following up with?” “Well no one’s reaching out.”

No one’s reaching out? If I relied on people reaching out to me in the beginning, I would still be dead broke and in foreclosure. I had to reach out to them. I had to reach out to people I knew and people that I didn’t know. Your pipeline is a dictator of how much money you’re making in sales.

Number two, position. This is where you pay attention to where is your prospect in the process. If I don’t know anything about somebody, I don’t assume they’re ready to buy. A lot of people that aren’t trained make that mistake. They say this thing’s a no-brainer, you should buy it whether they know if the person even wants it or not. …..don’t do that stuff. Pay attention to are they open, okay great, they’re open. Are they open to more information? Here’s some more information. Did you like what you saw? Okay, great. Can you see yourself doing this? Or whatever the scenario is with what you’re selling. Understand the position of the prospect.

The next one is posture. How easily are you offended if they get negative with you? If they tell you that your product sucks, are you eating ice cream and calling it a day or are you saying no, that’s inaccurate. Instead “Hey, if it’s not a fit for you, totally cool.” You need to be postured, you need to- in posture. My definition is “knowing what you have regardless of external acceptance or approval.”

If as an entrepreneur or as a salesperson, you require acceptance, approval or agreement then you’re going to really struggle in sales.…because you’re not going to get that most of the time. Most people aren’t going to be accepting or approving of what it is that you’re selling or what it is that you’re trying to sell them and so don’t require that.

Last but not least is perspective. How are you spending the majority of your time mentally? Are you spending it focused on all the things you don’t like? Are you spending it noticing that rejection that you just got? Are you spending it beating yourself up for what you didn’t do or what you don’t have or how frustrated you are because you didn’t make a sale? You need to spend more time up, focus on what you want.

If you want to step it up a notch, see yourself as already having that thing that you wanted. Now that’s a mindset hack. A very powerful mindset hack that is talked about by some of the world’s greatest thinkers and philosophers etc. Jesus talked about it, Napoleon Hill talked about it, and so did Neville Goddard. There’s so many people throughout history that have told you act as if it’s already happened and you are going to increase your speed of having it actually happen.

Perspective is your speed quotient. If you don’t have a good perspective of what you’re spending the most amount of time with mentally then you’re going to slow down the process of something that could be a lot faster.

Let me help you!

One of the key qualities of being a good salesman is asking the right questions. I’ve compiled 30 of the best questions you can ask your prospect regardless of whatever it is that you’re selling. Here is a link Higdongroup.com/30questions. It is a free resource. Feel free to click it and download the pdf. It’s my 30 best questions that have made me millions and millions of dollars using social media, using online but all in selling. If you want to get better at sales, grab my free pdf, “the 30 best questions you can ask in sales and you’re going to be making some more money very soon.