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Easy Sales
Procedures
Tony D’Urso
The Larry Czerwonka Company, LLC
Hilo, Hawaiʻi
Copyright © 2015 by Tony D’Urso
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including recording,
photocopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the author and the publisher.
For information email [email protected]
First Edition — August 2015
This book is set in 12-point Garamond
Published by The Larry Czerwonka Company, LLC
czerwonkapublishing.com
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 0692485708
ISBN-13: 978-0692485705
To the never tiring salesmen who
make the world go round.
Contents
Foreword ◊ i
Sales is an Art (preface) ◊ ii
Introduction ◊ iv
1. Who Needs Sales? ◊ 1
2. Achieving the Impossible ◊ 5
3. Removing Force Fields ◊ 31
4. Social Media and Blogs ◊ 42
5. Getting the Sale Tips ◊ 80
6. Growing Your Business ◊ 94
7. A Little Magic ◊ 108
8. Building Bridges, not Dams ◊ 111
9. A Little More ◊ 122
10. Summary ◊ 124
11. Sales Drills ◊ 128
Foreword
he first book (The Black Book of Sales Secrets) began as a
compilation of descriptions and stories about easy
sales Procedures. That book brought strong basics to
the sales floor allowing anyone with the ability of persistence to
navigate through the quagmires (either complex or awkward) of
a tough sale to guarantee success.
Easy Sales Procedures (ESP) exemplifies the first book
with successful pointers and tips that professionally lay out the
foundation by providing key basics in the field of sales. These
key basics will ensure success in any endeavor, even outside of
sales.
Why? Because nearly every action involves sales to some
degree. An actor sells themselves while portraying a specific
character; a politician sells their constituents that they are the
person to best represent the city, state or country.
In fact, as you will read, sales are truly everywhere. Every-
thing has sales connected with it or you would not be reading
this book today. You would not be wearing the clothes you are
wearing. You would not have your cell phone or computer—
even the food you eat is generated by sales.
In a world where there is a tremendous amount of material
on the subject of sales and marketing, it's easy to become con-
fused about what is most important to know and follow. There-
fore consider this book an undercut to sales and, in fact, that
the true secrets of sales—the easiest of sales procedures—are
described in a new light. This book contains fundamental
principles of sales that will give you a new perspective, a plan
for success.
This book contains magical methods ready to follow your
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bidding. In this ESP manual, you will find fundamental proce-
dures and new principles for generating interest in what you are
selling. Procedures that can only be considered magical when
you apply them.
Presently, when it comes to sales success, everyone has an
opinion on what’s successful. Some of it is great, but a lot of it
appears unwieldy (difficult to use because there is too much
information to remember) and hard to use. A knight’s armor
may be great protection, but it can make it hard to move
around in battle.
This book helps get to the core of the matter; the matter
that can be easily forgotten when you try to remember every
closing procedures, or the three things to do before meeting a
client, or the ten things not to do when you are with a client, or
the five things to do after meeting a client. Get the point?
There is good information available in a variety of avenues, but
it’s diluted with “do this” and “don’t do that” tips and proce-
dures that cause confusion along the way.
Sales is an Art
ales is an art. Yes, there are sales procedures that can be
applied precisely as a science and work precisely as a
science, but sales is really an art. Sales is aesthetics. It is
a beautiful painting. It is poetry in motion. It is finesse. It is
quality.
Sales is an art. Treat it as an art, and you will have the time
of your life and the sales of a lifetime. If you treat it as just a
tool, much like a carpenter works a hammer, then sure, you will
get some sales—but you will miss the spark and the excitement,
the thrill and the victory of consistent and superb sales in
quantity and with quality.
Sales is the X-factor that we are missing in life. Sales is
everywhere, encompasses everything. Treat the subject of sales as an
art form, and you will arrive quickly at the top echelons of your
sales category.
So be a master at sales. Be the sales artist. Be conscious of
these words as you do your sales. Be conscious that you are
creating something unique: you are creating a sales bond with a
customer that will always be there whether your sale is a one-
time product or a renewable product or service. Create a
permanent bond. Create something that will stand the test of
time . . .
Try that in your sales journey. You will be impressed.
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Introduction
rom the early 80’s, I have served in many executive
positions; predominantly sales, marketing, and promo-
tions. Often called the quintessential salesperson, I
never thought of myself as anything spectacular or even aver-
age, only thinking that I was never good enough. I never saw
what my peers and colleagues saw. I just always saw room to
improve.
What kept me going was reaching for that brass ring. Al-
ways thinking I could do a lot better. Only after reflecting on
my career, do I see it was that perspective that made me a
leader in my field. I never took it easy, never slacked on the
daily grind, never stopped too long to enjoy my wins along the
way. Hindsight has clearly shown me it was this drive that
pushed me ahead, kept me hungry, always wanting more. Simp-
ly believing that every no ALWAYS lead to a YES. Maybe I am
simply the tortoise who keeps merrily and relentlessly trudging
toward the finish line and to everyone’s amazement, comes out
as the victor in many races.
If you get anything from this book, you need to retain this
key message; never stop your drive. If you cannot view each
day as full of hopes and potential victories, you need to remove
yourself from your environment and learn to give yourself a
routine second wind (methods for doing so are discussed later).
If you are the less motivated type and merely be an “order
taker” with minimal effort on your part, which can be accom-
plished too. You will learn procedures in this book to fulfill
that inspiration.
You must realize that the greatest sales on earth have al-
ways been generated by individual and personal effort. No
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piece of paper or Website is going to make someone put down
a million dollars without having personal contact. Even the sale
of something that expensive, which must have been cleverly
marketed, still requires the personal touch. You must visualize
yourself as a successful salesperson. If you cannot, this book
will show you how. If you still have trouble grasping the sales
concepts in this book, it might be time to look elsewhere for
success.
This is the crucial first step to take, you must accept that
there is something to learn. If you know you are not a con-
summate salesperson but, you want to sharpen your skills until
they are razor sharp, you probably do not have an ego to get in
the way of becoming better. In other words, somewhere deep
inside, you believe that your skill sets can be improved and that
you may have something to learn. This is the key to your sales
success you must be willing to learn every day in every way. See
the successes in everything you do.
If you only learn one thing from this book, it’s to hone your
sales skills down to a sharp blade then it will have been worth
the price of admission and more. You can also extend this
principle to public relations. After all, we all know only too well
that being a celebrity in social, political, and economic circles is
an ongoing feat dependent on your sales skills and your mar-
ketability.
Whether you believe so or not, you can accomplish any-
thing you set your mind to do. Take the initiative, read this
book cover to cover and learn some simple and effective pro-
cedures. Procedures I have employed over the years to excel in
sales, build long-term relationships, and be successful in the
eyes of others. My tips are simple, and you probably know a
few already, but approach the procedures in this book with
fresh eyes. These procedures work, they are solid and proven.
They should be used every day, to achieve your sales goals.
These are, after all, Easy Sales Procedures.
Use ESP and the sales of your products and services will
get easier and easier as time goes on. That’s a guarantee.
1
Who Needs Sales?
o illustrate the role sales play in our lives, let’s imagine
that we are in a rural town back in simpler times. This
town is some miles from a port city. The farms
throughout the countryside are miles and miles apart. There are
a few homes, a church, some stables, a few stores, and so on.
And finally, let’s imagine no salespeople.
In this imaginative rural town, there is a cobbler who makes
good shoes and leather goods. And in exchange, he gets paid
for his hard work. He has all the shoes he would ever need, but
what about food? What about clothing? How would this per-
son get fruit, meat, milk, and vegetables to eat? How would he
get animal hides and other materials to make his shoes? He
would have to head out to the countryside and go from farm to
farm and to the blacksmith and other places to get his needed
items. That could take days of travel. Even so, let’s say that he
had enough time to do that. What about all the other people’s
needs and sustenance?
Luckily for the cobbler, there are farmers, the blacksmith,
and those far removed from the center of town who under-
stood their goods needed to be made available. And they all
came to the town square regularly to set up shop (all sales
actions). Much like the farmers markets of today.
Now, let’s say that the cobbler and the others did meet in
the town center to display their goods, but they were just too
timid to talk to prospects that came to look at their wares. Let’s
pretend that they did not answer any questions posed to them,
they did not say what their prices were, and they were highly
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reluctant to have anyone touch their goods. What would hap-
pen? Those trying to sell their goods would lose money, and
interest in selling in the town square. There would be fewer
sales and undoubtedly some people would eat less and more
people would learn to make do with their existing older shoes,
clothing, leather goods, and so on. Fewer people would have
the shoes, clothes, and other items they really could use and
afford. And all because of no sales.1
Those prospective customers would not have improved
their lives if it were not for people bringing their wares, display-
ing them, and selling them.
Let’s bring that to modern times now.
Can you imagine there not being any new (or used) car
showrooms? What are you going to do to get a Mercedes? Fly
to Germany? No! Well, some people can, but it doesn’t make
sense for the rest of us! Why? Simply because of the skill and
knowledge of the salesperson.
We can see that sales are one of the most vital parts of
ANY society. They are the Whoop and Wharf, the intertwined
fabric that makes us what and who we are. It gives us the ability
to sell and earn the quality of life we want.
To be the expert in your field, ingrain in your brain the
simple fact that sales are vital to industry and that people really
need you. You control your own quality of life and as you
know, it is there only because of sales.
Get this point down cold. There would be a reduced quality
of life if sales didn’t occur. Remember the empty town square?
1. If you read between the lines, you likely observed that the consumer went to the vendor. This shows interest by the consumer. If the consumer walks over to the butcher, then there is interest in the meat. The consumer was not “just looking.” Someone was actually interested in the meat but perhaps too timid to say anything. You have heard that “the product sells itself,” but we salespeople know only too well that that is not the whole truth.
Thank goodness people have learned that sales is the most
important part of making money and qualifying clients.
For you to be an effective salesperson you must live be the
following four simple rules. These distinctive features of excel-
lence are fundamental to any marketing cycle.
1. Your company must know its markets and potential.
2. Your company must develop products and services
that are needed and wanted by specific industries or
consumers.
3. Your company must price its products and services
so they are competitive.
4. Your company must produce the products or deliver
the services they offer as promised.
These steps are imperative for success. Your company,
sales team and/or you MUST accept the fact that there are
simple, but effective rules. Remember the cobbler going out to
the countryside farms to get his food? He’s not going to be
successful until the booth is set up in the town square and
customers are satisfied.
In that regard, a final requirement is the following:
5. Your company must require sales personnel to take
personal and professional responsibility for actions
undertaken to inform consumers of its products
and services. If a customer feels secure and safe,
you will add a new customer.
This last point covers promotion, advertising, printing bro-
chures, making Websites, and so on. Of course, it’s similar to
the cobbler setting up his booth in the town center. The better
your company adheres to these simple points, the easier your
entire sales team will find it is to land customers. In other
words, the better your company employs a variety of sales/
advertising procedures like e-commerce, print, and media (radio
and TV) advertising, and even word of mouth advertising, the
betters the chances are your company will success and the
better its chances are of building a strong, long-term client base
that will keep you in business for years to come. As we move
further into the 21st century, online media has become one of
the biggest factors in companies choosing clients. For example,
concepts like website development with Search Engine Opti-
mization (SEO), mobile apps, email campaigns, online advertis-
ing and mobile advertising. All the data collected offers taking
advantage of telemarketing campaigns to further product
knowledge and sales.
Despite your best efforts, it’s easy to believe that our com-
panies will never do enough. No matter how much time and
money is spent, there are still promotional and other sales items
needed. Sometimes, we must have the “right of away” as sales-
people to accomplish more effective sales. We always want
more promotion of our company’s products and services
through all media available. More so, we believe in the law of
inverse ratio of marketing and advertising; the more we can
bring people to us that want and demand our products and
services, the less effort we have to expend making more sales.
Or, we feel that the product or service must be improved . . .
the saga never ends.
To help clear this up, let’s take a look at what makes a
salesperson successful and the points that result in failure. In
short, the expertise of your sales ability will stop your customers
from buying elsewhere. And, although there may be countless
things to consider, there are some key points that you must
consider and apply because they are tried and true and have
worked tremendously for me. I will share them with you.
The first step is to define who you really are as a salesperson
and the easy ways to lift yourself up from the agony of lost sales.
2
Achieving the Impossible
he key points covered in this chapter are a few of the
ground rules you must have in place to be a superla-
tive (superior) salesperson.
Establish Your Purpose, Long-Term Objectives, and
Actions to Attain Them
Before any discussion can begin about key sales procedures and
secrets it cannot be stressed enough that it would all be for
naught if there were no purpose and long-term objective (fu-
ture goal) established, that also contained actions set up to
attain them.
If there is no purpose in what you do then how can some-
thing be achieved? If you do not envision your long-term
objective how can you ever meet it? If actions to attain are not
set how can you ever attain them?
Did Lennon and McCartney just dream up songs in their
sleep or did they set out to accomplish something and then
went forth and accomplished it?
Did Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama wake
up one day out of the blue and find himself president of the
United States? Or did each establish a long-term objective
(future goal) and decide on actions (a to-do list) to attain it?
Did any of the successful people in your life just get lucky,
or did they work their tushes off to make things happen? Some
may have won the lottery, but the majority had to work for
their future goal accomplishments.
Unfortunately, there are people among us who think that
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someone will knock on their doors and make them millionaires.
We all know individuals who waste their lives doing absolutely
nothing about their futures. It is a shame and quite painful to
watch.
These rhetorical questions need no real replies. The answer
is obvious. Successful people decide on actions against future
goals, strive toward a purpose, then push and push and refuse
to take “no” for an answer. This is the first point, the first step in
achieving a higher-level sales paradigm (a model) for yourself.
Your purpose, long-term objective, and then individual ac-
tions to accomplish them are the key items that you should
utilize in undertaking any activity. Too many times, people have
these terms confused, so let’s break them down individually.
Purpose aka Mission Statement
A purpose is the reason for your future goal (long-term objec-
tive). It is the reason for whatever you are doing. It is the rea-
son for doing something. You may be familiar with the word
purpose as a “mission statement.” That is close. The mission
statement often includes the long-term objective (future goal),
but it is a separate item. Separate your purpose from your
mission statement if you have one. Decide what is the reason
for you to be doing what you are doing. Why are you doing it?
That is the purpose. Get that worked out and you will be a
happy person. Put this at the top of your list. The purpose is king
in your life. It is what drives you. (More on this shortly.)
Long-Term Objectives
Once you have a well-defined purpose, you must establish what
your long-term objective is (future goal) that is in alignment
with that purpose. To accomplish a long-term objective, you
decide on actions to attain and then go after those actions,
come hell or high water. The long-term objective is your ulti-
mate position to achieve. It is not necessarily something that
you can do in a day, week, month, or year. If you can, then it is
not a long-term objective but merely a step that gets you closer
to the big picture. The long-term objective is your ultimate
position to achieve, in fulfillment of your wider purpose.2
Master Plan
A master plan, in our sense, means a group of individual ac-
tions that you need to take to accomplish your long-term objec-
tive. (A giant to-do list stretching out over years.) In launching
a complex new product, you could have a master plan covering
the design steps, another master plan for the hardware, another
master plan for the software, and so on. Specific people can
then be assigned a specific master plan to get a job done. A
product launch can move swiftly when organized in this fash-
ion. In other words, this is the master things-to-do list that
contains everything you need to accomplish your long-term
objective.
Action List (Things-To-Do List)
A simpler way to understand what is meant by an Action List is
by this example: Bill Gates may have had the long-term objec-
tive of bringing to the people of earth an inexpensive computer
system that would allow them to do their business. His purpose
could have been to provide a means for people to write letters,
perform math, look at pictures, and so on, all with one convenient
computing machine. Ultimately, that purpose would have been
2. To prevent confusion with a short-term “goal” such as something you can attain in sports, I call this a “future goal” or a “long-term objective” because I mean the big picture here and not just a ball shot into a net. A long-term objective is like getting your master’s degree and then starting your own practice.
something that drove him to make it all happen.
His master plan would have had numerous actions. As an
example, one of the initial actions would have been to acquire a
good, working operating system. Whether he accomplished this
in your eyes and whether there are flaws with any of his prod-
ucts is not the point here. The point is that he set out to
achieve his long-term objectives and purposes and then became
one of the richest men in the world on record. That is quite a
feat. He could not have accomplished any of that without a
long-term objective clearly envisioned, a purpose, and many
master plans with individual and doable actions to accomplish
(even if they were not all written down, he still knew the ac-
tions that had to be accomplished).
If he did not have those items in his crosshairs to attain, he
very well could have gone out clubbing and partying most of
the time, as we see so many young, directionless people do.
There’s no real problem with that, it has its place, but without
these points (purpose, long-term objective, master plan, and
action list (or things-to-do list) that are necessary for action to
occur in a big way, nothing of any magnitude or worth would
get accomplished.
We all need relief at times. That is covered in this book
elsewhere. However, as my friends and associates have heard
me say for many years, it is what you do on nights and week-
ends that determines your future because most people will
never get rich just doing their routine jobs. (Those that have
gotten wealthy from their routine jobs have still put in the
midnight oil, time and time again, to achieve what they now
have.) Or look at it this way: If you only ever worked a day job,
and never did anything else to attain a future (this includes
taking classes) then the odds are extremely rare that you will
ever get rich. Rare indeed is the person who got rich working
only 40 hours a week and goofing off the rest of the time.)
The way to success depends on your actions, not the time.
The way to success often requires you to work long hours to
blast through the barriers to get what you want.
Thus, a balance is needed between producing (getting the
job done) and taking a break when needed (discussed further
later on).
Write It Up
You have to have a purpose in life even to live. You are not really
alive if you do not have a purpose in life, in fact, you can be
considered dead.
No purpose = no life = you’re not living.
You have to have a purpose to have something to shoot for,
reach, or obtain.
Your purpose could be to be better educated so that you can
have a profitable career. The long-term objective could be to get
your master’s degree in the field of your interest. A purpose
gives you the reason for accomplishing something. Why did you
get that master’s degree? That “why” is your purpose.
A long-term objective is the thing you set out to accomplish.
Your purpose could be to help people in poverty areas obtain a
better education. Your long-term objective could be to open up a
free tutoring center for volunteers to help the underprivileged.
The purpose drives the long-term objective.
Your purpose drives the long-term objective.
Discover your purpose and establish your long-term objec-
tive. Make them known and clear so that they are real things.
These would not be items like “be a billionaire” because that is
simply being. You want the long-term objective to be the final
end-all accomplishment. Being a billionaire is the bonus you get
from accomplishing your long-term objective.
Getting all households in English-speaking countries to use
your software—that’s a long-term objective. Helping people to live
easier, more orderly lives—that’s a purpose. The main point to
realize here is that there is a reason behind the long-term objec-
tive—some impetus (the force that makes something happen)
that makes you set a long-term objective to achieve.
So the first thing you need to do is write it out:
1. What is your purpose?
2. What is your long-term objective?
3. What are the actions you need to fulfill?
Look It Over Again and Again
The next thing you want to do is, once a day or once a week,
pull out this information and go over it. Make your action list
(things-to-do list) real to you. Do not care or bother if you
encounter anyone who is negative or critical of you or your so-
called “impossible” long-term objectives. That kind of person
you really do not need in your life to succeed. In fact, why
bother telling such people if they are negative? And if this
person is a family member with whom you are intimately and
inextricably (unable to separate from) connected, then why go
through the trouble of assuredly being shot down? Why bother
indeed! In other words, why share your purposes and goals
with someone who you know is going to make fun of you, or
put you down, or make you look dumb? Why bother telling
such a person no matter who this person is? You will have a
much greater chance of success by simply keeping it to yourself
and pushing forth with all of the energy and power that you can
put together.
You may find that you can move more swiftly on your way
to attaining your long-term objective by making your own
decisions and getting things done. By this is meant just that:
make your own decisions and get things done. As an example,
what if Bill Gates had relied on his friends to give him advice
before he pursued his long-term objectives and was criticized to
the point of not doing anything with computers? He would
probably still be waiting and “working on it.”
Take your most favorite musician or band: what if that per-
son was pushed away from music because some friend or
family member convinced him or her that it was silly? The
answer: that person would not exist as your most favorite
entertainer. That person would be at some place working a day
job and the world would not have that music.
Take one of your most favorite movie stars: what if this
person only sat at home and watched movies during his or her
spare time. In other words, what if this person never pursued
the long-term objective of making great movies? That would be
a shame, right?
The famous people that you thought of above, and all the
famous people on this earth, have achieved that fame through
taking action and following through on their purpose and long-
term objective regardless of what anyone said or did against
them.
The point here is that once you decide what is best for you;
get on with it and just do it. Once it is done, you can then
discuss it with people.
You can try this experiment: come up with a long-term ob-
jective about which you have not spoken to anyone before-
hand. Write it down with the date. Then tell your friends and
family about it. Continue to tell everyone and boast about how
great it will be.
(To drive this point home to you, here is a smattering of
examples heard by people which have never materialized: How
about that you want to be a welder because they make a lot of
money? Or you want to make a how-to video and sell it? Or
you want to open up your own store? Or you want to open up
your own car restoration shop? Etc. These and literally 1000s
of wonderful long-term objectives that people have been heard
to say over the years have never materialized. You know people
that have done this: that boasted about being successful in the
future in some career, and then never followed through.)
Periodically look at that note. The odds are that you will
not ever accomplish that long-term objective. The odds are that
you will eventually throw that piece of paper away and forget all
about it. This is what happens when you ask some people to
make your decisions for you: your long-term objective is never
reached.3
Make your own decisions. Tell yourself what you are going
to do. Work out your purpose, long-term objective and actions
to get them done. Then, get them done. Then talk about them
after the fact. You cannot be stopped if you accomplish some-
thing first and talk about it later. No one can stop you if you
produce something cool, and then say, “here it is!”
You want success? Then go out there and get it! In other
words, intend for it to happen.
Intend For It to Happen
This is just as important as following through with your action
3. In this paragraph, the point is that if you just tell “everyone,” then you are exposing yourself to flak (strong criticism) and negativity that can ultimately prevent you from accomplishing your long-term objective. It is a completely different point if you hire employees to work in your company and you regularly show them the company’s purpose, long-term objectives, and actions to take. For example, this is why the military is a tight-knit effective agency. Nothing can beat a group if everyone knows about and agrees with the purpose and long-term objectives. Nothing can ever beat that. History is full of examples.
list: Make your purposes, long-term objectives, and actions real
to you by visualizing them. Imagine that your long-term objec-
tive has been accomplished in real life. Yes, literally imagine
your long-term objective in real life. Picture it. Look at it. Make
it real. Put it right there in front of you.
As an example, if you have a new toy concept, visualize that
it is real and on the shelves at Toys “R” Us or your favorite
store. What you see is your long-term objective. This is what
you will accomplish. There it is: your new toy is sitting on the
shelves. This is not an idle experiment. It actually works. It
works beyond amazingly well. Do not do this just one time for
one second. Do it daily. Spend time visualizing exactly and
precisely what you are going to accomplish. The more real it is
in the way you can visual it, the more real it will become—and
then it will materialize at some point. It sounds like magic.
Well, to most people, it would be. Some can do this better and
easier than others, but everyone can do it following my simple
steps.
Following is a real-life example:
Those of you who have accomplished important feats
know this to be true.
Realize that accomplishing short-term actions to take is the
key to achieving your long-term objective. Though you could
imagine that you are a billionaire right now, a better action
would be something more attainable in short order. There are
actions that have to be accomplished for that billionaire goal to
materialize. The collection of all those actions together, over a
period of time, result in massive wealth (depending on the
products and services that you provide).
Work with short-term actions to accomplish. Use them as
baby steps to become the paragon (perfect example) of sales
that you really are. There are some drills at the very end of this
book; the first deals with determining your purpose and setting
long-term objectives and your actions to take. By establishing
your purpose, long-term objective, and actions to take, you can
accomplish anything you set out to do.
Can you follow this and “be” a good salesperson?
Be a Good Salesperson
After you have accomplished these steps, what’s next? You
have (1) fully established your purpose and long-term objective,
(2) determined the necessary short-term actions to accomplish
your long-term objective (master list of things to do), and (3)
visualized what you want on a regular basis. What’s the next
step?
The next step is to really and truly be. There is no “anything
else.” There is just be. You have to be a good salesperson. You
have to develop the mindset that by using the secrets and
procedures in this book, you will move light-years ahead in
technique and style to be that salesperson you want to be.
Let’s take a closer look at this be.
Let’s take a good garage mechanic. This person works every
day and wrenches on cars. This person does a good job. But
let’s say that this person thinks he should be a famous chef and
own a dozen restaurants. So, in the garage this person does a
little cooking right alongside all of the grease, oil and grime.
And for some reason no one seems to like any of his cooking.
This is because the person is being a car mechanic, while trying
to do the chef thing and cook. This does not work. The correct
action is to separate from being a car mechanic and, perhaps at
another location, be a chef and learn, and cook, etc. Remember
first: you have to really and truly “be” to start it off.
With that understood, there is another point on being the
best that you can be:
Brush off past doubts, criticisms, failures, and other horri-
ble times in your illustrious, or notorious, sales career. We,
salespeople, have all had our failures. There is not one person
who has sold 100 percent of the prospects to whom he or she
ever spoke. That is an absolute, and absolutes do not exist.
Therefore, you must decide that you really are a good sales-
person. Put that hat on your head and know that you are good!
Accept it: you are a good salesperson. Live it. Breathe it. Eat it. Sleep
it. Learn that you are a good salesperson. That is all there is to it.
Set everything else aside. Be the good salesperson that you are.
A person who is successful is a person who persists. Persis-
tence—that says it all.
Persistence
There was once a Michael Jordan commercial on television
which was startling. At that time, Jordan had played in his sixth
NBA championship and was hailed as the greatest basketball
player of all time. That is important to say again for emphasis:
the greatest of all time! But the message in his commercial was
enough to rock the world. It was a message that very successful
people know only too well and which they live by and owe
much success toward. What did he say in this commercial that
was so awe-inspiring?
He said that he did not make 100 percent of his free
throws. He said that he did not win every game he played. In
fact, he clearly said that he had lost more games than he had
won, and he missed more baskets than he had made! Could this
be true? And yet this was the greatest basketball athlete the
world had seen at the time, bar none?
What if he had given up? What if he had thought he was a
failure after losing a few important games? Do you think he
would have sat there, consumed by failure?
Even if he did for a moment, we all know that he most cer-
tainly pulled himself out of it and tried again, and again, and
again. He did not stop. He did not hang out at the bars and
drown his sorrows. He picked himself up, dusted himself off,
and went at it again, and again, and again! That is the key to
greatness—persistence:
1. Establish your purpose.
2. Set your long-term objective.
3. Determine your short-term actions to accomplish;
putting them into a master plan.
4. Move on that path.
5. Bulldoze obstacles out of your way; keep going!
6. Persist until the long-term objective is accomplished.
Do you think you can do that too? Can you persist regard-
less of anything and everything? Can you be the terminator and
just keep going, and going, and going?
So remember this the next time you lose a sale and think
that you are nothing but cow dung.
There is only one thing you can do. Only one. And that is
to reach out and talk to more people. You are to persist no
matter the obstacle. By persisting, you will accomplish your
short-term actions, which will result in the eventual accom-
plishment of your long-term objective.
That said, there are times when we have to take a breather.
You cannot exercise 24 hours a day non-stop, can you? If you
fail, and fail, and fail, and fail, and fail nonstop, it makes sense
to just do a full stop and look it all over. In fact, it makes sense
to take a break when you’re down, as that gives you a chance to
regroup, right?
When Down, Take a Break
If you are down in spirit, or you lose a sale or have a setback,
and you find that you are not as excited or motivated as you
were before, then there is really only one action to take: that
action is to get yourself extroverted again. Call it getting a
second wind or anything else that you like, but if you were hit
with a minor defeat, the only and best thing to do is to refortify
yourself, your desires, your purposes, and then go back at it
again hard!
One of the fastest remedies is to go outside and look around.
Focus your attention on something different, something
completely different than your computer screen or the same
four walls or the large mess in your office. This may sound odd,
and it may not make sense at first, but if your attention is stuck
on something bad, then getting your attention extroverted is
what the doctor ordered.
Take a break; find something else pleasant to which you
can shift your attention upon and get refreshed. Immerse
yourself in a new environment; get some space. And once you
feel better, review your purpose, long-term objectives, and
actions to take. Then come back with a fresh, new start and
find someone else to talk to!
Sometimes you need to switch gears and divert your atten-
tion to something else for a time. Get your second wind, and
then go back at it!
Remember the purpose? That is what makes you pick your-
self up, and try, try, try, and continue to try until you succeed.
What is your purpose as a salesperson? For maximum suc-
cess, your purpose should be to help a specific category of
people or companies. Helping that group leads to mass sales
which leads to success and getting rich. If you start off just
trying to “get rich,” you may notice a lot of problems as the
purpose is incorrect.
If you are not successful as a salesperson, you need to go
over your purpose, and every point in this chapter on a regular
basis.
A Salesperson Helps People
A salesperson is actually there to help people. As covered in
Chapter 1, the salesperson actually helps the consumer find
what he or she really needs, even if the consumer does not
know that he or she needs that item just yet.
A starving person, having never seen a papaya, may not
know that it is food. The salesperson is needed to help that
person understand that this papaya is what he or she needs and
wants right then.
A salesperson helps people. That’s a good thing. This is an-
other reason to persist and utilize the procedures in this
book—to help people get what they really need. As you present
and describe your products and services to people, take note
that you are actually helping them.
You are there to help people and you may have some losses
along the way. That happens. However, you now know that
you have to keep reaching out to be successful, right?
Keep Reaching Out
A salesperson has to keep reaching out. It is the salesperson
who must approach the potential customer. Otherwise, the
customer will never know where to get that product.
If you did not know where a car dealership existed, and you
could not find one on the Internet, then you would be very
happy to get a communication from a car salesperson to let you
know how to get a vehicle, correct?
You must reach out on a constant, never-tiring basis, to let
the potential customer know who you are, where you are, and
that you have what he or she needs. Frankly and truly, the more
consistently you reach out, the more sales you are going to get.
There is actually an algorithm here: the number of people with
whom you speak to about your product will result in some proportion of
sales. The dynamics of this equation are determined by the
adherence to the procedures in this book. This point will shortly
be covered from another angle.
You have heard it said that sales is a “numbers game,”
which is true, but that is a shallow statement. There is so much
more to it. A salesperson, not knowing the procedures in this
book, could make a thousand phone calls to potential prospects
and make only one or no sales.
“Reaching out” is a part of the hat of a successful person
and cannot be overlooked. But, it is not all that makes you great
in your trade. There is a very important step to practice when
you are “reaching out,” and that is to make a record of your
new contacts. This next step is critical, so please pay attention.
Keep Making Contacts
A salesperson needs to reach out on a constant basis to poten-
tial customers and make regular new contacts. Keep making new
contacts. Every time you get a contact, make an entry in your
address book, Outlook, GoldMine, ACT, or any other contact
management program you use.
Do not get too stuck on what program or software you are
using. It is not as important as the sales action itself. What is
important is that you have an organized manner in which to
record all a person’s information and a dated entry for every
time you leave a message, speak to the person, email the per-
son, send something in the mail, and so on. You must build a
precise history in writing of every time you send out a commu-
nication to a contact and every time you speak to someone,
including abbreviated notes of what was said. This is building
up your “contact memory.” Though your own memory can be
good or even perfect, it is much easier to make records for fast,
reliable access. (Also, having a record makes it easier to pass
information to another member of your team or company.)
You should also categorize your prospect, if your software
permits, as to items such as which product or service the person
bought.
A good salesperson is known who uses a simple address
book which allows him to categorize groups by keywords,
allowing him to search and quickly find specific prospects in his
database.
Near the end of each day, he does a search for that day’s
date. If he does not see at least thirty entries (meaning thirty
different prospects that he phoned or emailed or to whom he
sent a communication), then he knows he has to pour it on a
little bit more before he closes out for the day. He likes to see
forty or fifty communications, but thirty is what he considers
the bare-bone minimum for his line of sales; your line of sales
may have different requirements.
You have heard it said that it is a numbers game, and you
will come to know how many calls you need to make to create
the volume of sales you desire for your line of business.
By continuing to make contacts, your database will grow.
This must be done no matter how good business is at present
for you.
While growing your contacts, remember to have something
in place to keep your records updated on a regular basis.
Keep Your Records Updated
Names and numbers on a page are just that. It is what you do
with those names and numbers on the page that defines your
salesmanship and who you are. You must have perfect records
no matter what system you use.
As elsewhere discussed, even a simple system such as Mi-
crosoft Outlook or Mac’s Address Book are a good start for
you to make long, detailed, dated notes about your contacts,
and give you the ability to create categories for “prospect,”
“customer,” etc.
Your paperwork (your records) must always be updated as
you go through the day. When you get off the phone or trans-
mit something to a client or prospect, make a note of it right
then and there, before moving on to the next priority.
Make it a habit to always update your prospect or custom-
ers record after you have engaged in a communication. Make it
a habit to always make a notation when you send a communica-
tion or receive anything from the client or prospect. This in-
cludes updated contact info.
During the rush of day-to-day sales, it is not always possible
to pull up the computer info and make changes. At the very
least make a note somewhere to do it, or place a sticky note
somewhere. The point is to create a simple system for yourself
so that you can update your system as you go on.
This will seem like a lot of work at first. It can be too much
to do depending on the type of sales that you are in. However,
if you work at it, you will see in time that your database not
only grows, but contains actual accurate data. The value of a
database handled in such fashion will make you very successful
some day if you are not already a sales guru in your field. Look
to the future and have faith that this is a growing gold mine for
your future.
Two simple systems were mentioned in this section because
they really are very simple, easy to use, available with most
loaded computers when they are bought, and can get you
rolling in moments. While some contact software may require
training and classes, these two mentioned are fast to get started
now.
If you are just beginning, stick to what is quick and easy for
you. Even if you are a super sales pro, it is highly recommended
that you use contact software that you understand.
Use Contact Software You Understand
The point to drive home is that the complexity of the soft-
ware program and management system you use is not the end
all. If you are in a business where you can act as a cashier (and
have people come to you with money in hand), then that is
great. And yes, the complex programs will help you detail the
sale for the person who has already decided to buy.
Remember this story when you read in this book about us-
ing contact software that is understandable. The point being
made here is to keep making contacts and recording them. If
you have to spend so much time playing with, and learning
sophisticated software, then how you can be out there making
contacts. There has to be a balance, right?
With that said, taking a course in something sophisticated
so that you can use it on the job makes perfect sense. No one is
knocking good software. But remember this clearly: contact
software does not do the sales for you—you do!
What wins the race? The car or the driver? Think carefully?
If you said “the car” then put the car on the track (without a
driver) and see what it will do. Now you understand the point.
Yes, give the driver the best and greatest car out there, and
yes, that driver will do awesome. However, the driver still
makes it work, correct?
If, some day, there is some great software that does all the
work and gets the sales for every product and service in the
world, then that will be a magical day indeed. But until then, the
software is the tool. The sales are done by a person: you.
Rework Your Database
Before this book gets into dealing with force fields, high-level
interest, and other fun stuff, some basics need to be covered
first. While you may think you hear something you already
know, take a look at this section in a new unit. Are you doing
this on a regular basis?
You should be able to routinely make new sales using your
contact database without adding any new people to your list. It
is amazing that after you build up some contacts, communi-
cating with them on a regular basis causes sales to start popping up.
The following two actions work in tandem with each other:
1. Adding contacts to your database anyway that you
can, with quick notes about them
2. Communicating with your existing database regularly.
With these two points stably implemented, new sales will pop
up. This is magical, and it works.
Use your database. Send out regular emails and newsletters
every month. Offer something to your customers even if it is
simply free coffee and croissants the first Saturday of each
month. The offer does not matter.
What does matter is that you keep reaching out and keep
reworking your database. It does not matter if all those pro-
spects said no or did not respond to prior communications.
When the time comes that these consumers need your products
or services, or their friends need your products or services,
guess who will be first and foremost in their minds as someone
to call or refer? Yes, that’s right: you. You will find, as a sales-
person, that if you keep reaching out and keep reworking your
database, your sales will grow.
He who persists succeeds!
Who, or What, Does the Selling?
With spam so prevalent, some salespeople may think they can
use email to make their sales for them, but this would be a
mistake of identity. This is discussed elsewhere, but there is
another point to make about it: if you have a great Website
where all that the consumer has to do is point and click
to make a purchase, what actually makes the sale? Is it the
Website? Is it some email that you sent to the person? No. What
makes the sale is you. More specifically, it is your communication.
The sale is made based on what you said that interested the
person highly enough to want your product. So although a
Website can sell all by itself, what is important to realize is how
it succeeds in selling. It boils down to the actual salesperson
enlightening and doing the convincing.
Many people have purchased many items without directly
speaking to anyone, which is a testament to the person who
wrote the selling content. The principles laid down in this book
need to be followed in every form of sales, whether online or in
person. The phone message, the email, the Website, the post-
card, the letter you sent are all dealing with the subject of inter-
est. It is you who actually got the sale.
The Power of Referrals
How come the empty spaces were filled up so quickly when
the real estate broker could not in a year’s time?
A couple of very basic sales procedures were used that were
obvious and “common sense,” but the one that stands out as
being the most effective was the action of getting referrals.
Referrals can make your life as a salesperson a whole lot
easier. How? By finding new prospects in your existing clients!
A referral is simply a recommendation to contact someone.
There is a theory that any one individual is connected to every-
one else on the planet indirectly by someone they know directly.
In other words, in theory, every single person on earth is
reachable by others who are just a few steps removed.
As an example, you know a friend who knows someone,
who knows someone else, and that person knows the President
of the United States.
With this theoretical understanding, as a salesperson, you
can utilize the power of referrals to serve you well. You can
turn a day of numerous cold-calls and sometimes rude tele-
phone hangups into warm calls and friendly hello’s with,
“Charlie Jones mentioned that I should introduce myself to you
and let you know what I have that might interest you.”
Walls of resistance, considerations of mistrust, the barriers
of social anxiety with talking to strangers, and so many other
obstacles are torn down by seeking and using referrals. Your
productivity can increase exponentially by merely asking a new
or past satisfied client (which should be every one of your past
clients) if he or she knows of anyone else who would appreciate
learning about your products or services.
If sales is really a numbers game, as you have heard quite
often, and if it took you seventeen calls to find someone willing
to talk to you, then how powerful would it be to get two or
three or five names (referrals) from someone and have these
referrals willing to speak to you because their friend or col-
league invited you to call them? Taking the time to get referrals
from every one of your clients is a fast and effective way to
empower yourself—just using this one sales technique alone!
The best way to get referrals is to ask for them: “Mr. Jones,
with what I’ve done for you in showing how to make your life
easier in an affordable way, who else do you know that would
appreciate learning about me and my services?” That’s all it
takes!
Once you’ve delivered a great product or service to some-
one and made sure he or she is happy, the person will want
others to know about your product or service—and they’ll
want others to know about you.
Referrals also saves time and frustration from making cold
calls.
People Have Force Fields
There is no doubt that you know that people have a force field
around them and often are impenetrable at first. If this is a new
concept to you, read on.
You try to talk to a possible prospect and careen off his or
her deflector shield and are sent away, or the prospect’s recep-
tionist or secretary—his or her gatekeeper—bounces you out.
Been there, done that, correct?
The blocks to your sales attempts have many facets. It
could be no reply to your emails or letters, no response to your
promotions, a smaller market share calling in than expected
from your advertising—the list goes on. You probably have
bought books and attended seminars on just this point: how to
get past the gatekeeper, how to get the attention of the decision
maker, and so on. There are many clever ways to get to the key
person, but they do not always seem to work, or there seem to
be too many points to remember, and there can often be much
frustration in your attempts.
Later you hear someone else made the sale to the same
company. How did this happen? Let’s learn that trick next.
You have arrived at the end of the sample. If you would
like to purchase Easy Sales Procedures, you can Order it
online at easysalesprocedures.com