There are two types of salespeople:
1. The people who can sell.
2. The people who can sell themselves.
There is only one way to distinguish them: Cold, hard numbers.
The salespeople who can sell themselves are masters of cling. They likely clinged to their last job for a couple of years, until they couldn’t sell themselves any more. They are masters at explaining things away. They can always justify why their numbers won’t, can’t, and shouldn’t work. They try to show their value in the “fuzzy” numbers. The numbers don’t justify it, but they cling around as long as they can.
The salespeople who can actually sell, work for companies that cling to them. Salespeople who can sell are masters of process. They are skilled at explaining how their numbers work. Their numbers are never fuzzy. They expect more pay for more performance – no fuzz there.
Your business doesn’t need to feel warm and fuzzy. It needs revenue, so it can deliver the warm and fuzzy to your clients.
Hire salespeople who can sell. Let your competition hire the other guys.
Completely agree. Finding the hunters who can find buyers is tough, they are few and far between. I do believe though that you can train someone to be a salesperson who can sell though. Sometimes it’s better to have someone new to selling, then they don’t come with any previous baggage and you can mold them how you need to.
Thanks Mark. Question for you… how do you identify a newbie that has potential? One who you can train to be a great sales person?
Great question, Mike. I think it all comes down to attitude. Do they have that winning attitude or not? Do They have a need to win? I believe former competitive athletes that played college sports are a great fit for these types of roles. Thy know what it’s like to win and they are super focused on winning in life (generally speaking). I also think that the person you choose has to be open to learn. Som people come in thinking they know how to run the show, when in fact they’ve just learn a lot of bad habits. Having someone who is willing to learn and relearn the skills they need to sell is essential.
Mike you are so cool. That is all 🙂
Michelle
Aw shucks…. I so love you. I don’t know if I ever thanked you for the introduction to Melanie (speaker agent), she is a joy to work with.
How are you and Jess doing? How are your events going?
I can’t tell you enough how encouraged I am as a result of reading this! Thank you!!
Thanks Jim!
I completely disagree, someone who can sell themselves are more trust worthy(NOT PUSHY). They point out the flaws, honest and gain the most trust. I only sell myself I CAN’T stand a pushy salesman only in it for the money. I genuinely care for my customer, prior service (army) that looks to take care of my customer. I have been salesman of the month at two different dealerships not for being pushy but cause you can believe and trust me. I’ve been told I’m to honest to be a car salesman, nope that’s why you just bought a car. Thanks.