As I travel around the country meeting and working with sales professionals I am constantly amazed at how few people in our industry ever planned a career in sales at a young age. I ask audiences with hundreds of people in them how many had planned on being a sales person when they were in high school. You can guess the answer, hardly any!

My son Scott is a recent graduate at Arizona State University and a couple of years ago he asked if I would come in and speak to his communications class on creating persuasive presentations. I asked this same question of this class of 50 students figuring a few would be thinking a career in sales would be a good idea. My answer: Zero, Not one student was thinking sales would be a career for them. Yet statistically 47% of those young adults I was speaking to would be in a sales job within 4 years. I find it fascinating that out of the 4,158 Colleges and Universities in the United States only 35 offer a course and degree in Sales.

So here many of us are, we never planned for this career, never thought it was something we would pursue yet we find ourselves selling for a living. The current economy is certainly taking its toll on the unsuspecting population of new sales people. Many of the clients I work with are even in professions that would not normally be considered as sales professions. Medical and dental services, home repair companies, banks, all types of businesses are now clearly realizing that in order to survive in today’s economy they need to get out there and market and sell their product.

So how does the new “accidental” sales person survive and even thrive in the current economic downturn? Well it is simple, it may not always be easy, and however it is certainly simple. Let me give you two quick fundamentals to help the “new to the industry” sales professional to succeed in today’s market.

1. Don’t talk so much.
One of the things the public hates about sales people is that they try and do all of the talking. It is also the trait that most identifies you as a typical salesperson. This challenge is common because companies take people who have not sold in the past, teach them all about their product and then expect them to sell it without proper training. What this results in is a “spray and pray” method of presenting the product or service. One “sprays” a bunch of facts and features and then “prays” one of those will persuade the customer to buy their product.

Ask more questions, slow down a bit. Show your customer that you care more about them than you do about making a sale. Customers can smell commission breath a mile away. Ask them questions that relate to their needs and wants and are open ended enough to get them talking to you. I promise you will be very different than the other sales people. I have found one of the greatest ways to learn how to approach and interact with customers is to consider how you like to be treated. Think about how you feel when people try to tell you everything and don’t seem to be very interested in what you need or want. That will help keep you focused on the right types of open ended questions to use.

2. Talk to lots of people.
It is commonly known that selling is a numbers game. Certainly if you talk to enough people, even with a lousy presentation you can make sales. One of the other things I have noticed is that sales people who have lots of appointments and talk to lot’s of people have a different “air” about them when it comes to their sales presentation. I contend that customers can tell when a sales person really “needs” to make a sale. This actually causes the customer to back off and resist even more. By talking to lots of people you naturally remove the pressure and create a more positive buying experience. Think about it, if you have one presentation scheduled all week, how important is that one presentation? Yet if you have 25, any single presentation, while they are all important, is not that critical.

Figure out what your opening ratio is on contacts to sales. This will help you to understand the law of averages. If you speak to 10 and 9 say “no”, but one says “yes”, then you have a 10% closing ratio. That is not a bad start and certainly as your skills improve you will increase your percentages, though be sure not to reduce the overall numbers or you will never grow you business or ability. So keep talking to lots of people!

These are fundamental ideas, and if you have been in sales for a long time, you already “get” this. If you are like so many people who are suddenly “drafted” into a sales role, these two things will make a huge difference in helping you succeed.

Ron Marks is author of the Amazon best seller Managing for Sales Results: A Fast-Action Guide for Finding, Coaching, and Leading Salespeople
“Managing for Sales Results.” He can be reached at ron@ronmarks.biz.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Closing Sales, Guest Blogger, Selling Skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.