This is the first in a series of posts I’ll be doing on the subject of selling. It’s a subject that I’m always very passionate about, but now more than ever for a variety of reasons that I’ll illustrate in the posts.
I read this quote and immediately fell in love with it. Zig Ziglar, one of America’s most prolific salesmen,said it, and he couldn’t be more right.
If you are a parent, it communicates its point with such emotional impact and clarity in just 5 words. A good parent should be willing to do anything to take care of their children. When you have kids, something genetic inside of you is triggered that gives you an increased awareness of your responsibilities. Or, at least is should. This is one of the reasons I try to hire salespeople with families; I know they’ll go to any lengths to bring in the sales necessary to take care of their families.
One of those responsibilities is providing basic sustenance for your children. Food, water, shelter. I imagine that if you can’t provide these basic things, you would feel like you were literally failing your children. This has got to be a tragic feeling, which I believe is why you’ve seen a rash of men killing their wives and children as they have lost their incomes in this economy.
That a person could live in this country in this age and feel so poor that they would rather take the lives of their family than go on fighting the good fight each day is possibly the saddest and most tragic thing I’ve ever seen.
It reminds me of another quote from a great entrepreneur and entertainer:
“Learn to sell. If you learn to sell you’ll never be hungry.”
George Foreman said that. And he’s right. He’s sold over $1 billion worth of those grills on TV, and you can tell he hasn’t been going hungry! He’s made more money than he ever made boxing, and given himself an amazing career in the second half of his life.
What does all of this have to do with you? Everything.
Most MSPs are bad at sales and marketing. If you ask someone why they are bad at selling, they will tell you that they either don’t like it, don’t respect it, are afraid to do it – or all of the above. The truth in almost all cases is that they are afraid of selling. They are afraid of rejection, of making people feel uncomfortable, or of not being liked. It’s totally natural, and something that just about everyone – even great salespeople – experience.
The first word in Zig’s quote is “Timid”. Fear. Afraid to make a cold call, afraid to ask for an order, and afraid of hearing the word no.
If you fit this description, you need to get it through your head that your fear and negativity about selling is the single costliest thing in your life right now. You may not be having any problem putting food on the table, but it’s still costing you. It’s costing you more than your mortgage, more than your car payment, and more than the expensive hobbies you’d love to have.
What do I mean?
I mean that if you were great at selling, you could make so much more income than you currently do that you would easily be able to afford the things mentioned above. The sales you aren’t making because you aren’t great at selling are literally costing you a fortune.
What to do?
You’ve got to learn to love to sell.
You should be so proud of your ability to sell; to create jobs, to provide for yourself and your families, and to solve problems for your clients are all noble achievements.
You should do whatever it takes to conquer the fears that are holding you back and commit to falling in love with the most important skill you canpossibly master. You must find a way to approach each day with such a zeal for selling that your passion is contagious.
If you do nothing else, you will see a dramatic improvement in your results.
But of course there is much more to do. Sales is an art and a science that can be studied for an eternity; youwill never master everything that you could. Don’t fall for the old fairy tale that people are “natural born salesmen”,and that the rest of us are out of luck. Sure, some people have more charisma than others, but this is oftena liability as it causes those with it to rely on it too much.
Becoming a great salesman is a journey that never ends. The best are always learning, always practicing, always honing their craft. And so should you.
If you are the owner of your company and in a position to hire salespeople, make sure that they feel the same way. Ifthey don’t, do not hire them; you will only waste your time and your money.
If you are in some sort of leadership position that doesn’t require you to “sell” every day, don’t be fooled into complacency. You must sell your ideas to your employees, investors, boss, spouse, children – somebody! – every day. Youshould work on these skills just as much as anyone.
Be bold. Make a commitment to becoming the best salesperson you can possibly become in 2009. If you already made that commitment – double-down on it.Wake up every morning and re-commit to it. Take ten minutes at the end of every day to reflect on what you did and didn’t do well, then learn from it and improve tomorrow. Study everything you can. Test every approach you learn.
Forge yourself through sheer will into a great salesperson, and you will never have skinny children.
MRC
