The Psychology of Selling

*The imagination is literally the workshop wherein are

The person who hired me couldn’t sell. But he told me that sales is a “numbers game.” He said that all I had to do was talk to enough people, and eventually I would find someone who would buy. We call this the “mud against the wall” method of selling. (View Highlight)

Instead of using a “speech” or clever one-liners to get attention or to overcome resistance, he asked a series of logical questions, from general to specific, that were ideally suited to a genuine prospect. At the end of this series of questions, it had become perfectly clear to the prospect that he could use and benefit from our product. The final question was simply to close the sale. (View Highlight)

The health of the business community in any city, state, or nation is the key determinant of the quality of life and standard of living of the people in that geographical area. (View Highlight)

Next I learned about audio learning. It changed my life. I began to listen, hour after hour, to audio programs as I walked from office to office. I listened to them in the morning; I listened to them in the evening. I rehearsed and practiced the best sentences and phrases from the best salespeople until I could recite them in my sleep. And my sales went up and up. (View Highlight)

Here is a great rule: “If you do what other successful people do, over and over again, nothing in the world can stop you from eventually getting the same results that they do. And if you don’t, nothing can help you.” (View Highlight)

Seventy-four percent of self-made millionaires in America are entrepreneurs, people who start and build their own businesses (View Highlight)

And among entrepreneurs, the single most important skill for success is the ability to sell (View Highlight)

Five percent of self-made millionaires in America are salespeople who have worked for other companies all their lives (View Highlight)

In selling, you only have to be a little bit better and different in each of the key result areas of selling for it to accumulate into an extraordinary difference in income. A small increment of skill or ability, just 3 or 4 percent, can give you the winning edge. It can put you in the top 20 percent, and then the top 10 percent. (View Highlight)

It is what goes on inside the mind of the salesperson that makes all the difference (View Highlight)

If you want to know how tall a building is going to be, you look at how deep they dig the foundation for that building. The deeper the foundation, the taller the building. In the same way, the deeper your foundation of knowledge and skill, the greater the life that you will be able to build (View Highlight)

The average salesperson uses only a small percentage of his potential for effectiveness in selling. It is estimated that the average person in general never uses more than about 10 percent of his potential. What this means is that each person has at least 90 percent or more potential left untapped. It is when you learn how to unlock this additional 90 percent of your own potential that you move yourself into the income categories of the highest earners (View Highlight)

1. Decide today to become a totally confident, high-self-esteem salesperson; say over and over to yourself, “I like myself!”

We advance on our journey only when we face our goal, only when we are confident and believe we are going to win out. (View Highlight)

If I’ve got correct goals, and I keep pursuing them the best

Top salespeople are intensely goal oriented. In every study, the quality of goal orientation seems to be associated with high levels of success and achievement (View Highlight)

It is essential for your success that you decide exactly how much you intend to earn each year (View Highlight)

If you are not absolutely clear about your earnings target, your sales activities will be unfocused. You will be like a person trying to shoot at a target in the fog. Even if you are the finest marksman in the world, you are not going to hit a target you can’t see. You have to know exactly what you’re aiming at (View Highlight)

Top salespeople in every field know exactly what they are going to earn each year and each part of each year. If you ask them, they can tell you within a dollar what they are aiming at every single day (View Highlight)

Put Them in Writing

Your Annual Sales Goal

Monthly and Weekly Goals

Daily Sales Goals

The final step in setting sales goals is for you to determine the specific activities in which you must engage to achieve your desired sales level. How many calls will you have to make to get how many appointments with prospects? How many presentations and callbacks will you have to generate to achieve a specific level of sales? (View Highlight)

Make it a game with yourself to make your ten prospecting calls before noon each day (View Highlight)

As previously stated, the average person uses only 10 percent of his potential. By programming your subconscious mind with clear goals, you gain access to the 90 percent of your potential that lies beneath the surface, deep in your subconscious mind (View Highlight)

Imagine that you could double your income in the next two or three years. If you did, what are some of the things you would change in your life? Make a list of all the things that you would be, have, or do if you were earning vastly more money than you are earning today. The longer this list, the greater your level of motivation and determination. (View Highlight)

If you have only one or two reasons for achieving your financial goals, you will be easily discouraged by setbacks and difficulties. If you have ten or fifteen reasons for being successful, you will be more motivated and determined. But if you have fifty or one hundred reasons for increasing your sales and your income, you will become virtually unstoppable (View Highlight)

Here is an exercise for you. Get a spiral notebook and write down 100 goals that you would like to accomplish in the years ahead. Make a list of everything that you would like to have in your life and everything that you would like to do. Imagine that everything you write on this list is going to come to you at exactly the right time and in exactly the right way (View Highlight)

In my work with more than 500,000 salespeople throughout the United States and in twenty-five countries, I have found that the commitment to goal setting has been the number one reason for the success of the top people (View Highlight)

When used with goal setting, visualization is perhaps the most powerful skill that you can develop. There is no more powerful way to program your subconscious mind than to create a clear mental picture of the person you want to be and the goals you want to accomplish. (View Highlight)

The power of visualization is the most awesome power possessed by human beings. It is said that all improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental pictures. When you visualize, see yourself as calm, confident, and powerful. Envision yourself as successful and influential. Picture yourself as capable and competent in every part of selling. See yourself as absolutely excellent in prospecting, presenting, and closing sales. (View Highlight)

Picture especially the prospect signing the sales order or writing out the check. You will be amazed at how often your visualization will turn into reality when you are with the customer. (View Highlight)

Your subconscious mind is activated both by pictures and by strong affirmative statements. Each time you say something strongly to yourself, your subconscious mind accepts these words as a command. It then goes to work to bring that command into your reality. (View Highlight)

The very best all-purpose affirmation is “I like myself ! I like myself ! I like myself !” As I have already shown, each time you say “I like myself !” you raise your self-esteem, improve your overall self-concept, and perform more effectively in whatever you are doing, especially in sales. (View Highlight)

Say to yourself, “I feel happy. I feel healthy. I feel terrific!” Repeat this over and over again as you go through your day. Every time you repeat these words, you will feel happier and more confident. Then see yourself as if you felt this way. (View Highlight)

His secret? He was using affirmations and visualization every day. He said, “Every morning when I get into my car, I repeat to myself, ‘I’m the best! I’m the best! I’m the best.’

Many salespeople are what we call “Columbus salespeople.” When Columbus set off seeking a route to India, he didn’t know where he was going. When he arrived in the Americas, he didn’t know where he was. And when he got back to Spain, he didn’t know where he had been.

Top salespeople are different. They think through their sales calls in advance. They go over what they are going to say mentally before they get face-to-face with the prospect. They practice “mental rehearsal,” a peak-performance technique used by all top athletes, including sales athletes. They prepare mentally for the upcoming meeting. (View Highlight)

1. Think big! Set an income goal for yourself for the next year that is 25 to 50 percent more than you have ever earned before.

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him

People value freedom above almost all other benefits of our society. When they have money available, they have a certain degree of freedom. They have choices and options. They can do a variety of different things. This desire for freedom is a major reason people hesitate to part with their money, for any reason. (View Highlight)

1. Make a list of the needs that customers have that can be met by your product; organize this list in order of importance to the customer. Build your prospecting and selling around these needs.

A man to carry on a successful business

1. You are a genius; resolve today that you will use your inborn creativity to solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, and achieve any goal you can set for yourself.

Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. (View Highlight)

When a man has done his best, has given his all, and in the

1. Determine exactly the number of prospects you must call each day and each week to achieve your sales and income goals.

Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous (View Highlight)