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The Perfect Sales Professional

Posted Wed, 2010-02-10 16:53
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If the perfect salesperson exists, I have yet to meet them. I’ve seen salespeople achieve perfection on a particular day with a particular customer. But they would not claim to be models of perfection 365 days a year. But striving for excellence or perfection is something else.   As a salesperson you should constantly try to do you’re very best. You may not hit perfection on a day-to-day basis but there are many times when you will reach the heights. Now let’s take a look at some of the elements that make perfection a desirable yet difficult goal.
 
The Variables:
Polling organizations are familiar with variables in their sampling. These are changes or departures from the norm which could have an effect on the outcome of a survey. But the pollsters are sophisticated and make allowances for these variables in their work.   The salesperson, too, is confronted with variables which make perfection almost impossible. They can be fully prepared for an interview--at the top of their form--but they may hit a prospect who is the victim of a sour stomach. So, no matter how tuned up the salesperson is, they stand a good chance of losing the person who must take out their discomfort on someone. There’s also the variable of the competition. A competitor may come out with a new, faster, stronger, smarter or better product at any time. The salesperson may have the best presentation in the business but it will fall on deaf ears. There are some things that are unpredictable.
 
You should expect the unpredictable and keep pushing ahead towards perfection. The
Salespersons who can take the unexpected in stride never need worry. If you call on three prospects a day there is always the possibility that one may be out or unavailable. Keep yourself tuned up for the next Customer and the one after them. If you are constantly working toward perfection, whatever the obstacles in your way, you will be successful even if you can’t claim ultimate perfection.
 
Programmed For Perfection: 
If salespeople, like computers, could be mechanically programmed none of us would have any worries about excellence. We could simply be fed tapes geared for perfection and that’s the way we would perform. But salespeople aren’t computers and no one has been devised a way to create robot vendors...yet! But there is a way that you can program yourself for perfection. The system requires that you set standards for yourself and then match your performance against them from day-to-day and month-to-month. Make a list of your weaknesses and try to patch them up. Analyze each interview and ask yourself if you could have done better. Examine your relationships with your customers and see if there is room for improvement. Are you giving full measure of service and attention? Do your customers regard you as a friend as well as a Vendor? Do you know your product and service so well that you feel relaxed and confident when you make your presentation? In other words, do you have a running check on yourself?
 
Be Your Own Critic:
You must be your own critic. There are no report cards. No one will hand you a weekly or monthly rating sheet. Of course, sales quotas and other internal kinds of competition give you some clue to your progress but they are inadequate as gauges. For one thing the salesperson is usually so wrapped up in making their quota that they are not introspective enough. They don’t stop to ask them self if they’re on the right track in their race toward the top of the heap.
 
I suggest that you take some time out each day for critical evaluation. Check yourself on various things: persistence, personality, clarity and interest of presentation, patience, prospecting technique and other. You might even devise a scale and rate yourself from one to ten.
 
Some people can’t be objective about themselves.  In this case it’s a good idea to seek out the opinion of others. Ask you boss or colleagues for a “grade” on your performance. You might not like their rating but at least it will put matters in proper perspective for you. The feed-back should also extend to customers. They may be inhibited from venting their feelings unless you encourage them.
 
Don’t Repeat Errors: 
Perfection will always be beyond the man who can not learn from their mistakes. Anyone can flub an interview but the true test of growth is whether the salesperson can learn enough from the flub so as not to repeat it. These incidents are not pleasant but they can be a learning experience. Most salespeople are perceptive enough to know they goofed soon after leaving the Customer’s office. If this happens to you, try to recreate the interview. Ask yourself where you went wrong.
 
Football coaches run post-game movies so they and the players will see where they were good and where they were bad. You don’t have a film of your visit to the prospect but you have the benefit of memory. Try to recall every word. Did you say something that might have offended the Customer? Did you fail to provide enough information? Was your presentation clear?
 
When he first went into selling, Dick Ashman had a tendency not to worry about unproductive calls. “I’ll get the next one,” was his philosophy. But when the “no sales” began ringing up more often he began to feel concern. Each night after a turndown, he reviewed the dialogue between himself and the Customer. He remembered the moment when the latter began to lose interest, glancing at their watch or around the room. What had happened at that time? Had he started to repeat himself? Was he too eager? Did he fail to give the Customer a chance to ask questions or make comments? Dick found where he went amiss. The next presentation was planned so as to avoid the same mishap. Gradually, Dick eliminated the bugs that were hurting his selling. He did not attain complete perfection but he came very close to it.
 
Experience No Guarantee: 
Age and experience can add up to a successful salesperson--but not necessarily. I’ve seen salespeople of 30 years standing who were as mediocre as their first or fifteenth year on the job. On the other hand, I’ve met salespeople with five years experience who were smashing all records in their companies.
 
Experience is only helpful if you learn from it. It has no magic aura of its own. The middle-aged salesperson in the high income bracket got there because they studied their craft, all the while reaching for perfection. They built there career on what they learned from day to day. They obtained an insight into human nature and became familiar with their own weaknesses and strengths.   They immersed them self on their product or service, knowing everything there was to know about it. They did not depend on luck to get them through. Instead they made their own luck through hard work, dedication and keen application. They knew that as one grows older they do not necessarily get smarter.
 
Be Your Own Person:
We began picking our heroes when we were children. For some of us it was the cowboy hero in the Saturday matinee. For others it was the pitcher who won twenty games or a superstar tennis player.
 
This is all right for kids but when we are older hero worship can be misleading. Take the salesperson, for example. They may have great admiration and respect for the top producer in their company, a person whose income hits $350,000 a year. They may even try to ape their hero in style, dress and mannerisms. This is where they probably would be making a mistake. It’s all right to aim for the leader’s achievements but their way of doing things may not be for anyone else.
 
You should develop your own selling style and pace. Another person’s way may be find for them but not your bag at all. Trial and error will often tell you the best course for you to follow. One thing is certain: if you are not by nature out going, quick thinking or humorist, there is no sense in attempting to manufacture these characteristics. That they do not wear well on you will soon become obvious to your customers and prospects. Be Yourself.
 
No Perfect Customer: 
There is no perfect salesperson and that goes double for Customers. They come in all sizes, shapes, temperaments and degrees of pliability. You can’t expect any of them to react according to your preconceived idea. This means you must be prepared for any kind of reception, from downright hostile to cordial. You may even get widely different reactions from the same customer on successive visits. I once called on a Customer who one day would treat me like a long lost son and the next like a bill collector.
 
You must be flexible enough to counter any behavior by the Customer. If they are snappish, don’t annoy them further. If they are in a loquacious mood, sit down and chat with them for a whole. It won’t delay you too long and it may be the way to an order.
 
Above all, don’t react in kind if the Customer is in a bad humor. This won’t solve anything and may put you on their blacklist. Restraint is an admirable quality for any salesperson.
 
Desire for Perfection: 
Practice and application can help you achieve perfection but there must be one more ingredient: desire. The salesperson who simply goes through the motions without really caring about their work can never hope to rise above their plateau.
 
I once knew a sales manager who could pick out the people in their company who were destined to scale the heights. “How can you tell?” I asked them. “It’s really easy,” they said. “I see only two kinds. One type is playing a role. They are not really interested in selling but feel it’s as good a way as any to make a living--better than some. The role player is usually an average salesperson but some are so adept their game that they go above average. The other kind of salespeople has desire. I can recognize this type because of their genuine enthusiasm. This is one thing you can’t fake. The salesperson with desire asks questions and listens to the answer. They are even a bit naive and when they are in doubt they aren’t afraid to say so.”
 
Desire isn’t something you learn in college or buy in a store. It’s either part of your makeup or it isn’t. If it is, you’re lucky. In 95% of these cases, the salesperson with genuine desire reaches their goal. This is because they translate their desire into action, into unremitting effort and into continued learning. If the desire is within you, your climb up the ladder will be much easier.
 
To summarize, perfection, even though is it rarely attained, must always be sought by the salesperson.   Logan Pearsall Smith put it beautifully when he wrote: “The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable Perfection...is what alone gives meaning to our life on this unavailing star.”