Hey guys, I'm thinking of getting a job in real world sales. (cars, mortgages, medical equipment etc) Any advice on how to best learn the skills needed for this profession? Any books, websites, forums like this centered around in-person sales would be helpful.
Advice on selling face to face
- Thread starter Alpha55
- Start date
- Status
"You can get further with a kind word and a gun, than just a kind word."
Probably wouldn't be good if you want to keep your job, but it's guaranteed to close sales!
Tom Hopkins has some good sales books and CDs.
Probably wouldn't be good if you want to keep your job, but it's guaranteed to close sales!
Tom Hopkins has some good sales books and CDs.
People Skills:
Selling face to face requires good people skills. If you don't have those then the best thing is to get a job in customer service. No book will teach you these skills.
Sell High Ticket Items:
I'm a firm believer in if your going to sell something then pick high end products with high demand. Why sell a pay day loan when you can sell mortages? Why sell cars when you can sell houses? Sell a car make $500, sell a house or refinance a mortgage and make $10,000. Do not sell cars!
Know Your Product:
Sales to me is just providing people what they want anyway and convincing them to use you to purchase the end product. This is where knowing your product inside and out is crucial. Your sales will no happen if you don't know your product.
Pick a Niche:
Now that you enter the industry pick a niche where you can be an expert in it. I always go after the low hanging fruit that no wants to market to. When I sold house in Big Bear. All the Realtors went after the high end shit on the lake and near the ski slopes. I said fuck that and went to work on the low end of town wher the locals lived. I sold more houses and worked harder for my money but within a year I was a top agent and those locals were referring high end clients to me. You see I went after one easy to enter niche and crossed over into another with no marketing. Word of mouth. The agents couldn't figure me out.
I always enter through the back door and break down the front!
Sales is the highest paying profession that you can enter. You can make as much as a doctor or lawyer within a year or 2 and that's without school. But don't expect to make that kind of money without putting your blood and sweat into it.
I think your making a great decision.
PM, IM me if you ever want some advice in getting into real estate or mortgages. I have been doing this for 9 years, successfully and I would be happy to help you in any way I can.
Selling face to face requires good people skills. If you don't have those then the best thing is to get a job in customer service. No book will teach you these skills.
Sell High Ticket Items:
I'm a firm believer in if your going to sell something then pick high end products with high demand. Why sell a pay day loan when you can sell mortages? Why sell cars when you can sell houses? Sell a car make $500, sell a house or refinance a mortgage and make $10,000. Do not sell cars!
Know Your Product:
Sales to me is just providing people what they want anyway and convincing them to use you to purchase the end product. This is where knowing your product inside and out is crucial. Your sales will no happen if you don't know your product.
Pick a Niche:
Now that you enter the industry pick a niche where you can be an expert in it. I always go after the low hanging fruit that no wants to market to. When I sold house in Big Bear. All the Realtors went after the high end shit on the lake and near the ski slopes. I said fuck that and went to work on the low end of town wher the locals lived. I sold more houses and worked harder for my money but within a year I was a top agent and those locals were referring high end clients to me. You see I went after one easy to enter niche and crossed over into another with no marketing. Word of mouth. The agents couldn't figure me out.
I always enter through the back door and break down the front!
Sales is the highest paying profession that you can enter. You can make as much as a doctor or lawyer within a year or 2 and that's without school. But don't expect to make that kind of money without putting your blood and sweat into it.
I think your making a great decision.
PM, IM me if you ever want some advice in getting into real estate or mortgages. I have been doing this for 9 years, successfully and I would be happy to help you in any way I can.
I've been involved with face to face sales all of my life, and trying to make the transition to online.
First of all read "Influence: Psychology Of Persuasion".
Second, I'm a strong believer that in sales, you're either born with it or you're not. Training can help, but it can only take you so far.
It's really dependant on your natural personality. I sell pianos. (Yes, fuckin' pianos). In the past I've sold mortgages, vacations, cars, guitars, furniture, lots of shit. I was in the military for a few years, but besides that sales is all I've done.
Piano sales is actually the toughest sales gig I've had. They can cost anywhere from $1k to over $100k, and people don't need them. People need cars, houses, and insurance, but when they're broke the last thing they want is a piano.
So a customer walks into my store. At this point forcing a sale, or even coming off like a salesman is the last thing on my mind.
Depending on the way the customer looks, I'll open up with a "How we doing today?" Or "Hi, how can I help you folks today?" Pretty standard there.
Now at this point I have 2 goals in mind, to build rapport and trust, and to qualify them. Now about 60% of the time they'll automatically be defensive when I introduce myself, saying something like "we're just looking" or "just killing some time." Bullshit.
So I'll say "Hey, that's fine guys, my name's Scott, let me know if I can help." I'll then go act like I'm busy with something like paperwork or working on a piano, and watch and listen for a few minutes while they walk around.
I don't let them "look" for more than about 5 minutes. I'll casually walk out and ask them an innocent sounding qualifying question. "Who plays?" "What kind of piano do you guys have now?" I then get them talking about anything besides buying a piano, kids, cars, jobs, whatever.
I come off as a pretty nice guy, I actually am, but in sales you have to be aggressive. So after another 10 minutes of bullshitting with them about whatever I can get them talking about, I've built up a rapport, and I've usually got them qualified.
So, normally my customers are one of the following:
So, I find the piano I want them to buy, and I build up it's value. There are several ways to do this "We took this in on trade and got a great buy", "The factory was liquidating inventory, we got a great buy", "We loaned this to the college for a couple of weeks, so we'll sell it for a used price with a new warranty, it's a great buy".
I get creative on that part, but in pianos, if they don't think they're getting an awesome deal, they won't buy.
All of the pianos are marked with the MSRP prices. These are the real MSRP's, but I've got a lot of room to manevuer if I want to. There are a few reasons for this. For one, if they don't put up any resistance and just buy at retail, that's awesome. If they have a trade in, I can offer them a pretty good chunk of change for it and still make money on the piano. And if they're tough to close, they'll get a "special price."
Most customers end up getting a "special price." For one, it's very difficult to close a piano deal on the first visit to the store, but you always have to shoot for it, because 1/10 times it'll work. This is when you get aggressive.
During the whole process leading up to figuring out what the hell I'm going to sell them, I never discuss pricing. There's a retail tag, and that's it. If they ask, I'll say something like "Hmm, I'm not sure if we have much room to move on the price, but I'll go check for you in a minute."
So, once they're qualified and I think they're ready to buy, I'll just come out and say "So you guys want to go ahead and get this taken care of?" Sometimes that works, most of the time it doesn't. Usually they'll say that they have to talk about it, look at finances, whatever. When they tell me the reason they're not buying, I'll try using it against them.
"Not sure if you can afford it? Why don't I do this. If I call the owner, and get you a better price, would you guys go ahead and take it today?"
Usually they'll say something like it "depends on the price." So I'll say, "well tell me what price we'd need to be at to go ahead and do this today." They'll usually shoot me some obscenely low number, and I'll say "Well, I think we're pretty far apart here, but let me make a call."
I'll then go into my office, and figure up a price that I can still make some decent money at. Then I'll grab a piece of paper that has a place for a name, address, phone #, Model #, and Price.
I'll walk out, and say "Why don't you guys come back here and sit down for a second?" (I don't ask, I tell) So I sit them down, and say "I just want to jot down a few notes so I can remember what we talked about today." Then proceed to get their name, number, address, ect. Then I'll write a price on the paper, and give them a copy of it. "Here's the best price I can get you if you buy it before the end of the month" or something along those lines. "If you guys want to take it today, he's pretty motivated to sell, so I can get you this price, plus free delivery, that's good for today only though."
If they're serious they'll usually go ahead and do it. If they're not, they walk, but I have there contact info. Getting the contact info is extremely important. Following up is extremely important.
About once a month we'll have a sale to close the tough ones. So I call all of my unclosed prospects, tell them they can get an even better price, and set appointments with them.
That's just a basic explanation, and there are a million other variables to take into account, but the basics are build a rapport, qualify them for a product, build up the product value, and find a way to convince them that they're getting the best possible deal they're going to find.
So there ya go, that's my Wickedfire guide to piano sales. Can I get a sticky?:rasta: j/k.
First of all read "Influence: Psychology Of Persuasion".
Second, I'm a strong believer that in sales, you're either born with it or you're not. Training can help, but it can only take you so far.
It's really dependant on your natural personality. I sell pianos. (Yes, fuckin' pianos). In the past I've sold mortgages, vacations, cars, guitars, furniture, lots of shit. I was in the military for a few years, but besides that sales is all I've done.
Piano sales is actually the toughest sales gig I've had. They can cost anywhere from $1k to over $100k, and people don't need them. People need cars, houses, and insurance, but when they're broke the last thing they want is a piano.
So a customer walks into my store. At this point forcing a sale, or even coming off like a salesman is the last thing on my mind.
Depending on the way the customer looks, I'll open up with a "How we doing today?" Or "Hi, how can I help you folks today?" Pretty standard there.
Now at this point I have 2 goals in mind, to build rapport and trust, and to qualify them. Now about 60% of the time they'll automatically be defensive when I introduce myself, saying something like "we're just looking" or "just killing some time." Bullshit.
So I'll say "Hey, that's fine guys, my name's Scott, let me know if I can help." I'll then go act like I'm busy with something like paperwork or working on a piano, and watch and listen for a few minutes while they walk around.
I don't let them "look" for more than about 5 minutes. I'll casually walk out and ask them an innocent sounding qualifying question. "Who plays?" "What kind of piano do you guys have now?" I then get them talking about anything besides buying a piano, kids, cars, jobs, whatever.
I come off as a pretty nice guy, I actually am, but in sales you have to be aggressive. So after another 10 minutes of bullshitting with them about whatever I can get them talking about, I've built up a rapport, and I've usually got them qualified.
So, normally my customers are one of the following:
- Parents wanting an inexpensive piano for thier kids to take lessons on.
- Awesome musicians who want something nice, but don't have a lot of money.
- Rich people who want a grand piano or a player piano for a status symbol.
So, I find the piano I want them to buy, and I build up it's value. There are several ways to do this "We took this in on trade and got a great buy", "The factory was liquidating inventory, we got a great buy", "We loaned this to the college for a couple of weeks, so we'll sell it for a used price with a new warranty, it's a great buy".
I get creative on that part, but in pianos, if they don't think they're getting an awesome deal, they won't buy.
All of the pianos are marked with the MSRP prices. These are the real MSRP's, but I've got a lot of room to manevuer if I want to. There are a few reasons for this. For one, if they don't put up any resistance and just buy at retail, that's awesome. If they have a trade in, I can offer them a pretty good chunk of change for it and still make money on the piano. And if they're tough to close, they'll get a "special price."
Most customers end up getting a "special price." For one, it's very difficult to close a piano deal on the first visit to the store, but you always have to shoot for it, because 1/10 times it'll work. This is when you get aggressive.
During the whole process leading up to figuring out what the hell I'm going to sell them, I never discuss pricing. There's a retail tag, and that's it. If they ask, I'll say something like "Hmm, I'm not sure if we have much room to move on the price, but I'll go check for you in a minute."
So, once they're qualified and I think they're ready to buy, I'll just come out and say "So you guys want to go ahead and get this taken care of?" Sometimes that works, most of the time it doesn't. Usually they'll say that they have to talk about it, look at finances, whatever. When they tell me the reason they're not buying, I'll try using it against them.
"Not sure if you can afford it? Why don't I do this. If I call the owner, and get you a better price, would you guys go ahead and take it today?"
Usually they'll say something like it "depends on the price." So I'll say, "well tell me what price we'd need to be at to go ahead and do this today." They'll usually shoot me some obscenely low number, and I'll say "Well, I think we're pretty far apart here, but let me make a call."
I'll then go into my office, and figure up a price that I can still make some decent money at. Then I'll grab a piece of paper that has a place for a name, address, phone #, Model #, and Price.
I'll walk out, and say "Why don't you guys come back here and sit down for a second?" (I don't ask, I tell) So I sit them down, and say "I just want to jot down a few notes so I can remember what we talked about today." Then proceed to get their name, number, address, ect. Then I'll write a price on the paper, and give them a copy of it. "Here's the best price I can get you if you buy it before the end of the month" or something along those lines. "If you guys want to take it today, he's pretty motivated to sell, so I can get you this price, plus free delivery, that's good for today only though."
If they're serious they'll usually go ahead and do it. If they're not, they walk, but I have there contact info. Getting the contact info is extremely important. Following up is extremely important.
About once a month we'll have a sale to close the tough ones. So I call all of my unclosed prospects, tell them they can get an even better price, and set appointments with them.
That's just a basic explanation, and there are a million other variables to take into account, but the basics are build a rapport, qualify them for a product, build up the product value, and find a way to convince them that they're getting the best possible deal they're going to find.
So there ya go, that's my Wickedfire guide to piano sales. Can I get a sticky?:rasta: j/k.
I actually bookmarked your thread. These techniques work on anything, not just pianos.
I once sold condom vending machines for clubs. Beat that.
I once sold condom vending machines for clubs. Beat that.
- Status