Brian Tracy

The Complete Guide for a Sales Manager

Foreword

German firms spent a lot of money on training their employees and sales agents, but there was a significant flaw in leadership training. The consequence of this was a decline in production, dissatisfaction of workers, the decline of enterprises.

Many sales managers are former salespeople who have achieved success in their business and have taken this position in their firms. Self-employed salespeople become group leaders, with the result that many firms lose good agents and acquire weak managers.

A 1996 survey by Tgasu College AG employees among board members of trading firms showed that there are very few professional sales managers. Brian Tracy drew attention to this and created a special training program “Sales Process Management”. It gained immense popularity in Germany, becoming a bestseller in 1996. Given such a huge interest in the topic, we decided to create a practical guide for managers in the form of a separate book.

We invite you to read this, perhaps the most comprehensive publication on the work of a sales manager. The information it contains is based on fifty years of research, numerous courses, thousands of conversations with sales managers and analyzes of their work in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, France and the United States.

You don't have to join the ranks of those salespeople who fail, go bankrupt, quit their jobs, or become salespeople again, unable to adapt to new job demands. We will help you acquire the necessary skills, which will allow you to become a new type of sales manager and, together with your team, be sure to achieve success in your work.

Good luck to you!

FRANK M. SCHELIN

Waldschut - Tiengen, September 1997.

1 Key tasks

The success of an enterprise depends on many factors, but the main one is the efficiency of the sales manager. In every firm, a sales manager is a key position. Business success or failure depends on it.

Management is not a separate discipline and there are no proprietary rules to guarantee success.

But the techniques that all successful sales managers use have long been known. This book will introduce you to methods that have been tried and tested many times in practice. Your task is to assimilate the information presented here and use it in your work. If in your actions you follow the managers who have succeeded in selling, you will achieve the same results: success, respect, and job satisfaction.

Tasks

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

A significant difference between a sales agent and a sales manager.

Seven roles played by a sales manager.

The difference between traditional and modern selling techniques.

Three basic rules of how to succeed in your business.

The tasks of a sales agent and a manager are fundamentally different. The first significant difference is that the main task of a sales agent is to make a profit. The sales agent meets and negotiates with the client. The main task of the manager is to instruct sales agents. Selection, training, support in the implementation of their tasks is the main area of ​​his activity, the manager is the teacher of his sales agents, and sales agents are those who directly influence the growth of income.

Another significant difference is that as a sales agent, you work on your own. When meeting a client, you were your own boss. But as a manager, you must cooperate with other people, you are part of a larger whole, part of a company, a member of a team. You are no longer a loner; you cannot act and make decisions the way you did as a salesperson.

As a sales agent, you were like a professional footballer on his own. You are now acting as a coach. You are no longer playing, but standing on the line of the field, inspiring your subordinates to fight, mobilizing, encouraging, supporting the fighting spirit. You train those who play on the field. The biggest mistake all managers make is running out to fields start to play, go with their representatives to meetings with clients and are directly involved in the sale. They spend 51% of their time doing things they shouldn't be doing.

Until now, you have been a member of the team of sales agents, you have been one of those who operate directly in the market. Now you are no longer one of them, you are a member of the board of the firm. For salespeople, you are the management representative.

So far, you've had an easy job. Now you are faced with more difficult tasks. The area of ​​your competence has changed, you must reckon with your employees, they are watching you closely. But the biggest challenge if you want to be effective in your new role is to change your old way of thinking. Of course, you need to study, improve your qualifications at seminars and courses, but if you do not change your outlook on life, you will not succeed as a manager. What does it mean? Imagine looking through a kaleidoscope in which pieces of glass are folded into some kind of picture: if you want to change the picture, you need to turn the kaleidoscope so that the pieces of glass change their position. You remain the same person, with your individual experience, you have the same needs, desires and hopes, but you must change your outlook on life and work, this will be your key to success. We will now discuss seven main tasks for the sales manager:

1. You must formulate goals and determine how to achieve them. So far, your job has been to achieve your goals. Now you have to put them.

2. You must plan a strategy for action in the area for which you are responsible. Until now, you have received ready-made plans from your bosses or made them only for yourself. The ability to plan is one of the most essential qualities of a professional manager.

3. The organization of the work of the whole team depends on you. This means that you must draw up an action plan and work it out so that everything that needs to be done is described in the smallest detail. You must distribute tasks in such a way in order to achieve the expected results.

Transcript

1 BRIAN TRACY EFFICIENT SALES METHODS 1

2 UDC BBK 66.9 (7USA) 30-5 T66 N. Y .: Firesides., Protected by copyright law. Violation of restrictions. imposed by him on the reproduction of this entire book or any part of it, including design, is prosecuted. Tracy B. T66 Effective selling methods by Brian Tracy / Per. from English D. V. Serebryakov; Kiev .: firm Kolibri, p. Isbn ... 2

3 Introduction I believe that all the best salespeople are similar in many ways. Sometimes in seminars for salespeople I give an experience, the essence of which is that I describe the best people in their company. I represent their character, behavior and appearance in more or less detail. And every time I am asked how I know so well their best workers, whom I have described so accurately. To this I answer that all these people are sculpted from the same dough. They have almost the same temperament. They share the same distinctive features. Elicit the same feelings and reactions from their employees and customers. Everyone acts relatively the same and achieves similar results. I am an extremely practical person. I treat myself and my clients like guinea pigs when I want to present the effectiveness of a new idea or concept by example. And yet I constantly ask myself: Is this right for me ?, because I never believe in anything just like that. I also expect from you that without proof you will not believe me. As you read my tips for achieving the best trading results, listen to your inner voice. Compare the ideas, methodological and technical developments presented in this book with your own experience. Pay attention to how you feel. If a thought seems reasonable to you, apply it to your daily salesperson job and be patient. Start implementing it. Success can only come when you get out of your chair and start doing something new. But do this only when your inner voice tells you that it will be right in your situation. This book is designed so that each time you read the chapters in the order in which they are presented. Take notes in the margins, underline important paragraphs that you will want to return to later. After reading the entire book, consider it to be something like a reference book, a tool of labor and look in it for something that might be useful to you in a certain specific situation. The book you are holding will show you how you can improve your trading methods and make them supremely effective. It introduces the essential fundamentals of know-how and helps you discover all your abilities. By putting what you learn on these pages into practice, you can become one of the top sellers in your country. This book presents a synthesis of the best ideas, techniques and strategies that I have learned during my thirty years of experience as a salesperson. I have to thank all the salespeople with whom I worked in those years and from whom a lot 3

4 learned. I am especially grateful to my friends and partners, with whom I have worked for many years on the material presented here and processed the tutorials. I express my gratitude and deep appreciation to everyone who contributed to the publication of this book. BRIAN TRACY 4

5 1 STRATEGIC WORK PLAN A personal strategic work plan is essential for achieving this goal. Thanks to this method, you can reach your destination from anywhere, wherever you are. Personal strategic planning radically affects your development in all areas of life. As a salesperson, you need to know that the most important thing in this profession is to realize that you are acting independently, that is, you are the president of your own trading company. This is about taking full responsibility for yourself and for everything that happens to you. You are the creator of your own destiny. There is nowhere else to wait for a hint, and you can no longer blame others for the problems and difficulties that arise. Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, has often said: If you don't take your chance with your own hands, someone else will. By devoting enough time to carefully thinking and planning everything that you are about to do, you will significantly increase the likelihood of achieving the kind of profits and earnings that you have planned for yourself. It seems like being able to plan is the most important skill you can develop to ensure that you are strong and capable of achieving maximum success. In 1953, a survey was conducted among graduates of Yale University, where the respondents were asked to answer the following questions: Do you have your own, clearly expressed and formulated goals that you want to achieve in life? and Do you have a detailed plan for how you want to achieve them after graduation? The results of this survey were amazing. Only 3% of graduates had life goals that were clearly expressed and formulated together with an action plan, which they were going to realize upon graduation from an educational institution. True, 13% of the respondents strove for certain goals, but they never clearly formulated them. The remaining 84% had no other goals than graduation and a pleasant break during the upcoming vacation. Twenty years later, that is, in 1973, the participants in the questionnaire were asked about their property status today. After analyzing the results of both questionnaires, it turned out that all those 3% of the respondents, i.e. those who, twenty years ago, before graduating from university, had clearly formulated and written down goals in life and a clear plan of action, owned more than the remaining 97% combined. The only thing in common among those graduates who achieved success was that they were 5

6 have set specific goals for themselves. Some of them graduated with poor grades, some with good grades. We worked in different fields. Someone moved, someone stayed in the same place. However, a common trait among successful Yale graduates was a determined drive to achieve their goals. Over the years, I've talked to top salespeople, and I've learned that they have something in common, which is that they all have clear and written goals that they strive for. They took the time and made a plan for their future life. Each of them has learned from their own experience how important a clear strategic plan is. Over time, each of them achieved in commercial affairs the goal that he set for himself. The success of each of these great salespeople was based on reflections on their personal life and professional future, as well as a carefully crafted and detailed plan of work until the achievement of the goal.On one definition of happiness I really like: Happiness is the relentless pursuit of chosen ideals or goals. If we are constantly working on something important, then the reward will be a constant feeling of success in our affairs. Then a person feels himself the master of his life. He is a winner, and therefore knows that he will be able to overcome and eliminate all obstacles that would lead to despair of an ordinary person. When work is going on to achieve an important goal, such an inner strength arises that crosses out all previous plans. WORLD OF VALUES What values ​​do you profess? What is your position in life? What are the rules for your life? What is the basis of your beliefs? What qualities do you like in others that you would like to develop in yourself? What do you dislike? When are you capable of self-sacrifice? What could you suffer or sacrifice your life for? Few people ask themselves these extremely important questions, but this small handful are the most important and influential people in our society. When I started defining my own scale of values ​​a few years ago, I made a list of 163 qualities that I aspire to have. It seems that I have written out all possible qualitative definitions of a positive property that would relate to the personality and character of a person. They all seemed important to me, and I wanted to somehow implement them all in my life. 6

7 But then I came face to face with reality. I have noticed that I already find it difficult to develop some new qualities or try to change behavior in just one thing. Wrote a new list. I compromised and left only a few values ​​in it. When I finally established the five main ones, I could already start working on myself and, as a result, made some progress in the development of my character, your hierarchy of values, you should do the same. Write down five qualities that are most important to you in life. Distribute them according to the hierarchy. What comes first? What's second, third, etc.? How can you find out what your values ​​are today? It’s very simple. Observe your behavior, especially your actions in critical situations. The values ​​that are really important to you are manifested in action. What matters is not what you say, or wish for yourself, or what you are going to do, but only what you do. If you want to know what the world of your values ​​is like, analyze what you have been doing recently and notice what decisions you have made each time you have a choice. The decisions you make and the actions you follow will show you and those around you what is most valuable to you, what is most important to you. Here's an example. Imagine two people for whom family, health, and professional success are equally important. The only difference is that each of them has a different hierarchy of these values. One of them, say Bill, says: My family is most important to me, my health comes second, and my professional career comes third. Although Tom recognizes the same values, he says about them like this: Professional success, my career is most important to me, then my family and health. Do you think there is a difference in the personality and character of these two people? Of course! Is it a big or small difference? Will you be able to distinguish these people during a conversation? Which of these two men do you like better? Which one would you trust more? Which of them would you like to get to know better, make friends? The answer to these questions is simple. You are more suited to the person whose hierarchy of values ​​is similar to yours. Your scale of values ​​determines your character. If you have chosen values ​​such as honesty, love, courage, 7

8 sincerity, perfection or responsibility, and coordinate your actions with them, then soon and in fact you will become a better person. It is your values ​​that nurture the qualities of your personality. What does character really mean? Character is the ability to live in harmony with positive values. A person with a flawed character endows high value with short-term benefits or does not recognize any values ​​at all. Your attitude to this, your view of these things is the real measure of your character and personality, which determines your position in life. What place a particular value occupies in your life, you can establish by observing how much time you devote to a given subject, how much money or emotions you spend on it. A lot of people speak out in favor of lofty, noble values ​​until they find themselves pinned to the wall and forced to make a specific choice. If your choice is for the highest values, then it can cost you dearly, and even very much. When you choose lower values, you pay less for it, at least in the material sense, not necessarily in feelings, but whenever you make a choice, it shows you what is really more important to you. Let's say your value is maximum efficiency. In this case, your definition will sound like this: Maximum efficiency means that in everything I do, I set myself a high bar. In every situation I try to do everything in the best possible way, as soon as I can. I try to further improve my work, my personal life, my relationships with others. I am aware that the maximum result requires the efforts of a lifetime and daily work in order to become better and better. With this definition, you have a clear principle by which you organize your actions. You have set a certain standard by which you can change your behavior. You have created a certain framework within which you make your choice. You have a yardstick by which you can evaluate your actions and which you can try on yourself from time to time. You have clearly defined the goal to which you strive and around which you organize your work. The same goes for other values. If your main value is family, then define your choice as follows: The needs of my family are more important to me than anything else. Whenever I have to choose between the happiness, health and well-being of one of my family members, or some other value, I always put family first. With this point of view, it will be easy for you to make choices. Your family comes first. eight

9 While her needs are still not fully satisfied, you do not allow energy to be spent on other, less important things. A clear picture of the hierarchy of your own values ​​is important because it gives you the opportunity to take control of the formation of your character. When values ​​and goals, your inner and outer life are in perfect harmony with each other, then you will achieve great health. You will learn to respect yourself. Your self-esteem will increase. The moment you achieve absolute harmony between your values ​​and goals (imagine a hand in a tight-fitting glove), you will feel strong, happy, healthy and absolutely harmonious. A lion will wake up inside you, which will overcome any fear of the need to choose, and therefore you will always make the right decisions. When you live in harmony with the values ​​most important to you, your whole life will become more beautiful. IDEAL All successful companies have an ideal that they strive for. Every good salesperson has this ideal. As the president of your own firm, in charge of your life and career, you need two distinct ideals that complement and reinforce each other. The written formulation of one's life ideal is a logical consequence of the establishment of a hierarchy of values. It will become your personal credo, define your future and serve as a guide to all your actions. Your personal ideal is a description of the personality that suits you and what you strive to be. In describing a professional ideal, you define how you want to appear in the eyes of your clients. An example of describing a personal ideal. Apparently, I am a wonderful person. For all the people who are important to me, for my family and others, I am warm-hearted, benevolent, attentive, sincere and unforgettable. I am a wonderful, loyal friend known for my generosity, responsiveness, understanding and patience. I am positive, enthusiastic, happy and cheerful. All the people I know love, respect and admire me. An example of describing a professional ideal. From the looks of it I am an excellent professional salesperson. I know everything about the products that I offer, I know the scope of my duties, I am perfectly familiar with the affairs of my clients. nine

10 I am always well prepared for a conversation with a client. I have a good character, I am sociable, disciplined, positive. I am a warm, friendly person who cares about my customers and it is a pleasure to contact me. Thus, you determine how you want to appear in the eyes of your customers, how you want to be talked about and how you want to be presented to third parties. As the president of your own trading company, you have at your disposal a formulated professional ideal, which is the combination of all the necessary positive qualities. This will help you to act correctly in all your professional endeavors. Formulate your ideal in the present tense, as if you were already the person you are writing about. Always use positive language, not negative language. Describe the qualities that you would like to develop, not the weaknesses that you want to overcome. Always and everything speak for yourself. Start with the words: I, I can, I will achieve. The subconscious mind will perceive your ideal as a guide to action only when the description is given in the present tense, as positive and personal directions for action. The phrase I am a wonderful salesperson is a perfect example of a relevant premise. After each conversation with a client, read the description of the ideal and ask yourself to what extent your behavior matches the qualities of the person you dream of becoming. As a top seller, always compare your trading results with your best sellers and try to improve them continually. Try to be better and better. Consciously work in every possible way every day to move closer to your chosen ideal. For example, your goal will be to develop the ability to negotiate with clients in a way that matches the ideal you describe within a year or less. Customers, of course, do not know what your ideal is, but they will use the same terms when expressing their opinion of you. It will be so because you will begin to treat customers the way you described it in a perfect example. When you have already defined and stated on paper your ideal, you must constantly re-read what is written, exercise, correct and regularly improve these qualities. You can add something new or clarify the already formulated features. As a result, they will become your life credo, your philosophy and code of conduct for any contact with people. You can evaluate your behavior on a daily basis and compare it with 10

11 ideal. Over time, you will discover something interesting. When you compare the description of the ideal with your actions, you will see that the corresponding words come almost subconsciously, and the chosen formulations describe your behavior in such a way that you gradually approach your ideal. Over time, others will also notice a change in you. Then you will understand that you have managed to change your character and your personality in accordance with your ideal. In this way, you will become the smith of your own happiness. The following words are very important for your personal views, values ​​and ideals: be good to yourself! All your life you have worked to become who you are today. If you are the same as all ordinary people, then you are not perfect. But there is still a lot of time for improvement. You have many opportunities to change your character and personality, if you just want to become the perfect person you dream to be. However, the personality change will not happen on its own and will not happen overnight. Be patient! The reason why people develop and get better as they perform their tasks is the confidence that they are striving to achieve their goals and fulfill their desires. They don't expect change immediately. Even when success does not come immediately, they do not despair, but work on. And you must do the same. If you have a clear idea of ​​the person you want to become, if you know what kind of life and what career you can look forward to, take the first step! Analyze your behavior daily and compare it with the ideal. Think of the different possibilities for improving the qualities you want to decorate your personality with. Always remember that it is only your behavior towards others that gives a real sense of your personality. If you maintain the proper patience, then at some point you will become like the ideal you have chosen. SITUATION ANALYSIS To achieve your goals, first of all, you must do the following. First, you must determine exactly where you are at the moment and what you are doing. Second, you must look into your past and establish how you got to the point where you are now. And finally, decide how to get from where you are at the moment to the place where you want to be in the future. Here's an example. Imagine that you are walking from point A to point B and, say, you have to walk 40 kilometers. Somewhere in the middle of the road, that is, at the 20th kilometer, you are far from each of the 11

12 of these points. You look back at point A, but you no longer see it. Point B is not visible from this place yet. In the initial phase of approving a personal strategic plan, you are in a similar situation. Let's say that point A is the past and point B is the future. The place between them, in which you are now, is the present. Let's say you can grow without restrictions (and even reach a hundred-meter growth) and can simultaneously see point A, or the starting point, yourself now, and point B, that is, your possible future. And suddenly you see that you and your career are merging into one whole with your past, present and future. Likewise, analyzing the situation will allow you to simultaneously see the past, present and future, your life and your career. Thanks to him, you will see how they are interconnected. When you have a clear idea of ​​where you came from, where you are at the moment and where you are going, you can much more effectively control your plans and goals. Analysis Step One: Your Income Start with your real earnings and income. How much are you selling and making now? What were the sales and earnings two, three years ago? What prospects do you see in your sales career? Are earnings and incomes increasing every year? Or maybe they remain at the same level or are constantly in decline? Reception tip of the iceberg One of the most important thinking abilities of an exceptional personality is to use the tip of the iceberg when analyzing a situation of a technique. This technique is that whenever something happens in your business or personal life, you can consider it some kind of pattern until the situation changes. You should, as far as possible, proceed from the premise that this event, rise or decline in business, or some change in your personal life, is just the tip of the iceberg. It indicates some kind of larger damage, some kind of tendency, something that at the moment is still impossible to notice or explain. You may notice that increased income is only a separate phenomenon, not related to the real state of affairs. You may also decide that this is a manifestation of some general trend that may be significant for your future. Real professional salespeople are very sensitive to the likelihood of these symptoms. They regularly pay attention to symptoms in order to analyze 12

13 them in two directions as confirmation or refutation of the fact that there will be some kind of trend that can affect income growth. Over the course of your career, your annual sales revenue should increase. There should also be an increase in income. You may be aiming to achieve annual income growth of 10 to 20%. A personal strategic work plan will help you with this. What has been the trend in income growth over the past three or five years? If you are not satisfied with the answer, develop a new plan and change the course of action. Think about the fact that if you always go in the same direction, you will definitely achieve your goal. The second stage of analysis: the range of products offered The next step in analyzing the situation is to look closely at the products or services that you are currently offering. Analyze the state of affairs. Use the Pareto rule. With regard to trading, the rule is that 80% of your income comes from 20% of the goods sold. Then it will probably turn out that 80% of your professional time only gives you 20% of your income. What products or services do you sell, how do they relate to you, and how do they relate to the time devoted to trading? What trends are emerging in this business? What have you managed to sell recently? Should the achieved level remain in place? How much, then, will you sell in the coming year and in the years to come? Analysis Stage Three: Your Customers Analyze your customers as well. Who are your main clients at the moment? Whom do you consider insignificant? What do they have in common? What companies do they work for, what positions do they occupy? But above all: how have your customers changed in the last year or two? Do you have new clients every year, or do you sign most of the contracts with old clients? To whom do you owe the greatest income? If this situation continues, who will you sell your goods or services to next month and next year? Is the current state of affairs a manifestation of a positive or negative order for your career? One of the most important aspects of trading is discovering that you do best with certain 13

14 people. There may be many potential buyers in the market, but not all will be good customers for you. Your personality and personality make you feel best with a certain type of people, and the more they match you, the more they will buy from you. Wise salespeople are well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their customers and organize their actions in such a way that they can devote more time to the people who are probably the quickest to buy. What is the general characteristic of the customers with whom you get the most income? Analysis Step Four: Your Own Financial Situation The next step is to analyze your own financial situation. Imagine that you have to submit a loan application, make a list of assets and liabilities, and calculate the net worth of all assets on hand. Make an inventory of all tangible possessions and calculate their value. Also make a list of debts, obligations and determine their total amount. The balance will show what financial situation you are in at the moment. About 70% of all sellers do not have free money, spending their monthly earnings, and sometimes even more. Also, the average young family, according to the survey results, spends about 110% of their real income, and the resulting difference is covered by loans or money borrowed from their parents. In business, among other things, pay special attention to your net income. After taxes are paid, all debts are paid off, your real income remains. This is the measure of the income that you received during your professional career, the measure of your productivity and efficiency as the president of your own company. Divide your total income to date by the number of years you have worked. This way you will receive your average annual income. For example, if after ten years of work you have twenty thousand dollars net, then every year you earned two thousand dollars. With 250 days of work a year, after calculating the costs, you received an average of eight dollars a day. It's profitable? Maybe you could do your business better? Analysis of the financial situation is the path to financial independence. fourteen

15 Stage Five of Analysis: Your Career Situation analysis also includes assessing your current career. Take some time and think about your first job, then the next and the rest. List all the positions you have ever held. Then ask yourself: Where have I had the best results? What kind of work have I been doing? How much did I get? What education and what professional skills did I have at the beginning of mine. career? What is the common feature that can unite all the positions I have occupied? What trends do you see over the course of your career? Were the following posts more difficult, responsible, required more knowledge and experience, or did you earn more? Have you been doing the same thing with the same result over the past few years? If the status quo holds, what are you most likely to do in a year? What awaits you in two years, in five? Will you improve in your activities, will you earn more? If not, what can you do to move forward and accelerate your career? What qualifications did you receive in the firms in which you worked, and what was really useful to you? What have you learned over the years, which has brought the greatest impact and influenced the growth of your income? What opportunities do you have today for further qualification growth where you work? How did you self-study, what books did you read that especially influenced your work as a salesperson? What instructional cassettes have you regularly listened to on road trips? What trading techniques seminars have you attended? What are your innate talents and abilities? What knowledge and skills have influenced your success in trading? Is there something that you easily learned and put into practice without difficulty, that others have difficulty in getting? What knowledge and skills will be needed in the future to grow your income and profits? The truth is this: your life will be better when you are better. You may not achieve anything at all if you do not cultivate. If you want to have the best customers, you must first be the best salesperson. If you want to have the best employees, you have to be the best boss. If you want to have a better family, you must be a better spouse and parent. If you want to have better relationships with those around you, you have to become a better person. Your world will only get better when you get better. What You Need to Fix in Your Personal and Professional Life 15

16 if you want it to be more successful? To speculate on a plan of action in your personal life, as, in fact, in the work of a salesperson, treat yourself as a source of materials that you must analyze. See yourself as a collection of talents and abilities that you can use to achieve a wide variety of goals. And you have these opportunities. Many studies confirm that one of the qualities of natural leaders is the ability to organize actions with the greatest benefit for themselves. These people are constantly thinking about how best to use their time to complete the task and achieve the expected results. How do you use your spiritual, emotional and mental qualities to achieve better results? Step Six of Analysis: Your Personal Situation Your salesperson and professional activities are directly related to your personal life, but do you give them an equal amount of attention? The best salespeople are able to reconcile work and personal life in such a way that boundaries between them disappear. We can say that the profession and personal life of the seller complement each other. When analyzing your personal situation, you should take an impartial look at your family and contacts with people. Are you married or single? Divorced, or are you a widower? Are you happy? Think about whether you want to stay in the existing union for the rest of your life? What do you do every day to find yourself in a different position in a month or in a year? You are responsible for your position. You are in control of your life. Regardless of who you are and what you do, how and with whom you maintain a relationship, you yourself have made your choice. After all, life is by no means a rehearsal. We ourselves are the actors in this performance. You don't make a career as a salesperson until you solve the problems in your personal life yourself. Do you have any children? How old are they? How are they doing with their studies and personal affairs? If the children are still young, what are your plans for their future? Do you want them to get a university degree? Have you taken care of the financial support of your children's education? If not, when will you start saving money for their education? For many, children are the strongest motivation for activity. Truly superhuman efforts are often made to ensure that children have a better future. What material and spiritual needs of your children can you meet? How do you see the state of your house, apartment? 16

17 Everyone certainly dreams of the perfect home. And you? Are you satisfied with your current home or are you hoping for something better? If so, how are you going to implement this? Where do you think you will live in two, three, five years? Be aware that water does not flow under the lying stone. If you want to fix the present situation, you must do something. List all of your possessions. What kind of car do you have? Does it meet your requirements? Would you like to have a bigger, better, faster car? Where are you going to get funds for it? What about your wardrobe, jewelry, furniture, household appliances and other personal belongings? You can try the following experiment. Make a list of everything you would like to have in life and what you would like to enjoy. Don't worry about the funds for all of this. An essential part of the experience is the boundless creative endeavor to create a larger living space. If you are married, sit down with your partner and write down everything you need and everything you would like to have. The longer and more complete the list, the more you will focus on work and generate more energy in yourself to achieve higher earnings and incomes that would allow you to make those dreams come true. Imagine that the answers to all the questions asked are pieces of a mosaic that you poured out of the box onto the table. Take a look at the individual elements and begin to gradually add the big picture. Pick up in parts. In the same way, you can put together a wonderful life from pieces of the past, present and planned future and use this to prepare one big plan for the future. If you work out a personal strategic action plan, then thanks to it, you can quickly achieve your goals. DEFINITIVE FACTORS OF SUCCESS All events are subject to the laws of cause and effect. There are no accidents. Both success and failure are the result of a cause. Trading success is an expected result with a specific reason. And he's pretty much predictable. One of the greatest advances in combining personal and professional success has been the discovery of a theory of the determinants of success. Here we are talking about each factor that decides whether a firm or a person is promising or unpromising. The wrong decision on one issue will be enough to jeopardize the entire enterprise. Fortunately, this is only about 17

18 several factors. But always, as soon as problems arise in business, the main reason is mainly inattention to one of the factors of success. This book talks about the defining factors of trading success. These include: finding new clients, making appointments, identifying a problem and proposing solutions, presenting, rejecting objections, closing a deal, working through formalities, and organizing actions correctly. Deficiencies in one of these areas can reduce the intended success or lead to failure. Each of these abilities must be mastered in the best possible way in order to be able to use them in other situations. Determinants of success theory applies to many situations in life. We meet with the determining factors of success in professional activity, in the family, in maintaining health and physical shape, in matters of financial well-being, etc. success. You should then analyze, on a scale of one to ten, what you are capable of in each of these areas. Based on the results obtained, you can draw up a plan for continuing education. Remember that first of all, you should pay attention to those factors that deserve the lowest rating. Suppose that you scored seven for your performance in all areas assessed by the determinants of success, and in only one area you were to be satisfied with a score of three. It is this three that determines the results that you will achieve in all other areas, using your various abilities. This estimate will define the boundaries of your earnings and income. Your weakest determinant of success will indicate the completeness of your accomplishments in all areas. Let's say you do a great job with everything else, you only have problems with the organization of working hours. Your inability to properly manage your time negatively affects all trading results. Too much time is wasted on unproductive activities, and as a result, you have too little time left on the things that are essential to a successful sale. You have too little time for better and more promising clients. This could jeopardize your future sales career. The same goes for the traveling business. You can have exceptional success in all subsequent phases of a sale, but when you are unable to connect with a new prospect, this weak point can cause a sudden 18

19 ending your career. What factors determine your success? What are the defining factors for success in your profession? How would you rate yourself on a scale of one to ten in each specific area? What field do you feel most confident in? If you don't know how to rate yourself, ask your management, colleagues, or even clients! Exclude your self from the game. Your career depends on how sincerely you can answer these questions. One of the salespeople who attended my seminar took these tips too personally. He asked a trusted buyer at what stage in the sales process he made mistakes. The buyer made sure that the seller wants to hear the truth, that he will not be offended or offended, and answered; You ask good questions, but as soon as I start answering, you interrupt me and start praising your product like a barrel organ. The seller was very surprised by the buyer's words. He did not notice that he did not allow the interlocutor to insert a word. Of course, he did it unconsciously, but, unfortunately, most people do this. After this conversation, the seller wanted to know more about himself and asked other customers from whom he had heard the same. It was this information that helped him think about his behavior and, in the end, influenced a significant increase in his income. When you ask others to rate your behavior and you don’t really like the answer, you should not be offended or angry, just ask for an explanation. If your interlocutor reproaches you for something that you do not yet understand, ask them to explain it with an example. Don't make mistakes, don't argue with him, and don't make excuses. Just listen and remember his answer. If this becomes a habit for you and you regularly ask others about how you look in the eyes of others, you will be surprised how important it turns out, everything that you have learned, and how it can be useful. With this information, you can immediately start working on yourself. Don't waste energy on your defense or justification. What did you find out by doing personality analysis, in what field of activity were you the best? What is your exclusivity as a salesperson? How are you different from your competitors, how are you better than them? What is your excellence in your line of business? Why Customers Should Buy Item 19

20 from you and not from another vendor from yours or a competitor? Each person has abilities, thanks to which he can achieve fantastic results in a certain field of activity. You can be an excellent salesperson if you discover some exceptional qualities and work to develop them further. Concentrate on identifying and improving them. You can use your abilities directly in the work with the client. Perhaps your trump card is your great personality and your ability to listen carefully to the client's needs. Good sellers often say: Dear customer, you can probably buy the same product from someone else, but there is something that no one else can offer you. Except me! If you buy this item from me, you will get my identity to it. If you find a better deal anywhere, I'll be glad if you take advantage of it. Think also about your appearance. How do you look in the eyes of your client? Check out your costume, accessories, and overall look. Look in the mirror and ask: Do I look like the best salesperson in my field? If questions or uncertainties arise, seek advice from others. Ask people around you what you need to do to look your best. If you do not take offense, you will always receive valuable guidance, thanks to which you can correct your appearance. To come up with a solid personal work plan, you should devote a lot of time to detailing your values ​​and setting your priorities and ideals. Carefully analyze all aspects of the existing personal relationship situation that affects your professional activity. The more accurately and thoroughly you do this, the more objective the picture of the status quo will be. This will give you a basis for thinking about where to look for a starting point and what means are needed to achieve the intended goals. Thanks to this procedure, you will achieve success faster and thus increase your sales volumes. FACTORY ANALYSIS The best salespeople devote a significant portion of their time to thoroughly familiarizing themselves with their firm. They know when the company was created, what positions are occupied by the most important persons, who has what competence, who has a decisive vote. They know the structure of the departments, and they are well informed about everything that concerns the company in which they work. Regardless of the size of the firm, you must know what products it sells, what are the main customer groups and markets 20

21 sales offices with which the staff of the company works. It is good if you know what the beginning of their activity was and what they were selling then. You should know the main products and markets for the last three years. What has changed in the company's activities since then? What tendencies are visible in the company, who are the main customers? What important products, customer groups and markets will your firm work with? They say there are three types of people: a smaller group is made up of those who do something and achieve something, a little larger are those who observe, and the largest is “those who constantly ask: What is going on? If you want to be a man of action, you must closely observe what is happening around you. What development plans does your firm have? What goals should be achieved, what should be avoided, what should be changed in the current market situation? What are the values ​​of your firm? What are the principles? These can be written or unwritten rules, but they must exist. They are manifested in relation to employees and customers. Consider what these people mean to the firm. The values ​​you hold are the foundation of your personality. Your firm's values ​​are the foundation of its reputation. Ideally, your values ​​and those of your firm should be in harmony with each other. If anything, there should be no conflict or contradiction between your value systems. It is very difficult to work for a company that cultivates values ​​that are not acceptable to you. You must clearly define your firm's value scale and priorities. Pay attention to whether they are consistent with each other. What is your firm's marketing strategy? Why are the products offered by the company exclusive? In which industry does it outperform its competitors? In what field of activity did you achieve particular success? What does your firm do better than others? Each person or company is created to fulfill its specific purpose and perform certain functions better than others. All processes, affairs and services are associated with this special purpose. Just as you have exceptional ability, your firm dominates the market in certain areas. Think about these areas. What is your firm's market position? This question is as significant as each of the defining success factors in your salesperson's job. One of the most important reasons people buy or not buy something is the reputation of the firm. If you are a representative of a firm that has earned its good name, you can easily negotiate with the buyer and sign contracts. 21

22 A bad reputation can destroy the results of all your incredible efforts. Imagine you are working for the fourth position in the industry. This means that there are three best firms that offer similar products or services, but of better quality. But there are still other firms that are considered worse than yours. The position of the firm determines mainly the amount of income and remuneration of employees. What is your firm's position? Clients usually decide the quality of goods and services. The client's opinion about quality, for which he would pay more in comparison with other offers, changes over time. The quality is influenced by the product itself, and related services, and even the way it is sold. The ratio of price to accepted value can also be part of the quality assessment. In other words, a reasonable price can positively affect the assessment of the quality of a product, while an overpriced one can worsen the opinion about it. At any rate, you should know how the customer defines expected quality before using the product quality assessment as an argument in conversation. Each firm has a classification according to which the personal qualities of employees are assessed formally or informally. How were you rated? And the main question is: how can you increase your productivity, become better? There is a direct relationship between your earnings, profits, and your quality score. Top spot should be one of your goals. Of course, in one night you will not jump from fifth to first place, first you will go to fourth, then to third, etc. Your interest in improving quality is just as important to your career as your firm's interest in ranking higher in the market. This is what determines success. How can this be achieved? MARKET ANALYSIS Each strategy boils down to a market conquest strategy. Each strategic plan aims to achieve the best results in the competition for the market. The goal is to win the customer and defeat the competition. Its achievement and improvement of results is impossible without an appropriate strategy. The condition for success is the organization and ordering of all actions, only in this way can you increase income. Most salespeople succumb to the so-called workday offset model. They focus their energies on completing the allotted time and evaporating. And not for a second is 22

23 will think about what might happen in a month or a year. When you add a personal strategic plan to the results of the market analysis and this serves as a basis for your actions, then you will move to the manager model, that is, you will yourself determine the direction of your career and will not be a passive seller like most of your colleagues. To compare your products or services with those already on the market, first of all answer the question: what is their position but in comparison with other goods or services that are available on the market? Market development analysis has a radar function, i.e. constantly monitors this market. Therefore, you can appropriately focus your efforts to achieve your goals and select the best buyers to whom you can sell your product faster and easier. The chapter on this subject should be especially detailed for you to grasp the topics and concepts it contains. SANE USE OF ENERGY The basis of strategic planning is to achieve a certain goal using a certain amount of energy. The point of market analysis is to develop such abilities and take such actions so that, using a given amount of energy, to achieve optimal results. Below are two metaphors to help you maximize sales in your industry. It's a money tree metaphor and a farm metaphor. Money Tree Metaphor The money tree metaphor is this: Think of each individual customer as a probable money tree with many branches that will one day make you profitable and give you positive feedback, not only when it comes to working for the firm, but much more. This is sometimes referred to as the salami tactic. When you first contact a customer, do not try to take a big step, try to convince him to give you only a thin slice of what the other supplier is now getting. This thin slice will give you the opportunity to familiarize the client with your services, you can offer him, for example, an expedited contract, high quality goods, lower prices or small benefits, to show him all the benefits of your firm's offer. Thus, you are holding one branch of the money tree in your hands. If the customer is happy, contact them again and try 23

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Brian Tracy, Brian Tracy's Effective Selling Techniques, M: Potpourri, 2002, 240 pp. - Review

Effective Selling Techniques by Brian Tracy

Among books about business, I prefer those whose authors went through the harsh school of life in their youth. As a rule, their books are devoid of academic schemes and are more practical. When I came across an electronic version of Brian Tracy's book "Effective Sales Practices", I first looked into the author's biography: he left school, worked as a worker, sailor and salesman. At the age of 30 he returned to school; then there was a university and a degree. It seems to be "our man". The book, indeed, turned out to be without diagrams, but ... it has a very, very relative relation to real modern sales.

Brian Tracy created his own firm Brian Tracy International, then Brian Tracy University and iLearningGlobal. He wrote about 50 books (he gives out several books a year - Wow, damn it!), Released an uncountable number of discs, audio versions, etc. on almost all topics related to business, and not only business. I think that in terms of fertility he beat even such a "writer" as Jack Trout. His favorite topic is success. By the way, this book was published in the Success series.

He also has a branch in Russia, www.briantracy.ru, which is busy with his books and organizing seminars. On this site, Brian Tracy is advertised as "the most respected business guru." An hour of his remote consultations allegedly costs $ 2,500. The guru allegedly holds many thousands of conferences in Russia - something like the Christ of business.

In short, without a doubt, Brian Tracy can serve as a model for American success. This model of impudence is already gaining followers in Russia.

As for the sale ... let's get back to the book.

When reading a book, the author constantly lacks a proper school education. It manifests itself in the confusion of the text, randomness and far-fetched certain parts and even chapters and striking eclecticism. It is rare to find texts in which the main, the secondary and the tertiary are so skillfully lumped together. I'm not even talking about the mass of erroneous and outdated provisions.

An essential part of the book is made up of chapters that are clearly transferred from the author's texts about success, the power of charm, the psychology of achievement, self-realization and other lyrics. By the end, you get a little tired of the sequence of such passages:

“The written formulation of one's life ideal is a logical consequence of the establishment of a hierarchy of values. It will become your personal credo, define your future and serve as a guide to all your actions. Your personal ideal is a description of the personality that suits you and what you strive to be. "

It is amusing that a person who, in his youth, tried several professions, and least of all adhered to some plans, then suddenly, in all seriousness, invites humanity to write a plan for his whole life in the form of a treadmill, almost at school. I am tempted to ask a question - do you yourself believe in all this, Mr. Tracy?

From the lyrics to the topic of sales proper, the author moves somewhat reluctantly, with a creak. At first, these are small pieces, from paragraph to page, interspersed into the revelations dear to the author's heart on the themes: "Seven Rules for Creating Good Relationships", "Solid reputation - everything counts." These pieces are extremely interesting: they can be used to judge the marketing culture of our sales guru, his understanding of the client and the sale itself.

In the original, the book is pathetically called “Advanced Selling Strategy”. But I did not find any strategy in the book, let alone an advanced one. Most of the material would have looked bad even in pre-computer days (when I was taught to sell), because even then no one in sales proceeded from such incorrect premises:

Marketing- He shines in the book with his absence. Brian Tracy never realized that selling is part of marketing, delivering carefully calibrated selling information about the product and the firm to the buyer. A salesperson for our author is a lone handicraftsman with no marketing support, no marketing manuals, no website, etc. Tracy has never heard of selling points. He speaks only about the characteristics of the product, assuming that they are clear to the non-specialist buyer and can sell something.

Customer- Very little space is devoted to him in the book. The author believes that the client became more professional after the war (it is not explained why). This is only true in the sense that the client has many sources of information that were not previously available. If by professionalism we mean the presence of the correct criteria for choosing a product, then little has changed. Rather, it can be said that he has become less professional. His helplessness is exacerbated by the fact that he has to deal with many more food categories than his fathers and grandfathers. Most of the new categories are unfamiliar to him, many are high-tech and difficult to understand. If you add to this the rapidly changing situation on the markets, then you will not envy a modern client.

Further, the client is passive for the author: he does not show initiative, does not scan the market, does not compare the offers on the market. This client supposedly clearly knows what place hundreds of firms occupy in the market. He sits and waits for a charming salesman armed with "methods" from Brian Tracy.

Fears- The client is allegedly full of fears - they are given an undeservedly large amount of space in the book. "If a potential buyer refuses to buy, it comes from his fear of making a mistake." ... In other words, the buyer does not analyze anything, but only shakes with fear.

Now write down the author's wisdom: “A conversation between a seller and a client is a collision of two worlds that present their the worst sides (!?). On the one hand, a salesperson, paralyzed by the fear of rejection, and on the other, a client determined to avoid mistakes at all costs. " ... Nice meeting, isn't it?

Remote 3 month

Needs- The client supposedly knows his needs perfectly, even in narrowly specialized areas (Where, I wonder, did the author find such clients?)... It only needs to be nudged slightly: "If the buyer feels that you can help him, he will become more honest with you - he will entrust you with his problems and concerns." ... If the author had opened at least one serious book on marketing, he would have learned to his surprise that in the overwhelming majority of cases, a person very approximately represents his problems and needs. The art of selling serious and expensive products is precisely to make the hidden, unconscious needs of the client explicit. And offer the satisfaction of all his needs.

Sale – "This is just an answer to the expectations of the buyer" ... Very nice. I wonder what expectations a customer has when purchasing hundreds of products that he has never bought before. Selling from the point of view of the author is an exclusively personal sale. His buying script lacks sites, sales offers, and promotional materials. The decision to purchase is made by one person - the author has not heard anything about a complex purchase (when a group of people makes the decision).

Product“The answer is the product, but very little attention is paid to it in the book. There is a tiny “What am I selling?” Section that only reveals that the author has not opened any marketing books. Since the author does not know that the seller needs to sell not products, but solutions to the client's problems, then his instructions to the sellers sound like this: "You must perfectly know everything about your product from A to Z. You must know all the details and details, understand how it is designed, how it functions and what is its purpose." ... I have no words, product knowledge- a very useful thing for the seller, but far from the most important thing.

The author casually drops: “The next step in analyzing the situation is to take a closer look at the goods or services that you are currently offering. Analyze the state of affairs. Use the Pareto rule ". How simple everything turns out to be! What does it mean to "take a closer look"? And what does the Pareto rule have to do with his meeting with a client?

The author states: "The best sellers, unlike the mediocre ones, know how to tailor their products to the needs of the client.". That's right, but this is possible only when the client understands all his needs and the seller knows how to communicate to him the relevant selling points of his products and firms related to the satisfaction of open (often with difficulty) needs and requirements. But for the author, it's all empty: “The seller had a carefully thought out typical presentation of the product, full of optimism (!?) And calculated to break the buyer's resistance (!?) And bring it to the signing of the contract at any price (!?)» .

The impression made by the seller on the customer- From the author's right-brain concept of shopping, it logically follows its bias towards impressions: “During the first meeting, you make an impression on the customer that cannot be changed in the future. From this point on, the client collects only that information that confirms the first impression, and rejects everything that contradicts this first impression ". The client has no other worries and cannot have.

Now hack into your nose: “The impression we make on the client is 95% depends on our costume (!?) ... Many experiments, where photographs of bearded men were used, showed that bearded men are considered eccentrics, artists, eccentrics, more creative people than ordinary people. The client is wary of dealing with a person he considers eccentric and who, perhaps, represents an equally eccentric firm. ". - Our dear "successful" guru, are you serious?

So much talk about the salesperson's impression suggests that the guru learned sales from Arthur Miller's drama Death of a Salesman.

The author is constantly brought into global generalizations. It becomes sad at the thought that many naive people, especially in Russia, will believe in the author's maxims sucked from the finger. For example, in the following: “Imagine working for a fourth-positioned firm in the industry(Who determines the positions and by what criteria? Who knows them? Where is the directory of these positions by industry?). This means that there are three best firms that offer similar products or services, but of better quality (!?). But there are still other firms that are considered worse than yours. The position of the firm determines mainly the amount of income and remuneration of employees (!?). What is your firm's position? "

In the second half of the book, the author finally decides to take sales more seriously. There is also a lot of controversial and frankly wrong here. There is a complete lack of understanding of the modern marketing philosophy of selling: not selling goods and services, but solving problems and meeting customer needs.

However, there are also the right moments. Here is some of them:

“The buyer wants to make a smart decision himself. Therefore, in the process of selling, try not to get the impression that someone is pointing or manipulating him, because he makes him do something that does not correspond to his interests. ". Although this truth has been known since the time of King Solomon, the authors of many of our books on selling talk about the manipulation of the client and even violence against him.

The author's views on objections are absolutely correct: “It’s best to prevent objections before they have been raised. This is called prevention. If you know from experience that a certain objection arises in almost every conversation about a sale, you can think about it in advance and thus take over the initiative from the client. Thanks to this, he will no longer think about this issue and this will not prevent him from concentrating on the presentation. ".

I liked a few specific wording, phrases and words when dealing with objections. We can partly agree with the author on the following:

“I saw a lot of salespeople whose business cards had ballpoint pen marks, some notes, spots, curled corners. Saw sellers hand in pencil-corrected price tags, coffee poured, wrinkled or unevenly folded. But the worst thing that I have seen was those sellers who showed irrelevant materials and could not answer customer questions, since they forgot the necessary documents in the office. Such salespeople lose confidence and frustrate the customer, who begins to regret having agreed to the meeting. "

Alas. Unfortunately, such moments are rather an exception. And it is difficult to call them defining.

In the book's annotation, I read: “This book presents a synthesis the best ideas, methods and strategies that I have learned during my thirty years of experience as a salesperson ".

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