So You're New to Sales. Bryan Flanagan

90-day training consisted of two months in the branch office and one month in downtown Dallas at the National Training Center. In those days, we estimated that the company invested roughly $50,000 in preparing the salesperson to enter a sales territory. Once my training concluded, I was assigned my first sales territory. I was given six parishes (other states refer to these as counties) outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. But I had a problem: I could not sell! After investing $50,000 on my training, IBM had a salesperson who couldn’t sell. It was not IBM’s fault. I learned long ago that I am responsible for my success. I respect IBM and certainly am honored to have been a part of Big Blue for 14 years. (I still have my white shirts and 12-pound wing-tipped shoes!) I experienced a very difficult year my first year in sales. Now, that doesn’t mean I didn’t sell a lot. I did sell a lot: I sold my furniture, I sold my car, I sold some of my stocks…. If you have been in sales for a while, you will know it wasn’t entirely my fault. You see, they gave me a bad territory! My prospects were strange. Some of them would actually sit around the coffee table in their offices reading the obituary column in the newspaper trying to figure out why people died in alphabetical order!

Can You Identify?

      I struggled a great deal trying to become a salesperson, but I never pulled it all together. I battled the stigma of being a salesman. I had no confidence in my selling skills. I didn't know how to conduct a sales interview and I was at a loss when a prospect said my price was too high. When a prospect said he was happy with the current equipment, I would turn and almost sprint to my car. I was unsure how to pick up the telephone and set appointments and I took "no" personally. When I got into a selling slump, I stayed in that slump for a long time. I couldn't handle the emotional demands of selling. I became an inactive salesperson. I jokingly say that I "aggressively waited for my phone to ring." I was inconsistent in achieving my sales quota. I was miserable.

      My mother and father had instilled in their three children a strong work ethic. I knew that I had to tough it out. I decided to get serious about my success. I began to learn things. I learned timid salespeople have skinny kids! That converted me from passive to a bit more assertive. I started to do things better. I invested in myself by joining a local Toastmasters International Club. I began to gain confidence in my abilities to speak, communicate, and present. Inwardly, I had low self-esteem. Because of my desire to help train new salespeople at our local branch office, IBM promoted me to the National Training Center in Dallas, Texas, as a sales instructor. (Those who can, do; those who can't, teach; and those who can't teach, teach sales!!!)

      I was now at the national center competing with twenty-four other staff members for future sales management positions. I had no confidence in myself as a professional or as a person. I thought of myself as a little guy from a little town with a image of myself. I was competing with men and women from large cities:

      Cathy was from Chicago, Linda was from New York, Roger from Boston, Ron from Seattle. I didn’t think I could compete with them. As mentioned, my self-esteem or “deserve level” was low.

      Someone noticed my struggle and suggested I invest in a book by a man named Zig Ziglar. The book was entitled See You at the Top and it cost $12.95. At the time, I was not a book-worm nor was I a tape-worm. I was not reading books nor was I listening to audio cassettes. I was not involved with Toastmasters at the time and I was not investing in myself. However, when I got to page 48 of Zig’s book, my life changed. One sentence in that book forever changed my personal life as well as my professional life. That one sentence read, “You cannot consistently perform in a manner that is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.”

      My wife had told me similar things for the eight years we’d been married. But until I read those words, I was missing success by a distance of 12 inches. That’s the distance from my head to my heart. For $50,000, IBM had taught me the intellectual side, the head side of selling. For $12.95 Zig Ziglar taught me the heart side of selling, the belief side of selling. Don’t get me wrong, you need both. However, I was missing the heart side. I discovered that I had been in sales for six years, but selling wasn’t in me. I think other salespeople experience the same feeling at times.

      You see, I was trying to give away something I did not possess. That is, I was trying to transfer to my customers something I didn’t possess: confidence in myself and in my ability to help solve a problem. I did not possess confidence in myself and because of that I had no confidence in communicating how I could help someone solve his or her challenges. I believed it with my head but not with my heart. That's why both the will and the skill r vital for new salespeople.

      This discovery made a HUGE difference. I felt better about myself, I felt better about the profession of sales. I truly believed that I deserved to be successful. I truly believed that I could add value to a person's business. I truly believed that I could positively impact the bottom line and increase productivity. Yes, I was missing sales success by 12 inches, the distance from my head to my heart. Once I completed that short distance I began to produce great sales results. If you are struggling with a similar issue, my desire is that you will also get serious about investing in your "deserve level." You deserve to be successful. You deserve to professionally represent your company and yourself in solving problems that your prospects experience. You deserve to be rewarded when you are successful in helping solve those problems.

Two Elements Helped

      There were two elements that contributed to my becoming an effective salesperson:

      1 Learning my profession

      2 Respecting my profession

       Learning My Profession

      You never graduate from selling. You are always growing. Successful salespeople invest in themselves by learning and studying their profession. There were a couple of things I learned from this. One, you should invest more in yourself than you do in your career. You should, no, you must, be a constant student. School is never out for the professional. Enroll in “Automobile University.” By that I mean use your car as a learning chamber. Listen to audio recordings that will not only give you a motivational lift, but will prepare you for your sales day, for your next sales call, for your trip home to the family. The reason I encourage you to invest in yourself is this: Personal growth precedes professional growth. Better people build better sales professionals.

       Respecting My Profession

      Selling is an honorable profession because selling is something you do with the prospect, not to the prospect. If the sales transaction is not mutually benefitting you and the prospect, then cease your selling activities, ask for a referral, thank the prospect for his or her time, and conclude the interview.

      Let me give you an example. I was training new luxury car salespeople over a period of several weeks. I noticed one young man who was still struggling with the title of “car salesman” and with the challenge of working on straight commission. During class I asked if he would role play with me on three questions. I asked him to think of a client whom he had sold a car four or five months earlier. When he said he had one in mind, I then asked three questions:

      1 Does the person still drive the unit you sold him? The answer was yes

      2 Do you still have all the commission you made when you sold the car? The answer was no.

      3 The last question: who got the best deal, you or the client? The answer was, of course, the client.

      Because of the sales efforts of this young car salesman, the client will enjoy the value of the transaction for years to come. The car owner has a long-term benefit. The salesman has a benefit, but it is not as long-term.

      I have the same question for you: when you sell your product or service, who gets the best deal? The answer is the client (I'll help you with the difficult questions...).

      Take pride in the fact that you can positively impact the lives of your prospects. If you are a commissioned salesperson, you never get paid until you've helped some other person (your prospect)