How to sell up a storm

A positive attitude and ability to sell mean you should never be out of work. Kobus Tosen has been in sales most of his life. He now has his own flourishing business and offers advice on how to sell, communicate successfully and keep your enthusiasm alive

ITRAIN my people to not engage in negative thoughts such as “I’m not good enough because I missed that sale” or “I’m really worthless today because I haven’t sold a thing”.

I train them to be proactive and undertake a situation analysis to determine what went wrong. I also train them to anticipate rejection and, by doing so, they are never overwhelmed by it but simply treat it as an integral part of the game.

Another component of success as a salesperson is that you need to like people and to really care about the person in front of you. To do that, you also need to believe in the product.

It is for all these reasons that we sell our products using the in-house demonstration model. Sure, the home owner will be looking for the catch, but the in-house demonstration invariably resolves that.

Knowing that a successful salesman will have the attitude that he has a duty to the person to whom he’s demonstrating, to get him to see how the product could improve his life immediately – that’s caring.

The most important thing to remember is that closing a sale is not a standalone event; it’s just a step in the process.

The cause of most “closinganxiety” is poor attitude. If you embark on a closing conversation knowing you have not overpromised, then you do not run the risk of under-delivering and can view the close as a natural part of the sales cycle.

Closing should not be viewed as the end but as the beginning. Once you earn a sale, you have a customer.

The problem is that most sales people stop after the first “no”. With each prospect, you need to keep building value, building rapport and showing them that you and your product will provide the solution to the client’s needs.

The error that many sales people make is giving up too soon. It takes persistence to continue advancing a sales cycle after a prospect declines your offer.

The sale of a worthwhile product is achieved by getting straight to the point and using as few words as possible.

Bad salesmen have the notion that they have to waffle or use small talk when selling to a customer. Becoming friends with a customer may not hurt the sale, but it doesn’t help it as much as many believe. The product sells itself. Firms that make high-budget TV or online ads to sell their product typically make an emotional appeal to the consumer rather than focus on the product.

Their proposition really is that whoever owns their product or service is cool, and whoever doesn’t is out of touch and oldfashioned.

Our pitch, in contrast, is caring about the consumer and the product benefits. It’s more direct.

Businesses need to understand that anyone can sell, but few succeed without support.

Companies need to invest an enormous amount of effort in their sales people to give them the right attitude, training and necessary business skills. Salespeople need plenty of mentorship, training and motivational sessions to keep them positive.

In our business, we focus on constant improvement, and most of our talent development happens in the field.

It’s the analysis and feedback from a sales person received after the presentation that resonates.

For effective real-world training to happen, a competent leader needs to listen in on sales calls, review recordings and analyse a person’s performance to offer timely and specific feedback.

This should ideally happen hours after the experience, so the feedback is fresh and the sales person can reflect on the experience.

I couple that with frequent, flexible, and manageable product education and field training.

I do not expect perfection, but consistent progress. Instead of instructing sales people on what they should do differently, I get them to describe how they could have improved a situation. As a mentor, I track their progress daily and weekly to stay in touch.

One of the most common questions is whether a particular type of person is best suited to selling. The characteristics of good sales people are that they must be able to handle rejection, have a strong internal drive, be disciplined, be influential with all types of people, have good listening skills, always deliver on a promise, have a positive attitude to training, have business acumen and, most importantly, a passion for people.

• Tosen is managing director of CCL Global.