Chapter 8. The Critical Step in Selling From the beginning, we stated that the critical part of the sales process is the honesty and integrity of the salesperson. When I speak of honesty, I'm not talking about paying your bills or writing good checks. In today's digital age, when you give a hot check, it's discovered immediately.
If you don't pay your bills, it becomes common knowledge through the credit bureaus. It's good business to write good checks and to pay your bills. When I speak of honesty in the world of selling, I'd go one step beyond that, and that step is significant. The following two stories will spell out exactly what I mean.
You gotta believe. Years ago, 1963, I was the number one cookware salesman in America for the Saladmaster Corporation of Dallas, Texas. We lived in Columbia, South Carolina, and business was fantastic.
An associate of mine... Selling the same product in the same town was starving to death. Once, while visiting in his home, we were in the kitchen having a cup of coffee, talking about his sales decline, when the following dialogue took place. Zig. Phil, I know exactly what your problem is.
Phil. What's my problem, Zig? Zig, your problem is simple.
You're attempting the psychologically impossible. Phil. What are you talking about? Zig.
You're trying to sell a product you don't enthusiastically believe in. Phil. Zig.
That's crazy. Myan, we've got the greatest set of cookware on the American market. It's absolutely fantastic. As a matter of fact, Zig, I left the company I'd been with for four years and came with Saladmaster because of the superiority of the product. In addition to that, I was a manager with the other company and started here as a salesman because of my belief in this product.
Zig. Ah, come on, Bill. Peddle that baloney to other people. I know you and I know you don't believe what you're saying. Bill, a little hot under the collar, you can say what you want to, but I know I believe in our product.
Zig, Bill, I can prove beyond any doubt that you do not really believe in the product you sell. And with that, I nodded toward the stove. Bill, Alwar, you mean the fact that I'm cooking in a competitive set of cookware? Zig, Bill.
That's exactly right. Fail. Zig, don't give it a thought.
Myan, that's got nothing to do with it. I'm going to buy a set of our cookware, but you know I've had my problems. We wrecked our car and for a couple of months we had to depend on borrowed transportation, buses, and taxis. Now, Zig, you know you can't get the job done in the sales world unless you have transportation you can depend on 24 hours a day.
On top of that, Myy wife spent a couple of weeks in the hospital and I lost a lot of time from work and spent a lot of money because we don't have hospitalization insurance. Now add the worry and concern I've had and surely you can understand why it knocked us for a loop. And it's not over because it looks like we're going to have to put the boys in the hospital to get their tonsils out and, Zig, we still don't have any insurance.
You're right when you say we should have a set of the cookware and we are definitely going to get a set. But the timing is just not right. Selling is a transference of feeling zig. Bill, let me ask you a question.
How long have you been with this company? Bill, oh, about five years. Zig. Bill, what was your excuse last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that?
Pause. Let me tell you exactly what happens when you get down to the short rows. That's Southern for decision-making time.
When you ask your prospect that obligating question and he's thinking it over. The decision ball is up in the air. Yes is full commission.
No is no commission. I can see the scene now, Bill, so let me paint the picture for you. The customer is thinking out loud as he says, I don't know, Bill.
Boy, we sure need a good set of pots. I don't know how my wife cooks and that stuff she has, but it just doesn't seem like the right time to get My now. Myy wife's been in the hospital. We just wrecked the family car, it looks as if the boys are going to have to have their tonsils taken out, and we don't even have any insurance.
Now, Bill, you and I both know they're not about to give you exactly the same excuses you've been giving me. But we also know they're going to give you the same excuses you've been giving yourself for the last five years. You are well trained, Bill, so I know exactly what you are going to do every time they give you an excuse for not buying.
You're going to sit there with a forced grin on your face, saying to yourself, Think positive now, Phil. Think positive, Phil. But all the time, deep down inside, you're going to be thinking, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. That's the reason I don't have a set of the stuff myself.
Let me tell you something, Bill. The smartest thing you'll ever do, even if you've got to mortgage your furniture, is to buy a set of your own cookware. Hear me on this, Bill.
Selling is essentially a transference of feeling. If I, the salesman, can make you, the prospect, feel about my product the way I feel about my product, you are going to buy my product if there is any way in the world you can come up with the money. Now in order to transfer a feeling, you've got to have that feeling. When you're trying to persuade somebody to do something you have not done yourself, that fact comes across to the prospect. Of course, all salesmen can occasionally con a person into buying something they don't really believe in, but if you're going to build an outstanding career, you've got to be committed to the product yourself.
You've got to believe, because as Bernie Lofchick from Winnipeg, Canada, the greatest sales manager I know, says, believers are closers. The very word close starts with a C. That C stands for conviction. Take the C out of close and you have lose, which is what you and the prospect do when your lack of conviction and belief influences the prospect in a no decision. Kevin's exponential insight number four, selling is a transference of feeling.
I believe in the power of transference when you're selling because the mind has the power to shape reality. Back in my teenage high chair selling days, I didn't get a whole lot of training, but my boss did give me a scrawny. 4 foot 11 inch teen, a 30 page script of selling tips and turn me loose. He probably thought he wouldn't see me again, but I had a secret weapon. I believed that I could really control my own destiny.
I wasn't afraid to step out. I wasn't even afraid to get the door slammed in my face. I came back with that entire script memorized and raring to go. So that boss saw my confidence and took me under his wing.
We went out on sales calls together and his teaching became another turning point in my life. I had the passion and self-determination. He supplied the techniques and the systems to close those deals.
I went from closing 1 out of 10 sales to closing 7 out of 10 sales on a regular basis. I've lived my life based on this quotation from Paul J. Myeyer, Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, Sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass. These are the four words I want you to remember.
Imagine. Desire. Believe.
Act. Those are the four words that I live by every day. You're your most valuable asset.
You have to believe in yourself before you can expect others to believe in you. When you truly believe, people will respond. And your belief will empower you to act. What you think about you bring about.
because selling is believing. Zig's secret became my secret and now it's yours too. Buy it and you can sell it. What about you? Are you convinced of the merits of your merchandise?
If you're selling Fords and driving a Chevrolet, then, my friend, it's costing you a great deal of money. Believe in what you sell or do yourself, your company, your friends, your victims, and the profession of selling a favor. Change products or get out of the profession.
Your failure is predestined. So why prolong the death rattle? The sooner you make the change into something you can honestly and enthusiastically pursue, the sooner you will start climbing the ladder to success.
Obviously, there will be some exceptions in buying or using what you sell. For example, if you sell locomotives, million-dollar computers, or 747s, I don't necessarily believe you have to buy one to prove you believe in it. To emphasize that point, I make the following statement without reservation.
If you don't believe the customers are the losers when they don't buy, you are selling the wrong product. If you don't feel a sense of loss for them, you are not going to be as effective and persuasive as you could be. Selling is a transference of feeling, and your prospects are persuaded more by your pride and belief in your product than by any proof you submit regarding your product's performance. The believer's close.
To make a long story short, I sold Bill a set of the cookware. Don't misunderstand. He wrote his own order and bought it from himself. The exciting rest of the story is that the additional sales Bill made that week paid for his own set of cookware. The reason is simple.
Every time someone brought up the can't afford it objection, Bill could handle it with his head and his heart. Bill knew that he had dug in and bought his own product when it hurt to do so. He understood how those prospects felt, but now he was able to deal with them with empathy and not sympathy.
We cover the difference in considerable detail in the next chapter. Bill understood how the prospects felt, but he did not feel the same way because he had bought his own set of cookware. He had made the sacrifice so he could look the in the eye and say, I know how you feel, but I know from experience it's worth the sacrifice. You'll never regret it. Results were dramatic.
His sales skyrocketed because he was selling from a belief-based tide directly to his heart. You've got to believe. I personally feel that honesty means we believe so deeply, so completely, so fervently in what we are selling that we can't understand why other people don't buy. When our belief is that deep, our prospect picks it up.
Chances are excellent you've had somebody say to you, I don't know why I'm listing this home with you or giving you my business. There have been half a dozen people by here this week and I turned them down. Myany times they really don't know, but it gets down to the basic fact that they trust you because of your conviction. They feel they can depend on your integrity and fairness. Myany times this trust is because of the reputation you have built over a period of years.
and because of that deep belief and feeling you have in and for your product which is transferred to your prospect one of the major points if not the major point revealed in the forum corporation study was the fact that high performing sales people are trusted by their customers they are trusted over the long haul for a very good reason they are trustworthy being honest is practical Closers own what they sell life insurance companies will tell you they can take a hundred salespeople with at least one year's experience And without looking at their sales records predict within five percentage points What these salespeople as a group are going to sell for the year? They make their predictions based solely on the amount of insurance these people carry on their own lives You see selling is a transference of feeling the critical step in the world of selling is this step of honesty? Which is your total conviction? Your complete belief that the product or service you sell is truly the best buy for the prospect.
When I entered the world of sales training on a professional level, I shared my experience with Bill, Own What You Sell, in a series of recordings. An enthusiastic young fire alarm salesman listened to the story and realized he apparently did not believe in his product because he did not own the alarm system himself. His conscience was prodded and he installed the alarms in his own home. Later, he wrote me and said, you know, Zig, the first month I had that set of alarms in my own home, I made enough extra sales to completely pay for them.
The ownership close revisited countless other salespeople, selling everything from cars and cosmetics to insurance and soap, have shared the same experience. Once you've made that emotional and financial commitment, which says, I believe in my product so strongly that I bought it myself. Then you can transfer that feeling to the other individual. In a nutshell, closers own what they sell. When the prospect brings up a can't afford it objection, you can with considerable conviction point out that your product is so good it's worth sweating and sacrificing for.
Obviously, you will be hypocritical and hence not very convincing if you have not invested in your own product. To repeat myself, if you are selling Fords, you should be driving a Ford. If you sell 747s, locomotives, steamships, or multi-million dollar computers, you don't need to buy one.
But generally speaking, if it's feasible, you should believe in what you sell so much that you are willing, even anxious, to sacrifice, if necessary, to own it. If you do not honestly feel the prospect is the loser if they don't buy, then you're not going to be nearly as effective in the world of selling. Not Not only should you believe in the product you sell, but you should also believe in and be loyal to the company you represent. Your effectiveness and productivity will be affected by your feelings toward your management and your company.
I urge you to read Russell Conwell's Acres of Diamonds, which beautifully illustrates the fact that opportunity and gold mines are everywhere, including right where you are. You can and will find exactly what you look for in your life. As a sales procedure, it's smart and professional to praise and build your company everywhere you go.
After all, how much confidence do you have in someone who badmouths his mate, his city, his company, or any of the people associated with the company? Believe in your product and your company. Transfer that belief to the prospect and not only will you sell more, you will sell it more easily, and those customers will get you other customers. That's career building selling.