How would you like to wake up every morning ready and willing to go to work? In fact, what if your work was more like play? What if you enjoyed your workday so much that you did not view it as work at all? What if you arose every day knowing that you were going to solve people's problems and build relationships while doing so?
All of these options are available to you now—in a sales career.
A career in sales is fascinating. Perhaps it's because the sales process, buying habits, customer service, and consumer trends all feed into a passion for understanding the intricacies of human behavior. Sales involves trust and basic relationships between people, as well as a grasp of what consumers need and want, and it's endlessly absorbing. You're always learning new things.
Sales is also ancient. It began with the trading of goods among prehistoric tribes in Africa, and we'll never know where the first markets were or who first felt the call of sales. But full-time sales professionals were uncommon before the Industrial Revolution. Most merchants ran small shops and both made and sold their wares. However, with the rise of large companies and the specialization they enabled, sales became a serious profession. Indeed, the world could not be what it is today without sales professionals fueling the growth of the myriad products and services all around us.
Anyone can be a successful sales rep if he or she wants to be. The knowledge you'll gain from this book will help to make you an effective sales professional. You will learn ways to tap into your buyer's motivations, creative and effective strategies to go beyond consumer expectations, how to put all twenty-four hours a day to work for you, and basic tools of time management. You will learn several ways to understand the sales rep success formula in your personal and professional life, and why a sale never really closes.
To do well in sales, you need a desire to succeed, a genuine desire to help solve others’ problems, a positive attitude, patience, a clear focus and direction to your efforts, a supportive work environment, persistence, consistent follow-up, and time management skills that validate and support who you are. If this list seems long, realize that each item on it is available to you if you simply try.
Introverts often say that they do not like sales; that they do not like to be “pushy” with clients. People often think that if they were more extroverted they would be better at sales. But both extroverts and introverts can become successful sales professionals. If you enjoy talking with other people, you have what it takes to get started. Extroverts typically find sales exciting and like chatting with several people at a time. Introverts, on the other hand, may find sales intimidating and prefer chatting with just one or two people at a time. But the fundamental factors in sales are building genuine relationships and helping to solve another person's problems, which anyone—introvert or extrovert—can do successfully.
Technology can help make the job of a sales professional easier and make the use of one's time more efficient. Embrace what technology has to offer you in your sales career. The Internet and computer technology coupled with personal honesty and genuineness make for a winning lottery ticket in sales.
There will always be others who sell what you sell, but there will never be another you. Your uniqueness is your brand. It is your responsibility to find that uniqueness and communicate your brand in a clear and honest way.
After reading this book you will wake up in the morning grateful for the opportunity to be in one of the best, most profitable, and fulfilling professions on earth.