Learn to Sell

Been There, Done That

This year marks my 38th year in sales. I have had a great career. Selling afforded me an opportunity to, as has been said, to be what I could be”. A lot of these years I was off on entrepreneurial journeys, reaching for the gold ring. I grabbed it once in a while, lost it a few times.

Earn Baby Earn

There is nothing purer to me as a salesperson than to be compensated fairly for performance. No matter the details of the pay plan, selling more means earning more.

When my enlistment expired, I came home to Michigan and entered the workforce. There were more Aviation Electronics Technicians than available jobs. I had a young wife and baby girl to support, so I had to go to work. I took my first sales job…small salary with a nice commission plan. I was off on my excellent adventure.

Learn Baby Learn

My Sales Manager and Branch Manager, Joe Pessendorfer and George Gianacopolis, encouraged me to enroll in the Dale Carnegie Sales Training program. What good advice that was. If you’re fixing cars, a Motors Repair Manual is essential. If you are in sales, the “Five Great Rules of Selling” will show you the way. I attended Dale Carnegie and learned how to sell. Since 1970 I have participated in just about every other sales class, seminar, conference or event that came to town.

Take What You Need, Leave the Rest

Mark Thelen, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins and Max Sachs are some of the great teachers of selling over my career. I have seen all of them and others. I have studied, absorbed and applied the best of their material. These great sales teachers speak to the spectrum of strategies, tactics and motivational issues that face salespeople on a real time basis. After all, how do endure a career where failure is the norm and success is an exception? To sustain and succeed as a professional salesperson you need to understand the lay of the land and you need to study and apply the lessons offered by those that have gone before. In my opinion, there is no bad sales training. There is good, better and best sales training. You don’t have to accept or agree with everything taught, just be sensitive to good ideas and advice and make them yours. Leave the rest behind.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

I was at a meeting recently with the executives of a local automotive supplier. Others attending the meeting were representatives of the state and county. I was there as an independent sales “turn around” consultant. The company is in a free fall. Sales have disappeared. Many of their customers have gone bankrupt or have just closed their doors. The phone isn’t ringing and the clock is running. Their sales force needed a sales “tune up”, some strategic planning and intense hands-on support.

I just happened to be sitting at the end of the big conference table looking directly at the CEO who stared at me and declared that “You can’t teach selling”. The comment was directed at me. My initial thought was that people learn how to make biscuits and gravy, how to tune a guitar, how to throw a curve ball, how to grow tomatoes…and how to sell.

I wish the gentleman well. He was very successful in the old days. The old ways worked then, why not now? Pick up the phone…pound the rock. Reflecting on the moment, I had a vision of a Japanese Army Officer, in World War II, charging a Marine machine gun with a sword.

Shameless Self Promotion

In the spirit and in honor of all sales trainers and coaches that have gone before me, I am going to host sales training events on Tuesday morning’s beginning on October 14th. The material is about strategies, tactics and tools to sell more and win in a difficult economy. The first four Tuesdays will focus on salespeople and the sales process. The last two Tuesdays will focus on all of the issues related to employing salespeople, Building and managing a sales staff is a very difficult job, based on the reality that most sales people under perform or outright fail. The details are posted on www.davebilbrey.com

Zero Comments

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