Are salesmen born or are they made?

Advanced sales training from te world famous Mike Le Put. Article provided by Merrehill Ltd - who for Fax Marketing

Many managers think sales is a skill that some people have the knack of and others just don't. They simply hire in the hope. The idea that there is such a thing as a known, understandable and clearly laid out subject as Sales, management, finance, marketing etc. is a new concept. Some think it is all a matter of taste like having a meal and you can pick and choose what you like and it's all OK and of course sometimes it works and other times it just doesn't as you were "unlucky" or the gods were against you. This is all a complete nonsense - a typical view held by those who don't know what's going on and things are down to chance, luck and the fates - they are not in control of their business or department - they hope.

As many of the major scientists of the past have shown such a viewpoint is only held by those who don't understand the major laws of the subject they are dealing with. If you really know you can just do it - produce the result or product of your department any time you need to - its A,B,C and the result is D - not sometimes or if - every time - or you are either missing something or not doing something right. Look - you can make a cup of tea - you don't have to wonder about it or hope - you just do it as you know how - you are in control of every step - you have teas bags, a kettle, milk etc. You have the correct tools and you know how to use them - any time you need to make a cup of tea you can do it or sort out the problem if there is no milk.

Now running a Sales Department is a bigger game for sure - though since I doubt you want to spend your life making cups of tea for a living we can take this as a good thing. But the same principles apply. There is a precise technology of selling goods or services and if you know them you can sell any amount of anything - if you know them and get them applied. I won't go into detailing them all here - you should figure it out for yourself for your business anyway - it is very therapeutic. Here are some big basics I don't think you could miss though.

1. A worthwhile product to sell - for the end user - doesn't have to be saving the planet or lives, good insurance is valuable. If your insurance is pricey and very reluctant to pay out when it should then I wouldn't have to go any further to work out why sales were poor! A decent product is a good start - if it isn't then fix that first!
2. Marketed - does your public (your target market) know about it? Magazine ads, telly, web site, email, shows etc. If sales is to close 10 leads a week then marketing better be promoting to thousands! Many businesses miss this one in a big way - complete wrong order of magnitude on the marketing and wonder why sales are poor.
3. Sales - ah! Where I came in - and yes there is a considerable and very precise technology on this. Not the unethical foot in the door Dale Carnegie pushy salesman drivel either. A good sales person cares about his prospect and believes in their product - if not - your in the wrong job bud. If you are only there for the car and pay your lost. Sure it's ok to want lots of money - but not at any price! I hope you want lots of money for the great work you do getting people insured - if you didn't make them do it they wouldn't bother and too many of them will regret that omission in a big way later - so you do a good job and get everyone insured - then your society doesn't have people destroyed by the occasional calamity (Cumbrian floods, sudden deaths, fire - they do happen) and you can enjoy your Aston Martin - you earned it!
4. Quality Control - that critical factor of sorting out things when they inevitably (occasionally) go wrong - so things don't pile up and get left unhandled.

There is much more to all this - all I'm banging on about here really is the fact that the technology for these things does exist and it is very worthwhile knowing. I could add some old adages here - the wise person never stops learning, it's a wise person who knows what he doesn't know, and Look, don't listen. Look usually involves getting up and opening your eyes. Anyway - nuff for now.

As an author, publisher, trainer and motivational speaker, Mike Le Put has personally trained over 10,000 people and has inspired professionals across the UK, USA and the Far East.

The author works as a consultant to many of the UK's largest companies including Rochdale business training centre and his programmes are distributed world-wide by the BBC.