Selling Effortlessly by Numbers

Selling Effortlessly by Numbers by Harry S Richards My whole world changed once I realised that selling was really not hard to do. You don't need any fancy scripts. Neither do you need any clever closing phrases such as "which color would you prefer blue or green?" Every sales training school I ever attended failed to make me into a salesman. All those clever closing techniques probably work for some, but they just did not click with me. Most newcomers to selling are actually scared rigid at the thought of face-to-face selling. They just cannot survive the constant rejection. You can never expect everyone to say "yes" and the emphatic word "no" just destroys many good souls who might otherwise have made their fortune from a career in selling. The same thing happened to me, and this is why I desperately want to tell you about it so that you too might become a real whiz at selling. Here's what happened to me: I had made some progress as a salesman in the retail trade. It is much easier when prospects actually walk through the front door of a store as they expect to be sold a product otherwise they would have kept walking. My feelings of success in retail where grossly overrated, because I truly believed that I could sell anything to anyone - I was in for a big shock. The world of selling on a commission-only basis is far removed from selling in a store. It's the toughest place to break ground, and usually only the truly hard-nuts crack it. My initial success in retail came from selling fridges powered from an internal heated element and not a motor. Therefore, it seemed natural to stay in that product field to progress my sales career as a commission-only sales person. What that means is that you do not get paid a salary, you only get a predetermined commission on the actual sales you make yourself. It's a tough field for most. However, I took such a job selling upright food freezers on credit terms door-to-door. I worked solidly for a two whole days and sold . . . nothing. Every door that opened when I rang the bell, was slammed in my face once the prospect knew I had called to sell them something. I was just simply demoralised and had to admit defeat to myself. I took my sales kit back to the company sales office to quit the job, but was called into the Sales Manger's office. "Okay, so you want to quit?" He asked "Yes. I'm sorry but this job is heart-breaking for me. No one wants to listen to the pitch, and every door is shut in my face". I explained. "How many calls did you make today then?" He enquired About thirty in all. I covered four blocks but not a single taker. "Okay". He continued. "So you got 35 people who said "NO" is that right?" "Yes that about the size of it. I responded". "Will you do me a favour? Go out tomorrow morning and find 95 people who say "NO". That's all I am asking you to do. You will not be trying to make a sale, I just want you to mark down in your call sheet, 95 people who say no to the deal. That's all. Will you just do that for me tomorrow, before you finally quit and before I can return your kit deposit ?" He suggested "Well I don't quite understand why, but I need the sales kit deposit desperately now so I suppose there's no choice". I replied. The following day I trudged around the streets knocking on doors as he had suggested, and marking off every "NO" on my call sheet. Late into the afternoon I had made about 70 calls and just about had enough of it all. I went into a small caf