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I. Definition of Sales
What is sales?
Sales are ubiquitous in daily life; everyone has a clear picture of sales in their mind. Sales affect you every moment. New insights into sales can help you develop and apply new skills and achieve maximum results. In a sense, we are all salespeople, doing the work of promoting ourselves every day.
What is sales? Our definition is simple: sales is the process of introducing the benefits of a product to satisfy a customer's specific needs. Products, of course, include tangible goods and services. Satisfying a customer's specific needs means fulfilling a customer's specific desires or solving a specific problem. Only the unique benefits offered by the product can satisfy such specific needs.
Therefore, the definition of sales is very simple for us. It means that you can identify the unique benefits a product offers and meet the specific needs of your customers.
II. 10 Essential Qualities for Successful Salespeople
What are the outstanding personal qualities of a successful salesperson? In summary, I believe a successful salesperson should possess ten essential traits.
(a) The first quality a successful salesperson should possess: strong self-confidence.
(1) Enhance inner confidence and self-worth. That is, improve sales skills and enhance self-confidence through continuous success.
(2) Change the definition. Understand past mistakes and failures as the cost and gain of growth, and change the mindset. At the same time, summarize the experiences that mistakes and failures bring us.
(3) Focus your attention on positive things. People tend to focus on negative things, but in fact, it is not the environment or experiences that determine our lives, but our attitude towards them. Positive behavior correction will naturally bring good results.
(4) Believe that every penny invested in your clothing is worthwhile. Successful dressing is a form of silent persuasion.
*The outfit that helps you succeed can be:
1. Dress yourself up as a professional salesperson, and even a senior salesperson.
2. When choosing clothing, pay attention to color coordination. A dark blue or dark gray suit paired with a white or light-colored jacket is a good example. You can even imitate the style of a top salesperson that you greatly admire.
3. Prepare two pairs of high-quality leather shoes and a set of shoe-shining tools to always keep your shoes in good condition and clean.
4. Before meeting customers, check in the mirror to see if your hair is neatly combed and your face is clean.
5. Avoid too much variation in the fabric and texture of the clothing.
(ii) The second quality that a successful salesperson should possess: courage.
Fear is an emotional response arising from an inner feeling. Humans have two great fears: the fear of not being perfect.
Fear of not being accepted by others.
We can also overcome fear by redefining it. A salesperson's biggest fear is rejection. We can analyze ourselves:
1. What is the definition of rejection? What happens to indicate that a customer has rejected you?
2. What tone of voice from a customer would make you feel rejected?
3. What facial expressions from your clients make you feel rejected?
Shift your mood: Try to transform negative emotions into positive and proactive thoughts, and be grateful to all those who make you stronger.
Therefore, one must be creative and courageous in taking risks. The brave are invincible.
(iii) The third quality that a successful salesperson should possess: a strong ambition.
A strong ambition is a strong desire for success, and only with a strong ambition can one have enough determination.
One way to cultivate a strong ambition is to learn from and surround yourself with successful people. Life is a continuous process of growth, and one of the most important decisions we make in our lives is deciding who we grow with!
If you carefully examine the friends around you, you'll find that they can be divided into three categories:
First, he is your mirror, very similar to you. He is the person you aspire to achieve, and he is helping you to understand yourself better.
Third, he represents a very important person in your life, and your complex can be transformed through him.
Fourth, he represents your subconscious, the person you dislike the most, the person you resist, and he can help you fully accept yourself.
No matter what kind of people we meet or what we experience in life, we still yearn to achieve our goals. In this process, we need to deliberately seek out our own growth team. The team that can truly help us grow the fastest has the following basic characteristics: 1. They have high personal achievements and a high level of understanding; 2. They are role models for you; 3. They can see your potential; 4. They care about your growth; 5. They are willing to assist you in your growth; 6. They have high expectations for you; 7. They will tell you the truth; 8. You will feel a lot of pressure when you are with them.
The desires of successful salespeople often stem from stimuli in real life, generated by external forces, and frequently not in a positive or encouraging way. The source of these stimuli often inflicts humiliation and pain on the recipient. Such stimuli frequently ignite a strong sense of resentment, bitterness, and resistance within the recipient, leading them to take "unconventional" actions and unleash "unconventional" abilities. Some top salespeople, after achieving success, often say, "I never imagined I had these skills."
Successful salespeople all possess an unwavering determination to win and a strong desire to succeed.
The desire for success stems from your yearning for wealth, your responsibility to your family, and your pursuit of self-realization. Dissatisfaction is the driving force for progress!
With dedication, you can accomplish anything! If you can't, you must! If you must, you will definitely succeed!
(iv) Full confidence in and knowledge of the product.
Master the knowledge of your own product. Your customers will not trust your product more than you do.
Successful salespeople are experts in their fields; to excel in sales, one must possess specialized knowledge.
Confidence comes from understanding. We need to understand our industry, our company, and our products.
Professional knowledge needs to be expressed in simple terms to be more easily accepted by clients.
Gain a comprehensive understanding of your competitors' products: Persuasion itself is a transfer of confidence.
(v) Focus on personal growth. Continuous learning and reflection can greatly reduce mistakes and shorten the learning process.
The greatest benefit of learning is that by learning from others' experiences and knowledge, we can significantly reduce mistakes and shorten the learning curve, enabling us to achieve success more quickly.
The experiences of others, both successful and unsuccessful, are our best teachers. Success itself is a manifestation of ability, and ability needs to be cultivated. Successful salespeople cultivate a habit of learning and growth.
Sales is a process of continuous learning and exploration, and salespeople inevitably make mistakes along the way. Reflection is the prerequisite for recognizing and correcting these mistakes.
Successful salespeople always find common ground with their clients. This is inseparable from the salesperson's own insight and knowledge. The greater one's insight and courage, the greater one's knowledge and the broader one's perspective.
Top salespeople are all highly skilled learners. They cultivate their abilities through learning and make learning a habit, because success itself is a matter of thinking and behavior.
Top salespeople learn with a purpose. The correct learning method consists of five steps:
(1) Initial understanding.
(2) Repetition is the mother of learning.
(3) Start using it.
(4) Integrate and master.
(5) Strengthen again.
(vi) High enthusiasm and service spirit.
Top salespeople treat their clients as long-term, lifelong friends.
Caring about customer needs means showing concern for them anytime, anywhere, providing them with the best service and products, and maintaining long-term relationships.
Knowledge is not only power, but also the core capability for enterprises to create wealth.
Successful salespeople can see the customers behind their customers, and they can recognize that someone who isn't their customer today may become one tomorrow. Respecting others is not just a virtue, but a reflection of one's personal charisma.
(vii) Exceptional affinity.
Many sales are built on friendship.
The first product a salesperson sells is themselves. When selling services and products, making a good first impression is crucial. At this point, your personal charm, confidence, smile, and enthusiasm must all be fully mobilized to impress the customer in the first few seconds. This requires the salesperson to possess exceptional affability.
(viii) Take full responsibility for the results, be 100% responsible for yourself.
Successful people constantly seek ways to break through, while unsuccessful people constantly find excuses and complain.
To achieve sales success, you still have to rely on yourself.
Find solutions for success, not excuses for failure!
Mistakes are inevitable in the sales process. Making mistakes is not terrible; what is terrible is the fear of making mistakes.
A promise is a promise; if you think of something, you must do it. A person who dares to take responsibility is often easily accepted by others. Imagine who would want to cooperate with someone who tries to cover up their mistakes? Successful salespeople take full responsibility for their results; they are 100% responsible for themselves.
(ix) Clear goals and plans (vision).
Successful salespeople have goals in mind, while others only have wishes.
Successful salespeople need to raise their self-expectations, and the goal is to clarify those self-expectations.
Successful salespeople define their success by identifying a motivation for achievement and the reasons for reaching their goals.
Successful salespeople need to have long-term goals, annual goals, quarterly goals, and monthly goals. They should break down these clear goals into daily action plans, continuously adjust their goals based on how things develop, and strictly follow their plans.
Work according to our plan, and plan our work. For example, to achieve your goals, how many visits do you need to make each day? What sales volume do you need to achieve? Where did you visit today? What is your visit route for tomorrow? You should have a clear understanding of these things every day.
(x) Make good use of the power of the subconscious mind.
Human consciousness is divided into conscious awareness, subconscious awareness, and superconscious awareness. Subconscious awareness is the outward appearance and appearance, while superconscious awareness is the deepest feeling within a person's heart. Only decisions made by the superconscious are truly decisions made by the heart.
Successful salespeople are those who dare to stick to their dreams.
The way to persevere in pursuing your dreams is to constantly input concrete, inspiring images into your visual system, stimulate your mind with the desire for success, read more books on success and motivation, read biographies of successful people, and listen to lectures on sales and success.