The Birth of a Salesman
Sales people generally come in two categories:
1. Order takers: who sell to the customers who come through the door on their own 9and therefore the sales people have no responsibility for generating leads)
2. Prospectors: who go out and find customers to whom they can sell
It’s a lot easier being an order taker. You go down to the store each day, work the register, and wait for customers to show up and buy the widget at your store. Everyday malls will have hundreds or even thousands of sales people filling the role of order takers on any given business day.
As you man this position you don’t run the risk of rejection, but you’ll also draw a modest paycheck (perhaps even the minimum wage). After all, your just another “warm body” and your main job qualification is that you show up for work on time and half way sober. Low risk…low return. You won’t reach superstardom, you won’t make $200k a year being an order taker.
You won’t be pimp of the year at the players annual ball.
To excel you have to become a sales prospector. And (fortunately for those of you already in sales prospecting) the skills needed are not all that different for selling any other goods and services.
Pretty much the only difference is that in our game, you’re both the salesman and the “goods and services” being sold.
To succeed in sales, you have to be able to:
1. Handle rejection
2. Ask for the sale.
It’s really that simple. Pick up the “help Wanted” section of your Sunday newspaper and look at the Sales jobs section. You’ll see two buzz words that are prevalent. Most organizations are looking for people who are MOTIVATED and people who are CLOSERS.
Motivated: what this means is that you don’t give up at the first sign of rejection.
Closers: means that you aren’t afraid to ask for the order or sale.
Like I tell my buddy, you gotta be persistent, and don’t be afraid to ask for the order