To earn an above average income in business, core business teams and leaders must learn and apply the best service and selling fundamentals in their industry to out-think and out-perform today's competitors.
While still at university, I learned the art of selling from my major mentor Mr. Tom Hopkins through his bestselling books and after graduation, from his live single and multiple day training courses plus in-house video training programs.
Mr. Hopkins was a real estate sales super achiever by his early 20s, a self-made millionaire by age 27 and a world-class training authority for nearly five decades in sales and management.
Knowing how to acquire information and transferring it into knowledge and application is vital to those in front-line company service roles and customer account sales positions.
Fast learning is a key trait of those who are successful in sales. Mr. Hopkins taught me early on to not take advice from anyone who was depressed or could not teach me the sales success systems they used to achieve their superior results.
It is so easy to learn the poor habits of skimming information or in learning the organized systems that companies have created and prepared for their sales and service teams to use.
I discovered from Mr. Hopkins five core insights that helped me become Rookie of the Year in my first corporate sales position and earned me promotions to national major accounts and leadership opportunities by my mid twenties.
Superior learning systems made it easier for me to achieve higher earnings and future leadership roles. Here are three of five important insights that are invaluable to boosting your sales and career.
1. IMPACT
Research has shown that we learn faster when we are interested and curious about a subject or topic. Teachers, trainers, mentors and coaches can influence this first step of the learning process by being well prepared and in sync with the content they are about to teach to others.
To learn well, new employees and even veteran staff need to be prepared psychologically for the experience. The desire to learn is one thing and it helps if the best environment to support the learning phases or process is also in place.
Each time a person sits down to learn, the impact of new information or content should have an emotional appeal that can quickly be transferred into a new application or learned skill.
2. REPETITION
Repeat anything often enough and it becomes a part of you. All great sales achievers I have met learned strategies and statements that worked and then adapted them to their personalities and style over time through trial and corrections.
After learning new phrases and molding it into perfected statements, these people controlled when and how to use their knowledge to bring benefit to their clients, customers and company.
Saying proven statements with conviction can bring new results. These students and employees used the first step of the learning cycle and then combined it with the second step to bring new results and success to their role in sales.
3. UTILISATION
The basic law of possession is "use it or lose it". Being in front of the right people who are able to make decisions about buying products or services is vital to success in sales and service roles.
Learning all of the product or service offerings of a company or employer and how to present this information in an organized manner can help prospects and new customers understand the benefits of the offerings in order to make a sound buying decision.
Champion sales achievers discover the "golden hours" in which their products and services sell best and then schedule themselves to be in front of as many qualified people as possible.
New Restaurant Experience
I recently went to the grand opening of a new hamburger chain located in a well established South East Asia shopping centre. It was an interesting experience having to wait a while to get in and a longer wait for service once my guest and I were seated.
After initial drinks were ordered, a timid yet friendly waiter asked us for our burger and side orders. He left with the orders, and then came back about two minutes later to ask me what kind of salad dressing I would like with the side salad.
When I pointed to the menu he had handed me ten minutes earlier which showed their Caesar salad came with their own unique home-made Caesar salad dressing, his comment was that he was new to the company and just two days on the job.
I was not very sympathetic because my guest and I had already waited in line to try this new and 'different' hamburger chain experience.
When a manager at check out asked me if everything was ok with my meal I said yes, however the customer service experience could be improved if the waiters understood the full menu and product offering and optional side dishes that came with the burger choices.
Sensing this was not going to be a comment that would be acted upon once I left the checkout counter, I asked who the chain manager was and found out he was not on site at the time.
I called the following day to speak to him and in a friendly manner, to let him know that my guest and I enjoyed the food yet were surprised by the poor product knowledge of the staff member who had served us and the employee's reply in being new to the job. I told the manager we would be back however it was less of an experience as advertised.
The manager took my suggestion on board. He said he would implement a written 'pop quiz' on at least five of the product offerings on the restaurant menu each day with new and experienced employees until the staff had learned all of them.
With a dozen burger and side order combinations, it was only few days before everyone on his team was current with product knowledge and suggestions they could offer when asked by customers.
PART TWO: In part two, learn how the last two steps of the learning process can help you to out-think, out-service and out-sell your competitors.
