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Sales Lesson 1 – Quitters Never Win; Winners Never Quit
PodCast Host – Danielle Francisco
I just wanted to go back to your time in the United States about door-to-door selling.
So, probably that was a time where you’re door knocking.
And during those times, there’s always a term where you knock on a hundred doors; maybe one or two convert into a sale.
What was your feeling back then?
I mean, before you became good at sales; you told me that you once used to be an introvert and that you’re really shy.
You know, what was going on inside your mind during that time?
I’ll tell you as you’re asking the right question.
Going back in time Danielle, I cannot tell you the number of times that I nearly quit.
So, I remember once that I quit in my mind and that was it.
When you try and try and do not succeed, you naturally get frustrated.
And so, I remember going to my Sales Manager, Tom, and he said “Ramez” and I said, “Tom, I can’t, I don’t think this knife job is for me; I’m going to quit. I’m going to find something else.”
And Tom said “Ramez, thank you for sharing this with me.”
I was like why is he thanking me, I just quit.
Tom said “look deep inside Ramez”.
The reason why you feel the way you currently feel is because on the inside, you know you can do more, and this means a lot to you. But, right now you’re only doing a little.”
He [Tom] said “the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, that’s a huge gap and that gap is causing frustration.”
He then continued to say, “are you gonna let frustration make the best out of you or are you going to make the best out of frustration?”
Tom then said, “Ramez, what happened to your International ‘knife selling’ dream that you were telling me about?”
Tom was referring to an old conversation when we both agreed that we should take the knife selling business to France and to expand on growth to other parts of the world.
Now, as I am Lebanese; I also spoke French.
So, I thought that this would be a great opportunity for me to grow with the organization and one day become a manager within that company.
It was an early aspiration.
It was ‘a why’ [motivation] you know.
They say if you have a big enough reason, a big enough ‘why’ [motivation], that you’ll in turn be able to overcome any obstacle.
When Tom asked me “what has happened to your international knife selling dream?”, I realized that I was not going to let frustration stop and paralyze me.
Instead, I utilized that frustration and channeled that energy to find the answers in order to learn how to better prospect and to better present how to sell.
This led me to the inevitable realization and principle that selling is actually the act of serving.
Zig Zigler wisely said, “in order to get what you want, you’ve got to help someone else get what they want first.”
Sales Lesson 2 – Treat Others the Way They Like to be Treated
PodCast Host – Danielle Francisco
I heard someone in your recent workshop say “selling is all about getting money” which then led you [Sales Professor Ramez Helou] to bring up the topic of ‘ethical selling’.
I know that there are people who fall into sales by accident; without intentionally choosing it, because the field of sales is probably one of the few professions where you can enter it without any previous experience.
Sales Professor Ramez Helou
So, there is always going to be a need for human interaction between people; the principle of ‘ethical selling’ is the simple notion that we should treat others the way we like to be treated, or, treat others the way they like to be treated.
There is some simple human decency that comes into place when one tries to sell you something; equally, it’s unethical when one tries to sell something that you don’t actually need.
Maybe I’m able to convince and sell something you don’t need right now, but then later on, if your buying need wasn’t really truly established, you’ll come to realize it.
You do not want your customers saying that you’re a sneaky, sneaky salesperson as you convinced them to buy something which broke, or wasn’t as good as you said etc.
As a salesperson, you may make a few bucks in that moment, but you’ve ended up ruining that experience for your customer.
So, for me, I believe there has to be longevity.
The biggest thing that people have to ask themselves is, am I in business for just one day? or, am I in this career and business for potentially the next 30 years?
One of the biggest questions people ask me is how do you find a good salesman?
The science and research shows that there are two main traits that make a good salesperson, and you know the first one is empathy.
What are some elements or what are some traits that show empathy?
How about listening and not saying anything?
How about not interrupting a person talking?
How about going along?
This is a simple way of building a two-way conversation.
Listening actually releases a certain level of oxytocin, the happy hormone.
So, research shows that when being empathetic, oxytocin is being released.
Unconsciously, what’s happening is that you’re helping clients to feel comfortable and building trust with that person.
And yes; the absolute opposite is true when a salesman demonstrates a lack of empathy.
Let’s say someone doesn’t listen very well and is a bit aggressive; being pushy.
Do you like that? No, so you have this natural repellent; you feel that you’re being repelled from this person.
Why? Because unconsciously this behavior releases cortisol, and cortisol is the angry hormone in you.
You don’t want to do business with someone when you have actually caused this cortisol state.
There is more research on what’s happening in the brain based on the various levels of human interaction; and consistently scientists are letting us know that the number one reason that actually drives success and sales is empathy.
Sales Lesson 3 – Define Your Compelling Reason Analysis
Sales Professor Ramez Helou
A business owner recently told me that her sales opportunities don’t come on time.
I said, well, do you have something called the ‘compelling reason analysis’?
She’s like what’s that?
It’s when the salesman has demonstrated a strong [compelling] reason why the customer should move forward with the sale.
It’s so the customer truly understands the consequence if they continue to delay by not investing in the benefit offered by your product or service.
Typically, these reasons can be tied to the ‘Pain & Gain’ of the customer.
If the Pain & Gain is clear, then there is more likelihood that the opportunity will come forth.
The salesman can then put something in their Excel sheet saying that they’ve talked with the customer and have submitted a proposal clearly tying the resolution of their pains to the gains promised in your offering.
Without having that, you’ll just end up with five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten people looking at a proposal that promises the moon only.
You need to dig with the customer in order to present a proposal that really has a clear and compelling reason if you wish to ethically advance the sale to closure.
