SALES CLINIC
There are no "Natural"
Salespeople
A person may have a sales personality, but
sales skills must be learned. By Dave Fellman
I
"He sounds very likeable," I said. "But is
he well organized? Can he sell a complex
product? How about his work ethic?"
Obviously, I wasn't as sold on the candidate as the printer was. In fact, there's
almost nothing that scares me more than
hearing someone described as a "natural"
salesperson. That's because selling itself is
somewhat of an unnatural act.
An Unnatural Act
Think about that: at the core of every
sale is a salesperson asking for money.
Sure, it's money in return for a quality
product, exceptional service, etc., etc.,
but it is fundamentally always about
the money. Your good customers have
already decided that they're willing to
give you the money, but I'm not sure
they did that because you're such a
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just got off the phone with a printer who's getting ready
to hire a new salesperson. "I'm really geeked about this
guy," he said. "He's a natural salesman. Very outgoing,
obviously a people person, and he's smooth without
being oily. I like him a lot!"
nice person. It was probably because
you somehow convinced them that you
could be trusted to meet or exceed their
expectations.
The mechanics are really pretty simple.
You convince them that you can be trusted and they give you a try. You live up to
their trust and they give you another try,
and on, and on. If you let them down,
though, well, you better hope they like
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QUICK PRINTING / May 2013
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