Sales - It's As Easy as 1 - 2 - 3 (Part 1 of 2)

In past postings, I have talked about the fact that I feel marketing is basic. Peter Bruening, owner of The SellingPoints Group, Inc., and the author of The Power Guide to Supportive Selling likes to present selling in basic terms as well. Mr. Bruening is a well-known and respected sales trainer and consultant. I asked him to present some of his thoughts on sales. I am posting his response in two parts. Part One is presented below.

I’m asked all the time, “Peter, if you had to boil it down to one thing, what’s the most important thing you need to do to be good at sales?” I like this question, because it makes an attempt to hone in on something basic. Something fundamental. And that’s what successful selling is all about. It’s not about being fancy. It’s about being fundamentally consistent. And this is true whether you are a full-time quota carrying salesperson – or whether you are a professional, such as an accountant, a financial advisor or architect, for example – or whether you own a small or medium business. No matter what you do in the business world, sales is fundamentally important to the survival and growth of your business. I went to graduate school to get my MBA, but you don’t need to do that know that the most basic business equation is: Total revenues minus expenses = net profits. Successful businesses work on both ends of the equation – they maximize sales while keeping expenses in check.
So, what’s the most important thing you can do to be good at sales? Without a doubt, if you’re talking about the part of selling that happens when you are with the customer, the single most important thing you can work on is your ability to ask good questions, and then close your mouth so you can closely listen to your prospect’s or customer’s answers. This ability is part science and part art. And, not surprisingly, it is what I spend a large portion of my time teaching my clients in my workshops and in my one-on-one sales coaching work. If you don’t know what questions to ask, how to ask them, and when to ask them – and if you don’t couple this with the self-discipline to keep your mouth shut as your prospect or customer answers – you cannot succeed at sales. I’ve seen more people than I can count who have what many would consider to be “natural born sales talent” – and then they fail at sales because of the lack of the capability to ask questions and listen. And I’ve seen at least as many people who would never be described as “natural born sales people” succeed at sales because they excel at questioning and listening. This second group of people will never win a contest for knowing the most jokes, and they aren’t necessary the life of the party. But they know about questioning, and they know how to listen.
How do you learn the science and art of questioning and listening? Read books, practice, hire a sales coach, practice, go to seminars, practice, read more books, practice, practice some more, and then practice. Do you get the picture? And there are two kinds of practice. The first is the kind you do by yourself. If you see me talking to myself as I’m driving down the road, you can be sure that I’m practicing a sales technique. I do this on a daily basis. It’s a great way to use what would otherwise be wasted time to improve myself. The second is the kind that you do in live situations with live customers. If you don’t take new techniques and behaviors out to the field of business, you’ll never learn them.
So, while questioning and listening is certainly the single most important aspect of selling, it is actually not the main theme of this article. Right on the heels of this critically important skill is what I sometimes call the basic 1-2-3 of sales. It is actually the same 1-2-3 that is behind success of any kind. Think about it for a second. Any success that you have in life starts with a goal. This goal drives activity. And this activity creates end results. The 1-2-3 of success is Goals-Activity-Results. This is true about any success. Years ago, when I was living in an apartment, I had a goal of owning my own home. This goal drove certain activities – I went to school, moved my way up in career and income levels, saved money – and eventually the result was brought to fruition. Now, three houses later, I have been through this particular goal cycle several times. Each time, my goal drove my activities, and my activities created my end result.

This concludes Part 1. Part 2 of this article will continue to outline how you can engage the 1-2-3 of Goals-Activity-Results to create consistent sales success in your business.

A special thanks to Peter for sharing this information with all of our readers. Please remember, Part Two will be posted shortly. If you would like to contact Peter at the Selling Points Group, he can be reached at pbruening@SellingPointsGroup.com. More information is available at http://www.sellingpointsgroup.com/