Sales Tips From A Multi-Million Dollar Buyer

Do you want to learn how to be a top-tier sales producer? Do you want to be an expert at new business development? I'm going to tell you the real truth about how it's done.

My qualifications? No, I'm not in sales. I'm not in marketing. I'm not in business development.

My qualification for telling you how to sell is that I've been the person responsible for multi-million dollar capital and operating budgets. I know how you should sell, because I'm the one who either buys from you, or tells you to get lost.

I can tell you who I buy from, and who I don't buy from.

I can tell you why I buy, and why I hang up the phone.

I can tell you how to get your name in my contact list, and how to get your email deleted.

I'm not unique. The methods I'm describing either work (if they're good), or fail (if they're bad), on pretty much every busy purchaser you'll ever meet.

First, here are some ways to make me reject you.

If you say, "I'm not trying to sell you anything," I will never trust you - because you are selling.

If you say, "I'm looking for ways to help you," I will never trust you - because you're really most interested in helping yourself.

If you say, "I want to get to know you," I will never trust you - because you don't want to know me; you want to know what I'll buy.

If you say, "I'd like to set up a meeting and use up a half hour of your time to tell you about our company/product/service," I will say no every time - because you're being vague, and vagueness breeds suspicion.

Now, I'll tell you how to make me listen to you.

Be completely honest, and be very fast. Tell me who you are, and what product or service you have for me. "I represent XYZ company, and we provide firewalls with some of the lowest latency benchmarks in the industry today."

Don't start by asking for a meeting. Your product comes first. If I'm not intrigued by your product, you can't have my time.

If I'm interested in your short, direct introduction, I'll make time for you. If I'm not buying what you're selling, I'll tell you, "I'm not interested."

Either way is great - for both of us.

If I'm interested, now you can talk about next steps. Maybe you want to send me more information, or even just links to more information. Maybe you want to ask me if I'll schedule time to talk with you in greater depth about your products or services. That's great.

And if I'm not interested, I just saved you a lot of time, so that's great, too. Those traditional sales trainers that I mostly tell you to ignore have one thing exactly right: numbers make or break salespeople. You need to spend as little time as possible on the people who aren't interested. You've got a lot more people to contact before quitting time today. It's an absolute waste of time to try to convince someone they should be interested when they're not. Politely disengage and move on. The most you should do at this point is ask, "Do you think you might be interested in this product or service in the future? Would you like my contact information?" If no, scratch them off your list. If yes, fulfill the ask immediately, not later.

The real key to maximize your earning potential in sales is simply this: brevity plus honesty.

It's not your job to make people interested in your product. It's your job to find the people who are already interested in your product.

Now I'll tell you what I'll buy.

My capital budget was completed and approved during the fourth quarter of the previous year. I already know what I'm going to spend my money on this year. You're not going to interest me in anything else. I don't have the money for it. Trying to generate interest is a complete waste of time. Instead of asking me to spend my time listening to you talk about your great product, just ask me directly, "What are you buying this year?" When I tell you, you can make a quick decision: either I'm a good sales prospect, or I'm not.

If you're selling something I'm buying, say, "XYZ Company has a product or service that is just what you're looking for. Can I teach you about it?"

If you're selling something else - something I'm not buying - then knowing what I'm buying saves you a lot of time. We're back to numbers again. Quickly and politely disengage, because you've got a lot more people to contact before quitting time today.

Conclusion

So, that's it. Be brief. Be direct. Be honest. Tell me what you're selling. Ask me what I'm buying. If there's interest, and if there's a match, we're going to develop a symbiotic relationship. If there's no match, we need to go our separate ways.

--Bob Young

FIFO Networks