| "Get into selling and make your fortune" the headline | | | | store. Not as an intention to make a sale, but simply |
| shouted at me from the classified page. It went on to | | | | because I was actually very impressed with the |
| explain how anyone could become rich by learning | | | | technology.However, a strange thing happened: People |
| how to sell.As a gullible young man just out of the Air | | | | started buying fridges. Each day more people came to |
| Force and looking for a job, I was hooked on the idea | | | | me to ask about them and more sales resulted. |
| of a sales career despite suffering from a general lack | | | | Weekly deliveries of fridges to this single store out of |
| of confidence. On top of that my near panic at the | | | | 365 stores alerted the Head Office due to the unusual |
| thought that now I had to survive in the big outside | | | | delivery rate.Incredibly, the company extended the |
| world on my own. No morning bugle call to kindly let | | | | premises to accommodate more fridges. I have often |
| me know that breakfast was being served.No more | | | | wondered how they filled the space when I moved on |
| shouting in my ear about the condition of the nice suit | | | | to pastures new.So there I had learned the two most |
| of clothes they give you to wear. No more marching in | | | | important ingredients for selling which if mastered will |
| parades to a destination unknown, you need only | | | | enable anyone to be proficient in sales.Just these two |
| follow the leader and wait until you hear the order to | | | | for starters: Enthusiasm and Product Knowledge.The |
| halt.Worst of all, no more free meals and a bed, the | | | | third ingredient will be borne of the above two which is |
| reason I joined up in the first place. I had become | | | | "confidence"Armed with enthusiasm for a product and |
| institutionalised. From that point forward I would need to | | | | thorough Product Knowledge, you will surely brim with |
| think for myself for the first time in years.Solely on the | | | | confidence. Most of your prospects will not see you |
| merits of my Air Force discharge papers, I landed a | | | | as just another Sales Person but as an expert they |
| job as a trainee salesman with a well-known office | | | | can trust. Why will they trust you? Because as you |
| machine manufacturer. They kindly sent me to sales | | | | should have discovered yourself in life that it is always |
| training school for a whole month after which you are | | | | patently obvious when someone knows what they |
| supposed to be a whiz at selling. Not so for me, | | | | are talking about, You know instinctively when a |
| because after a couple of months I had managed to | | | | person is telling you the truth. You also learn to know |
| sell . . . nothing.Hugely embarrassed and demoralised, I | | | | instinctively when someone is talking nonsense.Now |
| resigned. However, I continued to hold to the belief that | | | | here is a truth:People will only buy from those they |
| "selling can make your fortune", perhaps because as a | | | | trust. The emphasis is on the ONLY.Since then I have |
| kid I had been quite a successful street urchin.My ideas | | | | sold just about everything under the sun, including |
| about selling as a career were reinforced when by | | | | double glazing, windows, home improvements and |
| chance I read a news item about a janitor who | | | | several years in Life Insurance. I learned some truly |
| became a commission salesman. Two years later he | | | | fascinating secrets on selling and how to sell |
| bought the apartment block where he had previously | | | | effortlessly.Truly "Selling" is easy, when you know how. |
| been the janitor.I must try again to become a | | | | Look out for my article entitled "Selling effortlessly by |
| salesman, and I did without much success. Most of the | | | | Numbers" you could be amazed.Naturally, I moved up |
| direct selling outfits simply gave me a pre-typed script | | | | in my sales career and bought my own stores. Selling |
| to learn. I tried the scripts, but several of my prospects | | | | the very product I found impossible to sell just a few |
| simply asked me how long had I been doing the job. | | | | years earlier, Office Machines.I can never forget a |
| One asked me why I was speaking so unnaturally, I | | | | major sale I made a few years ago to the Managing |
| wasn't aware of it. Perhaps I speak with a different | | | | Director of a large corporation. He bought a very |
| tone when reading out loud from a script.Perhaps I | | | | expensive product and gave me his company cheque |
| could learn to sell by trying retail in-store sales, I | | | | there and then without question. However, just as he |
| pondered. So onto the retail circuit. The Company boss | | | | was leaving he mentioned that one of my competitors |
| had a store for each day of the year 365 stores. He | | | | WGS was selling the exact same product at ten |
| sent me as a trainee to a store where I was asked to | | | | percent less. Being a bit puzzled, I asked him why he |
| push the sales of some fridges that had no motors. I | | | | did not buy it from WGS."Because I preferred to buy |
| was astonished. How can a fridge not have a motor? I | | | | from you" He repliedThere you have it, as you must |
| asked the store manager for a brochure that might | | | | surely know deep down, even from your own |
| help my understanding of a fridge with no motor, so he | | | | experiences: People will only buy from those they |
| dug around under the counter and thrust a buch of | | | | trust.Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your |
| grubby papers into my hand."You're supposed to sell | | | | ezine or on your site as long as you leave the author's |
| them, not read about them" he complained.Anyway I | | | | copyright in place and the links in place, do not modify |
| did read about these fridges, and discovered that not | | | | the content and include our resource box as listed |
| only did they have no motors but the energy | | | | below.© Harry S RichardsResource Box: |
| consumption was less than an ordinary light bulb. I | | | | Article by Harry S Richards. Founder of Beauforts PC |
| found it all quite extraordinary. and simply voiced my | | | | Trading. |
| amazement about them to everyone who entered the | | | | |