The right attitude towards

the “selling” function

1s

CONTENTS
For NON-salespeople

For salespeople

What is SELLING?

The good salesperson’s ultimate

objective

The good salesperson’s three

tasks… or four?

The selling process

Customers have the choice!

Future
© Copyright by GEKA-Management Verlags AG, Glarus

These training instructions are printed as manuscript. They, or parts

thereof, may not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or
otherwise circulated. All rights reserved, including the right of translation
into foreign languages.
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For NON-salespeople*

This text is written exclusively for salespeople.Therefore – as a NON-

salesperson – you should read it with all the more attention.

Maybe you know “salespeople” for whom you do not have a very high
regard: very poor salespeople. Maybe you have not met a single good
salesperson. This, too, is a strong possibility. Really good salespeople are
recognised just because they do not fit into the usual cliché of sales
behaviour.

On the other hand there is nothing,no work,in no profession,that does not

Everything has to be sold.
have to be “sold” in one way or another:

To convince the manager of the accuracy of one’s point of view; to settle

disagreements peaceably; to win over a colleague to the necessity of a
possibly unpopular measure;to apply for a more demanding position; to sell
a new idea etc.Even pacesetting inventions and unrivalled offers must be
sold, and success must be deliberately organised!

Because that’s the case, we want you to develop a positive attitude to-
wards the function of “selling” – for your own benefit and that of those with
whom you negotiate! Read the following pages with an open mind; or
better still, with a “real eagerness to learn”! Maybe (who knows?) you will
discover that you are closer to a good salesperson than you ever
suspected.

As a businessman or a businesswoman, you find yourself, intentionally or

not, in the middle of the force field of conscious and subconscious mutual
human influence. Why not study it where it is presented in its most clear-
cut way, in situations where people must part with their beloved money
in favour of an idea, an object or a hope?

*Salespeople may nevertheless read it. 3


Everything has to be SOLD!
It’s all a question of judgment!
Be a worthy opponent!
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For salespeople
We have to understand each other right from the start:
1. Everything in this world has somehow to be sold – be it a product, a
service, an idea.
2. In the following, we will study in detail “sales techniques”, but we must
be very careful to avoid what might be dangerous generalisations. Every
sales situation is different. No two customers are alike. In a given sales
situation, every salesperson will behave differently. There are favourable
and less favourable moments for a sale. The weather may have an
influence, no less so than the moods of the individuals involved and things
that are “in the air”. In other words, what may be right under certain
circumstances may be completely wrong in another situation.
Prospects react much like patients. What may be wholesome for one, may
be poison for another. And that’s just why the salesperson’s profession is
so interesting, captivating and fascinating. No other profession will keep
you as young and fit. Incidentally, a salesperson has no other choice than
to remain young and fit.
3. Since one and the same procedure may be right or wrong,depending on
the situation, it is rather difficult to set general rules for producing a desired
result in the SALES sector. They are not very popular, either. However, for
the sake of comparison:A chef is not noted for working without recipes but
for the way in which he uses them.
Similarly, it holds true for the salesperson that it is better to have some sort
of selling plan than merely to feel one’s way. The true art will always be a
question of judgement.If you contact prospects too early,you may seem to
be pushing. On the other hand, if you put off your call too long, they may feel
neglected. You may have to pull a cap over some customers’ ears before
they will buy it, whereas with others you only have to act as if you did not
want to sell it,for them to snatch it as a fish grabs a bait.
4. We should never forget one thing, and that is the need to perfect our
sales technique not only to achieve better sales results, but, above all, to
live up to our most demanding customers. It’s like a game of chess:
Nothing is so disheartening as to have to play with a person who does not
know the rules, overlooks the most obvious traps and makes one mistake
after the other.
What is SELLING?

What does “selling”mean? Initially, we could define “selling” as the art of leading Lead others to actions!
people to actions. But this is not the peculiarity of selling. People who lead
others to actions are the manager (his employees),the father (his children) or
the teacher (the students). But there is a world of difference between a
manager, a father or a teacher on one hand and a salesperson on the
other.What happens if the others don’t want to do what we would like them to
do? The manager has certain possibilities to make his employees do
something. Parents and teachers have similar possibilities. But we
salespeople, we have nothing on earth except ourselves and our way of leading
people to actions.Are we aware of the consequence of this fact?

People who lead other people to actions just by the way they deal with
Personal power
them,possess an incredible personal power! So the cat is out of the bag:
Competence in selling means personal power. No wonder salespeople
sometimes are more feared than loved…

If customers react, on the first contact, with reserve or even with a certain
hostility, we have to interpret it properly: It is a compliment. The customers
evaluate us as “dangerous”.That’s exactly what we are if we awaken them from
their “hibernation” and get them to do something they didn’t even think of so
far.

Salespeople have only one “weapon”– they must rely upon themselves and
Salespeople have
their ability to handle people. Is it not astonishing that they accomplish feats
only one “weapon” –
like the following:
themselves!
Example 1:

A businessman told a salesperson who had offered him an office machine for
€ 1000 that it was far too expensive. Only three months later, the same
businessman bought an office machine of about the same type for € 3700
on hire purchase – from the competition.

Example 2:

Interviewed by a representative from a sales training organisation, the manager

of a leading company stated:“We are proud to be neutral consultants, not
salespeople.” And, in proof of it, he added: “Our consultants draw a fixed
monthly salary without any sales commission.”Two hours later, that same
manager signed a contract with that same salesperson for a sales training
course, without a word having been said about the course programme. He
justified his decision by saying:“You know, with us it all comes down to
selling…”

Example 3:

The director of an office-equipment company would not sign the order for the
purchase of a computer, because the maintenance contract was too expensive.
Reason:“I can just imagine how much servicing is going to cost!” Two hours
later the two computer company employees went away with orders for the
computer and for its maintenance. Nothing more had been mentioned
concerning the price of the maintenance contract!
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Our customer wants to have
freedom of choice, no matter
what the circumstances are!
Bear in mind the
customer’s well-being!
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What kind of power must there be in SELLING ability, if it can produce
such results?
We have to ask ourselves: Is it not reprehensible and shameful to take
such advantage of others? The buyer – and we are all buyers – want to be
objectively advised and not psychologically influenced. Are you sure? Of
course, no one wishes to be influenced to do things against their will.When
buying something, we want to be free to choose! That’s the decisive point! If
we give it due consideration, we should define SELLING rather more
critically and comprehensively.
For the time being we can define it as:
SELLING is the art of leading other people to actions without their
being aware that it was me who led them to the action.
We all want to be free to choose, free to make our own decision. We
want to do what we like and what is good for us.
“Our own good”, that’s what it is all about! The salesperson whom we like is
the one who succeeds in making us happier. Perhaps, we are not out for
absolutely factual advice! Perhaps, we want a costly car or a certain TV set,
and we are grateful to salespeople if they prove to us that our desire is not
unreasonable but quite justified – though possibly we did have our own little
doubts. Our well-being depends not only on the satisfaction of our critical
mind. How sad and dreary business life would be if it did!
Doesn’t personal well-being also involve:
– the enjoyment of luxury, of having something special
– the pleasure of having made the best of an opportunity, of having
been “on the ball”
– the need to satisfy one’s curiosity
– the pleasure of being first
– the pleasure of having the same as…
– the satisfaction of proving one is the person one would really like to
be?
Of course we want factual advice. But the salesperson who makes me
feel that I cannot afford to wear a hat costing less than € 40 will prob-
bably make me feel better than the one who gives me to understand that
a € 7.50 hat is good enough for me!
Poor salespeople do not consider the well-being of their customers; they
think only of their own well-being. But poor salespeople also prevent me,
their customer, from doing what I would really like to do and from being the
person I would really like to be!
Some salespeople are so “slick” in their presentation that they actually
prevent the prospects from buying what they really want to buy.

The following example was experienced by Gustav Käser when he

founded his company and wanted to buy a typewriter, an electric
typewriter.Would you believe that the salesman made it impossible for him
to buy the typewriter he was looking for?

He entered the shop: There were the small, manual typewriters, then they
became bigger and bigger. Right at the back of the store there were the
electric ones.

Well, the salesman was very clever. He asked questions: What he was
looking for, what he needed it for and what he wanted to do with it. Due to
the answers he decided on the smallest typewriters and started to explain
all the functions.

Mr. Käser listened bravely, but bored, for about 10 minutes and asked
shyly: “And the ones over there, are these the electric ones?” Do you
know what the salesman replied? “We tend to say that a person who buys
an electric typewriter and doesn’t use it for at least four hours a day must
be a fool.”

As Mr.Käser had already told him that he intended to use it about two hours
a day, he had two possibilities: Either to be – in the salesman’s eyes –
mentally less gifted and to insist on the electric typewriter or to leave the
store as an intelligent man and to buy the typewriter somewhere else
(which he actually did).

“If we treat people the way they are, we denigrate them. If we treat them
the way they want to be, we honour them.”

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

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 The good salesperson’s ultimate objective

A good salesperson has the customer’s welfare in mind. But even the
best can make a mistake.That goes without saying.Human nature is in-
constant. If customers are sorry about some acquisition they made,this
need not necessarily be all the salesperson’s fault. It is not always that
easy to foresee what a customer’s attitude may be a week or a month
hence.

That is why a clever salesperson never thinks of just one deal – the one in
hand; in fact, having “the contented customer” as a goal is nothing like
enough!

What, after all, have I as a salesperson gained by obtaining one “contented

customer”? Nothing but that one customer. How much more would I gain if
my customers were so enthusiastic about me, my company,my product and
our co-operation that they recommended me and helped me to win further
customers!

Neither the deal in itself,nor the contented customer,nor the customer who
gives another order now and then, are the true objectives of the creative
salesperson.What we should be after is the Fully Active Reference.

Our objective:
the Fully Active Reference!
Let us assume you are buying a new car. Could you as the customer wish
for anything more than to be genuinely enthusiastic about your acquisition,
so happy that you tell all your friends how well you have been advised and
served? But also the salesperson who sold you the car could wish for
nothing better.The Fully Active Reference is the point where the
salesperson and the customer meet. This is where the interests of both
– salesperson and customer – coincide.

With this in mind it is not actually important that we strike the exactly right
chord as long as the customers can recognise that we are ready to do
everything in our power to win them as a Fully Active Reference.

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The good salesperson’s three tasks… or four?

Task No. 1:

To awaken and increase the customer’s slumbering desires! To consider Awaken desires!
them against the background of his objectives! Make the beautiful look even
more beautiful, the precious even more precious, the desirable even more
desirable and the unique opportunity even more unique!

Task No. 2:
Dispel doubts!
To dispel the customer’s doubts that a certain decision could be
“unreasonable”,“unwise” or “too great a risk”!

“Leading companies are among our customers.People known for their good
judgment have come to the same decision. It is difficult for us to satisfy all
the demand.”

Task No. 3:
Help the customer to be happy
Do all you can for the customer’s expectations to be fulfilled. Stick to the with the purchase and to gain
promised deadlines! Arrange for conditions of payment which the customer maximum benefit from it!
should be reasonably able to fulfil. Continue to pamper the customer even
after the deal! Continue to stress the great value of the customer’s
decision! Give customers a chance to show their enthusiasm by active sales
support. Grant the customer the distinction which comes from the
opportunity of helping you (Fully Active Reference).

Whether you sell toothbrushes or cars, industrial plant or textiles, know-

how or ideas, the salesperson’s three basic tasks will always remain the
same.The difference between selling hot dogs and industrial plant lies not
in the basic task (namely to make the right person do the right thing at the
right moment willingly), but in the ways and means which the salesperson
may use to reach this goal.While the seller of industrial plant may point to
the additional possibilities of combination and variation and to further
applications,the hot dog vendor could possibly use the enticing smell of the
product to help sell it.

Task No. 4:
Sell the customer’s
wishes inwards!
Is selling just mediation between a company and a customer, or should
modern salespeople consider themselves as information brokers between
market and company? Customer orientation also means selling inwards.

By the way:There is a well-known coffee dealer in a small Swiss town who roasts
coffee down in the basement from where the delicious smell is directed through a
small opening right onto the pavement… A greengrocer in the same town displays
his grapes outside the shop, under a transparent, orange-coloured plastic awning.
No wonder these grapes look better than the competition’s identical ones!

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 The selling process

SELLING means helping customers come to a decision for their own good,
encouraging them to a brave action of their own choice, according to their
own better judgment.

But courage and good judgment are not among the main characteristics of
people; it is not always easy to help the customer come to the proper
decision. But we can climb the highest mountain, overcome the greatest
difficulties and go a very long way if we don’t lose heart early and if we
advance consistently and perennially step by step from one stage to the
next.
Advance step by step!
Just as with a difficult bit of climbing, step by step progress is essential in
selling. Let’s assume that you are ordered to go to the far end of a
telephone line and to do so in dense fog. What will you do? If you’re
clever,you’ll make for the next telegraph pole.From there,you will aim for
the next pole, and so on, until you reach the objective.

Our approach:

a) Preparation

The objective of this step is:

A salesperson who is self-motivated, who feels the need to bring the fu-
ture customer “good tidings”.

b) The first contact

The objective of this step is:

Future customers who feel that I, as a salesperson, am more interested
in their wishes and problems than glorifying my offer.

c) The presentation or demonstration

The objective of this step is:

A future customer who is surprised to experience (see,taste,smell,feel
and hear) that your product is the one and only solution to the problem,
that my company is the only possible partner if there weren’t still other
obstacles in the way of a binding decision.

d) The written quotation or proposal

The objective of this step is:

Future customers who see the written proposal as their own brainchild.

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e) Closing the sale

The objective of this step is:

To lead the customer to the liberating YES to binding co-operation.

f) Customer support

The objective of this step is:

The Fully Active Reference:An enthusiastic customer who is proud to help
us sell. A flag-bearer for our product or service, for our company and for
ourselves.

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 Customers have the choice!

Take a look at yourself!

You have the choice You as our customer have the choice now:

1. To realise at every step that this or that in this text does not match your
opinion, past experience or present professional activity:

“I cannot identify with this!”

Condemn
“This has absolutely nothing to do with my type of business and my key
problems!”

“This is too primitive and unscientific for my taste!”

”Nothing new; all this has been heard a hundred times before!”

etc., or:
Question yourself
2. To let yourself be stimulated into not merely judging and condemning,
but into thinking and beyond it to close observation and practical
experimentation.

It is not at all necessary to be of the same opinion in all aspects from the
very start.What would we do with each other throughout this training if right
from the start we were all of the same opinion in every possible respect?
How boring!

Look at everything you don’t immediately agree with as an exercise in

flexibility and creativity. People who are more open, more eager to
learn,more flexible, are more successful in business life than those who are
always inwardly opposing – from habit or from principle – everything which
at first sight appears unusual, strange or different from their expectations.
Act
It is not a question of whether you identify with what is being offered here,
but of whether you think about and come to terms with it and try it out in
practice, sampling this or that as a possible alternative.

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Future

The decisions get even more complex. Answering the following questions
may help.

Do I know
– the decisions?
– who supports me?
– who could bring down the project?

To have long-term success, we draw the conclusion:

Strategy is what the customer wants!

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 Which points in this text do I consider to be the most important ones…

…and what do they mean for me, in practice?

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