How to Sell Like a True Professional!

By Carl Schoner

"How To Sell Like a True Professional!" is a complete sales training course and motivational manual rolled into one little book. The author draws upon his background in behavioral science, corporate sales training and clinical hypnosis to articulate a highly inspirational and motivational argument hammering home the point that the only thing preventing most salespeople from achieving great success in life is their own thinking!
Throughout this book he presents powerful tips, techniques and methodologies that salespeople can use to overcome this limited thinking, while at the same time addressing all of the traditional material covered in an intermediate or advanced sales training program. Easy to read and simple to understand, this delightful book is packed with powerful information that will make it an essential handbook for anyone who is serious about improving their sales performance!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781304836304

Book preview

How to Sell Like a True Professional!

HOW TO SELL Like a True Professional!

By Carl Allen Schoner

B.A. Behavioral Science

C.Ht Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist

Professional Sales Trainer

Published by Carl Allen Schoner

CAS Associates

P.O. Box 4462

Diamond Bar, CA 91765

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

www.lulu.com/carl-schoner

All original artwork by Carl Allen Schoner

© Copyright 2006, by Carl Allen Schoner

ISBN: 978-1-304-83630-4

All copyrights reserved by the author. No part of this publication may be reproduced or copied in any way without the express written permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America.

768198-5

This book is dedicated to Joe Letko

- One of the greatest sales managers of all time.

Currently (March, 2007) the richest woman in the entire world, and the richest person in all of China is Zhang Yin, a woman who had the foresight to begin buying American waste paper and selling it to China just a few short years ago. She started with just $3,800 and now has an estimated personal wealth of just under $5,000,000,000.00.

If I were a rich man,

Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.

All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.

If I were a wealthy man.

I wouldn't have to work hard.

Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.

If I were a biddy biddy rich,

Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man.

-         Lyrics of the song "If I Were A Rich Man"

from the movie "Fiddler on the Roof"

by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock

INTRODUCTION

It is often said that nothing gets done in this country until somebody sells something to somebody else. A building cannot possibly be constructed until someone conceives an idea and then sells a sufficient number of investors on that idea. Construction cannot possibly begin until an architectural firm sells their services to win the design contract. Raw supplies and fabricated materials must be bought and sold, and equipment and machinery will trade hands many times over before the construction is earnestly underway. Contractors will promote, sell their services, and bid for the lion's share of the construction contract. Interior designers will come forth with proposals and sell their ideas for beautification to prospective tenants and owners. And when the project is completed a whole slew of other providers will descend on the now thriving community to sell ongoing service and maintenance contracts to create a virtual economy within the walls of the building.

Even if you believe that everything I have just said is a crock of bull, and that good salesmanship is a skill best reserved for snakes and charlatans, you must think again, for if you are employed in any capacity at all, then you had to successfully sell yourself to gain that employment. Whatever you are now is the product of your own sales efforts to promote yourself to others, and everything you will ever become in life will be dependent on your ability to successfully sell your talents, your ability, your education, and your personality to the people you meet.

Yes, nothing ever happens until somebody sells something. The word sales signifies the cornerstone of a capitalistic society, and while many people in la-la land tend to think of the sales profession as being somewhat less than professional, the truth is that salespeople constitute the vast majority of wealthy people in our society, and those who are really successful are usually wealthy on a magnitude of many times, or even  hundreds of times greater than those other professions that we normally associate with wealth and success, such as doctors, lawyers, and the like. In what other profession than sales can a person earn $100,000 in their first year, $500,000 in their second, and perhaps millions of dollars within just three or four years? I personally know several people who have done just that selling everything from the usual suspect products such as Real Estate and Insurance, to less obvious commodities such as cardboard boxes and funeral plots.

One thing that makes the sales profession so desirable is that good salesmanship skill is easily transportable. That is to say, once you know the basics of good selling, you can sell just about anything, anywhere, and anytime. Once you have learned how to sell tools, you could just as easily be quite successful selling automobiles, insurance, boats, real estate, or whatever else you want. This is because you will always be selling to people, and good salespeople are keenly aware that their knowledge of the customer's needs, wants, and desires is always more important than the salesperson's mastery of the technical details of their product or service. So once you learn how to sell to the customer’s needs then you should be able to sell almost anything, to anybody, and make a great, great deal of money in the process.

Having acknowledged that we are all salespeople, after all, the goal of this booklet is to teach all readers how to be better salespeople. While not everyone has all that it takes to become a superstar in sales, everyone can learn simple techniques that will enable them to advance their skills and become better salespeople. There is nothing magical or mysterious about what it takes to be good at sales, but people do need to understand what those requirements are, and that is the purpose of this little book. In the next 100 pages or so you will learn everything you need to know in order to make good money in sales. Of course, good salesmanship is really an art form so you will need to hone these skills over time, but this book will discuss all of the essential sales techniques, skills, and best-practices that you must know in order to succeed.

I should also say that while this book is targeted toward those people who are actively engaged in selling, or just beginning to make a career out of sales, the principles described in this book are applicable to many situations in life, and therefore will be of value to almost everyone who is socially active or employed.

Finally, because my background and career includes experience as a professional sales training, corporate sales training manager, and as a clinical hypnotherapist, I am really quite excited about what I have been able to accomplish with this little book, because I believe I have drawn some clear illustrations of some of the common ground that these varied fields share. Both involve planning and making presentations that attempt to get other people to see a new point of view, and both are engaged in persuading other people to accept ideas and take some action that they might not have considered had it not been for the personal intervention of the interloper. The most obvious common ground that is shared between them, of course, is this art of persuasion, and  it is my hope that this book will provide you with some new and novel concepts borrowed from the art of hypnosis than will enable you to rise to new heights in your career as a professional salesperson. 

Let’s face it; we are all salespeople in one way or another. We either sell genuine products, or we sell our skills and talents, but mostly we sell ourselves and our ideas in some way or fashion every single day. The tool of persuasion is the most powerful and flexible tool known to mankind. Those who learn these principles of persuasion and couple that skill with a mastery of all of the more pedestrian principles discussed in this book will ascend to great heights in their sales careers, while those who don’t master these skills will be left wondering where everyone else has gone.

PART I

THE SALESPERSON’S MINDSET

THE SALESPERSON’S MINDSET

A good salesperson wears many different hats. He or she must be knowledgeable of their product or service, of course, but they must also be a little bit of a psychologist, problem solver, detective, counselor, motivational speaker, accountant and coach. They must also be extroverted, highly motivated, and possess a burning desire to succeed at their profession. It