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The most effective women and men in selling that I have met, somehow just keep getting better…even though they are already held in very high esteem by both customers and management. These people do not find business to be easy, in fact the opposite is true; they see the challenges of attracting, serving and selling to customers as being one long, enjoyable struggle. The high-achievers that I have met are young and old, and some went to university and some left school at a tender age…and yet they all remain ardent students of business, always keen to learn and improve. Although we have been invited to believe that top performers in sales are possessed of an outgoing, confident and assertive personality, the truth is that this better breed of business people are most often quiet…but everyone listens to what they have to say, due to their ever growing value.

An enduring and crucial quality that these people develop is giving their best to customers, not because they ‘love customers’ or any of that nonsense, but because they see every customer as a mirror image of themselves…in the sense that they treat customers and prospects as they themselves would like to be treated. This is why leading sales people engage in ‘down-selling’, not up-selling, meaning that they begin with what is best for the customer, rather than to ‘try’ and ‘mention’ additional ideas…if they remember to do so, or if they are under enough pressure to do so. As individuals, they expect that their doctors and other ‘professionals’ will offer the best solution to them, and so this is the way that they behave as business professionals with customers and prospects. Not only do these high fliers sell the best solutions, they also help to facilitate the buying process for customers…who might worry about not being able to afford better solutions.

Enterprising, successful sales people also stay well clear of any form of so-called education that represents the opposite to what they know and believe…such as ‘sure-fire sales techniques’.

I can’t imagine that you would let anyone put garbage in your house or car, so be consistent and don’t let anyone try to put defective business thoughts into your mind. Although I am sure that no one means to serve up a diet of drivel to sales people, they often do, and the pathetic ideas fed to them include the need to…‘be positive’, ‘set goals’, ‘close the sale’, ‘handle objections’, and perhaps the worst of all: ‘ask for the order’. Just for the record, very good sales people are learning to ‘be accountable’ (which means they have no choice except to be positive), also to ‘set standards’ (which will ensure that sales goals are reached); to ‘open the sale’ (which makes closing it a little easier!), to ‘anticipate objections’ (which means they stay on the front foot)…and to ‘suggest the order’ (as opposed to begging for it). The kind of education sought by winners in selling is information provided by business people who have paid the price, so to speak, not by glib motivational speakers who want to show you some short cuts to success. Top performers need special ideas, not specious ones.

As mentioned earlier, excellent sales people serve and sell to customers as they themselves like to be served and sold to…so here are some questions to help you or your team to improve performance:

• How do you feel when it takes an eternity to ‘reach’ someone in service over the phone?
• How do you feel when someone in service/sales shows little interest in your buying mission?
• How do you feel when faced with a sales person who is patronising, and intent on selling you something you don’t want?

If you hate these experiences then don’t ever be guilty of treating customers, or colleagues, in such wayward ways. That said, if encountering bad behaviour is a form of antidote to stop you doing the same thing, we should remember that most alcoholics come from families that suffered the same fate. The equivalent in business happens when management fails to give good service to staff, so imagine how such staff give service to customers.