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As I travel around the country meeting and working with sales professionals I am constantly amazed at how few people in our industry ever planned a career in sales at a young age. I ask audiences with hundreds of people in them how many had planned on being a sales person when they were in high school. You can guess the answer, hardly any! My son Scott is a junior at Arizona State University and he recently asked if I would come in and speak to his communications class on creating persuasive presentations. I asked this same question of this class of 50 students figuring a few would be thinking a career in sales would be a good idea. My answer: Zero, Not one student was thinking sales would be a career for them. Yet statistically 47% of those young adults I was speaking to would be in a sales job within 4 years. I find it fascinating that out of the 4.158 Colleges and Universities in the United States only 35 offer a course and degree in Sales. So here many of us are, we never planned for this career, never thought it was something we would pursue yet we find ourselves selling for a living. The current economy is certainly taking its toll on the unsuspecting population of new sales people. Many of the clients I know work with are even in professions that would not normally be considered as sales professions. Medical and dental services, home repair companies, banks, all types of business are now clearly realizing that in order to survive in today’s economy they need to get out there and market and sell their product. So how does the new “accidental” sales person survive and even thrive in the current economic downturn? Well it is simple, it may not always be easy, and however it is certainly simple. Let me give you two quick fundamentals to help the “new to the industry” sales professional to succeed in today’s market. 1. Don’t talk so much. One of the things the public hates about sales people is that they try and do all of the talking. It is also the trait that most identifies you as a typical salesperson. This challenge is common because companies take people who have not sold in the past, teach them all about their product and then expect them to sell it without proper training. What this results in is a “spray and pray” method of presenting the product or service. One “sprays” a bunch of facts and features and then “prays” one of those will persuade the customer to buy their productAsk more questions, slow down a bit. Show your customer that you care more about them then you do about making a sale. Customers can smell commission breath a mile away. Ask them questions that relate to their needs and wants and are open ended enough to get them talking to you. I promise you will be very different than the other sales people. I have found one of the greatest ways to understand the best ways to learn how to approach and interact with customers is to consider how you like to be treated. Think about how you feel when people try to tell you everything and don’t seem to be very interested in what you need or want. That will help keep you focused on the right types of open ended questions to use. 2. Talk to lots of people.

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