Issued by: SALESGURU Publishing


As one of the foremost sales writers, trainers, thinkers and speakers on the planet, Gitomer invests heavily in the notion that old manipulative selling techniques are fundamentally useless, and that - as much as it might be considered heresy in many sales corridors even today - customers are not actually idiots who will suck on clever sales pitches.

Say it like it is
Part of what makes Gitomer so compelling is his ‘say it like it is' approach. In a recent sales seminar attended by SALESGURU in Palm Beach in the American state of Florida, Gitomer asked the question: “Do you know why you're not getting in front of enough customers, or getting enough orders?” His response: a big slide with the words “YOU SUCK AT SALES”.

Another part of Gitomer's magic is that he really, really thinks about this stuff. He is a bright guy, but what makes him the one amongst us that commands $40 000 a day - his actual fee - is that he invests all his time and energy into mastering all aspects of sales. To put that claim into perspective, another of Gitomer's favourite questions is: How much time does the average salesperson spend on becoming a sales expert?” An hour per month? 15 hours per year? That's probably close, right? Well, how much time does the ‘average' (like there is one) Olympic athlete spend on becoming Olympic-class? How about eight hours per day, six days per week, for four years?

In other words, you get back what you invest. You become excellent only by putting in excellent effort.

A library of learning opportunities

Among the greatest examples of Gitomer's output are his books: the Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude, Little Black Book of Connections, Little Red Book of Sales Answers, Little Red Book of Selling, The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless, Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, and Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching. Full of ‘use it now' wisdom, these books are a must have for any sales library. In the next few pages, we'll take a look at some of the exciting lessons you'll learn from them and some other pearls of Gitomer's sales wisdom.

Kick Your Own Ass
Principle 1 in Jeffrey Gitomer's best-selling ‘Little Red Book of Selling' is to Kick Your Own Ass. Get used to Gitomer's teachings and you will realise soon enough why that is Principle 1 instead of “master cold calling” or “learn to overcome objections” or “prospect, prospect, prospect”, or any of the approximately 18 trillion other sales-related lessons that could have made it to the number one spot.

According to Gitomer, if you don't Kick Your Own Ass, you will not be a success. If you don't compel yourself to take action and apply your energies to improvement, nobody else is going to do it for you. in fact, he takes it a step or two further:

“No one really wants to help you. Very few will inspire you. And even fewer will care about you. People care about themselves, just like you do.”

“Twenty-five years ago I was standing outside my hotel in Chicago waiting for Mel Green, the CEO of Advance Process Supply (my client). It was February. The snow was coming down sideways. It was 5:30 a.m. After I unthawed in the car, Mel and I began talking about his latest project which as usual turned from an idea into gold. “Damn you're lucky,” I said. He looked at me and winked. “Hard work makes luck,” he replied. That single expression has been my gateway to millions of dollars. And it can be yours. Not every human being agrees with my personality, my philosophies or my style, but no human being can say that I don't work my ass off. The secret I have found in the kick your own ass axiom is that most salespeople will not do the hard work that it takes to make selling easy. But here's a bigger secret: work your ass off. All the rest of the principles can be taken to the highest level by working your ass off.

The difference between sales failure and success
In the intro to the ‘Little Red Book of Selling', Gitomer outlines 18.5 Secrets of Success, among which are self-belief, having the right associations and exposing yourself to what is new. But as ever, Gitomer doesn't step softly around the topic of success, and as usual his message comes across clearly that fundamentally, the person most influential in making you successful or not is ... YOU!

Plan for the day, he says. Become valuable. Take responsibility and take action - “Actions are the only way to bridge plans and goals with accomplishment. Nothing happens until you do something to make it happen - every day. Are you action or B.T.N.A? (Big Talk No Action).”



Jeffrey Gitomer's 12.5 Values of a Sales Professional
Taken from Jeffrey Gitomer's Sales Bible, the Ultimate Sales Resource

1. The value of creating a difference between you and the competition.
The key is perceived value. The biggest difference is the difference they perceive in YOU!

2. The value of knowing the difference between satisfied and loyal.
Satisfied customers buy anywhere. Loyal customers stay, fight for you and refer. Will they order again? Will they recommend you to others? That is the measure.

3. The value of your ability to speak and be compelling.
If your sales message is boring, they pass. If it's compelling, they want to buy. Engage them with great questions and ideas.

4. The (value) of knowing everything or being too busy to learn.
Stay a student - every day. All the information you need to succeed already exists. You may not be exposing yourself to it.

5. The value of establishing a friendly relationship.
All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not quite so equal, people still want to do business with their friends.

6. The value of your humour.
If you can make ‘em laugh, you can make ‘em buy. Study humour.

7. The value of your creativity.
Your key to being perceived as different lies in your creativity. Creativity can be learned.

8. The value of asking for the sale.
It's so simple, no one does it.

9. The value of belief in yourself.
To make a sale, you gotta believe you work for the greatest company in the world. You gotta believe you have the greatest products and services in the world. You gotta believe you're the greatest person in the world. Three key words, you gotta believe.

10. The value of being prepared.
Most salespeople are half-prepared. They know everything about themselves but they know nothing about their prospect.

11. The value of not whining and not blaming.
You may think you're the greatest - but if you whine and blame others, no one will like you or respect you.

12. The value of an apple a day.
An hour of learning a day will make you a world class expert at anything in five years.

12.5. The value of a YES! Attitude.
Attitude is EVERYTHING - to you and your success. You become what you think about. Your attitude is at the core of every action you take.


Six questions for Jeffrey Gitomer

SALESGURU: What is the greatest thing about sales?
Jeffrey Gitomer: Freedom. Freedom to choose a product that you love to sell. Freedom to travel and build relationships. Freedom to be outside while others are inside. Freedom to earn on a commission basis and in many cases an unlimited basis. If you combine all those freedoms, you have an opportunity to take advantage of the best career in the world.

SG: What is the worst thing (does a YES! Attitude guy even think there is a ‘worst' thing?)?
JG: I don't believe that there's a “worst” thing in sales. But I do believe that there's a “toughest” thing about sales, or a “hardest” thing about sales. It's rejection. Most salespeople, on their way to success, will be rejected 7 out of 10 times. The ability to accept rejection and see it as a lesson and as a report card are critical elements in a salesperson's drive to succeed. There's an old adage that says, “They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting the offer you made them.” But I don't fully subscribe to that. I believe that oftentimes a rejection is the fault of the salesperson for not asking the right questions, not making a compelling presentation, not having the right value proposition, or other elements of the selling process that he or she has complete control of. There is no way to completely eliminate rejection. That's the hard part. But you can dedicate yourself to learning from each rejection so that you can turn a few of those “nos” into “YES!”

SG: What's wrong with most sales training?
JG: In my 30 years of sales training, it disappoints me, almost hurts me, that so many salespeople are being taught the wrong way. “People don't like to be sold, but they love to buy.” For the past 10 years, my company, TrainOne, has taught buying motives rather than selling skills. By focusing on why and how the buyer buys, salespeople can double their sales and so could sales trainers.

SG: Why do sales people fail?
JG: Salespeople fail for three reasons, all focused around one word: BELIEF. They fail to believe in their company, they fail to believe in their product, and they fail to believe in themselves.

SG: What should South African salespeople know about you?
JG: I love what I do. Those five words are the core of my success. I'm a salesman. I'm a speaker. I'm a writer. I'm a salesman. I'm a dad. I'm a granddad. And I'm a sports fan.

SG: What question would you like to ask our readers?
JG: What are your biggest stumbling blocks to sales success and how can I help you overcome them?

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[1 Sep 2008 16:06]

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