August 2010

by Hank Trisler, Author of No Bull Selling: 2010 Edition, and reprinted from SalesGravy

Silence used to terrify me. When I was a much younger man, just beginning to learn how to sell, I was convinced that selling equated to talking. If I wasn’t talking, I wasn’t selling and if I didn’t sell, I’d starve to death. That’s terrifying.

I immediately set off to rectify this situation on two fronts. First, I determined that I would learn every single feature and benefit of my product, so no customer would be able to ask me a question I couldn’t answer. I was trying to sell Oldsmobiles at the time, so I learned the differences between the 88, the Super 88 and the 98 models. I learned the piston displacement of the engines, I learned the cubic footage of the trunks, I learned so much my poor baby mind was just slopping over with product knowledge.

I couldn’t keep ahead of them. The customers still asked questions I couldn’t answer, as I hadn’t thought of them. Besides, the answers kept changing. I’d just learn one set of numbers and a new model would come along and it was a whole new game. Read More

{ 1 comment }