Virden Thornton is the founder and president of The $elling Edge, Inc., offering sales training programsin sales, customer relations, sales management training and sales training coaching. Virden is the author of 101 Sales Myths and Building & Closing the Sale.
The legendary Joe Girard, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s “greatest salesman” says, “You gotta sell yourself...I make every customer want to do business with me...because I sell Joe Girard; the greatest product in the world!”
Joe states, “From the moment he (the customer) walks in, I don’t care if I haven’t seen him for five years, I make him feel like I saw him yesterday and I really missed him.” Joe explains, “You know, sincerity is something you can’t read about or have someone teach you, you’ve got to be natural and do you know what? People like people who are honest and a salesman’s gotta be honest and show he really cares.”
It’s obvious as you learn more about Joe, that his claim to fame is not in his knowledge of automotive industry and selling cars, but in his understanding of people and what they want. Joe’s ideas must work because when it comes to selling automobiles and trucks, he has had no equal. In fact, his nearest competitor over the years for the title has only been able to produce half the record set by Joe in any given year.
As a selling professional, one of the most effective ways to “sell you” and build rapport with prospective customers or clients is to stop talking and let the people do the rest. All that is required is to ask the people about themselves and then sit back and really listen to what they have to say. As your prospects tell you about their personal situations, you are actually doing more to “sell yourself” than if you tried to point out all of the great attributes that make you an outstanding representative for your company.
Over the next few weeks, try selling yourself by asking decision-makers some personal, open-ended questions and then listening intently to what they tell you. You will be surprised how easy it is to interest them in purchasing your products and services, so that you can start setting some records of your own.
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