30 Years of Sales Knowledge in 28 Minutes

I have been in sales for over 30 years and I've sold something to every Fortune 500 company at least once most of those sales have been in the tens of millions and I have formulated a 10-step plan to make any sale happen this process will help you learn to sell and if you like it or not you are a salesperson people will judge you they will make decisions about you as a personal brand and your product without you even realizing it so if you can't sit and listen for 5 minutes to all this knowledge I'm going to give you for free I'm afraid you're not going to make it so there's probably 10 steps to sales both how to actually think like a salesperson get sales done closed and then ongoing sales repeat sales referral sales I'm going to teach you it all it's about 10 steps but they blow into each other and the end part of this video is just as important the points at the end of this video if you don't know them you can't apply the bits I'm going to teach you at the beginning to learn sales you also have to learn patience and perseverance and focus the first thing I want to teach you about sales is that some people like to call it marketing it makes them feel better in the end it's all sales everything is about sales you can call it marketing if it makes you feel that you're cooler it doesn't really make any difference it's about getting people on your side it's about connecting converting and realizing that at the end of the day no business can survive zero businesses would succeed if you didn't sell something to someone now I'm going to teach you a certain type of sales I prefer ethical sales an example of non-ethical sales in my opinion this might seem extreme but I don't want you to fall into this trap is what I call the 99p rule people try to trick people they try to say it's 2. 99 or $4. 99 or 1.

49 million instead of 1. 5 because basically they want to trick you they want to make you think that somehow it's cheaper of course on property pricing sometimes they do it to fall within a certain category but they don't really want to sell it at that I think in sales the thing that's not said enough is be honest be authentic I never see anyone all these sales courses I see people selling telling you to do that they talk you about NLP where you can trick people or using words to manipulate people I even saw a recent video where someone was talking about how they pretended they didn't have the product anymore so that the customer would then buy this is all it's a way of tricking people into getting a quick sale which is quick money the quicker you go up the quicker you come down don't listen to this the best sales people in the world the best way to sell is authentic make a connection with someone and that person will be with you forever I sold my very first thing at 15 years old with no sales experience I was honest I said to someone I need money I want to do your garden please pay me they saw the authenticity I had no brocher no website no sales training and they said yes and I think today this word authenticity is not used enough in sales and initially you might even reject it write it down it's key to sales if you're authentic you don't just sell once to someone you sell again and again and again I recently took my wife to the mini garage to buy her a car and when we looked through all the different options the salesperson knew that none of these options suited my wife the best thing she did was say you probably should buy a Tesla now I know it sounds crazy someone in a mini garage working for BMW telling us to buy someone else's car but you know what it did it made us connect to that salesperson it made us leave our contact information with that salesperson and when that sales person does contact us she's understood our needs we probably buy something off her she didn't try to sell us something we didn't need I've done exactly the same in the past I got some part-time work in a clothing shop when I was young someone put on a suit I know that the shop wanted to sell it but I told the person it didn't look good on them and from that moment onwards they trusted me I only worked there for the summer but they trusted me forever I know this authenticity thing is real I don't know how to convince you other than to tell you it's made me Rich from being poor and I know you're going to watch a million other videos often ones that charge you to tell you this is how you trick people into selling don't apply this in your life and you'll have a better long-term relationship with everybody you sell to I sold coaster ads an advertising product to someone 20 years ago now maybe a little bit longer than 20 years ago they bought it they then worked with my agency they then invested in my businesses they then partnered with me for two decades or because I sold them something that I authentically believed would help their business and it did I delivered I over delivered and that's the second step in sales whatever you sell you want to be able to overd deliver right and how do you overd deliver in sales you make sure that what you're selling you believe in you make make sure you don't say something that isn't true about the product even if someone tells you to do it if you're working somewhere and they tell you to sell something that isn't true it's your personal brand on the line don't do it walk out that door only sell what you can deliver on and I know quite often in the sales process in the excitement of selling you want to promise much more than you can guarantee well then break it into those two parts say this is what I can guarantee and this is what I hope might happen an example I've had many times in my life is PR companies that sell they come to me and they say Simon we'll get you in every major newspaper in the world and then they'll pay they want me to pay a monthly fee and they make that promise but the ones I've worked with the ones that have come and said this is our plan to try and get you coverage in every newspaper in the world for what you're trying to do to help people s this is what we'll try to do this is what we guarantee we'll do we guarantee to write up a good press release we guarantee to take good pictures to put you into the Press we guarantee we've got a good mating list of people that should write about you but we cannot guarantee they're going to write about you and those are the people I want to work with forever these are the sorts of people you want to work with these are the sorts of people you want to be authentic and don't overpromise the third thing in sales and in a minute I'm going to get to what I think is the glue that puts this all together but the third thing in sales you always need to do is find your own style now I have seen introverts do amazing things in sales and the key um a lot of people think only extroverts can sell right people that like people are the only ones that can sell it's not true I don't know how this stuff becomes a belief system for us all it's not true in fluid my agency business that I sold a price waterhous Cooper the best salesperson in that company was my accountant why well I did my job I'm going to come to that in a minute I trained her properly right in fact I write it down now right train a team to all think sales I'm going to come to un explain this bit one a minute but she basically would go and have lunch with other CFOs other accountants and they'd be asking her what she's doing and she'd be talking about how the business she was working at fluid was turning companies around was saving businesses was changing the world making sure people didn't lose their job and make sure these companies survived and she said it because she loved the company and she believed in it and you know what happened those CFOs would go back to the boardroom and tell their CEO and then next thing you know we get a phone call and email asking for a meeting for us to get involved and work with them she was the best salesperson I was actually labeled up as the salesperson INF fluid but she was the best salesperson I got my best leads from her the point I'm trying to make here is find your style find how you like to sell it doesn't matter what I tell you to do it matters what you can naturally do so for example if you like to write blogs go on LinkedIn go on these blog sites and write blogs about your specialty about what you find interesting go out there and apply yourself in a way that is comfortable for you there is a famous quote around marketing and sales which is 50% of what I spend on marketing gets lost gets wasted I just don't know what 50% the truth is most of the time when we're selling the best sales people don't even know they're selling you're just sharing knowledge sharing information being proud about your product or service and that in itself causes a sale you got to find your style lean into that Groove whatever it is if you're an introvert then lean into that if you're an extrovert lean into that I'm going to get into specifics of types of selling in a minute and break down the different types of selling um but I just want to initially just set you up with the right mindset so authenticity don't oversell always overd deliver and find your style I'm going to get into the specifics of the different types of sales that you can do to get the business you need to sell yourself to sell your business to get the client cents and to Holy Grail I think get clients to promote you the fourth thing I briefly mentioned a second ago is train the team in sales a lot of the time the best people to sell you are the people you work with so that can be your clients that can be your colleagues that can be your mom it doesn't really matter you want everybody who's involved in your life to be selling what you're selling and that means that they are trained now it might sound weird if I tell you to go train your mom to sell your product and your mom might initially reject it but if you explain the product to her in a way that excites her it means that it supports you she will be your best salesperson now I don't want to miss out the dads don't forget to also train them up everybody should be your salesperson but it's up to you to train your team and make sure that that's the case now number five I want you to know the rules of selling and they are teachable I don't know why they don't teach you this at school I think I know why they don't want you to be free but I know for fact there are three steps to getting any sale any sale I don't care who you are or what your skill set is if you follow these three steps you will get any sale most people start with the last step first most people start with this is my product and this is how much it is it's a mistake that's not how you sell the first step is very simple identify who could buy your product you've got to actually know the person who's going to buy it understand if if they really need it so for example you may have seen the thing sell me this pen in the movie Wolf of Wall Street right most people when I give you this pen we'll start selling it the first question you need to ask is not would you like to buy this pen and this is a lovely pen do you like do you like blue look at it it's nice and strong and it's good brand it will last for forget all that first thing you need to say is do you need a pen do you need a pen now people say no then you ask them when in the future might need a pen you break down when the desire and the need for this product might occur and if you're not sure and I I ran a service business for 15 years you don't know when people actually needed my business services so what did I do every single month for 9 years I contacted Brands like apple somehow with something to help them remember me you have to be there when the sales is needed if you sell someone a pen then they don't need a pen you're going to waste your time you're going to waste their time and you're going to be frustrated thinking there's no Market fit for your product identify the client what they actually need do they actually need your product if they need your product then you can move on to the second stage and the second stage takes a bit of work which people can't be bothered to do and they wonder why they get less reaction on sales the second step is understand the person you're selling to make a relationship in an ideal situation you like them and they like you you want to like them because if you sell something to someone and you don't like them or they don't like you your life's going to be a nightmare even if there is a product Market fit and they need a pen you don't want to be caught in a situation where they have bought something from you and you don't like them and they don't like you the irony or the other spin on this is if you've got this first two steps right you know they need the product they need you second you like each other the people selling and people buying like each other you need each other and you like each other I have never not completed the third stage of those first two were in place the third stage is here's my product this is what it does this is the service it offers I guarantee you that third step will be completed if you get the first two right I've even had cases where clients have said to me this is the amount of budget I've got this is what I'm willing to do Simon they tell me how to write the contract to get the third bit right they tell me what to price it as sometimes more than I thought I was going to charge or needed at the time to charge to support me because they like me and they need our service they want us to do well they want us to make profit when you identify these things sales gets a lot easier now there's another very important part of sales but I wanted first of all before I move on to the next bit to make sure you understand sales is a system it's a system that process is a system now the three steps to sales I've just told you there I'm going to tell you obvious things you need products like pipe drive you need tools that allow you to track the sales so for example when I was selling for 9 years to the client I wanted to win win I had to track every month what I had done and if someone else came in and took over the sales process for a little while I had a system in place like I mentioned earlier I would send them a Christmas present I would send them a newsletter I would send them a happy birthday note I would send them some industry news that I just noticed might help their business do better I didn't always sell them but I always connected to them and you need a system things like pipe drive to do that you need products that help you remember who you're contacting and remember the process of always connecting so systems the three step process and then making sure you've got the tools to help you do that process next up number six on the list leverage in sales you need leverage leverage sales is basically where you perhaps are a new company a new brand no one knows you yet and if I um if I contact a company and I had this experience when I started fluid I would ring up a company and I would say hi my name is Simon from fluid and I'd like to help you with your marketing and they were like they didn't have we're too busy go away or hang up you're all going to have this experience right rejection is something you need to get used to in sales I don't need to tell you that buto I think the the thing with Leverage is if you can get one brand name or one client on board and maybe initially you have to do it free in some cases um you can leverage that brand to help your own brand lift up so for example my company we managed to get CNN as a client this is back when CNN was a good brand we managed to get them on board as a client and we did a great job for them and what we then did is I would ring up and say hi I'm Simon squib I'm working with CNN on a project I wondered if I could come and talk to you about your company and what we could do to help you so suddenly now and this is 10 years ago CNN was a more respected brand but then CNN then that name allowed us to get in the door with other people it's it's it's a delicate one because I don't want you to lie but I want you to see how you've got to leverage what you've done and what you've got now to get CNN as a client we have to do a free piece of work for them so sometimes that's an investment in leverage you need to make an investment in leverage now of course you also have to do a good job for that client because if they then oh I know CNN or I know John at CNN and they check reputation matters so make sure you've got your reputation in line do a good job for people but I think Leverage is perfectly fine and perfectly normal it's a good way of helping people who hear your first sentence connect to who you are if you're working for a Big Brand they think right you must be a good company so use leverage in sales number seven on the list is don't sell a product sell the outcome of the product too many people when they go to sell something tell you exactly what product they've got instead of focusing on the outcome that product can bring you if you use it for example the terminology I've used before on this is sell the sizzle not the steak right so so you don't sell the actual steak there's millions of steaks out there sell the feeling of the steak if you look at adverts like hug and us they're not telling you about the ingredients because if they did you probably wouldn't eat the so what you're actually doing what they're actually trying to do is have a feeling of when you eat the ice cream oh love and romance you're with someone beautiful they're creating a feeling right apple is the same Apple what what Intel processer is in an apple can you tell me no one cares right because they're selling a feeling it's got to learn to sell a feeling now I'm going to come on to another point in a minute which is around storytelling but I want you to understand that any product anything you sell is about the feeling so when I was selling fluid I wasn't selling that we were the best marketing company in the world I was selling the fact that we cared about having a result for our clients we prided ourselves on the success of our clients I didn't break down that we did email marketing and SEO and built websites and built competitions and marketing campaigns and adverts and billboards no one gives a about that stuff and that's what everyone else was doing which is why we beat them because we were selling an outcome we were selling the sizzle not the steak there's just so many examples of brands that have actually done well that do this I mean LinkedIn for example sells that you can get a job on that platform you can build your brand on that platform they don't really tell you well there's a like button and there's a comment button and you know you can actually uh DM people and say none of that matters that's just part of what obviously the product does it's what the product giv gives you that people care about so learn to sell the sizzle what is the sizzle for your product tell me in the comments I want to know what the sizzle is I don't care about the steak number eight this one might seem obvious I'm surprised how many people don't do it only sell what you believe in it's easier to sell something you genuinely believe in too many people are selling things they don't believe in and they are therefore not good sales people or you can be a good sales person selling something you don't believe in you will get sales especially if you follow my rules but at the end of the day sell something you believe in it's so obvious isn't it sell something I think that has an outcome that makes the world a better place or the person you're helping have a better life sell something you believe in I'm going to put it in here I don't need to talk about it for long um I I feel with all my heart that so many people don't actually realize this I have to say it it feels common sense and obvious um but you will find that you are anyone can sell something they believe in that's the irony but so many people don't sell what they believe in so only work with companies well if you're going to work with someone make sure you ask for Equity but that side if you're going to sell something sell something you believe actually brings value sell something you believe can actually make a difference in people's lives number nine now this type of sales I want to explain to you now can sound a bit like 6 around leverage but actually it's quite different some of the best ways to sell are other people selling for you now I mentioned this earlier in team training as well but these two ideas blend into 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