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"Applied" Sales Psychology
Starting, or continuing to learn more about sales is probably what separates you from the rest of the crowd of sales consultants. Congratulations. In general, sales companies are growing in understanding that there is a technology related to being a good sales consultant. It is not just being a good conversationalist.
The concepts of sales psychology are entering what I call the awesome stage, and new training methods, and sales training manuals are beginning to take advantage of all the new data coming out on how the brain works, and how people think. This technology is transforming the world of sales. Can this transformational knowledge be gained from a sales training book? The answer is yes, if you are willing to change and practice.
The challenge for industry has always been maintaining a supply of efficient, and effective sales consultants to sell products or services. Even today, companies still buy into the concept that product and service knowledge equals sales training. Nothing could be further from the truth. Companies expect that someone who says they are a salesperson, just naturally know what to do after they are armed with product data. Sadly, this is not true.
We're all familiar with beginner’s luck. We see it on the baseball diamond, the bowling alley and with board games. We also see it in business, most observably in the sales arena where an amiable, extroverted personality is said to have a “sales personality”, or is a people person. Upon analysis, however, a large number of extremely successful sales people border on being misanthropes (someone who dislikes people in general), and have a strong analytical, left-brain component. These so-called analytical types generally use a methodological, consultative sales process that they leaned from a good sales training book or sales training professional. Rapid Sales Success is a methodological, consultative sales process.
This data in Rapid Sales Success presents a shift in thinking, as it is obvious that an extroverted personality is a good thing to possess, but it is not absolutely a necessary component to being a peak sales performer.
You should be aware that anytime any kind of training is being introduced, there is a resultant mental confusion. Mental confusion is a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior. Simply said, you feel like you are going a little crazy, you become introverted into the new process. This introversion can be a little or a lot uncomfortable. If, however, you keep introducing the order of the new process itself, the confusion goes away, and you'll be a lot better off sales-wise then you ever were before. Can you say, "Great closing ratios?"
Don’t make the mistake of trying to handle your mental confusion, as you will end up with more confusion. The rule here is that anytime you introduce orderliness, like a training method, you always get mental confusion. It is a symptom of order being introduced. Handle this by pretending it is not there, re-double your efforts, and keep trucking with your training - precisely. In fact, if you are ever experiencing any mental confusion in your life, you can generally trace it back to some kind of order you or someone else have been introducing. Just know that confusion is handled by continuing to introduce order – do not chase the confusion – do not give up.
Continuing to expand your knowledge is the fastest way to increase sales. It’s like the old saying, “if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got”. So, before you can change what you are doing, you have to change the way you think and believe by increasing your knowledge. One of the best and easiest places to start is with a good sales training book.
