Ice cubes to ESKIMOS

Entrepreneur,  August, 2000  by ROBERT McGARVEY

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The Five Commandments Dare to break these laws ... and you'll fail in sales.

If you had to name one of the world's top speakers on achievement, the first name to come to mind should be Brian Tracy, who has authored several books, including Advanced Selling Strategies (Fireside Books) and the recently released The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). Based on his two decades of experience, he shares these five "absolutely unbreakable" laws for sales success:

1. Thou shalt build credibility with thy customer before attempting to sell. "The most important ingredient in a long-term sales relationship is trust," says racy, who adds that the more a customer trusts you, "the easier it is to sell and keep selling to the customer."

2. Thou shalt learn the customer's real needs by asking questions and listening carefully to the answers. "The better you understand a customer's situation and what he or she needs to improve his or her work or life, the easier it will be for you to match the benefits of your offering to the customer so the customer accepts your recommendation," says Tracy.

3. Thou shalt position thyself as a problem-solver, helper and teacher in the mind and heart of thy customer. "The way the customer thinks about you when you're not there is the most important determinant of how the customer responds to you when you are present," says Tracy. When you're viewed as a problem-solver, the customer welcomes your input.

4. Thou shalt commit thyself to excellence in selling and never stop growing in skill. Like anything, good selling takes hard work Tracy urges entrepreneurs to "resolve to be the best at what you do. Read in your field. Listen to audio tapes. Take sales seminars. Never stop improving."

5. Thou shalt set goals for every area of thy life and work on them every day. If you want to succeed in selling, says Tracy, you must "have specific, written goals" and set daily schedules to achieve those goals.

Close Calls

Tips for perfecting "the close"

An undisputed master of selling, Tom Hopkins is one of the nation's top names in sales training. He spends much of the year on the speaker's platform, but Hopkins is also a prolific author, whose titles include Selling for Dummies, Sales Prospecting for Dummies, and Sales Closing for Dummies (all from IDG Books Worldwide). If you want to close more sales, take these tips to heart:

Eliminate distractions. "You need to be in control of potential clients' attention," says Hopkins. "Keep them focused on the matter at hand by moving to a quiet area."

Be enthusiastic. "If you're not enthusiastic about the wonderful benefits of your product, why should potential clients be?" Hopkins asks.

Emphasize the emotional aspects of the sale. According to Hopkins, people make decisions emotionally, then defend those decisions with logic. "So, you must be prepared with the logic, but sell with emotion," he says. "Get them thinking about how they'll feel after they own the product or service.