1. The best salesperson I know is the owner of the company I’m at now. This is what I’ll say about him.
His sales technique is okay. He asks decent questions, doesn’t spend a ton of time expanding on pain points, and can even be sometimes annoying when talking to a prospect (he’s old and likes to knowledge dump).
But the reason he is so good at sales, is because he is wildly popular, and even more passionate about the product. If you’re in our industry, you know him. He’s a magnificent networker and very enthusiastic. Because of that, he doesn’t have to focus so much on technique. He has friends and referral partners that believe in the product as much as he does, and this translates to the customer.
I wouldn’t recommend not learning good sales technique, but there’s something to be said about brilliant networking, enthusiasm, and an unwavering confidence in a product.
“People don’t believe in our product. They believe in our belief in the product”
2. 1995 – selling shoes on commission at Neiman Marcus ( believe it or not people did 6 figures in business that long ago ). Ron was a gift. He had only 2 fingers on one hand and was your Al Bundy but… One who made bank. Taught me to anticipate objections and upsell. Ex: woman wanted two shoes to try on, he brings out another 3, then walks her to handbags, then jewelry. And exquisite customer care… We had old school black binders filled with our clients. He would call them and let them know a size X in this shoe came in and would look amazing on them… The customers are.it.up… He would rmemeber everything about them and detail it in his black book.
This was back when people died of aids. And he fell down to it. He had rolls royces lined around the funeral from client’s giving their respects to him. Sobbing. He was their friend, confidant, support system in many ways.
3. A buddy of mine, I’d be a top sales guy but he’s blown my numbers out of the water in a separate firm but similar market for years.
He’s the nicest most humble person on the planet, but he’s also insanely confident, cutthroat when necessary, and has no problem challenging clients old or new for their bullshit the second they start acting up.
He’s methodical in his approach, plays into the emotions of his own clients insecurities and just doesn’t deal with the bullshit. Super good dude all around too which goes a long way.
4. First boss out of college taught me that my job was to get information. Don’t sell, just listen. Then genuinely solve their problem.
Another one later in my career accompanied to what I knew was going to be a complete mess of a meeting. The previous sales guy oversold the service. Gave a year all you can eat for the office of what should have been a month. 9 or so months in we’re told by corporate to turn them off. I brought the subject up with them, and they in turn demanded this meeting.
The meeting started with the customer ranting about how we were unethical, etc. And to be clear, neither me nor my boss really knew the promises from the previous guy. So she asked, “What do you think you bought?” Their director answered, all you can eat for a year. My boss simple said, “Ok. That’s what you bought. No problem. But that’s not what you’ll be buying when this is over. Let’s go over your current usage and what you’ll need for next year. Fair warning, you’re going to pay a lot more.” Customer calmed down and said ok. She turned $25k into $775k.
5. My first sales job out of college, our top salesman was a late 30s guy named Marc. We were selling portfolio management in the Bay Area.
He was as smooth as you expected..custom suits and shirts but never a tie. A bit of a fake tan and slick hair. Super nice to all us Junior people. Only came into the office when absolutely necessary for a huge client. Only person he answered to was the founder of the company. You could feel his confidence.
So eventually we get to see him in action with clients and prospects..he was the warmest dude I’ve ever seen.
He gave the perfect amount of smile. Not too big and fake and bigger than a slick guy smirk. Good handshake as he smiled at them.
Listen intently and really focused on the prospect/client. Walking arm in arm with any female prospect over 55 as he told me once “they expect a younger man to help them around a bit”.
Outside of business stuff, always had enough knowledge to talk about the prospects interests intelligently.
He charmed tech nerds and old ladies born into old money all the same. He made between $1-2M in straight commissions for the whole time I was there.
6. Female Rep, savage and so fucking smart. I get to listen to her work a lot here are some of her greats
Close, Unclose, Reclose
She’s closing a client, they agree to move forward. She stops before he signs and she goes “Look I know this is going fix your problem, but I’m not confident you believe that so before you buy I need you to believe that, so what questions do you have?”
The clients goes “O no I’m sure” she goes “Are you sure” they go “yes” and she goes “Tell me what your looking forward to most?” they go “X” she goes “Great, lets do this”
She says this technique has drastically reduced her cancelations. She likes to use it when she thinks they might cancel, and yes sometimes she can’t reclose, but in her eyes she’s rather not close the deal then deal with the cancelation later.
I’m the expert, not you, you listen to me
I over heard her basically tell a client “You are wrong, and the reason why your wrong is cause of X and Y is really correct because of Z”
Acknowledge Bad With No Cushion
If an objective that is negative comes up and true she will say “Yes, that’s correct” and she lets it sits, then she explains why it has to be that way.
I’m going put you down as a no
She uses this on client she knows she doesn’t wanna follow up on, says it has more then doubled her maybe converison rate with less work. If she can’t get them to agree to a yes or no at the end she says “Look, I have a great product it helps people like yourself everyday, and I’m very busy and it sounds like you don’t want to move forward, and that’s ok. However if you change your mind or have questions just send me an email first please, I won’t do regular follow up”
She says that level of confidence in her product translates a lot to those maybes, maybe of them are surprised when she’s not even like “Yea sure I’ll call you” nah she’s like “I know i’m special, so if you want this, your going need to EMAIL me first” because she’s too busy to be taking random calls.
Great, google us
customer is concerned about our reputation or our company, first off this works because our SEO is fucking kick ass, our reputation in our industry is top notch, and we have this down to a science. So…we get this luxury.
The customer is nervous, and unsure about us she goes “You go to a restaurant, the waiter is rude, the food is cold, you were thirsty for half the meal, what are you going do when you get home?” she gets them to admit to wanting to leave a negative review.
She goes “Alright, so you’d say its fair that if people have a negative experience they’d write about it right?’ customer goes “yea” she goes “Great, google us”
And she means RIGHT now, she has the client go through our reviews, thousands upon thousands of good reviews, and she even says “See any negative reviews?”
She’s super confident, she doesn’t waste time, she knows her business. She’s the top rep by 30%. She’s also SUPER professional YET so fucking pointed, she will reach into your soul, crush your heart, do it with a smirk, and make you feel good.