Do You Sell Without Written Goals or Lists?

Selling is the only profession I know that doesn't require any training. Sure there are occupations in which one can set up business without formal training. Occupations such as lawnmowing, labouring to name a good proportion of them. But Selling is a profession, not an occupation, and yet this is where you'll find a good proportion of people acting like headless chooks. I call them headless men.

I constantly talk to salespeople and one of my favourite questions is , "How many books on Sales do you read a year?" I'm sometimes told 1 or 2, sometimes 3 or 4 but rarely 10 or 12. So here you have a dilemma. If you were a medical practitioner, you would read a new journal every week to keep up with what you were doing. In fact, most professionals have weekly, or fortnightly updates. A smaller proportion have monthly journals - but that is in addition to other studies they carry out off their own back as needed.

To me, anyone who is in Sales and doesn't read at least one book a month directly associated to Selling - is not "Fair dinkum". In addition to that, the majority I speak to have either never had any formal training, or if they did have, they didn't pay for it. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know any other profession where you can set up business without either formal training, or at least a certificate first ... EXCEPT SALES.

Then I'm told by others, I'm being constantly trained on the job. To them I point out, "Who is doing the training, a formerly qualified trainer or an associate, a peer or a manager who has not been trained , or at best paid for no more than a handful of seminars in a life-time of Selling".

If this makes you feel uncomfortable - its meant to. Its because of this one point, you are where 'You are today". Working at a level which is only a fraction of your potential. The training you receive today is designed to give you some short-cuts and at least fast-track you into some of the concepts that make a professional what he or she is ... A Professional.

The dictionary describes PROFESSIONALISM as: "Engaged in, connected with, or worthy of the standards of a profession." If you think you're safe because your "Engaged in", or "Connected to", lets look at the second part which states "Or worthy of the standards of a profession." The dictionary goes on to describe PROFESSION as: "An occupation requiring advanced education".

The bottom line is, without the appropriate education you won't understand the basics and therefore have trouble with more advanced concepts.

The manner in which this training has been designed is to provide you with both the basics and the directed advanced, but presented in such a way, if you apply either from today onwards the benefits are enormous.

Let’s Face the Truth

Now for a moment you need to be totally honest with yourself; face the truth no matter how painful; and be prepared to grow because of it.

Do you occasionally or regularly:

? Have poor follow-up ? Start projects and don't finish them ? Can be bad at paperwork ? Or even shabby on details

Then at times do you feel you could be:

? Indifferent about deadlines ? Indifferent about follow-though ? Indifferent about goals ? Indifferent about time management ? Indifferent about responsibilities

If you answered yes to three or more of these questions, chances are you will have answered you to more than half. And if you did say yes to three or more, perhaps we should assume that you have not had any formal training outside of what your company has given you.

This questionnaire is designed to not only do that, but to also show that you are one of the sellers who find it hard to do what you know you should do.

That’s the main reason for:

? Poor follow-up ? Procrastinating about unfinished work ? Bad paperwork ? Or shabby details.

and thats why people suffer from:

? Indifference to deadlines ? Indifference to follow through ? Indifference to goals ? Indifference to time management ? Indifference to responsibilities And these are just four reasons why. My job is to bring the causes out into the open and to help you resolve them. But first, you will need to make that decision to resolve the issue, otherwise this will turn out to be another time of unresolved conflict, that will add to the already high levels of both the extreme and internal conflicts people can suffer.

... Need to be both mentally and physically prepared ...

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This Article is by Peter Collins - In a sales career spanning more than 50 years, Peter Collins has focused on helping and bringing out the best in others - whether it involves training or mentoring salespeople, managers, business consulting to SME’s. Since the 1970’s Peter has built a reputation as a Nationally and Internationally Published author, and has 65 books to his credit, but he is mainly known for one book based on the Audio Tape series of the same name, Over 50 Ways of Closing the Sale. In his personal life, Peter has been sought after as an encourager and motivator that has given of his time and talents freely despite his busy schedule. Subsequently, he has assisted churches, pastors, community and charity groups, as well as individuals through his teaching, training, development and on-going mentoring. © Copyright Peter Collins, Profit Maker Sales, Sydney, Australia, 2015, all rights reserved. Peter can be contacted through his website – profitmakersales.com - Submit your articles to AMAZINES.COM

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