101 Tips To Be A Better Salesman

There is an awful lie that is being and has been spread throughout the general population. A lie that has ruined more futures and handicapped more people than just about anything else. A lie that if believed will keep you forever a slave and will prevent you from ever achieving your freedom. Now I know you’re asking what is this lie that is so great and has hurt so many people?

That lie is that learning sales is optional. Perhaps if it was called something else it would have a different connotation much like when some people think of “game” they think of clowns in fuzzy top hats with nail polish. But instead when you call it attraction or inter-gender dynamics suddenly everyone is interested. Call it persuasion, sales, or not being a dumb ass. Sales is an essential life skill and one that has to be learned.

Sales is the foundation of your freedom. Sales is getting what you want without using brute force, which is incredibly important especially with our current legal system. It isn’t manipulation like many believe but rather logically putting things in their best light. It’s taking a shower after the gym before you go on a date. Is that manipulation or not being an idiot? Regardless learning sales is one of the most important things you will do so I have gathered together 101 sales tips designed to make you much better at this essential skill.

The 101 Tips To Make You A Better Salesman

1. Make sure you’re speaking to a decision maker and not an influencer.
2. Have a great attitude.
3. Selling is the prerequisite for all the success you are going to have in business and much of life in the modern world.
4. Having a deep understanding of your product always helps tremendously.
5. The number one reasons a business (or entrepreneur) fails is because of lack of capital and the number one reason for lack of capital is lack of selling ability.
6. I bring these points up because before anything you must sell yourself on selling.
7. Put simply sales is addressing the prospects objections until the only logical next step is purchasing your product/service.
8. Everything is sales and life is a commission.
9. Never argue or disagree with the prospect, lead them where you want. Never fight them.
10. People don’t care about price as long as the value they are getting is higher.
11. Know your prospect. People buy for different reasons. I.e. a housewife buying a stove will be different from a engineer buying a missile guiding system.
12. Even God and Satan need good sales people.
13. Memorize the sales process.
14. Great salesmen are made not born, you could replace salesman with pretty much anything other than top level athlete and it would still be true.
15. You and the prospect are on the same side. This is not an adversarial relationship. You are trying to get the prospect to get his or her needs met. Don’t forget this.
16. You get good at sales through practice. Sit down with a friend and go through sales routines. Just like sparring with a partner is the only way to get good at boxing it’s the same with sales.
17. If you hate your product or service you’ll never be successful at selling it. No matter how many tips and tricks you learn.
18. People are sold through emotions not logic. Though logic does play a role.
19. Just because a customer doesn’t show interest doesn’t mean they are not interested. Don’t confuse the two.
20. Confidence plays a huge role in sales just like in life. Look if a prospect senses hesitation in you how do you think they are going to feel? Never show doubt, even if you feel it. The best way to prevent this is increasing your sales knowledge and product knowledge.
21. Set good sales goals.
22. Assume the sale.
23. What are the top ten objections to your product/service? If you don’t know off the top of your head and can’t address them then you need to do this ASAP. Get a piece of paper write them out and answer them.
24. Utilize those in your network. Everyone knows someone who knows someone. You’re not imposing and if you think you are then you need to resell yourself on what you’re doing.
25. Don’t neglect former customers, they are the easiest to sell.
26. If there are commonalities between you and a prospect (i.e. both like the same football team) make a note of it and bring it up. People like those who are like them.
27. Even if you think what the customer is saying is ridiculous you don’t want to fight with him about it. Agree with him then lead him towards where you want to go. Agree first, close later.
28. Is you don’t close then you’re just wasting your time.
29. With that said a prospect must be taken through the sales process you can’t leap straight to the close or you’ll never close. Show them the value of your product or service first and then you can proceed with the close.
30. More than anything else people buy through trust. Anything you can do to establish this will help you in the sales process. Even things like dressing well and presenting yourself professionally will go a long way to establishing trust. Think doctor wearing lab coat.
31. Never blame your prospect for anything, take responsibility for everything that happens. When you take responsibility for something you also have power to change that something.
32. Never bad mouth the prospect (even behind their back).
33. Just to make it clear if the customer doesn’t buy it is your fault. This is an incredibly empowering belief.
34. Never forget people often doubt their own ability to make a good decision. You must reassure them not only about yourself but about themselves as well.
35. No trust = no sale, No credibility = no sale.
36. Understand as a salesperson people are naturally going to have a certain level of distrust for you unless they know you and even then. After politicians salesmen are seen as the next most untrustworthy thing. Never take it personally.
37. Knowing your shit goes a long way to establishing credibility.
38. People don’t believe what they hear but they believe what they see. So always have the data you need in writing so the prospect can see it with their own eyes. Show don’t tell also applies here.
39. Use third party data whenever you can because it will also build your credibility.
40. If you feel any shame for being a salesperson (and honestly we all are salespeople at some level) then you need to get your mind right first. Sell yourself on selling (I repeat this purposely, because it’s so damn important).
41. Prospects are going to do research on your product/service, make sure you stay up to date on what is out there. They will Google it!
42. If you give someone an enjoyable experience they may buy your product even if they don’t want it desperately.
43. Having a great attitude with great product and you’ll be unstoppable, along with having good sales skills.
44. Making people feel good is an essential part of being a good salesman and making good money at it.
45. Treat all your customers like millionaires, treat people the way you want them to act.
46. A positive attitude is contagious.
47. Eat healthy, lift weights, dress nice. These all have an effect on your overall presentation and mood which plays a big part in sales.
48. Sales like any other skill takes time to develop and there is a world of difference between a beginner salesman and a master salesman.
49. No matter what business you are in, you are in the people business. Sales is no different.
50. People come before products and especially before processes.
51. If you want to be a better salesman you have to make a commitment to the craft. It cannot be just a hobby.
52. You are helping the customer get to the sale.
53. Think of it as you are a guide, guiding to the prospect what they desire which is your product or service.
54. Cut off toxic people. Including friends and family.
55. Sales is technically a numbers game but so is everything in life. If you approach no one you will get no sales, this should be blindingly obvious. With that being said is it skill that makes the difference.
56. Let the prospect talk, sometimes they’ll even talk themselves into the sale.
57. Ask questions and more importantly get answers to those questions.
58. Cultivate high energy.
59. Beware of doubters, sales is full of them (they tend to be the ones that suck or get burnt out).
60. People will take out their frustrations on you because you as a salesman are the only person they can. Just smile, don’t take it personally, and focus on helping this person out by closing the sale.
61. A limited mindset will neuter and destroy any sales success you may have.
62. Some people say you can’t succeed at sales, they’re full of shit (and probably either weak or jealous or both). Never listen to losers.
63. Doubters are more toxic than anything else on this earth. Especially when you first start in sales (or anything for that matter).
64. People spend more on their wants than they do on their needs.
65. Always trust your gut, it will rarely mislead you.
66. Most prospects will say “no” at least once just so they don’t feel weak.
67. When a prospect says no you need to give him more information about your product or service raising its value.
68. You only have a prospect when the value of your service/product has exceeded the price in their mind, until then nothing is going to work.
69. Pickup, sales, life all have more than their fair share of hucksters on one side and cry babies with limited mindsets on the other. Avoid them both at all costs.
70. The prospect is more persuaded by the depth of your conviction than the height of your logic.
71. Never forget whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.
72. Don’t be afraid of pressure at some point it needs to be applied.
73. You can’t bail just because things get hot. Have balls and see the deal through to the end.
74. You want to sound natural, this comes from drilling and practicing. As well as understanding the basic objections that people tend to have and how to answer them.
75. Drilling different closes and objections is going to build confidence, so do so.
76. It’s rarely price that’s the issue.
77. Always try to find out what is important to the prospect and don’t think the first thing he or she says is necessarily the right answer. Look at the deeper answer. Is she thinking about joining the gym because she “wants to get healthy” or because men have stopped checking her out? Once you know the real reason the prospect is considering the product/service the easier it is to sell them on it.
78. People want more than just the lowest price they want to know they are buying the right thing, making the right decision, and most of all that it will solve their problem.
79. Find the prospects motivation for purchasing and you’re almost guaranteed to make the sale.
80. Remember “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want”
81. A good way to understand when to use emotion and when to use logic is this. Logic makes people think, emotion makes them act.
82. Give value, help others.
83. Success is the best motivator and your success is in a large part dependent on your selling skills (and not just in sales but in life!).
84. Become a boss at handling objections. Yeah this is broad but I’m not going to be able to teach such a broad and deep area in one tip. Just know you have to become great at handling objections.
85. If you think asking for the sale one time is enough, you’re going to starve as a salesman.
86. You have to make the prospect want your product more than they want their money.
87. Solve the prospects problem, that’s what this is all about. It’s simple but it’s something salesmen overcomplicate because they get caught up in overcomplicated bullshit.
88. Build the value high enough and the prospect will come up the money.
89. Money isn’t people’s biggest concern, getting rid of their problems is their biggest concern.
90. Figure out what problem your prospect is trying to solve, ask!
91. Own your product and use your service whenever possible.
92. Prospects are more concerned with making a good decision than how low the price is.
93. Prospects will often tell you that it costs too much then go and spend 2x that with another (better) salesman.
94. Only shitty salesmen think that price is most important or that sales is completely a numbers game.
95. Salesmen stop the sales, not customers. Customers are not the problem. It’s not the customer it’s you. Cut out that bullshit victim mentality. Take full responsibility for your selling career, just like you would your life.
96. What a big dollar amount to you may be nothing to someone else. Look through the prospects eyes not your own. Have empathy (but not sympathy).
97. Thinking is contagious, this works in positive ways and negative ways.
98. Knowing human psychology is a prerequisite for life. This applies to attraction, sales, and everything else. Be a student. Learn how people think and what influences them. For example knowing people buy through emotions then later rationalize through logic puts you ahead of most people out there who try to convince through logic.
99. There is no set formula, rather know the formulas and know the principles then adjust as needed. We work with humans not machines.
100. Selling is 80% people and 20% product.
101. Having negative beliefs and a negative attitude will prevent you from ever accomplishing anything.

To Be A Better Salesman

Becoming a better salesman is a lifelong commitment and just like learning survival skills or attraction skills is an important part of your life. We are all salesmen selling all of the time. Understand this. This isn’t a negotiable skill. Unless you become some hermit on a mountain who never interacts with another human being again then you are going to need sales skills. To further you knowledge I’m going to recommend two books on the subject. The first is Sell Or Be Sold by Grant Cardone and the other is Secrets Of Closing The Sale by Zig Ziglar. They’ll give you a good head start and get you going in the right direction.

I’ll leave you with this great quote by Ben Feldman the greatest insurance salesman ever “You make the sale when the prospect understands that it will cost more to do nothing about the problem than to do something about it.”

If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.

-Charles Sledge