Do you think sales is a learnable skill?

I don't think that is an issue of people being unable to sell, but not being motivated to actually do it.

I think of selling in a much simpler way than a lot of people. I DO think everyone can sell. Some are just better than others.

I think it comes down to awareness, awareness in your life, awareness in yourself and in others. The more aware you are, the more likely you will be able to sell.

The things people have even said in this thread, listening to your prospect or lead, being able to press the right points, using the right rebuttals. Being able to do that, of course comes with knowledge that anyone can have, but more importantly having a high enough level of awareness to be able to do it.

Can it be learned? Yes.

I think people can learn to sell.

maybe everyone can't convice someone to buy something like a 700 dollar cell phone they don't need ( I think they can) but I think everyone can walk into a appointment, give a presentation, ask/answer some questions and close a deal.

Growing up I was stupidly shy, bordeline disorder. I didn't have many friends, I played sports but i would get so nervous I'd end up in the bath room stressing the freak out.

fast forward a few years in my small market, I was the dominant t-mobile contract salesman for every month that I was with the company.

be who you are, find a group of people who need what you have to offer, and give them a chance to buy from you. Is it always that simple? No but it most of the time it is.

Here is what selling is not;
Being glib and funny.
Being able to tell jokes.
Lying.
Conning people.


Selling is clear communication, and work. In my experience, most people are unsuccessful at selling. And one of the main reasons is that they are conditioned to behave in a certain way, and selling is counter intuitive.

Here's what I mean. Calling a stranger to ask for an appointment is not something most people are comfortable doing.

Asking people to buy, or asking for money is way out of most people's comfort zones.

I honestly don't think selling is a natural talent. I certainly am not a natural. Out of a few thousand reps I've hired over the decades, I've met one that took to it so easily, that I would consider a Natural.

There are skills involved. And they take effort to learn....and while you are learning, you will fail more often than you succeed. Most people aren't able to take that hit to their self image.

And selling well enough to make a good living is relatively easy to learn. Selling at high levels is about as easy to learn as brain surgery.

How easy is it to learn copywriting, stand up comedy, karate, playing the violin?

You can learn a lot in a few years. But it takes real effort, and dedication.... to be Great.

And no, you don't need to invest in expensive sales training courses. And, out of the 2,000 sales books I've read and own, maybe 10 are really useful. All the top salespeople here know which ones they are.

[QUOTE=animal44;10089171Just get a clear value proposition and be yourself...[/QUOTE]

Need another ingredient to make that work.

Best,
Doctor E. Vile

These activities are anticipated and expected in our society. Asking a stranger to give you money for a product/service is not. The kind of selling that is accepted is called clerking.


For example;

Ever applied for a job? ...and while you were there, asked him to buy life insurance?

Ever made a friend? ...and then asked her to buy a car from you?

Ever got a date? .....and then asked her to marry you on that date?

See the leap? The activities you mentioned are selling. But they are selling at the simplest, easiest level.

You see.....
Everyone has asked for a job and got one.
Everyone has a friend.
Everyone has been on a date.

Very few make a great living as a professional salesman.

And I think it's interesting. Let's take your "Ever ask for a date?". Perhaps that could be called selling.

Now, here is more information about the person you are asking out on a date....

She is already happily married. And going out with you would likely cause a divorce. And...you are asking her to pay for the date. You have an hour. Start.

OK, now that's selling.


I give the same speech as you, about how easy selling is, and how we do it in every day life. But, if you expect to sell at any level besides the beginner level, you need to know what you are doing. I'm not saying that you don't.

I admit that there are levels of difficulty selling.

Being a rep where they call in to buy, is about as easy as it gets.
Selling to businesses that already use what you are selling is pretty easy.
Selling at retail, even at high levels, is far easier than selling in someone's home.
Selling to large corporations in repeated interviews...may be harder yet, I don't know.

And even the best sales training program won't take a dullard from beginner to advanced. In the same way, no matter how much coaching I would get..I would never be a professional basketball player.

When I see a salesperson sell at a high level, the person is rarer than one out of a thousand. And it's a beautiful thing to behold.

That's because they're not smart enough to bring their preconceived misconceptions with them. Give them a plan and a process, tell them not to deviate and you'll be surprised but what they are capable of delivering.

When I used to hire for my telemarketing rooms I never hired what I perceived as the smartest applicants. Those with average intelligence with a need for quick and steady income were usually my most successful hires. I would tell them that I was hired to be the brains and that it was their job to follow the smart guy's lead. They loved that as it put all the pressure on me, to their way of thinking.

The smarter they got, the more they would deviate from our success formula and the worse they would do. If they were really smart they would take my advice and forget what they think they now knew better and get back to what I taught them, originally. That usually worked and once again showed them who the smartest guy in the room actually was. lol

Unless someone is just flat out socially awkward, I feel that I can teach almost anyone how to sell. Will they all be top producers. Of course not, but they'll make a decent living and I'll be happy to accept the overrides.

Cheers. - Frank

We call that diarrhea of the mouth and the fastest way to fix it ... is make them go back to reading the script - verbatim

Fixes the problem 100% of the time.

Well, there seems to be a lot of debate in the sales world about the pros and cons of working from a script, whether or not it should ever be appended to and if so, when?

Most of my telemarketing managing and training experience was in doing membership development for Chambers of Commerce and Better Business Bureaus. While we had a bit more leeway with the C of C scripts, the ones that I wrote for BBB membership development and member retention had to be approved by the bureau's board of directors and once approved, were written in stone. Any deviation from the prepared script could and usually did result in termination, if the board got wind of it. I even wrote and taught the response to any objection that could ever arise - word for word and never let the troops freelance. The main reason for that was the company had spent years fine-tuning these scripts and they were the primary reason for our success.

If you're a baker and you are given a recipe that will produce the best chocolate cake you have ever tasted and you bake those cakes day after day, year after year and the masses are gobbling them up - you've got a killer recipe. When I hire you, I give you a copy of my recipe and I tell you that you are not to deviate so much as to add or remove a pinch of anything in this recipe or the cake will fall. You go for weeks baking the world's best chocolate cakes and then one day you decide that you're a wee-bit bored with plain chocolate cake and you want a hint of cherry in your chocolate cake, so you add it in. Soon you realize that your cake sales are going down. How can that be? You took a great cake recipe and through your own improvement, you made it even better. Really? Then how come sales of chocolate cake are down? That's easy - you can't improve on perfection and yes - if you spend years tweaking a script you can create a perfect one for your market. It's not as if we created that recipe over a few days. We spent many years honing it, testing it, even just changing the order of a few sentences until we had a recipe that ANYONE could follow and themselves create the world's best chocolate cake. No cherry flavor needed.
Never! Not in my job description. Just read the script we gave you, word for word, with enthusiasm and confidence and make me some chocolate cakes. I was able to prove to anyone that walked through the door that if they had an IQ hovering around room temperature, would dial the phone just 100 times per day, would read my script without deviation - that I could guarantee them that even if they were unsuccessful 98% of the time they would bring home $1500 to $2000 a week (adjusted for inflation). We built the single largest membership development company in the US on that promise and at our height were under contact to over 100 offices, including the largest cities in the US. We took 78% of every dollar that came through the door with the Chamber or BBB getting 22% and they were thrilled to get it. That's because the 22% of what we brought in was much better than 100% of what they were bringing in by utilizing office staff and volunteers. See - 100% of almost nothing is almost nothing.

Keep in mind that what we were selling was an intangible. People would write us a check for an average of $400 and some up to $2000 just to feel good about themselves for writing it and for the joy of putting the $5 plaque we gave them on their wall and a $1 decal on their door. Oh, and a firm handshake and a heartfelt thank you, also. :-)
No. More like, "If you want to do it yourself, go start your own company."

Never, ever knock the power and viability of a script that you are forced to read, verbatim. It could be the smartest and most lucrative way of making money that you will even encounter.

BTW - I cut my teeth being trained by Bill Ziff of Ziff-Davis Publishing to sell his World Aviation Directory by phone to travel agents with a script that he personally wrote. So I was fortunate to learn early what a script could do. This was hard for me to adapt to as I was doing this as a 'survival' job while pursuing a professional acting career in NYC and I have always excelled at knowing instantly what to say and how to say it. Mr. Ziff recognized that talent in me, hired me, told me to put that skill-set aside and just read his script while projecting my personality. I have never been so humbled. The man's script was pure gold and I have used what he taught me, ever since.

Man, I really miss doing and teaching telemarketing. Getting old, sucks! lol

Cheers. - Frank

Because once in a blue moon, you just run into someone who wants what you have, without any attempting to sell on your part. And the fact that you were together for 26 hours helped. By the end of a 26 hour flight, he's either going to love you, or hate you.

I have stories like that too. People demanded to buy from me, when I made no attempt to sell to them. And after the fact, I would think about what happened. And what happened was that the demand was there already. And my "not caring" created a position of authority, which meant that my advice was valued.

Those "sales" are pure luck. Every salesperson gets them once in a while. But I could never make a living from them.
I've probably "fallen into" 20-30 sales like that over my lifetime. But I'm made thousands of sales by knowing what I was doing. (I'm talking about going out and getting sales. In retail, we make a sale a day or so, from someone just wanting to buy from us...and one or two from actually selling))

You can become very successful, without ever learning anything about how to sell. But it's very difficult to be a successful salesperson, without knowing how to sell.

Are you a salesperson? It's a serious question.

Apparently you've never met Claude Whitacre. If he used his natural personality when selling, his family would be living in a dumpster behind Taco Bell.

Cheers. - Frank