Selling at Mastery

Selling at Mastery

The Complete 20 Lesson Course

A Comprehensive, Self Study Discovery

by Jim Masson

Author of

Getting Paid is Good!!

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copyright 2012, Jim Masson

Smashwords Edition

all rights reserved

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only.

It may not be redistributed, altered or recopied

without the written consent of the author.

If you would like to share this book with another person,

please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it,

please return to http://www.Smashwords.com/

and purchase your personal copy.

Thank You for Your Integrity.

Cover design by:

Gianni Grando

In-Print Graphic Design and Printing

Nanaimo B.C. Canada

This book is dedicated to all sales and service people

who wish to improve their level of service to their customers

and to earn more money as a result of that service.

It is also dedicated to all customers who have

put up, for far to long, with poorly trained sales and service people.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

About the Author (If you are curious)

Introduction (A must read)

Lesson 1 Setting the Stage for an Outstanding Selling Career

Lesson 2 Understanding What Limits Salespeople and What Unleashes the Successful Master Salesperson

Lesson 3 The Five Levels of Living

Lesson 4 Finding the Edge. The 2% Advantage

Lesson 5 Fear and Need, From the Customer's Perspective

Lesson 6 Fear and Need, From the Salesperson's Perspective

Lesson 7 Rollercoasters, the Golden Keys and the Cycle

Lesson 8 Prospering From Your Gold Mine

Lesson 9 Getting Started on the Right Foot

Lesson 10 Filling the Need, The Art of Qualifying and Selecting

Lesson 11 Discovering the Presentation Skills to Create Blockbuster Hits

Lesson 12 Discovering the Power of Demonstrations

Lesson 13 Here’s the Windup, the Pitch and the Strike

Lesson 14 Getting it Done

Lesson 15 Sliding into Home with the Winning Run

Lesson 16 Pumping the Oil well. Uncovering Extra Nuggets. Doing a Little Gardening

Lesson 17 The Power of the Telephone

Lesson 18 More Communication Tools

Lesson 19 Tightening up the Loose Ends

Lesson 20 Survive and Prosper

Conclusion (An Absolute Must Read)

Lesson Summary Here you can find a quick overview of each lesson within the body of the course.

Acknowledgements

First, I want to thank my wife, Wanda for taking significant time from her own work to help me with the editing and proofing of this body of work. Her eyes caught many errors in my original document and her unique prospective helped me adjust my dialogue to improve elements of communication. I am truly grateful.

This material has been brought together as a culmination of knowledge obtained in over forty five years in the sales and service profession. Throughout that time, I had many teachers. There were those who employed me. There were my early managers. There were my fellow salespeople. There were my employees. There were those who I was privileged to manage. They all shared their knowledge with me. There were outside sales trainers and authors who provided insights for me to examine. And, of course, there were my customers who taught me what I needed to do to serve and sell at mastery. To all, I am extremely grateful.

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About the Author

Jim Masson is a businessman, author, sales trainer and sales consultant with a selling career that spans over 45 years. He has sold and managed the sale of millions and millions of dollars worth of products and services. Plus, he spent many of those years, training salespeople to function as master professional salespeople, while helping to build award winning sales teams.

Jim began his selling career while still in high school. While working part time for a full line General Motors dealership in a small town in Northern Ontario, Canada, he sold a pre-owned car at only seventeen years of age and was pleasantly surprised when rewarded with a commission for that sale. It the first of many, and he discovered that getting paid for his efforts was indeed, very, very good!

After attending Algonquin College Business Campus in Ottawa, Canada's capital, he had a successful selling career with large automotive dealerships there, before relocating with his wife Wanda to Vancouver, British Columbia, in the early 1980s. There Jim partnered for almost ten years in an automotive services business.

After selling his interest in that business, Jim resumed his automotive sales career as Sales Manager and Sales Trainer with major automobile dealerships which achieved new levels of sales and customer satisfaction success. A number of sales people who he helped train have become nationally recognized as Sales Leaders and Sales Masters and several were promoted to Sales Management positions themselves.

Jim has always recognized the tremendous need for professionalism in the selling industry and affordable training in all areas of selling and customer service. In order to share his extensive experience and success with those pursuing a career in the selling field, Jim initially wrote his first book, "Getting Paid is Good!!'' He has also offered live sales training seminars to both sales novices and seasoned pros, through school board sponsored Continuing Education classes on Vancouver Island, where he and Wanda make their home.

Now, he is very pleased to present to you, Selling at Mastery, The Complete 20 Lesson Course. This powerful ebook is a compilation of all the material that was initially presented over forty hours in his live, bootcamp style seminar presentations for salespeople. Included are additional strategies, tools and concepts.

This ebook has one defining purpose. That is, to provide effective and affordable Profession Development Training for any individual who sells any type of product or service, as well as business owners and sales managers, wishing to either upgrade their own selling skills or to train salespeople for a better future by learning how to sell anything … as a master professional.

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Introduction

Welcome to Selling at Mastery, The Complete 20 Lesson Course. Before we get started, there are a few important things to cover.

First, thank you for your business and your trust. It is really appreciate it. While I’m helping you achieve your dreams, I want you to know that you are helping me attain mine and for that, I’m truly grateful. You see, it’s my passion to help raise the skill levels of sales and service people in the marketplace. This will result in more sales, more salespeople getting paid more and much more often plus it will definitely create superior buying experiences for the customers.

Over the following twenty lessons, be assured that I will do all that I possibly can to exceed your expectations and load you up with tons of tools which, when you put them into play, have the power to dramatically increase your self confidence, your self esteem, your job satisfaction, your personal happiness and your income. Nothing will be held back.

Second, I sincerely want to congratulate you for making the decision and taking the necessary first step in changing your life for the better. Right now, take a moment please and do this one thing. Take your right hand and place it behind your left shoulder. Pat vigorously!! You deserve it. You should be proud of yourself for taking the action. Good for you!

Now, if you are just entering a selling career, then be prepared to unlock your full potential, both in terms of earnings and in terms of how you look at yourself in your daily living. This should be an extremely exciting time for you.

If you are already selling or serving now, my promise to you is that you will finish this course with a very full toolbox indeed which should pay for this course investment thousands of times over as you continue through your career.

I will try to present the material in such a way that it will make you feel that you are at a live seminar presentation. The style will be conversational. I try to anticipate questions and answer them at the appropriate times. I trust that this helps your grasp of all the concepts

Each lesson in this course is significantly longer than the chapters that are in An Introduction to Selling at Mastery. They each represent about an hour of seminar instruction, so do be prepared to dedicate the time to maximize your results. I’m not going to pretend this is all easy to master. It will take work on your part, however, it definitely will be worth it.

I’m going to share some suggestions with you that should help you get the most out of this learning experience.

>>> Grab yourself a note pad, so that you can jot down ideas that you might want to think about later without having to wade through the material again. There will also be some exercises in some of the lessons where you will need some paper.

>>> Try to work in a quite environment. You will retain more per reading session. It’s really tough to concentrate if the kids are pulling your hair, the TV’s blaring and the dog’s chewing your slipper. Elevator music is OK to listen to, but studying inside the elevator itself comes with far too many distractions. It has too many ups and downs and too many people coming and going, so I don't recommend it.

>>> Don't even begin to think that you can read and retain everything at one sitting. Your brain will explode. Because of the exercises and challenges, I recommend only reading one lesson each day or two for best retention. You can speed that up and try to do everything in a week, but my feeling is, that is really rushing it. There is no gold medal being the fastest. The gold comes with the best retention of knowledge and the best execution of the tools acquired.

>>> Take mini breaks, if you do try to accelerate the program. One thing I learned in a classroom or seminar setting is that the brain will absorb only as long as the fanny will endure. In a seminar setting, I have everyone stand and stretch for a couple of minutes every hour with fifteen minute breaks every two hours. At the computer or on a reading device, it’s your choice as to what your break requirements should be.

>>> Keep an open mind. Some (many) ideas will be totally new to you. If they are not, I’m not doing my job. Except for ethical issues, understand that it’s not about what’s right or wrong, it’s about what works and what doesn’t work. Isn’t that right? Malcolm Forbes said, Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. That’s great advice and I’m going to tell you, I’m not one to argue with Malcolm Forbes.

>>> Get excited! You are about to learn things that can change your life and help you get paid … lots, once you put them into action.

>>> Make a commitment to yourself to put your newly found knowledge into practice just as soon as you can. You know that old expression, use it or lose it, don’t you? Success breeds success and success breeds self confidence.

>>> Do yourself a big favor; reread each lesson immediately upon completion. This will add a considerably to what you will remember.

>>> Do yourself another favor, plan to reread all this material approximately every four to six months. You will be amazed by how much has been forgotten.

OK, let’s get started.

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Lesson 1

Setting the Stage for an Outstanding Selling Career

This course will unfold and develop in three distinct directions. We must begin by fully understanding that successful selling takes place in these three separate environments or arenas.

>>> First, we have the physical marketplace which we observe all around us, where goods, services and ideas are exchanged for money.

>>> Second, we have the minds of the customers who make the purchases.

>>> Third, we have the minds of the salespeople who facilitate the buying processes.

I really believe that most sales training fails to produce the desired results for salespeople because, for the most part, it focuses almost entirely on the first component while ignoring the other two.

I will state right here, upfront, that it s my personal opinion that what goes on in the mind of the customer and in the mind of the salesperson is far more crucial to the success of the selling process than is the physical marketplace. That is precisely why there are more failures than successes when selling opportunities arise.

If you have been selling for any length of time you’ll know what I’m talking about. Salespeople are often taught product knowledge, sales tactics, and techniques but are left to their own devices to try and figure out what’s going on inside the customer’s mind. Worse still, they aren’t given the knowledge and the tools to understand what’s going on inside their own minds as they try to cope with the challenges in the marketplace.

Large numbers of people avoid sales as a career, some others perhaps try it, only to give up on the profession because they haven’t developed the emotional tools that will ensure their success and longevity. My job here is to cover all three areas thoroughly.

Together, you and I are going to build the house from the ground up by laying in a rock solid foundation that will support your building sales career. You will want that career to stand the test of time for all the years to come. A sales career will provide you will all the success that you hope for and deserve, if you learn to sell at mastery. You will recession proof your livelihood.

I’m approaching this course from a special prospective and it will help if you can buy into these following special statements early on. If you can’t initially, it's alright. However, hopefully they will grow on you as we move along. If you can understand these concepts, it will certainly make things easier for you. I will try to provide you with easy as much as I can.

If you have read "An Introduction to Selling at Mastery", (if you haven't, you should. It's free) you have already heard me use this term a couple of times. Get used to it. You’ll hear it time and time again. Try to make it your own. It will serve you well. You’ll hear me use this mostly to describe things that we do in our lives that don’t serve us any more.

It’s not whether it’s right or wrong. It’s whether it works or it doesn’t work.

I offer this statement with a very important condition attached, so that there is absolutely no confusion here. This is never to be used to justify or condone any bad behavior just because an unscrupulous tactic could work. Never compromise your integrity! You will never need unscrupulous tactics in your selling career when you learn to sell at mastery.

The second thing I’d like you to acknowledge is this. Getting Paid is Good!!

It’s really quite amazing that at the subconscious level, many people don’t really believe this statement and we will get into this in great detail as we move forward. It might be helpful for you to take a couple of minutes at this time and quietly ask yourself if you truly believe this statement. If you don’t, that fact by itself maybe limiting your success in terms of your income potential.

The third thing I would like you to do is,

Question everything, ... but do so without any preconceived judgement. Always question in the context of does it work or doesn’t it? Albert Einstein once said, It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

I will give you concepts, ideas and techniques. These work for me and for many others. Some may feel they may not work for you, or you might not be able to fully embrace them easily. Don’t be afraid to question. I won’t feel bad. I promise.

My goal here is to help you learn and expand your thinking rather than simply try to train and condition you. What you choose to learn will serve you much better than simply what I teach. This means that you will develop from the inside out rather than from the outside in and as you grow as an masterful individual.

Understand this, what I want you to be doesn’t matter at all when compared to what you want you to be. I hope to be able to guide you to look at things differently, because when you do, the things you look at will change.

Think of it this way. When you are trained by someone, that someone is often doing something for you, but for their own benefit. On the other hand, when you learn, you are taking personal responsibility to do something for yourself, which will be for your benefit.

It doesn’t matter much what product, service or idea you are selling or looking to sell. It doesn’t matter if you are a waiter or a waitress looking to sell an order of fries to go with a hamburger, a clothing salesperson selling a suit or you are an executive salesperson selling a jumbo airplane or a 1000 room hotel, most of the information I’m about to share with you can apply to your personal situation.

I’ll use larger ticket items in many of my examples, but don't be thrown off if you sell something smaller or are currently compensated by salary only rather than by some form of commission. It doesn’t matter. All the principles will still apply. They will still serve to move you forward in your career.

In An Introduction to Selling at Mastery, I spoke about taking personal responsibility for your own life. You can look forward to hearing a lot more about that personal responsibility. It truly is a major part of your foundation for your career. If you haven’t already done so, consider adopting the concept of choosing personal responsibility as a way of life in all areas of your life. Start by saying out loud, maybe in front of the mirror every morning, If it’s to be, it’s up to me.

I wish I could remember where I first heard that statement. I would certainly love to give proper credit. I heard it many years ago, quite early in my career and it stuck. I’m truly grateful to the author of it. I can't think of any better way to express the concept of personal responsibility.

Alright, now that we’re warmed up a bit, let’s take a look at that enormous opportunity out there in that wonderful money pit we call the marketplace. Let’s you and I try to get a little analytical here. What the heck is buying and selling all about anyway.

I like to define it simply this way. Buying and selling is all about Needs, Desires and Value, tied to affordability.

Think about that for a moment, if you will. Behind pretty much every sale I can think of there is a need (also known as a problem to be solved), a desire (also known as feelings) and value (also known as price’s relationship to perceived benefits) tied to the actual or perceived ability to afford the purchase. Does all that make sense to you? If it didn’t, please read it again and think about it carefully until you grasp the concept.

This selling stuff isn’t rocket science. It’s simple enough, but as salespeople we really need to get into understanding the psychology that governs the marketplace. Fair enough?

Sales are made only when there is a perceived need or desire coupled with the acceptance of the value presented, linked with affordability. Digest that for a moment.

Now, throw the following concept into that statement and then stir.

Need, desire and value all represent different things to different people at different times. Each individual has his or her own perception of each. Their perception is their own reality. As a result, this becomes one of the greatest selling challenges faced in the profession, since this is the basis for virtually all decisions in the marketplace today. The most important element of this reality is this. How your customer perceives the situation is the reality of that situation.

That reality can be, and often is, quite different from others in the same or similar demographic group, even within the same family structure. This is scary stuff. It certainly can create some challenges. This particular challenge is what makes selling such an interesting and rewarding career.

Don’t worry, the solution to this problem is surprisingly simple and I will certainly unveil it in a future lesson. It can be summed up in a six letter word. You might even be able to come up with the word. That would be awesome! I’ll even give you a hint. The six letter solution starts with the letter L.

Reality can be altered by a master professional salesperson for the benefit of the customer. For now though, I ask you, do not rush through this. Stop and give this premise some thought right here.

As a master professional salesperson, you always have to be aware that your perception of the needs and value of your product, service or idea might be totally at odds with what your customer’s perception is.

Hmm, that’s interesting, because that has the potential for conflict, doesn’t it? Mix them together, if you dare. Take the salesperson’s perception, the customer’s perception and the clash of personal egos, … BOOM! What is created is one of the leading deal killers in the marketplace today. THAT’S BAD NEWS!! I hate bad news. But there is no need to worry about it. Why?

Because, I’ve got good news. No,make that great news. Your perception simply doesn’t matter. That’s right, only your customer’s perception matters in a sales situation.

If the customer's perception is different than your own, it doesn’t make the customer right or wrong, it just acknowledges that the customer has their own need, their own desire and their own money to spend as they choose. If you have the right product, service or idea to solve the customer’s needs, you will soon be able to alter your customer’s perception. Together, we are going to develop a program to take the salesperson's ego out of the selling process.

It seems like a good time to throw this particular thought in here. Many years ago, I heard some sales trainer, who I don’t recall by name, suggest that a successful sale was a product of the transfer of enthusiasm from the salesperson to the customer. At the time, I believed the statement was bang on. I certainly agree with the need for enthusiasm in selling, but today as I look back, I find that message a bit old school in its simplicity.

This isn’t to criticize the trainer, but in this particular message, I simply find it is one dimensional. Don’t get me wrong, I do teach and believe in the power of enthusiasm, but I teach it along side a host of other techniques and concepts.

To me, a more accurate description might be that a successful sale is more likely a product of 'successful communication' while a failed sales attempt is a 'communication breakdown'. Certainly other factors may be included but successful communication is truly at the heart of all transactions. Enthusiasm definitely forms part of communication, but not nearly all of it.

Said another way, in a sales transaction success story, the customer successfully communicates a need and the salesperson successfully communicates to provide an acceptable solution. This makes sense to me and to millions of customers every day. Does it make sense to you too? I hope so.

As we discovered in An Introduction to Selling at Mastery, the customer and the salesperson are often seen as coming from two totally different directions. This results in some very interesting dynamics in the marketplace. The general public has a stereotypical perception of salespeople and salespeople certainly have conditioned beliefs about their customers.

While stereotyping doesn’t serve humanity in general, since it leads to so much hate, divisiveness and intolerance, as salespeople we can put stereotyping to work for us in a very positive way.

Let me explain. If we go back to that 80-20 rule described in An Introduction to Selling at Mastery you will understand. If we sometimes behave like the stereotypical salesperson or see our customers from a stereotypical point of view, we will generally occupy a career position among the eighty percent. However, when we eliminate those behaviors, we will generally move to a place of honor and respect among the twenty percent. Let’s see how we can do that.

In your particular life, have you ever heard or chosen to use one or more of these statements?

You can’t trust him, he’s a salesman. You can’t trust any of them.

She would do anything to get the sale, just like all the other salespeople.

He ripped me off, just like I knew he would. They all do.

Or a salesperson’s favorite, Buyers are all liars.

I have little doubt that you’ve heard one or more. The question is, have you said or thought any of them yourself? If you have, you’ve bought into accepting the stereotypes of the marketplace.

My point here is this. Observation of an individual person’s behavior or actions in any given situation is quite fair and in fact, it is very appropriate. The problem develops when we observe a particular person and then, because of their personal actions coupled with our feelings toward those actions, we apply a particular negative characteristic to entire group of people. When you actually think about this. It is not very rational, is it?

Let me simplify this thought. Suppose you went fishing for the first time in your life. You went to a lake that had been stocked with trout. After twenty minutes of fishing you finally caught one. Surprise, it was a trout. It was a pound and a half and was twelve inches long and part of its dorsal fin was missing.

Now based on that single experience you decide to come to the following conclusions:

>>> All fish in the world are trout.

>>> All trout weigh a pound and a half.

>>> All trout are twelve inches long.

>>> All trout have strange looking dorsal fins.

How valid do you think those conclusion would be? Scientifically, there are some obvious problems here, aren’t there?

First, the sample size is far too small to be of value and the sample was taken from only from one particular place, on one particular day. Virtually no one would accept those four conclusions based on methodology like that. Yet, that’s often the approach we choose to take in our own life experiences. Generally, our acceptance of stereotypes is based on conditioning that’s been applied to us by others which we have never bothered to take the time to question.

I bring this up because it is precisely those personal life choices that spill out into the marketplace and set up obstacles to doing business. Once we’re aware of this situation we become empowered to change it. Not in others, but rather, within ourselves.

I really want to drive this point home. Let’s back up a bit to something said a minute ago. That was, stereotyping doesn’t serve humanity. It leads to so much hate, divisiveness and intolerance. Lumping entire groups of people into neat little boxes is really a deep seated form of prejudice, isn’t it?

The interesting thing about any prejudice is that it is always rooted in fear, failure to communicate and judgement. Our ego tells us that our position or perspective is more valid than the other person’s or that we ourselves are more worthy than the other person is.

Now, if we can simply agree that stereotyping leads to hate, divisiveness and intolerance in the world at large, wouldn’t it make sense that we should try to remove it entirely from our experiences in the marketplace were we are working to earn our living and maximize our income? It sure makes sense to me.

I just like to apply the rule and ask the question, Does it work or it doesn’t work to have stereotyping and prejudice in the marketplace? Does it help get me paid? Take a moment and ask yourself this question. Do you carry even the smallest prejudices around in your life.

Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Only you will know. I’m not going to judge you. However, if you hold prejudices, don’t judge them to be right or wrong. Don’t waste emotional energy by feeling guilty. Simply ask yourself whether those ideas or prejudices still serve you or not. Do they help get you paid? I believe you will find that they do not.

If you have come to the conclusion that they no longer serve you, that is really good news. Now you can choose to hit the delete button in your mind and send those old worn out concepts to the trash can. You get to choose! Because you are responsible now, right?

Now let’s see, removing prejudice from the world in it's entirely is a very tall order, isn’t it? It may be an impossible task perhaps? That really is a side issue. What you can easily understand is this. You can only choose to remove prejudice in its entirely as it relates to you in your marketplace experiences and in your life. You are the only one responsible for your own feelings and behaviors.

By our own actions, we can also be excellent examples which can influence others to eliminate prejudiced and stereotyping in their marketplace experiences and perhaps in their personal lives.

Plato said, When men speak ill of thee, so live that nobody believes them. Please remember, it was Plato who said that, not Pluto.

Our ego always wants us to feel superior to the next person. We live in a competitive society that rewards that particular belief system. However, I find it much more rewarding, both personally and professionally, to just seek to be superior to who I was yesterday.

Let me throw out this challenge for you. If you play along, I think you will find the rewards to be well worth it. It doesn’t matter if you are a salesperson presently or not, you can do this.

The challenge is this. For the next three days, that’s all, just three days, make a deliberate conscious effort not to make any judgements about anyone you meet based on any preconceived stereotypes or prejudices you may hold.

Sound easy? It definitely is not. This is because we all have some conditioned prejudices, even if it’s only the color of somebody’s hair or the shape of their nose. As you try this challenge consciously, you will be aware when you are falling into the stereotype trap. Don’t beat yourself up the side of the head when this happens. Nothing will be gained from that. Simply be aware it’s happening and make the appropriate correction.

Aristotle said, Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. I totally agree with old Aristotle. He was a smart fellow. But I’d like to add this to his advise, especially yourself. So be gentle.

Now I did say that if you did this you would find the rewards worth it, didn’t I? Watch for them. This is just some of what you’ll surely find.

>>> You will communicate more effectively with people and will make your observations based on their personal behavior in given situations, not on your preconceived notions.

>>> You will find people less threatening to you.

>>> You will behave more warmly towards others.

>>> Others will behave more warmly towards you.

>>> If you’re selling, you will likely sell more.

>>> You will smile more often.

>>> People will smile at you more often.

>>> Your self confidence will improve.

>>> Your self esteem will increase.

Those are some pretty cool rewards, aren’t they? Now, here is just one more reward. If you experience several or perhaps all of those things chances are you will feel happier. .Feeling happy is good. In fact, it ranks right up there with getting paid!

So again, here’s the deal. Try this challenge consciously in every part of your life for three full days. Observe how you feel and the results you get. Then decide, whether stereotyping or any form of prejudice actually serves you in your life anymore. If somehow you still feel it does, at least have the good sense to keep it in your personal life. Keep it out of your professional one. It won’t serve you and it won’t get you paid properly. That makes good sense, doesn’t it?

Let’s switch gears now for the remainder of this first lesson.

Let me explore with you the forces which drive the marketplace. What do you think that might entail? If you just shouted out a conditioned response from economics 101, I’m guessing it might have been the good old reliable phrase, supply and demand. But, wait a minute, is that phrase really accurate?

I’m not an educated economist but, I do suggest that the statement as we hear it is, at the very least, somewhat flawed.

Now fully understand that supply and demand are indeed related but it would seem to me that demand actually precedes supply as suggested by that other cliche we probably have all heard, necessity is the mother of all inventions.

Many companies do try to drive the market with oversupply and lower prices. While that might be an effective strategy in the short term, it can almost never be a profitable long term strategy. Need proof? Look no further than the big three North American automakers.

They followed this model for at least the last thirty years. What did they accomplish? They have lost a good chunk of their market share and they lost billions of dollars. Two of them collapsed into bankruptcy and the third narrowly escaped by partially reinventing their business model a few years prior to the financial collapse of 2008.

Some companies are still following this business model. If you look at the price advertising still used by the automakers, it makes one wonder if they learned anything from their brush with liquidation and oblivion. It makes me just want to go out and buy some shares in one of them. How about you? The sarcasm is for effect. I do hope you realize that.

In my opinion, the needs and desires of the consumer definitely are what drives the market. How can I be so sure?

Let’s see. Generally the customer decides whether there’s a need. And, the customer makes the decision if and when to purchase. One more, tiny little insignificant thing. The customer HAS THE FLIPPIN’ MONEY!! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? Oops, sorry I didn’t mean to shout, I just got carried away there. Money drives the consumer market and the consumer has it. What a concept. What more do you need to know?

As a master professional salesperson or someone aspiring to be one, you really have to understand this concept. Why does it matter? you might ask. Did you ask that? Thanks, I’m glad you did. You see, if you do understand this principle, you will always work to fill the customer’s needs and wants. If you don’t look after your customer's needs, you will almost certainly be driven to look after the supplier’s needs or your own personal needs first, usually at the expense of the customer. Which makes the most sense to you?

Oh, by the way, the average customer doesn’t expect you to look after anyone’s need but your own selfish needs. That is precisely why you can gain the edge, isn’t it?

When you prove to your customers, by your chosen actions, that they have misjudged you by lumping you in with that sorry eighty percent bunch, you will have a serious advantage.

This was addressed in An Introduction to Selling at Mastery but it is certainly worth repeating here. The customer is always the one who pays you. Never mind who signs the darn checks. I don’t care if you’re paid by commission or by salary, you need to understand this undeniable fact. If there are no customers, there will be no paychecks. Because, sooner or later there will be no money to pay you. Think about it. The customer always, always provides the money to pay you?

Let’s just take a moment to look at another side of the marketplace, the supply and demand side where industry tries to drive the marketplace through innovation and invention. Two things can happen in the process of bringing a product or service to market. It’s really quite fascinating to recognize this.

Someone can invent or produce something then try to determine whether there is a market for the product. This approach probably explains the thousands upon thousands of prototypes of inventions or first production runs of products that are sitting in warehouses unsold or in liquidation stores offered at 15 cents on the dollar.

The other approach is where some type of neutral and unbiased market research uncovers a need in the market place for a product or service to solve a particular customer problem. Once the problem is identified, the suitable product, service or idea is developed as the solution for the problem and then is offered in the marketplace. Sometimes the product is entirely new and innovative. Sometimes it’s simply an improvement on an existing solution.

After considering both, which approach do you feel will be more effective? If you were being asked to back one approach or the other with your personal money, where would you likely invest?

Can the first approach work? Sure it can … sometimes. The hula hoop and the pet rock prove it can work. Hmm, and then there was:

>>> The solar powered flashlight.

>>> The ejection seat for the helicopter.

>>> The 400 page book on learning to read.

>>> Black highlighter pens.

>>> Screen doors for submarines.

There are some exaggerations in there, but I’m sure you get the picture.

Products which enter the marketplace based on hype rather than real need may find some success initially because of clever advertising but seldom do they have durability in the marketplace. On the other hand, products, services and ideas solving real customer problems are far more likely to be successful in the long run. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

The first approach comes from the position that the needs of the producer come first. The second approach comes from the position that needs of the customer are most important. Which approach do you feel the average thinking customer would be most receptive to?

By now you may saying, So what? How does that affect me as a salesperson? That is a darn good question. When you understand these two different approaches, you can choose to adjust the way you deal with your individual customer.

It is not for me to tell you what you have to do. I’ll just say that, if it were me, I would spend my time trying to find out what my customer’s problem might be. That way I can offer up an appropriate solution rather than just try to sell something just to satisfy my needs or the needs of the producer. Chances are that my customer would be considerably more receptive to my offering if I took that approach. What do you think? Does that work or doesn’t it, in your mind?

You see, in the marketplace today we face some huge challenges not the least of these is finding customers, then having those customers buy our offerings and third, retaining those customers so that they will buy again in the future.

As this course develops, we will explore strategies to do it all. Right now, the recommendation for you is to choose to adapt your personal strategy to include the solving of your customer’s problem as your number one selling goal. Can you do that?

Remember, it is the customer who ultimately pays you. That’s who you should be working for first and foremost.

Oh my!! I can hear some groans now from business owners or sales managers saying, Jim’s telling salespeople to give away the farm to the customers. There goes my profit margin.

Well nothing could be farther from the truth. You see, when customers perceive that you are helping them solve their problems satisfactorily, things like price become far less important. In fact, for many people, price becomes a relative non issue as long as the problem gets solve and they feel good.

Furthermore, problem solvers regularly get premium prices for the same products offered by their competition simply because of the approach they take to the customer in solving the problem.

Let me give you an example of the actions of a salesperson being driven by personal need rather than customer need. Picture this in the theater of your mind.

A customer walks into a clothing store on a hot summer afternoon with the intention of finding a cool new top to wear down to the beach. She is approached by the salesperson who begins the conversation by saying, You sure came in at the right time. Have I got a deal for you. Our buyer messed up and ordered too many of these long sleeved warm woolen sweaters last winter so I can sell them to you at 80% off. The customer’s response is I want a cool new top. The salesperson’s response, Yeah, but this is a way better deal.

Are you smiling yet? Do you think a sale will be made and a happy customer created?

This sounds like a totally outrageous scenario, doesn’t it? Let me assure you, it goes on every single day in one form or another in businesses all over the world.

To make the