The Ultimate Guide to Become a Sales Assassin

Doubt is perceived as a type of pain, in our brains. It is to feel uncertain or to have fear for the future. People try to avoid doubt if they can. In buying scenarios we avoid the doubt, of potentially making a poor decision, by acting fast. We know that if we act fast that we can just avoid the negative feelings that come with doubt all together. The only catch that comes with these poor decisions is a hit to your confidence. If you make enough bad decisions, you will doubt yourself and wonder if you will ever be able to make the right call. The doubt, in your mind, gets transferred to doubt in yourself. Ultimately, it is best to avoid hasty decisions all together. What to Look Out For Doubt tends to make us cut out time, in our decision making process. Hence the classic impulse buy scenario. My sister and I joke all the time of how she'll go to Target to get a few items and leave with 14 extra things she didn't plan on buying. Big box retailers are set us so well that ...

I am a huge fan of performance based jobs. One of the reasons why I love sales so much is because how ever hard you work is how much you get paid. How awesome is that?! You never have to worry about the slacker next to you making the same paycheck while you are busting your ass. I experienced that when I worked at Starbucks. I worked there for 1 year, right out of college. By nature, I am a hard worker. It always bothered me because I know I was working harder than my hourly rate was paying me. That is why I took the jump of faith, into sales. To think that my competitive nature could run free and I would get paid more to do it? Sign me up! And I never looked back. A bonus/commission structure is going to push you to work harder. You are going to be more efficient with your time to produce more results. The easiest way to get the hang of things is to never stop learning. Knowledge is only going to help you. It will take an incredible amount of work but the payoff is well worth the...

Crabs are some malicious little creatures. If there are crabs, in a bucket, and one tries to escape the other crabs will literally grab on, to the absconding crab, and pull it back down. They rip all the hopes and dreams that the brave little crab had away.This vicious cycle continues, in a pattern, that prevents any crab from breaking free. Initially, I heard about this concept from a friend and I couldn't believe it. I had to look it up and witness it for myself. In the end, he was right because I found a few videos and articles on it. In regards to humans, the phrase of 'crabs in a bucket' refers to friends, family, coworkers, etc. dragging down someone that is trying to go against the grain. Consequently, there are two reasons I can think of that people would do this. First, you would hate to see that person make it. Someone that had the courage to chase after their dreams? The nerve. Second, someone is close to this person and fears them failing. Doing nothing ...

Ever hear the expression first impressions are everything? It is important to start any interaction off on the right foot, especially, in sales. Reason being, we are prone to judging people ( it's actually a flaw, in our brains, more on that here ). More times than not your client is going to judge your demeanor, body language, tone, attractiveness, smell, smile, energy, responsiveness, etc. You cannot control it because this is how people are and that's alright. Focus on what you can control. You can control your greeting. Every sales assassin has a strong greeting. In my post, How to Become Selling Machine , I talk about how the greeting is the first step, in the sales cycle. It is imperative that you perfect your greeting to improve your client's impression of you and saving them time. First, you need to get a couple things right. Energy and enthusiasm spread like herpes, on a college campus (gross but true). If you are energetic, your client will pick up on that...

So there you are, deep in the close. Fighting for the close like an elephant seal defending its territory. The customer is hammering you with price objections left and right. You’re out of room. The client still won’t budge even after you negotiated the price already. You are wondering if your manager will give you a bigger discount, to close the deal. Meanwhile, when you go to the manager they wonder why you aren’t strong enough to close it. The discount gets the sale but at the expense of your margin and your pride. It’s a sad truth but it happens to the best of us. What if you flipped the script, on the client? The takeaway close does just that. Essentially, you shut the door completely for negotiations never to be opened again. This close takes confidence and persistence. It happens deep in the close. How it works is you have the proposal worked up for all their product and services. When the client requests a larger discount you hit them with the takeaway! They ...

Ever hear the saying hate is a strong word? Such a true statement but I think the statement originated from the feeling itself. Hate is such a strong feeling which, in turn, makes the word strong. It is in our human nature that we have a tendency to hate or dislike things and people. We are all guilty of hate. Maybe it's a foe or competitor that you can never seem to shake. Maybe it's an ex or person that you can't stand. Maybe it's a brand of something that is endorsed by someone you dislike. We all have one. This tendency is the exact opposite of the liking/loving tendency ( learn about the liking/loving tendency here ). The concept is that the dislike and hate overpower anything good that could come from the situation. You make prejudgements that make up your mind. This is a very negative way to think and act. Open you mind up to trying new things you may hate or to hearing someone out that you dislike. I always think of squidward when I think of this tendency....

The greats are driven. Drive is one of my favorite traits because you cannot replicate this. You can work hard but sustainability is associated with drive. If you are not a driven person you cannot sustain busting your ass! Drive equals success. The ones that are out there grinding from the time they wake are always ahead of the competition. If you are not a driven person you have to start turning that around. The exciting news is that anyone can have drive. Accountability will help you keep your drive. I constantly see people around with a low drive. I do not understand this. I think salary/hourly jobs play into this a little bit since they're not performance based but that's a topic for another day. Lack of drive pains me internally when I see it. I worked with this girl that had the worst drive. She never wanted to do anything. She would always come into work hungover and didn't seem to care about anything. The COO ended up firing her (shocker). I remember talking t...

Fear absolutely immobilizes us, right down to our cores. We let fear dictate our decisions, production, motivation, and even our results. It is said that fear is more powerful than incentives when it comes to performance. The power of fear can cripple you, from moving a muscle, and can prevent you from getting ahead, in life. In sales, you face fear pretty often. You are always at odds with yourself. It is a mental chess game with your client as well as with yourself ( more on that here ). Fear is just a monster, in the closet. More times than not your fears are exaggerated and never come to fruition. I want you to realize one thing right now. That inner monologue, in your head, is the source of most of your fear. You have to conquer that little voice, in the back of your mind. Think about it... that voice of yours is trying to protect you from rejection. We fear rejection because deep down we take rejection personally and it hurts our confidence in ourselves. That is hard to c...

People need to understand why they are doing something. This post is focused primarily on leading a team but can also double for increasing sales. Today's society has evolved. You can't just command people what to do and hope they will blindly follow... well maybe they will but it won't be sustainable. People like to know why they are doing something and what the cause is. I think we do this to justify that this hard work is for a good cause. I find this even more prevalent in millennials. Millennials love to question the status quo (trust me I am one). A lot of people misconstrue this as to being insubordinate or disrespectful. All they need to know are the whys behind an order and they will move mountains. Millennials have so much potential all you have to do is figure out how to unleash it and they will do amazing things for you. Don't see it as distrust or insubordination. View it as someone trying to grasp something so they can perform at higher levels. Once y...

The close is a beautiful art form. It is like catching a butterfly with your hands. When you go to catch it you cannot be too forceful because then you will crush it. In the same sense, you cannot be to lackadaisical because then it will get away. You need a perfect combination of speed and execution. There are many pieces that are needed in order for the close to be successful. The technique of the week is the total savings close. This technique is also known as the piggy bank close because it shows your clients how much money they get to put back into their piggy bank. This is a very basic closing technique but sometimes you just need to refer back to the basics. The gist, of the technique, is to show the client how much they are saving. In order for the savings close to be effective, there has to be some sort of sale going on. If there are no financial savings happening, for the client, this close will not work. The first step is to get your numbers on paper. You need to have s...

This is definitely one of my favorite biases. There is so much psychology behind this bias because the power of love is so strong. There is a loophole, of the brain, where you will overlook certain flaws if you like or love a certain person, item, job, belief, etc. You brain will literally block out certain details or trick yourself to believe that these flaws are acceptable. The reason your brain does this is because humans yearn for the feeling you get from being liked or loved. People want to be accepted. Love is a strong feeling. It will overpower your common sense abilities. Self-awareness, of this bias, will save you a lot of headaches, in your life. Marketing campaigns use this bias all the time. Have you ever purchased something because a celebrity you loved was in a commercial? Ever overlook a product issue because you love a specific brand? It has happened to me quite a few times (more than I thought when I reflected back). This is a genius strategy to increase sales. Fo...

All successful people are enthusiastic about what they do. They complete their day to day tasks with energy and can light up a room. To me, there is nothing more captivating than someone that is enthusiastic. They can grab the attention of the room and keep it. True enthusiasm cannot be faked. People can tell if you are trying to fake it.  I always try to approach clients with enthusiasm. If your client is not excited about your product or service their confidence levels will never be high enough to buy. Remember, sales is a game of increasing your client’s confidence in your product, yourself, and your company. Three huge components to getting a deal. Notice that if you don’t get a deal it is likely that your client’s confidence is not high in one of those. Enthusiasm, in your product or service, will come if you are passionate or “sold” on it. How can you sell people if you aren’t even sold yourself?! You will never reach your true capabilities if you aren’t even sold yourse...

There are a lot of sales people out there that have no clue what they are doing. They don’t know where they are, in the sales process, which leads to their timing being off. Timing is everything in sales. You have to strike when the iron is hot. If you miss your window, it is not the end of things just harder to recover. If you want to be a selling machine you need to have a sales process. I know people shy away from structure because they do not like to be controlled. Sometimes you need structure to hold you accountable. I have seen and tried a few selling processes but this one has been the most effective. I will go more in depth, with these steps, in future blog posts. 1. Greeting/First Impressions First impressions are everything. People make judgments about you based off their first 30 seconds of meeting you. You have to be on point. You need to look professional, smile, have positive body language, and an upbeat tone, in your voice. Capturing your client’s attention is the...

So here you are, sitting, contemplating why you are not finding success. It could be in your relationship. It could be in your job or career. It could be in your job search because you hate your current job. The reason you are not succeeding isn’t anyone’s fault but your own. It is a bitter pill to swallow. I have to swallow it myself sometimes and I choke on it every time I do. But you have to take ownership of it. The biggest reason you are not succeeding is your lack of self-development. Self-development is your greatest investment because you are investing in yourself. People waste their time and money on frivolous things like Netflix and cars when they should be investing that in themselves. I have a theory that the reason people hate learning is because of our educational system. Our system is extremely outdated and old age. School has not adapted to today’s day and age and it has got to change. Kids are so unprepared when they get out of school it makes me sick just thinkin...

If you want to become successful, in sales, I highly recommend understanding some psychology. You will have more comprehension on what drives people, in general. You can grasp the reasons why people make or don’t make decisions. Charlie Munger was an expert in the psychology of the human brain. He is a multi-millionaire and is Warren Buffets long-time business partner. Munger studied and put to paper 25 cognitive biases. They are 25 subconscious loopholes, in the brain, that affect our decision making process. These biases are our instincts. When you fully understand these you will have altitude on why you as well as people act and make decisions. It is important to not abuse psychology. It is unethical to use psychology to manipulate people. Please do not use it for that purpose. Use it to understand and know. There are differences, in the two, if you need help just reach out to me and I can help you with it. The first of the 25 biases is the Reward vs. Punishment Re...

Have you ever been around someone that has a nasty attitude? I have experienced people with such bad attitudes that you can cut the tension in the air with a knife. You get an anxious knot, in your stomach, every time you know you have to be around them. The hair on the back of your neck stands up when you are near them. You stress out when you picture how that person is going to react to something they may not like. It is the worst! If you have experienced someone like that you know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven't, I envy you! Attitude is by far the most important attribute that successful people possess. The greats are the ones that can turn any negative into a positive learning scenario. This is extremely difficult to do. Recently, I have been challenging myself to work on my attitude. I know how important it is. I used to think it was acceptable to be in a bad mood when things would get under my skin. THAT IS NOT THE CASE. I urge you to let go of that think...

A lot of people fear sales. I am pretty sure it is due to the fact that today's society is less social (topic for another day). It is almost like people will do anything and everything so they don't have to socialize with other humans. I think that may be the reason online is so popular these days. It is funny how people prefer online because, in my opinion, you should fear online! Just think of how relentless the internet/social media is in trying to sell you. Just goes to show you that Everything Always Reverts Back to Sales! There are many reasons to love the sales profession. One of my favorites is the THRILL! It is so invigorating to get a sale. If you have never done sales, you need to put it on your bucket list. The most satisfying deals are the ones where you overcome objection after objection. You get so much satisfaction because it feels like you won a mental death-match... only with less blood... and no one dies. Well, you get the point. I always say that sales ...