8 Ways to Transform Yourself into an Killer Salesperson

Everyone is a salesperson.   Life is a constant process of selling. At the core of selling is the ability to communicate. At the heart of communication is the ability to make connections. If you want someone to do something for you, you need to build rapport. This could be with a prospective client, with an employee, with your accountant, your lawyer, or even your spouse. Successful salespeople don't apply the conventional selling rules. Go to any sales seminar and you will hear mantras like “he could sell ice to Eskimos”, “work towards a 100% success rate”, “you need to know your product intimately”, “you need to look or dress a certain way”, “you need to follow a formula or a script”, and “you need to use technology”. These mantras are all a big pile of organic rubbish.

Eight Cardinal Rules of Selling

Rule 1: Find the Gap

What carnal use could Eskimos have for ice if they are surrounded by the bloody stuff? There is a difference between making a sale and filling a need. Telephone marketers are the scum of the earth and the worst trained and prepared salespeople on the face of the planet. They call you and then embark on a Shakespearean soliloquy regaling you with a list of all the benefits that their credit card can offer you. For ten years I worked for the Rolls Royce of financial information packages that cost close to $2,500 per month. At any demo, the first 30 minutes was spent listening to the prospects' needs and requirements. We tried to find their pain points and things that were keeping them up at night. We would ask questions to better understand the implications of these pain points. In more than half the meetings we had to walk away. We were unable to convince them that the price we were charging was below the value we could deliver. Understanding the gap between price and value is paramount to selling. We studied it in the equity segment and how it helped to build Warren Buffett a multibillion-dollar empire.

At the core of this process is the ability to identify what you are selling. Are you selling a product or are you selling a solution? Harley Davidson is one of America's most iconic brands. Harley is not in the business of selling motorcycles. Their mission statement says they are in the business of "fulfilling dreams through the experiences of motorcycling". They are selling a lifestyle and a way of thinking. This message has resonated strongly with middle-aged males, like me, as a form of treatment for midlife crises. Have you ever seen a Harley parked outside the office of a shrink?

Rule 2: If Possible, Monetize the Benefits

If you are a Harley Davidson salesperson, you are going to focus on the emotions of the potential buyer. You need to show how your product will make the customer feel about themselves and the world around them. You are also going to draw attention to the "potato potato" sound of the pipes, the big farings, the rake of the front wheel, and the capacity of the engine.  Selling a service is more challenging because it is intangible. One way is to monetize the benefits. This involves placing a monetary benefit on the service. My experience in financial software sales was in the decade after the Lehmans collapse.  Most of my prospects were terrified of a fine from a regulator due to noncompliance with new rules. When we pitched the product, we would ask the prospect to place a monetary value on this fine and then compare that to the price of the service. This helped us close 90 percent of the sales.

Rule 3: Opposites do not Attract

To build a long-term, successful enterprise, when you don't close a sale, open a relationship. Patricia Fripp

She drives a Prius, he rides a Harley. She enjoys garden and animal husbandry. He enjoys riding his Harley. She enjoys classical music – her favorite is Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 2. He thinks Rachmaninoff is a Russian brand of exhaust muffler. What are the chances of these two hooking up on match.com? Studies are finding that opposites do not attract. People like other people who are like themselves or how they would like to be. You discover commonalities by building rapport or connecting with people.  Asking questions is not enough.

For example, you approach a young person carrying a duffel bag. You ask him what he has in the bag. He replies that he has three assault rifles. You ask him what he is going to do with them. He replies that he is going to walk into a public library and open fire. Have you built a rapport with this nut case? No, even though you have asked some very good questions.

To make a connection, you need to mirror that person both verbally and non-verbally. Verbally, you need to mirror the speed, tone, vocabulary, and volume of your counterpart. A client wants to cancel your services. That client is low energy, speaks in a slow deliberative monotone and his gestures are slower than a Brazilian three-toed sloth. If you are a high-energy, outgoing, charismatic, and expressive person, you would have difficulty connecting with him at this crucial time. You would need to lower your tone, your volume, and restrain your hand gestures. You would also be well advised to use the same words that he uses. In this way, you will quickly build rapport and put yourself in a better position to avoid that contract cancellation. You would also be well advised to mirror his nonverbal communication.

The majority of communication is nonverbal. We have already looked at hand gestures, but you also need to look at his body language. If he has his arms folded, he is on the defensive. Approaching him with open arms and moving in his direction would make him feel threatened and unresponsive to your negotiation tactics. If you also fold your arms and show you are no threat, it will put him at ease. You should also mirror his seating position. If he is sitting back with his legs folded, do the same. If he uncrosses his legs, do the same.  Mimicking his, posture will lead him to the conclusion that there are commonalities between the two of you and will help to build rapport. Exercise Go to a coffee shop and find someone that is sitting a couple of meters away. As unobtrusively as possible, start to mirror the gestures and mannerisms of that person and notice what happens in 5 to 10 minutes. You will get in sync with each other.

Rule 4: Develop your Legitimate Strangeness

René Char recommended that you need to “develop your legitimate strangeness”.  In a globalized and connected world, it helps to stand out in a crowd. It is all about differentiation. What are you doing or offering that no-one else in your space is doing? Hollywood has created the impression that great salesmen need to dress in tailored suits, flash gold Swiss watches, be charismatic, and exude confidence. Take the time to watch the 2000 movie "Boiler Room" and you will find the blueprint of the stereotypical salesman.  Then you need to do everything possible to deviate from this stereotype and develop your strangeness. This advice needs to be tempered with maturity and wisdom.  In the opening moments of Rocketman, the fantastical Elton John biopic, Taron Egerton enters a group-counseling session wearing a brightly adorned orange devil outfit decorated with sequins, feathers, and horns. Such an outfit may be inappropriate if you are selling a funeral policy.

Rule 5: Become a Storyteller

In 2009, a New York Times journalist Rob Walker embarked on an experiment to see if storytelling was a powerful commercial tool. He wanted to do a controlled experiment where the success could be measured in monetary terms. He called it his Significant Objects Test (www.significantobjects.com). He bought two hundred objects on eBay each object costing approximately $1. He then sent an email to 200 writers and asked if they wanted to participate in the test where they would write a story about each object. One object was a snow globe that had the state of Utah on the base. The snow globe cost 99 cents. Blake Butler wrote a story about a box that his grandfather's grandfather kept under his bed…you will need to read the rest.  The snow globe was sold for $59. A total of $129 was spent on the 200 objects. The total proceeds raised from the sale of these objects were $8,000. The total return on investment was 6,101 percent.

Storytelling releases dopamine. This is the same chemical released into the brain when you fall in love. Most men can testify how after watching a James Bond movie, you want to go out and buy an Omega watch and Saville row tailored suite. This makes absolutely no sense. We all know that Bond is the ultimate escapism. We know that a fancy watch and a tailored suit is not going to lure a Russian goddess into your car, but dopamine and suspense make us do crazy things.

When you first meet a prospective client, there are three things they ask themselves:

1) Who are you?

2) What do you have?

3) Why do I care?

Storytelling is a powerful way to raise that dopamine and build trust and confidence as you answer these three questions.  Use this opportunity to tell your story. The key ingredients of a good story are the following: be clear, be authentic (bullshit does not fly), have a clear outcome, be consistent, and make it relevant. Telling a story about how you stapled your small toe to a barstool during a drinking game may not be relevant or appropriate.

Rule 6: Build Long Term Relationships

Selling is about building relationships. Smart people, the ones you want as clients, can quickly see through all the bull of a slick snake oil salesman. You may close the deal but you may not build a long term relationship. Rebel Finance is about the acquisition of long term assets that provide a high-quality flow of income. This cash flow could be generated by forging long term relationships with a select group of high-quality clients that will keep coming back to you with repeat business.

Rule 7: Be Bold and Take Risks

You need to roll the dice.  If you play it safe, your offering will blend into the market and go unnoticed. Risk must pervade your mission. You need to use strong language or face the possibility of portraying your brand in an anemic light.

Rule 8: Do Not F&ck It Up

Unless you have been living on Pluto for the last decade, you will know that people love to complain. The majority of new businesses focus on delighting the client. They use their consumer experience with Amazon and Jeff Bezos's obsession with client satisfaction as the cornerstone of their strategy. You, however, also need to factor in the potential danger of pissing a customer off. 

Harvard Business Review says it not about delighting customers - it's about not repelling them. The impulse that consumers have to punish bad service in any way possible is significant, as evidenced by the following statistics:

25% of customers are likely to say something positive about a customer service experience. 65% are likely to say something negative.

23% of customers who had a positive experience told 10 or more people about it.

48% of customers who had a negative experience told 10 or more people about it. It is easier to criticize than to praise.

Book clubs around the world have been built for decades on the solid foundation of gossip and complaints. Mike Bloomberg, the former three-term mayor of New York City and the founder of financial information company bearing his name where I worked for 10 years, famously inculcated the phrase "Do Not f%ck it up". As with many things that Mike did (with the exception of running for the White House), he was 100 percent on the money.