One of the things that define a successful salesperson is their amazing ability to discover what a customer wants. Selling Joy teaches people to understand that most people want exactly the same things. They want a nice house, two cars in the garage, their kids in college and two or three vacations every year. The professional salesperson says certain things in certain ways to certain people at certain times in order to help people focus on the things they want, and then, they give it to them. Qualifying is a non intrusive process of determining what the customer wants the most. Untrained salespeople focus on whether or not the customer can afford the product; this is for the most part, a waist of time. Most people don’t know what they can afford until after they’ve bought it; and then renege a few hours later when they realize they couldn’t or shouldn’t have even considered it in the first place. Successful salespeople focus on what a customer believes is really important; things like, quality, or color, or delivery time, or popularity, or is it recyclable to name a few. Any one of a million individual things that can be used to ensure the customer gets exactly what they want.

QUALIFYING from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

THE FIVE FUNDAMENTALS

There are a number of books and even movies made about closing. I got a kick out of Glengarry Glen Ross; a depressing storey about a group of struggling salesmen totally obsessed with closing. Unfortunately the movie does nothing to inspire anyone to get into sales. The men, especially jack Lemon, are on the verge of collapse; and their world is a world of disappointment and failure, and, if they can’t close their next deal by 5:00PM, they can kiss there job, there wife and there life goodbye. Over the years I have met some terrific closers; the problem is, with few exceptions, they never become successful. Closing is just another fundamental and no more important than the other four. Without understanding and using all five fundamentals success will be temporary and unrewarding. Selling Joy helps people to understand that success in sales is based on all five fundamentals. In other words; if you don’t do your prospecting, who you going to close?

CLOSING from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

I remember the first day timer I got. I just entered the Real Estate business and it was, I was told, essential that I write everything down in my day timer in order to organize my appointments. The problem was that my appointments kept me from doing the things I really wanted to do. Everyday I sat there trying to rearrange my appointments so that I had the time to do the things I should have done the day or the week before. I continued to run out of time all the time. Selling Joy teaches people to use time to ensure that they don’t run out of it. By creating a daily good things list everything gets done according to plan; and a life well planned, is a life filled to the brim with happiness and joy.

TIME MANAGEMENT from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

I’m constantly amazed at how many people in sales are scared to death to talk to anybody. This craziness’ manifests it’s self through the universal fear of being rejected. Selling Joy helps people to understand that prospects are not customers; they are simply, prospects. Professional and successful salespeople understand that you never try and sell anything to a prospect. However; turning a prospect into a customer so they do buy from you is another matter. In order to do that, successful salespeople talk to as many people as they can; not to sell them anything, but to simply tell them what it is you do.

PROSPECTING 1 from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

Prospecting 2 from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

The first fundamental of Selling Joy is product knowledge. No more important than any other but one that can lead most salespeople to believe it’s not as important as the other four. Wrong! You need all five. First; how can you sell something, never mind sell more of it than anyone else, if you don’t know everything about it? Second, and just as important; how can you talk about it? Knowing how to talk about your product is essential to your success. Successful salespeople study their product knowledge everyday. Not all day, but enough to reaffirm their ability to describe it to their customers. Successful salespeople believe in their product; but they must also believe in what their product can do for people. Knowing how to describe your product no matter what your product is, keeps your customer in the present and focused on the things you believe in.

PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE 1 & 2

The 5 Fundamentals(product knowledge) from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

More Product knowledge from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

As you know I’ve been a salesman all my life; my Dad was a salesman and his Dad was a salesman. My apple had fallen as close to the proverbial tree as you can get. Fortunately for me and for you, my Dad was one of the greatest and most successful salesmen that ever lived. What I have tried to articulate to you was second nature to my Dad. The things I learned from him helped me in more ways than I can count. I think one of the most important things I learned was how he treated his customers. I used to watch in amazement as he cold called a prospect and in less than fifteen seconds not only made the appointment, but built up the person’s expectations that what he would see was going to catapult them to unbelievable success. Dad of course did all the fundamentals, but there was no mistaking him for anything other than a “successful person” He never left a sales presentation without an order and he never left any doubt in the minds of his customers that he was undoubtedly the best salesman they had ever met.

FROM THE MOVIE….SELLING JOY

Three kinds of salesperson from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

Anyone else (Excerpt from Selling Joy)

Brother, ten years in retail and where did it get me? A few years earlier I laughed at what my college buddies were making. It wouldn’t have paid my car loan. You could say I was eating lunch at the Ritz and they were still bagging it. Well, those days were over. I was now selling clothing at one of Vancouver’s oldest and most respected men’s clothiers. The clientele was rich and discerning. Many purchased entire wardrobes; some showed up three times a year just to fawn over the latest new arrivals. Of course there was street traffic but mostly Elson’s catered to a regular group of pompous self absorbed stock brokers and spoiled brats. I’d been there a couple of months and although I was periodically entertained, I was definitely getting bored without the thrill of the “sale”.

How many times have you heard how important it is to set goals for yourself? I used to set goals; in fact I can’t remember setting one without attaining it. The problem with goals is that they tend to persuade sales people to focus on places that don’t exist. Selling Joy helps people to understand that living in the present brings happiness and joy on a daily basis. By focusing on a future event, like attaining a goal, you can’t experience the goal today. Most sales trainers believe that setting goals help salespeople stay motivated. Unfortunately, once the goal is attained, you have to set new ones’ and since the goal is in the future, the process creates uncertainty and for some, the goal becomes vague and almost surreal. If like me you believe that everything beautiful in the world can only be experienced in the present, then you understand that, “goals” are simply rewards for doing good things today.

GOAL SETTING from Dave Adelberg on Vimeo.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Over the last several years I’ve tried to develop a sustainable balance between what is and what could be. Everything that is, seems too easy though; so unemotional and mundane, while everything that could be is a hell of a lot more exciting, don’t you think?It has occurred to me that if life is the composite of all my experiences, then, is that which remains, somehow my future life? Is life split up between what has been and what is yet to come; and should I worry about it? I have come to understand that life is a work in progress; it’s as simple as it is complex. The more things I do the less time I have to worry about how complex it is. Selling Joy is the journey I took that allowed me to live my life in the present where everything is beautiful…and amazingly simple.