The early part of my part of my career was in sales and, much to my surprise, I excelled immediately. I was 21, fresh out of college, and totally wet behind the ears. I tripled the sales of my territory from $800,000 to over $2.4 million in my first year. It not only gave me an income that exceeded my wildest expectations, it also got me a lot of attention from upper management who wanted to know what I was doing differently. I was surprised to see my results because I didn’t think I was doing anything special; however, I found that sales is a lot like football. You have to do the basics well before you can do any trick plays.
Here are some of the basics:
* Show up early. The legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi, invented “Lombardi Time,” which meant that if you weren’t 15 minutes early for practice, you were late. I found, especially driving around New York, that traffic delays were the rule, not the exception. By planning to be at my appointments 15 minutes early, if I got hung up in traffic, I still didn’t arrive late.
* Take notes. How can I expect someone to follow up on the things I ask of them in a meeting if they don’t even take notes?
* Send a thank-you. After any significant sales call I used to send a handwritten thank-you note. Amateurs never do this, but pros always do. Which are you?
* Follow-up. After each sales call I would review my notes and follow-up as quickly as possible. I quickly gained a reputation among my customers as the salesperson who called on them that followed-up the quickest after every call. That alone got me a lot of orders.
* Entertain. When I was first out of college I didn’t have much money and I quickly learned that if I took a customer out for a meal or to a ballgame I could go for free, as I could expense it. I made it a point to find out what my customers liked to do and where they liked to eat. Remember, all things considered, people buy from people they like, not necessarily the person with the lowest price.
* Solve problems. Instead of always pitching my products I would sometimes ask customers what problems they were having, even if they weren’t related to what I sold. I would then share the solution with my customer on a future call. More than once this resulted in a large order.
* Go the extra mile. When my customers asked me to do things that were above and beyond what should have been expected of me, I leaped at the opportunity. Again, more orders followed.
* Network. When I first started out in sales, I joined every trade association I could find in my territory as well as some national associations. I found out that customers who are active in trade associations make it a point to buy from suppliers who are also active in the same trade association.
Jim Sobeck is CEO of New South Construction Supply, a building products distributor based in Greenville with nine locations in the Carolinas and Georgia. He is the author of “The Real Business 101: Lessons From the Trenches.” newsouthsupply.com.
