Sales Tip: Are You A "Superb" Salesperson?

Well, are you superb?

What on earth am I talking about? Ok, let me tell you a story...

My First Real Sales Experience

My first real hand-on sales experience began in my teens. My best friend and I used to go to ham radio swap meets on the weekends. We soon discovered that we could make a lot of money buying old, antique radios for as little as $5, fix them up and put a fresh coat of paint on the chassis, and resell it the following weekend for as much as $100.

This was serious money to a kid - especially when our friends were working miserable summer jobs for $5 an hour. Flipping a few radios a week added up to big money!

I mentioned that we fixed the radios up first. We'd diagnose what was wrong with them, go down to Radio Shack for components (back when it was still an electronics store and not a cell phone store), and repair them.

We figured this would be good enough. And it was to an extent.

But then we took it a step further...

We began hammering any dents out of the radios' chassis, give it a fresh coat of paint, and then polish it to a nice finish. Or if it was in pretty good shape to begin with, we'd buff out the scratches and marks.

A Lesson In Perception

We began to fetch even more money for the radios at this point. Always the aggressive marketer, I was trying to come up with more ways to make the radios attractive and improve sales.

That's when I began making up nice-looking price tags and informational flyers that I taped onto the table beneath the radios. They certainly helped.

But then I added some serious marketing "copy" to them.

I started them out with the words: "This SUPERB radio has these features..." and so on.

And sales went through the roof!

We were able to sell the radios so quickly with that kind of sales copy on the flyers that we even began bringing our repair equipment out to the swap meets and would flip the same radio on the same day!

Perception Is Everything

Yesterday I wrote about the principle of power in negotiation. Here's what Herb Cohen, one of the leading experts on negotiation, has to say: "When it comes to power, perception is everything. If you think you have power, even if you don't, you have it. And if you have power, but don't think you have it, you don't have it."

By calling the radio SUPERB, I created a strong perception that this was so!

And it made people buy!

So you have to ask yourself, are you being superb, and more importantly, are you creating the perception that you are superb? By acting the part, dressing the part, and doing things that create the image of being superb? And avoiding activities like cold calling that destroy that image?

When you cold call, you can't be superb. Prospects wonder what's wrong with you that you have to resort to cold calling to get leads. They think, "Why don't you have referrals - are you giving your customers bad service?" Or, "Is your company so broke that they can't afford marketing to generate leads? Will you still be in business in a few years to stand behind your product?"

Don't cold call. Be superb instead. Think the part and act the part, and you will soon be the part. And your sales will explode as a result.

Here's to your success!
Frank Rumbauskas

Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a free 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System.

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s top 30 most influential people. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com