september2022 - 34

GO SELL SOMETHING
Be the Best
In sales, just like all professions, it's important to
keep honing your skills for increasingly better results.
By Alan Sipe, Contributing Editor
I
grew up in a rural area outside a
small steel town in Latrobe, Pa.
For a small town, we had some
pretty famous residents: The golfer,
Arnold Palmer, and Fred Rodgers of
" Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. " We
brewed Rolling Rock Beer. Latrobe is
the preseason training camp home
of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And most
importantly, David Strickler, a 23-yearold
druggist apprentice at Tassell
Pharmacy in Latrobe, invented the
banana split ice cream treat in the
summer of 1904.
As kids, we would watch Palmer
practice his golf shots for hours on
end, and even though he was the best
golfer of his time, he practiced every
day. Palmer was one of those people
that when he talked to you, for that
moment in time, you were the only
person on earth. No distractions;
just you. He made you feel special.
Additionally, during his prime, Tiger
Woods, probably the best golfer of all
time, was known to play 18 holes in a
tournament, and then practice for four
or five hours into the evening to fine
tune his game for the next day.
We would also go to Saint Vincent
College to watch the Steelers training
camp as they prepared for the season
ahead. Again, here was,
at that time, the best
football team on
earth, practicing
the basics, over and
over again.
Heck, even my dad, who
was a real-life Marcus Welby
country doctor making house
calls every day, took the time
34 Professional Distributor I September 2022 I VehicleServicePros.com
to study the Journal of the American
Medical Association (JAMA) each month.
The point of this bit of Latrobe history
is that to be the best at whatever
your chosen field is, in addition to the
daily work routine, it requires continuous
learning, practice, and perseverance.
So, how about you?
Selling is a profession that no matter
how long you've been at it, and how
successful you are, you could always
do better - and better increases your
revenue and paycheck.
I typed " selling skills books " into
Google and got 175,000,000 hits in 1.4
seconds. I typed " selling skills videos "
into Google and received a whopping
304,000,000 hits. There is no lack of
sales skills training material available
to you and much of it is free.
Invest some time and effort in your
career, pick up a few new closing skills,
learn and develop your social media
presence, or just figure out how to
make one extra profitable stop per day.
Remember though, unlike many
types of skill training, sales skills
learning is similar to putting money
in your personal savings account - you
will probably not use your new skill
all the time. It will sit in your mind
percolating until just the right selling
situation comes up, and you bring it
out it to make the sale.
Here's some ideas:
* Boost buyer engagement by bringing
your existing product presentations
to life. Develop your presentation
skills in a way to get your prospect
involved from the very start. Asking
specific questions about product
applications usually works to perk
their attention and interest in your
product: " Do you find it annoying
when your greasy hand slips when
you're turning a screwdriver? " , or
" Does it cut into your productive
time when you have to wait to use
the company scope since you don't
have your own? "
* Learn the " puppy dog close. " Just
like taking your kids to the animal
shelter and saying, " Ok, we will not
take the first puppy you see. " Yet,
the fist puppy your kids play with
is it, and off you go with your new
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september2022

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