Great Salespeople are Great Fishers - Part I

By: Robert E. Ayrer
No fisher ever hooked a fish. You catch fish by getting the fish to swallow your hook! Professional salespeople do not "sell" a prospect. The get the prospect to buy.
What does it take to be a good fisher? First you must have good bait. Then you must have an attractive lure. You will need a bobber to let you know when the fish is nibbling at your bait and you will need a strong line to tie it all together and land the fish.
Once you have all the equipment, you must go where there are hungry fish. For best results, you should fish where the big fish hide. Then make sure you get your bait and lure in front of the big, hungry fish. When a fish swallows your bait, you must have the skill to set the hook and land it.
In selling, the bait is your product or service. You must have a product or service that satisfies a hunger in your target market. If you do not have a product or service that people will pay to get, the rest of the process is irrelevant. The very best salespeople cannot sell a product noone wants.
Your marketing material is your lure. All of your marketing material should offer your prospects the opportunity to identify themselves to you. This is your "bobber" and when they identify themselves, you stop marketing and begin selling.
With the Necessary Tools, You Can Land the Big Fish
The selling process you use to bring a prospect to a buying decision is the line that ties it all together. If you are not following a disciplined, well-defined selling process, you are fishing with a weak line. You may be able to attract big fish and get them to nibble your bait, but you won't land them.
Defining the right fishing hole and knowing where the "big ones" hide is your prospecting and qualifying process. Creating attractive marketing collateral material is building your lure. Taking your prospect through the discovery process to a buy decision is your "line."
Once you have defined your target market, profiled your best prospect, created your collateral material, placed your material where your target market goes for information and created a response mechanism, you should be spending your time with only the highest probability prospects.
A great deal of energy and time has been put into making selling seem like a mysterious and complex issue. In fact, selling is simple - but not easy. It is fundamentally a discipline. It takes knowledge, skill and an internal drive to succeed. It takes enthusiasm and a positive attitude.

Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow!