Item #A04
The Art of Sales (Audio CD- $19.95)

Only 6 % of American workers say they love their jobs. To make matters worse, more than 50% say they hate their jobs. It is estimated that it costs American companies $300 billion a year in stress-related claims. That’s $7,500 per employee, just for being unhappy. And when you add in what it costs in terms of turnover, absenteeism, and the lack of creativity and productivity, the cost is in the trillions. When you look at these statistics from a sales perspective, how is someone to be successful in sales when they are not happy and enthusiastic?

If you look at most organizations that have “sales” departments, you also find some interesting statistics. Of every one hundred people that are trained to provide a sales function, about thirty-five will be so ineffective that they won’t last a full year, about ten percent will make it to the higher echelons of success and profitability, and the remaining fifty-five percent will not be so bad that they fail but will also not be so good that they will be highly successful and profitable.

Furthermore, most people don’t have a very favorable impression of sales people. Sales people are generally perceived as the stereotypical used car salesperson, trying to manipulate you to buy what you may not even want, just so they can make the sale.

Here’s the good news: It doesn’t have to be that way. You can be an extraordinary sales professional. This program will teach you how to create relationships with customers and prospects instantly, how to listen so that the customer or prospect has the experience of being heard, how to truly understand the customers needs, how to maximize the likelihood of closing the sale every time, and much more.

  

This audio program first discusses what a paradigm is, that we live in a paradigm, and we are mostly unconscious about the nature of that paradigm. It points out that a paradigm is like water to the fish and that as long as the fish is in the water, that’s all there is. That’s the way it is for us. And, the reason why it is the way it is is because that’s the way the paradigm is set up. It’s only by becoming conscious of the paradigm can we begin to change the way we operate and produce the results we are not yet producing.

This program then distinguishes the conversation we live in, where it came from, and that it is going on in our heads 24/7. Mostly we don’t pay attention to this conversation, but we need to as it is very important. Why?

Because people are NEVER listening to others. They are listening to others THROUGH their own internal conversation. That internal conversation is always judging and analyzing what is being said and preparing its response. And sales people are mostly guilty of this and it is why customers and prospects mostly don’t have the experience of being heard, appreciated or understood. When that conversation is explored further, it is seen that in the current paradigm, we have our attention on ourselves and what we are concerned with is our survival.

So this is why sales is so difficult. Instead of being about serving the customer and making sure their needs are met and fulfilled, most sales people have their attention on themselves and are more concerned about making the sale, to handle THEIR survival. This is truly a set-up for failure.

This program then distinguishes another way of listening, where we manage out internal conversation so that our attention is on the other person. This opens the door to rich, meaningful, quality interactions, the heart of success in relationship. When a sales person masters this new way of listening, they gain the ability to create relationships with customers and prospects instantly, listen so that the customer or prospect has the experience of being heard, truly understand the customers needs, and maximize the likelihood of closing the sale every time.

The program then looks at another impact of this internal conversation. Specifically, people think that what they see is what is actually there. Not so. What happens in reality is that we project our internal conversation on everything and everybody. So all we ever see is our interpretation of what’s there, not what’s really there. What we see is not THE truth, only OUR truth.

Many examples are given as to how to use this information to create a reality worth living in. For example, mostly the way we relate to other people is base on out judgments and assessments. This leaves people feeling judged and unappreciated. As an alternative, we could use language to create or invent who people are for us. This is a truly REVOLUTIONARY idea, but just the kind of idea that is necessary if we want our relationships to stop being so hostile and start being peaceful.

In a sales situation, the key to success is being able to have the customer or prospect feel in relationship with the sales person, and to feel acknowledged and appreciated. All successful sales people understand the need to use language not to judge their customers and prospects but to invite them as being wonderful, caring, gracious, committed, etc. When you use this approach, as explained in this program, sales becomes easy and fun.