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How to Sell

A Managing Director of a prominent Cityother.
investment bank in London e-mailed me the
other day: "I am doing a morning of graduate3)  Get  certified.
interviews for salespeople; all high quality
guys but one guy mentioned that he liked4) Always be learning: read books, listen to
Google as a stock so I quizzed him based onCD's,  take  workshops,  read  Selling Power.
the DMH blog view and he left the meeting
saying he thought the stock was a sell!"He5)  Get  a  coach.
later revealed to me the competitiveness of
the interview process and how little margin6) Do the fundamentals consistently and you
for error there was: out of the sixteenwill  be  in  the  top  10%.
short-listed candidates, they were only
allowed to pick two. When I asked him what7) Take action, there is a difference
the criteria was, he told me; "It's reallybetween knowing and doing."The problem today
the depth of the candidates that makes allis that as "sales" has become such a
the difference. We had one Lebanese guy, forstandardized industry segment of its own it
example, with loads of internationalhas developed some dubious methodologies and
experience who had been educated in Paris andtraining programmes rather than addressing
London and who had some practical knowledgethe fundamental aspect to the process: the
of the industry and it was very impressive.spectrum of the salesperson's knowledge bank
Talking to him was like talking to any of theand their willingness to enlighten others
guys who are working on the floor here. Itwith the knowledge-sharing process.Miller's
all comes down to beingadvice is all too commonly seen in any type
well-rounded."Education & ExperienceIn July,of sales training: young salespeople today
consultant and guru Andy Miller wrote anassume that what they need is training in how
abstract on his blog which declared: "I don'tto sell rather than being well-read and
mean any disrespect but the odds are if youconvincing debaters who can hold an argument
are under the age of 43-45 you never got thein a broad range of spheres. Contrary to
type of professional development you neededMiller's popular opinion, the reason sales
to be a top producer", citing that last yeartraining was slashed due to "downsizing" in
his organization conducted a survey of 2663the 1980's at most Fortune 500 companies is
sales organizations where 82% of salespeoplefor the same reason anything is slashed in a
said they had no sales process or weren'tcorporation: because companies realized what
following one, and 42% were missing essentiallittle value the process contributed to the
skills needed to do their job.Millerbottom line.The most important kind of
ultimately concluded, "WOW! Imagine atraining a salesperson can have is outside
professional football team with no play bookthe arena of practice: it's in reading
or the essential skills to move the ball. Soanything but books on 'How to Sell'. Young
what can you do?1) Take ownership for yoursalespeople would be better off reading
own  development.Wuthering Heights than they would listening
to "Selling Power" CD's.
2) Join UPSA and start learning from each



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