Where you spend your time, there your results will be. If you abandon time, time will abandon you. When seeing others succeed, you say they are lucky; When they fail, you say they don't work hard. When you succeed, you say it's your own effort; If you fail, you self-deprecatingly blame the environment. The above is from a netizen, not sure if it's right? In sales, the fear is constantly thinking about how to 'change others'! 'Know yourself' is one of the famous maxims inscribed on the stone pillars of the Temple of Apollo in ancient Greece. According to records, someone asked Socrates: 'What is the most difficult thing in the world?' The answer was: 'Know yourself.' Knowledge Whether sales can be done well has no absolute relationship with education level. Because sales is an ability, and ability does not fully represent education. No one has ever said that only top students can do sales well; those with less education cannot. So, what knowledge do salespeople need to do sales well? Ask different people, and you get different answers. In a thousand people's eyes, there are a thousand Hamlets. 1. Product Knowledge No matter what product you sell, this doesn't change: you need to thoroughly understand your product knowledge. Take my mobile phone industry, for example: look at the product PPT and promotional brochures, combined with company product training, understanding product knowledge is not a big problem. For a salesperson, having a superficial understanding of your product makes it impossible to do sales well. Such salespeople have a characteristic: when they see a customer, they start bluffing and talking nonsense, because such people lack real talent and have nothing in their stomachs; bluffing is their survival tool. Once the bluff fails, they immediately switch to another company and continue bluffing. 2. Industry Knowledge The absorption of industry knowledge best highlights a person's curiosity about things. People without curiosity cannot do creative work. Curiosity also shows whether a person wants to establish a foothold in the industry. For example, if you sell mobile phones, you need to understand the development of mobile phone brands in the market, the product characteristics of each brand, market positioning, main consumer groups, and the past and present of each brand, and be able to talk about them vividly. 3. Industry Dynamics For example, which brand has launched a new product, which brand has entered the mobile phone industry, which brand has found a gimmick selling point, and new technologies and functions in mobile phones, such as current artificial intelligence AR/AI, you need to understand. I suggest you subscribe to Toutiao and NetEase Technology news, browse them during your free time every day, accumulate over time, and incidentally advertise these two apps. 4. Competitor Knowledge This is especially important. You must understand the knowledge of competing brands. Why? What does competitor knowledge include? You must deeply understand the brands in your area, including: price system, product mix, inventory management, sales policies, etc. This is the core topic for communication and negotiation with customers and consumers, and it is also a bargaining chip in sales business. In communication with customers, it is inevitable to talk about other brands' products. If the customer mentions a feature of another brand's product and you know nothing, you are in the dark, lacking interaction with the customer. The customer knows more about the market than you and is more professional. Customers are old hands in the industry. They will immediately think you are an industry illiterate, and your personal strength will plummet in their eyes. Why would a customer cooperate with an illiterate? Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle. You understand this principle without me saying it, right? So, you need to be familiar with the product features of competing brands and the pros and cons compared to your own products, to the point where you can blurt them out without blinking! 5. Customer Knowledge This is the type of knowledge that many sales colleagues most easily overlook. Customer knowledge is very important. Why do I say that? Although you sell products, let me ask you: who helps the manufacturer sell the products? The manufacturer can't set up a stall on the street, right? In the end, isn't it the customer who helps you sell? So, the importance of customer knowledge is self-evident. What does customer knowledge include? First, the customer company's organizational structure and functions The customer company's internal aspects include: organizational structure, personnel allocation, employee system, salary system, etc. This is especially important. In plain terms, you need to know the customer company's internal situation very clearly. Once you cooperate with the customer, you will often deal with them. If you don't understand these things, you will dive in blindly and end up in a mess. Sometimes, during cooperation, these things can provide you with many ideas and thoughts. Second, the customer company's development history In plain terms, it's the boss's story of getting rich. Now it's fashionable to package it as an 'entrepreneurial history,' but it's the same thing. Find out who the founding members who started the business with the boss are, who the boss trusts most, and who often carries the boss's bag and pours tea. Third, family relationships The role of the boss's wife cannot be ignored. Some boss's wives are behind the scenes, remote controlling. On the surface, they don't manage company affairs, but sometimes their advisory power is greater than their decision-making power. Find out how the boss's wife cooperated with the boss to get rich, how old their children are now, and what jobs they do. If it's a family business, it's even more important to understand the internal relationship network of the family to avoid letting you down at critical moments. Fourth, lifestyle habits What are the hobbies and interests of the boss and his wife, such as fitness, drinking, singing, cultural artifacts, etc. Having the same interests as the customer is also an important factor in promoting cooperation. What are their eating habits? It's inevitable to treat them to meals and toast. Attitude If a salesperson's attitude is not correct, in the final analysis, it's complaining and laziness. These four words are the lifeblood of salespeople. Go to KFC and complain there's no noodles. Go to Lanzhou Lamian and complain there's no ketchup. Actually, people in sales have too many things to complain about; you can't finish in a day. If you add a glass of wine, you can complain until the sky darkens. Complaining and grumbling are two different things. In life and work, it's hard to avoid a few grumbles; it's just simple complaining. After a glass of wine, you turn around and start fighting enthusiastically again. People are emotional animals, not robots. Actually, complaining is also a way of communication. Simple complaining is also a transformation of inner venting. Say what you're complaining about, spit it out, and immediately you feel light, entering a spring-like state of mind. If you keep complaints in your heart, it can lead to passive work at best, or at worst, make you sick, and eventually turn you into depression. Try it if you don't believe me. If you are gloomy all day, complaining about this and that, over time it becomes a defective personality. At best, you can't adapt to the company; at worst, it's hard to adapt to society. People live in the world, and everything is mutual. How you treat life, life treats you the same; how you treat others, others treat you the same. Of course, I'm not saying you should pour out your grievances at the company. The target of complaining is very important. If you score 50 points and complain to someone with similar scores, that's birds of a feather. You should find someone who is progressive and positive, find a quiet and suitable place, have a cup of coffee, and briefly grumble, because the other person will guide and encourage you, turning danger into safety. True friends don't just listen to your complaints; they guide you through the fog and help you see the world anew. Let me share with you the standard for making friends on Zhihu: A wise person who is detached from the world, a strong person who is engaged in the world, or a normal and sunny ordinary person. The positive result of complaining is mutual encouragement, not being birds of a feather. Otherwise, it leads to grumbling, which is an upgraded version of complaining, usually a group event, and this is the last thing managers want to see. Now let's talk about laziness in sales. In frontline sales, 80% of problems are caused by laziness. So we say, in sales, all evils originate from laziness! Sales is actually a physical job. Every salesperson is responsible for a regional market, running around customers and stores every day. This physical strength is your two legs. The market is walked out step by step. No matter how awesome your IT management tools are, they can't overturn this fact! Visit rate issues, display issues, inventory issues, price issues, etc., in the final analysis, are because you've been 'lazy' in the office for too long, causing chaos in the external market. In frontline sales, whether the most basic work is done solidly is the best measure of whether a salesperson is lazy! If you run around the market every day like a 'patrolman,' communicating sales issues with customers. Not to mention long-term, try it for a year. If the market doesn't flourish, that would be strange. Speaking of this, the laziness of frontline salespeople is actually cultivated by sales managers. Big laziness infects small laziness, and finally everyone is lazy together. Some sales managers might say, 'I require salespeople to be in the market every day, no problem!' Here I say, salespeople being in the market every day doesn't mean they are running the market or visiting customers! Being in the market is just a change of space; Running the market and visiting customers is specific work; How to ensure the quality of this work is your management method. Actually, salespeople prefer being in the market to being in the office. Outside, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away; they can wander around, and you can't see or catch them! If a sales manager only focuses on results and not the process, your team will definitely breed 'lazy bugs.' Skills Some salespeople, when they hear the word 'skills,' say, 'No one taught me this!' People who talk like that are 'lazy goods' making excuses! Salespeople's work skills are not just taught; they are practiced by yourself! Don't say no one taught you! In the workplace, it's normal for others not to teach you. Because everyone only gets their own salary, why should others teach you? From childhood to university graduation, teachers taught you in school because you paid tuition; When you come to the workplace, you not only don't pay tuition, but the boss also pays you a salary. Why would they teach you? Most people in sales carry this prejudice: they think sales performance depends on product quality and customer choice. Isn't that nonsense? What skills do salespeople actually need? Let's not even talk about sales skills in different industries; there are so many skills that could fill a book. I divide salespeople's skills into: soft skills and hard skills. For soft skills, I'll talk about the most basic ones. If you learn the most basic skills well, then learn advanced ones, and have a solid foundation! The most basic soft skill is the skill of dealing with people! This is the most basic skill in all sales industries! Speaking of this, someone will surely say: 'I thought you had some awesome skill. What's dealing with people? Isn't it just chatting? Who can't do that? It's no big deal!' The simpler things are, the more complex the logic behind them! If you can make simple things not simple, then you are not simple. Sales is not a one-person thing; it's inseparable from dealing with others. The highest level of dealing with people is: you have things to talk about with customers, customers like chatting with you, and you can put your thoughts into the customer's head! Do you think reaching this highest level is simple? Hard skills are the business skills of work. These skills, to a large extent, are 'soaked' out in the market, unless your cerebellum is indeed underdeveloped, and then I can't help it. For learning hard skills, don't think they are profound. I'll say it again: sales work has no core technology, let alone cutting-edge technology! Don't listen to those old hands in the industry who make it sound mysterious, as if they really 'master core technology.' For learning hard sales skills, first, you need to take one step at a time, with the spirit of digging a well, not changing ground until you hit water. Based on this, I'll share a method: Whatever you lack, find the person who does it best, follow them every day to learn, stay humble and diligent, keep your mind sharp, and that's it. So, learning from excellent people and making friends with excellent people can help you avoid detours. Learn N times, summarize N+5 times, practice N+10 times! Try it for a year and see! In this era of knowledge flooding, many times we don't lack learning but practice. Knowledge changes destiny, that's right! But knowledge must be transformed into practice to change destiny. Management The 'management' I talk about here is not management by managers, but 'self-management' by salespeople, managing their own time and emotions. Many salespeople never pay attention to managing their time. It's not that everyone muddles through work, like a monk ringing the bell day by day. Time, regardless of status, is equal to everyone, because everyone has 24 hours a day! How to use and allocate these 24 hours well is a science, and it can better show a salesperson's self-management. In the workplace, there's a saying: 'Eight hours for survival, eight hours for development.' I'll add one more: eight hours for good sleep! Over the years, I often observe how salespeople arrange their time after work.
Some, after work, whether accompanying clients or friends, are always around the drinking table! What you can get:
Your own heavy drinking, at a young age, health red lights, and you suffer from your own illness.
Drinking table jokes, accumulating over time, endless. You meet many people at the drinking table, but those with interests are not very useful.
Go home after work, play games, watch entertainment shows, cry over drama plots, and before you know it, it's midnight. Scroll through Moments, then sleep. The next day, you wake up and imitate the fashion from the dramas to dress yourself. For the above four situations, they still say, 'I'm so busy every day, where do I have time to recharge!' In fact, there is no time that can't be arranged; only people who don't arrange their time. I just want to say: Where you spend your time, there your results will be. If you abandon time, time will abandon you. I'm not saying that as soon as you get off work, you bury yourself in study, entering the state of the college entrance exam. In sales, necessary socializing is still needed. But don't overdo it; you decide the specifics. Some salespeople, you see them busy all day, always having endless things to do, lacking work plans and time management, and in the end, they don't do their work well. They scold for spending an extra yuan on a pack of cigarettes, but don't feel heartache for wasting a day. What is your ideal? People who manage time well do less rather than more. It's not that doing more means you can do it well; you should spend time on the most important things. Salespeople's emotions fluctuate greatly, hovering around performance highs and lows. When performance is in a continuous slump, some start to question their bad luck or fate, deny their abilities, and their brain thinking becomes 'I can't.' I suggest that while enduring pressure, you should also appropriately relax your mood. Source: 土拨鼠跟我走, 简书经管专栏优秀作者 https://www.jianshu.com/u/9c5672a94a6d -END-