How to Sell Yourself

Hello readers!

Well, cooler weather is once again upon us. And with it has come school, cold nights, chili, school, campfires, dressing up season, and school. For my fellow summer children, I hope it hasn't hit you too hard.

For this post, I decided to do something a little different. I had to read a book on sales for one of my classes this semester, and write a book review on it, hitting on some of the high points of the text. I knew it was about time for a new post, so I figured why not do something a little different (although I did do a post a year or so ago from an essay I had written for school. You can find it here), and write about a nonfiction book, and maybe inspire a few of my readers. The name of the book is Selling ASAP: Art, Science, Agility, Performance, and it was written for anyone with any sort of interest in sales. Although, as you'll see in the rest of this post, I think this can apply to life just as well as it does for those who are in sales. So, here we go.


Selling ASAP: Art, Science, Agility, Performance is a very good book for anyone interested in sales. Whether or not an individual is wet behind the ears when it comes to selling, or has had years of experience, this book is an excellent choice for developing skills. It introduces some new and some well-known concepts. Even so, much of this book is focused on stressing the importance of cultivating a good relationship with everyone in the buying matrix, from the gatekeepers to the buyers themselves. That is what I will focus more on myself.


Before I dissect, in part, the text of this book, I want to focus on what ASAP is in relation to selling. The authors explain this in the very first pages. The first “A” stands for art. In their words, “[s]elling involves your unique style (art) of applying a systematic process (science) to understanding customers’ needs and wants and matching the benefits of your product or service” to their needs. In my words, it is how you approach a prospect and tell them how your product can benefit them. The “S” stands for science. In selling, there is a systematic process, which makes it a science. According to the authors, “selling revolves around the marketing concepts of segmenting and targeting potential customers, and then presenting your products or service to the right prospects at the right time.” Much of the book is dedicated to exploring this concept. The second “A” stands for agility. The definition of agile according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is able to move quickly and easily, and having a quick resourceful and adaptive character. This is extremely important in selling, as an agile salesperson can respond quickly and easily to any situation at any time. Another benefit of being agile is the ability to change with the times, so to speak, and to adjust to the changing market and needs. The “P” stands for performance. Sales performance is a critical component. Sales is not just about meeting a goal; “it is also about an emphasis on continuous learning and on maintaining long-term customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.” Over the years performance in sales has been measured in many different ways. Even so, one common theme shines through, and that is becoming an advisor for the buyers. 

All the chapters in this book center around one general them, and that is building rapport with everyone in the buying process, especially the buyers and gatekeepers. While the authors do not explicitly say that is what the bottom line is, it is still there all the same. In the fourth chapter, the authors focus on getting the attention of a buyer, earning a few precious minutes of their valuable time to sell a product to them that could benefit them in some way. Some aspects of this chapter could have been placed earlier in the first two chapters, but in context it is placed just right. One of the main subjects of this chapter is a first impression. Several pages are spent on the importance of a salesperson’s first impression on a potential buyer. For example, holding a confident and professional air will be much more effective than allowing nerves to take control and make you forget what it was you were going to say and messing up the entire presentation. 

Before you even make it to a buyer, before you prepare your sales presentation, you must first determine who is simply a lead and who is a prospect. This part of the process is what I call the qualifying round. In order for a lead to turn into a prospect, they must first meet certain requirements. This is where Selling and our textbook are similar but not quite the same. The textbook uses a longer acronym than this book uses to determine the eligibility of a lead. For the purposes of this review I will talk about the one used in the book. In order to qualify a lead must be a MAD prospect. No, I don’t mean angry, I mean MAD. What this acronym stands for, is three questions. Does the individual have the money to spend on a particular product? Do they have the authority to purchase this product? Is there a desire present for this product so they will be interested? If a lead’s characteristics give a negative answer to any of these questions, then they are not promoted to the status of prospect. If a lead does match any of these qualifications, then they are a potential buyer, and the salesperson is then able to move on in the sales process, most of which involves getting the attention of the prospect and presenting the product to them. 

Part of the process of getting the attention of a potential buyer is cold calling in some fashion. It could take the form of a face to face meeting, or writing a letter to a VITO (very important top officer), although the most common form is a telephone call. When a salesperson makes a sales call to a potential customer, he or she may have to go through one or more layers of the buying matrix before getting down to the buyer themselves. Now, the book mentions the same matrix as our textbook uses. The most common layer to have to push through is the gatekeeper. As both books describe this position, the gatekeeper is a person, or persons depending on the situation, through whom a salesperson will have to go in order to get to their intended target. Selling ASAP takes this explanation a little further, and gives a few pointers on how to successfully make it past the gatekeeper, from lists that actual gatekeepers have made. The most important thing to remember is to be respectful and to treat them like a human being, and not “a piece of furniture” as the authors said it. Once you master this characteristic the rest should be fairly easy: respecting the fact that they have their own jobs and duties to attend to, being patient and friendly, refraining from complaining, and clearly introducing yourself. According to the authors, these are some things to keep in mind for a smooth conversation and to put yourself in a better light from the gatekeeper’s perspective. 
Making it through the gatekeeper is only half the struggle. You have sold yourself and your product to the gatekeeper, now you have to work much harder to sell the exact same thing to your prospective buyer. Once you make it to the buyer, you must find a way to get their attention, keep it, and successfully sell your product to them, all in a short amount of time. First, in order to get their attention, you must start with your appearance. If you appear to be confident, professional, and relaxed, then chances are good that a prospect will give you a few minutes out of their day to hear what you have to say. Once you have their attention visually, you must get their attention audibly. The key to doing this is to start off with something that can get their attention, such as telling them up front how they can benefit from purchasing your product. After you get their attention focused on you, keep it there by inviting conversation, being interested in what they are interested in, building rapport with them, all the while steering them toward making a purchase. As the authors pointed out in the fourth chapter, a prospect may not actually listen to you until you hit on a subject that is interesting to them. 

One of the most important aspects of selling, and I mean top three important, is listening to the customer. According to the authors, listening is an art, and I would place it under the first “A” of the acronym ASAP. If you do not listen to what a customer needs, then you do not fully understand what it is they are looking for. I have two examples of this, one from the book itself, and one from a television show I watch. In the fifth chapter, the authors use the example of a store manager who overheard a sales clerk telling a customer that they had not had something for a long time. With good intention, the manager told the customer that he was sure they had more than what she needed in the back, and if she would come back later they would have it ready for her. Then he asked what it was she had asked about. Her response was “rain.” I’m sure that manager would have stuck his foot in his mouth if he had been able to. Now for my second, slightly less relevant but still applicable example. There is a show called Mr. Selfridge. The premise of the show is an American entrepreneur sails to England to open a new department store in the late 1910’s. In an episode late in the first season, the store is short-staffed, and so the different departments have to temporarily meld in order for business to run smoothly. In one scene, a sales clerk is selling a piece of fabric to a customer. The customer insists that the particular fabric is not right for her, but the clerk pushes the fabric on her, touting the exquisiteness of the pattern. Still the customer refuses. The head of the fabric department notices and tries to remedy the situation by offering another piece of fabric, but by this point the customer is no longer interested in purchasing any fabric, and walks away. The department head chastises the clerk, saying that in the fabric department, unlike the accessories, you must listen to the customer. The same lesson can be pulled out of both these examples and applied to what I have read in this book and the textbook: always listen to the customer and understand what their needs are. Otherwise, you won’t be able to give them what they need. This can also hold true in building relationships with prospects. When you develop a relationship with someone, the only way to truly learn about them is to listen to what they have to say. But, there is a difference between hearing and listening. When you simply hear what someone is saying, all that is being processed is sounds and noises. In contrast, when you actually listen to someone, you understand what they are saying and you are processing and retaining information to go along with the sounds you hear. 

All in all, selling is a more involved process than one might think. It involves lots of thought, as well as careful planning. You must know exactly what you are going to say, and have a plan of how to react to different situations. Selling is an art to be mastered, a science to study, an exercise in agility, and a measurable performance. A salesperson who has these aspects somewhat mastered is a salesperson prepared for whatever they may face. And even if an individual is not planning to sell a piece of equipment to a manufacturing company or a vacuum cleaner to a family with three kids and a dog, these are still valuable traits to be able to exhibit. A person should be able to adjust to any situation life may give out, and one of the most important aspects of selling is also one of the most important aspects of life: listening. If you listen to people, you will go far. And who knows? You might even make a few sales along the way.

So, what do you think? You think you might want to go into sales at some point? Or at least implement some of these ideas and techniques in your own personal life? Or even read the book for yourself and gain your own insights. Let me know!

I'll be back soon with some other adventure I have been on, so stay tuned!

Happy reading!