I know that selling is a job for many of you and I also know that many of you wont be selling for long.  Selling is a rewarding, yet stressful task if you decide to take it on for very long.  Like any other profession you may try to master, it takes years of practice and lots of failures before you get good at it.

Probably the most difficult part of the job is dealing with the human factor.  One of the biggest mistakes that is sure to make your sales career miserable is trying to base your success on numbers alone.  You cannot and will not be able to sell using only numbers but they can be valuable in keeping your perspective and knowing your performance history.  In the end though the numbers can only show you the facts.  You have to be real with yourself too and know where your strengths lie and work with your weaknesses.  The key to this job is getting to know people and how to read what they are really saying.  The numbers just tell you whether or not you’re reading them right.  You must be able to understand what the customer wants, why they want it and then deliver.

Your price may be perfect and  even if you do have a 30% closing rate, that does not spell victory.  The person on the other side of the deal is just that, a person.  You can’t forget that 90% of the deal is getting the person to trust you and feel comfortable in doing business with you.  Sometimes our egos and prior successes make us cocky and while confidence is a key factor in selling, arrogance is a killer.  So don’t forget, before we get the deal we have to get the person.