So many of you sales pros out there may be wandering, “what can I do?’  Well a few answers come to mind but there are also a few prerequisites to providing those answers.  First of all, are you doing what you love?  If the answer is no, then first you need to help yourself by finding a new career.  If your heart isn’t in it, what you can do is severely limited.  Secondly, are you selling a quality product or service?  If you can’t answer that question or there is doubt in your mind then your impact may be little to nothing. Finally, do you really know what you’re doing and are you willing to take input.  No one says you have to be the greatest salesman in the world to move your wares but you must always be open to constructive criticism from those who are more successful and wiser.  If after you’ve laid your answers on the table, you still want to do what you’re doing the impact can be tremendous.

So now that we’ve decided to stay in this crazy game called sales, what can we do to impact the market.  I’ll tell you what we do, move our wares!  The single biggest issue right now is that we are in an economic drought.  The clouds are full to the bursting point of cash, probably more so than they have been in years, but no one has been able to do the right dance.  We as sales professionals are the rain makers.  We are the people that identify the needs of our prospects and motivate them to own what we have to sell.  We must be rattling the bushes, and turning over the stones to find those people sitting on the fence and push them over.

Trust is a big proponent of the ongoing dollar drought.  There are trust issues with the government, the banks and markets.  What can we do about this?  Absolutely nothing.  What we can do is create a bubble around ourselves and our customers, a small pocket of peace.  The way we accomplish this is first by identifying the right customer.  Does this customer have a pain that can be solved by my product?  Can this customer benefit significantly from my product? Then we must decide whether or not its monetarily possible for this customer to own my product.  Once you have a customer who meets these criteria then the onus is on the sales pro to make that customer feel comfortable owning their product.  We do this by professionalism in our communication, details in our proposal, zealotry in our follow up and by having impeccable character.  We must make our customer feel like they are buying a carton of champagne even when they are buying a six pack of cheap beer.  By making our customers’ experience from start to finish one of professionalism and relative ease, we encourage consumers to get back out there and buy.  Every good experience they have makes a consumer braver about buying.  We have a responsibility to make our customers feel like they can get value, in a professional way no matter what the state of the union may be.  We set the tempo of the precipitation and our responsible actions have a definitive impact on how the general consumer population feels.

Now I don’t want what I’m saying to be directed only at people who business card says “sales” in some form.  Everything here applies to anyone who needs to move a product from the hot dog vendor to the cashier at the pharmacy.  We are sales professionals in one way or another.  When someone visits our shops or agrees to an appointment to demonstrate a product we must put our best foot forward.  Think of trying to entice a squeamish animal to let you pet it, making loud noises and flailing your hands really does not benefit your agenda.  When you do get the animal close, don’t grab it by the neck.  Give it a few minutes to stop shaking and speak softly.  Once you have it’s trust, you may  get to pet it again.

So get out there, put on your dancing shoes and make it rain!