Dr. Gary S. Goodman - Selling is So Easy Its Hard: 77 Ways Salespeople Shoot Themselves in the Wallet

Selling is So Easy,
Its Hard

OTHER TITLES BY DR. GARY S. GOODMAN

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Selling is So Easy,
Its Hard

77 Ways Salespeople
Shoot Themselves
in the Wallet

Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Published 2019 by Gildan Media LLC

aka G&D Media

www.GandDmedia.com

SELLING IS SO EASY, ITS HARD. Copyright 2019 by Dr. Gary S. Goodman. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained within. Although every precaution has been taken, the author and publisher assume no liability for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Front Cover design by David Rheinhardt of Pyrographx

Interior design by Meghan Day Healey of Story Horse, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

ISBN: 978-1-7225-0194-5

eISBN: 978-1-7225-2293-3

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Introduction

I was watching one of my clients deliver a pep talk to his salespeople. A former Marine, the speaker was a blunt instrument.

Discipline is the most important thing in life! he bellowed to youngsters half his age.

I didnt think he was getting his point across, but I was hoping to hear something I could use.

I had the feeling he hired me as a sales consultant partly because he wanted someone to compete against. A worthy adversary, a foil, someone he could disprove, a PhD and noted author to whom he could show a thing or two.

But that didnt matter. I had surprised more than one cocky client during my consulting career.

They say a broken clock is accurate at least twice a day, and this rough-and-tumble fellow was about to prove the point. With one sentence, he made me come to attention.

Selling is so easy, its hard, he said.

Selling is easy, I thought. Talk to enough people, and ask them all to buy. Some will do it. What could be easier than that?

Yet selling is hard. Why do so few people rise to the top and stay on top in this profession? How come there are so many flashes in the pan, people who get off to a great start and then fizzle into obscurity and evaporate into outright failure? What is it that prevents people from doing this simple deedselling successfullyday after day, year after year?

Its an easy occupation, but judging from the rampant turnover in the ranks of salespeople, it is hard. It frowns upon far more folks than it smiles upon.

It reminds me a lot of baseball. Seasoned veterans are fond of saying, Sooner or later, baseball will make a fool of everyone. You have it figured out, and then it tricks you. Youre slumping. Cant buy a hit or even scrape by on a walk or an error. Every pitcher seems to have your number.

In the sales field, prospects spot you a mile away. You suffer from sales breath. Every syllable, word and intonation reeks of insincerity and self-centeredness. Ive been a salesperson, a sales manager, a business owner, and a sales consultant. Ive written some of the best-selling books in the sales field. Ive made thousands of sales and millions of dollars doing it.

And yet until now, Ive never really figured out why some sellers succeed, are built to last, while others, even more talented and gifted, fail.

Ill tell you the great secret: salespeople defeat themselves.

Ive seen it happen. It has happened to my recruits and trainees. And it has happened to me.

My first observation of self-defeating sales behavior occurred in my own home, when I was growing up. My father was a professional salesman. Though he had various prestigious occupational titles that might lead you to think otherwise, his main focus was always selling. But he wasnt your typical huckster or carnival barker. He was very low-key, a polished communicator. He had earned a BA in liberal arts from a solid university, and he almost completed a law degree. He could have been and done a number of things. But selling was his calling. He was hooked on it.

He fell into a self-destructive pattern that was noticeable to nearly everyone but him. It lasted for his entire professional life. It would usher in periods of feast and famine. Obviously this was hard on him, but it also took a toll on his family. Hed rise to the top in a given company, and then suddenly hed quit, ostensibly over a misunderstanding hed have with his boss.

He wanted to be acknowledged, to be appreciated for all of the heavy lifting he was doing. Yet he also wanted to be left alone, to set his own hours, and to get the job done his way. He wanted too much, especially on an emotional levelmore than a sales job could give him.

When things were good and he was selling well, we lived beautifully. We had impressive houses in the best neighborhoods. Between jobs, which seemed to occur way too frequently, we would be shuttled to tiny apartments without the best amenities.

This is not to say my dad was without talent. He was a gifted salesperson. I can say this with authority, because I would hear him prospect over the phone from the house. He had an uncanny ability to adjust from one prospect to the next. His prospects adored him, and whatever he was doing, it paid the bills. He got good results when he wasnt sabotaging his success.

I wont go into detail here about his specific techniques. I have noted some of them in my book, How to Sell Like a Natural Born Salesperson. But when you add up his miscues, along with mine and those of thousands of other sellers Ive worked with and trained over the years, they can be distilled into 77 tips.

If you dont use these pointers, youll shoot yourself in the wallet, sacrificing millions of dollars of earnings during your career, and youll doom yourself and those that care about you to a lifestyle far less satisfying and far more painful than you and they deserve.

Fortunately, some of these worst practices wont be vexing you. Skip around the following pages, if you like. Im sure youll discover that youre mired in some invisible habits that will take your breath away once you realize they are your Achilles heels.

The good news is we can all change, we can improve, and we can realize more of our full potential. Heres to a more satisfying and rewarding career and lasting success!

77 Tips to Keep from Shooting Yourself in the Wallet

Tip 1: Find the Right Sales Opportunities for You!

Many salespeople fail to reach their potential because theyve taken on an inappropriate sales job. Its a bad fit for them.

You wont find this point in any of the sales books Ive read or written. Nobody talks about it, but it is exceedingly important.

My first sales job was at age ten. I delivered newspapers. Of course, it wasnt a good sales job. It was pretty much all you could get if you were ten. Still, it was a bad fit because I didnt see it as selling. I believed it was about delivery, about balancing papers on my handlebars and getting them delivered without plunking them into puddles.