52 Weeks of Sales Success

by Roberts, Ralph R.; Gallagher, John

• ISBN13: 9780887309632
• ISBN10: 0887309631
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-29
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

America's #1 salesman, the legendary Ralph R. Roberts, is back with a recipe for success that no salesperson, novice or veteran, can afford to be without. If you've already read Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman, you're ready for more of this super-salesman's powerful, practical advice. If you haven't, you can make up for lost time by studying this new book. More than perhaps any other human on the planet, Ralph Roberts lives, eats, and breathes selling. Dubbed "America's scariest salesman" by Time for his accomplishments, which include selling over six hundred houses per year, fifty times more than the average real estate agent, Ralph is in great demand as a speaker and seminar leader. So extensive were his out-of-town speaking engagements that his own staff spoke up and said, "Why don't you stay home and teach us a thing or two?" He immediately began series of popular weekly sales seminars for his employees, on which 52 Weeks of Sales Success is based. Ralph now offers the same sales-generating wisdom and closing tools to everyone trying to reach his or her full potential. He reveals strategies to meet the turn-of-the-century sales environment head-on: Spot business opportunities where your competition doesn't. Learn tips for breaking the sales slump. Know how to get the most out of your past clients--and when to "fire" a customer. Acquire surefire methods to supercharge your networking efforts. Learn the keys to marketing a home-based business. Design outlines for developing your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly success checklists. In addition, Ralph presents the strategies and techniques of other sales superstars from many different industries, including advertising, investment, auto, home decorating, home-based business, audio-visual production, Internet service, insurance, travel, and mortgage brokering, to name just a few. The strategies Ralph imparts in 52 Weeks of Sales Success will set you apart from every other salesperson. You'll learn how to look for and listen to what people want and try and find in for them; how to identify the true decision maker in the family in order to expedite closings; most important, you'll learn Ralph's technique for making an impression. It's all in this book, packed with infectious enthusiasm, wonderful personal stories about his own goal-setting and achievements, and down-home wisdom about setting priorities. Ralph's message can get you incredible results. Aimed straight at the problems of entrepreneurial salespeople, Ralph's methods will help you: Conquer your fears of selling! Eliminate nonproductive habits! Get to the point of closing fate! Walk away with more sales than ever before! Close every deal!

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	xi	(2)
INTRODUCTION	xiii
WEEK 1 Getting Started	1	(4)
WEEK 2 Your Yearly Review	5	(3)
WEEK 3 Take Care of Your Customers	8	(3)
WEEK 4 Learn from Your Mistakes	11	(4)
WEEK 5 From Bartender to Marketer	15	(4)
WEEK 6 Disabilities Can't Stop You	19	(5)
WEEK 7 Know Your Product	24	(3)
WEEK 8 The Art of Self-Promotion	27	(6)
WEEK 9 More Thoughts on the Art of Self-Promotion	33	(4)
WEEK 10 Seeing Business Where It Isn't	37	(4)
WEEK 11 Problem Solving with Your Staff	41	(4)
WEEK 12 Train Your Assistants Properly	45	(5)
WEEK 13 Meet "Little Ralph"	50	(3)
WEEK 14 Six Ways to Write Better Notes to Your Customers	53	(4)
WEEK 15 The Importance of Mentors	57	(4)
WEEK 16 Work Your Priorities	61	(4)
WEEK 17 Keeping Your Past Customers	65	(4)
WEEK 18 Do I Use a Soft Sell or a Hard Sell?	69	(5)
WEEK 19 My Top 10 Tips for Better Networking	74	(4)
WEEK 20 Use Those Idle Moments	78	(3)
WEEK 21 Marketing a Home-Based Business	81	(4)
WEEK 22 My Five Strategies for Getting the Most out of Technology	85	(4)
WEEK 23 Using the Internet	89	(4)
WEEK 24 Reward Yourself Before a Sale, Not After	93	(3)
WEEK 25 Six Things to Do When You Lose a Deal	96	(4)
WEEK 26 Where Should You Meet Your Customers?	100	(4)
WEEK 27 Staying Put	104	(3)
WEEK 28 How to Ask and Answer Questions	107	(4)
WEEK 29 Telephone Sales	111	(5)
WEEK 30 A Sale a Day	116	(6)
WEEK 31 Don't Let a Week Go By	122	(3)
WEEK 32 Your Monthly Checklist	125	(3)
WEEK 33 Do the Obvious	128	(4)
WEEK 34 Dealing with Disappointment	132	(3)
WEEK 35 Exceed Your Customer's Expectations	135	(4)
WEEK 36 Highs and Lows	139	(3)
WEEK 37 My "Idea of the Week" Book	142	(3)
WEEK 38 Flexibility Is Key	145	(4)
WEEK 39 The Wrong and Right Ways to Manage Salespeople	149	(4)
WEEK 40 My Presentation Folder	153	(5)
WEEK 41 When to Fire a Customer	158	(4)
WEEK 42 Don't Add It Up!	162	(3)
WEEK 43 Why Size Doesn't Matter	165	(4)
WEEK 44 Building Wealth Through Investing	169	(4)
WEEK 45 Problem Solving for Your Customers	173	(3)
WEEK 46 Dealing with the Competition	176	(3)
WEEK 47 Positive Talking	179	(3)
WEEK 48 Just Do It!	182	(5)
WEEK 49 Breaking the Sales Slump	187	(4)
WEEK 50 My Worst Day Ever	191	(3)
WEEK 51 Are You Locked in a Box?	194	(5)
WEEK 52 Final Thoughts	199	(3)
NOTE TO THE READER	202	(1)
INDEX	203

Excerpts

Week 1

Getting Started

I got started in selling real estate right out of high school. I probably would have been successful more quickly if I had gone to college, but at that time I was eager to get started and make money. I took $900 in graduation gift money and bought my first home. I was just 18. I'd rent out rooms to friends for $30 or $40 a week. If they didn't have the cash to pay me, I'd have them use their Penney's charge card to buy me a TV set. I remember I had a waterbed upstairs, and it was so heavy that the house sagged to one side.

Getting started was the toughest part of my career, no question. I was fired from two sales jobs because the managers said I had no future in sales. I had one of my first homes foreclosed because I got overextended on all my payments. I was working virtually around the clock, not always productively. I know now that I could have worked more efficiently and reached my level of success even sooner. In this chapter I'd like to give a few tips so you can learn from some of my mistakes.

First, if you're a novice salesperson, it may help to realize certain things. Understand that this is the toughest part of your career. You have no past clients to turn to, no referrals from satisfied customers. You feel all alone, and you probably doubt your ability and your future. A lot of talented people get out of sales at this point. Their careers are over before they really begin.

That's a shame. There are ways to get beyond this break-in period. I was a green kid myself once, handing out my business cards to strangers and not really knowing why, but I went on to heights of success I probably couldn't even dream about them. You can, too.

So, first, I always advise novices to tell everyone they know about their job-everybody from grandparents to old friends from high school. Develop a list and mail out something, then give them a quick call. Maybe you're a travel agent or you're selling cars or computers or home furnishings or stocks and bonds-things that everyone needs and everyone buys sooner or later. Family and friends become the first customers for many such salespeople and you build up from there.

But even if you're selling jet airplanes or complex software, let everyone know what you do. just because you're selling something your friends and family know nothing about or have no direct connection to, doesn't mean they don't know people you want to be linked to.

Also, stay away from negative people. They have no value in your life. With customers you should always be positive. If someone asks how your business is going, say it is unbelievable. You could be just steps away from bankruptcy, but you have to present a positive outlook. This anti-negative attitude extends to your competition. Never badmouth your rivals. Mudslinging will never help you win your customer. It will probably only backfire.

Get as much training as you can early on. As I said, I did it the other way, postponing my formal training for years while I beat my head against the wall. Now I firmly believe that you can learn from others. There are experts out there willing to help you learn. Take advantage of them. It'll be time and money well spent.

Most of all, remember that if you work hard, things will get better. My friend John Vigi is one of the nation's top stockbrokers. He handles all my accounts and has made me lots of money. But when he started out about 15 years ago, he had no clients and no commissions. John remembers cold-calling as many as 300 people in a row without a single sale. It was discouraging!

It reminds me of when I got my first real estate job. There were these two brothers, Noel and Tony Fox. They owned Fox Brothers Real Estate next to my dad's construction office. The Boss built houses, and they would sell them for him. I remember they were sharp dressers; they always had nice cars and nice suits, and they were mentors and got me started in real estate. They taught me something pretty valuable, which was going door to door to meet people. And that's a hard thing to do. Even before I went door to door, they took me to a grocery store, and they said, "You go in there and meet everybody, give everyone your card, and when you're done giving everyone your card, come back to the office and we'll get started on the next project." Well, I went there in the morning, but new people keep coming in all day long, so basically I never got done. When I got to the office later that night, I said how am I supposed to get done meeting everyone when new people keep coming in? And they said, "Well, that's the idea. You have to meet everybody. Everyone has to know what you do so you can help them." It was great advice, even if I didn't see the wisdom of it at the time.

It's important to remember that all this hard work pays off John Vigi probably hasn't made cold calls in a long time. He doesn't have to. His portfolio of clients keeps him busy enough to be among Merrill Lynch's top 10 or 15 percent of brokers nationwide. For me it's the same. I don't have to work nearly as hard at selling as I once did. I've established my customer base and hired good assistants, and this frees me not to work so many long hours.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from 52 Weeks of Sales Success by Ralph Roberts Copyright © 2003 by Ralph Roberts
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.