TouchPoint Selling

May 28 2009 12:14PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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By Rick Heaston

I recently came across a quote that I just had to share with you. Even though it came from outside the industry, it fits perfectly with how you need to approach new home sales. Here it is:

A person that doesn’t make mistakes … doesn’t make much.

How appropriate for today’s selling climate. Matter of fact, the same words have been quoted numerous times before, but only in different ways.

Charles Deming, father of the modern quality movement, believed that any improvement program must clearly “Celebrate mistakes”. Beyond Deming, there’s Thomas Edison, inventor of the electric light bulb. He claims that his 200 failures was the one thing that made his final attempt successful. Which brings me to my point.

You’re not learning or perfecting your sales skills unless you’re occasionally making a mistake. Mistakes are part of the sales game. And that means, if from time to time you don’t try something new, and possibly “goof up”, you aren’t improving.

Sure, you can’t throw caution to the wind, or repeat the same mistake over and over, that get you nowhere. But you can experiment with some new techniques. I have a two-step checklist that allows you to “Let your conscience be your guide”.

Here’s what you must first do to be able to profit from your mistakes:

• With each part of your sales process you need to know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, why you’re trying to accomplish it and the techniques you use to make it work. Next … 
• Make yourself a chart to track your progress based on the techniques you use or don’t use with each customer. And finally … 
• Compare your sales techniques against your sales results.

By comparing your techniques to your results will tell you where you need to improve. Think about it. How many times have you heard the old saying, “you learn by your mistakes. How much truer could any statement be?