Who wants to be a Millionaire - Consider Sales as a Profession?

Who wants to be a Millionaire - Consider Sales as a Profession?

Do you want to be a millionaire? Come on now, don’t give the recession excuse. There are many companies including Disney, GE, and Microsoft that were started and blossomed during past recessions. No matter where you are in your life, you can still be what you wish to be. Napoleon Hill said this in his book Think and Grow Rich, which was written in 1937 after interviewing 500 multimillionaires. He helped people, particularly sales people to become a millionaire with the help of his Sage advice. You too can become a millionaire. And you can become one with sales as a profession.

All business owners have good sales acumen and many have solid grounding in salesmanship. Some are trained in sales and others have honed their innate sales abilities to perfection.

William Wrigley Jr. was a traveling salesman. He sold baking soda. As a premium, he offered chewing gum to his baking soda customers. The customers liked the chewing gum so much that they were interested more in the gum than the soda. The salesman decided to manufacture chewing gum instead. And the rest as you know is history. Wrigley dominated the gum industry and the salesman became one of the richest men in America.

Ray Kroc was a milk shake machine salesman. He was the one that created the McDonald’s franchise system and became very wealthy as a result of that. The McDonald brothers had entered into a huge debt and Ray Kroc purchased the small burger house in New York City from them. He kept the name unchanged and started franchises of the burger house, first in the USA and then all over the entire world. Today there are over 200,000 McDonald outlets all over the world.

Lee Ka Shing is one of the wealthiest men in Hong Kong. He started working at a very young age when his father died. By the time he was 20 he had worked at several odd jobs. He entered direct marketing at the age of 20. He became a millionaire with the direct selling business.

Even inventors that became wealthy with innovative products acknowledge the importance of sales. They know that without good sales strategies they cannot survive for long even if they have a unique product or service. Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are well versed in the nuances of sales apart from their core skill of software development and investment respectively.

A good salesman is ever alert for business possibilities both with the product that he is selling as well as the possibilities existing outside. Through the process of selling he develops a passion to spot the potential to make money. Salesmanship brings out that acumen to spot possibilities.




The spirit to spot an opportunity and seize it to become rich by a salesman (sales boy, rather) is well captured and depicted in the latest Oscar award winner, “Slum dog millionaire”. A poor chai walah (tea beverage seller) selling hot cups of tea to call centre workers becomes a millionaire in the Bollywood movie. It doesn’t happen by chance. To woo his childhood lady love and get her attention he participates in the Indian equivalent of “Who wants to become a millionaire”. The only way he can catch her attention is to participate in the TV program and stay there longer because she watches the show regularly.

The movie opens with the salesman taking a seat in the game show facing a mean, cruel, and unctuous host. He answers each question and is just one question away from winning the 20 million rupees grand prize when the show ends for the day. The game show host is sure that the salesman who has been raised amidst squalor and exploitation is cheating. He tips off the police and the poor salesman is whisked away for interrogation. But the gritty salesman explains braving torture, like explaining each scar on his face, how each question in the show has answers in some turn of his life, including his stint as a tea beverage seller. The authorities are impressed by the authenticity and let him go to participate in the show the next day to answer the final question. He does answer the final question and wins the 20 million grand prize as well as his lady love.

The movie captures the fierce will to survive and win, qualities found in successful sales persons. Sales training can help prepare such fighting and winning attitudes. The real and reel life stories can be replicated with sales motivational training. But are you prepared for it?

Pilot Lands Plane Highly Motivated!

From this week's Business of Life
Captain Sully: now a force for motivation
By: Kevin Davis April 06, 2009
Celebrity pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's heroics are now fueling the motivation and inspiration business.
The U.S. Airways pilot who safely ditched his jet on the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 people on board, is showing up on posters, T-shirts, mugs, key chains and even neckties.
At Tribune Tower, where there's a mandate for bold change in the media business, a blown-up photo is on display showing Mr. Sullenberger's plane floating in the Hudson with a quote from composer Leonard Bernstein: "To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time."
The poster is part of a continuing series of inspirational pictures, slogans and sayings the company displays, many of them created by employees, says a Tribune Co. spokesman. The U.S. Airways poster was created by Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams.
"We get them from a variety of people," the spokesman says. "They tend to be inspirational or motivational."
Several companies across the country have been manufacturing clothing and hats with sayings such as "Team Sully," "Sully is my homeboy" and "When I grow up I want to be just like Captain Sully."

Who wants to be a Millionaire - Consider Sales as a Profession?

Do you want to be a millionaire? Come on now, don’t give the recession excuse. There are many companies including Disney, GE, and Microsoft that were started and blossomed during past recessions. No matter where you are in your life, you can still be what you wish to be. Napoleon Hill said this in his book Think and Grow Rich, which was written in 1937 after interviewing 500 multimillionaires. He helped people, particularly sales people to become a millionaire with the help of his Sage advice. You too can become a millionaire. And you can become one with sales as a profession.

All business owners have good sales acumen and many have solid grounding in salesmanship. Some are trained in sales and others have honed their innate sales abilities to perfection.

William Wrigley Jr. was a traveling salesman. He sold baking soda. As a premium, he offered chewing gum to his baking soda customers. The customers liked the chewing gum so much that they were interested more in the gum than the soda. The salesman decided to manufacture chewing gum instead. And the rest as you know is history. Wrigley dominated the gum industry and the salesman became one of the richest men in America.

Ray Kroc was a milk shake machine salesman. He was the one that created the McDonald’s franchise system and became very wealthy as a result of that. The McDonald brothers had entered into a huge debt and Ray Kroc purchased the small burger house in New York City from them. He kept the name unchanged and started franchises of the burger house, first in the USA and then all over the entire world. Today there are over 200,000 McDonald outlets all over the world.

Lee Ka Shing is one of the wealthiest men in Hong Kong. He started working at a very young age when his father died. By the time he was 20 he had worked at several odd jobs. He entered direct marketing at the age of 20. He became a millionaire with the direct selling business.

Even inventors that became wealthy with innovative products acknowledge the importance of sales. They know that without good sales strategies they cannot survive for long even if they have a unique product or service. Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are well versed in the nuances of sales apart from their core skill of software development and investment respectively.

A good salesman is ever alert for business possibilities both with the product that he is selling as well as the possibilities existing outside. Through the process of selling he develops a passion to spot the potential to make money. Salesmanship brings out that acumen to spot possibilities.




The spirit to spot an opportunity and seize it to become rich by a salesman (sales boy, rather) is well captured and depicted in the latest Oscar award winner, “Slum dog millionaire”. A poor chai walah (tea beverage seller) selling hot cups of tea to call centre workers becomes a millionaire in the Bollywood movie. It doesn’t happen by chance. To woo his childhood lady love and get her attention he participates in the Indian equivalent of “Who wants to become a millionaire”. The only way he can catch her attention is to participate in the TV program and stay there longer because she watches the show regularly.

The movie opens with the salesman taking a seat in the game show facing a mean, cruel, and unctuous host. He answers each question and is just one question away from winning the 20 million rupees grand prize when the show ends for the day. The game show host is sure that the salesman who has been raised amidst squalor and exploitation is cheating. He tips off the police and the poor salesman is whisked away for interrogation. But the gritty salesman explains braving torture, like explaining each scar on his face, how each question in the show has answers in some turn of his life, including his stint as a tea beverage seller. The authorities are impressed by the authenticity and let him go to participate in the show the next day to answer the final question. He does answer the final question and wins the 20 million grand prize as well as his lady love.

The movie captures the fierce will to survive and win, qualities found in successful sales persons. Sales training can help prepare such fighting and winning attitudes. The real and reel life stories can be replicated with sales motivational training. But are you prepared for it?

5 Steps to a Robust Sales Pipeline

Whether or not the sales team follows the rules of the sales process, every company has a sales process in place as this is a prerequisite for a sales department. Even when you’re not sticking to the company’s sales process, sales executives follow some of sales process. In every sales process there are a few well coordinated steps:

1. Generating leads
2. Qualifying prospects
3. Sales presentations
4. Handling objections
5. Closing deals
6. Referral sales

There are potential/confirmed customers at various levels of the sales process. Usually their number tapers off from lead generation to the final step of referral sales. If a hundred leads are generated it may lead to 20 qualified prospects and three or four deals. If the sales person is talented enough or lucky, the number of qualified prospects and ultimately the deals may increase. Though there is no fixed method to predict the number of deals, this is a rough measure of leads to deals predictions. The Pareto principle of 80:20 works well here. Eighty percent of the leads qualify as prospects and eighty percent of the sales deals are generated by twenty percent of the qualified prospects. There may be a small percentage of difference here and there, but generally this is the rule.

The generation of leads, qualified prospects, deals, and referral sales is known as the sales pipeline. It is in the best interest of a sales person to have a robust sales funnel at every stage of the sales pipeline. This is the best way to maximize sales. The healthier the sales pipeline, the better the chance of achieving sales. It is the responsibility of the sales executive to maintain a robust sales pipeline. Here are the five steps how it can be done.

A strong Foundation through Good Lead Generation and Qualification

Explore all the expected sources for leads. Your company definitely creates leads by way of advertisements and publicity. Check if the lead data bank your office uses is up-to-date. You should have your own methods of lead generation too. Fresh leads can be obtained from the latest yellow pages, the Internet, networking, and referrals. There are some services like postmaster.com that have interested people signed up to receive newsletters and emails from sellers. You can probe for sales by sending newsletters (without spamming) to the listed people with postmaster.com.

Apart from the expected sources, leads appear from unexpected quarters if a sales person keeps his eyes and ears open. If you are on your way out of the customer’s office after having concluded a deal there is no harm in stopping by and having a small talk with any of the office staff. Thank people from the organization that have helped you in reaching the right person and making a sale. Some of their friends or spouses may be running businesses and may have a requirement of your products. Usually as a sales person you will be in your element after making a sale. This is the best time to explore more possibilities. If not immediately, the office staff may get interested in your product later after they see how it works in their office. They wouldn’t require any further proof of quality.

When it comes to qualifying prospects for your product or service be sure to ask open-ended questions - who, what when, where & why to determine that they are prospects and not suspects. Wisdom lies in grading qualified prospects and allotting time according to their importance. High caliber sales professionals spend more quality time with top prospects.

Be Creative in Contacting

Senior executives that have the power to make buying decisions do have hobbies and are often found in gyms, tennis clubs, resorts, and golf courses. They would be pleasantly surprised and appreciate it when you try to meet them there. Keep the meeting as brief as possible and only as a primer to a real official meeting. This is the time when they are in a relaxed mood and would give you a chance for a meeting or a demonstration. Also ascertain as to what time the senior executive in a relaxed mood while in the office. That’s the best time to schedule a meeting.

Probe and Talk about the Customer’s Need

When you have an audience with the potential customer, don’t bore him with the prattle about your product. Even if it’s the best product in the whole world it means little to him. You have to first explore the needs of the organization, understand the needs, and confirm the needs. Then you will have the attention of the customer when you describe how your product can cater to their requirements and all the positive points about your product will suddenly become matters of interest to him. Let the customer do the talking about his needs first.

Solid Presentation, Pleasant Objection Handling, and Swift Closing

Now this is your chance. You have come this far. Make the most of it by giving a solid presentation. The best way to do that is to pepper your presentation with humor. Be confident and assertive. Come prepared to handle objections and remove objections pleasantly. Most importantly know when to close the deal. Close the deal swiftly with correct timing.

Closing a Deal is Just the Beginning

Closing the deal is just the beginning of more sales from the customer (repeat orders) and referrals earned through them. Yes, referrals have to be earned. When you treat your customers well with the right service they may refer others voluntarily. They may come forward to refer others when you ask them. Many sales people overlook the opportunity for repeat or referral sales just by not asking.

Sales people can have a large number of leads, prospects, and customers if they follow the above five steps. The flow of leads and customers would be steady and the sales pipeline will be robust as well as fully functional.

How To Write Winning Value Propositions With Quantifiable Hard Dollar Figures To Win A Sale

It is natural for customers to probe the “what’s in it for me” interest deeply before making a buying decision. When customers buy a product or a service they ask numerous questions and weigh various pros and cons of buying the product. They are likely to make a cost and benefit analysis. Such analysis should tilt heavily in favor of benefits to lead to a purchase. Obviously, the more benefits you offer, greater is the probability of buying. In fact, nowadays customers’ expectations are almost exploding. In this age of instant gratification, speed, quality of service, and everything else about the product is quantified and weighed before buying.

Businesses and sales persons should convince the customer how much they are going to benefit if they buy their product. A value proposition is a statement specifying the tangible product/service and financial benefits that would accrue to the customer if they buy the product or service. The more elaborate and specific the value proposition, the stronger it becomes. A strong value proposition invariably results in a sale.

The Value Proposition should be about the Customer

A value proposition could be in any form – quality product, better customer service, speedy delivery, progressive discount, saving on energy, etc. Your value propositions should talk about the benefits accruing to the customer and they should be converted in to dollars.

Keep Weak Value Propositions Away

Phrases like “you will benefit immensely”, “you stand to gain”, “you are assured of great service” do not convince discerning buyers. Sales persons cannot succeed by using standard sales lines such as:
Our product saves you precious dollars
You will get countless benefits
Our technical superiority will save you money
We are the best when it comes to saving money

These types of statements are vague and too generic. Using such lines and responses in the value proposition will not impress or persuade the prospect to buy.

Use Strong Value Proposition Statements

There should be punch in the value proposition statements. The statements should be strong, convincing, and verifiable.

This new policy saves you $10,000 per year and provides you with more coverage
Our clients have increased their business by 20-25 percent using our business solutions services
Your savings on waste management will be nearly one percent or $1300.00 per year
You will be saving $10.00 per year per computer in terms of energy savings

These are some examples of strong value proposition statements. The best way to submit value propositions is to quantify them in terms of dollar value. Customers can see the immediate benefit and compare it with the competition. If the competition doesn’t have quantified benefits in their value proposition document then your product or service is more likely to be the desired solution. A strong value proposition, with numerical data, has the potential to differentiate your product or service from the competition.

Don’t Ignore the Small Numbers

Ignoring small numbers in your value proposition is not advisable. There are a number of senior executives that would schedule a meeting with you if you send them a value proposition stating that your product or service can reduce their waste management expenses by 1 percent. This may appear to be a small figure, but companies doing millions of dollar worth of business will really pay attention in this recession as each cent saved on waste management is applied to their bottom line. The small numbers doesn’t apply to waste management alone. Even a tiny feature like saving energy when printers are switched off can decide their salability.

Keep It Short and Uncluttered

Keep the value proposition statements short and uncluttered. You should mention the final figures without taking the customer through complex calculations. The dollar figures you furnish should be accurate. Most importantly you should allow the customer to verify your figures by citing authentic sources.

Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Develop a unique value proposition to stay ahead of the competition and get noticed. Convert the UVP into dollars so that the customer would know exactly how much they are going to benefit by doing business with you. IBM for instance, offers services as its unique value proposition instead of cutting their price. Over the past few years its business has grown largely based on that. Since we have laid emphasis on quantifiable terms, it is necessary to mention here that IBM’s revenues increased by nearly five percent in the third quarter of 2008 compared to that of the same period in 2007. Of the $23.5 billion that it earned, $14.8 billion came from services provided.

The fact that a well written value proposition garnished with hard dollars lends itself to be easily understood and compared should be borne in the minds of the business owners and managers. The customer will be motivated to buy when the benefits become tangible in terms of dollars, there are no two ways about it.

Doug Dvorak – www.salescoach.us – doug@dougdvorak.com – 847.359.6969

Doug Dvorak, Sales, coaching, training, recession, selling, economy, bailout, customer, value, proposition