There is nothing new in selling - Mick Merrick

Author - Mick Merrick

There is nothing new in selling. In 1949 Frank Bettger wrote a book entitled “How I raised myself from failure to success in selling”. In it he lists the key lessons that he learned during a very successful 20+ year career selling life insurance.

Interestingly, this book is still classed as a classic and is still used as a textbook by some training organisations. Since 1949 there have been a myriad of new, innovative selling systems including

·          benefits selling

·          spin selling

·          solution selling

·          consultancy selling

·          challenger selling, and my current favourite

·          disruptive selling

So, with all these new and more sophisticated methods of selling, why is Frank’s book still so popular? The answer is simple; the ideas he lists work. He knows they work because he has tested them, and many sales people down the years have followed his advice and also found that his ideas work. There is nothing special or clever about his ideas, and they are very easy for all of us to follow. Let me give you a couple of examples:

Frank nearly lost his job and was saved by his boss explaining that he was going to lose it simply because he wasn’t seeing enough people.

Frank kept meticulous records, and from time to time he would analyse those records. One thing he learned was that if a prospect hadn’t bought from him after the second visit they almost certainly wouldn’t. So, he stopped going back after two visits. This freed up a huge amount of time for him to invest in more effective first and second visits.

In his book Frank details a meeting with a specific prospect. Completely by accident, he discovered that this prospect supported a charity and was worried about what would happen to that charity when he died. When Frank discussed the insurance policy in terms of the value to the charity he turned around a very disinterested prospect. The lesson he learned was that clients buy for their own reasons, and a successful sales person needs to find out what those reasons are.

So, in essence, selling boils down to doing three things;

√      Getting on with it, rather than sitting and hoping business will come forward

√      Analysing the work you do and looking for ways to make it more efficient

√      Thinking about the customer and what the customer needs.

Everything regarding selling is obvious, although it is only obvious once it has been explained. Here at Precept we aim to explain the obvious in simple ways which allow you to get on with developing your business quickly and easily.