Selling 101 Summary

PDF, Chapters & Review of Zig Ziglar’s Book

Selling 101: What Every Successful Sales Professional Needs To Know

Author: Zig Ziglar

Click Here to Get the PDF Summary of This Book & Many More

Chapter 1 – You Made the Right Choice

1. You can not get out of the sales business if you have never been in it. There are many people in “sales”, who are not really in sales because they do not sell.

2. When you are in sales you are in business “for yourself but not by yourself”.

3. In sales you don’t wait for things to happen, you make them happen.

4. Salespeople consistently move into executive roles because of the increasing breadth and depth of skill they must acquire as effective sales leaders.

Chapter 2 – Important Skills for Today’s Sales Professional

1. Honesty and Integrity

2. Trust

   1. When you make a “casual commitment” to a prospect they will take it as gospel.

   2. If the person has any trouble in any phase of the relationship or use of the product, there is the distinct possibility that any “lack of follow through” will be blown out of proportion. Even the tiniest matters become deal shattering.

3. Listening

   1. The more sales people know about their prospects needs, the better position they are in to meet those needs.

   2. Talking is sharing but listening is caring.

   3. When we carefully listen to others, the feel they owe us something and are consequently more willing to listen.

4. Communication – Most people listen at the same speed that they speak, so whenever possible adjust your speech patterns to conform to those of the prospects.
5. Dependability and Credibility

Chapter 3 – Finding Someone Willing to Buy

Prospecting is the most important key to success.

Prospect – Some one who has the need for a product, a possible desire to own that product, and the financial capacity to implement that decision.

You should always be prospecting.

You should be committed to your product such that you can sincerely say that you feel those who buy from you are the ones benefiting in the transaction. That said you should feel good about selling to friends and family (Always avoid letting them buy from you as a favor rather than because they really want the product).

How to ask for referrals:

1. Ask your prospect if they would introduce you to their friend if he were here right now.

2. Ask them to do so via a phone call or e-mail.

3. When taking down names of other referrals, always write all of the names first, and then go back and take down the details.

4. Ask the prospect to prioritize the prospects for you

5. Keep the person who gave you referrals in the loop.

Where to find prospects

1.    Eagle Eye prospecting – Sighting leads on signs etc and writing them down for later use

2.    Dun and Bradstreet for a businesses management and size stats, also zapdata.com

3.    Book: Contacts Influential, Commerce and Industry Directory

When you get a referral contact them as soon as possible.

Chapter 4 – Dealing Effectively with Call Reluctance

1. 84% of all salespeople have call reluctance to some degree. Procrastination is the number one manifestation of this fear. When a salesperson creates non-essential tasks that must be done before going out to face the public, call reluctance is setting in.

2. Successful salespeople have a larger bin of obstacles, mistakes, and hurts that have been overcome.

3. If you primarily motivated by money, you will likely not get many sales.

4. One of the greatest causes of phone fear is failing to set an objective for the call.

5. Make your calls early in the morning, peoples energy levels are high and they respect a hard work ethic like their own. Many key decision makers will answer the phone between 6:30 and 7:30

6. If you ever get the impression that it is a bad time to talk, always set a later time to call back.

7. The first few seconds you’re on the phone will set the stage, mood and atmosphere of the presentation, so have a plan.

8. Dress for success even if you are just making phone calls, it will allow you to keep your mental game sharp.

9. The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare to win.

10. Motivational talks physically alter the mind and body, releasing endorphins which cause people to feel positive and upbeat.

Be Disciplined and Be Organized

1. For salespeople who work remotely, failing to get to work on time on a regular basis is one of the biggest reasons for failure.

2. Organization, discipline, and commitment make for consistent high-volume production.

3. Get on a regular schedule and make an appointment with yourself to contact a prospect at the same time every day.

Chapter 5 – Selling by Design, Not by Chance

1. Need Analysis – Today’s successful salesperson is customer-desire driven and needs oriented. People buy because they either need or want something. If we can give someone a reason for buying and an excuse for buying, the chances are dramatically improved that they will do so.

2. Need Awareness – This step is where both the sales person and the prospect come to realize that the prospect has a specific need that can be clearly articulated.

3. Need Solution – This is where you present your solution.

   1. Remember, you do not invent or create needs.

   2. People buy what the product does for them, not for what it is.

   3. Never lead with a product, lead with need.

   4. Don’t waste people time telling them what a product is, tell them what it can do and why it will do it for them.

Chapter 6 – Questions are the Answers – Need Analysis

Questions allow us to gather important information, which enables us to help our clients, and just as important (maybe more important), when we ask questions in a professional manner we establish the most important element of the sales process – trust.

1. You have to motivate a prospect to share their needs, wants, problems, and interests with you so that you can motivate them to use your service/product.

2. Motivation will cause people to act out of free choice and desire while manipulation often results in forced compliance. One is ethical and long-lasting, and the other is unethical and temporary.

3. When you ask someone how they feel they will tell you what they think, people generally make emotional decisions.

4. It behooves us to combine emotion and logic, emotion makes the prospects take action now, and logic enables them to justify the purchase later.

The Proper Questioning Process

1. Open-Door Questions – These let the person being questioned to go wherever they like with their responses.

2. Closed-Door Questions – Questions designed to keep them in a certain area for clarification or embellishment.

3. Yes or No Questions

Learn to train your voice through using a voice recorder.

Chapter 7 – Conducting the Comfortable Interview

P – Person

O – Organization

G – Goals

O – Obstacles

1. Person – Learn to express sincere interest in the prospect. Limit personal revelations to 25 percent. Develop People Questions, always have questions ready to warm up the conversation (Reference The Sales Question Book)

2. Organization – Find out about the organization the person is with. Have questions ready.

3. Goals – Find out about their goals, they may not know them, probe deeply here.

4. Obstacles – Find out about their problems. Problems are the mutual ground you share with your client

Chapter 8 – Making the Lights Go On – Need Analysis

Discover where an imbalance already exists and point it out in a convenient manner.

Training for Need Awareness

1. Product Knowledge – You can’t be enthusiastic about something you are unfamiliar with. Constantly study your product and any improvements made to it.

2. Industry knowledge – Where is your industry going, what are the trends? Every industry has several trade publications, these are a wealth of knowledge about what is going on.

3. Pricing Knowledge – This includes maximizing profits in difficult markets, proper pricing for the market, adapting pricing strategy, to the changing economy, and negotiating prices. Focus on showing prospects how and why the price of our product or service is fair to them.

4. Application Knowledge – Know the various instances how your product can and is being used.

5. Competition Knowledge – Know who you compete with and their strengths and weaknesses

Chapter 9 – Selling to People’s Problems – Need Solution

1. Everything you talk about with prospects should translate to customer benefits.

2. Personalize benefits for the prospect. Paint the picture for them so they can see it.

3. Clearly articulate the features, functions, and benefits of your product.

1. A feature is a part of the product or service

2. A function is the act that particular part of the product or service performs

3. A benefit is the advantage in using the feature and the function

Chapter 10 – The ABC’s of Closing Sales – Need Satisfaction

63% of all sales interviews end with the salesperson not specifically asking for the order. We must ask to have. Be prepared to ask for the order five times or more.

Chapter 11 – Closing More Sales More Often

People to not change their mind, after saying no. But they will make a new decision when confronted with new information.

Two Tests to establish Sincere vs. Fabricated Objections

1. The Suppose Test – Ask them if they would be willing to buy if the objection were rendered moot.

2. The Isolate and Validate Test – The first part involves drawing out all remaining objections by asking if there are any other reasons that would prevent them from buying. Then you summarize to validate. You ask them to affirm the fact that they would buy if that one objection was dealt with.

When people say they need time to think it over, tell them you understand and establish time in the very near future (sometimes as short as a half hour) to contact them for their decision.

Chapter 12 – Beyond Customer “Service” to Customer “Satisfaction”

Dealing with Angry People

1. People cannot maintain a full-bore rant for more than two minutes.

2. When you interrupt them you allow them to regain momentum.

3. When they allow you to speak, lower your voice and articulate each word clearly and deliberately

4. Thank them for sharing their honest feelings with you.

5. After they calm down, if you have handled things properly they will be embarrassed for having blown up.

6. Key principles

   1. Hear them out

   2. Be patient

   3. Be tactful

   4. Empathize

   5. Acknowledge their importance

   6. Articulate their response slowly, quietly and carefully

   7. Never grant them permission to control you

Chapter 13 – Gaining Control of Your Time and Your Life

1. On average 80% of a person’s time is involved in activities that do not directly generate business.

2. Get people to help you deal with and automate the non-sales responsibilities.

3. The better you utilize your time, the more income you will generate; and the more income you generate, the more free time you will have.

4. Higher income salespeople work smarter not harder, they effectively utilize other.

5. Track your time and work within a system that holds you accountable.

Click Here to Get a Free PDF with 40+ Business & Marketing Book Summaries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.