4 Critical Habits of the Best and Richest Salespeople

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. I learned this lesson very early in my career. I was taught, that if you want to learn how to do something, find someone who has already mastered what you want to do, a copy them.

This makes a lot of sense, right? I mean think about it. They have already made the mistakes, they have already learned from them, why not save yourself the time and aggravation by learning to do what they do, instead of trying to learn something from scratch.

So, using this as our theme for the week, let’s take a look at 5 Critical Habits of the Best (and Richest) Salespeople.

4 Critical Habits of the Best and Richest Salespeople

1. Sell to People Who Want to Buy

Imagine going fishing – Do you want to go where there are plenty of hungry fish or do you want to go where there are not very many fish and they have all ate? Seems like a pretty simple answer, right?

The same concept is true for sales, sell to people who are looking to buy. We have all seen the movie, Wolf of Wall Street, and if you haven’t stop reading this article and go watch it. It is the amazing true story about Jordan Belfort, one of the, if not the greatest salesperson of all time!

Alright, back to our regularly scheduled program. In the movie, Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort asks one of his friends to sell him a pen. 

The friend says, “Write your name down on that napkin.”

“I don’t have a pen,” says Belfort.

“Exactly, supply and demand.”

Now, however clever this might have been, it is actually the wrong response. At the end of the movie, Jordan is on stage training and he asks his students to sell him a pen. Each student he asks, gives a similar response. They start talking about how great the pen is, how amazing it is, and after several attempts to get someone to sell him the pen and everyone doing the same thing the movie just fades to black and is over. The symbolism here is amazing because if this is how you try to sell someone, your sales career will too just fade to black.

Like most trainers out there, the movie does actually provide you with the right answer to the question, however today I am going to give you the right answer.

You can’t sell someone until you get to know them. You must take the time to ask the customer questions to understand them better before you can ever sell them. This begins with determining that customer is even in the market for a pen. The perfect opener to this is, “So Mr. Jones, how long have you been in the market for a pen?”

2. Focus on Better Relationships Not Just More Relationships

The Better Relationship the easier to sell and the more lucrative the sale. I mean that has to make sense, right? The more someone likes and values us, the more they trust us and the more they will be willing to pay us for our services. This actually seems like a ‘no brainer,’ however it is the exact opposite of what most salespeople actually do.

Most salespeople will sell a customer a car and then pretty much forget all about them once they drive over the curb. Rather than see the sale as just the beginning of the relationship, they view it as the end. A typical salesperson would rather go stand outside on the lot for hours waiting for a new customer to walk in. The average salesperson would rather start a new relationship with a jaded and guarded customer that they have no relationship with, than to put in the effort to continue to build upon a relationship with a person who already likes and trusts them enough to have already purchased from them already. This happens in every dealership, all across the country, every day. and I will say this is absolutely idiotic! I am not necessarily talking about you, but maybe. Only you know for sure.

3. Always Leverage the Relationship

People love to help others. Think about it, this is why charities exist. People love the feeling they get when they do something for other people. Many people will actually do more for others than they will do for themselves. The best salespeople leverage this desire to help by way of Repeat and Referral business. Stay in front of your customers, be of service to them. Once you sell a customer, this is just the beginning of the relationship with your customer. Think of it like growing a garden. The first sale is just planting the seed and every value-based check-in is watering that seed, and before you know it, you have a garden. Use your existing customer to help grow your garden. Leverage all of the excellent service that you provided your customer to get them to help you, by sending you their friends, family members, co-workers, and really anyone they know. Staying in front of your customers, getting referral from them, will also lead them to purchasing from you again and again.

4. Only Focus on tasks that Make Money

Legendary rapper, DJ Quik once sang about “If it don’t make dollars, then it don’t make sense.” And I say amen. However, this does not mean that you only focus on sales. The actual selling of the vehicle is only a small part of being the best. It is all of foundational building blocks that make the sales happen. Too many sales fall into one of two categories, they don’t do anything but sit around waiting for a customer to sell them something or they inundate themselves with miniscule tasks that keeps them busy, however they do not do anything to generate and income. Sometimes there are things that need to get done in order for you to do your job, and that is what it is, however your goal needs to be that you get so good at focusing on the things that make you money that you can get others to do those other tasks for you. Take a look at your daily routines and habits and figure out how each one of them will make you money or who else can help you do it, so you can focus on the tasks that do make you money. If you need help looking at these habits and routines, drop me a line at joe@ditln.com and I will help you review and let’s make some dollars and sense!