Michael Mirarchi 0:19

Welcome to the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. I'm Mike Mirarchi, I'm your host and I'm thrilled that you joined us for Episode 2. Today, we're going to be talking about the basics of sales. Now, before you turn it off, remember if you can learn one or two things out of this podcast and apply it to your life or to your business, it'll definitely be worth your while. I'm sure that you will be able to pick up a tip or a trick along the way here on today's podcast episode. If you get value out of these podcasts, I would ask that you like and subscribe so that we can get you any updates on future episodes, as well as to help us to spread the word. I'd like to give you a little perspective about what I'm talking about today, because my whole career has been B2B sales. All of my perspective comes from a B2B standpoint. That doesn't mean you're not going to be able to get good information out of it if you're a B2C seller or some other type of seller. Just remember the perspective that I'm coming from and then take and apply it the way it makes sense for you. The good example as to why the basics are so important is the 2017 Minnesota Vikings versus the New Orleans Saints. It's called the Minnesota Miracle and, if you remember back, that was a playoff game. The winner was going to go to the NFC Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Whoever won that game, it wouldn't have made a difference because the Eagles would have won anyway. But that's coming from an Eagles fan. He catches the ball and the defensive back has made this tackle thousands of times in his career Completely misses the tackle, Diggs, runs into the end zone. Minnesota Vikings win and on to the NFC championship game. If you don't have the basics nailed down, no matter how many years you've been selling, no matter what high level you're at, you've got to remember the basics. And that's what today is. It's a reminder of the basics. You're never too accomplished to work on the basics and to continue to work on the basics, and even in the NFL and even in pro sports, they're always working on those basics so that they can keep them sharp and keep themselves at the highest level.

Michael Mirarchi 2:43

What makes a good sales rep? Anyway, our VP of sales, Michael Hunt, did a presentation at one of our sales meetings and he presented this to our sales team. The Anatomy of a Salesperson. What makes a great salesperson? 50% of a great salesperson is following up and showing up. Show up and follow up 50%. If you show up and you follow up, you're 50% of the way there. 25% is being likable and credible. So if you show up and you follow up, you're likable and you're credible. You're 75% ahead of the game already. You're in the top 75% of all sales reps just by showing up and following up and being likable and credible. The other 25% is sales skills, product knowledge, all the finer points of selling that you would learn If you want to be a top sales rep. Show up, follow up, be likable, be credible and then get the skills you need. Become an expert in your business. Know the products inside and out, know the sales techniques All of this. Listen to the podcast that is going to help you to get to the top.

Michael Mirarchi 3:55

What is the goal of a salesperson? What is a salesperson trying to do as they go in and make a sales call? The goal of a salesperson is to create an atmosphere that leads to a sale. In other words, you need to knock down any barrier that is in place, either by yourself, by the buyer that is going to stand between you and getting the sale. So what does that look like? What are the things that you can do to create an atmosphere that leads to the sale? First and foremost, you have to be yourself. You cannot be anyone else but yourself. You have to sell in a way that you're comfortable with selling, and it has to be you. You have to be yourself.

Michael Mirarchi 4:39

For example, through my sales career, I was banging out 30% year over year increases in sales. I went to see Zig Ziglar one time and do a presentation, and Zig Ziglar is a legend in sales, in sales training, and so I'm listening to Zig Ziglar and he's talking about all these fancy closes, and I felt terrible because I didn't do business that way and it didn't fit for me. It wasn't the way I sold. And so I understood I couldn't sell like Zig. I'm not Zig, I can only sell the way I sell. And the realization was well, wait a minute, I'm growing 30% a year, year over year. I must be doing something right. I realized that it was because I was being myself and I was selling the best way I sell. Now that doesn't mean that you can't get better. That doesn't mean I didn't get anything out of Zig's presentation, because obviously I did and I was able to take those one or two little nuggets and apply them to my business, and that's what I'm asking you to do with this podcast as well.

Michael Mirarchi 5:42

You really need to be curious. Curiosity is a huge deal in sales. So when you walk into a customer, you want to understand about their business, you want to understand their story, you want to ask what's going on in your business. How can I help you? Question, question, question. The key to a great salesperson is the questions you ask. Selling is not telling. Selling is asking good questions and getting great information. Do you need to tell a story about your company? Sure, at some point, but the majority of what you want to do is ask questions about how you can help that business to be more successful. You need to be present. Being present is key and especially today, with all the distractions we have, if you cannot not look at your phone, don't take it into the sales call. Bill Allen had a quote the more interested you are, the more interesting you'll be" In a sales call. You really need to be interested and curious in the business. Tell me about your business, tell me about your history. What's the biggest issue you have? How can we help you. You know those types of questions lead to really good sales calls.

Michael Mirarchi 6:56

Being consistent, consistency leads to confidence, confidence leads to trust, trust leads to a relationship and a relationship leads to sales. The biggest thing you can do when you're calling on a new customer is to be consistent, show up on time, do what you say you're going to do, follow up appropriately. All those things, those consistent steps, will then lead to the buyer having confidence in you and in your company, because right now you are your company and the only thing that they know and the only thing that they're basing their decision on, other than maybe some research they might do on the company, is you. You are the company. You need to be consistent and show consistency, because that's going to lead to confidence that the buyer can make a decision and put their trust that you're going to be able to do the job.

Michael Mirarchi 7:52

Switching vendors in any circumstance is very difficult. It's a lot of work, it's time consuming and buyers do not want to do it. They've got enough to do so. The last thing they want to do is switch vendors. You have to make a compelling argument or reason or you have to have a value added proposition that's so powerful that it's going to make that buyer, or allow that buyer to say you know what I like this company that's really going to be able to help me. It's going to make my life easier. I, I like this company. It's really going to be able to help me. It's going to make my life easier. I can trust this person. They're consistent. I'm going to make the move.

Michael Mirarchi 8:28

You need to be likable. Well, how could you be likable? Some people not so likable. Well, part of that is learning how to match and mirror, learning personality profiles and understanding who your customers are and being able to relate to them. There's a lot of things that go into likability, but that is one of the key components to being an effective salesperson.

Michael Mirarchi 8:51

If a buyer doesn't like you, I don't care how good you are, you're not going to get the sale. If they don't like dealing with you, if they dread every time you walk through the door, they're not going to buy from you, I don't care how good you are. Part of that is when a buyer asks you how are you doing? Hey, how's it going? Never tell them what's going on in your life. Never share your problems. It's not a good idea. How are you doing? I'm doing great. How are you doing? And if the buyer wants to spill their problems out on you, that's fantastic. There's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, some of the best sales calls that I've ever had was not doing any selling, but just listening to the buyer and all the issues that are going on in their life. That's probably more important that they know that you're empathetic, that they know you're a good listener and that they know you're a real person.

Michael Mirarchi 9:38

Telling them oh, I've got a flat tire, the dog peed on my leg, whatever, is not a good idea, and many, many salespeople do this. They feel like they need to share. I'm in a divorce. I've got all these problems. Buyers have their problems of their own. They don't need to have the burden of your problems put on them as well.

Michael Mirarchi 9:55

Be respectful. If you go and make a cold call, don't expect that you're going to see anyone. Never show up without an appointment or at least letting the buyer know that you're going to be in town. Hey, I'm going to be in town. I'm going to come by and see you. Is there a good time I can come by? Yeah, come by anytime you'd like. That's fine, but don't just show up and think or expect that you're going to get an appointment and that you're going to get any meaningful time. First of all, it's not productive because the buyer's not prepared to meet with you, and secondly, it just puts a bad taste in the buyer's mouth because the buyer may be in a position where they're in the middle of this huge project and here you come waltzing in and they feel obligated to see you but really wrecks the rest of their day. Creating an atmosphere that's conducive to a sale means that when you walk out of that meeting they feel good, not bad, and so you want to do everything you can to be positive, to have a positive meeting and not a negative meeting in any way, and that's why you don't bring up things like all of your problems. That just leads to a negative meeting.

Michael Mirarchi 11:00

Be an owner. Most salespeople, or a lot of salespeople, are commissioned salary and bonus whatever but you treat this like it's your own business. This is your business. Basically, the company is the vehicle to help you to where you're going to go. You're the owner of your business and you really need to act like an owner.

Michael Mirarchi 11:18

And that means talking about things like credit. That means talking straight up about hard issues that might happen. If there's bad news, you got to get out front, talk to your customer about it. Bad news doesn't get better with age. You have to address it immediately. We all have issues. We all have problems. There's always things that come up. It's not the problems that you have that will determine your success. It's how you handle those problems after they come up, how quickly you can resolve them and get them taken care of. That will help you to be better and that will actually endear you to your customers, because customers know that everybody has issues. We all have issues. There's no perfect company, but it's how you handle those issues that make all the difference.

Michael Mirarchi 12:08

Being persistent. There's a difference between being persistent and being a pain. Being a pain is going in to see a customer sending them a quote and calling them five times after to make sure he got it and to see if what he wants to do and when is he going to order or she is going to order. You do not want to do that, but what you want to do is have consistent follow-up. Send them a quote, wait a few days. Follow up. Did you get my quote? Is there anything else you need? Being persistent is really important. There's also a fine line that you have to walk between persistence and being a pain.

Michael Mirarchi 12:36

Be on a mission. What's your mission and what's your purpose? We talked about that in our first podcast episode. What's your mission and what's your purpose on your sales call? What are you trying to accomplish? Overall, what you're trying to accomplish is how can I help my customer be more successful? Now, if that's your mission and purpose, then the next thing you need to do is preparation. Preparation breeds confidence. The more prepared you are, the more confident you're going to be on a sales call. Did you ever go make a sales call and you weren't prepared? And how bad was that sales call? You feel awkward. You don't know what you're going to say next. You don't know what to talk about. You don't know what you're going to say next. You don't know what to talk about. You don't have an agenda. We've all made those sales calls. I've made those sales calls. They're not comfortable. They're terrible sales calls. But when you're prepared and when you've done your homework and when you have a mission and purpose, then you go in and make a sales call. That's fantastic, it's productive. You walk out and you've gained something from from that sales call

Michael Mirarchi 13:30

Be humble. Being humble is important because you want to match and mirror what your clients are. If your client or if your customer is a mid-level buyer that is making a mid-level wage, you don't want to drive up in a Porsche wearing a $50,000 Rolex watch and have a $500 suit on. That's probably not going to play very well to the buyer when the buyer's sitting there trying to figure out how to make ends meet. On the other hand, if you're selling luxury real estate, you want to drive up in a Porsche, you want to wear that suit and you want to have that watch, because you need to show your customers that you're successful and you're at their level. Dressing for success means that you want to match and mirror who you're calling on and be that person. If you want to own a yacht and a mansion and you want to own 10 Rolexes or whatever, fine, go ahead, but just don't show it to the customer, don't put it in their face. That will be a barrier to a sale.

Michael Mirarchi 14:28

How do you create an atmosphere conducive to a sale? Well, that's one way to kill a sale If you walk in all flashy and fancy to a buyer who's trying to figure out how to pay their next bill.

Michael Mirarchi 14:37

Be neutral. Don't have strong opinions, or smells for that matter. A lot of people are into wearing cologne. I don't wear cologne. You might have a cologne that you love Everybody else loves it, except for the fact that you walk in and it reminds the buyer of a bad experience. That will not help you in the sales process if, every time you walk in, your buyer's thinking of a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a relationship that went sour. Also, strong opinions If the buyer wants to talk politics. If you disagree with them, obviously you're not going to argue with them, you just let them go. You don't want to be the one to start the discussion, especially on something like politics, because, as you know, in a politically charged society that we live now, that could cause a real problem for you.

Michael Mirarchi 15:25

Be a good note taker. Taking notes is critical in any meeting. When you're taking notes, that creates confidence in the buyer that you're listening and that you're going to follow up. Really important to take good notes, and not just for that, for your own good too, so that you can populate your CRM with notes, so that you can understand what happened in your meeting and you can follow up appropriately, et cetera. And then you always want to summarize what happened in the sales call. So, after you finish up okay, this is what we talked about, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, you're going to do this you run through the list. They know and they feel like you're going to follow up. It's really comforting to the customer that you've summarized and you let them know what you're going to do and what's coming up next. I hope this was helpful. That's where we're going to leave it off today. Thanks for listening.

Michael Mirarchi 16:16

Remember, basics are just as important as anything, no matter what level you are. How do you get to the next level? Work on your basics. That's going to get you to the next level. You want to create an atmosphere that leads to a sale. You want to knock down every barrier that you can. The more prepared you are, the more confident you'll be. Take notes, summarize the call. If this was valuable, like and subscribe to the podcast Until next time. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? Selling toilet paper, that's what we do.