Six Useless Ideas Most Sales Programs Teach!	Visited: 1671 Not rated Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Len Foley October 19, 2003

I'm a professional sales trainer. Every day I'm on the front lines, experimenting and testing every principle I teach. If something doesn't work, I toss it aside and look for something that will work. I can't afford to waste time on useless ideas. Here are just a few of the "useless" ideas that most sales courses teach:

Useless Idea #1: You need to become a "Motivated Seller"

Take an idiot and motivate him. What do you have? A "motivated idiot."

There is nothing worse than a really bad salesperson with a lot of motivation. Have you ever heard the phrase: "Nothing will make a bad product fail quicker than good advertising"?

If you don't know what you're really selling, if your technology is outdated and you're headed in the wrong direction with almost every person you speak with, why would you want to become "more motivated" and move yourself into the wrong direction faster?

It amazes me how many people will work really hard doing all the wrong things right! They spend years tinkering with outmoded systems and wonder why they keep getting second-rate results.

Useless Idea #2: You need more "sophisticated" sales techniques.

I've spent eleven years and countless thousands of dollars studying all the best sales courses I could get my hands on. I read all the books, listened to all the tape programs, and have been to many seminars. I studied each program like a detective, methodically pulling out the best techniques from each system and applying them immediately into every situation I could imagine.

But the more I studied these programs and practiced the various techniques, the more frustrated I became.

Nothing I found seemed to work!

In fact, most sales training programs aren't designed to work. And if you need proof, try using a fancy closing technique with one of your kids or try "information gathering" with your spouse! If you can't get away with those so-called "skills" with the people
you love the most, why on earth would you use them with your customers?

Yet that's precisely what most salespeople do.

They employ manipulative strategies and "techniques" on their customers that they wouldn't dare use on their families and friends.

It's no surprise that the profession of selling ranks just above postal workers and tax collectors!

Useless Idea #3: You need to learn how to "close" people.

The "sales close" is one of the worst inventions to enter the domain of professional selling.

Closing techniques are nothing more than an assault on human intelligence. Using a hard close is like using a sledgehammer to pull out a delicate fossil. People aren't machines-they don't have particular buttons to push in order to get them to respond a certain way.

If people were really that predictable, if sales were really nothing more than finding the correct "lever" to pull and then tugging on it with all your might, then selling people would be a lot like sticking money in a slot machine (and just as disappointing).

Useless Idea #4: You need to find the "perfect" product or service.

A lot of people blame their products or services for poor sales performance-and sometimes they're right. But even the world's most fantastic product won't move if it's preceded by an offensive, self-centered pitch.

Useless Idea #5: You need to learn how to "handle objections."

A poor salesperson is an objection waiting to happen. Learning how to "handle" these objections is like learning how to bail out a rowboat after the boat is sunk.

Knowing how to correctly sell eliminates all objections because your client, customer, or loved-ones have absolutely nothing whatsoever to object.

Useless Idea #6: You need to work harder as a salesperson.

Even people with extensive training and university degrees get it wrong. (And yes, even people with six figure incomes and half-million dollar homes-who could be making much more, get it wrong, too).

They think selling is hard work and they think the harder they work, the more sales they'll make. In my system, the exact opposite is true. The less you work, the more the system works for you.

If you're curious about a few more "useless" ideas that you should NEVER to do in sales, check out my free article: "The Top Five (Most Idiotic) Sales Techniques" for more information: http://www.21stcenturysalestraining.com/idiotictechniques22.htm