One thing I FEEL is missing in today's salespeople.

Sales has progressed alot throughout the past few decades, but there is one key ingredient that I see is missing from alot of the sales consultant's out there now. Sales Consultants, in general, are no where near as aggressive as they once were. It seems to be a lost art among sales people today. Sales people are even afraid to ask for the sale in most cases.

Prime Example: Customer came in with one of our more "experienced" sales consultants. Said he was looking at the ad unit truck for $25988 (Retail on truck is $35062). The customer then said he was planning on putting $15,000 down. Later I happened to walk by and saw the comitment from the customer of only $3,000 dollars down payment. So what happened between the time the customer walked in, and the time they sat down and wrote the deal?

Simple. The sales person talked himself out of the initial down payment. What should he have done? As soon as the customer said he was putting $15,000 down, the sales consultant should have stopped, and asked the customer if he was planning to pay the down payment in cash or check, then collected the down payment.

I have been criticized by some for being to aggresive with my sales approach. And I do have a very aggressive approach, but I do know when to back off and be more passive. Sales consultants are afraid to be aggressive possible because they are afraid of being told "no". Guess what guys, your in sales, people are going to tell you no. It's part of the game. I would rather not make a sale knowing that I did everything in my power to do it, than wonder "if I had asked for... would I have made the sale."

Aggressiveness is not a bad thing in sales. It's needed. Just don't become over aggressive. -jrboyd

I don't know if sales has progressed, JR, but your observation has merit. What HAS changed is the ranks of people entering sales today. There are many sociological and economic factors involved, and mostly, people today enter the field for different reasons, and with different expectations than in years gone by. Different demographics, and different psychographics, among those in sales today, have quite naturally brought about different behavour in the this workplace.

One of the bright spots is the increasing entry of women into the profession. In my view it has raised the bar. But when the bar gets raised, the weak are more transparent. -Ace Coldiron

When you say aggressive what do you mean JR? -PiJiL

When I talk about aggressive, I am talking about not afraid of telling a customer no, or a customer telling you no. The good sales consultants in the world have one thing in common. I like to call it "hunger". You can see it in their eyes. They are hungry to make the sell. They are like a pitbull, and don't let go until the sale is done. The one thing the GREAT sales consultants have in common, is they have this hunger, yet they don't make the customer feel pressured. It's really hard to explain, on what aggressiveness is when it comes to sales. But you can tell which ones have it and which ones don't, because the ones with it do well regardless of the conditions or circumstances. -jrboyd

Thanks for the clarification.......................

I love the pitbull analogy, my nickname is bulldog :)

My opine is that there are no bad salespeople, only bad sales managers..............

Should you have the wrong staff find the right ones...........

You can always give direction to someone with energy and belief, its really hard to direct a slug ;) -PiJiL

Mon.... just for clarification... we use pit's here for pig hunting. The advantage of them is that they "don't let go". They is the reason we carry staple guns, blood vessel clamps, and crazy glue.

While I appreciate the analogy... I'd be using one like a border collie instead.... if it was me that is... but it aint... it is you, and I got the picture..and I'm procrastinating... waiting for downloads....

Much Aloha... thmbp2; shds; -rattus58

That describes some good sales consultants, but not all. The very best I have ever known, and I've known some of the very very best, NEVER let hunger show in their eyes.

With all real respect, JR, it's tough for me to believe that you--of all people--believe that.

I hate to disagree with you--because I admire your posts--but that one I can't accept as being accurate. -Ace Coldiron

I'm not talking about hunger for the sale. I'm talking about hunger for success. I know you have seen sales consultants, that have that drive or need to be successful. That's the hunger I talking about. After re-reading my post I understand what your talking about when you say seeing the hunger in their eyes. And I don't mean it to that extent. Like I said earlier, it's hard to actually put in words, what the hunger is accurately. -jrboyd

Trust me, JR, I knew your intent and meaning, but I wanted to challenge your wording because there are people that read your posts that can be inspired. So I took license as a grumpy editor..sorta like: "CHANGE THAT, JR!!"

The behavour comes with age. But I know guys like you better than you think. I think you're smart enough to guess why. -Ace Coldiron

That sounds more like lack of confidence . I do like the term aggressive towards success.

I am not aggressive with sales however I do not accept no and false objections ,concerns with clients. I will find out the reason and condition for thier statements and find a way around or through the statements without bullying or using fear.

Quite often the clients write back to say what an enjoyable time they had with the ownership exchange.Last week I had a client send in a one hundred dollar check to the company along with a letter expressing how good of a time they had and that one hundred dollars was to come to me as a tip.This person spent seven thousand dollars with us for plumbing repairs in his home.The expectation a couple hundred dollars due to the unethical companies in his home prior to me arriving. I solved his problem that these other companies were returning on a yearly basis to deal with for the past fifteen years.

The process to convince the client took two hours to finally get him to agree on the solution and price. Where we went from the porice is too high,to I need ot think it over,talk it over with the spouse,joe could do it cheaper,my sons and I could do it .He did not need an experienced plumber, I do not think this will solve the problem.

With his letter he expressed how I did not give up and he is very pleased I did not give up as things are working better than he can ever remember them working.

No one ever needs to be aggressive just persitent. -rich34232

Tell me if I'm wrong here but I believe that most of you are treating the word "aggressive" for pushy or argumentative. I believe I'm very aggressive but not pushy, when they say no, I think with them, ask them a new question and even get mad at them in the sense that I'm trying to help them.

My personal definition of aggressive is truly believing in what you say and speaking with conviction, not just in your words but in how strong you mean something when you say it, I realised that my best day (which brought me $3000) that I spoke very little, but the words I DID use were very strongly meant.

For example; and I know every sales manual tells you not to do the following things but this goes to show what you have BEHIND your meaning is more important than your words.

I said for one close:
"I'll tell you the truth and I know you'll be shocked... but what you're using now sucks."
He then shook, realised taht I wasn't selling him on a new product but actually telling him what he's using sucks, and me being the expert in my field, realised that I was right.

#2 close that day
"We already had one and this one's more expensive than our other one" "This one's not a piece of crap like your old one, the company I work for deals in high-end equipment only"

In either case, the point remains that if you speak very strongly and you mean every single word you say, your point WILL get across aslong as it's in the best interest of your client aswell as your own. -DrPattyCakes

Personally I prefer the word assertive rather than aggressive. Just feels better to me and gives better visualization of a professional sales person interacting with a prospect.

I also believe that most sales people today are missing a clear understanding of what the customer needs. One needs to practice uncovering the need...and have confidence in themselves and the product they are selling...then work on the other selling skills. Selling is a process and good sales people follow that process. -The Dynamic Business

Well considering that we play games with no scores, no winners, and timeouts... empathy... well.... why take 15,000 if you can take 3,000?

Everything else aside, I don't know that that by itself makes a difference once the car is sold since a bank makes a cash payment to the vendor, so I'm missing something here in translation.

Aloha.... shds; ;bg -rattus58

No scores? Your paycheck is your score. -jrboyd