Dr. Sullivan is one of my best teachers and he was my Buyer Be-

havior instructor. He ended classes with “Remember kids, nothing

happens…” What Dr. Sullivan said decades ago is still true today.

I have held jobs where selling and account management were my

#1 responsibility, however, I believe every successful position in-

volves selling. The sell can be an idea, a project, or a dream.

Sales is a psychological process with some fundamentals:

1. It takes time to learn your product/service.- knowing what

you are selling is essential in becoming an asset to your buy-

er. This is an investment for the employer that when invest-

ed in the right person will return handsome returns. A sales-

person needs to sell herself/himself, the employer, and the

product/service.

2. Targeting.- determining the right prospective buyer also

takes time and this process is intertwined with knowing your

product/service. Time is precious and salespeople need to

spend their time with prospective buyers who are most likely

to buy. Salespeople have rights too: prospective buyers can

say “yes” or “no” and “maybe” is not acceptable. I wasted

many, many hours until I learned that I have rights as a sales-

person and started requiring a decision within a reasonable

timeframe.

3. Provide solutions.- this is your message. What solution is

your product or service providing? Buyers do not care what

job we do; they want to know what we will do for them, what

problem are we solving? Practice to deliver your solution in a

1 minute presentation and a 30 second presentation. Re-

hearse it over and over again until you can deliver it convinc-

ingly and professionally. I had the best sales training working

for a pharmaceutical company where at any time the instruc-

tor requested anyone to stand up and deliver the presenta-

tion. She would only tell us what product and how long we

had with time ranging from 1 minute to 30 seconds. It was a

painful experience when it was happening and most benefi-

cial once I started implementing the lessons learned.

Your business is unique and so will be your selling strategy. Call us

at (520)515-5478 or e-mail Mrs. Rachel Norton at nor-

tonr@cochise.edu to set-up an appointment to develop strategies

to maximize your profits.

Selling

“Nothing happens until the cash register rings” Dr. Sullivan

May’15

Marketing Tip