The Small Business Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in Your Small Business, 3rd Edition

Chapter 51

Secrets of Sales Superstars

For every sale you miss because you're too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you're not enthusiastic enough.

—Zig Ziglar

You probably know a thing or two about sales by now, or else you would not be in business. But even so, sales is one of those areas in which even the smallest little trick or new idea, once implemented, can reap surprising rewards. Brian Tracy, maybe the world's best salesperson, tells the story of how his first sales job was selling soap door to door to earn his way to YMCA camp. He heard rejection after rejection until he ever so slightly rephrased his sales pitch. Instead of asking, “Would you like to buy a box of soap?” he said instead that he was selling soap, but that “it is only for beautiful women.” Thereafter he said getting to camp was a breeze. So yes, the smallest sales secret can often make the biggest difference.

Sales Secrets

Let's look at some sales secrets and strategies that may make a difference for you.

Rapport

Rapport, once established, will make your sales almost effortless. Once you create rapport with people, they begin to trust you, and with trust, walls and reasons melt away.

There is a sales strategy that suggests that if you quietly mimic your customer's intonation and physical movements, you will subconsciously create rapport. This may or may not be true, but it sure does seem sneaky. Consider instead building rapport the old-fashioned way: by being your best self, by finding things ...