I am back after a long absence. The progress on my e-book program stalled because of unforseen reasons. I think it will eventually get done.

Lately I have been honing my negotiation skills and have already managed to save a couple of thousand of dollars for my company. Sometimes it is very easy, you just have to have the guts and confidence to do it. When I have to choose a vendor, I flinch at the initial proposal. Always. No matter how good the deal is. I tell them “gee, that’s really expensive. I don’t think we can afford it at this price.” And I prepare to walk away. Usually, the vendor makes a lower offer right away, but if I get a sense that they may be a tougher negotiator, I usually make a lower proposal (that I don’t expect to get, you have to make consessions in order for the other side to feel like they have won something). I might get it, but most often I don’t. However, in 99% of the cases I do get the vendor to make a concession.

Negotiating is a game.

Hard Work

I have to admit that I haven’t been posting much lately, because I have been working on converting my eBook manual into a mostly audio product.

I came to the realization that:

#1. I hate writing, lol.

#2. I should do what I do best – i.e. TALK and COACH the way I have always been doing it. By connecting directly with my audience. And what better way to do that than through audio (well, a seminar would be better, but I have no plans on doing this in the near future; I am available for personal coaching though, so if interested just comment on this post).

I would like to see more people post comments here and provide feedback on how the tips are working out for them. Lets make this a little community of success oriented sales people. Ask questions, provide answers. It doesn’t matter what industry you ate in, I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU.

In any case, the product is coming well, I am also composing the background music for it, as music is my hobby. You will be thrilled and truly satisfied because you will be getting my coaching delivered straight to your headphones. It couldn’t be easier than that. Plus hearing the way I use my voice will set off so many lightbulbs in your head, it’s not even funny. If you have been struggling with your sales, the concepts I teach will be a revelation.

Most importantly, I will show you how to put this to use in the real world. No theories here, I only provide the proven, kick-butt stuff that works.

Hypnotic Selling

I had the priviliege of working with one of the best ever phone sales people that I have ever seen. Let me tell you a little bit about this guy.
To protect the innocent and not so innocent, we will call him Frank.

Now Frank wasn’t exactly what you’d call a typical salesman. He wore old and ugly clothes, his hair was a mess and I’m pretty sure he had trouble locating his toothbrush in the morning. But that didn’t matter because he never got to meet his clients, which was for his benefit and theirs as well. Honestly, in any other situation I would have either tried my hardest to ignore such a character or just plain fire them.
On top of all that he was quite eccentric (still is actually) but otherwise really intelligent and smart. But this is not a tale of downfall, it is a tale of redemption. Because Frank could sell his way out of Purgatory if he ever needed to. In few words, Frank was FREAKIN AMAZIN when it came
to selling over the phone.
I studied his behavior and work for years, before I was able to take a crack at it. It was no easy task, because everytime I thought I had figured out his secret and tried to test it myself, I failed miserably. So I just listened and listened myself. And I tested. I tested different things in my own pitch until it all started to come together.
there is something that the great direct mail order copywriter Joe Sugarman calls “the slippery slope”. The “slippery slope” is basically the flow of an advertisement that takes the prospect on a journey that leads them to the buying decision at the end. For a prospect to get on the “slippery slope”, is like giving a piece of clay to Michelangelo. He can do whatever he wishes with it. The same applies for Joe Sugarman’s ads and the same applied when it came to Frank’s sales skills.
Frank could just melt any resistance in a prospect and most often than not he would precede the sale by a lenghty story that often didn’t even make sense.
His secret was that he was such an enigmatic story teller that when he got on the phone he always found a way to incorporate a story or just some really fun conversation in the pitch that got the listener simply entranced. It is almost as if you are buried deeply into the most interesting and captivating mystery novel and can’t keep yourself from turning page after page.
Having great story telling skills in your sales arsenal is an immense advantage. As a home exercise I recommend that you pick up some of Joe Sugarman’s ads and study them closely. Try telling stories of your own in the mirror. Sometimes relaying an interesting article from a newspaper that can be of interest to your prospect is a good tactic too. Don’t forget that what makes great story tellers great is how they use voice and imagery to captivate the listener. These are the most powerful weapons. For more on that visit for my new “Cold Call Warrior” Manual. You will find incredible tips, techiques, in depth discussion on the 5 step sales process, an hour of audio voice training for sales success and much more.

European lessons

Recently I was dispatched to a beautiful countryside hotel in the UK by my company for a weeklong global sales meeting. Hence the lack of new posts. Following that I spent a week in my home country of Bulgaria, which is a recent addition to the European Union. Boy did I learn some lessons from these two vastly different worlds (not only different from the US but different from each other as well).

First things first. I must say that I have never received better service than when I stayed at the Welcombe Menzies Hotel in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK. So refreshing. Everything from the hotel staff to the restaurant waiters were superb. One thing that caught my attention was particularly the older staff. These guys, many of whom could easily be my father, frequently went out of their way to make my stay easier. One of them was able to arrange a bike delivered to one of my colleagues who enjoyed riding a bike anywhere he went. He didn’t have to do that, but he did it anyway and was promptly and generously tipped. On another note, in the service business in UK most people are not expected to receive tips. I spend about 50 pounds in tips, although all my expenses were covered by the company.

My point here is that as someone who works in any kind of service industry, you are basically a sales person. I think, especially in the US, lots of workers deem it below them to go out of their way and do something for their clients which will eventually pay them dividends in the long run. It is easily done. Something as simple as a follow up call after a successful sales call can be enough to sway your customer to come back again. Another tactic I use is to make my prospects feel special by telling them I am doing something special just for them. It can be a benefit that comes with the product or service you are selling but if you make it seem special, you will make your prospect feel special too. This appeals to the basic human need to feel important and will take you a long way to a successful sales career.

Go and incorporate this in your sales pitch today. Go above and beyond what you are paid for and you will get paid plenty in the long run.

On the second leg of my trip to Europe, I visited my home country of Bulgaria for a week too. Boy what a difference. I’m not even going to go into the lousy service I received while I was there. Suffice to say I didn’t even receive ketchup with my fries even after explicitly asking for it. But I will talk about someone, who is very close to me and who happened to be a heavy construction machinery salesman. If you don’t know, Bulgaria is a developing country in Eastern Europe. While it is still one of the poorest in Europe, it also has one of the highest rates of new construction in the region. The market is basically begging for solid and reliable equipment and while some of the business practices can be dodgy, it is certainly a good market for what my friend is selling.

The problem is that he has been there for over 8 months and hasn’t sold a single machine. The answer to this problem was not too difficult for me to figure out. First of all he looked more like a construction worker on his break than someone who peddles equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He sported an extremely short haircut that while not bad in itself, made him look too threatening. He had a huge earring on his left year and generally dressed in street clothes. You get the image. This is not someone who you would like to buy anything from. Fair enough. But it didn’t stop there. This so called salesman sported the worse attitude that I have seen in years. He was so cynical and negative that talking to him for more than 10 minutes was completely, excruciatingly painful. You couldn’t hold a normal conversation with him without feeling put down, desperate and negative about just about everything around you. Not the best sales person attitude if you ask me.

This leads me to my point that attitude and physical presentation are so essential. As sales people we need to gain trust from our prospects and that means dressing well and being presentable if meeting in person, and having a pleasant and positive voice when on the phone. There are other things that go into it as well. Like honesty, enthusiasm and going beyond your duty to help the prospect. Be giving. Don’t hoard your sales talents. Prospects want to be sold. They want really hard to be convinced that what they are considering buying is actually worth buying.

Well, that is it for me this time. Happy calling and don’t forget to check my eBook “Cold Call Warrior” for an extensive and effective sales training regimen. Until next time.

Anton B.