Selling Your Product 133
people’s expense, but the customers of a salesperson with real
integrity keep coming back because they know they’ll get honesty,
quality, price, and service. A person can’t have just a little integ-
rity. It’s something you either have or you don’t. And that’s what
the customer becomes aware of very early in the selling game.
You have to have a good name, and the only way you get that and
keep it is by having integrity.
Initiative is the ability to get in the door, to make the presen-
tation in a unique, interesting, imaginative way, and to know you
did a good job for yourself and the company even if you didn’t
make the sale.
Selling as communication
Why should selling a product be any different from selling your-
self or your ideas? It isn’t. A company is only as good as the people
who represent it and, for the moment, you’re the company. And, in
almost every case, the client has to believe in you before believing
in what you’re selling. So, what should the client see?
- A warm person.
- A sincere person.
- An open person.
- An enthusiastic person.
- A trustworthy person.
The client also wants a positive person.
He wants you to tell him the good features of your product,
not to bad-mouth the competition.
If there were problems in the past, don’t blame the home of-
fice or the shipping department. Just take the initiative and be
sure it doesn’t happen again or you can kiss that account goodbye.
Don’t make claims or promises that can’t be kept.
If you are the best and if you represent the best, your client
will get what he buys.
He’ll get it on time.
He’ll be happy with it, and he’ll welcome anything you bring
him in the future.