9 Guiding Principles for Sales Success

Nick Fellers | May 21, 2007

Here are my 9 GUIDING PRINCIPLES to help you ’sell’ your VISION, your MESSAGE, your PRIORITIES…

Pretty self-explanatory, but there are some ‘notes’ at the end.

Action: You can print this out and carry with you as a REMINDER.

GP #1

CHANGE YOUR VOCABULARY!WORDS ARE IMPORTANT! Stop using all the typical ‘nonprofit’ industry jargon. Start using ’sales’ terms, ‘business’ terms, ‘common sense’ terms.

Appointments	Visits
Power Points	Presentation Tools
Asking for Money	Presenting the Opportunity

GP #2

THINK BIG. BUILD SIMPLE. ACT NOW!My absolute favorite Entrepreneur’s Mantra. Also works great for SALES. THINK. BUILD. ACT. BIG. SIMPLE. NOW.

GP #3

THE RULE OF 3!This principle alone is worth the price of admission! ‘FORCE’ everything you do into groups of 3! Your Message Points. Your Priorities. Your Buckets. Your Sales Presentation. Trust me. It works.

GP #4

NO TIMEOUTS. NO SUBSTITUTIONS. NO EXCUSES.My Notre Dame Boxers’ Mantra. Works for sales. Take responsibility for your life. Your actions. Your results.

GP #5

PREPARE. PRACTICE. PERFORM. You get PREPARE and PERFORM. What we never, ever, ever do (in our world) is PRACTICE! PRACTICE YOUR PRESENTATION. Your response to objections and challenges. Your opening. Your close.

GP #6

FIRST WITH THE HEART. THEN WITH THE HEAD.This is the corollary to a great line in my favorite book, THE POWER OF ONE. Zig Ziglar, über sales trainer, says it perfectly: “People buy on emotion, then justify with logic.”

GP #7

DO THE MATH.You can’t ‘SELL’ unless you understand all the ‘NUMBERS’! This is about goals, self-fulfilling prophecy, and the Stockdale Paradox (Face the Brutal Facts).

GP #8

ASK QUESTIONS. (ACTUALLY) LISTEN TO ANSWERS.This is, without question, the greatest ‘SALES TIP’… ever!

GP #9

SHARE THE STORY. PRESENT THE OPPORTUNITY.No explanation necessary. Just do it.

Email This Nugget | Comment