How Do You Come Across In Sales?

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By:Ray Turnbull

This week we are going to be talking about how you come across to people in the way that you dress, the way you talk, and the way you act.

Voice Training:

It is very important when you are speaking to a client that you pitch your voice in a way that creates excitement, sincerity and believability. One thing that irritates people is a monotone voice, a high pitched voice, or a voice where people have to lean over and say “sorry I missed that”, and most people won’t do this as this makes them feel uncomfortable. So most of the time when your potential client can’t hear you properly or can’t make out the words you are saying, they will most probably just nod their head and smile and think to themselves what the bloody hell did he just say.

You have to be well spoken. You have to get excited with your voice when you are trying to get your client excited. There’s nothing worse when someone says, “this is a great deal!” or “this product has just come out and it is going to take the market over!” and your voice is barely loud enough to here, with no change in pitch, and no rhythm what so ever. A salesman’s voice has to have rhythm, be extremely clear, with constant pitch changes and be loud enough that it is not over-bearing but just right for the person you are talking to.

You have to adjust your speech to each client individually as each client is different, and with experience you will be able to adjust in a split second. For someone who is older you may have to speak louder. Maybe English is their second language and you need to slow down your speed and rhythm. You have to adjust to the environment in all situations.

Image Training:

The most important thing with image is that you never overdo it. An example of this would be a young guy new to sales that rocks up to your house in a new suit & tie, a $200 car and the whole time he is talking to you he is nervous, scratching his neck, his face is going blue because he is not used to wearing a tie, it’s the middle of summer and he has sweat pouring down his face and he is saying to you ‘isn’t it a great day today’ in a quiet monotone voice that you can hardly hear.

Again this comes back to the client feeling uncomfortable because he knows you are uncomfortable, and your client never gets to relax and really take everything in that you are saying.

Don’t get me wrong, I have made plenty of sales wearing dirty work clothes back in the day when I was working on the tools and doing the selling in my first home improvement business. But the difference was that I felt comfortable wearing them as I was a tradesman at the time and it played to my advantage on occasions.

This brings me to a story of when I was doing work for an insurance company and in particular a very important barrister that owned a large firm which was the middle man between me and the insurance companies. When I first met this guy I thought he was as cold as you could get. You could see his staff was scared of him, he wore the best suits and had the finest most expensive furniture, and if he said boo most people would jump. But I knew that he was just a busy man that people had a lot of respect for, but this also made them scared of saying something wrong.

I constantly went to his office in my dirty work clothes to give him my invoices and then one day I went in there in my good clothes and he saw me and called me over. He said to me in a matter-of-fact voice “look Ray you don’t need to come in here to give me the invoices in person, there is a thing called mail you know”. (I don’t think he wanted a dirty looking tradesman bringing down the standard of his office). And I said “I know that, but I just want to make sure that you get them”, and he then noticed my good clothes and said “I didn’t think you owned any good clothes”, and I said in the same monotone and serious voice that he had “yeah they’re all at the dry cleaners at the moment getting pressed” and you know what, he was put back for a second, and then all of a sudden just burst into laughter for the first time I had ever seen or anyone else had for that matter. He said to me that he just pictured in his head a dry cleaners with all these nice suits and these old ratty work clothes with dry silicon and paint marks all nicely pressed. And this just made him laugh uncontrollably. All his employees didn’t know what to think because I don’t think they had ever heard him laugh before.

See the problem was every one was so scared to have a joke with him that he became this untouchable person.

After he stopped laughing he invited me into his office, and asked his receptionist to get us some lunch. Every time I went around there from then on in I think he looked forward to seeing me and having a laugh and a chat.

Whats the moral of the story:

The moral of the story is that everyone has a human side beyond the image they project.

Another big no-no is don’t wear big obnoxious gold chains and big gold rings, I highly recommend you don’t or it puts a big bulls eye on your head that you’re a cheesy salesman and people won’t trust you. It might have worked back in the eighties but not any more.

Make sure your clothes show off your best assets and are suited to your size and frame and don’t highlight your flaws. Make sure they are comfortable but still presentable enough to show your client you respect them, that you are not a bum, but an upstanding citizen. Make sure you are cleanly shaven, your teeth are brushed and flossed and make sure your breath is good.

These are guidelines only and you will be the best judge of what suits you in your industry, but remember, even a badly dressed salesman can still make plenty of sales and a good living, but it will stop you from reaching your full potential if not taken seriously.

Your goal for this week:

Get opinions from people you respect on the way you present yourself vocally and physically. Ask them what they have seen you wear that looks good on you. Ask them what colors they think look good on you and any constructive criticism they can give you on your speech and presentation skills.

Summary:

Remember that when you meet people or speak to them for the first time they are going to be trying to work out what sort of person you are in their head before they will listen to a word you say. The old saying “people don’t care what you know or think unless they know that you care” rings true here. People are not going to listen to what you have to say if they don’t trust you. And the way you dress and speak will help you a great deal in building trust.

If you are slack in the way you dress or lazy in the way you speak than people can easily assume that this is the way you will do your work as well.
Until next time…………

“Bye for now, and remember that tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your new life!”

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Article keywords: sales, selling, selling skills, sales strategies, sales training, sales questions, sales tips, selling tips

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Ray Turnbull has extensive knowledge and experience in sales and negotiation accumulated and developed over a 4o year period. Ray Turnbull has been sharing sales tips and success secrets at his website http://www.successthroughfailure.com