The Sale is Defined by the Customer: People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy. Your job as a master salesman is to create an atmosphere where people want to buy. Jeffrey Gitomer’s LITTLE RED BOOK of SELLING 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness How to make sales FOREVER Bard Press Austin The Little Red Book of Selling Copyright © 2005 by Jeffrey Gitomer Excellent cartoons © 2005 by Randy Glasbergen www.com All rights reserved. Published by Bard Press Austin, Texas www.com Permission to reproduce or transmit in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, must be obtained in writing from the author. The Little Red Book of Selling is a registered trademark of Jeffrey Gitomer. To order additional copies of this title, contact your local bookstore or call 704. The author may be contacted at the following address: BuyGitomer 310 Arlington Avenue, Loft 329 Charlotte, NC 28203 Phone 704.1011 E-mail: salesman@gitomer.com Web sites: www.com Cover Graphic by Dave Pinksi. Cover Design by Mike Sakoonserksadee. Photography by Mitchell Kearney. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gitomer, Jeffrey H. Jeffrey Gitomer’s little red book of selling: the 12.5 principles of sales greatness: how to make sales forever / Jeffrey Gitomer p. cm ISBN: 978-1-885167-60-6 1 Selling. Author 2003070815 If they like you, and they believe you, and they trust you, and they have confidence in you… then they MAY buy from you. —Jeffrey Gitomer People don’t like to be sold… …but they love to buy! “Why They Buy” An answer every salesperson needs. “Why do people buy?” is a thousand times more important than “How do I sell?” No, let me correct that…it’s one million times more important than “How do I sell?” No, let me correct that…it’s one billion times more important than “How do I sell?” Get the picture? I have just spent three days in our studio interviewing the customers of my customers, asking them “why they buy.” And the answers are a combination of common sense, startling information, overlooked issues, and incredible opportunity. It never ceases to amaze me that companies will spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars teaching people “how to sell,” and not one minute or not ten dollars on “why they buy.” And “why they buy” is all that matters. You may think you know why they buy, but you probably don’t do anything about it. Proof? Let me share with you the early warning signals that prove you may not have a clue as to why they buy. You get price objections. You have to send bids or proposals. They claim to be satisfied with their present supplier. No one will return your call.5 You are complaining that the economy is slow. If these sound familiar to you, you may be in the big club. I am going to present a collection of elements as to why customers buy. They are in no particular order, but they are valid reasons, which were given to me straight from the mouths of customers, from every type of business. I like my sales rep. NOTE WELL: Liking is the single most powerful element in a sales relationship. I got a quote the other day from someone claiming to be a sales expert. It started out saying, “Your customer does not have to like you, but he does have to trust you.” What an idiot. Can you imagine the CEO of the company, when making a buying decision, saying, “I trusted that guy, but I sure didn’t like him.” Like leads to trust. Trust leads to buying. Buying leads to relationship. That’s not the life cycle, that’s the life cycle of sales. I understand what I am buying. I perceive a difference in the person and the company that I am buying from. I perceive a value in the product that I am purchasing. I believe my sales rep. I have confidence in my sales rep. I trust my sales rep. I am comfortable with my sales rep. I feel that there is a fit of my needs and his/her product or service. The price seems fair, but it’s not necessarily the lowest. I perceive that this product or service will increase my productivity. I perceive that this product or service will increase my profit.5 I perceive that my salesperson is trying to help me build my business in order to earn his. My salesperson is a valuable resource to me. Well, there are a few reasons to get your thought process going. If you discover yours, selling will be a snap. Go, do, now! “Jeffrey,” you whine, “Tell me how!” OK, Here’s what to do. Call six of your best customers. Invite them to a seminar about how to build THEIR business 3. Offer GREAT food. Tell them that there are also 15-20 minutes worth of questions you want to ask them about how to strengthen your relationship. Craft six questions about how you meet their needs and what they look for in a vendor/partner. RECORD the session. Video is best, but audio will do. Then listen to the recording 100 times. I have given you some answers as to why customers buy. But the bigger question is: Why do YOUR customers buy? Think you know? Want a cold slap in the face? YOU’VE NEVER EVEN ASKED THEM! It amazes me that this answer is so obvious, yet so overlooked. Free Red Bit: Want a list of “why they buy” questions to ask? I’ve compiled a list of a few questions that will get the session started. Go to www.com, register if you are a first time user, and enter WHY THEY BUY in the RedBit box. Selling is puking. Your customer wants to buy. Got a hot prospect list? Hot for who? How many are hot for you? I’ll bet that’s a (way) smaller list. The Little RED Book of Selling Table of Contents People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy. Why they buy. An answer every salesperson needs. Selling in the Red Zone. How to use the principles of this book to succeed. Why is this book RED ? What’s the difference between failure and success? What’s your biggest fear? Speaking, rejection, or failing? The 12.5 Red Principles of Sales Greatness: 1. Kick your own ass. Prepare to win, or lose to someone who is. Personal branding IS sales: It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you. It’s all about value, it’s all about relationship, it’s not all about price. It’s NOT work, it’s NETwork. If you can’t get in front of the real decision maker, you suck. Engage me and you can make me convince myself. If you can make them laugh, you can make them buy! 9. Use CREATIVITY to differentiate and dominate. Reduce their risk and you’ll convert selling to buying. When you say it about yourself it’s bragging. When someone else says it about you its proof.5 Resign your position as general manager of the universe. More RED SALES Thinking Strategies at the end to help you win at the beginning The Little Salesman That Could The Two Most Important Words in Selling 12.5 Principles of Life-long Learning Implement the Rule of the More, the More What Does It Take to Be Number One? And Stay There? This Book Has No Ending Selling in the Red Zone I’m not just an expert in sales. I’m a salesperson who has made millions of dollars worth of sales, and has remained a student of sales. And besides, who just wants to be AN expert when you can be THE expert? In this Little Red Book of Selling, you will have the opportunity to understand why sales happen. And by mastering the elements that I give you, make sales happen for yourself—forever. The difference between success and mediocrity is philosophy. Most salespeople think end of the month. But you have to begin thinking end of time. That’s how I think. If you think end of time, each time you are in a selling situation, the sale will always be long term, relationship driven, and referral oriented. And it has nothing to do with sales manipulation, or other seedy tactics. That has given real salespeople a bad rep. The Little Red Book of Selling could also be titled the Little Red Book of Buying. The subtle difference in sales between the successful and the unsuccessful is the difference between trying to sell what you have and creating the atmosphere where the prospect will buy what you have. People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy has become more than a registered trademark to me—it’s my mantra. And throughout the course of this book you must begin to adopt a philosophy that drives you to a higher, value driven, helping purpose. It sounds like a college professor. It even sounds unrealistic on the surface. But keep in mind I was raised in New Jersey, went to college in Philadelphia, had businesses in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and sold garments in Manhattan for five years—successfully—without giving one bribe (even though EVERYONE either expected one or asked for one). In all of my sales battles both victorious and in utter defeat, I have learned millions of dollars worth of lessons that you will be receiving in this Red Book for somewhere around $20. Instead of thinking end of month, begin thinking end of time. Here’s how to take the golden information inside The Little Red Book of Selling and transfer it into your sales success. I will give the gold to you in bite size chunks. You can absorb the nuggets anywhere, at any time. You can try them out the same moment you learn them. There will also be every imaginable ancillary product to help you further your understanding of sales and why people buy. You can get additional CDs, flashcards, streaming video on the Internet, you name it, to help you understand, implement, and execute the most powerful selling strategies that I know. If you can’t use these strategies to build your success, it is my highest recommendation that you get out of sales as fast as you can. If you master them and implement one skill per day into your life, and your sales life, at the end of one year you will be an expert. An expert with a bigger bank account. Note to readers: This book contains language used by real people used in real situations in sales. I have not edited this book for political correctness, (I am a male. I tend to speak in the male gender), nor have I edited it for real world selling situations that I face every day. I have edited out one thing, all the bullshit. If any of this is offensive to you, get out of sales as fast as you can and take a nice safe job with some big company where you can whine all day, and complain about your low pay. But if you want to be the sales success that you dream about, and in the end be fulfilled because you did it “your way,” then this is a book to be purchased immediately, read twice, studied, implemented as fast as you can, and referred to every day. If you want to have your cake and eat it too, then I guarantee this book is for you. Jeffrey Gitomer Turn the page… The Little RED Book of Selling is NOT just about how to make a sale. It’s about how to make sales FOREVER! How to read this book. How to implement these principles. How to use the principles of this book to succeed! This book is RED. Emphasis will be placed in key areas and you’ll know them because they’re red. But understand that it’s about every word, not just the red words. This book must be READ.