It is wise to make your career by following those who have been successful in the same field. In the world of sales, whether the desire is to be employed or to start a selling business, your journey is likely to be an epic of several challenging situations.
Selling is just one aspect; you also have to handle customer calls and service issues. So, what is a salesperson like or how can you be effective in a sales job? Many people consider an archetypal salesperson to be aggressive and impulsive. However, a great salesperson certainly has different qualities.
To know what a great salesperson is like and how to be a successful salesperson, here are five famous salespeople you can emulate.
1. Zig Ziglar
Ziglar started his career by selling pans and pots and then later shifted to cooking tools. However, it was his words that made him one of the most revered salespeople on the planet. He is known for propagating the modern philosophy as well as the vocabulary of sales via diligent motivational discourses.
Ziglar has also written several books that reveal the best sales practices and approaches. He accredits his career to his yearning for learning continuously.
What to Learn: Never stop learning or imagining success. Master different approaches to succeed so that you can always get up when pulled down.
2. Napoleon Barragan
Barragan is regarded as the first salesperson to recognise the true potential of ecommerce. He comprehended the trend of changing technology and tapped its full potential to show it as a boon for those into sales.
Barragan initially sold beer and soda but is now a popular mattress seller. His grit pushed him to start his own business. He firmly believes that a salesperson should always focus on the big outcome rather than individual sales.
What to Learn: Always focus on something big, not small.
3. Erica Feidner
Erica Feidner is a successful seller of a musical instrument that is hardly purchased frequently, is costly, and has long sales cycles. She sold over $40 million worth of pianos for the Steinway brand.
This exceptional accomplishment is due to her ability to deliver a persuasive valuable offer to customers to touch their hearts. She knows how to recognize and decipher the customers’ desires for buying the best piano. She does so to trigger inspiration in her customers by revealing the unknown musical motivations existing in them.
What to Learn: Never give up on an unsold offer.
4. Mary Kay Ash
Ash is the mastermind behind Mary Kay Cosmetics and an esteemed role model for businesswomen who overcame the struggles that women face in the world of business. She started small by selling books from one door to another but succeeded with a logical selling strategy. The strategy was to convince women to organise parties so that they can sell books to their friends.
The underlying notion is that people will happily purchase from relatives and friends. Ash is the pioneer of this strategy, which is now known as multi-level marketing. She now has gained a whooping sales experience of 50 years!
Ash is also admired for one more strategy of using sales incentives, which transformed her company’s signature pink Cadillacs into a symbol of women’s financial empowerment.
What to Learn: Build a wide network and provide incentives. Make struggles your motivational drive to succeed.
5. Dale Carnegie
Carnegie has a history of several sales jobs during which he learned something distinct that sets him apart from other salespeople. He comprehended that influence begins with relationships. For this, Carnegie believes that having engaging communication and making people feel important are the essentials.
Today, he is famous for writing ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People,’ a classic book revealing more than 25 principles applicable to different relationships and several lessons applicable to modern sales.
What to Learn: Show true interest in people without fawning.
Undoubtedly, there are important lessons to learn from these renowned salespeople who have plotted their path to success amidst hurdles. You just have to implement their strategies and learn their values to build a successful sales career.
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