Excerpt from the sales cookbook, by Michael Simpson
Chapter 1    Getting Back To Basics  

“There are no secrets in sales. Instead, there are ingredients that can be identified, learned and embedded into daily routines. Do the right things and you will enjoy excellent results.–”MICHAEL SIMPSON

 I first started my sales career in 1984 on the Island of Hawaii.  I was in the Marines stationed at the air wing in Kaneohe Bay.  I worked in logistics and supply for the 1^st Marine Brigade Service Support Group.  I knew nothing about sales except that I believed I could sell anything.  I was just 19 years old, and I had a strong attraction to business and sales.  One day, I was talking with a friend and he stressed interest in starting a part time business. We came up with a plan to look for a business that we could do part-time that would not interfere with our duties in the Marine Corps.  The next night, I was driving and I saw a large paving company putting the yellow stripes on a parking lot.  Then it hit me, wow this is a perfect fit. This was an easy business to start because we didn’t need a lot of expensive equipment or materials, we could work at night when the pavement was cooler, businesses would be closed so the cars were gone and finally, it was perfect for a two man crew.  After some research we were ready to launch our new business J&S Parking Lot Striping. We determined that I would be the salesman and with absolutely no knowledge of sales I set out to make my first sale for our new company.

My enthusiasm was beaming on my first night out as a salesman.  I quickly learned my first lesson in prospecting, Who are my customers? This is where I got lucky. It was real easy to identify a potential customer by visually inspecting and determining who was in need of our service. My plan was to simply approached the business owner with a contract in my hand and asked if I could give them a quote to restripe their lot. I was doing what I should be doing as a salesperson and I didn’t even know that. 

The third business owner I approached was very impressed by my eagerness to help him and asked if we could get the job done that night and pick up a check in the morning.  That feeling I had at that moment of my first sale is exactly why I am in sales today. Without any training and with little knowledge of my product I did what most sales professionals are trying to do on a daily basis and that is.  Make a sale!

This is the basis for ingredient one, getting back to basics. So how do you get back basics? Read on!

When sales are robust and things are going well, there is no reason to fix things. When things go wrong, when you feel the walls collapsing around you, it’s time to get back to basics and hit the reset switch.

Selling success is measured in terms of deals or products sold as a direct result of personal selling efforts.  For this reason it is important to fully understand the selling process and the basic activities required. Whether it is convincing someone to make a purchase, accept a point-of-view, change attitudes or an infinite number of other behavioral decisions, it all comes down to persuasive communication or selling.

The selling process is a set of basic activities undertaken to successfully obtain an order and begin building long-term customer relations.  The basic activities outlined below apply to all forms of selling and can be adapted to most selling situations.

It should be noted that while we present these activities in an order that is suggestive of a step-by-step approach, in many selling situations this will not be the case.  Additionally, salespeople often find circumstances in which all activities are required but the order these are carried out may be disrupted.  For instance, salespeople are often confronted with a buyer who is resistant to making a purchase even before the salesperson has made a presentation. This will likely force the salesperson to adjust his or her selling process (see “being a chameleon” in chapter 4). 

As you can see, the selling process above will require multiple interacting ingredients that combined, will help you attain the ultimate goal in selling. The purpose of “Hitting The Reset Switch” is to examine your sales approach and focus on building positive ingredients that compliment you, your personality and apply to the selling process. Don’t try to be someone else or shoehorn your sales approach to mimic the top dogs. You become a top dog with your own set of ingredients that fit your values and beliefs. The Sales Cookbook will help you obtain the ingredients necessary to propel you into sales greatness and truly become a sales professional.

Your desire to achieve sales greatness starts with a commitment to analyze every ingredient with an open minded approach. Then, you will mentally set the stage to strategically implement each ingredient into your recipe. Finally, you will tie all the ingredients together into one award winning sales professional.