About 25 years ago, I read my first book on selling. It was, The Secrets of Closing the Sale. Like many sales and business professionals, this was the first book that I was ever exposed to which focused on the subject and the art of selling. 25 years later, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down and meeting with the master of selling and personal development, the often imitated but never duplicated, Zig Ziglar.

Now, if you’re in sales or a self help junkie, you know who Zig Ziglar is. (If not, you’re either someone who hasn’t truly invested in your career and embraced lifelong learning by continually investing in your development, you’re fairly new to the selling profession or are just starting out, or you’ve been living under a rock for far too long.) Zig (he prefers to be called Zig over Mr. Ziglar) is truly an American Legend, an icon in the world of personal and professional growth and one of my personal heroes. (The conversation I had with him further cemented why this is still true today). Zig has shared the platform with many distinguished Americans such as Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush and has authored over two dozen books on personal growth and success, family, sales and leadership that have touched the lives of millions of people across the world.

Zig has an appeal that transcends barriers of age, culture, industry and occupation. Since 1970, he has traveled over five million miles across the world delivering powerful life improvement messages, cultivating the energy of change.

Zig Ziglar’s corporation is built upon the same philosophy he expounds to his audiences – hard work, common sense, fairness, commitment and integrity.

In his autobiography, Zig offers a candid and inspiring account of his transformation from a “too small, poor boy from Yazoo City, Mississippi,” to one of the world’s most highly regarded motivational experts. At the heart of his story are his many heroes who modeled solid values such as faith in God, commitment to hard work, compassion for others, common sense, integrity, and a sense of humor.

“Wow! What an amazing experience. What did he teach you that was new?” This is the first reaction I would typically hear from people when first telling them I had spent an afternoon with Zig and time at his headquarters. So, what impact did Zig leave on me that I have taken to heart? What profound, new and valuable message was I able to walk away with from my meeting with this highly acclaimed guru and though leader?

Before I answer that, (no, I won’t make you wait until my next blog post) here are just a few of the things that Zig and I casually chatted about. (Our conversation was videoed and I will be posting the video to share with you in the very near future.)

• How the selling profession and the profile of a salesperson changed and evolved since the time he authored, The Secrets of Closing the Sale, 25 years ago.
• What salespeople need to do today to ensure their success in this new marketplace.
• What leaders need to be more mindful of if they want to ensure the success of their organization.
• The people who have impacted his life the most.
• Zig’s definition of integrity.
• A message for the younger generation out there, who are working hard at trying to build a successful career and a family.
• His legacy.
• What parents need to do to be more accountable around raising children with stronger, more meaningful values.
• How people actually go about developing or upgrading their attitude.

I was fortunate to gain the perspective of such a worldly man grounded in the values that matter. You would even think that it would be a bit of a challenge to retain all of the gems Zig shared with me. Conversely it wasn’t. It was surprisingly, yet reassuringly very simple. You see, the ultimate epiphany I had, the priceless message that Zig delivered, was grounded in the core principles that are and have always been right in front of us.

Zig reinforced what really mattered most; the basics. Yes, that’s right. The basics that we so often gloss over, neglect, take for granted and assume we already have in place. The very basics that are paradoxically, still the undeniable and timeless secret to success and designing a life worth living.

The basics of truth, being your word, living a life of integrity, honoring your core values and your commitments, honesty, family, faith in yourself and helping your fellow man and woman selflessly and graciously. Yes, the basics that our society seems to have an unyielding tendency to put aside and dismiss in search of the latest and greatest, the next “Big Thing” or the flavor of the month. We have fooled ourselves into thinking there is some other secret out there that would help us get what we want most and propel us to where we want to be, both in our home life and at our work life.

We are hiding behind the guise of “What’s next” without honoring the core, fundamental beliefs and values that make us all worthwhile human beings. As we immerse ourselves in our own thinking, as we get distracted and challenged by the upsets and problems at work, as we continue to allow the media to erode our thinking and our heart-centered priorities as well as sensationalize our deepest fears and insecurities, we move farther and farther away from the person we truly want to be, and then with a shock, we turn around and notice that the person we have become, is not the person we want to model, especially for our children.

Our integrity has now been compromised, and we wonder why we continually feel, “off,” out of sorts, or out of balance with ourselves, regardless of how much more money we make or what other possessions or successes we amass. We can’t understand why personal satisfaction, our self worth, sense of fulfillment and our peace of mind continually escapes us and our grasp, and becomes more and more elusive.

To reinforce Zig’s message, I’m reminded of a conversation I had with his son. When talking with Tom Ziglar, the CEO of Ziglar, Inc., he shared with me so many wonderful stories about his dad. During one of our conversations, he shared with me one of his dad’s quotes which was, “How much better would world be if people cared as much about their responsibilities as they do their rights.” With the level of greed and American Entitlement that has plagued our society, which has only come into our direct line of vision due to our challenging marketplace and the media continually reporting on the failure of so many large institutions and organizations, this message is so timely today, more than ever before.

Zig’s message touches the heart, soul and spirit of everyone he interacts with, especially those who work with him. It was during my video shoot later that day, as I was filming some new training and coaching insights, when someone else in Zig’s office shared another story that is yet another testament to Zig’s character and being a man who lives by his word and walks his talk. I was told that, throughout all of the years Zig has traveled the word, before every seminar or presentation he ever delivered, even as they’re introducing him and calling him on to the stage, he would always make it a point to pick up the phone and call his wife, just to tell her he loves her.

What a better place our world would be if every man and woman would call their spouse or significant other on their way to work, just to say, “I love you.” To this day, Zig cherishes his wife and the relationship he has with her (the Redhead, as he lovingly refers to her in his books). He keeps her on the pedestal that she so rightfully deserves to be on. Again, what would our world be like if we followed in Zig’s footprints, doing the things that really matter most.

When it was time to conclude our conversation, one of the final questions I asked Zig was, “I’m not sure if you’ve been following the numbers on your book sales and where they rank in terms of popularity. So I took the liberty of seeing how The Secrets of Closing the Sale has been doing on Amazon. Currently, your book holds the following rankings regarding how popular they are in specific categories. In the category of sales and selling, your book is rated number 15. Now, here’s what I found interesting. Under the category of spirituality, your book is holding strong at number 3. Now, I know you’re a very spiritual man. And regardless of your faith, how do you explain this? What’s the connection between success at selling and spirituality?”

To that question, Zig smiled and responded with a resonating message that reinforced why the holistic approach to professional development will always be the most effective and long lasting. That was, while skill, talent and what you do is important, it is the essence of a person, your character and who you are that matters most.

At 82 years of age, he still has that spark, that twinkle in his eye, that presence he naturally exudes from a man who we can all use as a model of what it means to be not just remarkable, but to be human; that’s the Zig we know and love.

I don’t know if there are too many authentic heroes like Zig left in the world, and I know he’s still one of mine. And as I look on my desk at the gift that my children had given me just the other day (an early Fathers Day present), I’m reminded why I do what I do and what gets me out of bed each day. My five year olds (twins) came back from school and in their youthful exuberance, handed me a picture frame they had made with the cutest picture of each of them wearing a suit and tie that their teaches had dressed them in. On the top of the frame it said, “When I grow Up I want To Be Just Like My Daddy.” How important our role is as parents, our most significant role we will ever have. That message was a happy reminder of how important it is for me to follow in the footprints of success that my hero has left behind for all of us to travel on.

I am profoundly and deeply appreciative of my time with Zig and of the gifts that he has shared with the world.

And to Mr. Zig Ziglar I say, I am grateful for the contribution you have made to me, as well as the impact that you have had on all of us throughout the years. Keep shining.

Watch the Video

Salespeople wear their emotions on their sleeve. As such, your prospects will sense your reluctance or fear. A prospect wants to do business with a salesperson that’s excited about what they have, not someone who is struggling to promote their product or service.

Rather than a sign of conviction, this can be construed as a sign of doubt or uncertainty. If you’re not convinced that what you have to offer is important enough to make a call, then how can you expect your prospects to get excited about what you have to offer? This will sabotage your cold-calling efforts, cultivating an unhealthy relationship from the start.

From: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cold Calling

Related Winning CanDoGo™ Insights

Never Cold Call Again

A Great Sales Coach Uses His Heart

Call Me Back Please!

Refine Your New Business Development Strategy to Win New Business

Use this checklist here

Do you prospect effortlessly and have a steady flow of new business? We all need more selling opportunities. To find them, we need to connect with more qualified prospects.

Sometimes new isn’t always better. Here’s an incredible tool I created years ago when I came out with my cold calling book. I’ve used this countless times to help coach salespeople and companies to develop and fine tune their cold calling approach and strategy to schedule more appointments with the right decision makers that will accelerate your selling cycle and ultimately close more sales.

Managers love this checklist because they can leverage this as a tool to help coach their salespeople and uncover the more elusive gaps in their follow up, warm calling or cold calling approach. Remember, coach the process, not the result.

Use this appointment setting and new business development checklist to discover what it takes to cold call or prospect like a pro and see if you’re set up for success or failure. The Prospecting and Cold Calling Tune Up is a checklist that contains all of the components needed to develop a masterful prospecting and follow up system that’s been proven to bring in new business, fast.

If your prospecting system does not contain the listed components, then you can find everything you need to develop a masterful prospecting system by clicking here.

This prospecting and cold calling checklist will help you identify what you need to refine or develop in your approach to retrain more customers and get into bigger accounts, set up more qualified appointments with decision makers all the way up the C-Level chain to the CEO, get more voice mails returned, set up a step by step prospecting and cold calling strategy that works, close more sales and help your salespeople fill their sales funnel with more qualified prospects.

Make it rain more than ever before. Adopt to the new rules of engagement and win in today’s economy. Tune up your approach here.

Keith Rosen’s Free Seminar Series
-The Art of Enrollment – Turn More Conversations into Clients

Mark your Calendar! January 28. 2009
Participant dial in number and access code below. Attend this event as our guest for free.

“People don’t want to be sold. They want to be enrolled.”

If you’re a coach, trainer, consultant, or non-selling professional, this is one tele-workshop you can’t afford to miss on the evolution of selling.

How effective are you at converting conversations into clients? Do you find yourself struggling to find more clients? What do you do to be unique and make an impact in the very first conversation you have with a prospect? Masterful coaches and speakers leave not only a lasting impression – they also create one.

It’s no secret that most coaches, speakers and non-selling professionals don’t like to sell. The income of most coaches reflects that. As such, they unknowingly use ineffective selling strategies rather than develop healthy, winning relationships with clients. Relying on price as a competitive differentiator dilutes your true value offering.

Coaching and training is not something you “pitch and sell.” The next evolution in how you engage clients is through the Art of Enrollment. What has been initially perceived as an inherent ability in certain leaders, coaches and top achievers is now a documented, step by step process that allows anyone, especially non-selling professionals, to convert more prospects into clients. You can do so in a natural, conversational way that honors your personal strengths, talents, integrity, values and style of communicating.

In this program, I’ve taken my twenty years of coaching and million dollar enrollment process that enabled me to develop one of the most successful coaching practices in the country and I’m now sharing my system with you in this program, The Art of Enrollment; a proven process to build a highly profitable, rewarding and sustainable business.

Specifically designed for coaches, consultants and trainers to learn how to:

Date: January 28. 2009
Duration: 90 Minutes
Time: 12pm EST
Location: Your Phone
Cost: Free! Please attend as our guest.

Sponsored by: The International Coach Federation

Below is the access number and code to participate:

Approximately 5 minutes before the session begins, start to dial this U.S. based phone number: 212.457.9879
When prompted, enter their Participant Access Code: 124866#

For more information visit the course description page here. I look forward to ‘seeing’ your there!

Many of the strategies that we engage in today, whether in our thinking as well as in our actions, are often counterintuitive to what we may believe would be the solution to achieving our goals and objectives; especially as it relates to cold calling and prospecting for new business.

Here’s a sample of the top paradoxes of prospecting that make prospecting so challenging. However, once these paradoxes are woven into your thinking, you’ll notice how these contradictions will provide you with a competitive edge that no other marketing piece, feature or benefit of your product or service could even come close to.

Lets face it. You and I both know that the ultimate objective of your prospecting efforts is to sell more and boost your income. However, to achieve this goal, it’s just not where you are going to focus your energy and thoughts.

If you can understand and embrace these paradoxes, you now have the opportunity to respond to each prospect in a healthier, more productive, and more enjoyable way.

Now here’s an example of a presentation that grabs attention. It has all the elements of success. The right person, (Tom Ziglar, CEO of Ziglar, Inc.), the right intention, focus, the visuals and measurable results.

Take a look and watch him, um, strip? And for the record, Tom lost, what, 71 lbs! No kidding.

Here’s the link to watch the video presentation!

And congratulations again, Tom, on an extraordinary achievement.

When presenting to a client or prospect, regardless of any steps you’ve outlined in your presentation, there’s a big difference between convincing or ‘selling’ someone and enrolling someone, especially when you’re at the point in your discussions where you’ve identified some specific problems within the organization or with them. Now, you may be at the point where you’re going to share the solution and enroll them in the solution and more so, taking action and making a change.

Convincing/Selling: Changing someone’s stand on something through the use of force or argument. This often takes the form of a complaint, or reiteration of the problem. If there are people who in involved in your discussions who may have taken a part in creating the problem in the first place, this can be construed as a “Make wrong” and they may then feel compelled to defend their stance. This creates an adversarial posture between you and the other person. Once this happens, people have tendency to further defend their position, which often results in them shutting down their listening for the remainder of the conversation.

Enrolling: Stating the current situation without making anyone wrong while sharing a new opportunity for greater results or what may be possible. Stating the benefits of what a change may bring. For example, the beginning of an enrollment conversation may begin with, “Imagine if…......What if we can create an organization where…..”

Enrolling can also take on the form of asking questions. Besides, what do people believe more, what you say, or what they say? As such, if they voice the problem or a possible solution, then they would be more willing to act on it. Resistance is lowered, and they feel ownership of the solutions and would be more apt to act on it. Here are some questions to use.

Here are a few questions to use when you’re in a situation where you need to acknowledge and respect the other person’s viewpoint, even though you may not agree. Or, maybe you simply need more clarification about their position on something. Instead of making them wrong or creating any confrontational posture between you, add another truth to the situation. Here’s how.

Uncover the specific benefits they want to realize, as well as the cost of not changing. Now, you can be in a position of enrolling them in the idea of actually taking actions to implement change to achieve these new results, without putting anyone on the defensive.

No one likes to be sold. Everyone wants to be enrolled. BTW, look for my new book, The Art of Enrollment, coming to you in 2009.

Get the Strategies You Need to Succeed in a Slowing Economy

Philadelphia, PA
The Ritz-Carlton
June 9, 2008

If you are a manager worried about maintaining sales momentum in a shrinking economy, you will want to check out Selling Power’s Sales Leadership Conference to be held next month in Philadelphia, which I will also be attending and hope to meet you there. I’ll be sitting on the panel discussion on How To Recruit and Build a Team of A Players.

9:15 AM HOW TO RECRUIT ‘A’ PLAYERS

Top experts share how to recruit, select and build a team of ‘A’ players

Here’s the agenda:
www.sellingpower.com/leadership/PHI2008/agenda.asp

OVERVIEW:
In today’s increasingly competitive and complex business environment, you can’t expect to succeed during tough times with a “business as usual” mindset. To excel during a downturn, your sales organization needs change and change demands leadership. That’s where you come in.

Selling Power magazine’s Sales Leadership Conference is designed to help executives like you create inspired, high performance sales organizations. America’s top sales leaders give you invaluable ideas for leading your team to new heights and dramatically increasing your sales. Join the select group of forward-looking companies who will come away from this conference armed with the knowledge and power to successfully meet the future. If you are serious about staying competitive during an economic downturn, this fact-filled conference is for you!

Here’s what you can expect:

<li>Winning strategies for recruiting, hiring and developing A players in a tough economy. </li>


<li>Creating a Winning Sales Culture Learn the best practices of world class sales leaders for building the foundation for consistent success. </li>


<li> Creating the vital CEO - CSO relationship Discover how Heartland Payment Systems built a billion dollar business, created 83 sales millionaires and became the leading sales force in an intensely competitive industry. </li>


<li> Leveraging Sales 2.0 technology Learn how high performing companies harness technology to accelerate their sales pipeline, improve processes, close more business and outpace their competitors.</li>


<li> Increase Professionalism Learn how you can benefit from the new wave of professionalism in selling. Seize the opportunity to work with 32 universities that create 1,600 sales degree graduates ready to outsell your top performers.

<li> Network with an exclusive group of 175 top sales leaders (C-level), who will be eager to share their know-how, their insights and their connections to help you win. </li>

Act Now and Receive an Early Registration Discount!

This is a rare opportunity for you to receive the critical intel directly from America’s leading sales authorities. For more information or to request your invitation click here: www.sellingpower.com/leadership/phi2008/

Here’s the list of speakers: www.sellingpower.com/leadership/PHI2008/speakers.asp

With all the talk about the economy heading towards a recession, I’m busier than ever. And so are my clients. So, what gives? How much of this is fact and how much hype? Either way, I’m certainly not disputing that it’s affecting how some business owners and companies are spending lately.

So, what tips do I offer to companies, salespeople and, more specifically retailers on how to weather the recession? The same coaching I deliver to my clients, which is keeping their recession blues at pay, enabling them to drive and close new sales, and most important keeping their mental edge.

‘Weathering a recession’ sounds like surviving a storm and waiting until it passes. The “wait and see” or “lets hope things get better soon” is putting retailers out of business every day. I see it in my community. Stores that were opened one week are closed the next. Sure, you can ‘batten down the hatches’ when the eye of the storm lands but keep in mind when you open them up, there won’t be any customers sitting there waiting around for you. Instead, here’s what you need to do.

1. First, get out of your own head.
Businesses are closing their doors not due to a lack of effort but because they are still attempting to sell, manage or run their business the way it was, not the way it is today. If your marketplace has changed, then you need to change with it. Friendly reminder, don’t get sucked up into what you’re hearing on the news every day. Turn it off if you have to! What is real for you in your business in your local economy? Get out of the type of mindset that keeps you stuck in obsessing on what you need to do to survive and focus on how you can thrive. Remember all those great business ideas you were going to implement; the training your wanted to take, the marketing you wanted to do, the team building you felt would surely to make a measurable impact on your growth and success but daily business responsibilities always seemed to take precedent? Now is the time to blow the dust of those ideas and start executing on them. This begins with a change of thinking, accompanied by a change of strategy and topped off with a strong dose of reality.

2. Get back to basics.
Do you remember when you first opened your doors and achieved some measurable success? Why were you successful in the first place? What did you do then that you may not be doing now or unwilling to do now? Get on the floor of your store, cold call, prospect, do some grunt work? You need to turn around your business, fast, so time is not a luxury. Therefore, if you think there are any activities which are beneath you, then you already have one leg of your business in the grave.

3. Actually learn how to sell.
No, selling for 30 years is not what I’m suggesting as a training platform. Experience is important but experiences doesn’t equate to engaging in the healthiest of sales techniques. I’d be willing to bet (and I’m not a gambling man) the majority of retailers out there have not been coached and trained to be a sales champion, do not have a defined sales process they consistently engage in and as such, don’t know how to truly sell. And by no means consider this an attack on the retail sector. However, given that the majority of daily purchases we make are at a retail level, this is what I’m experiencing both as an executive coach and as a consumer. The “I’ve been successful in spite of myself” theory would apply here.

4. Work your leads and earn a sale.
Just a short time ago, in many sales driven companies, your salesperson can have a pulse and still get a sale simply by your customers showing up and having the money to spend. We were fooled into thinking that, “Hey, since I’m bringing in the business, I must be a great salesperson.” In today’s business climate, the same people are now struggling to generate the results they were, realizing that the marketplace has duped them into thinking they were better then the really are when it comes to professional selling. It has been the economic climate that made many salespeople seemingly productive, rather than their skill set or the core competencies needed to truly become a high performance sales professional, regardless of economic or market conditions. With today’s ever evolving market, if you are selling, managing or running your business the same way you’ve been running it for the last several years, you’re overdue to reevaluate your philosophy.

If you sell consumer products or services that is a more substantial purchase than going to the supermarket (home electronics, furniture, bridal/wedding venders, travel, boutique stores, computers, home appliances, home furnishings, clothing/shoe stores, etc.) don’t let a potential customer walk out the door without collecting some data points and permission to check in. Learn to position yourself as your customer’s trusted adviser throughout their decision making process. Abandon toxic thinking and get beyond the fact that you can afford to let any potential customer walk away from a conversation, thinking they will actually call you back on their own accord. Earn the right to call each person who buys from you – a customer. It’s during times like these where you literally have to earn their business rather than simply be an order taker.

5. Get into action. Work with a coach.

Do you wish that your efforts to earn more customers were more profitable for you? It will be if you avoid falling into these top 10 common pitfalls in the New Year.

Mistake #1. Do you want to sell or do you find yourself needing to sell instead?

Salespeople often find themselves hoping and preying and sometimes even begging, (“PLEASE just take a look…..”) for the opportunity to “Just show what I can do for you” and maybe make a sale. The salesperson may be thinking, “I really need this sale so I hope I get this! After all, I have bills to pay.” Do you think your client is going to be able to pick up on this? Of course they are. Salespeople often present themselves as if they need to make the sale. Instead, its much more effective to have the mindset of wanting to make the sale simply because it is going to benefit the customer’s life and business. This means not making selling about YOU and about how much you can benefit but how much you can assist the customer in benefiting from what you have to offer. The fact is, hungry salespeople scare away the meal. If you can shift to becoming truly sincere and caring as opposed to hungry and desperate, you will attract even more customers towards you. Create a reserve (having more of something than you actually need in order to survive, such as money, space, time, satisfaction, etc.) so that you will have the ability to go into a sales call “Coming from” a different place with a different attitude. Now, you actually want to sell because of the benefits the customer will derive, as opposed to needing to sell to serve your own desires. Otherwise, your customers will get turned of and will go elsewhere.

You can check out some of the first videos available on KeithRosenTV on Youtube. They are also available for free right here on ProfitBuilders.com.

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Here is one of the new videos discussing cold calling fear and reluctance and the best solutions to overcome them. You can check out more new video coaching content here on our site.

From this video: Here’s part of the transcript.
When coaching salespeople, the one activity that typically takes a back seat to everything else is cold calling.

Why is that why is there such a reluctance or aversion to picking up the phone and making that cold call?

Unfortunately, traditionally managers would offer a new template or a new script or maybe a new resource or collateral material in hopes that would make the salesperson more comfortable.

While this might help to a degree, it still doesn’t get the root of the issue, which is the salespersons fear of picking up the phone and making a call. Now here’s the interesting thing, if you think about the two people involved in the sales process, there’s the salesperson and the prospect. When I ask salespeople who the sales process should be about, they say “It should be about the prospect.”

If ask them who they are you making it about , and reluctantly if their being honest they say “I’m making it about me Keith”. Full transcript here.

I will be delivering a special free webinar that you can register for today. The date is approaching fast and details are below.

Date: August 1, 2007
Time: 10:00am PDT,

More Information or To Register Click Here

Permission Based Prospecting
Attract More Qualified Prospects – Close More Sales

Does this sound familiar? “If I could get in front of the prospect, the rest of the selling process becomes easier. It’s just getting in front of them that’s the challenge.” The fact is most cold calling efforts are doomed from the start. Salespeople lose sales not due to a lack of effort but because they lack a prospecting system they are comfortable with and can trust to generate greater, consistent results.

If you are prospecting the same way you have been for the last several years (including the, “calling to check in, touch base or follow-up” approach) or haven’t been prospecting at all, you’re simply making it easier for your competition to take away the new business you are working so hard to earn. So, if you love to sell but hate (or don’t like) to prospect, this program is your opportunity to maximize your cold calling potential and boost your income by learning how to get in front of the right prospects in less time and create greater selling opportunities without the fear, pressure or anxiety associated with cold calling.

In this session, Razi Imam CEO of Landslide Technologies will host this special event as I show you how to:

Strengthen your telephone communication skills.

Date: August 1, 2007
Time: 10:00am PDT,

So, the book launch is over. And a lot of work to coordinate. But all in all, it was very successful. My new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale, Made the Amazon.com Best Seller List.

So, first, thank you for all of your support. And I want to thank my partners for their support in this launch as well. I couldn’t have done it without you. Keep the success stories rolling in that you’ve created as a result of implementing the strategies you’ve discovered in my book. I love to hear about them!

Well, now that this launch is over, it’s time for me to chain myself to my computer until Mid May when my NEXT book is due to my publisher (John Wiley & Sons.) I’m thrilled to be working with them on my next book which is on the subject of coaching your team to the top and how you can turnaround or terminate an underperformer in less than 30 days.

As you may know, my latest book on closing the sale was released earlier this month. So, why haven’t I made much fuss over it until now? I was waiting for a reason. Here’s the reason.

I’ve put together a very special Three Day Launch Event (Expires this Friday) and wanted to make sure you took advantage of it. You can find out more about my new book and this special launch event below. In the meantime, feel free to visit my new site where you can read the entire intro and Chapter One here. I’m confident that this book will forever change your thinking and behavior when it comes to closing the sale. And you’ll like the results you see.

Now, back to this event:

Special 3 Day Book Launch Event Ends Friday

Get my book 32% Off and hundreds of dollars worth of Bonus Items

Bottom line: Some of the leading industry experts and authors are coming together to give away for free some of their best resources which will only be available for 72 hours during this event. During this 3 day event, anyone who purchases just one copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing The Sale will receive all of these additional resources for free.

This book gives you the edge over your competition by showing you, step by step, how to get to “Yes” more often by aligning your selling approach with the prospect’s preferred buying process and communication style without any pressure, manipulation or confrontation. You’ll also get exactly what to say in any selling situation as well as the dialogue that the world’s greatest salespeople use to defuse objections, ask for the sale and close the deal. Plus, over 100 case studies, templates and scripts you can use with my powerful process driven selling approach.

Traditional and gimmicky closing techniques are dead. Never be scared or reluctant to ask for the sale again and enjoy the confidence and peace of mind in knowing you have a process that works. The greatest salespeople are not great closers; they are skilled openers of new selling opportunities. Whether you’re a seasoned sales pro or just starting out, tap into my unique, permission based approach to having a selling conversation with your prospects that fits your style of selling rather than having to ‘pitch and close;’ the same system that I coach thousands of salespeople, business owners and managers on each year.

Get my book 32% Off and hundreds of dollars worth of Bonus Items

**72 HOUR BONUS: Once you purchase my new book, you will be given access to additional bonus materials valued at over $1,000 from industry experts, associations and companies like Paul DiModica, Jill Konrath, Steven Gaffney, Kim George, Vince Thompson, Jacques Werth, Lori Richardson, AllBusiness.com, SalesDog.com, The National Association of Sales Professionals and other incredible authors and experts. To get these resources, you can spend hundreds of dollars separately or you can invest just $10.00 (just ten bucks), order one copy of my book today and spend not one penny more. But order right now, as this unique and time sensitive offer will expire on March 2nd at midnight.

Get my book 32% Off and More

I Guarantee this New Book Will Help You Close More Sales in a Natural Way – With Permission

My new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale was released February 6, 2007 (and on my oldest daughter’s birthday.)

Get my book 32% Off

While I enjoy the levity, fun and rich tactical content that my idiot’s guides bring to an often difficult subject matter or topic that people struggle with, there is the risk of losing some readers because of the title itself. As such they may look at the title, react (Oh, it’s an “Idiot’s Guide, not for me) and move to the next book on the shelf. Do not be misled. The truth is, this book is infused with rich content, strategies, tactical step by step systems and sales coaching that applies to the seasoned veteran, non salesperson and rookie.

As such, for the population of people that may fit into this category; before you have any reaction to the title that might already dismiss this book; consider the source for a moment. (Not too presumptuous?) Don’t let this prevent you from tapping into a ground breaking, permission based selling model that everyone will not only feel super comfortable with but I guarantee you close more sales and make more money doing it. (And isn’t that the point?)

C’mon, I know it, and hopefully you know it, you’re not an idiot. You know your product, industry and deliver your service like a true expert. But to reach your goals, make more money and enjoy more free time, you have to close more sales faster.

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Traditional and gimmicky closing techniques are dead. Never be scared or reluctant to ask for the sale again and enjoy the confidence and peace of mind in knowing you have a process that works. The greatest salespeople are not great closers; they are skilled openers of new selling opportunities. Whether you’re a seasoned sales pro or just starting out, tap into my unique, permission based approach to having a selling conversation with your prospects that fits your style of selling rather than having to ‘pitch and close;’ the same system that I coach thousands of salespeople, business owners and managers on each year.

This book gives you the edge over your competition by showing you, step by step, how to get to “Yes” more often by aligning your selling approach with the prospect’s preferred buying process and communication style without any pressure, manipulation or confrontation. You’ll also get exactly what to say in any selling situation as well as the dialogue that the world’s greatest salespeople use to defuse objections, ask for the sale and close the deal. Plus, over 100 case studies, templates and scripts you can use with my powerful process driven selling approach.

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Whether you’re a salesperson, business owner, manager or non selling professional looking to brush up on some negotiation and presentation skills, here’s what you’re going to get from this guide:

I will also coach you step by step on how you can:

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Here’s the scene. You’re at your desk, feeling a bit overloaded, disorganized, behind the ball. Maybe you have some leads and sales that you should be closing faster. Maybe you need to get on the phone to bring in some more qualified prospects. Maybe you could use an added push, listen to a voice of inspiration or even a new cold calling template. Maybe you need to start meeting with your team on a more consistent basis so you can be the coach and manager you need to be for them. Maybe you need to stop procrastinating, admit you just don’t know everything and get some killer ideas to grow your business. Maybe all you need is my new toolbar, my New Year’s gift to you to ensure you stay true to your goals and efforts.

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Keith Rosen’s latest book being released February 6, 2007:

Guide To Closing The Sale

You can also read more about the topics and range of subjects you will learn more about here in the detailed look at this latest title!

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.

When you are listening to a prospect, what exactly are you listening for? For one, you certainly want to listen for what is missing or the gap. After all, this is what you are ultimately presenting to them, that is, your solution which in turn, fills their void, gap or problem. So sell the gap! It is your solution, product or service that becomes the bridge which takes the prospect from where they are today (present state) to where they want to be (desired state).

Keep in mind, this can be different from what they want or need. This is something that the client themselves may not even be aware of. If you can identify this gap, you can then bridge it with the right solution.

For example, a client of mine hired me to train their sales team. As I explored deeper, I discovered that they were experiencing a large amount of turnover. There were many inconsistencies and breakdowns during their recruiting and hiring process. There was nothing documented as it relates to a process that people can follow consistently to attract the best talent. Especially when it came to screening candidates and a strong retention plan to retain their new hires.

I found that they were experiencing a 35% attrition rate. I proposed not only providing them with a sales training program, but also a more in depth solution to developing and strengthening  their recruiting and retention strategy to reduce the amount of attrition which would complement the training.

The result was a comprehensive recruitment and retention strategy which ultimately reduced turnover within their company dramatically. That was the gap that I was able to fill. Simply by listening deeper, I was able to uncover what their true needs were, were the breakdown was beginning, what their core challenges were. The same challenges that they did not articulate on the surface. It was what they weren’t saying that I listened for. Their needs and greatest point of pain.

There’s a symbiotic relationship between the way we listen, and the questions we ask. For example, if you’re already listening from a certain place or through a filter, then chances are you are not going to ask certain questions that can create new selling opportunities.

After all, if you keep listening from the past and reacting based on a past experience or a future expectation, you will continue to create the same results as before.

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.

“It’s ironic,” I began. Denise and I were half way through our weekly coaching call when the topic of controlling the sales process came up.

“Salespeople echo all the time how they create solutions for their clients. Yet what they really are attempting to do is control the sales process through the end, thinking this would move the sale forward.

“Said another way, we try to control as many things as possible to reduce risk. And by definition, risk is synonymous with “danger, hazard or threat.” What is fear; a sense of apprehension or panic. So by default, if we reduce risk, we reduce our fear.

“As such, we believe that the more we attempt to control our risks in any situation, whether is the risk of losing a sale or the risk of having our children grow up without the right guidance, ethics or values, we would be able to then keep that which we fear happening most at bay.

“Consider the paradox of control. The myth is, the more we attempt to control things, the more we can eliminate our greatest fears from coming to fruition.

“Unfortunately, this paradigm and philosophy comes at a cost. You see, if you are trying to control, for example, a sales call and the outcome you desire, there is one thing that you cannot be doing. And that is, you cannot be creating. And the ability to be creative is one of the most important attributes of a sales professional. After all, it is your job to create new and better solutions for your prospects!

“Said another way, control and creation are polar opposites. Here’s why:

• Control is an attempt to generate predictable, expected results. Creation is open to new possibilities and generating unpredictable results.
• Control is rigid. Creation is fluid and evolving.
• Control is based on achieving a certain outcome in the future. Creation can only happen in the present moment.
• Control is focusing on a known outcome. Creation has no agenda to the final outcome.

As you can see, if you are attempting to control the outcome or the sales call, then you cannot be creating new possibilities in the moment. As such, if you are focused on what you want to control, then you will miss out on uncovering or recognizing a new and better opportunity to turn a prospect into a client. Conversely, if you are in a constant state of creation, then you are going to allow new possibilities and solutions to surface naturally.
Tip From Your Executive Sales Coach:
Selling is the art of creating new possibilities and solutions. Salespeople are responsible for the creation rather than the controlling of solutions for their prospects. As such if you are a highly creative salesperson, then there is no need for you to attempt to control the outcome.
“But Keith,” Denise responded, “If I’m in a constant state of creativity, don’t I need some structure to support it? I mean, should I toss out my entire sales process, routine and goals?”

“Not at all,” I stated. “However, I can see where the confusion is. Remember, just like any belief or process, the proverbial pendulum can swing to either side as an extreme, rather than a balance. You certainly want to honor your daily routine, your sales process as well as your goals. However, you are not going to do so to the point where they have your gripped and are controlling you. Said a different way, when things change (whether it’s the market, your career, your prospects, your product or service and so on), that’s when you want to be flexible and adaptable to this change so that you can adjust your processes and strategies accordingly.

“After all, if you were working for a company that sold pagers, and you had a great presentation that allowed you to continually attain your sales goals, would you still be using the same approach when selling mobile phones? In essence, your marketplace has changed along with the needs of your clients.”

At this point, Denise was evolving at light speed. I could here her getting it.

“Well this has certainly been a productive and enlightening call!” She exclaimed. “Thanks a million, coach! I feel better already.”

“Wonderful!” I declared. “I’m looking forward to our call next week and the success that follow from today. Good bye Denise.”
 

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.

Denise and I were getting ready to wrap up our weekly coaching call. She’s been a salesperson for about 18 years and recently took a new position in media sales. I sensed there was something going on with Denise that was getting in her way; some limiting or dangerous thinking that was sabotaging her selling efforts without her even knowing it. We continued our conversation. Here’s how it went.

“It’s addicting if that’s what you mean. You can bet that I’ll continue to keep pushing to get more sales. I’ll just have to do a better job at controlling the process and each sales call I go out on.”

“That’s interesting. Do you believe that a sales call or your sales process is something you feel you can actually control?”

“Well, I’ll certainly try harder to do so!”

“Really?” I paused for a moment, reflecting back to the beginning of our conversation. “You said earlier that confidence equates to control. May I ask, what’s the relationship you have with control?”

“If you mean I’m a control freak, then the answer is a resound yes and proud of it.”

“Are you familiar with the paradox of control?”

“No, please share.”

“To give you some background, the word paradox is Latin for ‘beyond opinion.’ A paradox is a seemingly contradictory statement that may be true. They are a way to test and challenge reality or the limiting or general assumptions we have made that stall our evolution.

‘The more we try to maintain control in our lives, the less freedom we create for ourselves,’ illustrates one of the many paradoxes in life. While we may strive to maintain control over our lives, our careers, even over other people in order to produce certain outcomes, this desire to control creates rigidity or resistance to change. We feel if we control certain things it limits risk and error.

This lack of flexibility creates friction in our lives, especially in the face of adversity.

The result? As we continue to put our energy into preventing change, or staying within what we know what is safe and comfortable, control becomes the very thing that limits the progression, inhibiting the ability to create
or recognize even better opportunities. As we let go of the need to control, greater possibilities unfold naturally.

You can determine if you are attempting to control something that you can’t by asking yourself the following questions.

1. Are my efforts and actions enhancing my life
or consuming my life?
2. Do I want to continue doing things the way I am doing them now for the next thirty years?
3. Is this my agenda or someone else’s agenda?
Do I have an attachment to the outcome?
4. What am I afraid of? (What’s the fear?) What am I trying to avoid?
5. What am I trying to do or create perfectly? What result am I hooked on achieving?

Paradoxes such as this illustrate how the very actions we take to generate desired results, often slow us down and diminish the quality of the outcome we want to achieve. (Another paradox!)

In other words, consider what would be possible if you responded to the events in your life, both in action and opinion, in the exact opposite manner in which you would normally respond to them? (If you’re a Seinfeld fan, you may remember the episode where George made better, successful decisions by doing the exact opposite thing he would normally do.)

Once explored, these contradictions open up new possibilities by challenging certain beliefs that we may have initially thought of as true.

This exploration into contradiction is evolutionary, since it immediately creates alternative opportunities and paths to travel upon.

The Only Three Things You Can Ever Control

In life there are many things we try to control. Ironically, there are only three things that we truly have the ability to control and have any real control over. They are:

1. Your actions
2. Your responses to situations and your experiences
3. Your thoughts, beliefs or attitude.

That’s it. Everything else that we think we can control, the things we complain and worry about; is an elusion. The irony is, most of us spend our time trying to control the things we can’t rather than focusing on mastering the things we can; these three areas that we truly do have control over.”

“That is so true,” Denise declared. “Hmm. I can’t help but think of the countless hours, days even years I’ve wasted trying to control the things I can’t! Well, today is certainly the start of a new day for me and a new approach to selling. Any other jewels you want to share today?”

“Is that one not enough?” I said, jokingly.

“Oh, absolutely It is! Talk to you next week, coach!”
 

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.

Your sales mojo is the energy or presence you show up with during every meeting with a prospect. It’s that allure, charisma, or vibe you radiate that every one of your prospect’s feel from you.

Your sales mojo encapsulates the inner game of selling, which is who you are and how you come across when speaking with others. Developing your sales mojo goes beyond the basics of learning a presentation, selling strategy or pitch, which is what superficial sales training is only capable of teaching you.

While an experienced, certified sales coach can assist you in uncovering and developing your authentic sales mojo, the consequences of not doing so can be severe. Just take a look at some of these limiting beliefs that prevent the natural flow of your mojo.

• “You can’t close someone in our business. They have to be ready to buy. And when they’re ready, they’ll call me.”
• “I’m not good at closing. I hate putting pressure on people.”
•  “I’ve tried some closing tools before and they didn’t work for me.”
•  “I had a horrible experience when I attempted to get the prospect to make a decision.”
 “I hate when people try to close me.”

Whatever the reason, whatever the story, every salesperson, manager and business owner has their own opinion on what it means to close a sale and why they can or cannot do so successfully.

A little personal history about your author. It was shortly after I decided to become a coach. Now, at this point, I’ve been coaching for about 16 years now. Yup, I was one of the first sales and business coaches to hang my shingle, a true pioneer in the coaching profession, if you will and one of the first Master Certified Coaches to get credentialized. (Okay, enough shameless plugs; for now.)

As you can imagine, I was certainly ahead of the curve. Being an innovator and a leader in this now rapidly growing profession of life and business coaching, I had to create my own road to achieve success, as there was no other proven path to follow. Being a leader in such a young industry certainly had its advantages. However, it also came with some tall challenges that needed to be eliminated.

At this point, I had sold my business (of course, with the unwavering support of my wife, as nervous as she may have been.) So, here I was, with no income stream coming in as I launched full steam into an unproven and unknown profession with only my experience in managing and owning several other businesses to help guide me.

One thing was for certain. I had a very strong sales and marketing background. After all, when I owned my other businesses, I was the one responsible for the recruiting, hiring, training, managing and coaching of all our employees.

In an attempt to apply my wisdom, I came up with some best practices and developed what was to be my first of several attempts to put my new selling strategy together.

I started doing what I knew how to do, that was to pick up the phone and start making cold calls. And to my surprise, I was very successful at getting through the door and into an appointment with the decision maker. Without minimizing my efforts and results, what I had encountered when meeting with these prospects was that most of the time they wanted to meet with me out of sheer curiosity. After all, at this point, no one had ever heard of coaching outside athletic or sport coaching. So, I had the advantage of positioning business and life coaching as something new and unique.

A month later, I wasn’t even making enough money to stay broke. Pitch after pitch, presentation after presentation, I kept hearing the same thing. “It sounds really interesting Keith but I just can’t see how we can apply this to what we’re doing right now. Lets stay in touch and maybe some time in the future we can look at this again. But hey, it sounds real cool what you’re doing now. Good luck!”

Give Value

With all of the prospects that I had generated over the last month and the results I’ve experienced from my lackluster selling efforts, it was time to re-evaluate. So, I did what any new, intelligent, humble and highly evolved coach would do. I called my coach for help.

And after I shared with her what I’ve gone through, do you know what she told me in all of her years of wisdom? “Keith, you have to stop presenting and just give value.”

“What the heck does that mean?” I thought. I had no clue what she was talking about. Give value? Well, I took her coaching and put forth my best effort in deciphering what I thought she meant. I started thinking about how I could, as my omnipotent coach said, “give value.”

A funny thing happened. I stopped talking and started listening more. I stopped pitching and presenting and started asking better questions. Since my coach didn’t share with me a strategy to give value, by default, I had to figure out and uncover what value meant to each prospect I spoke with. And the only way to uncover each prospect’s perception and definition of value, I needed to ask more questions.

Talk about one of those “Aha!” moments! My coach knew exactly what she was doing. Rather than deliver the same presentation or a revised presentation to every prospect, she opened up a new possibility for me to find out what value looked like from the eyes of every prospect rather than from my own. What evolved was a process of inquiry and a defined set of questions I used when meeting with each prospect.
 
You see, the gem I discovered very quickly when it came to selling my training and coaching services was totally counterintuitive. That is, you can’t sell coaching. Or at least not in the traditional sense of selling. Talk about your paradoxes.

Let me say this another way. Because coaching is about the investment in yourself and your own personal or professional development, the client has to be ready and willing to be coached.

Either you are ready to generate substantial unprecedented results both in your life and your career and are willing to be accountable, honest and do what is necessary (in your integrity of course) to achieve your goals or you are not.

Luckily, none of my early closing techniques worked on any of the prospects I saw thus far. Because if they did, then you can bet I would not only be working with less clients but clients that I would probably be much better off without. (If I didn’t ask questions, then how would I know if there’s a good fit?) Discovering this inspired me to develop an entirely different model that went against traditional selling.

I stopped trying to close and I started opening. The point I want to drive home is this; I’ve never had to close another sale again.
 

The Secret to Building the Confidence of A Champion

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.

Lacking some confidence? Do you suffer from low self-esteem? As you can imagine, there’s no room at the champion roundtable for doubt or anything less than a winning attitude. So, how do these top producers do it? How do so many of them go from initially lacking the confidence to sell or close a deal to an extreme abundance of self worth?

Here’s the secret to boosting your confidence today; make confidence a choice. Wait, I know what you may be thinking; it sounds too easy. It has to be more difficult than this. Well, it depends upon the foundation and the strategy in which you’re using to build your confidence. Here’s one story that will introduce you to a whole new set of tools to do so; starting with choice.

“So, I guess you could sense a change in the tone of my prep form that I sent you for our sales coaching call today?”

It was Denise calling in for her 7 A.M. coaching call. Prior to each coaching call, clients email me their objectives for the call and their week in review. This way, they stay focused, accountable to their commitments and have the opportunity to celebrate their wins each week.

She was right. “If you are referring to the sentence where you wrote, ‘I feel like getting out of sales completely and getting a mindless job somewhere else, maybe the government,’ or the sentence, ‘maybe I’m not cut out for this’ then yes, I do sense something else may be off here.”

Denise and I have been working together for about seven months now. She’s made incredible breakthroughs in both her performance and her attitude. As a result, she was offered a promotion from Regional Sales Manager to National Account Manager. With this promotion came a territory change as well as a new type of prospect. Where her average sale used to be about $10,000 – $20,000, now her average sale was approximately $250,000.

“What caused this sudden change in attitude?” I inquired.

“Well, you know how we’ve been talking about the prospects that I’ve been filling in my pipeline? At this point in time, many of those prospects should be converting into sales. So, I started making my follow up calls as scheduled. Nothing but “Call me next week” or “Now’s not a good time” or “If you would like to leave a message…”

“I guess you could say that I’m getting a bit antsy. I want some of these deals to close already so that I can post some positive sales numbers towards my quota. As you can probably hear, I’m a little nervous. What if these deals don’t close?”

“You tell me, Denise. What if these deals don’t close?”

“I can tell you this, Keith. It won’t be a good thing! Maybe I never should have taken this national account position. I knew it was going to be a big change from regional sales but I didn’t anticipate such a change in the length of my sales cycle.”

“Maybe?” Am I sensing some doubt in you?” I asked curiously?

“Oh, absolutely,” Denise exclaimed.

“And what, may I ask, are you doubting?” I responded.

“Myself,” Denise said quietly in a deflated voice. I could hear her confidence waning. It was as if someone reached inside her soul and ripped all of the self worth out of her.

She continued, “And I know it’s just a matter of time until Lewis, you know, my boss, calls me with some bad news like, ‘Denise. We really expected a lot more out of you. We thought you’d be much further along than you are. Denise, your fired’!”

I always find it amazing how creative our minds can be when it comes to visualizing our consequences and fears.

I shifted gears. “Denise, I’m curious about something. Didn’t you recently start this position?”

“Yes, about 4 months ago.”

“And isn’t it true that you’ve already closed and up-sold some big accounts?

Well, yeah but that was like a month ago and I haven’t sold anything since. Besides it…

Before the next excuse came out, I interrupted with, “And isn’t it also true that you’ve gotten at least two deliberate and intentional accolades from both your new boss and his boss about how thrilled they are with what you have done so far?”

Silence.

“I’m sorry, Denise, but can you speak up a bit. I wasn’t able to hear you,” I said sarcastically, yet in a way that still made Denise feel empowered and supported.

“Denise, what are you hearing in what I’ve just shared with you?” I asked.

“That maybe I’m being a bit too hard on myself,” she reluctantly admitted.

“Does that feel true for you?” I reconfirmed.

“No, Keith, this is right on the money.”

“Well, are you ready to hear a little more that may also be right on the money but just a bigger pile of money?”

“Hit me!” She exclaimed. “I’m ready for it.”

Fueling Self Doubt

I continued. “You had mentioned that you confidence, your self worth, your self esteem, however you want to refer to it has been deflated as a result of what you perceive as low productivity. Because you haven’t brought in any new sales recently, you doubt yourself and your abilities. Is that accurate so far?”

“Yup.”

“So, can I then conclude that you measure your self worth by what you produce? That is, if you are closing new business practically each week, then your confidence would skyrocket to an all time high.”

“That is for sure!” Denise exclaimed.

“Conversely, where you feel like you are now, where you haven’t sold, it’s affecting your confidence and the faith you have in yourself.”

“No question there.”

“Denise, what does the word ‘confidence’ mean to you?”

I could hear her thinking. “I don’t know. I guess confidence means being in control. It’s when I have control over something. It’s a feeling of control and a belief in what I can do,” she replied.
 
“So, in essence you are only worth as much as you’ve sold recently? Wow! That must be an interesting roller coaster ride of emotion you’re on.”

“You can say that again, Keith!”

I continued. “So basically, if you sell, you’re feeling great. You’re in a positive state of mind. You are in a good mood and feeling a strong sense of worth about yourself. Conversely, if you don’t sell or don’t get the appointment or get in touch with a certain prospect that you’ve been attempting to connect with, you’re feeling pretty lousy about the day and about yourself. Denise, is this strategy of yours working for you?”

“Well,” Denise began, “I don’t know if it would necessarily say this is working for me. After all, it’s certainly causing way too much stress, anxiety and overwhelm. And it also keeps me from enjoying my family and maintaining my peace of mind.”

“So, would you be open to hearing what I’m seeing and a new way of thinking that would remove your self doubt as well as the stress that follows, permanently so that you can start enjoying your life more?” I inquired, getting permission to continue our conversation and share some truths with her that I see.

“C’mon, Keith. We’ve been down this road before. Just lay it on me. I’m open to another way of thinking if it’s going to keep me sane, happy and employed.”

“Of course. Consider this; do not allow external situations to dictate your internal condition.”

“Wow, that’s heavy. Is this another Keithism?”

I smiled, “Let me explain. You mentioned earlier that confidence is a belief in yourself. Where do we adopt these beliefs we have about ourselves? From our experiences and from other people. At some point during our life we learned the wrong lesson based on an experience we had. And the lesson was, if you want to be successful you need to acquire things. You need to prove yourself and your self worth. And those things you can acquire can be anything from money, cars, homes, toys, clothes, and in this case, sales because if we acquire these things, if we create these things or work hard to achieve them, then we will be successful based on our current definition of success. And if we’re successful we’ve proven ourselves. And if we’ve proven ourselves then boy won’t our level of confidence continue to rise.
Tip From Your Executive Sales Coach:
Let your peace of mind, happiness, confidence and self worth be a choice you make consciously, rather than surrendering your power by allowing external situations to dictate your internal condition for you.
Now, keep in mind, based on this model, your level of self worth and confidence has become conditional. That is, it goes up and down depending upon on what you’ve achieved or produced rather than what is truly important; who you are.”

“That’s pretty much true for me.” Denise said.

Make Confidence a Choice

Conversely, what if we don’t allow external situations to dictate our internal condition? What if your confidence is, simply just a choice you make about yourself? A belief in yourself?

Let me say this in a different way. What if you could choose to be confident, choose to have faith in yourself and adopt an unwavering belief in your abilities, regardless of the outcomes of each day? Consider for a moment that you have already proven yourself and all of your future accomplishments are achieved as an expression of what you value or the value you want to deliver to others.

If you can believe in this, your confidence now becomes unconditional as it is now based on who you are and the quality of the person you are, not simply what you do or what you produce.

The value you deliver isn’t only reflected in the number of sales you make. Your value isn’t what you do, but who you are and the quality of person you have become and are continually evolving into. Who you are is consistent, who you are is a choice, who you are is something you control 100 percent. That’s why who you are is always more important than what you do.

That’s why the true definition of confidence is having an unwavering faith or belief not only in yourself but in each experience you have. And that belief is this; regardless of the situation, regardless of how bleak it may look or difficult it may be, it will all work out in the end without the evidence to support it. It’s trusting in yourself without any proof to back up your conviction.”

“Hmm, interesting,” Denise said after a few moments. “I can see how this makes sense but you can’t sit there and tell me that your attitude doesn’t change when you’re making sales each week!”

“I can certainly understand that Denise, and you are right. For most salespeople, meeting or exceeding your sales goals has a very clear and measurable effect on their attitude.
However, like most people would agree, the feeling of satisfaction you experience from closing the sale does not last. Conversely, it is fleeting until the next sale.”

And, doesn’t this support your old model of thinking? You’re putting yourself back into the confidence trap, surrendering your ability to control your level of self worth by choice and instead, allowing your experiences to dictate how you feel about yourself.”

Challenge your way of thinking and let your confidence be a choice based on an unwavering belief in yourself and in your abilities without needing the evidence to support it.

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.

When asking a prospect questions, be sure that your questions succeed in achieving the following objectives.

1. Be direct and candid with your questioning and communication. Do not be vague or tiptoe around the subject or question. Make the question clear, focused, direct and concise.

2. Make sure that your questions open up new possibilities, ideas and opportunities in the mind of the prospect that they never considered. Do they enable the prospect to see a new and better solution and envision more measurable worthwhile results, based on the information that you have provided?

3. Have the prospect draw from previous purchasing experiences to determine their buying habits, wants, priorities, and needs.

4. Learn to question what is said and what is not said. Never prejudge a prospect until you have the evidence to support your assumptions. Utilize questions until you are satisfied with the response.

5. Use questions to achieve mindshare and agreement as well as to gracefully uncover and correct the inaccuracies and misperceptions which they my have about your product or service.

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com. 

To permanently eliminate any confusion, lets draw a distinction between what it means to pre-qualify and pre-judge someone such as a prospect. If you read my cold calling book, you know that I’m a strong advocate of pre-qualifying anyone before you invest your very limited and precious time in meeting with or speaking with them. Conversely, pre-judging someone is something you do that shows up in the filter or barrier you have in your listening.

Here’s another way to distinguish between the two. When you are pre-qualifying someone you are arriving at a conclusion that determines whether or not there’s a fit worth pursuing based on a defined set of criteria you uncover through the use of well crafted questions.

Pre-judging said simply, is all about you. Here, you are relying on your faulty and costly assumptions, thoughts and beliefs to determine their needs and whether or not this prospect will potentially buy from you.

When you pre-judge someone you’re making assumptions about them before you ask any questions or uncover any facts.

When you pre-qualify someone, you’re asking questions to uncover their unique and specific needs without making any assumptions so that you can determine very quickly if there is in fact, an authentic fit worth pursuing.