jim.shamlin.com

5: Power Sales Tools

The notion that a salesman would need tools to do his job seems strange to many people. It even seems strange to many salesmen, who have never used any tools. But they do exist, and the salesman who avails himself of them is capable of doing more as a result.

The author gives the example of the fishing story about "the one that got away" - and the more insistent you are, the less credible you become. Nobody believes your wild claims ... until you show them a picture. A salesman's pitch is the tall tale he tells a prospect, with grandiose claims of what his product can do for him. If he has a tool - a testimonial, a newspaper clipping, something other than the smoke he's blowing - his best efforts at persuading are little use.

Sales Tool #1: Your Website

In the present day, a Web site is the most important sales tool a person or company has.

(EN: he provides some advice, but I'm skipping it. He doesn't follow some of his own advice: he suggests having a one or two page site while his own is hundreds of pages, and to hire a professional webmaster whereas his own site is cobbled together by an amateur using clip art and prefab templates - the rest is simply misguided, outdated, or poorly-informed. Seek better sources of advice on this topic.)

Sales Tool #2: A Fast Facts Profile

The next "tool" the author suggests is a Fast Facts Profile, though it's not entirely clear what he means by this, except that it should be "written professionally to speak to all four personality styles," fit on one side of a standard sheet of paper, and have two pictures of yourself. Whatever it is, he says it was helpful in getting one company grow its business 97% in a single year.

(EN: I did some digging about, and from what I could find, I think this is meant as a "fact sheet" like many companies use for products, or the profiles they provide for certain of their executives.)

Distinctive Sales Tools

One important thing about your sales tools is that they should be distinctive - if they blend in with the tools that other salesmen use, there's nothing memorable.

Specifically, the author has given up on conservative business cards that just give a person's name, job title, and contact information. It's typical, and it "goes directly from wallet to wastebasket." He's abandoned them, and gone with a "main point card" of his own design: about twice the size of a standard card, full color, printed on glossy cardstock, includes a picture, and reiterates some of the key sales points for his products.

(EN: I suspect this is like the "pink envelope" he mentioned earlier - it seems totally cheesy, but if it works, then you can't really argue with it. However, he presents only anecdotal evidence, an incident when it became a topic of conversation with a potential client who found it to be unusual.)

Sales Tools That Work for You

In addition to the items above, the author provides a list of tools that a salesman can use to be more effective:

Others are listed separately:

A final note: the best sales tools in the world do no good if they're in a box in your desk drawer. You have to do the work to get them in the hands of clients and prospects in order for them to do any good at all.