The lowdown: The key points from the book – The Ultimate Sales Machine summary will give you a dozen key ways to work smarter in your business.
If you’ve ever felt like your sales team isn’t closing as many deals as they should be, or that your advertising isn’t effective enough for the amount of work put into it, you’re one of the many; The vast majority of business owners feel the same way.
In The Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet Holmes gives the tips on what clients to look for and how to close the deal.
And if anybody would know about sales, it’s Chet. Holmes was a sales consultant and marketing guru who advised more than sixty Fortune 500 companies, he owned fourteen businesses and has educated millions of business owners and employees through his seminars and articles in his lifetime.
Or, in basic terms… he knows his shit.
- Audible Audiobook
- Chet Holmes (Author) – Amanda Holmes, George Newbern (Narrators)
- English (Publication Language)
- 11/21/2008 (Publication Date) – Blackstone Audio, Inc. (Publisher)
The three main lessons from the book are:
- Educate your potential customers
- Only hire A-graders
- Build rapport with clients
Lesson One: Educate your potential customers
The phrase education based marketing may be something you’re familiar with by now, but in case if you’re not, you should look to educate rather than ‘sell’.
An example in the book is to imagine that you’re in front of a stadium full of prospects for your store.
You’d be crazy to go into sales pitch mode, you’ll never reach everyone that way. Only 2% or people are ready to buy at a given time, and your broad pitch won’t help increase that in any way.
But, what would happen if you educated those people about something that would benefit them.
Imagine you’re a furniture retailer. Rather than sell a couch to the crowd, try teaching something that will benefit the entire audience, like “how choosing the right furniture enhances productivity”.
You’ll get the majority of people interested, not just the few interested in buying a couch.
Lesson Two: Only hire A-Graders
The average ‘bad hire’ costs on average $60,000… ouch.
So, it is incredibly important that you hire the right people.
For sales, that means you’ll have to find people that have the sales personality mentioned in the book.
That means people who are:
- Dominant: They have an ego. This strong ego is important to cop a dozen rejections but still be confident they’re closing deal 13.
- Influential: Your sales staff need to be empathetic, high energy, persuasive and great communicators.
If your sales staff are those two things, nothing else will matter. Yes, that includes age and industry experience too.
Lesson Three: Build rapport with clients
Actually get to know your potential clients. Build a relationship with them.
Building rapport fits in the category of ‘things we know, but don’t do’. We all know the added benefits of building that relationship with every prospect, but time does get in the way.
But think about it from your point of view, I’m sure you deal with those you know more than those you don’t if you have the choice.
Even more importantly, if you know the client, you’re in a far better position to suggest the product or service that’ll best suit their needs.
My Personal Takeaway
According to the book, every business can double their savings by including just one of the 12 sales rules in the full book.
Put it into action
Look to hire gun salespeople. Even if you hire fewer people, and it takes longer to find them, having an A-grader is better than having 5 B-graders.
They’re worth the time.
You should consider buying this book if…
This book is perfect for anybody who owns a business, or is looking to expand their sales team. I would also give this book to a salesperson that is wanting to improve their results.
a Swedish university student, marketing professional, and life-long learner. Here at BookSummaryClub I summarize my favorite non-fiction books into easily digested posts. Hope you like what you’re reading!
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