This book is basically for sales skills through Frank’s experience. What I was impressed with is Frank Bettger’s Thirteen Secrets To Success In Sales.
1. Enthusiasm
2. Order
3. Think in terms of others’ interests
4. Questions
5. Key issue
6. Silence
7. Sincerity
8. Knowledge of my business
9. Appreciation and praise
10. Smile
11. Remember names and faces
12. Service and prospecting
13. Closing the sale
13 items remind us
He suggested picking up 1 item and think the item during the week. There are 52 weeks a year, so we can check our activity based on the items for 4 times x 13 items every year. We can write down each item on the card and bring it during the week. Therefore this is a good system to review periodically.
My 13 items
I think Frank’s 13 secrets are useful for sales. But I’m not a salesperson so I picked up the following 13 items for myself in 2008. (I found this in my old notebook.)
1. Passion
2. Family
3. Health
4. Questions
5. Maximizer
6. Learning
7. Leadership
8. Strategy
9. Courage
10. Smile
11. Words
12. Trust
13. Hobby
We can pick up anything we want to remind ourselves.
What are your 13 items?
Enthusiasm is 1st priority.
Within 13 secrets I fully agree with his opinion that enthusiasm is the key.
What he wrote is we must have enthusiasm for our job. Enthusiasm blows away fear and opens the way for a healthy, wealthy, and happy life.
Don’t correct customer argument
Also what I learn is when a customer is trying to explain some reasons why they don’t want to buy our product, we should not correct those reasons one by one.
I found the memo in my old notebook when a customer said about our competitor’s strong points or weak points of our product I immediately denied it with a lot of examples. (I was young!)
As I remember, I talked a lot. I talked too much. I talked more than that customer talked. If I were a customer I didn’t want to hear that.
I needed to find a solution. I found it in this book.
Don’t correct customer argument but ask questions
Yes, asking questions is the solution.
We should respect the customer’s opinions and ask questions to clarify the customer’s idea. We need to be careful how we ask questions. We should not ask ironic questions or guide or persuade the customer. Customers may have their opinion from their prejudice or without a specific reason or accurate evidence. In fact, there are many such cases.
Even if we can not agree with their reason, there is no gain when we correct or deny their opinion.
By the way, there are 13 necessary virtues described in this book. This originally comes from Benjamin Franklin.
1. TEMPERANCE
2. SILENCE
3. ORDER
4. RESOLUTION
5. FRUGALITY
6. INDUSTRY
7. SINCERITY
8. JUSTICE
9. MODERATION
10. CLEANLINESS
11. TRANQUILLITY
12. CHASTITY
13. HUMILITY
Thank you for reading this post.
I’m happy if you find the items that you want to remind yourself periodically.
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