<ul><li>Not having a personal touch will backfire as customers are loyal to salespeople and not the products.</li><li>Master the basic sales functions first.</li><li>Empathy matters.</li><li>Replace any bad habits with good ones.</li><li>Upgrade your skills constantly.</li><li>Strengthen your talents and stay current.</li><li>Focus on one thing at a time.</li><li>Do not waste time.</li><li>Everything can be harder than it looks.</li><li>Do not give in to distractions.</li><li>Take ownership.</li><li>Perform maintenance.</li><li>Don’t compare yourself with others.</li><li>Measure everything.</li><li>Change yourself, not others.</li></ul>

Universal Truths

Target your behaviour to fit each customer as you jettison these 16 bad habits: <ul><li>Failure to be present.</li><li>Unprofessional language or words that are confusing.</li><li>Selling past the close.</li><li>Selective hearing.</li><li>Contact without purpose or simply for selling.</li><li>Making superficial assessments.</li><li>Using tension as a tool.</li><li>One-upping your own customers.</li><li>Overfamiliarity with the customer.</li><li>Withholding passion and energy.</li><li>Not owning your own product or mistake.</li><li>Never having to say you’re sorry.</li><li>Throwing others under the bus.</li><li>Propagandizing the company line.</li><li>Wasting energy.</li><li>Obsessing over the numbers all the time.</li></ul>

Habits To Let Go

Salespeople once needed big egos to succeed. They could convince strangers – their customers – to buy what they had to sell. For many salespeople, their gold-plated egos got them where they wanted to be in sales.
Today, a dominant, ain’t-I-great, overarching ego will kill you professionally. Salespeople now need something more and better: They need empathy. Being empathetic shows your prospects and customers that you care about them. It enables you to connect and communicate effectively.

Not Ego, But Empathy

Salespeople who want productive client relationships must eliminate any negative behaviour they might direct toward a customer, such as impatience or rudeness. This doesn’t require a radical personality transformation. It calls for “shifting into neutral.” For your customers to view you as a nice person simply stop being nasty to them. This doesn’t require any new, positive actions on your part. It simply means you must stop doing anything negative. If your customers argue with you, don’t argue back. If your customers criticize your firm, don’t engage with their provocation.

Stop Being So Nasty

Salespeople aren’t saints. They’re human beings, full of human imperfections. But when they remain fully present with customers, salespeople set themselves up to manage their temperament and behaviors. Sometimes this requires changing your behavior and habits by using dispositional mindfulness. 
Veteran salespeople tend to have a well-developed comfort level with themselves. Normally, this is good. However, such comfort can become a double-edged sword that can lead to “unthinking arrogance” – the kiss of death when interacting with customers.

Human Flaws

Everything about sales has radically changed, including the context of sales – the selling process, the buying process and the customers. Selling has become much tougher. What worked for salespeople in the past won’t work today or in the future. To stay current, salespeople must change. This will help them become more productive and close more sales.Salespeople must become experts at understanding how and why people connect and, particularly, why their customers connect with them. They must help customers arrive at a state of mind where they are ready and willing to buy.

The Context Of Selling

The secret of sales success is being completely present – always fully in the moment – with your customers. This mental state is called “intentional consciousness” or “dispositional mindfulness.”  Being fully present implies exercising robust emotional intelligence. When you are fully present with your customers, you manage your attitude and control your behavior. You never inadvertently say or do something that could irritate or anger your clients. You never interrupt or speak over them. To win their approval and cooperation, you remain respectful and courteous.

The State Of The Moment

Don’t try to get rid of all your bad habits at once. Deal with your first group of bad habits, and then move on to the others. To determine the most glaring habits you want to address, become a detective about your personality. Note what comments people make about how you act and come across. Write down what you learn. Ask your family members and close friends to weigh in. Once you have a working list, select your group of three bad habits to focus on and fix. Recruit someone you trust to help you overcome them. Discuss your specific behaviour modification goals.

Getting Rid Of Your Bad Habits

Engage with a peer coach who will speak with you by phone daily or a few times each week for a few minutes about your self-improvement campaign, without giving you any “negative feedback.” Have your coach record your answers to specific questions on a regular basis, such as, “Did you work on the first set [of bad habits] today?” Offer similar assistance to your colleague. The coach can’t criticize, ask more questions, induce guilt or give feedback. The coach’s purpose is to support your success.

A Peer Coach

The rules of buying and selling have changed. In addition to being present, you must: <ul><li>“Ask” – Ask everyone you deal with for information, feedback, insights and opinions. </li><li>“Learn” – Salespeople who go out of their way to be proactive learners will gain a valuable competitive advantage.</li><li>“Follow up” – Like everyone else, salespeople must constantly ask others for essential follow-up. Without it, people can’t improve.</li><li>“Grow” – In sales, growth means personal and professional development as a routine activity. </li></ul>

Being Present To Win

How Successful Salespeople Take It to the Next Level

Your hard work is paying off. You are doing well in your field. But there is something standing between you and the next level of achievement. That something may just be one of your own annoying habits. Perhaps one small flaw - a behaviour you barely even recognise - is the only thing that's keeping you from where you want to be. It may be that the very characteristic that you believe got you where you are - like the drive to win at all costs - is what's holding you back. As this book explains, people often do well in spite of certain habits rather than because of them - and need a "to stop" list rather than one listing what "to do". Marshall Goldsmith's expertise is in helping global leaders overcome their unconscious annoying habits and become more successful. His one-on-one coaching comes with a six-figure price tag - but in this book you get his great advice for much less. Recently named as one of the world's five most-respected executive coaches by Forbes, he has worked with over 100 major CEOs and their management teams at the world's top businesses. His clients include corporations such as Goldman Sachs, Glaxo SmithKline, Johnson and Johnson and GE.

A Peer Coach

What Got You Here Won't Get You There

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The Effective Executive

Emotional Habits

We are programmed to be lazy