The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World
The book in a few words:

The Forum Corporation in Boston studied 341 salespersons from 11 different companies in 5 different industries. Their purpose was to determine what separated the top producers from the average producers. When the study was finished, the results were startling. It was not skill, knowledge, or charisma that lead to the sales strata, it was all one trait: honesty. When a customers trust salespeople, they buy from them! There are however other traits that support stellar salespersons. These traits include a driven personality, positive attitude, appropriate preparedness, reputation, good first impressions, goal setters, service mentality, great listener, sense of humor, and continual pursuit of excellence. A salesperson tells, a good salesperson explains, and a great salesperson demonstrates.

You are never too old to be a student of life, and a good student of life always does the required homework. Your businesses sales team should understand that they are not simply an employee. No one owes them anything, i.e. a paycheck, they must own their work and strive to enhance value every day, hone competitive advantage, learn, adapt, and help the company succeed. With that attitude, they too will succeed.

Confidence matters. A professor stood before his 30 senior molecular biology students before the final exam. After a brief conversation talking about med school, the pressures to keep up the highest GPA, and his confidence in what they had learned, he made this offer to his students – anyone who would prefer not to take the exam would get an automatic B grade. After final opportunities passed, seven students remained. The professor handed out the final exam. There were two sentences typed on the paper: “Congratulations, you have just received an A in this class. Keep believing in yourself.” The 7 student obviously had done all of their homework. Your sales team will achieve much more success, and a higher sales GPA if they too do all their homework.

Every leading sales person ought to have a bucket list of imaginary homework on opportunities requiring ambitious motivation. Say selling to the person you think might be your toughest customer in the world (say Bill Gates or Warren Buffet), Selling your town on a major community project, i.e. stadium or hospital or college, or how you developed sales skills so good your profiled in top publications, (what lead to that?) The only way to achieve something that’s never before been accomplished, is to first imagine it. Only then you can begin to achieve it.

Sir Winston Churchill is quoted as saying “I am an optimist. It doesn’t seem too much use being anything else.” A salesman was driving on a two-lane country road in a rainstorm and got stuck in a ditch. He asked the farmer for help. The farmer hitched up Elmo his blind mule to the salesman’s car and hollered out, “Pull Sam, pull! Nothing happened, He again yelled, “Pull Bessie, pull! Still nothing. “Pull Jackson, pull. Still nothing. Finally, he hollered, “Pull Elmo, pull. And Elmo pulled the car right out of the ditch. The driver was perplexed and said, I don’t understand. Why did you call out those different names? “Look,” said the farmer, “If he didn’t think he had any help he wouldn’t even try!

Mackay’s has a list of his ABC’s of Selling-

A. Availability for your customers is essential so they can reach you with questions, concerns or reorders.

B. Believe in yourself and your company or find something else to sell

C. Customers aren’t always right, but if you want to keep them as customers, find way’s to make them right

D. Deliver more than you promise

E. Education is for life – never stop learning

F. Follow up and follow through. Never leave a customer hanging

G. Goals give you a reason to go to work every day. When you reach your goals, set higher ones.

H. Humanize your selling strategy by learning everything you can about your customers.

I. Is the least important letter of selling…………………………….

Mark Twain is quoted as saying: The first half of my life I went to school, the second half of my life I got an education.

For the  true entrepreneur, the education is always continuing.

 To enjoy the rest of MacKay’s advice…the book is titled, The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World.