We hate to say this, but more than 50% of what you learn in sales training is absolutely wrong. This poor training is one of the reasons that we have such a high turnover rate within sales industries. Get it right and you increase your chances of success by over 90%.We will show you what is wrong with what everyone has been telling you:

The secret of getting referrals is asking for the business. Wrong, wrong, wrong. How many times has someone told you that? When a sales trainer tells his students this, most of those in the audience are thinking to themselves…Oh, I know I should be asking more. I know I should be doing it.

Well, if it is so important, then why is everyone not doing it? What an unpleasant way to make a living. Some sales trainers even say that you have to experience pain to be successful in sales. We say they are wrong!

Getting referrals is not about asking, it is about putting yourself in position to ask. When we ask for the business, we are thinking about ourselves. Well, the sales process is not about you, it is about your customer.

Ask yourself, how well have you positioned yourself to help your customer? For example, are you an expert that can help them in all situations? If you are an expert, chances are that people will approach you and ask for help instead of you hitting them over the head. What a more pleasant experience it would be if people came to us for advice!

The key to selling is finding something in common with your target. Wrong. When you speak with a prospect and have to search for something in common with them, you are indicating two things:

• You did not know enough about your prospect before you contacted them.
• There is a good chance that you picked the wrong prospect.

Here is the real “truth”. You should do business with people you have something in common with. The problem is, the majority of sales people are not taught enough about their sphere of influence. If they are taught correctly, their sphere becomes ten times as large and there is no reason ever to contact a prospect outside the sphere. You have something in common with everyone inside your sphere. Why would you search anywhere else?

The key to successful sales is overcoming objections. Again this is wrong. The best description of sales accomplished in this way is “twisting arms”. Why would you want to twist someone’s arm to do business with you? What an unpleasant thought!

Here is another truth…Do business with those who do not have objections. The last time you dealt with someone who did not have an objection, how much easier was the sales process? If you are dealing with a lot of objections, you are again targeting too many of the wrong people. And when you target the wrong people, the sales process is hard and painful. And you are likely to fail.

The key to the sales process is getting the appointment. How many times have you had an appointment with the wrong prospect? Yet, we spent a good portion of our sales training focusing upon the closing process. We even have a fancy name for these closes, such as the urgency close, the alternative close, the trial close and so on.

Think back to when you purchased your last car. Perhaps you were walking around the car lot and a sales person walked up to you and used one of these closes. How did you feel? Most of us cannot get away from the car salesman quickly enough. If we purchased, we purchased despite their distasteful demeanor.

We think that you should take all of these closes and just throw them away. If you are going to be an expert and give advice, you do not need to use tricks to get them to do business with you. And certainly, you do not want your customers to be thinking about you the way they are thinking about that car salesman. The goal is positioning, remember? That means positioning yourself not only to get the deal, but positioning yourself to be a long-term source of services and referrals.

There is only one real important close you need for your repertoire. Say thank you more often and in a unique way.