Personal Influences

Just about everything that happens during your sales presentation can make a difference: your clothes, your vocal intonation, color of the product, what they had for breakfast, the weather, the news, a cell phone interruption, etc. Your job is to take excessive care with the things you can control, and completely forget about everything else (Nobody can sell every time).

Some factors which are very important:

• Your attitude. A positive attitude and cheer work best.
• Their attitude. If they are in a bad mood, let them get it off their chest as soon as possible. Just let them talk and sympathize briefly, but don’t spend too long on negative experiences (besides the negative experience of not owning your product.
• Their time schedule. One way to overcome their limited time is to make them forget about whatever they had to do next by being very entertaining.
• What their friends and family might think. Selling to an entire family can be easier, especially if you can get the kids on your side.
• The weather. This varies by industry. If you sell sports car convertibles, you want sunshine. If you sell over the phone or television, you want rain.
• Your clothes. Nothing sells like success. It helps if you share a similar fashion sense with your prospect.
• Your fellow salesman. They should be friendly and individualistic. If your sales floor looks like a cult or a frat meeting, people will get skeptical.
• Confidence with your presentation. No one wants to buy an expensive product from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.