A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the St. Louis Business Expo at the Saint Charles Convention Center. The event was organized for small business owners in the area and designed to promote small business in general. Among the countless sessions on “social media” there was one great session on selling.

The session on “Good Old Fashion Face-to-Face Selling” by Gill Wagner was an absolute gem. Gill is a promoter of honest selling and made some compelling arguments for its cause.

As part of the talk, he shared with us 5 surefire ways to get booted from a sales call.

1. Don’t respect the buyer’s authority
2. Don’t know your products and services
3. Sell your solution before you hear the problem
4. Be disorganized
5. Say anything to get the sale

I think the negative positioning of the above list is a little clunky so I’m going to write it again but this time it will be 5 things you should do on a sales call.

1. Respect the Buyer’s Authority (No means no)
2. Know your products and services ( Don’t waste time)
3. Listen to the problem before you prescribe a solution
4. Be organized (have a before-during-after plan)
5. Be honest, ethical and professional

Again, this isn’t my original material but I think it’s good information to share. For more good stuff from Gill, check out his book (I just bought it) the How to Build The [Your Name Here] Sales System available in paperback. Or you can read it for free online here.

NOTE: This is not a sponsored post or an affiliate line….just my humble opinion.