 Five lessons I learned from making 10,000 sales calls. I tell you, I've been in sales most of my life, but I'll tell you the first two years that I started my survival food company, I made sales calls. And I mean, in the beginning, I made a lot of sales calls. I would send out hundreds of emails, make hundreds of phone calls. And here's the number one thing I learned, and this is not in the number five right here. This is just one thing I want to tell you. Most people will tell you no, okay? Now, if you want to know the rest of the really good things I learned, stick with this video to the very end. I think you're really going to enjoy it. And it's going to help you out in selling just about anything. But you're trying to sell something and you're a little afraid of sales calls, don't be. Nobody has ever jumped through the phone. Nobody has ever attacked me if I tried to sell them anything. And I've tried many, many times, okay, over the years. But one thing I did figure out is some people say yes. Now, I'm going to go through a list of all of these here. And I will tell you the one thing that I can tell you that's really important is that sales techniques and skills are super important in life, no matter what you do, okay? If you have children, you're always selling them on something, on eating their vegetables, on getting exercise, on brushing their teeth, making their bed, you know, getting enough sleep, you know, eating right. You know, if you're a preacher, you're selling people of the Bible, you know? It doesn't matter, whatever your job, if you're a teacher, you're selling your students on your subject matter. You're always selling, guys, you're always selling. So don't get in your head that selling is bad. Selling's not bad. Selling's good. You know, probably all the things you have in your life right now that you find valuable, somebody sold it to you. And if they hadn't sold it to you, you wouldn't have it and your life wouldn't be what it is. So let's jump into all these things. Number one thing I learned is cold calls still work. You could actually call a complete stranger. And if you have a good delivery and you have a good product, you have a good price, you can still sell your product. Now, when I first started my survival food company, I had no customers whatsoever. And I thought that if I just put up a website, people would come to my website and then just start buying my products. And that didn't happen. But one thing I did notice is there were a lot of survival sites out there that had a lot of traffic, had a lot of people go into their sites. And if I could just get my product on those sites, in other words, if they would just list my product, I would ship it out to the customer forum. All they had to do was list it and they could send me the payment after they sold it and I would ship it out. And I thought that if I just emailed and called everybody, everybody would be wanting to do that. But they didn't, they didn't. I would say that 89, 90% just didn't want to sell my product. They didn't know me, they didn't know who I was. Nowadays, we have people contact us weekly that want to be sellers of our product, distributors or retailers, whatever you want to call it. So the one thing I did learn though is I could call a lot of these websites and people would talk to me and they would actually sell my product. Now, nobody really wants to be sold over the phone. They just don't, okay? But if you have a good delivery, if you're a kind person and you're polite with people and you explain what you're doing in a good manner, you're still gonna sell stuff on the phone. You just will. I think the big problem that most people have with selling on the phone is they get rejected a lot and they can't handle it. But they're not rejecting you. They don't know you. They don't know who you are. They don't know your family. They don't know anything about you. They're rejecting your offer is all they're rejecting at that point. So don't take it internally as they're rejecting you because they're not. You know, the best thing you could do is actually start a conversation like a human being. Don't go just into your sales pitch. You talk to them about their likes and needs and desires and what they want. And if you can get a conversation going, then you start with your sales pitch. Number two, and I think this is a big one, is listening is everything, okay? If you listen to what somebody's telling you and you take in what they're saying and you internalize what their problems and what they're looking for to solve all their issues and you can address those things and your product or service can help them out, then you're probably gonna be able to sell your product and service. The biggest problem I see with sales people is they don't listen. They don't listen to what somebody told them. Somebody just told them something and they'll go on with their sales pitch. They won't deviate, they won't change, they won't do anything because they don't listen to the person that is talking to them, whether it's in front of them or on a phone. Now keep in mind, people don't want to be preached to. They don't want to be told that it's their fault, they're doing things wrong and all that. And I see a lot of sales people doing that. I was on a call the other day and somebody was trying to sell us a wired home security system. And I told them that, you know, we use a wireless home security system and we were really happy with it. And they went on to tell me how my system was no good and that it could be hacked into and that that was not the system I needed. And that did not sell me on their product, okay? Because I'd used it for seven years. And the fact is, you know, after I talked to the sales agent of this construction company that's built in our house, you know, he said, well, any system can be hacked into. It doesn't matter if it's wired or not wired. And I said, exactly. So I didn't want to be preached to. I didn't want to be told that my idea was wrong because it wasn't the product that he was selling. You know, selling is a lot like dating. You know, you don't want to spend all your sales call talking about how great you are and how great your product is. You want to spend all your sales call finding out about their wants, needs and desires. And once you figure that out, then you can talk about how your product or service can suit them. And also be kind with their time. Okay, time is really important. Don't use up somebody's time with useless information, things they don't care about. I see sales people doing that all the time just like they've got an hour-long sales pitch. And no matter what the person says to them, no matter how they deviate, they're still gonna do that hour-long sales pitch, okay? When maybe they could have sold them in 10 minutes and bit on to the next customer. Number three, don't interrupt. Don't, don't, don't interrupt. And I see this happen a lot too. People will be trying to tell you something and you're so anxious to get out your answer to it that you step on their words. And nothing can be more aggravating than when you're trying to talk and somebody starts talking over you or interrupts you when you're talking. Use the pause method, and I taught this for years. You gotta pause right after they say something. Count, one, two, three. Now, during that pause, you're gonna find several things are gonna happen. The first thing that could happen is they weren't done talking and they were just taking a breath and they'll go on and talk more and you would have interrupted them. The second thing that's gonna happen is that they're gonna look at you and feel a little uncomfortable because nobody's saying anything, okay? Or on the phone, there's a little dead silence and they're gonna give you even more information and that information will be even more honest because it's nervous information. You tend to be more honest when you're nervous. You tend not to fabricate as much. And then the third thing that's gonna happen is they're gonna appreciate you. They're gonna appreciate you because they're gonna go, oh my gosh, this guy, this lady, they're really listening to me. They're listening to what I've got to say. I really appreciate that. I never get that from a salesperson. So, using that pause method of counting, one, two, three and not out of loud, guys, I'm not talking about. Don't count out loud. In your head, if you count one, two, three that will give them an opportunity to finish their thought and for you to start yours. Number four, be human. Understand that you're not gonna sell everybody. It's not gonna happen. Winning the argument does not necessarily mean getting the sale. That's not what happens. Proving somebody wrong about their thoughts does not mean you're gonna get the sale. Matter of fact, you're probably gonna lose the sale if you prove somebody wrong. That shouldn't be your intent. Your intent should be to internalize what their concerns are and why they think the way they think and to show them some other alternatives if they would be interested. Now, every now and then, just every now and then, you're gonna get a rude person. And I kid about that, you're gonna get a lot of them. But if they're so rude and they're so difficult, do you really want them as a customer? Is that really who you want? I have told people that there are people that I love to sell and then some people are a huge problem and I feel like maybe they could be one of those huge problems and they probably wouldn't be a good customer for me. I've actually said that to people before. And I don't wanna do that, but if somebody's just so super rude and difficult, do you really wanna deal with this customer on down the road? Do you really wanna sell them more products? I mean, what do you think they're gonna do with your refund guarantee? What do you think's gonna happen there? So if somebody is very rude to you and very difficult to you, be human, be nice, be polite, say thank you very much. Hey, I appreciate your time. This looks like it's not gonna be a good fit for you. Move on to the next person. That's all you gotta do. Now I would also tell you never take for granted their attention, okay? So if they're attentive and they're actually listening to you, you need to thank them for that. You need to say, hey, thanks really for listening to me and listening to what I got to offer. I really appreciate it. Sometimes people will just cut me off, but I really appreciate your courtesy and that you're listening to me. And when they hear that, when they hear that, they're gonna listen more, okay? They're more likely to listen more because they understand that you are on a human level with them and that you appreciate that their time is valuable. And it is. And whose time is valuable? Everybody's. Your time is not more valuable than theirs ever. Nobody's time is more valuable than anybody else's because we all just kind of like live this life and we do with our time what we want, but all that time is precious because once it's gone, it's gone forever. And if they're giving you time to speak to them, man, you need to be really grateful because they've actually, when they've said yes to listening to you, they've said no to doing something else. They've said no to going home. They've said no to watching a video on YouTube. They've said no to working on their email. They're saying yes to you and you gotta be appreciative of that. Maya Angelou, and I wanna read you one of her quotes right here. It says, treat everyone with kindness, empathy and respect. You'll be surprised. It's the mean ones that respond with astonishment when you treat them well. And that's so true. When somebody is very rude or harsh to me or yells at me or something and I say, hey, I understand your situation. I understand how that would upset you. That would probably upset me too. I get it. They turn around almost immediately. And I've seen this happen time and time again. I've demonstrated it because that person that's difficult and hard to get along with when somebody is actually kind to them because they're used to everybody being mean back to them, you know, it puts them back. It throws them back for a minute. They don't know what to say. They're like, oh my God, this person's actually nice to me. Everybody else hates me because of my attitude. So sometimes being super nice to one of those people that's very rude to you can be very beneficial. And don't be afraid because of somebody's position. I've seen that happen too. They say, well, my God, this person owns this website or this business and they're a big shot and they're not going to want to listen to me. Everybody's the same. Everybody's the same. You know, I've been preaching that for a long time and a lot of people don't believe that, but I don't care if you're president of a country. I don't care if you're CEO of a huge corporation, if you're some renowned doctor or you know, you're somebody working in an office filling out paperwork. We're all the same. We may have different jobs. We may get different income, but we're all just a bunch of human beings trying to get through all this. So if you realize that and don't put people up on pedestals and talk to them like a normal human being, they actually appreciate it. So that gives you an overview of what I've learned and I've spent many, many years selling. And you know, selling is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. If you've got a good product and it matches your customer and it's going to help them out, you owe it to them to sell it to them. You really do. I know a lot of the sites that I contacted early on are still with me and they still sell our survival foods and our products and they've benefited greatly because they've made, you know, a lot of money. They've made, you know, thousands or millions of dollars off our products. And if I hadn't have sold them on my product, if I hadn't have talked them into selling my products, they wouldn't be selling them and they wouldn't have made all that money. So I think I made an improvement in their life and it was a good thing. Don't ever try to sell something to somebody that doesn't fit their situation or it's not right for them. If it's not right for them, they're not going to benefit and you essentially won't benefit either. Even if you've made a profit, believe me, internally, you're not going to benefit if you sell somebody something that's not good for them. That's not a good thing. That's not salesmanship. That's forcing people to do something they don't want to do. We don't want to do that, not good. I hope you enjoyed this video. If so, put any comments below. I'd love to get your comments. If you have any questions about sales or selling stuff online, marketing online, that's what this channel's about. Okay, so make sure you put that in the comments below. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. There's a big subscribe button there. Click it, turn it from red to gray and turn on all bell notifications. Why? So you'll be part of the Fisher family. So I can notify you every single time I do a new video. It's that simple. Don't forget to have a course below, $97 course for a limited time. I'm giving it away for free. You want to click that link, no credit card required. 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