Introduction
Salespeople are traditionally considered to be aggressive, attentive, and very goal-oriented. After the interview I had with Jursher Barth, the car salesman that helped me purchase my car not so long ago I am convinced that the common perception of salespeople appeared due to a strong basis of evidence generated by these people’s professional behavior, habits, and character features.
The mind of a Chess Player
Crusher Barth is a sharp-looking gentleman. Looking at him, I could notice that his personal image of a knowledgeable, experienced, and fearless man dwells on every detail of his appearance, gestures, movements, and speech. Jursher’s experience of work with customers allows him to read his clients and recognize their behavioral patterns before they occur. Jursher’s mind is always several steps ahead of the mind of his customer.
Jursher’s normal day at work is filled with dialogues, arguments, explanations. Crusher notes that confidence is key to his success. A customer should never see the salesman hesitate or have doubts. These patterns are associated with weakness, which is unacceptable. Crusher says that the weakness of a sales man may and will cost them a lot of money.
Eye of a Detective
According to Barth, one quality that every experienced salesperson develops over time is the ability to see the kind of customer they are dealing with. The knowledge of the customer is based on such features as behavior, speech, clothing, age, habits. A sharp-eyed sales person can detect the necessary features of any customer that will help with forming an individual approach and closing a deal. When Jursher started working in sales he was not aware of this trick, the wisdom came along with the experience.
Crusher emphasizes that evaluation skills are a part of the sales person’s strength and success. “Making a price discount, agreeing to sell a car for less money influences the sales man’s personal income, takes away their commission”, notices Barth. Keeping the commission is crucial, this is why Jursher never backs down. The most important ability in this business is not stubbornness, but finding a common language with customers.
In order to be the best at what he does Jursher read six books about communication tactics, he perfected every single aspect of his interactions with people. He managed his voice, intonations, and selected words carefully, empirically, through everyday practice he found the best ice breakers for various kinds of clients and situations, a variety of dialogue techniques, and tools allowing him to obtain his winning strategy.
Soul of a Fighter
Crusher states that a salesman should be a fighter, but not a crude and aggressive ambusher, but a sophisticated intelligence trooper, who finds gentler and more complex ways of achieving his goals without creating any destruction. Dialogue is his universal weapon and his art. Becoming excellent at these skills, Jursher developed another necessary feature for a salesperson – confidence.
Crusher Barth’s advice for people pursuing any careers is to be devoted enough to find one crucial key element of their work that is the cause of their success. For him, it was the art of dialogue and reason. Once he knew these were the main points, he became a master of these skills through practice, training, and learning. His profession needs Jursher to be clever but not cunning, penetrating but not intrusive, and purposeful but not aggressive.