Marketing & Sales technique : How to achieve anything in life by learning how to sell by Rana Kordahi
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it was hailing bombs in Beirut Lebanon
and as a family with my father my mom my
sister's my two younger sisters we
escaped by boat to Cyprus I was about
nine years old and I vaguely remember my
father arguing with the Border Patrol
man to let us through he was not
listening he was being aggressive and
the Border Patrol man was not happy with
my father so you can say that the Border
Patrol men sent sent us back into
Lebanon Beirut into the war zone now
what did my father lack in this
situation well he lacked rapport
building skills he lacked listening
skills and most important he lacked the
right mindset to stay calm under
pressure but another time my father did
a brilliant job at selling we were stuck
in traffic and I was about eight years
old and now imagine a 1980s summer day
in Beirut there's old forts everywhere
Mercedes Benzes smoke beeping sounds and
those men with mustaches
because massages went in back in the 80s
right and my father must have angered a
man into road rage this man suddenly
appeared at the window of my father's
car he aimed the rifle straight to my
father's head but this time my father
remained calm under pressure he built
rapport he negotiated and in just a few
minutes my father had sold the man out
of pulling the trigger my stories may be
a little bit extreme maybe dramatic and
to be honest I wasn't going to share
them I was kind of hesitant but then I
thought back you know most things in my
life whether there were life and death
or whether they were subtle depended on
the art of selling and negotiation
because they could not only save your
life but the life of those that you
loved and also knowing how to sell can
help you get ahead in life I personally
loved the word sales and I don't try and
sugarcoat it for anything that it's not
now
here when they hear this word sales they
feel a bit uncomfortable yeah okay this
word is a little bit taboo but we have
to accept and embrace and accept that we
are all salespeople whether we like it
or not whether you are selling yourself
on a first day whether you are selling
yourself at a job interview how about if
you want to start a business you need to
know how to sew right or whether you
want to be the person that you want to
be in life so we must first embrace an
acceptor or be the person in that corner
of the room watching everybody with envy
getting ahead because I'm gonna be blunt
right here right now it doesn't matter
how talented you are how smart how pH
did up you are or technically brilliant
you are if you don't know how to sell
and communicate you're not gonna get
very far in life but I want to establish
the two types of sales people out there
who has seen this film it's a great film
however this film has ruined it for a
lot of sales people out there this is
not the true portrayal of what happens
in the business to business world where
trust and relationships are the
foundations of closing high value sales
and if any sales person pulls off those
sons that they pulled off in that film
that would be out the door in less than
a week now I want to talk to you about
the two types of salespeople you've got
the pushy salesperson and you've got the
consultative salesperson now the pushy
salesperson they have acronyms like ABC
always be closing the consultative
salesperson they have the same acronyms
ABC however they actually mean something
totally different always be connecting
pushy salesperson they talk a lot they
don't listen to what you have to say and
they push their products and services on
to you within seconds of meeting you
consultative salesperson they
listen and find out how they can solve
your most important problems and change
your life
pushy salesperson they walk into
networking situation and they think I
wonder who I can take from here today
consultative salesperson they walk into
a networking situation and things
I wonder who I can help here today now
that I've established the two types of
salespeople and the difference between
them and why knowing how to sell is
important I want to share with you how
knowing how to sell has changed my life
and how it could help you be the person
that you want to be first of all it has
helped me become a more confident person
I learned pretty quickly that it didn't
matter how well I knew my pitch or how
well I knew my products and services if
I did not know how to sell with
confidence and be a confident person I
was not going to get very far now how
did I learn this well it was through
this one particular experience in Mexico
years ago I worked in selling timeshares
in Mexico and to get a job in this
resort you had to know how to speak
English and you had to know how to sell
and there were two sales reps in
particular one was called James and the
other one was called Santiago James
James he was English he had a great
accent he was tall handsome dressed in
those three four piece suits he had a
PhD he knew his pitch inside out and he
was well-spoken this guy was pretty
smart now Santiago on the other hand he
was his English was not great he had a
heavy accent he was a high school
dropout he didn't dress well he was
taught a bit stompy and he did not know
much about anything now who do you think
was a top salesperson out of these two
Santiago correct and some people were
surprised how is Santiago is selling I
mean compared to James he didn't have a
chance and I did wander and I had the
privilege of shadowing both these guys
and befriending them
now Santiago his secret was he had
unshakable soft confidence in himself
and in his abilities no matter how many
knows he heard no matter how many
failures he faced it did not falter his
self-confidence knowing how to sell has
helped me build rapport with just about
anybody people by people this was one of
the first phrases I learned in one of my
very first sales job the trainer Doug
he wrote this phrase on the board and he
said people buy into you before they're
going to buy your products and services
so if they don't like and trust you you
can be sure they're not really going to
buy unless they're dying in a hospital
bed and you're the doctor that they
don't like so at the end of the day we
have to start with building rapport and
Trust with people now most of us know
that building rapport has to do with a
genuine smile open body language taking
an interest in the other person even
mirroring and matching the firm
handshake the eye contact all that stuff
yeah but I want to take the concept of
rapport further I want to take it on to
the into the online digital world where
we spend a lot of our time now I want to
ask you how many times have you strolled
your Facebook feed your Instagram or
LinkedIn feed and you going through the
feed and you are making mental notes
about people on your feared whether
they're your friends family or strangers
oh I like him he's so inspiring
oh Jesus this woman's so negative I need
to block her block this happens all the
time so we are basically building
virtual rapport with people online and
people are building rapport in
connection with us when they don't even
know us now I had to learn this the hard
way
I learned this about six years ago I
became a vegan and I wanted to spread
the vegan message and the best way to do
that obviously was on Facebook so I
started spreading my vegan message in a
quite aggressive angry way and no one
was listening and then one day as I was
I thought what's going on no one cares
about animals and I was kind of feeling
sorry for myself then I remembered the
phrase that I learned so many years ago
people by people and I thought of course
I mean I've been applying this to my
sales life and through my I've been
coaching this too many salespeople once
I applied this concept of people by
people into my animal advocacy I saw a
tremendous change people started to
message me saying I want to go vegan or
tell me I've been being inspired by your
posts so no matter what you want to sell
whether it's your product services your
philosophy or ideology or political
beliefs always think do people like me
and trust me before they open to my
message knowing how to sell has helped
me persuade and influence like a magic
wand you know no I'm joking it's not a
magic wand but it's helped me persuade
an influencer now persuade and influence
can have a bad connotation because at
the end of the day to be honest with you
it is not a magic wand nobody is going
to be persuaded and influenced by
anything you have to sell if that I want
to buy because at the end of the day
people need autonomy in their decision
making
studies show that and people we cannot
trigger their fight-or-flight response
so the more we push the more we're going
to trigger that but we can do something
instead and also studies show that by
asking smart questions and getting
somebody to think for themselves when
we're more likely to be able to
influence their decision there are three
things I want you to remember before
going out into any sales interaction
whether you're selling your products
services or selling your ideas number
one people are more likely to buy when
they are talking then when you are
talking number two people are more
likely to buy when it's their idea than
when it's your idea and number three you
should never ever begin by pitching
selling preaching or providing solutions
before the person you're dealing with
articulates what they want to gain
achieve
now why is this well sales does take a
lot of concepts from psychology and
understands human behavior and they've
done a lot of studies on this and what
they understand is when we ask questions
people are more likely to be open so let
me give you an example say I went to see
the psychologist and I said to the
psychologist well you know my husband is
an abusive alcoholic you know I don't
know what to do the psychologist is not
going to say to me you need to leave
that jerk before he kills you but the
psychologist is instead going to ask me
questions in order for the decision to
be my own they're going to help me
create unique insights and alissa my own
thinking so that psychologists might ask
me okay so Tommy what would you like to
change most about your current situation
and then I'll start thinking what I'd
like to change most and then the
psychologist might ask okay so based on
the challenges that you're having in
your relationship how has this been
affecting your life let's explore how
it's been affecting your life and then
they'll say okay what solutions do you
think you might need to take or what
action do you think you might need to
take in order for me than to be driven
to take action rather than the
psychologists telling me what I need to
do now I want to take the same concept
and I want to apply it to a product say
for example I'm trying to sell you a
printer and your printer is not working
and I went to you and I'm trying to sell
to you the printer I'm not gonna go and
tell you how brilliant my printer is
because you're not gonna listen I'm
gonna say so tell me about your current
printer what would you like to change
most about this printer then I'll say
okay based on what you've told me about
this printer and the problems you're
having how is this printer affecting
your work productivity and so on and so
on
so as I said always think about getting
people to think and believe that
something is their idea rather than you
pushing something onto them that's how
we persuade an influencer knowing how to
sell has helped me learn how to
understand how to communicate to
people's values now many times when we
are communicating to people we
in the values that resonate with us and
not with them how many times have you
tried to convince your child your spouse
your colleagues based on your own
interests and what you value the most
now I'm gonna give you an example there
was a lady who was I was coaching and
she was a travel agent who name is
Maggie she told me a story about how she
was trying to sell a vacation to a guy
called Tony now what was important for
Maggie was she wanted on her vacations
she wanted to relax at the nice beach
she wanted to sunbathe nice cocktails
restaurant foods and Wi-Fi that is not
important for her Tony on the other hand
was very different in his holiday
approach Tony was an introvert so he
wanted to have a nice modern suite he
wanted to have his bodybuilding food so
he needed a kitchen to cook his
bodybuilding food he needed to have a
gym at the hotel and because he's an
entrepreneur Tony needs to have very
fast Wi-Fi so when Maggie was trying to
sell this car the vacation she was
talking based on her interest and she
lost this guy within minutes so think
about when you are trying to convince
somebody whether it's your child your
spouse your colleague or your client are
you talking in a language that resonates
with you or with them and how do we
understand their language obviously we
need to do a discovery and ask smart
questions now finally I want to leave
you with a story which helped me
tremendously be the person who I am
today and it's led me onto my personal
development journey they all started
with a sales role that I had I was
working in a sales role and I was not
selling in this role and I was quite
frustrated so I was reading every book
on sales and one day I was sitting in
the staff room and I was reading about
how to overcome objections and there was
a sales mentor he saw me and he said I
want you to throw this book away your
only objection is your mindset what I
want you to do right now I want you to
try something different and I said okay
I'm open Tommy what is it and then he
said close your eyes and I want you to
visualize and feel you are with your
customer
right now and that you are building
amazing rapport
close your eyes and feel and believe
that you are helping them by asking
great questions and they're telling you
all of their issues visualize and feel
that you are going to change their life
with this product that you're selling
visualize and feel that they are so open
that they are signing the contract and
they're so happy and visualize and feel
the number that you're gonna sell and I
want you now to open your eyes write
down the number that you're gonna sell
now when he first told me this I'm a
very logical person I thought what is
this hocus-pocus magic is not gonna work
and then I thought you know what I've
got nothing to lose
let me try it so I did try it and within
not even a week I started selling and I
started to do this everyday religiously
and then I thought imagine what this can
do to my personal life so I started to
apply it to my health my fitness making
money my business going on dates and
then I took it further and started to
apply it to my morning meditation and I
started to manifest the life that I have
today I've been in sales for 20 years
and I've something that I've learned
through the years there are three things
that you need to have to be successful
in sales or in business number one is
you need to have courage courage is
about going out there and understanding
yes I'm gonna get rejected and it's okay
and just keep on doing it number two you
need to have patience there's something
called the compound effect you plant
seeds today they'll grow tomorrow but
many people they plant seeds they stop
being patient and then they give up and
the last thing is you have to have a
relentless work ethic there's no such
thing as overnight success I've paid
lots of the money for these overnight
success courses and they are all bs you
need to work really hard and it's gonna
take time anyway thank you for your time
and go out and sell
Conclusion
She wants to make the word 'sales' to sound hip, rather than taboo. She wants people to be like, 'oh wow you work in sales!' She believes that everyone is a salesperson, whether they like it or not. Because we don't only sell products and services, but ideas, thoughts, opinions and even our personalities. Rana Kordahi is determined to make everyone fall in love with selling. She wants to make the word 'sales' to sound hip, rather than taboo. She wants people to be like, 'oh wow you work in sales!' She believes that everyone is a salesperson, whether they like it or not. Because we don't only sell products and services, but ideas, thoughts, opinions and even our personalities.
Who is Rana Kordahi ?
Rana is the founder and director of The Selling Academy and has trained and coached thousands of sales and non-salespeople in the art of sales, influence, mindset and personal development. Including hundreds of consultants at some of the big 4 consulting firms, as well as those who help people with disabilities back into work. Being an NLP practitioner and mindset coach, she combines NLP, mindset, EQ and psychology to sales techniques to take people beyond their sales potential.
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