Well until yesterday, I thought that I didn't need Nitrogen for my car.

What about you?

Do you need Nitrogen for you car?

If a salesman asked you that question, you would probably answer No.

I've been to my local tire store a twice in the past 2 months.

Once I got pitched Nitrogen for my tires.

And yesterday, I again saw an in store display for this stuff, but I wondered who in the heck needs this stuff.

Pay attention to what I am going to tell you now, because this sales lesson can be applied beyond just a retail store front.

In fact you should be reading my stuff looking and asking for how you can transfer the learning to your situation, your industry, your business.

Because if you're simply gonna blow this off and say "But my business is different, that doesn't apply to me Mr. Shameless", then don't bother reading any further. Save yourself the effort and go pickup a copy of People Magazine.

Anyway, I finally figured out why I need - err want - Nitrogen for my tires.

I finally asked one of the tire store employees to explain this stuff to me (then did a poor job of selling it) when I was getting a ride back to pick my HUMMER up at the tire store.

And what she told me was that the Nitrogen will extend the life of my tires and improve my gas mileage because the chemical properties of Nitrogen keeps the tires at a constant pressure (vs. the normal expanding and contracting that air does in a tire). With a simple explanation of HOW and WHY this stuff works, I went from skeptic to eager prospect for this stuff.

Now I won't bore you with all the technical chemistry and physics details on this, but the point here is that before someone came up with the idea and the technology to inflate our tires with Nitrogen, no one "needed" this stuff.

No one needed it because no one knew this capability existed.

There was no pain, no problem, no void, no gap. Most tires work pretty well these days.

But what someone figured out, opened up an OPPORTUNITY.

You see for a few bux and no hassle, I figure I can add some miles onto the life of my tires. And at a few hundred bux pop for these tires on my HUMMER, I like the idea of them lasting a few thousand more miles.

In short, once I saw the opportunity that I was missing out on, I wanted it.

And that is how you sell new stuff. That is how you sell stuff that people never even knew that they needed. You have to open up a gap, you have to create a wound, a problem, a deficit, an opportunity by showing them what they can do now that they couldn't do before.

It isn't just adding Nitrogen to your tires because its sounds like a cool idea.

It’s spending 50 bux to get a instant 3-7% increase in your gas mileage and a few more thousand miles of driving on your tires.

Sounds like spending a few bux to save a lot of bux to me.

Think about that next time you are prospecting and probing for something to sell to.

Don't pitch the product. Find and uncover the problem or opportunity.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Checkout my powerful method for uncovering hidden problems and opportunities and using that is emotional leverage to get your prospects to beg you to sell to them right now.

As I waited for the guy to help me I looked behind the counter and saw something l liked.

There was a stack of them there, lots of red, with some white showing through.

They looked pretty cool I thought.

After a short wait, the ski shop manager comes to help me.

Asks me what I want, I tell him I want to lease some skis for the season for my daughter.

"Great"

…he says, and walks off into the back room.

A few moments later he comes out with a pair of yellow and white skis, pretty beat up.

I size em up to my daughter to see if they are the right length.

Too tall.

"Those are 124s"

…the guy says.

"Oh, you don't have any 120s?"

…I ask - I had asked for 120s originally.

We'll, I got 120s in these new ones, but they're 25 dollars more.

Fine, I'll take em

…I said.

I was relieved.

Relieved because I was this close to leaving the store and going somewhere else where I planned to pay more money to get the skis I wanted for my daughter.

Stuff like this drives me nuts sometimes.

The guy who helped me was nice enough, that aint the problem.

Too many people assume that all customers are cheap.

I'm sure this guy thought he was doing me a favor. Trying to save me 25 bux.

Nope, not a favor for me. I didn't want the beat up skis.

And most importantly, he didn't explain the options and ask at the beginning whether I wanted the cheaper, last year's beatup skis, or if I wanted the new, this years skis, at a higher price.

Never gave me the choice.

Just assumed I wanted to save money.

And I was this close to leaving because of it.

Heck I was starting to think that those red and white skis behind the counter were only for purchase, not for season lease.

But I got what I wanted because I asked.

Crazy.

This stuff doesn't just happen in retail.

Most people assume that everybody wants a deal.

Some people want better service, and better quality though.

And they're willing to pay for it. Many of us will even happily pay for it.

So don't assume that all your prospects are cheap tight-asses. I know the media is talkin all the time about this stuff.

Ask your prospects instead. Treat each prospect as a blank slate and you'll find that some will happily pay more and buy more than everyone else.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Ask the right questions, the right way, with the right mindset, and you can get people to pay more and buy sooner than you're doing today. Let me show you how in Persuasive Questioning Techniques Sales Training Course. Go get yours right here.

But it can also be a waste of time.

And at its worst, persistence can damage your confidence and zap your enthusiasm for your goals.

So when is persistence good? When should you persist in following up with a prospect, and when should you walk away and move on to greener pastures?

Most sales people intuitively know the general answer to this. You persist as long as you think you have chance, and you walk away when you believe you no longer have a chance.

A lot of sales people seem to get both sides of this idea wrong.

Some sales people don't persist enough. Most sales people will give up on calling someone - whether it’s a cold call, or even someone who they've had some sales activity with - after only 3 calls.

Other sales people will hold on too long. They'll ride the deal all the way to they're kicked out and told that the competition got the business.

I have a couple of distinctions that may help you know when to persist, when to pursue, and when to walk away.

When you are prospecting, or "marketing", you have insufficient information about your prospect to know how long you should pursue. So your goal in this initial phase with your prospect is engage him long enough to qualify him.

You may have to persist through many, many contact attempts over a long period of time, just to get enough information to decide if you can even sell to your prospect.

So that's pretty simple. Just think of your prospecting as marketing.

Once you have qualified a prospect though, your approach should change.

You should start getting commitments for your sales efforts.

I frequently get asked questions like this one…

Shamus what should I do when I have sent a proposal, and then I follow-up, and follow-up, and follow-up to see if they are ready to make a decision or what they want to do next?

If this describes your selling experience, then you are persisting too much, and you are wasting valuable sales time on a lot of prospects who'll never buy.

Why?

Because you shouldn't be giving proposals out like this. Instead you should be verbally discussing and negotiating for exactly what needs to be in a proposal, who needs to review, consider, and approve it, and what needs to be addressed to get it approved.

In short you should know before you create your proposal exactly what needs to be in it to get it approved.

When you sell this way, you are always in control. You nail down exactly what is going on, and you don't waste time.

If you gonna lose, you'll find out early, or at least at the same time the customer figures it out.

And if your gonna win, you'll find that out early too. And you can sell to the close with confidence.

Persist when you are prospecting and get commitments when you are selling.

Follow those rules and you'll sell more.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Discover my sure-fire method for figuring out fast who is going to buy from you and who's going waste your time right now with the Persuasive Selling Skills Audio Program.

I thought that being a great presenter would be exciting, fun, and make me feel awesome watching people ooohh and aaahh over my great oratory skills.

Once I actually started selling though, I found out that most of what I needed to do to close a sale wasn't really presenting.

Most of what I needed to do was just talk with people. Talk one on one, or in small groups.

Occasionally I had a formal presentation or demonstration. But that was only a small amount of my selling time with a typical customer.

Some sales reps seem to think that the demo or the "presentation" IS the sale.

Read this note I got from a reader yesterday…

Shamus, here's a sad one but it's kinda amusing…

I'd just taken over as sales manager so I went with our rep to see a client he'd been working on for quite a while - with the demo product the client had asked to see. My rep showed him and the client loved it, asking when delivered could be made.

To my horror, my rep kept talking. And then he kept talking. And again he kept talking.

The client looked up at me questioningly and still my rep kept on talking. I was in two minds as to what to do and eventually, those big pleading client eyes looked up again and said that I just had to interject. So I interrupted (something I did not want to do), thanked my rep for the demo and simply asked the client when he'd like them and what purchase order number to use. Talk about relief on the clients face.

Ever since then I've watched sales people much more closely. We seem to be employed for our ability to yap - but really it's our inability to listen and hear that keep many poor.

Thanks again for your emails. I guess this story is horribly un-unique.

-Mike Lowery

Presenting is NOT selling.

The sale should be made before you ever make the presentation. You should know exactly what your prospect needs to see, so that you can show no more and no less than needed.

You should know exactly what your prospect most wants, and what he needs to see, know, and have proven to him in order to make a buying decision in your favor.

You should know this before you ever make a presentation.

Because when you do, there will be no confusion, no mystery, no wondering if you need to keep on talking.

You simply ask the customer to do what he told you he would do - buy your stuff if it fulfilled his most important wants and needs.

That's Shameless Style Selling.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Wondering if your prospect will buy, and closing only 20% of your deals sux. Discover how to close 70-90% of your deals the Shameless Selling way with my Persuasive Selling Skills Program now.

This isn't for my business, but for a local non-profit I am on the board of.

Yesterday morning I had a telephone meeting to review and discuss the proposal for an event registration software system.

I had pretty much made up my mind as a buyer that I was going to purchase before I got on the phone.

And once I did get on the phone with the sales rep and we started talking, I noticed myself giving off some classic buying signals.

In fact the day before when this rep was giving me the demo, I noticed then that I was also giving off the classic buying signals.

There are probably quite a few indicators that could be observed as tell-tale signs that someone is ready to buy your stuff.

The big one I noticed was a change in my language.

A person's language is directly indicative of their thoughts.

And the change that occurred in my language was that I start referring to the software in terms of what "I" and "We" were going to do with it. How "We" were going to use it. What "I" like about it for "Us".

What happened here is that I had mentally taken ownership of the product. I was mentally projecting myself into the future as to how and what "I" and "We" were going to be doing and using this software system.

My language was giving away the fact that I like this system enough to see myself using it.

That's what people do when they look at and evaluate your stuff. They try to see if they can see themselves using it or not.

If they do like it, and they can see themselves using it and being happy with it, then they hold that image in their mind. And as they hold it in their mind, they will talk about it as if it is present tense and already occurring.

Contrast this to when someone doesn't like the product, or has a problem with it, and they would say something like "Your system does this, and Your system has that…"

The word "Your" means that the prospect hasn't taken mental ownership and he still sees it as "Your" product and not his.

Language is one of the biggest buying signals that I look for. I am sure there are others. If you have a good story you want to share like this, just email me and let me know.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Discover your prospect's own unique fast-path to a decision with my Persuasive Selling Skills right now.

This week I've been buying some new software for a non-profit I am on the board of.

It's been an interesting experience, being the buyer and seeing the mistakes sales people make from the buyer's perspective.

I had two software demos in the last two days.

Both sales reps made a similar mistake, and it cost one of the reps the business.

Both of these reps wanted to show me stuff that I didn't ask to see. I think a lot of sales reps fall into this trap.

They think that some particular aspect of their product is "really cool". So they make it a point to show it to every prospect.

They do this in expectation that the prospect will get as excited as they are about this "really cool" thing they have to offer.

Problem is though, not everyone will think that thing is "really cool".

And me? I have a bottom line Driver-type personality when it comes to buying stuff. So when a sales rep starts showing me stuff I didn't ask to see, I start getting pissed off.

And that's exactly what happened on Tuesday. This one sales rep started showing me stuff that I said we won't use this year, and can't use right now. I wanted to focus only on what we are going to use right now.

He just had to show me his "really cool" stuff. And it screwed the deal for him.

Why?

Because once I saw what he thought was his strong feature, I realized just how weak his software really was. It wasn't that cool. In fact it was kinda hard to use.

Had he not showed me that, and had he stayed focused on only exactly what I told him I wanted, he might still be in the running.

In short, he gave me reasons to eliminate him and his product from consideration.

The only reason people buy is because of what they want.

When you show somebody something that they didn't ask about, that they didn't tell you they had an interest in, you are taking a big risk.

Finding out what your prospect wants by showing them things and asking if they like it, is a sure way to annoy your prospect, and possibly even lose the deal.

Better to ask questions, zero in on what your prospect wants, why they want it, and how they'll use it first.

Then you can show exactly how you will give them what they want, and closing becomes easy.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. When prospects get mad AT you, you lose the sale. When prospect's get mad WITH you, they're motivated to buy from you. Discover how to triple your sales by getting your prospects mad with you right now.

I know for sure that I got more than my "fair share" of bloody noses.

In fact I got my nose bloody - and broken - 5 times before I turned 18.

Surprisingly, I only one of those happened in a fist fight.

The first time was from running into a basketball pole on the playground.

The second was from getting hit in the face with a softball.

The third time was a fist fight.

The fourth time was a car accident.

And the fifth time was reconstructive surgery to fix the damage from the previous 4 smash-ins.

To my surprise, most men I talk to never even got in fight as a kid, let alone had their noses broken like I did.

As an adult, I am more "mature" now though. I haven't been in a fight, or a car accident for that matter, since I was a teenager.

Though I don't now want to relive those experiences, I am glad I had them AND lived through them.

Such experiences taught me about myself.

Taught me about limits. Taught me that while I while risk-taking can be dangerous, I am also capable of surviving probably way more than I realize.

I think to be good in sales, to be good in business, to be good as an entrepreneur, you gotta be somewhat of risk taker.

A smart risk taker that is.

The decision to take a risk is where you find your limits and expand your capabilities.

Sometimes you gotta be willing to get a bloody nose to move forward.

You gotta take a chance.

If you are doing the same things that all the other sales people you know are doing, then you are going to get the same results.

Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

But sometimes it does take someone like me to tell that if you copy average, mediocre sales people, you will get average mediocre sales results.

So what about you?

Where are you going to push your limits?

Where are you going to risk getting a bloody nose so that you can find out and expand what you are capable of?

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. I don't sell the way everyone else does, and neither should you. Go get yourself a copy of my Persuasive Selling Skills Audio Program and stop selling like the mediocre majority does now.

Sales people who prospect every day, or give presentations every day, or close every day have strong sales muscles.

Strong sales muscles because they are exercising them. They are exercising their talents and skills.

And when things change, those with the strongest sales muscles will be able to adapt the fastest.

I write for selling in my business 5-6 days a week. Back when I did corporate sales, I prospected 3-5 days a week.

What do you do on a repetitive, high frequency basis to keep your sales hoppin?

One of my customers, Ben Joe Markland, gives presentations daily.

Here's an email I got from him last week…

Shamus, I give presentations daily. Lately I have been bringing up the economy and telling people only they can change it for themselves, don't wait for a president to it for you. This gets people thinking about their finances, then I move in with my products (I work for a Financial Institution). My sales are still 15% higher than last year and in a slow economy. Your method isn't too radical, it is empowering.

Ben Joe Markland

When you are prospecting, presenting, or closing 5 days (or more) a week you can constantly adjust and tweak what you are doing. Your overall skill level will be high, and you can notice quickly changes in the market, changes in "the economy", and adapt what you are doing to counter new challenges that come up.

Ben uses my Persuasive Selling Skills to get people to stop whining about "the economy" and start helping themselves by buying his financial products.

Yes, he is succeeding in one of the worst hit sectors of "the economy" right now.

That's why I keep hammering on this.

It aint about "the economy".

It is about what you do, and what YOU get your prospect to do.

If you are indulging in the economy-sucks-no-one-wants-to-buy-anything-from-me whine fest that I hear waaaayyyyyy too much of these days STOP IT.

Snap out of it right now.

Start asking yourself what can I do to get more sales right now.

Your brain will come up with the answers. That's what it was designed to do.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Discover how to get your prospects to buy right now in 2008, while all the other sales people are whining about how about how bad "the economy" is right now.

Most sales people sell the features, and then wonder why selling is so hard.

They wonder why they struggle with closing only 5 or 10% of the prospects that they go after.

Read this - I got it yesterday from a reader…

Shamus, awhile back I was selling Life Insurance and a prospect contacted me for an appointment. He was a young father with three small children. He owned a small grocery store in the neighborhood.

It turned out that his friend, who also owned a store nearby, was robbed and shot.

Now, he was concerned for his life, yet he was still resistant to purchasing insurance that would financially protect his family. He also brought up his cultural belief of not speaking about death or dying because he thought it could bring it about.

I talked to him about what his family's life would be like if he was the next one to be shot. Would his wife be able to support the children and work full time? Surely they would lose the house, maybe they could find a small apartment to live in. What kind of neighborhood would it be? He was in tears when he signed the papers.

Was that a mean thing to do? I don't think so.

Now if I was selling something that he didn't need, then I would have felt bad but I felt great that I was able to protect his family from financial disaster.

-Lorrie Bliss

Great story eh?

Selling isn't about the "thing" you think you are selling

Selling IS about the prospect's problem and how he feels about it.

The bigger the pain, the bigger your chance of a sale.

Selling like Lorrie does get's the prospect to feel his pain, and remember how important the problem is and to realize that it's time to DO SOMETHING about it.

Even when people are hunched over in their cubicles, homes and offices wringing their hands and fretting about "the economy" you can still get people to buy when you get them emotionally involved in solving their problems with your products.

Go get your copy of the Persuasive Selling Skills Audio Program and discover how you can snap your prospects out of their doom and gloom to buy stuff they really need from you right now.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

I don't know about you, but I have been experiencing a lot of intense emotions from friends and the people I regularly come into contact with over the past few weeks.

Personally I stopped thinking much about this election awhile back.

Yes, I have been a big watcher of the election coverage at some times over the last few months.

But a long time ago I decided that it didn't really matter to me that much since both Obama and McCain take the same bad positions on a lot of things that matter.

So I alternate between ignoring it completely, and checking in on the status of the "horse race" and who's winning.

The political junkie in me just won't die, but now I view this election more like watching TV sports. Personally it's how I cope because I don't like where either of these guys are going to take us.

I know, I know. Some people are going to write me excoriating me for my cynicism.

But I am doing one BIG thing here that you can learn from.

I am focusing my energy on things I CAN control.

I am not putting a lot of hope or worry into the outcome of tomorrow's election.

I am also not worrying about the state of the economy, the recession we may be, or probably are in, or the depression that we may be going into.

I am not worrying about these things because such worry just would put me in a crappy mood where I wouldn't be able to get anything productive done.

And worrying (or hoping) just keeps your focus outside of yourself, and keeps you at the mercy of forces beyond your control.

Some people got fabulously wealthy during the Great Depression.

Some people made a killing during the bear market of the early 70s.

Will something like this happen to you?

If you sit around wondering whether (or when) it will happen to you, then it probably won't.

The question to ask yourself is not will this "happen" to you.

The question to ask is how do I make this happen for myself?

Everyday I frequently ask questions like this of myself, and it keeps me focused on doing things to improve myself and my business.

And you should do this too.

So yes, I will be up late watching election results tomorrow night. But I'll go to bed sleeping well no matter who wins because I know that I am in control of what happens to me.

How about you?

When are you going to take control of what "happens" to you?

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Here are 5 things for you to do right now, this November to get more deals closed before the end of the year, and keep your job for 2009.