by Todd Zuccato

Created on: May 09, 2007   Last Updated: May 17, 2007

Selling is one of the most competitive fields in business today. It is one of the few careers where a person is able to determine what their income will be on a daily basis. So what can you do to separate yourself from the pack?

First and foremost, to stay ahead in the sales game, you must outwork everyone. Coming in early and staying late always helps; but if you have family, that may not be where you want to focus your efforts.

Most people can't stay out of the "office gossip". A large number of sales people spend a good portion of their day talking about sports, family, or just general gossip with their co-workers. If you stay above the fray, put your head down and work when you are at work, you will get a leg up right away.

Make it a priority to out learn everyone. There are really two parts to this. Those two parts are sales knowledge and product knowledge. Most sales people will tell you the only way to learn is to slog it out every day. If you are taking the time to read this, chances are you are not one of those people.

While it is true the only way to learn how to sell is to sell, studying up always helps. Here is what I mean by that. Most actions by your customer should have a conditioned reaction. If your customer says X, you say Y. And it happens every time. It takes years to develop the right Y for every X.

If you take the time to learn those Y's on your own time, you will have many more of them in your arsenal much sooner than the guy who slogs it out.

The idea of product knowledge is not to "wow" your customer. In fact, too much information will send them into an overload and almost guarantee an "I need to think about it" response every time. Your product knowledge is important in two different scenarios.

First, you need to be able to answer your customer's questions. The second is your confidence.

Selling is a confidence game. The more you have, without going into arrogance, the more people want to buy from you. Fear eats away at confidence. Much of your fear can be eliminated by knowing you will be able to answer most any question you get asked.

Lastly, do the things that others won't do. The only wasted sales pitch is the one you don't do. Some sales people will tend to write off the smaller clients as a waste of time. While the short term financial outcome may not be worth it, the practice will. If you spend a few months pitching the clients that no one else will, you will master your pitch and learn most of the objections in your business. Then you will be polished enough to reel those big fish all day long.

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