Traits of Top Salespeople

"Top salespeople are risk-takers: they aren't afraid to try new strategies or approaches."

Month: October 2015

Reading upside down – are you twisted or do you have a sales skill

Reading upside down – are you twisted or do you have a sales skill

This image of upside down text (and similar ones featuring a minion or two) are everywhere on the Internet.

In case you struggle with the wording it is:

“If you can read this with ease you are twisted! And have an awesome talent! This is both backwards and upside down!”

To be clear, the image is slightly wrong. It is not “backwards.” It is just upside down. If you rotate this image 180 degrees in image viewer, it will look normal. I also didn’t fix any grammatical mistakes that may be in the text of the document.

The claim in the image is that you have an awesome talent because you can read upside down text, but you are twisted. Actually, I prefer the former since most salespeople need to work on being more observant. This is especially true with documents on the desk – which are upside down for you.

Salespeople visit the working environments of others. While some will say that it is “quaint” to look for pictures and quotes to gain clues about the prospect, I disagree. There is nothing more important than trying to create a personal bond with the person you are speaking with during the sales call. You can obviously try to talk about things that are interesting to you (outside of the product and service that you sell), but it is much easier to talk about something of interest to the prospect. There is no harm in asking about golf if there is golf memorabilia in the office. Or, if there are pictures of children playing sports, asking about those is completely relevant.

Try not to be so obtuse and shallow that you see a picture of your prospect with children and spouse that you ask how old the children are now. You can do better than that!

It is important that you notice documents on the prospect’s desk. You aren’t trying to be nosy, but you are trying to understand your prospect. You don’t need to read his personal email, but you should look for logos on documents from your competitors. You should also look for literature or reading material. Books on the bookcase on topics in your industry will be helpful as well.

When you are in front of a prospect, your job is to completely understand his or her world. Don’t just assume that you will be told everything that you need. A professional Trapper salesperson is looking to understand the lay of the land. Where are the game trails? What other competitors are in play? All of these skills are important – even reading upside down.

upside down minion

Image source