Deciding to start a sales career and enter into a sales course? Find some great recommendations to ensure you succeed in this portion of an interview between Dale Beaumont and Paul Tonich.
Paul is one of the three founding principals of Force First National, one of Western Australia’s most successful real estate agencies. While building the business, he discovered a passion for training others and has since started Paul Tonich Seminars with his sister, Amanda Morgan.
What recommendations would you make to someone who wants to get started in a sales career?
- Find yourself – identify who you want to be and what you want to be known for. You can do this by listing the people you admire and visualising yourself empowered with their qualities.
- Develop self-discipline – design yourself a personal code of conduct and commit to it. It will allow you to set standards in relation to branding, processes and self-management.
- Educate yourself – create a personalised self-improvement program, with dates locked in to avoid neglecting your education because you are ‘too busy’. This will involve reading books, listening to CDs, watching DVDs, attending seminars, consulting with experts and networking.
- Raise capital and invest in yourself – this should be done in conjunction with a ‘needs analysis’. This includes investing in resources such as computers, PDAs, software, car, clothes and incidentals, as well as gym membership, dental and other health services.
- Know the people who can make you and break you – true success will never be obtained on your own. Know who your required team mates are and who to drop from your side. This covers people of influence, negative people, inspirational people, buying influences, Generation Y (if required) and mentors.
- Do your sums – learn what makes you profitable and give yourself a strict criterion allowing you to only engage in ‘clean business’. You must know when to say ‘no’ so you can protect your time and profit margins.
- Learn and live by the law of leverage – every process you engage in must add value or have its benefits multiplied. Using tools such as SMS, email or simply doing business in a highly occupied public place can increase your presence.
- Make barbecue stories – arm your clients with the most powerful experiences you can. They will become advertising boards as they beat the story of a friend who thought he would ‘wow’ the audience.
- Put a detailed succession plan into action – this allows you to aim for something, gives clarity in decision-making, helps design sustainable systems and can factor in your growth to eliminate the chances of a sales plateau.
- Reinvent constantly – you can do this by taking up the ‘Madonna policy’. She keeps her style current and changes to suit whatever her audience wants to hear that year. Lose your fear, create new industry practices and cause your opponents to follow.
For access to more of this interview, check out Dale Beaumont’s “Secrets of Top Sales Professionals Exposed!“.
