Riley: Follow road map to sales excellence
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, April 4, 2004
SAN DIEGO — Salespeople can become high performers if they train themselves to follow a four-stage road map to excellence, says Lorna Riley.
She should know. As president of the American Training Assn., creator of 60 skill development programs and author of four books, Riley is considered an elite sales and productivity speaker.
At the Myriad Software users conference here, she said salespeople are in "the kind of job where your pay is as effective as you are" and therefore need to set a goal and have a game plan.
"You have to ask yourself: Why do I want this to happen? A plan will keep you from doing the same things over and over without results," she said, leading to burnout and indifference. She suggested salespeople and storeowners, as a first stage, create a mission statement that is results-oriented and customer driven.
"It doesn't have to be long and lofty," she said, noting that police departments boil their mission statement down to a few words: "To Protect and Serve."
The second stage is getting help to meet your goals, she said. That may come in the form of education and training, or a mentor or a role model. It also means giving help to customers. Salespeople should approach the customer with the idea, "What can we do to help you make this decision?" Another idea: "There's at least one thing in this store that you'll absolutely love, so let's go find it."
Describing one of her own furniture purchases, Riley said the storeowner offered to come to her house to make sure a hutch was "the right fit." The owner brought along two urns that were a perfect accompaniment, and Riley bought them.
"It was much more than I wanted to spend," she said, but she was a satisfied customer. The extra mile can lead to customer loyalty, she added.
Salespeople can follow what she called the six F's to success: be focused, be fast, be flexible, be friendly, be forward-thinking and follow through.
Riley said the third stage to success is the "challenge" part of the road map — actually closing sales. This is the moment of truth, the ultimate test of the tools, training, positive attitude and other reinforcements picked up in the help stage.
The last stage is The Prize — your pay, commission, rewards. When you succeed, you celebrate, she said. When you don't, you evaluate, get feedback and find a new road to The Prize.
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