Twelve Sales Resolutions

1. Resolve to speak enthusiastically, cheerully and positively. We all buy happiness, fulfillment, the bright promises of what goods and services will do for us - whether our situation is high or low, important or unimportant. When was the last time you ever bought anything from a negative person?

2. Resolve to play the Law of Averages for all its worth. The more people you see the more you will sell. The more irons you have in the fire, the less worried you need to be about the outcome of any one isolated, however important, sales attempt.

3. Resolve to know more about what you are doing than anyone else. A truly knowledgeable person is an unusually valuable asset to the customer, his company or himself.

4. Resolve to do things that get you noticed. An advertisement that isn't noticed isn't read, doesn't sell. A salesmaker who is easily passed over and forgotten will go hungry. A salesmaker with a money making idea, with a better-than-average sales presentation, is the one who gets the repeat sale.

5. Resolve to talk more business. It is a simple, powerful rule of selling. The more you talk the customer's business, the more you will sell. One study of a better-paid salesmakers revealed they averaged 25 minutes a day on general subjects of conversation. The poorly paid sellers averaged 145 minutes on those nonbusiness subjects.

6. Resolve to give yourself away. Nothing, sells like service that is courteous, friendly, helpful. Helping customers helping themselves is one sure way to generate a great feeling of well-being that is personally rewarding, stimulating.

7. Resolve to make a contuining effort to improve your personality. Proof that a developed personality, a likeable and warm attitude toward people and life generally, has a substantial payoff is provided by a Purdue University psychologist who discoverd that college graduates who rated highest in a personality test also earned 50% more dollars in a 10 year test period, than those who rated lowest.

8. Resolve to do a little bit more than the other fellow. Don't you tend to favor the salesmaker who services best? The extra effort is frequently the only thing that places a distinctive "I'm better" image on many forms of modern-day selling. Stand out from the crowd by working harder and smarter than the competition.

9. Resolve to Perservere. Selling is hard, challenging, difficult but rewarding too. Remember the salesmaker's quote: "A winner never quits and a quitter never wins!"

10. Resolve to plan your work and work your plan. No good general ever went into battle without a battle plan. No salesmaker, worthy of the name, will sell hit or miss. To plan well is to have thought deeply about all the factors, roadblocks, sales resistances, that can affect the successful outcome of your selling efforts. Application, a do-something attitude about making your plan work for you, will guarantee your success.

11. Resolve to ask for a buying decision every time you try for a sale. No asking, no order - it is as simple as that. Be inspired by still another survery: 50% of a large sample of salesman did not make it a practice of asking for a buying decision in a series of controlled selling situatons. But those salesmakers who did ask for a buying decision, consistently averaged 300% more sales than those who didn't.

12. Resolve to be people oriented. It is people, flesh and blood men and women who make or break you. People are your primary business. Make no mistakes about it, if you busy yourself selling things, product features, nuts and bolts, and neglect customer benefits, customer happiness, customer rewards, you will drastically limit your selling effectiveness. It has been truly said that salesmakers are psychologists, sociologists, humanists, public relations experts, masters of human motivation. They are every bit of that and more. But, above all else, they are people oriented.

Look back. That's an even dozen sales resolutions. Every last one of them is a practical suggestion that is part of the successful working experience of every top sales producer in the land. They are worth reviewing again and again. These are skills, working hab its, attitudes that the times demand of you if you are to profit from the efforts you put into selling.