Ways to Find Prospects to Sell to in the Twenty-First Century

Need to Find Prospects to Sell to?

While prospecting in the twenty-first century is somewhat different than it was in the last century. It is not impossible to find prospects that really want what you are trying to sell and offering to buyers.

I know things are a little different than they used to be but I need to change my way of thinking as I am writing this as well. I say that because the majority of my current readers were not even old enough to try to sell things back in the last century.

The majority of today's new salespeople were not even old enough to get a job selling in the last century with the exception of a few things like school projects offering cookies or candy bars and things like that.

I will have admit I am just as guilty as most in my thinking because I forget that the world is a whole lot different place than it was when I first started selling things for a living. Back in the old days we could knock doors, call people out of the blue and cold canvass on the phone with out breaking any laws at the time.

Today as you know many of these practices are unlawful in most of today's communities. But if you use a little common sense there are ways of getting even more interesting leads than I did in the nineteen-sixties.

The very first prospecting that I did was go into the office every working day about eight o'clock in the morning and after the short sales meeting my self and all of the other salespeople would pick up the phone and start making calls to find interested prospects. It would take about five calls to get someone to answer the phone and about one out of ten people we talked to would agree to an appointment.

The goal every day was to make six appointments for that day or evening. I was really very good at doing this and honestly do not remember many days that I did not make at least six or seven appointments are more for the day or evening.

The reason we needed to make so many appointments was because it took making a presentation to both the husband and the wife in order to have a sale that was not likely to cancel later on. One legged pitches just did not work in most cases. So some times, or I should say a lot of times the other person that you did not make the appointment with would run late or could not see you that day or worst of all, canceled the appointment altogether.

So with six appointments or more you would have a good chance of making two or three presentations a day. Most salespeople would close on average one sale out of every three presentations that they made. Most of the time my average was a little better than that but still two or three approved sales per week made for a very good living in the day. Most of my friends made about thirty five dollars a week and I on the other hand, would make well over two hundred dollars most weeks. If you consider that a dollar back in the day was worth seven of today's dollars it was a very good income for a twenty something young man.

But let's talk about today. You can't canvass door to door and you can't canvass on the phone so what can you do?

Have you ever considered working at a fair, flea market or one of these marketing shows that people put on in communities ever once in a while. You can also go to the shopping mall and rent a small space to put up a card table and get some leads there. We also used to go to department stores, grocery stores and now that they have wholesale outlet stores you could probably get a location there cheap enough to make some money. Depending on where you live there are probably fifteen or twenty places you could think of right off the top of your head.

I made more sales working at counter sales than I ever did cold canvassing. If you think about it is the same as cold canvassing but you see three to ten times as many prospects a day as you would going door to door. The number one thing you have to remember when doing counter sales is to have some kind of a free drawing to get the prospects to your counter.

Another very good method that would work great in today's market is referrals. People like to buy from people they trust. That is a given and if their mother, father or very best friend recommends you to them, it becomes very easy to get into the door. How do you get referrals, you might ask? Easy, you ask for them.

There are still easy cheap ways today where you can advertise your self and your product. You can put business cards out at restaurants you visit as well as on small bulletin boards at car washes, grocery stores and the like.

You may also have some local penny shopper newspapers in your area that you can put an ad or two in for little or nothing. There are usually some local internet shopping sites that let you put free or low cost ads on in the area where you live.

Now that I have got you to thinking you might come up with some more great ideas on your own. If you do please add them to the comments so the other viewers can learn of the methods as well.

Thank you,

Billy J Gibson

better known as The Selling Fool

Finding Gainful Employment In This Day and Age

Finding a good job today is probably not much different than when I went out into the world in the year nineteen and sixty. It was the fall of the year and I was fed up and tired of going to school. I had put in two years going to college and did not feel that it was doing me any good. I was ready to go out and be successful at something.

    As a young person who did not have a lot of experience in the work place I knew I would have to start at the bottom where ever I did find a job. My father was a car dealer and had been for some thirty-three years at that time, His dealership was in a very small town of around three thousand in population so there was really no need for me to stay and work for him.

    We had television in those days but I never watched the news much or paid much attention to newspapers. As a result of not being very news conscious I did not realize that times were hard. So when I struck out my first day in Amarillo, Texas to look for employment I picked up a local paper and read the classified ads. I saw four or five ads that caught my eye for jobs with local car dealerships and auto parts stores.

    The first place I applied I was offered a job as a parts delivery man and was offered a salary of thirty five dollars a week. This does not sound like a lot of money now days but at the time in nineteen and sixty it was enough to pay my rent, food and all of my living expenses. I had already paid off my car with a summer job back home and I always was a very thrifty person.

    The man that hired me was impressed with my positive acceptance of the job offer. The job was actually only a fill in position and was only supposed to last for about a six month period of time. This did not bother me as I knew I could find something even better during the five or six months I would be working there.

    In fact my positive thinking paid off because when I was called into the manager’s office six months later to tell me that my services were no longer needed he had found me a better job with the local Chevrolet dealer at exactly twice the pay I was making working for him.

    By golly, life really is great if you want it to be. So I went to work at the local Chevrolet dealer’s parts department for a year and a few months and even got a raise during that time.
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    But things got a little slow in the car business so I got a job at another auto parts store at about the same pay. I actually had some bad luck at this job because when summer came I had to go to summer camp for National Guard. While I was away the boss noticed that there had been a lot of stealing going on before I went to camp but it stopped while I was at National Guard camp. When I came back from camp the theft began again so he was sure I was the culprit and he told me I was fired. I told him that it was definitely not me but to no avail.

    So I went and got a newspaper and looked at the classified ads and saw an ad that really caught my attention. The ad said, “The Highest Paid Salesmen in the World work for Encyclopaedia Britannica!” Once I read that I thought to myself that I have always wanted to be a salesman and if I was going to become one I wanted to be one of the highest paid salespeople in the world.

    I went down and applied and got the position the first thing the next morning. And guess what? They were not lying. I started out working and training other people right away and became a manager in no time. In fact I worked for them most of the next twenty-four years and I can say I really enjoyed every minute of it. Did I become the highest paid salesman in the world? Not quite but it was a great occupation and I trained several thousand salespeople over the years who went out into the world to earn a great living. I might mention the boss at my old job called me up one day and said he caught the culprit who was doing all of the stealing and offered me a big raise to come back to work. I thanked him for calling and telling me but I told him I was very happy doing what I was doing.

    The only reason I am not still with Britannica today, other than my age is because they did away with the direct sales organization back in the middle eighties. But due to my sales training I never had any trouble finding a job. If you can sell, you can make a living. I always felt that everyone should make sure their children knew how to make a living selling things. Because if you think about it everything requires some salesmanship.

    If you want a job, you have to sell yourself. Put together a great resume and make sure it is very positive in nature. Also learn something about the companies you are applying to so you can carry on an intelligent interview. Also make sure your appearance is great and you are dressed appropriately for the position you are applying for.

    In this day and age you need to use all of your resources, such as the internet, your friends, your relatives, your acquaintances and of course, the good old classified ads. There are jobs out there, so it is a matter of getting in the door and making sure you do the kind of work that gets you promoted. The truth is the job market is all up to you and you can accomplish anything that you set your mind to.

      Life is great and as long as you, yourself, believe it is great, it will be

Billy Jack Gibson
Better known as The Selling Fool

Getting Your Work Day Organized

In order to get your work day organized you must normally begin the preceding day. If you set down with pin and paper or with your lap top you can make a list of all of the things you intend to do tomorrow. As it is normal for a person to want to put off things until tomorrow you will find it is very easy to make a list for tomorrow.

    Depending on where you are in your life you most likely will have to include some items from your home life as well as all of the things you need to get done in your work life.

    You can keep your two lives separate but in my case I always did about as much work at home as I did in the field as far as earning a living was concerned so I just combined the two. The reason I did this was because I had to earn a good living in order to even have a decent home life and on the other hand I had to have a happy home life in order to have a clear head when I went to work in the morning.

    So what I am saying, is your circumstances will determine your daily organizational duties.  All of the things I am about to tell you I learned at a very early age. I had my first management positions starting when I was twenty-two years of age. I was quite green as I started managing and training people. But I did catch on rather quickly and I had excellent teachers.

    My first management jobs were teaching new people how to sell encyclopedias and make a great living at it. I found that getting my life organized and well prepared to do the next days work was the only way I could excel at doing a great job the next day.. So getting organized is one of the things I taught all of my students day one and I must say to my knowledge they all did very well later on in life as a result of my training.

    To start off with, it takes three things to really get your act together.

    First off you have to have an open mind and a determined heart in order to get at the idea of getting things done. So work on your attitude and get really positive about making a list of things that you will absolutely, positively and without any doubt get done tomorrow. Read your list over several times before you go to bed and you will find you will be ready to get with it the following morning.

    Second, the next day take your list of things to do and sit down and read it over again the first thing in the morning. Double check your plans and make sure you have the phone numbers you will need as well as any maps, tools, special reports are other materials you will be needing, to be able to accomplish all of your tasks for the day.
   
    Also remember, some of the things on your list may well be home chores that have to be accomplished as well. So you may need to do a few things like make sure you have gas for the lawn mower or washing powder, things like that.

    But what ever jobs, chores and tasks you have on the list make sure you have all of the tools and supplies necessary to do the different jobs.

    Now the third thing is this. When you finish the list that afternoon and have everything hopefully checked off as done, it is time to start a new list of what you need to get done tomorrow. So carefully think over what needs to be done tomorrow and put all of the items you feel you can get done on the next day’s list.

    Be sure and read the completed list over several times before bedtime as this will enable your subconscious mind to be aware of what needs to be done and believe me your subconscious mind is a terrific manager.  You will find that your subconscious mind will with out a doubt make sure you get everything possible done the following day with out too much stress on your part.

    So there you have it in three simple steps, which is the easiest way I know of, to get your day organized and possibly increase your productivity by as much as three hundred percent in a lot of cases, as some people have told me in the past. Remember to stay positive and you will succeed. Good Luck and God speed.

Billy Jack Gibson
Better known as The Selling Fool

Well Twenty-Fourteen Is Now Upon Us!

When it comes to getting ready for twenty-fourteen I feel the time is here. There is no need for the usual list  of unfulfilled New Years Resolutions that never get accomplished.

I would suggest instead you make a short list of things that you either want or would like to happen for your benefit in 2014.

These will be things like the new job or promotion you would be looking for as well as things you want to acquire. For example you might like a new home or new car.

You might instead want some new  improvements made to your present home. These could be things like a new roof, insulation installed in the attic or new insulated windows. These are things that would save you money every month.

You might even consider getting a home security system installed to help protect your property and the lives of you and your loved ones.

Times are getting tougher and you need to get tough as well and start protecting what you own as well as the ones you love.

Another thing to consider is health issues such as weight or any illness you might be confronted with. There is so much health information available now that virtually any disease it seems can either be slowed down or overcome.

Health issues are just the norm for people of my age but I am dealing with it.  If you are unhealthy I do feel for you but having the right attitude can do wonders for your health, if you follow through and do all of the things that need to be done.

So whether it is diet, exercise or just taking your medication on time put it on the want list and your daily to do list and get it done.

Now I personally have to consider all of these things for my own well being everyday, so I am just reminding everyone of some of the things that can make life much better for us all.

At any rate once you have your list of wants made you can then began the process of getting all of this done during the year 2014.

I will remind everyone to get out the good old to do list and make a little headway everyday on this project.

If you do make a daily effort and never let up, you will find that, some way some how everything on your list got accomplished in  2014.

I obviously have some hefty goals in mind for 2014 but I also have the courage and conviction that I will accomplish each and everyone of these goals in next twelve months.

So good luck, and God speed during the coming year.

Thank you,
Billy Jack Gibson

Better known as:
The Selling Fool

Hints on How to Develop a Successful Mental Attitude

Developing a successful mental attitude is just an absolute necessity in this day and age.

Guess What? If you don’t at least think you can win, you are not going to. It is as simple as that. Winning I have always found is about seventy-five percent attitude and twenty-five percent work.

Now you still have to work as there is just no way to get around having to do what you have to do.

But it is so much easier if you have that winning attitude and you approach the work issue with the I can absolutely get this done, frame of mind.

Do you think Edison could have produced the first working electric light bulb if he thought for a minute that he could not get it done. Of course he could not and neither could you or anyone else for that matter.

The truth is, all it takes is a winning attitude and the necessary work to get the job done as well as done correctly I might add.

This is true for sales careers as well as any other labor or occupation you have to get accomplished.

So just sit down for a few minutes and get into the  right frame of mind and go get the task done correctly.

Just say to your self or out loud if you have some privacy the simple words, “I Can Do It” over and over until you believe it.

And by all means when you finish the job always celebrate your success. If you do this it will soon be come a habit and you will begin to envision what your just reward is for getting the job done right and on time.

Well this is just my thoughts on the subject of winning but it has always worked for me and I think you will find this sort of thinking will be of tremendous help to you as well with very few exceptions.

Just never forget to tell yourself, “I Can Do It” and really believe it.

Thank you,

Billy J Gibson
Better known as The Selling Fool

Please leave a comment  if this advice was helpful.

The Lazy Days of Summer

Yes the lazy days of summer are upon us. I remember way back when I was in grade school I would lay out in the backyard hammock under the shade trees and read a good book or two.

I was always an avid reader of books on science and especially books about what was going on out in the universe. Back in those days most people did not have air-conditioning in their homes much less in their cars.

My family was fortunate enough to have what we used to call a swamp cooler in our home. Up in the Texas panhandle where I grew up the air was very dry. We only received about twelve inches of rain per year on average so evaporative coolers worked just fine.

The weather was very hot during the summer months and a typical day of around one hundred degrees was not uncommon. There is no telling what the heat index was as I had never heard of such a think back in those days.

However I can understand that due to the dry air the heat index was probably not all that crucial.

But in my opinion one hundred still feels like one hundred but due to the low humidity it did not feel like one hundred and ten degrees like it would feel where I live now.

But I was a youngster back then around seven years old so I did not believe in having to stay indoors. We lived on a farm so there were a lot of chores to keep me busy. We raised mostly chickens, turkeys, and hogs but did have a couple of horses and four or five cows to get milk from.

The farm land was eighty acres of cotton and alfalfa that we grew most years. Some times we would grow a little wheat as well. I was too young to use any of the farm machinery but I was just old enough to chop cotton and do most of the garden work using hand tools.

I always drank plenty of water and did try to stay in the shade when I could. I also wore a great big straw hat and very loose fitting overalls. So in spite of the heat I survived very well and I do not remember ever having any medical issues other than an occasional sun burn.

Life seems different now as I really believe that the world is literally hotter. All of the asphalt roads and black roof tops in the cities and towns has multiplied the heat retaining surfaces all over the globe.

So now I like everyone I know,  stay inside under the air condition in our seventy something degree home and ride out the summers. I still read a lot and watch some television to past the time away. I also write quite a bit but should write a lot more. I need to keep this Blog alive as well as write a lot more articles to help people earn more as well as get more form the money they do earn.

I am working on several books and when and if I get a few published I will be happy to promote them on this blog.

Where ever you live I hope you are being able to deal with the hot weather. I am learning that hot weather is the number one weather related killer in the United States. It turns out that there are more heat related deaths in the US than from all of the other types of storm related deaths combined.

So what ever you do try to stay out of the heat. If you AC dies on you then take a trip to the mall or someplace that you can get out of the heat in the middle of the day.

If you are a salesperson make it a point to go to someone’s office or home and make a presentation in the comfort of their environment. You can stay cool and earn money at the same time you are giving the customer a good deal on the products they are buying from you. Talk about win, win this is the way to do it.

Well I guess that is all for now so I hope you enjoyed this little rant and I will put something else on the Blog in a few days.

Thank you,

Billy J Gibson

Better known as the Selling Fool

Do You Want To Make Some Money?

Making money is always on the mind of most people now days. I think that is due to the recession and all of the bad things people are reading about, they may think that it is impossible to make money in this day and age.

However this is no longer the case in 2013. More people are beginning to get the jobs they have been wanting the last five years and the stock market has began to grow big time.

The housing market is recuperating and home prices are finally going up in most of the country.

The government is doing it’s best to keep mortgage rates down low so more people can afford to buy the home they have been thinking of owning for a long, long time.

Most of the older people like myself that are reading this have long ago retired and their homes and possessions are paid for, and have been for some time now.

But actually this article is for the younger person who is now just starting out or may be a little older but having to recover from all of the hardship of the last four or five years.

These young people are the one’s who need the most help and are having a hard time finding any help at all.

So the first thing I am going to tell you is the fact that now is the time to start getting it together and set up your life in such a way as to be able to earn some money during the rest of the twenty-first century.

The way to go about making money and in large amounts I might add is rather simple. It is the follow through and getting it done that is the most difficult for most people. The biggest problem is, I can’t do it for you, because there is only one of me and millions of you.

But let me assure that you can do it, virtually anyone can do it, if they set their mind to doing what is necessary to earn money.

I will keep all of this real simple and will be writing a good number of articles for the Sales and Selling blog to help you do this. I am also writing a number of books on this subject and have three may be four books about half done at this point.

I will let you know when I start getting some of them published. But all of the hassle of getting my books written and published is my problem and not yours so let me start getting down to the facts of how I feel you should start to make sure you are able to retire in the distant future and happy to be alive as well as being proud of the life you have accomplished.

I will keep the instructions as simple as possible so you can follow them, as well as make sense out of all of this.

The first thing you have to do is figure out what exactly you are going to do to earn all of this money. You have to set down and do a little brain storming about what you like to do as well as what you can do well right now. What ever it is, most likely it will be fine. I say that because if it is something that you like to do and you can do a great job with it, then other people like yourself will enjoy it as well and be willing to pay for the information, product or what ever idea you have come up with.

Remember we no longer live just in some little city or town. Thanks to the internet there are literally millions of people just like yourself with the same general interest and needs that you have.

Once you figure out what it is you are going to do the next step is where. Will you have to move to different area or can you work in your home office like I do or may be team up with a neighbor or a relative.

But where ever it is getting your location fixed in your mind is one of the steps that has to be accomplished. The next step is to decide or you and your partners must decide when you are going to get started doing this project, what ever it is.

Timing can be crucial when it come to some products but not so much in others. But regardless you have to get started as soon as possible with as little delay as possible if you can.

The next step is why you want to do this project. Is it to make yourself wealthy, send the kids or yourself to college or may be help other people. But what ever the reason you are doing all of this, be sure and remember that you have to keep yourself inspired and taken care of by following through with the project.

Once you have the why figured out, write it out on a big piece of paper or cardboard and pin it to the wall and look at it ten or fifteen times a day. This will inspire you to follow through with the next step and become a success at what ever it is you will be dong.

The next step you will be doing every day for the rest of your career is the How of what you are doing. If you can figure out how then you can train others to do the same and earn even more money from their results.

So there you have it, very simplified I might add.

WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? HOW?

Those are five questions that have to be answered in order to become successful at earning a good amount of money in twenty-first century.

If you find this information informative as well as creative towards helping you to become successful please leave a comment at the bottom of the article. Comments help me to understand better what the public wants and desires as well as improve traffic which means I get to help more people.

I will be writing more post on this subject in the near future and I do hope you the best in your new endeavors, regardless of what they might be.

Thank you so much,

Billy J Gibson

Better known as the Selling Fool