Keep it simple

I just finished Wray Herbert's "On Second Thought", which discusses heuristics. Heuristics is the psychological term for the shortcuts hard wired into our brains. The momentum heuristic permits us to catch a ball without thinking. Heuristics affects our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. The "fluency heuristic" is the source of the human tendency to seek out simplicity. In his book Herbert described a study where a group of students were given a recipe for egg rolls. One was written in a simple block print and the other in a decorative oriental script. When asked about how difficult making the recipe would be. the students with the simple print rated the recipe as easy to prepare, the ones given the fancy type version said it would be very hard to make. Keep this in mind when presenting to a customer. Use analogies to simple things that the customer is already familiar with, use simple words, and simple graphics to get your point across. Keep your recommendations simple. Research has proven what sales people have known for a long time--the simpler you make things, the more you will sell.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

The six rules of enthusiasm

When I first went into sales I would go to the library and check out everything I could find on sales. I would copy or write down points that I wanted to remember. Recently I found something I had photocopied long ago from a sales book. I am not sure where this is from (There is a reference to Edward R. Murrow on the page so I think it dates back to the 1950's) but it makes just as much sense as it did many decades ago.

The first way to rise above the crowd is to do the ordinary thing with extraordinary enthusiasm. The six rules for feeding and developing enthusiasm are:

1. Choose to sell something you can be enthusiastic about.
2. Keep on learning all you can about it.
3. Take pride in it.
4. When enthusiasm lags, work harder.
5. Work and talk enthusiastically
6. Exposure yourself to enthusiastic people

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch