Top sales advice from one of top 5 Sales Professionals worldwide (fitness industry)

Sales is such an important part of any business.

Many of us hate the word sales, but it pay the bills and keeps the lights on.

So we asked Richard Bell, the speaker at our upcoming Inspiring Business Event, “when you’re advising sales professionals, what sales advice do you give them?”

Before Rich’s career as GM of The Entourage, he was the youngest GM of Fitness First and there was listed in the top five sales professionals worldwide on several occasions.

What was his sales advice?

“I think sales has come a long way in the last 10 years.

I often joke about it with my team all the time. I think gone are the days of the 1980’s fast-talking backslapping slick sales guy who’s trying to build fake rapport and tell you that your kid’s really cute and tell you that they’re going to give you the best deal and you have to take the best deal today.

I think those days are gone!

And you know what, there was probably an element of that at the start of my career, but it’s had to evolve a lot.

My advice to any young entrepreneur when it comes to sales is, number one, be authentic.

Complete authenticity in everything that you do and allow that person to see who you truly are, not the sales guy or the mask. Drop the mask and be who you are at your heart.

The second thing is it’s got to be a win-win-win.

I deliberately say win-win-win, three wins, because it’s got to be a win for you as the sales professional, entrepreneur, it’s got to be a win for your business, and it’s got to be a win for your customer.

So there needs to be that triangulating, “Is this good for myself and am I doing well in what I’m trying to sell here? Is it good for the customer? Do they like it? Is it achieving what their needs are? And is it good for the business as well?”

Having those three things to approach it with at a higher level without getting into detailed sales groups is the way I approach sales now.

The last thing is having the ability to say no.

As an entrepreneur we can often want to sell everyone everything.

I think there’s a lot of respect and a lot of power in you as an entrepreneur to be able to say, “You know what, I don’t think this product is for you, and no, I don’t think it’s good that you actually buy it from me.”

In today’s business world I think that’s what the consumer wants.

The consumer wants more honesty, more authenticity, and to be told if the product isn’t right for them, and we can shake hands and have a coffee together whether you buy or you don’t buy.

If you loved this conversation with Rich, you’ll love his presentation “Managing high growth, 90 people & a young family, at age 27” at the next Inspiring Business Event.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKGm3cbXFc4″ height=”340″ controls=”no” autohide=”yes” showinfo=”no” rel=”no” modestbranding=”yes”]