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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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The Sales Advantage summary
Dale Carnegie
How to Get It, Keep It, & Sell More Than Ever
21 mins
Table of Contents
The Sales Advantage
summarized in 8 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 8
To ensure consistent and positive results, follow a repeatable sales process.
Imagine you’re stranded on a desert island. You’re desperately scouring your surroundings for a sign of help when you stumble across something miraculous: an airplane! Upon closer inspection, you see there’s fuel in the tank, and it looks like the motor works. A wave of relief starts to wash over you – only to be interrupted when you realize that you don’t actually know how to fly. And even if you could get the plane off the ground, you’ve no idea where you are!
Unfortunately, this is a feeling that most salespeople know well – you’ve probably experienced it yourself any time you’ve come across a seemingly ideal prospect just when you need it most. But just as you need certain skills and a good plan before you can attempt to fly a plane, you have to be fully equipped for each step of your sales journey before you set off. Without a solid strategy, you’ll be leaving it all up to chance.
Now, each selling situation is unique depending on what your pitch is, who you’re making it to, and when you’re making it. Yet selling is always a process, and it almost always features the same core elements and pathway. By breaking down the process into steps, you can see exactly what actions you need to take in order to go from acquiring a meeting with a customer to closing a sale, so as to repeat the cycle time and time again until it starts to produce consistent, positive results.
That’s where Dale Carnegie’s world-renowned Sales Advantage technique comes in. According to this framework, the sales process starts before you even land a meeting with a potential customer. You need to take three initial steps to earn your prospect’s time: identify who needs your product or service, create a custom pre-approach strategy, and then initiate contact.
Something to keep in mind is that at the core of this sales philosophy are your customer’s needs and wants. That means that the sales process is less about tricking a customer into buying from you and more about understanding his perspective in order to land that all-important meeting. But before you can do that, you need to take that first step and seek out new opportunities, as you’ll see in the next blink.
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What is The Sales Advantage about?
The Sales Advantage (2003) is a practical guide to closing more sales. Based on a popular corporate training program, it offers a step-by-step framework of the sales process, with tools and principles for identifying new prospects and converting them into returning customers.
Who should read The Sales Advantage?
- Salespeople
- Anyone who wants to improve client rapport
- Entrepreneurs seeking new opportunities
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