Book SummaryThe Psychology of Selling, by Brian Tracy

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Psychology of Selling

While many people enter the sales profession, a few will end up far more successful than the rest. In The Psychology of Selling, bestselling author and management consultant Brian Tracy explains how you can become a top salesperson by understanding how your customers think. He walks you through basic and advanced selling techniques, demonstrating how you can dramatically increase your sales success by improving your skills just a little bit on a consistent basis.

The Psychology Behind Successful Salespeople

There’s a wide discrepancy between the success of top salespeople and that of mediocre ones. In fact, the top 20 percent of salespeople make 80 percent of the money being earned in the profession as a whole—we call this the 80/20 rule. Further, the top 20 percent of that top 20 percent (equaling 4 percent of the total) makes 80 percent of those earnings. In other words, out of every 100 salespeople, there are four people who are earning as much as all the rest combined.

So how do you get into that top 20 percent of 20 percent? The answer begins with understanding the psychology of success.

Success Comes From a Winning Edge

To find success in sales, you need to develop a winning edge. A winning edge is a small advantage in capability or skill that adds up to a significant difference in results—like when a horse wins a race by just a nose but takes home 10 times the prize money as the horse in second place. The important thing to note here is that you only need an edge: a few things that you consistently do better than anyone else.

Success Comes From a Positive Attitude

Developing a winning edge starts by developing a positive self-concept—how you think about yourself, your skills, and other people. Your self-concept determines your attitude and how you approach the world in general and sales in particular.

Having a positive self-concept and a positive attitude will lead you to sales success in three ways:

1. A positive attitude makes people feel positively about you and makes them more receptive to your sales pitch.
2. A positive attitude inclines you to like your job, and you tend to spend more time doing things you enjoy. When you devote more time to something, you inevitably get better at it. Thus, if you enjoy doing the things that lead to sales (for example, prospecting or engaging with customers), you’ll do them more readily and consequently become better at them.
3. Your self-concept determines your earnings comfort zone, or the income level at which you’ll be satisfied. Researchers have found that a person generally earns within 10 percent of what she determines her worth to be. If you see yourself as a $50,000-a-year person, you’ll behave in ways that will earn you approximately $50,000 a year. If you see yourself as a $100,000-a-year person, you’ll act accordingly.

Success Comes From Setting Goals

The most successful salespeople are the ones who set goals for themselves. Specific goals are far more helpful than vague goals. To set your goals and the subgoals you’ll need to accomplish them:

1. Decide your annual income goal.
2. Figure out how much you’ll need to sell annually to meet this income goal.
3. Calculate how much you’ll need to sell monthly, weekly, and daily to meet this goal.
4. Determine what specific activities you must do to reach those daily goals. How many calls will you need to make? How many presentations? How many follow-ups?
5. Plan a daily schedule that will allow you to do those activities. If you’ll need to make 10 calls a day, what time do you need to start in the morning? Set subgoals throughout the day: for example, that you’ll have made six calls by 10 a.m.

Failure Comes From Fear

In the same way that the qualities that drive success are mental, the fears that drive failure are also mental. The primary fear that holds a salesperson back from success is the fear of rejection. The fear of rejection is triggered by the possibility of disapproval, judgment, or rudeness from a customer.

There are three truths you can internalize to help you get over your fear of rejection:

1. Rejection is not personal: Rejection is an expected and normal part of sales.
2. Courage takes practice: Showing up in the face of possible rejection takes courage. Fortunately, courage is like a muscle—the more you practice it, the stronger it gets.
3. Positive thinking conquers fear of rejection: Repeat positive mantras to yourself (“I’m doing great! I love my work!”) whenever you feel yourself shying away from a situation. You’ll pump yourself up with positive thoughts and have less trouble facing that possible rejection.

The Psychology Behind Customers

Now that we’ve discussed some of the basic psychology that drives a salesperson’s success or failure, let’s look at some of the basic psychology that drives a customer’s decision to buy. Understanding customers starts by understanding that all buying decisions are emotional, not rational. Customers are driven by emotions of desire and fear.

Some of the basic desires that drive people to make a purchase include:

• Money and security
• Personal growth
• Love and companionship
• Health
• Status and prestige

The two main fears that prevent a person from making a purchase are:

• Fear of losing money: People often fear spending too much on a poorly judged purchase.
• Fear of making a mistake: People also fear buying something they later won’t want, don’t need, or that won’t help them in the way they’re anticipating.

Before Your Sales Meeting: Prospecting Techniques

Now that we’ve looked at the psychology behind sales, let’s move on to the techniques of sales. The first step in the selling process is getting an appointment. To do so, you’ll usually have to cold call: call up strangers and get them to agree to meet with you so that you can show them...

The Psychology of Selling Summary Shortform Note

We've reorganized the book’s chapter order for coherency. As a reference, here's how the summary chapters correspond to those of the book:

• Chapter 1: Overview of the...

The Psychology of Selling Summary Chapter 1: Overview of the Psychology Behind Sales

Salespeople serve a vital function in our economy. Sales fuel businesses, which in turn produce the products and services that keep our society running as well as the salaries that allow people to purchase these products and services. Businesses fund the taxes that provide all of our governmental services, from schools to hospitals to social security. Without sales making all of this happen, society would collapse.

People who succeed in sales have high incomes and job security. However, while lots of people enter the profession, only a few find such success, and there’s a wide discrepancy between the results of top salespeople and mediocre ones. In The Psychology of Selling, bestselling author and management consultant Brian Tracy explains how you can become a top salesperson by understanding how your customers think. He walks you through basic and advanced selling techniques, demonstrating how you can dramatically increase your sales success by improving your skills just a little bit on a consistent basis.

In this first section, we’ll look at the psychology behind successful salespeople and the psychology behind customers.

The Psychology Behind Successful...

Shortform Exercise: Set Specific Goals

Specific goals are far more motivating than vague goals.

Run through the exercise outlined above to determine your goals and subgoals. First, decide a reasonably ambitious goal for your annual income for the upcoming year. Then, figure out how much of your product you would need to sell on an annual basis to make that goal.

Shortform Exercise: Set Personal Goals

Your sales goals ultimately serve your personal goals; the reason you sell is to earn money to fund your life outside of work—your family, your hobbies, and your vacations. Having greater clarity on what you want to do with your earnings helps motivate you. The longer your list, the more motivated you’ll be.

Start making a list of everything you’d like to purchase and everything you’d like to experience in the next week, month, year, and decade. Start by naming 15-20 things.

The Psychology of Selling Summary Chapter 2: Before Your Sales Meeting—Prospecting

Now that we’ve looked at the psychology behind sales, let’s move on to the techniques of sales. The first step in the selling process is getting an appointment. To do so, you’ll usually have to cold call: Call up strangers and get them to agree to meet with you so that you can show them your product or service.

Asking a prospective customer for an appointment is probably the most stressful and least-liked aspect of selling, and it’s the part that most often causes people to leave the profession. However, the good news is that prospecting is a skill and can be learned, practiced, and honed. There are specific techniques that can make your cold calling more effective, outlined in the following sections.

(Shortform note: For a more in-depth exploration of finding and developing new customers, read our summary of New Sales. Simplified.)

Mentally Prepare

Before making a phone call, mentally prepare so that you know exactly what you’re going to say, and you’re in the right frame of mind.

Plan every word of your opening statements to a potential customer. People make decisions quickly and on first impressions, and...

Shortform Exercise: Counter Objections

When cold calling, you can expect some common responses and objections, for which you should prepare responses.

What are two or three common objections you get when you call a prospective customer?

The Psychology of Selling Summary Chapter 3: At Your Meeting—Selling Techniques

Once you’ve gotten an appointment, the next step is the actual sales meeting. In this chapter, we’ll discuss techniques to make your presentation as effective as possible.

1. We’ll begin by examining the different buyer types you’ll encounter so you can adjust your presentation to each.
2. We’ll discuss a few ways you can open your presentation that will set you up for a successful closing.
3. We’ll examine the “show, tell, ask” presentation format that will make your sales meetings more effective.
4. We’ll discuss how you can have a meaningful conversation to draw out your customer’s needs.
5. We’ll discuss a few additional presentation methods that will increase your prospect’s desire to buy.
6. Finally, we’ll explore several different ways you can close a sale.

1. Know Your Buyer

To really nail a presentation, you’ll have to tailor it to each particular prospect you speak with. Everyone responds differently to information and questions, and if you can figure out how to best engage each person, answering their particular needs, you’ll have a much higher success rate.

There are six common types of customers, with an approximate percentage...

Shortform Exercise: Focus on What Your Product Does

A benefit is how a product or service meets a need. Therefore, you must underscore what your product does rather than what it is.

Think back to your last sales meeting. What was the primary need of your buyer? What was she most concerned about for her business?

The Psychology of Selling Summary Chapter 4: Appeal to Your Customer’s Subconscious

During your meeting, you can increase the likelihood of a sale if you appeal to your customer’s subconscious mind with cues that lead her to think you’re professional, in control, and an expert in your field. You can do this by harnessing the power of suggestion, which plants ideas and beliefs in a person’s subconscious mind with subtle social cues. This chapter outlines techniques to do this.

Present Yourself and Your Product Professionally

When you’re presenting any idea, product, or service, your customer sees you as an extension of it. Your appearance reflects on your product—if you present professionally, your customer will see your product or company as professional also.

First impressions matter, and 95 percent of a first impression is determined by a person’s clothing. Therefore, dress professionally and neatly. In addition, be punctual, organized, and polite. If you are late, disheveled, unorganized, or poorly prepared, your customer will think your product or company is of lower quality.

Additionally, present your product cleanly, neatly, and in an organized fashion. Materials should look well-kept; no coffee stains on your brochures or broken pieces....

The Psychology of Selling Summary Chapter 5: Creative Selling Techniques

Now that we’ve covered some of the psychology underpinning sales as well as some basic and advanced selling techniques, we’ll look at how you can increase your creativity when you approach sales, enabling you to find more customers and opportunities. We’ll examine:

• What is creativity in sales?
• How to increase your creativity
• How to put your creativity into action in sales through specific creative selling techniques

What Is Creativity in Sales?

Most people think of creativity as something that applies to arts or literature. However, creativity is simply the process of creating something—and when you’re selling, you’re creating business where there was none before. When you engage in many of the practices of selling—looking for prospects, presenting solutions, answering questions and objections, closing the sale, and getting referrals—you’re accessing your creativity to connect with people.

When you can increase your creativity, you can increase your success rate in closing sales and therefore increase your earnings. This can make an immediate, tangible difference in:

• Prospecting: Finding more and better prospects through innovative ways will...

Shortform Exercise: Educate Yourself

Before you can tap into the full potential of your creativity, you need as much information as possible about your product, your market, and your competition. Get specific and do a full analysis:

What are the five to 10 best features of your product, the ones that most customers prioritize? What might be some that your customers are overlooking that you might be able to feature as well?

Shortform Exercise: Mindstorm

After you’ve fully educated yourself and thought through every aspect of your product and market, you can mindstorm to spark your creativity and inspire ideas.

Write down your biggest goal or most challenging sales problem, in the form of a question.

The Psychology of Selling Summary Chapter 6: 10 Guidelines for Success

To improve your sales success rate so that you end up in the top 20 percent of salespeople—or even the top 5 or 10 percent—you must consciously approach your job with a desire to improve. Fortunately, you can greatly improve your performance by following some guidelines that have helped many others improve their performance: The best way to achieve success is to do what successful people do.

Here are 10 common guidelines to achieving success:

Guideline 1: Aim for Excellence

In order to excel, you must make the decision to excel. Oddly, the majority of salespeople spend their entire careers just getting by in sales and never make a conscious commitment to excellence. Their inability to commit means they remain mediocre. In contrast, the people who do make this kind of conscious commitment are, every time, the ones who find great success.

Excellence is tied to happiness. On one hand, happiness leads to excellence: If you enjoy what you do, you’ll put your heart into it, which will lead you to become good at it.

On the other hand, excellence leads to happiness; when you’re successful, you’re happier and more satisfied with your life and career. The first step toward...