Discounting is a habit.

A bad habit.

I know.

My nickname back at one of my early sales jobs was "Dr. Discount".

Although it was kinda funny, I wasn't real proud to have my VP of Sales calling me Dr. Discount.

I got that nickname after dropping my price large amounts repeatedly to close a few deals.

I didn't really know what I was doing.

But my prospects did.

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Prospects lie to sales people.

Why?

I mean everyone accuses us sales people as being the liars.

Most sales people I know and have known are honest, ethical and strive to do well by all their customers.

And yet we are the scumbags of business?

No, you and I know that we are not, but years and years of social conditioning have passed down and reinforced the belief among millions of people that anyone who "sells" is a scummy liar, or suspect of being so at best.

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Here's my Sales Thought for the Week…

You make more sales, perform better in business, and enjoy life more when you act with positive expectations. This doesn't mean telling yourself to be happy when you are not. Focusing on what you want and then create and hold this vision in your mind will strongly to dim out and push away any fear or doubt you might have had. All results are created first by your thoughts and second by your actions."

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Your positive expectations combined with my proven sales techniques will immediately put better deals in your pipeline and put you on track to close more sales this quarter. Get your copy of the Persuasive Selling Skills Audio Program right now…

Someone just told me that ol Bill Clinton would like where I lives cuz it's "backwoods".

I never really thought about it much till now, but I guess ol Bubba would like to visit here on his backwoods political tour for Hillary.

I mean hey, check this out:

• I got 3 bars within stumbling distance of my office,
• One of those bars opens at 7am for the morning regulars (which frequently includes the town mayor),
• The best sandwich deli in town is the local Chevron station, where they also sell those fried potato-wedge thingies all day in a heat-lamp case (Bill's all over those!).

Yes, I got it made here in the backwoods of California.

I chose this place, and I am quite happy with it. Here's a picture I took during "rush hour" last night and so maybe you can see what I am talking about…

Yes, life is all about the choices you make. I've made some good ones and some not so good ones. But I've never regretted becoming a salesman because that one decision (that I made almost by accident) has given me a life and a lifestyle that I love.

Now if you don't love this game, well then you should. And in fact you should pick yourself up a copy of my Persuasive Selling Skills right now because in it you'll discover the brain shifts required to love this game and to make the buckaroos you need to make the choices you want in life.

Sell with Pride (I do).

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Please don't tell Bill about the fried potato-wedge thingies. I wanna keep my quaint little backwoods town a secret!

This story is one you need to watch if you want to improve your negotiating skills.

Last Saturday Microsoft walked away from it's bid to takeover Yahoo.

At first look, it might seem that this story is over.

Microsoft tried to get Yahoo to do a "friendly" merger, but Yahoo wouldn't go for it, claiming that they were worth more than what Microsoft was bidding.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, had threatened to do a hostile takeover if Yahoo didn't agree to a friendly merger.

But now Steve has withdrawn Microsoft's bid.

No hostile takeover.

What gives?

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Here's my Sales Thought for the Week…

People make their own decisions. You can't make them decide. And you never really "convince" anyone. At your best what you do as a persuader is to artfully help people to rapidly come to a decision that is good for them AND uses your product or service to do it. That is salesmanship at its finest.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. People decide fast when you get them riled up. And they buy your stuff when they are riled up about something you can help with. Discover how to tie these two things together fast, right now.

One of the most annoying things we hear in sales is "I'll Think it Over" when you go for a close or a next step.

We'll here's a hilarious video of how we both would like to verbally smack some of our prospects around when they give us the "I'll Think it Over" response.

Shameless Note: This is an "R" Rated Video Clip for "Adult Language"

Seriously though, there is a better way to handle "Think it Overs". And that is to eliminate them up-front entirely. It can be done, no matter what you sell and your prospects will appreciate you for it. Go here to discover how…

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus Brown

P.S. Thanks goes out to James Burke for sending me this video.

Got this email the other day from a customer who is ready to quit selling…

In my field, I have seen majority of people succeed by making false commitments & duping clients & because of this I am losing faith in this career.

I am stuck in a situation wherein my client is always in control & position of power because my organization wants to make revenue every month without appreciating the market conditions, even if that involves lying or selling sub standard products to the clients.

On top of that, it is increasingly becoming difficult for me to prove the value add to my prospects as my product proposition has become commoditized & a huge army of untrained "advisors" is pampering my target market with free information.

I had developed a lot of liking for sales after reading your newsletter but I think I will have to leave this wonderful field because of my inability to solve my problems."

Shantanu Bhargava

New Delhi, India

Success in selling depends largely on your mental attitude.

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Last week I wrote about about How to Smack Lying Competitors Around.

After that, Brian Heyel, a customer of mine who sells materials for high-end developments on Saint Martin in the Caribbean wrote in to share his story…

I work as a distributor for high-end finishing products for villas and hotels (marble flooring and what-not).  I have caught my only competition on the island lying straight-faced to their clients - people who were potentially my clients at one point as well - to make the sale. 

On one particular project I found out that my competition was bidding for the same flooring project as I was.  I found out exactly what they were proposing and managed to find out that they were proposing the name of one particular stone product that was much more rare and expensive than what they were actually going to deliver to my client. Unless the client was a geologist he'd never have known he was getting screwed by my competition. 

So I went to the only person who could prove that my competition was lying: a geologist.  With the confirmation from the geologist I crossed paths with my client and casually dropped the fact that I had been doing some homework on his project and invited him to check the same sources.  He came back to me with a big smile on his face and as it stands right now I am the only one working on his 1 million + flooring contract."

Most "average" sales people I have know wouldn't go to this extra effort to find an expert to debunk what Brian new to be a lie. Most sales people would just give up and bitch about it, or they would tell the client that their competitor was a liar, without offering any proof.

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Some years ago I sold some really boring stuff.

I sold accounting software.

Uggh.

I aint no accountant. I am not a bookkeeper. And I am not an HR person.

But I sold software to these people to help automate their work and make their jobs easier.

The stuff worked. It worked quite well in fact.

And there was good money in selling this stuff too.

But ooohhhh was it boring.

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