I love sales training. I also love listening to sales trainers speak. They radiate enthusiasm and motivation that ignites passion for excellence. The methods they teach are often of the highest quality, however, they are usually no longer in the business of sales. Their marketing methods tend to be old, and old marketing styles are as useful as an airplane with no wings.

That doesn't mean the airplane wouldn't work if it had wings. We can give wings to old methods by integrating new twists and spins on classic marketing. Successful businesses, however, learn to recognize several common myths that some sales training continues to teach.

Some sales training teaches that you just have to "get more people in front of your offer" or "make twice as many calls and you'll double the results" or even "just pump up the numbers."

All of these sayings are catch-phrases for "work harder", and nobody likes to do that. These three phrases are circulated everywhere and it really makes me sad to see so many people working so hard and then even harder but still getting weak results. This is how people burn out and give up on sales and marketing.

There is a better way. Instead of increasing the number of people who see your offer, how about pre-qualifying the people who see your offer? I choose only to work with highly-qualified prospects. Time is too valuable to spend with somebody who has little or no interest in your widget or service. Make people qualify themselves to be worthy of your attention.

You need to become an expert, and ultimately a mentor. If you aren't able to bring real value and additional benefits to your prospects honestly, then you may be better off running a casino where people expect to be cheated. To be successful in sales, you are the most important asset. You need to become the gold mine of benefits to your prospects so they will buy more often and at higher prices.

Prospects aren't going to give you a big wad of cash for a little list of benefits. Price needs to be just and fair, but your prospect needs to understand the full benefits before price is even mentioned. You should compare your benefits to others who charge more for less. At that point your prospect cannot complain about price because your offer is clearly superior to the competition and they will not only buy from you but refer their associates who also want that same stack of benefits.

Sales and marketing is simply a battle of perceptions in the mind of your prospects. Become the best in your field, and the best prospects will come to you without your cold calls, direct mail, newspaper ads, or pay-per-click ads. They will seek you out, and all you have to do is be available and be honest. Your karma will shoot through the roof (on the positive side) and you will have everything you wanted because you helped others get what they wanted.