Selling is one of the essential skills that I need to learn if I want to achieve financial freedom. This is what I have realized from reading the Rich Dad's series by Robert Kiyosaki. Selling skills allow me to sell my ideas to other people and persuade them to invest or become my business partners or become my mentors. In this way, I will be able to accelerate my path to financial success.

Since selling is an important skill to acquire, thus I decided to enroll in a few selling courses and seminars. And I have learned quite a few things about selling.

Firstly, I need to change my perception regarding rejection. It is normal to encounter rejections in selling. When a prospect rejects me, he is rejecting the product or service that I am representing. The rejection is not about rejecting me. There is always a hidden reason behind the rejection of the product of service. I should take this opportunity to find out the actual reason and see if I work around the issue.

For example, I am trying to sell someone the idea to start an online education business. He rejects the idea. After more probing and conversation, I understand that the reason he rejects the idea is because he is not familiar with Internet at all. Thus, he feels that he is unable to do the business. Well, if I can offer him some kind of training, then it will help him to overcome this issue. If he feels that it is possible, then he will join me as my business partner.

However, sometimes there is nothing much I can do about the issue at the moment. If that is the case, I should note down the issue and respect his decision. I should go back and see if I can come out with a solution for the issue in case I encounter the same rejection reason again.

Secondly, I need to learn how to overcome objections. Before I have attended any sale courses, I used to just give in to objections. After attending sale courses, I realize that I need to prepare a list of potential objections and the respective strategies to overcome the objections. And I should constantly maintain this list of objections. If I find a new objection, I will add them into my list and then come out with a few strategies to overcome the objection.

For example, if I try to make an appointment with a prospect, he may object because he is busy. Immediately, I will counter offer him by suggesting to him the idea that it will only take 10 minutes of his time. He may change his mind as a result.

Thirdly, I need to believe that it is possible for me to sell. I am shocked when I get to know about the statistics on selling. Basically, an average person should be able to get 1 customer by making 20 cold calls. This statistics varies from person to person. Some people may be able to get 1 customer out of 10 cold calls. Certain people may be able to get 1 customer out if 30 cold calls. In other words, as long as I approach enough people, I will definitely able to get a customer.

Next, I need to understand selling skills can be learned. If I look around, I can find all sorts of sales people. Some of them cannot speak very well and yet they manage to sell! That really enlightens me that selling skills can be learned.

Also, I can improve my selling skills through a few areas. The first area is technical knowledge of the products or services that I am representing. If I know my products or services well, I will be able to handle questions regarding the products or services better. The second area that I can focus on is the presentation skills. If I am able to present the information to my prospect in an easy to understand format, then it will be easier for me to sell the product or service to him. The next area that I can look at is practicing in the real situations. By practicing in real situations, I will be able to gain experience by learning from my mistakes as highlighted by the Rich Dad's series by Robert Kiyosaki.

Then, I need to understand that selling is not all about selling the products and services. It is about giving assurance to the prospect that I can provide professional service. People buy from me because they have confidence in me.

For example, there are a lot of salespeople selling insurance. Why should someone buy insurance from me and not from others? This is because they believe that I can provide better service to them.

Lastly, there are different styles of selling. I need not become a salesperson that does hard selling. All I need to do is to study the different styles of selling and adopt a mixed style that suits my personality. A successful sale person is always himself. Thus, I need not become a fake to sell.

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