At the beginning of any selling career, there are opinions by people who don’t know, advice from non-experts, and beliefs you may have about selling that are simply not true. There is a learning curve. Here are the essentials.

Buy what you sell. Do you sell a product or service that is used my most people? Then you need to buy what you sell. Very soon after you start selling, you’ll be asked by prospects what you use. You’ll be asked if you own what you sell. In every instance, your answer will either help or hurt your chance at a sale. And don’t lie. There are a thousand signals you give off when you lie. And most are visible on your face and in your body language. If your lucky, buying what you sell may even count in generating sales commissions and count for contests. If not, your brother needs one. Buy it for him and borrow it forever.

Listen to your sales manager. Your sales manager has the experience to save you lots of time in your learning curve. Do what she says until you know more than she does. Her job is to help you make more money. So it’s a win-win.

Ask to ride with an experienced rep. Make sure that this person is the most successful person in the office. A week should do it. Offer to carry things, buy the coffee, and promise to keep quiet while they are selling. Nothing you add will help them in a sales presentation. The benefit you get is that you’ll see that selling isn’t unpleasant, nobody really yells at you, selling is a completely natural act, and you’ll pick up pointers on how to make sales.

Don’t offer to go with the losers who aren’t making money. They can’t help you and will kill any drive you have at the beginning. If you hear them say "Oh, that doesn’t work" it’s a tip off that they aren’t going to be of help to you.

Don’t hang out with the losers. You’ll be able to spot them right away. They don’t work hard, and they always blame someone else for their failure, usually the company. They hang out together, and will do activities all day that have nothing to do with selling. The unpopular guy, the one that’s always out selling and breaking company records...that’s who you talk to.

Stay with the company you are with. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Why? Because you aren’t looking closely. As long as your company keeps it’s promises to you, and provides a great product or service, you will always be better off staying with that company. Legends aren’t born by moving from company to company. Reputations are killed by moving around. The longer you stick with a company that keeps it’s word, the more momentum you build with your customers. Longevity with a company builds trust in the mind of customers. Starting over, always starts with Zero. Bloom where you are planted.

Practice your prepared presentation. As long as the company has a planned presentation, you should use it. Soon you’ll begin to see how every part of the presentation works to build the sale and speed up the selling process. Eventually, you may not use the company presentation. But to discard it because "It’s just not me" is like an actor saying "Shakespeare? I’ll wing it".

Use company visual aids. Company visual aids, if provided, establish a credibility in the mind of the consumer. You look more solid if you have company visual aids. A presentation with visuals will keep you and the prospect on track toward the sale. It will make sure most of the prospect’s questions are answered before they become objections. A company prepared presentation adds credibility to your company and in you. Sharp looking visual aids create a sense of "Permanence" to your customer’s vision of your company. They look more "Official" than a presentation without visual aids. Not using your visual aids is like having a hammer and saying " I can put that nail in better myself" and just throwing the hammer away. Your visual aids are tools. They make your job easier.

Track your sales and sales activities. Keep records of what matters to you. I used to keep records of my sales commissions. I knew where I was by the day, week, and month. I knew if I needed to work harder, or if I could take a day off. This income schedule included the sales calls and presentations. Wouldn’t you like to know how much money you earn for every sales call you make, whether they buy or not? How much you earn for every hour of sales activity? Just never lie to yourself. These records are far more powerful as sales motivation than any motivational sales meeting. What you measure, you can improve.

Sell to your warm market. Who else would you trust to take care of your friends and relative’s needs? People want to deal with people they know and trust. Wouldn’t you want to buy from someone you know? If you get referrals from relatives, even close ones, you’ll very quickly be talking to people you never met.

Get rid of the Beginner Myths. These vary by industry and type of selling. In my industry (I sold in prospect’s homes), the myth’s were 1) They would buy later and 2) You didn’t need to see both husband and wife together. I couldn’t break new people of these beliefs. I just had to let them find out for themselves, and remind them after a few weeks of selling. Your industry myths may be different.

Be a selling student. I was asked once about my education. I finished high school. That’s it.

Here is a reality that I like to point out. When most people graduate from high school, that means they stopped reading and studying when they were 18 years old. A college education means you stopped reading and studying when you were 22 or 24 years old. That’s the main difference.

Study books about selling from people who made their fortunes selling, not books by people who think they know what selling should be like. A hundred dollars invested at amazon.com can build you a great sales library. After a year of studying your sales craft, and applying what you learn, you’ll be ahead of the rest of the pack, I promise.