The hardest sales job in the world is selling something you don’t believe in yourself. The acid test is would you sell this “whatever” to your grandmother? If the answer is no, then get out of there right now! It is rarely that clear cut though. The more important test is whether what you are selling solves the client’s problem or not. Selling clients on things that are not in their best interests is a formula for long-term failure and personal brand suicide.

There are elements of the sales process which are so fundamental, you wonder why I would even bring them up. For example, believing in what you sell. There are lots of salespeople though, trapped in jobs where they don’t believe but keep selling.

The more common problem is that they actually do believe in what they sell but they are not professional enough to be convincing in the sales conversation. They often have a sales personality deficiency, where they are not good with people or not good with different types of people.

When I joined Shinsei’s retail bank, I recognised immediately that 70% of the salespeople should never have been given a sales role. My brief was “we have 300 salespeople and we are not getting anywhere – come in and fix it”. The vast majority of people in the role of convincing wealthy Japanese customers to buy our financial products were really suffering. They lacked the communication skills, the people skills, the persuasion power, the warmth, the concern for the customer, etc., which they needed to be successful.

As Shinsei, we worked out who was best suited for a sales role and gave those people the proper training to equip them for success. The remainder were given a role elsewhere in the bank. What training did we give them? The ability to ask good questions, to fully understand wealthy customer’s needs.

At Dale Carnegie we do a lot of sales training and we see the same client issues come up continuously. Certainty around the thing being sold must be in evidence. Selling is the transfer of your enthusiasm for the product or service to the buyer. Your body language must naturally exude belief. Your face needs to be friendly.

Fluency in communication is critical. Be it Japanese or English, a lot of “filler words” like Eeto, Anou , Um, Ah, etc., might help you to think of what you want to say next, but you come across as if you are not sure or convinced about what you are saying or proposing. We definitely don’t buy sales person uncertainty.

Success in sales is based on following a sales process. That process is based on three powerful foundations – your belief in what you are selling, your ability to fluently articulate back to the buyer what you heard they need and how your solution satisfies their need.

If you want your sales team to be successful, make sure they get a proper sales process, get certainty, get fluency and get going!

One of our problem areas is what to do with our hands when we speak. Judging by most of the presentations I see in Japan, few speakers have worked this out yet. Here are some common habits we can improve upon to make ourselves much more persuasive and professional.

1. Hands in front of the body.

The arms and hands when held in front of the body create a subliminal barrier between the audience and the speaker. It is saying “I don’t trust you, I am scared of you and I need to protect my most vital organs from you, in case of sudden attack”. We want to show we are totally confident and have a welcoming attitude to our audience.

2. Arms behind the back, clasped together.

Since cave dweller days, we have learnt not to trust people whose hands are not visible to us. They may have been concealing a weapon. Instead have the palms open and facing forward, a gesture which is universal and timeless indicating “I am not a threat to you, because, as you see I have no hidden weapon”.

3. Arms folded across the chest or one hand touching one elbow while the other hand is held near the face. Like number one, these are defensive postures specifically designed to keep your audience away from your vital spots.

In speaking term though, these postures send all the wrong messages. We want to be trusted as a speaker and to do so, we have to show we are open to our audience.

4. Hands in the pockets. This is a particular favourite of male executives who have no idea of what to do with their hands when speaking. The really confused thrust both hands into their respective trouser pockets achieving a sort of stereo effect. It presents the hands where they can be seen from the front, but it denies us the opportunity to use gestures during out talk.

5. Holding something in our hands.

Sheets of paper can become a distraction as we tend to wave them around. The pages quiver and shake if we are nervous and this is visible to our audience. We are sending the wrong message to them. We want to convey belief and confidence in our message. We want to remove all distractions from what we are communicating and we want to free up our hands so we can employ our gestures to bolster our argument.

6. Gripping the podium, the microphone stand or holding the hand microphone with both hands. It can make us appear quite strained as we apply muscle power to the upper arms and raise our shoulders, as we ensure the podium does not make a sudden attempt to scarper. Best to not even touch the podium at all and just feel free to raise your hands for gestures.

Don’t touch the microphone stand at all. Restrict the hand microphone usage to one hand only, so the other is free and readily available for emphasis