Some Assembly Required

For most athletes, the primary means by which they demonstrate their balance and endurance are their legs. The supersalesperson uses legwork to achieve these same goals in the sales process. According to surveys of purchasing agents, the most important attributes of a supersalesperson are follow-through and follow-up. In the eyes of the customer, a salesperson's ability to walk through the sales process from beginning to end exemplifies his or her interest in the customer's wants and needs.

With strong legs, the supersalesperson can also "leap tall buildings in a single bound," going above and beyond the average performance. He or she takes calculated risks to reach higher goals. For example, if the average salesperson requires five meetings to close a sale, the supersalesperson sets a goal of sealing a deal in three-and accomplishes it.

But that's not the end of it. "Legs are for pounding the pavement," says Turner. "Sometimes, when all else fails, the best salesperson has to rely on cold- or warm-calling."

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In the end, the supersalesperson guarantees that relationships with customers will lead to one powerful and irrevocable conclusion: The company, the client and the salesperson profit. The supersalesperson is aligned with the business owner. "He's like the founder, but he doesn't want to be the owner," says Chris Campbell, president of Praxis Media, a South Norwalk, Connecticut, producer of multimedia marketing programs. This characteristic is probably the most significant yet elusive; it endows the supersalesperson with the owner's passion and desire for quality and profitable sales without demanding a stake, forever remaining satisfied as a sales professional.

The supersalesperson may seem like a dream, but our dreams are often born from reality. Each day, we glimpse fragments of the superhero, especially in the salespeople we admire. What's left for us is to determine how to make those fragments appear more frequently. It's part pluck and part luck.

Tools for the Sales Pro

Spare Brain If your brain's overflowing with info, get the Q by Agaté Technologies. With a hard drive so tiny it can hang on your key chain, the Q uses flash memory so you can store and transport data safely without the need for cables or a power supply. Simply plug it in to any USB port. Street price: 16MB,$69.95; 32MB, $129.95; 64MB, $199.95.

They'll Love It Do you want to give a dazzling sales presentation straight from the heart? Then check out the TDP-P4 from Toshiba. This projector is a lightweight at a mere 3.1 pounds. It comes with a carrying case and a remote, and features XGA resolution. And the remote, which doubles as a mouse, controls the PC and projector simultaneously. Street price: $6,499.

Ear, Ear If you want more clarity when you're wireless, make that initial sales pitch via your mobile phone without worrying about background noise. Jabra's EarWrap, a hands-free set compatible with mobile phones via a 2.5mm jack, is made of soft, bendable plastic and features a noise-canceling microphone so the person on the other end of the line hears only you. Street price: $29.95.

Mouthing Off Giving your best customers a ring is easy with the Kyocera QCP 6035, a smart phone and Palm OS-powered organizer in one. Features include voice-activated dialing, voice-memo capabilities, e-mail and wireless Web browsing. The QCP 6035 is available through Verizon Wireless. Street price: $499 (including a one-year service contract).

Looking Ahead When driving to unfamiliar locations for sales calls, you can't afford to get lost. The NVE-N851A DVD PowerNAV Vehicle Navigation System from Alpine Electronics helps you visualize where you're going. Its GPS system pinpoints your location, maps routes to destinations and gives turn-by-turn audio instructions. A daily-plan feature provides the fastest routes to up to eight destinations. Street price: $2,000.

Get a Grip Keep your data and documents close at hand with the mobile TransNote from IBM. This portfolio-style notebook PC comes with a digital notepad and pen, which lets you save handwritten notes electronically and then share them via e-mail. It's a lightweight at 1.3 inches thick and just 5.5 pounds. Street price: $2,999. -Gisela M. Pedroza

Fairfield, Connecticut, freelance writer Joseph Conlin teaches writing at the University of Bridgeport and writes for several business and technology magazines.

Contact Source

• Q Comm International Inc.
  www.qcomm.com

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