In over 40 years of selling, I’ve learned the surefire way to end a slump: Return to fundamentals with the proper attitude.

The Green Bay Packers won the first two world championships of professional football. The Packers were coached by Vince Lombardi. When Lombardi’s team would fail to play well (which wasn’t often), he would begin practice the following week by saying: “Gentlemen, we performed below the standards we set for ourselves. This week we are going to return to the fundamentals.”

Fundamental truths remain constant. Lombardi taught the same fundamentals to his team that Bill Walsh taught to the San Francisco 49ers.

The most successful sales professionals learn and apply the fundamentals. They continue to have the attitude of the beginner. The selling pro who gets to and stays at the top of the profession is an “experienced rookie.” When we approach sales as an ongoing learning experience, we learn the “little things” that make the “big difference” in our careers.

We must continue on our pilgrimage by learning, living, and looking: learning from the past without living there; living in the present by seizing each moment of every day; and looking to the future with hope, optimism, and education.

Today’s successful persuader must have a specific plan of action. Since there is a direct correlation between “money earned” and “time spent with a prospect,” we can eliminate unnecessary planning by examining a “formula” with “transferable skills.” In the world of selling, we need a plan of action that will transcend product line and situational differences.

Four-Step Formula

Our planned selling process consists of a four-step formula.

1. Need analysis. Customer-driven (wants) and need-oriented (needs) selling begins with the sales professional doing a need analysis. Even if the prospects are coming to you and asking for your product or service, they may not have properly identified what they are looking for. In selling, we need a plan of action that will transcend product line and situational differences. In need analysis, the goal is to X-ray the prospect. The salesperson develops the skill to look within customers and find their needs.

2. Need awareness. You assess needs by asking questions that cause both you and your prospects to understand their needs and wants. Often salespeople are so intent on making the sale that they stop thinking—they think about the results they want to the detriment of the process they must go through to achieve those results.

3. Need solution. In this step, you present your product. Now is the time to stop asking questions and begin presenting solutions to needs. You never lead with product; you lead with need. Please don’t waste your time and the prospects’ time telling them what the product is. Tell them what it can do and why it will do it for them.

4. Need satisfaction. If you desire to help other people, if you believe in your product or service; if you want the prospect to benefit, and if you want to benefit financially from your hard work and effort, then you must remember: Always ask for the order!

As silly as this may seem, we sometimes freeze up, burn out, or just “blow it” when the time for the close is near. Inevitably, those that slump get away from the basics. SME

Zig Ziglar is CEO of the Ziglar Training Systems. 800-527-0306. This article was adapted from Ziglar on Selling (Oliver Nelson Publishers).

ACTION: Does your selling process conform to this basic four-step formula?