The Thrill of Selling

Martin D. Shafiroff, a managing director of Shearson Lehman Brothers – American Express, has been the top retail stock broker in the United States for 10 consecutive years with gross commissions in 1986 totalling 12.5 million dollars. Shafiroff has all the credentials for giving sound advice. The suggestions he makes in the following article, based on a chapter in the book Ten Great Salespersons by Robert L. Shook (Harper & Row)* can be used by smart salespeople in any industry.

Martin Shafiroff sells hundreds of thousands of dollars in securities over the telephone to individuals he’s never even met. If all 1,200 of his clients were to be assembled in a large hall to pay tribute to this dynamic stockbroker, Martin would know only about 300 of them by sight. The others would appear to be total strangers.

Of course those 900 clients would be strangers in appearance only. As Martin puts it, “Over a period of time, a very close relationship develops between us. It’s an almost philosophical relationship, because we’re communicating on a highly important subject – how to properly handle their investments. In this sense, a very strong bond evolves.”

Martin continues, “I am interested in values, wherever those values may be, and because clients understand values, they can relate to that.

“I want to emphasize the importance of having conviction. All great business successes have strong convictions in what they are doing. Essentially, the first person whom you must sell to, if you want to succeed, is yourself. I believe this is vital. When you believe in what you are doing, the other party evaluating your comments is going to react accordingly. For this reason, I believe that an individual must seek out, that is study, review and analyze the entire investment spectrum until he can come up with a product and a strategy for which he can develop strong convictions.

“Now, product and conviction are only half of my success formula; the other half stresses cold calls and contacts. The conversion of these cold calls to legitimate prospects, that is, prospects that will have an interest in my philosophy, then converting those prospects into accounts, then building on those accounts, is my constant goal. The final result is building investment portfolios for all of my accounts.

“Every day I look at that formula,” Martin explains, “and it gives me direction on where I should be going and what I should be doing. It’s written out in front of me so I can review it. Having such a game plan is like having an alarm, and I look at it 25 to 30 times a day. I continually ask myself ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing it? Is it essential?” Over and over I’ll repeat those questions to myself, and in doing so, I will then eliminate what is nonessential. I believe that corporations, in attempting to bring written or oral data to the individual, create so many nonessential items that in the attempt to create goodwill, the corporation reduces the effective selling time of the individual. Therefore, I always place my attaché case next to my desk. Then, whenever nonessential material appears, I put it in my attaché case for review during nonselling hours.

“In order to be successful, you must constantly build your business even though you already have a good one. Every day, in addition to communicating with my existing clients, it is vital that I communicate with new people. Through communicating, I attempt to convert the prospects to clients. That’s the life blood of the business.

When Martin is on the telephone everything he does has a definite purpose. For instance, he jots down the name of his client’s secretary. He always calls her by name. “I treat every person as an individual. Besides there are many little helpful things a prospect’s secretary can do for you and she’ll more than likely have an influence on her boss. So you want her on your side.”

Martin believes his presentation is not only different from the typical securities salesman’s, but also is much more effective. “Almost every presentation is divided into three parts. There’s the introduction, the middle, and end. I find that most people tend to concentrate on the middle. If, for example, a typical presentation takes 20 minutes to deliver, the average salesman will spend the majority of his time, perhaps as much as 15 minutes, presenting the reasons why the prospect should make the investment. If he spends approximately three minutes making his introduction, he’ll only spend two minutes making a request for the order.

“I like to turn the proportions around.” Martin smiles. “As much as 60, maybe 70, percent of the time should be in the request for the order. I start with a request that a transaction be made with a particular company, and if the individual is contemplating making that investment, I immediately flash images of why the investment is an outstanding one. Rather than spending all my time in presenting reasons alone, I interweave these reasons with the request for the order.”

He recapitulates: “The major error of most salespeople is they divide their sales talk into three distinct parts. The beginning, the middle (the presentation), and the close. I differ because I reduce the beginning by making it a relatively contained presentation, spend about three minutes on my introduction, and then only three or four minutes on the reasons why, and then I devote the remaining time, which could run 12 to 15 minutes, on the request for the order. The difference has a dramatic effect on the business that I am able to develop. I do want to repeat, however, that while the individual is considering my request for the order, I constantly flash the images for the reasons why he should take affirmative action. So, I do not break my presentation into the typical three parts. I have an introduction, and I list five reasons why the investment should be made. Now I recognize the request for the order as the moment of truth, and I simultaneously state my reasons why the order should be executed.”

Sales techniques and time management which are pared down to essentials like the ones Martin Shafiroff uses, produce far greater results in less time. Therefore they leave more time for selling.

*Martin Shafiroff is the co-author (with Robert L. Shook) of Successful Telephone Selling in the 80’s (Harper & Row). He is also featured in the top five salesmen in The Perfect Sales Presentation by Robert L. Shook (Bantam).