I watched a video today by a guy named Mark Hunter who calls himself "The Sales Hunter." He's kind of a silly and excitable dude if you ask me. But the subject of his 5 minute 13 second video intrigued me, so I watched.

He was talking about being set apart as a sales person and ultimately increasing your revenue. Now, some of you reading this may be thinking, "Well, I don't do any kind of sales so this stuff doesn't apply to me." And I will simply tell you that you are wrong. EVERYONE is in sales. I don't care what kind of job you have or don't have. If you do not have a small grasp of how to sell your service or product to a customer, or how to sell yourself to an employer, what chance do you have of earning a descent living and obtaining a piece of your financial freedom?

Do I have your attention?

Mark describes three key elements to setting yourself apart: LTS.

L: Listen and Learn.

When making some kind of sales call or "sales pitch" it is vitally important that you LISTEN to the person. This is not anything new. Most people, especially those who do a lot of direct sales calls, know that listening to the customer is good to do. But what many people fail do is to LEARN from them. Yes, learn. After talking to your prospective buyer or prospective employer, what can you honestly say that you learned from them? What kinds of personal information did you learn? What kinds of professional or business information did you gain?

If you are not listening to a customer, you might as well give it up right now. Furthermore, if you are not learning from them, you are wasting your time. Listen and learn.

T: Teach.

No, this is not about teaching about how great your product is or talking down to them in a derogatory way. This is about teaching them a new concept that they may have not seen before. Something simple that provides them with valuable and free advice. I have at least one person per day calling me to sell me some sort of marketing package. It's annoying, but I don't slam the phone down every time. The way I see it, one out of ten calls I may actually learn something new. And I'm right. Every now and then I gain a new marketing idea or even consider using the service they are selling. But this only happens when the sales person on the other side of the phone is listening to me and providing me with free valuable feedback on my business. Automatic trust is created.

S: Sell, Serve, and Solution.

After listening, learning, and teaching, it's time to make the sale. But there is a wrong way and the right way to do this. The wrong way is to disregard everything that has been said thus far and to try and sell them your product or service. The right way is to consider what their need is and then SERVE them by providing a product or service as the SOLUTION that meets their need (or problem).

I have decided to switch my account software from Quickbooks to Quickbooks Online (Yes, they are slightly different- more advantages/versatility with the online version). Talking to the sales rep yesterday was a great experience for me. He definitely used the LTS method and I will soon be a very happy customer by next week when everything is set up. But that's what impressed me the most. After he listened, learned, taught, and provided the solution to my problem, he still told me to spend a week using the free trial of the online version to see if I really like it. I was already 80% convinced that this is what I needed and if he had pushed it, i would have given him my credit card right then and there. But he increased the amount of trust I have in him by letting me know that he really cared for me and my business by SERVING me and finding a SOLUTION not just making a commission.

Let the LTS method of selling be a lesson for us all in order to set ourselves apart when it comes to sales! Three little secrets? Nah, just common sense, good people etiquette, and genuinely caring about others.

Have you experienced the LTS method of selling before? Have you ever used it yourself? I'd love to hear from you.