Michael B. Hickland is a graduate of the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. He attended Delaware Law School. He has received formal training in public speaking.
Utilizing relationship selling, Mr. Hickland won annual President’s Club trip awards for outstanding sales performance twelve times during his fifteen years with Xerox Corporation. New to the field of mammography, he never the less he sold more units than anyone else nationally over three plus years with Xerox Medical Systems. Oce Business Systems then recruited him and a year later recognized his performance as the #1 ranked Sales Manager in the United States.
He then went on to work with Philips Medical Systems. There, he received awards for leading the nation in gross ultrasound system sales. Later, he served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for both Hospital Pharmacies Inc. (HPI Healthcare Services, Inc.) and Premier Pharmacy Management Corporation.
He was the principal owner and CEO of Global Healthcare Technologies, Inc.
Currently, Mr. Hickland is retired from the Healthcare Industry. He and his wife, Leslie reside in Riverview, Florida. They have a son and daughter both grown with careers.
Why Sell?
Despite all the jokes you may have heard about salespeople and the condescension many people display toward the sale profession, salespeople are absolutely vital to the success of any organization. I’ve been a salesman all my life, and I’ve always been proud to call myself a salesman.
There are bad apples in any field—even those that generally are thought of as prestigious. Lawyers in particular suffer from a lot of bad press, and we’ve even heard people refer to some doctors as “quacks.” One of the most notorious is the field of politics. There are certainly politicians who enter the field with pure hearts and honorable intentions, but over the years, the term politician has taken on a much more negative connotation. Like any other field, there are salespeople who do harm to the profession and others who do it proud.
Why would you want to pursue a career in sales? Is it just to earn money? There is money to be made in sales. In fact, America’s top salespeople earn more than any other profession in the country except doctors—and doctors have to spend at least eleven years in training before they can officially hang out their shingle. You can make money in any field of endeavor, and thought there are millions of salespeople who make comfortable livings, the vast majority of salespeople don’t make huge sums of money.
Is your goal to meet people? Many other jobs besides sales can provide that opportunity. However, if your goal is to make lasting friendships while helping people and enjoying yourself in the process, it’s entirely possible that the sales field is exactly where you might want to be. In that regard, your rewards can be abundant if you’re willing to learn the secrets, work hard, and stick with it.
In this book, I’ll be sharing seven secrets that will enable you to not only make more sales, but also to create a more rewarding life for your clients, your family, you community, and yourself. I’ll show you how to work your way to the top of your organization and industry.
One of the first things to remember is that no one succeeds every time—and that’s especially true in sales. There will be times when you’ll have the best proposal and the best product, but you still won’t get the sale. The important thing is not to get discouraged. Sales is like life—and life isn’t always fair. You have to believe in yourself and your product and think in terms of your client if you want to become a top performer.
There’s an old saying in business: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
That saying has been around for generations for a good reason: because it’s true. There is no substitute for establishing excellent working relationships with your company, your bosses, your associates, and most importantly, with your clients.
People like dealing with friends, and if the decision maker in a company has a friend who can supply what the company needs, that person will nearly always buy from that friend. Like so many things in life, being able to be there as a trusted person who can solve a problem is vital experiencing sales success.
Friendship is a powerful thing, especially in business, and if you go out of your way to learn about your clients and their needs, you’ll begin forging the bonds of friendship that will help you reach your goals in countless ways. I know this is true from my own personal experience—and I’m going to share the Seven Secrets of Superselling with you.
These secrets will help you make an excellent living and earn you the respect of everyone you come into contact with. Be willing to be real with your clients and to let them know you care about them as human beings as well as customers. They’ll appreciate it, and they’ll give you their business. Stay in contact with them by phone or email to keep them informed about new products—or just to say hi. It will pay off handsomely over the years.
The key is that once you’ve become friends, you won’t be selling to your clients—they will be buying from you. There’s a huge difference. No one likes to be sold anything, but we all love to buy, and your clients are no different. Be the friendly source they can trust when they need something, and they’ll seek you out.
Be real, be positive, be honest, and you’ll be amazed at how many doors will begin opening for you. Friendship and kindness are rarely ignored or forgotten—and they will pay rich dividends—in sales and in satisfaction for doing it the right way.
With all this in mind, let’s get started. As always, I wish you good luck—and good selling! Oh yes, it’s only $3.99 to buy my book Seven Secrets of Superselling. Visit Amazon and click buy-
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