Protecting your commissions is essential if you want to be successful in sales. To do this, there are three main areas you must address and master:

  1. How you live your own life in regards to spending money
  2. Your professional identity
  3. Your selling skills

My last blog post discussed the first point, so let’s move on.

Your identity as a sales professional or an entrepreneur

Questions

  • Do you see yourself as a full service, top-shelf individual?
  • Are you the type of professional who warrants the high-end fee, who deserves the full boat?
  • Are you someone who is comfortable dealing with selling the high-end product and getting paid for it?
  • When it comes to business, who are you?

This is the key. We’re going beyond words to your level of belief – your self-concept. As the saying goes, “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” Picture someone who has their head held low, looking down, shoulders slumped down, avoiding eye contact with you while saying in a bland monotone voice at a volume you can barely hear: “I am so excited right now.” You know they don’t really mean it! They’re not congruent in what they are saying.

This same incongruence is seen in sales professionals who don’t really believe in their product, or lack the confidence that they have the solution to their customer’s needs. Someone in this situation might have a difficult time closing the deal and feeling good about the commission. To protect your commission, you need to feel good about what you are selling and confident that the buyer is getting a very good deal.

At the end of the day, this requires a very clear decision. It requires you to make the decision that you and your product/service are worth EVERY PENNY you are asking for and more. That your prospect is getting off cheap. That you are worthy and that great things are headed your way, because you deserve them. With that mindset in place, what could possibly stop you?

Your selling skills

Protecting your commission also requires being able to close a deal. Remember, the best time to handle an objection is before it comes up. If you think price/fee may come up as an objection, then your job is to pre-empt it in advance. If your commission is high for your industry, you want to point out and even show off in advance about the fact that you are more expensive than your competition as one of the things that sets you apart. Have it be part of your identity. To use an old but effective example:

“We are the Rolls Royce of the __________ industry.”

Speak as if you are in another league than your competition from the very beginning. Create a very strong Pre-Frame for your prospects up front.

Some specific rebuttals you can give:

1) “You are correct, our price/fee is higher than ABC competition, yet every year we sell millions (billions) of dollars worth of our product/service to some of the smartest consumers (corporations) in the market. Would you like to know why?”

or:

2) “Yes, you are correct, our price/fee is higher than ABC competition, yet every year we outsell ABC by __%. Would you like to know why?”

If your product or service will provide a solution to your prospect’s needs, then there are many ways that you can justify your commission and feel good about it.

If protecting your commission is a subject that interests you, then you’ll want to get a copy of my new book The Samurai of Sales, where I’ve devoted a whole chapter to this topic. This book covers the most important skills and tools you must know in today’s marketplace if you want to be at the top of your game as a sales professional. If you have any interest in pre-ordering, please feel free to contact my organization

Remember, you are entitled to every penny you are charging and more! You truly are that good. If you don’t really get that on a gut level, do the work on yourself to engrain it. That is absolutely key.