Here's a question for all you sales pros. And don't cheat and peek down at the answer before you at least give it some thought and try to come up with an answer on your own. "When does a sale become a sale?"

I was still fairly new in the sales industry, working at a new car dealership when I first heard this question in a sales meeting. Everyday, before our store opened for business, the entire sales staff would gather in the "War Room" to kick off the day with a sales meeting. I always looked forward to those meetings, not because I was into the rah-rah stuff, but because as a young salesman just learning how to sell, I was surrounded by older veterans and I always learned something from the daily exchange of ideas that came from those early morning meetings. The meeting usually were centered around sales challenges that might have come up in the previous day and then as a group, we'd all chip in and try to come up with good responses to the objections. It was a great learning environment and a great way to start off the sales day. Anyway, one day my manager asked the question, "when does a sales become a sale?" Now on the surface, this seems like a pretty simple question. In fact at first, you might think that it's somehow a trick question. But it's not. There was about 15 or so salesmen in that room that day, many of them were grizzled veterans with lots of sales experience, so I was anxious to see if anyone could answer this question. Many hands shot up with an air of confidence, certain that they could solve this riddle. First, all of the obvious answers were called out in rapid succession, "when they sign the contract" someone called out. No, that's not it. "When they give you the down payment", no. "When they drive away with the vehicle." Nope. "When their loan gets approved". Still not the right answer. After a while, the hands stopped going up. Here was a room full of prideful, experienced, smart veteran salesmen and not a one of them could answer such a basic question about the sales process. We finally gave up as a group and waited for the voice of wisdom to enlighten us. And enlighten me it did. For the answer to the question, "When does a sales become a sale?" opened up a whole new way of thinking for me as a salesman. The correct answer was "A sales becomes a sales when the customer takes possession of the merchandise IN HIS HEAD." Think about that for a second. That is absolutely brilliant!


A sales becomes a sales when the customer takes possession of the merchandise in his head. Wow! If that's not that's Zen selling, what is? That answer crystallized in my head the process of selling.