Salesmanship-an overlooked DJ quality?

crotchrocket

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Salesmanship, is it not one of the most overlooked and underestimated DJ qualities?

Does anyone else get the impression that in order to have success as a DJ you need to be a good salesman? And in this case the product you are promoting is yourself?

Lately I have been getting this a lot; I ask a girl to come with me to something, and even though I can just tell she REALLY wants to say yes, she doesn't, but she doesn't say no either. I then get the impression from the look on her face, to the non-committal/ambiguous answer she gives, she could go either way, yes or no, and it's all up to me. I'm not a salesman, but maybe I need to be?

Anybody, have any thoughts, advice?
 

Phrozen

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Take a social psychology course there are a lot of similiraties. IMO though its the other way around. A salesman has to be a good DJ, because when selling anything you have to sell yourself first. The customer has to like you and trust you long before they will buy from you.
 

crotchrocket

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So in the case of a woman that shows a definite interest, but is yet somewhat undecided whether or not to make the investment, what does it take to convince her?
 

A-Unit

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Re:

"If you don't want to go, just give me ample notice. I have this extra space, and I'd like to go with someone who wants to go with me. If you don't, I'll find someone else."

Quite the paradox though. Definite interest and hesistance is not quite possible, at least it's an oxymoron.

I say don't hang your hat on 1 rack. Have many racks to hang it on and work from there.

There's a discrepancy about salespeople. Because selling, or generating revenue, usually derives the greatest income potential, it also attracts people looking to make a quick buck. However, the best professional sales people are those who know what they sell, buy what they sell, and are passionate about what they sell, they are crowded by the money-mongers. The "best" sales people listen and ask introspective questions, tough questions, to get results. They're not afraid to walk away when a prospect is being uncooperative.

I've met the "silver-tongued" sales people, and they never sit well with me. Typically, and it's a low amount, very few people can hypnotize you in such a way. And when you're done, you despise the decision you made and typically have a strong case of buyer's remorse. Do you want that same result with a girl? Coaxing her to go with you, only to have a piss awful time because you razzle-dazzled her with fancy words and pretty images? HELL NO.

Being a good salesperson means knowing the real issues and getting to the bottom of things. NLP helped me alot in that facet, because alot of people tend to talk mechanices, when sales is really about the bigger picture.

What is it you want to accomplish?
What caused you to do X before?
How would you like the relationship to be?
What sort of criteria did you use before when you purchased X?

You see, if you KNOW those elements, you can gain a prospect/client that's 100% committed and that will respect your insight.

Sales is much more about asking pointed questions and communicating effectively than it is about flipping something the right way. Those days are long gone when sales were easy to come by using super salesy approaches.


A-Unit
 

BramhaBull60

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As somebody who runs a sales and marketing office ( and I am currently on a train for a client meeting and have time to hash this out), and with a successful five year track record, I would say that there are some skills in DJing that transfer over well such as:

Active Listening: I disagree that sales is flapping gums. Sales is all about listening to what your client or prospect needs. You can always build more off what someone tells you about your service, and what they want, instead of just pushing the sale down their throat. I find with women its the same thing. Listen to what they tell you, and build interest on any common ground you can find, and you will be much more successful and less annoying.

Dealing with rejection: Sales and dating are the same animal with these worlds. You must know when to move on and next a girl or prospect. I go by the 1 in 10 rule: 1 person for every ten should tell you yes if you know what your doing. The job itself will help you to deal with the concept of no.

Building Confidence: You cannot sell a product you have no faith in, so you must find a way to have confidence in the company you are selling for and you must have confidence in yourself if you are approaching and dating a women.

Organization: Keeping records in sales and records in dating helps to build your information network, find out the mistakes you are making, and also keep track of how much progress you are making.

I think both sales and dating are similar in the approaches that must be taken to be successful, but you should also remember that closing a sale and dating a women are totally different. With a sale you want to close the deal and move on. With a women, especially if you are looking for an LTR, you are not done after you close. You have to put work and effort to keep that person interested.

Just my thoughts.
 

DJDamage

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quote:
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"So in the case of a woman that shows a definite interest, but is yet somewhat undecided whether or not to make the investment, what does it take to convince her?
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Less talking more doing. If you keep on talking to her about how great and fun guy you are, who has a great job and drives a nice car, you come of a desperate for a sell because all you do is talk about yourself and not the customer (woman).

You need to be more reserve and mysterious, be C&F with kino. The bad thing about a salesparson is that every customer that walks through the door he would try to sell something to. Ever notice when ever you walk through a door into a department store, some clown jumps infront of you and offer you for help without you asking? Most people would waive him off and say "no thankyou just looking" because they know that a good salesperson will cloud their judgment and therefore they will only ask for help when they know exectly what they want.

As a DJ you are trying to convay that you are not desperate to sell something and that its up to you to decide whether she will get something or decide sell it to someone else. She has to show you that she is worthy of the sell. Both of you need to be satisfied with the transaction. Once she becomes comfertable with you, then you can close the deal as they say in selling (get her number as oppose paying for merchandise or a service)

Its like giving away a cute puppy for free - you know you will have lots of inquiries regarding that puppy, but it will be up to you to decide which home is worthy and safe to give it too.
 

crotchrocket

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So essentially then, no matter how good the product is it won't sell itself, well except to those who are desperate to have it.

I have been noticing lately that the women I ask out, even though they seem to have all the signs of high interest, they all hesitate, give me an excuse, "I'm not sure, I might be busy" kind of stuff. "Prove to me that you are interested in just ME! I don't want to be just another girl on your list and if you can't or won't do that I'm not going to say yes, no matter how much I'm attracted to you!" is what they would probably like to tell me but say it through their body language and excuses, anybody else get this?

So, do even the best salesmen with the best product, sometimes have to do a bit more to convince a cautious customer to buy his product or does he quit after a little resistance and go after the next available person in the hopes that the next one sees the value in whatever he's selling all by themselves. I don't have time to waste chasing something that I'll never catch but I'm wondering if giving up, and NEXTing a girl everytime she puts up a little resistance is any better, which is more AFC?
 

A-Unit

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There's a few components to it. Bottom line, how she feels about you is all that matters. In the most infamous words known yet:

Attraction is not a choice.

It's a response to some "specific."

That "specific" thing is your communication, broken down into verbal and visual, of which 93% is delivery or presentation.

You can say anything if you're confident about it. You can't say anything if you're not.

There are things I've said the some may balk on, like laying down a sincere compliment, but they worked due to delivery and presentation. The girl I said such a thing to has been long-time friend and "buddy."

Convincing a prospective buyer occurs as a sales person motivates a person to take action. PUSHING a car, or insurance, or anything on someone who has no desire to change or upgrade doesn't work. People might think it does, but more often than not, it's merely haphazard selling where a person gets "lucky" so they feel they did it. You can tell when a sales person doesn't listen, because generally they're stating things more than inquiring.

Remember: Digging deeper about your buyer, will make them a better prospect and customer. The more you know, the more you can offer and bond over. In turn, they'll buy more as you're providing more value. These types of clients take less work and earn you more money.

From the standpoint of women, getting past the sexual level, will open up the other elements which will make you happier. Sure, if you want the "quick hit" or "sale," that's out there, but sex is obviously immediate gratification, just like being a churn and burn salesperson is. If you procure the talents of someone who knows how to dig into people, then both in sales and with women, you'll be more successful.

What makes sales interesting is that people who can be mindfull of digging deep into people's desire, are also great with women because they ask the tough, emotional questions. A friend of mine has that talent, of using lots of NLP type words to paint vivid pictures so your mind stays with him as he speaks. Though he can talk alot, how he presents it is very visual, so you never lose his point. The same applies with women. He has a very natural affinity for effective conversation.

Look over your statement:

"I'm not sure, I might be busy" is not indicative of High Interest, even if before that they called. Girls call all the time, but until they anty up and actually start doing things you want, it's low interest.

Don't interpret their intentions. If you feel it over time through actions, spill the beans, but be prepared to be wrong, or right, and back it up. I've done, and it goes either way. To me, if you have nothing, you've got only 'nothing' to lose. And anything you do HAVE, can be lost, so just take the risk anyway and MAN-UP.

If a girl isn't straight on about what you're asking, NEXT her. She HAS to counter offer. That's a must. If not, let her make it up to you by calling, and even then, I'm very suspect. If you make plans 2 weeks, few people are booked. If you're making plans 1 week out, unless it's of dire importance, such as a birthday, anniversary, wedding, event, most people are available.

In the "gut" you can tell who will do what and who won't. If you can do simple things like a bar drink, pool, chillen at your place, roaming a mall, cruising, the beach, a musuem, art gallery...you can pick up the pace and should accomplish more. If the simplest thing is hard to manage like a date night, a dinner in night, or a phone call, forget it.

Remember this...if you have to SELL something, you'll also have to RESELL and REAFFIRM why it's been bought. Pushing yourself on someone always causes an imposition on the other person, tempting them to constantly require more "reasons" to have bought in the first place.




A-Unit
 

ScrewIt

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i dont believe being a salesperson will improve your DJism.
but i believe it can improve your people skills, which is a huge plus.

I work in a small firm and the top sales guy and top telemarketer woman that worked there has good people skills. The telemarketer, i'd hear day in and out of her speaking to potential clients on the phone.

#1 introduce the company name & product
#2 give a brief overview of the concept of the product
#3 Tells you how you can save money, time, convenience, and how it is a plus and better than other brands.
#4 explains how it works (but not indepth) (my boss runs a bottle-less water cooler company)
#5 throws in a little chit-chat /fluff talk with the person on the phone, get to know them a bit. aside from the point of the call, they socialize on the phone for a min or 2....
#6 client accepts appointment for sales rep to come in and explain in depth of product and sells.

yea the top telemarketer there used her people skills to smooth talk her way into a convo with the customer, along the way, building good rapport. the client will like you and accept the offer for the apointment.

qualities that a sales/telemarketer should posess :
charm
courtesy
know what they are talking about (or at least sound like it)
Know what they are selling (and their objective)
Know the customers situation and fulfill their needs
Let the customer know what we can do for them
building rapport (a good way of networking)

If you have experience in sales/telemarketing, i believe a lot of those qualities can be incorporated into people skills and possibly DJing techniques (except in this situation, let the girl qualify what she can do for you).

Im not in telemarketing or sales, but i have considered trying it out and possibly might.
 

Men frequently err by talking too much. They often monopolize conversations, droning on and on about topics that bore women to tears. They think they're impressing the women when, in reality, they're depressing the women.

Quote taken from The SoSuave Guide to Women and Dating, which you can read for FREE.

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Originally posted by DJDamage
A salesperson need to flap his gums alot to sell you a product. I would say that you do have to say less and show more when dealing with a chick.
Actually you have it backwards. The best salesmen or persons talk less. You can actually talk your way outta a sale by just flapping your gums.

The best salemen interview a prospect. Much the same way I've been stating interviewing a woman and getting her life story.
 
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Originally posted by crotchrocket
Salesmanship, is it not one of the most overlooked and underestimated DJ qualities?

Does anyone else get the impression that in order to have success as a DJ you need to be a good salesman? And in this case the product you are promoting is yourself?

Lately I have been getting this a lot; I ask a girl to come with me to something, and even though I can just tell she REALLY wants to say yes, she doesn't, but she doesn't say no either. I then get the impression from the look on her face, to the non-committal/ambiguous answer she gives, she could go either way, yes or no, and it's all up to me. I'm not a salesman, but maybe I need to be?

Anybody, have any thoughts, advice?
Here is a post of mine from about 2 or 3 years ago:

The Birth of a Salesman

Sales people generally come in two categories:

1. Order takers: who sell to the customers who come through the door on their own 9and therefore the sales people have no responsibility for generating leads)
2. Prospectors: who go out and find customers to whom they can sell

It’s a lot easier being an order taker. You go down to the store each day, work the register, and wait for customers to show up and buy the widget at your store. Everyday malls will have hundreds or even thousands of sales people filling the role of order takers on any given business day.

As you man this position you don’t run the risk of rejection, but you’ll also draw a modest paycheck (perhaps even the minimum wage). After all, your just another “warm body” and your main job qualification is that you show up for work on time and half way sober. Low risk…low return. You won’t reach superstardom, you won’t make $200k a year being an order taker.

You won’t be pimp of the year at the players annual ball.

To excel you have to become a sales prospector. And (fortunately for those of you already in sales prospecting) the skills needed are not all that different for selling any other goods and services.

Pretty much the only difference is that in our game, you’re both the salesman and the “goods and services” being sold.

To succeed in sales, you have to be able to:
1. Handle rejection
2. Ask for the sale.

It’s really that simple. Pick up the “help Wanted” section of your Sunday newspaper and look at the Sales jobs section. You’ll see two buzz words that are prevalent. Most organizations are looking for people who are MOTIVATED and people who are CLOSERS.

Motivated: what this means is that you don’t give up at the first sign of rejection.
Closers: means that you aren’t afraid to ask for the order or sale.

Like I tell my buddy, you gotta be persistent, and don’t be afraid to ask for the order.
 
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