No matter what profession you're in, it's important to return to the basics periodically. This is partly because memory is fallible. Periodic refreshers help you be consistent in both your performance and the services you offer.
Also, each time you review the fundamentals, you are doing so with more information and experience than you had the last time you went through the material. Your perspective will be new, and your attention will be drawn to different things than before.
The first time through basic training in merchant services, for example, new entrants to the industry are faced with a tremendous amount of information to absorb. The abbreviations and acronyms alone can make a person dizzy: BIN, MCC, EMV, PCI DSS, PCI SSC, PA-DSS, ISO, MLS, ISA, QUAL, MID-QUAL, NON-QUAL ‒ you get the idea. And that's barely scratching the surface of what a payment professional must grapple with when preparing for that first sales call.
Given the volume of information to learn, it's understandable that some important points won't even be on a newbie's radar – the importance of listening, for example. After a little experience and perhaps a few accounts lost because you were so focused on your own performance you didn't really pay attention to your prospects, you'll return to the basics and a little bell will go off in your mind when you read about how essential it is to listen first before you present solutions to a potential customer.
In Good Selling!SM: The Basics, Paul H. Green emphasized the importance of remembering the sales basics. He listed a short version of the basics in four points adapted from the book, as follows:
If you were to create a four-point list of sales basics, it might differ from Green's. But however you approach the task, you will derive value from reviewing the fundamentals again and again.
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