On August 20th, I celebrated 40 years of making my living selling kitchen and bath products. The economic rewards have paid my mortgage, bought my cars, paid for vacations, sent my kids to college and 12 years ago allowed me to buy the company I’d worked for over the past 28 years.

Lucky? Maybe. Hard work? Definitely. Though most of all, I attribute my success to a passion for the company I worked for, a passion for the client, a passion for selling and, yes, a passion for the industry and all of the wonderful people in it.

On my first day at work, in walked a prospective client who happened to be an interior designer. Wouldn’t you know it, baptism by fire! I had a catalog of the company’s offering in my hands, and a few days before I started, I’d studied it for product knowledge to augment my present selling skills.

When the designer was leaving our modest showroom, she thanked me, saying she had finally found someone with knowledge to help her. Needless to say, it wasn’t my design skills that had impressed her. Rather, it was my selling skills.

For 24 years I have been writing this column, hoping to share a passion I believe will take you on the path to being a successful salesperson. Many shared with me to help develop my skills, and to enrich my life and the lives of others. While it is now time for me to step aside, I want to leave you with the opportunity to keep or restore your passion for selling.

In this final column, I would like to leave you seven keys to selling successfully.

1. Questioning skills. What you know doesn’t count until you know the prospect’s needs, wants, desires and expectations. People with a passion for sales learn and execute the questioning process very well. They use it to qualify the prospect and to find and define the targets needed to develop the sale.

2. Development of a solution. The prospect must have an identifiable need or needs. Your product and service must have the features to solve the perceived needs. The prospect must place trust in you, your company and the products and services offered. The investment must fit the prospect’s economic position and foster the perception that the benefits to be gained are greater than the investment.

The time to sell is always now. As early in the process as possible, get the commitment from the prospect that they will become your customer.

In the development process, always keep in mind how you can stir prospects’ emotions to help encourage a sale. Some key emotional drivers are: