Top Ten Sales Training Mistakes That Most Companies Make

The best laid intentions…..For most companies, sales training is a mysterious “black box.” They give training “a shot.” They have that special time of year when they do their training. They bring in the specialists from HR. They “role-play” for the video camera, etc., etc., etc.. In my experience in working with companies across the country on their sales and training, I have seen it all. So, to close out the year, (and in the spirit of The Dave Letterman Show) I offer to you the Top Ten Sales Training Mistakes That Most Companies Make:

1-No Support From the Top
How often is that I see upper management in many companies touting the importance of the growth of their salespeople! How often that I hear them extolling the virtues of the development techniques that their mid level managers and trainers offer to their sales staff! The truth in most organizations is that the leaders typically are more concerned about results than process; about the scorecard than the way the score was achieved. Sure, a leader must concern themselves with the results of the team…there is no doubt in that. But, for the most part what I see out there is little ACTION-and what I hear out there is merely lip service towards the training of most sales organizations. It is no wonder that there are many CEOs that are “throwing up their arms” in surrender to the lack of sales skill, proper attitude, and focused sales activity on their teams.

2-Little-To-No Interaction From The Sales Team
For those companies that are doing some training, I have found that the “chalk and talk” method is widely used in their training. That is, in their training, the trainer lectures the salespeople on “best practices” that need to be implemented or stats that need improvement. In these sessions, there is typically no input, no feedback, and little-to-no interaction from the sales team. It has been said that, in a training session the teacher typically learns more than the student. Locking salespeople in a lecture-style training session only serves to demean, demoralize, and de-motivate those in attendance. Thus, no buy-in-and no learning!

3-Sporadic and/or Inconsistent Training
It seems that there are more companies out there that offer training like the CIA or FBI offer information throughout the ranks…On a “Need To Know Basis!” What is that? The reactive nature of most companies turns their focus toward the training of their salespeople only when sales are down or during the “slower” months. I have had the good fortune to work with hundreds of salespeople who have been products of this dysfunctional system and the major consensus is that, because there is no flow to the training, there is no flow to the learning and thus, no flow to the implementation of new techniques. Also, there are many companies that have the “once a year” dose of training at their national meeting or industry convention. I have yet to ever meet a sales professional that blossoms and continually grows because of a 90 minute keynote address once a year.

4-“One Size Fits All” Sales Training
In any sales organization, there are varying skill sets, experiences, and attitudes. The differences can be vast or subtle throughout the members of the team but, nonetheless, they are there! Too often, a company will develop a curriculum and run their people through it like cattle with little-to-no adjustments for style, tenure, or level of salesperson. Any good salesperson will tell you that you must adjust your message to the customer in order to hope to make an IMPACT with more than one style. Wouldn’t this seem to make sense in the development of our teams? (**This does not infer that senior, experienced, or highly skilled salespeople do not get value from training and thus, need none…it is merely pointing out that there should be some customization to the audience or one on one interaction at differing levels.)

5-“Give the Pitch” Training Only
This is one of the most common mistakes that I have seen in sales training. In fact, I was guilty of this early on in my own sales management career. Many companies herd their salespeople in a training room and repeatedly go over “the pitch!” This training many times forces the salesperson to memorize the words, the steps, and the flow of the sales presentation as if there will never be any deviation from it. In these sessions, the salesperson will work primarily on WHAT to say, WHEN to say it, and sometimes even HOW to say it. Rarely is there a WHY we say it! Although we need our salespeople well prepared to give their “value proposition” and extol the many virtues of doing business with our companies, we find that this approach tends to lend itself to the creation of a “pitch” focused salesperson who prefers a monologue rather than a dialogue in his/her sales presentations! (BAD NEWS!!)

6-Less-Than-Stellar Trainers
Many times, companies tend to throw someone into the training role that is ill-prepared for the task. This is not to say that this person does not care about their content or delivery nor focus on their audience. What it does often mean is that those in attendance feel that the training is more professorial than it should be. In other words, if there is no “component of experience” in the training, the message often gets lost in the translation. In sales especially, the term “those who can’t---Teach!” seems to be very applicable. (**Please do not misconstrue this to mean that I feel the best salespeople make the best sales trainers or the best sales managers-it simply means that unless there has been a visible track record of success or a tangible/believable evidence of sales experience in a similar sales model, the dismissive attitude tends to be present.)

7-Just DWID Training
Although I extol the many virtues of field sales training by senior/experienced sales reps, I often see little translation from what is shown to how it applies to the trainee. The “Just Do What I Do” method of sales training often sees the newer salesperson out in the field riding shotgun with a seasoned salesperson. The senior sales rep (or sometimes the sales manager) will go into a selling situation and ask all the appropriate questions, give a smooth presentation based upon his discovery, relate applicable success stories, address concerns smoothly and effectively, and earn the business with what seems to be complete ease. Afterward, he turns to the new rep and says “There….that wasn’t too hard now was it? Simply do what I do and you’ll be successful!” What we don’t realize is that the sales manager’s confidence, credibility, and charisma with the client is based upon an extended amount of experience in the company which allows him to know what moves to make, what stories to tell, what to say, what NOT to say, what names to drop, and so on. The sales training program typically has none of this information captured on paper as a tool for the newer sales rep so what appeared natural to the senior guy is far from natural for the trainee. Thus, the training (if it stands alone) is ineffective and will lead to frustration on the part of the newer salesperson.

8-Non-Applicable/Usable/Implementable Sales Training
Often a trainer is put into place internally (or hired externally) based upon their “platform” skills. They are good presenters with a good menu of material for general sales information. Although this may be applicable as a way to “kick-off” training initiatives, please do not mistake it for sales training. Fundamental or foundational training is very important to keep salespeople continually focused on “what gets them to the dance.” However, there needs to be specific training in place that addresses current specific situations such as common objections or roadblocks to the sale and how to address them, appropriate ways to “open” the prospect or customer through questions in a discovery process, real-life success stories and enthusiastic endorsers, and many more topics that go deeper into the real day to day life of the salespeople. After every training session two questions need to be asked of the group that is being trained:
“So, what did this mean to you?” and
“What ACTION will you take to apply what you’ve learned?”

9-No Follow-Up and Measurement on New Initiatives
Even the best training will only be nominally effective if there is nobody “driving the process” when the training stops and application of the training begins. It has been said that you can expect what you inspect and the things that get measured get done. The path of least resistance that most people follow (human nature) will lead them back to what they are comfortable with. Implementation of new processes or initiatives is often uncomfortable (especially to more senior salespeople) and thus there is a tendency to “give it a try” and if it doesn’t feel right (which, the first time, it hardly ever does) then it is given up on. Many companies go through the motions of training and expect that all new “stuff” will get embraced and acted upon when indeed this is rarely the case without consistent follow-up and measurement.


10-No Sales Training-No Problem!!
Many companies offer the three-part training program 1)Here’s your cards… 2)There’s your territory…. 3)Now, Go Get ‘Em Baby! Although this may bring a chuckle to you, the fact is that many companies hire “experienced” salespeople from competitors or from similar industries and assume that, because they have worked as salesperson before, they will be able to “catch on” quickly and start selling their product or service effectively. No matter how many times that they have seen the opposite, this remains the standard M.O. for a vast majority of companies in the marketplace today. It is my belief that this comes from a laziness of purpose or a stubborn pig-headed-ness on the part of the company that has them believing that a salesperson SHOULD no how to build a book of business in their company. There are no “SHOULDs” in building and training a sales team. Often in this approach, the only training that the salesperson gets is on product knowledge and “How we pitch it!”


Now, I have a question for you: Does your “sales training program” in your company look similar to any of the scenarios above? Are you nervously chuckling right now or red-faced embarrassed? Are you putting a fancy gift-wrap on one of these 10 common mistakes or are you justifying one or more of them with things like “I don’t have the time” or “This doesn’t apply to my organization?” If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, don’t worry! (OK, worry, but ACT on it!) There is help available!!

Stop Selling Features!

Every time I run a training session, whether with sales managers and CEOs or with salespeople, I ask the question: What do people buy; benefits or features? Without exception, there is a pause and then the word benefits sneaks out. (As if they are not sure...) YES! Benefits are what people buy! I don’t want your product! I don’t care to own your service! I simply want the benefit of what owning it does for me!

An overused example: All of us who own a power drill do not care to own the drill. At one point in our past, we simply wanted a HOLE! The hole is the benefit that the drill provides.

And so it is with our products and services. The things that are important to you about your product or service are typically NOT what is important to your customers.

Do the following exercise: Grab a blank piece of paper and very quickly write down the three main BENEFITS of doing business with your company.

Did you do it? If you did (and you are like most of those who go through this exercise), you probably have some of the following words or phrases on the page in front of you:

Quality Service Reliability Trust Dedicated Staff
Technology Local People Knowledge Track Record
Me Relationships Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack

You see, EVERYONE says the same stuff all of the time! We go into the marketplace and passionately tout the benefits of quality, service, and reliability (the holy tri-fecta of sales). Guess what? Your competition is saying the same things! We all sound alike! We all sound like we attended the same school of sales. We are all putting ourselves into the same box.

STOP IT! Start helping the the customer understand how these words or phrases (FEATURES) translate into benefits for them! What does “service” translate into for them? What BENEFIT do I get because of your product's quality? (BTW, isn't quality a minimum expectation today?) The answers to these questions will bring the customer closer to the reason that they will but from you.

Pass the "SO WHAT!" test:
Here’s a quick tip to help: Follow up each of your feature statements with this sentence:
So……what that (the feature) means to YOU is this: ________________________.

There are only a handful of benefits that your customer seeks. What are the main benefits that your product or service provides for your customer? Is it Peace of Mind? Is it Greater Profitability? Is it Ease of Use? Is it Looking Good or Status? Is it to Dominate the Competition?

"What is it that owning your product allows me to have that I do not have currently?" If you can answer this and speak to this in your efforts to sell to me, I will not only go out of my way to own your product, I will pay a premium as well!

The #1 Skill in Selling---LISTENING!

We all initially got into sales because we are good talkers, good negotiators, good persuaders, and because we are comfortable when doing all of these things with strangers. We take courses on, attend seminars regarding, and read books about how to be better at “Getting our Point Across,” “Giving Professional Presentations,” “Overcoming Objections,” and “Power Phrases that Sell.” We constantly work on better ways to say what we want to say. We tape ourselves on the phones talking and even video ourselves talking/pitching in role-play situations. Although all of this is important, what I notice getting lost on most salespeople of today is the tried and true art of listening.

I have yet to ever run into a truly top shelf successful salesperson that is not a great listener. Great salespeople realize that they MUST listen to the prospect/customer because:

*When they are listening, they are learning about the prospect/customer
*With more info on the customer needs, they have a better shot in recommending the proper solutions.
*When they are listening, they are building trust.
*When they are listening, the customer is buying into them.
*When they are listening, they are showing that they care.
*When they truly listen, the customer will tell them what to say (or ask) next.

I do a lot of training in the areas of effective question asking to “open” a customer. I work on the reasons why we ask the questions that we do and how to best structure and practice those questions beforehand so that they appear very “off the cuff” and centered on the prospect/customer’s specific situation. However, I do not spend enough time discussing the art of listening to the answers and response strategies. I can only picture a mindless set of drones out in the marketplace asking a question, checking it off the list, and moving on to the next. Say it isn’t so!!!!

Enthusiastic Listening
Let’s take a closer look at this term shall we? How does one enthusiastically listen? When you think about that term, what comes to mind for you? I get a picture in my mind of someone leaning in (edge of their chair), eyes locked on whomever is talking, eyebrows raised, nodding in understanding, hanging on every word, and responding with requests for more. I see in my minds eye a child listening to an exciting bedtime story for the first time and asking things like “What happened next?” “Who is that?” “Why did she do that, Mommy?” “What does he look like, Daddy?” and so on.

In the profession of sales, that same wide-eyed enthusiasm over the words of our prospects/customers may be quite appropriate to a certain degree. INTERESTED is the word that we are going for here. I feel that the best way for a prospect/customer to be INTERESTED in you is to be genuinely INTERESTED in them. The problem is that most of us feel that we have to be INTERESTING! We feel that we have to speak eloquently, have a solid canned “pitch” that is compelling, and through these tactics, we will win over the hearts and minds of our prospects/customers. C’Mon…..Get over yourself!! It’s not about you! It’s about them and their pains, their fears, their desires, their highest value needs.

By listening enthusiastically, you will show the prospect/customer the greatest respect that you can. You will show that you care about their needs-not yours. You will show that you are interested in how to best create a solution for them. You will show that you are different, that you stand out! Below are few tips to help you engage in the art of enthusiastic listening:

1.Look ‘em in the eye!
When a prospect/customer is speaking (answering your questions), do your best to look them directly in the eye as much as you can. It shows that you are focused on their response. A great tip to help you stay focused intently on them is to pick just one eye and look directly into that.
2.Use appropriate facial expressions and nods.
Use non-verbal feedback in the form of the occasional nod to show understanding and agreement, a head tilt with brow furrowing to show a lack of understanding (and thus a request for more info), a smile and nod to show clarity and agreement. Also use winces and other similar facial expressions to show that you feel their pain. Much can be said without saying a word. Learn to master this art through practice in front of a mirror.
3.Lean into the conversation.
There is nothing wrong with leaning into the conversation during particularly intense or emotional points in which pains and fears are being discovered and discussed. Get on the edge of your chair and show them that you care.
4.Take notes.
There is a term called “noteworthy” that seems to be appropriate for the purposes of a sales interaction. By writing down some of the main points of the conversation, you will not only show the prospect/customer that you are listening and that you care, you will also show that what she is saying is worthy of making note of it. Also, if you write down what they say word-for-word and how they say it (use quotes on these parts) then you will have a tool to use later in the sales process to assist in closing the sale.
5.Ask follow-up questions with active probing verbs.
Some examples of some solid follow up questions might be:

*“Why?”
*“Can you expand on that?”
*“Paint me a picture of that.”
*“Can you give me an example?”
*“How long has that been the case?”
*“Have you always felt that way?”
*“Why do you suppose that is?”

The art of the follow up question is imperative if we are to truly separate ourselves
from our competitors in the field of sales. The follow up answer tends to get to the
true MOTIVATORS that our prospects/customers have to potentially do business
with us.

So, in the future, think about that young child listening intently to his/her parent reading Peter Pan for the first time to them. See if you can see the look in their eyes, the curiosity in their entire demeanor. Create that same level of enthusiastic curiosity in yourself as you head into your next sales call. Listening is a skill and one that can be learned.

Differentiate, Stand Out and EARN a Higher Price--Part II

Below, please find part II of my last blog. We need to stand out and differentiate ourselves in order to EARN more time and attention from our prospects, customers, and clients and thus EARN more commissions! We started with 7 ideas in the last blog. Here are 8 more ways to get out of your routine and start to create your PPOD (Positive Perception of Difference).

8-Get a coach or a mentor.
This sales game can be tough. Having someone to bounce ideas off and to strategize with will give you a leg up on the competition. Think your good enough to fly solo? Think again! Even Tiger Woods has a coach or two on his team. In this challenging economy, you need someone to re-assess your approach and your skills. Check your ego at the door and get a fresh set of eyes helping you out.

9-Make the CLOSE the natural conclusion to your professional sales process.

Don’t let the “closing” part of your sales cycle be a surprise to your customer. Don’t shy away from it either. Your customer should know that you are there to do business. In order to earn their business, you will have to learn to ask in such a way that it is less painful for both you and the customer. Right now, sit down and write 5 closing questions that transition you from the presentation and negotiation to the action phase of the sales cycle. When you have them written, ask them each aloud 100 times until they become less mysterious and thus, natural. A solid group of rehearsals are necessary for a solid performance! Practice asking for the business and who knows??....perhaps you'll get a chance to perform it more often!

10-Talk Benefits rather than Features.

The customer does not buy quality, service, reliability, innovation, integration, knowledge, experience, teamwork, or the other features that you are tossing out there in an attempt to differentiate your company. They only buy what those things can do for them do what it is that want to accomplish. The sooner you start talking about what they GET rather than what it does, the sooner you begin to earn greater margin. Even better, shut up and listen to them...they'll tell you exactly what it is that they seek. Once they do, help them BUY IT from you!

11-Ask them what will happen if they don’t…..?

Attempt to attach a cost or a price to in-action. When you prospects and customers say they are “staying with the way they currently do things” you need to help them understand that continuing to do what they are currently doing will only get them more of what they are currently getting. If (and this is a big if) you have attached a PAIN to their current situation (from their point of view), then you can attach a FEAR of the future. Your product or service at that point becomes the cure to the PAIN and thus, a peace of mind to the FEAR. There needs to be a bigger perceived risk in NOT taking action than in taking the "leap of faith" with you and your offer. Again, this takes a solid discovery process and a big set of EARS! Listen...then respond.

12-Don’t lie—PERIOD!

The word character is not used enough in professional sales. It needs to be. The world of the Internet has "opened all of our kimonos" so that there are very few secrets anymore. Often your customer will ask a question that they know the answer to just to qualify your character. You must pass the 1st time because you won’t get a second shot. (Remember, they are more aware of their options today) Customers pay more for character and trust—count on it!

13-Quid-Pro-Quo

This Latin term that means “something for something” or “this for that” should be paid close attention to in your dealing with customers. It works both ways. If you are looking for forward movement in the sales cycle or an introduction to others to help you get it, practice quid pro quo from your end first. Give to get! Give a referral, get movement. Give an introduction to a lead; get an introduction further into the customer’s circle of influence. Add value first; get things you value in return. On the flip side we need to understand that when a customer asks us to jump through hoops for them (put together a demo, draw me up an analysis of the benefits, etc.) it is only fair that we now can ask for something in return from them. Example: “We will put together a demonstration of the software, customized to your needs as you requested. If the software performs and meets all of the specifications that we discussed, will you be prepared give us a commitment to move ahead with the purchase that day?”

14-Never make a call without a purpose!

In order to be the most productive with your time and the time of your prospects, customers and clients, have a clear purpose for each of your calls. Don’t visit the customer without the express purpose of bringing something of value to the table or moving the sales cycle forward. Don’t make a call to “just check in” some other nonsense. If you don’t take your call seriously, why should they? By being able to clearly state the purpose of your call and sticking to it, you will become a professional worthy of investing time and money with.

15-Look sharp!

If your product or service is pretty similar to that of your competitions, the little things will often be the deciding factors when deciding who to go with and how much to pay. Don’t underestimate the fact that people initially form a perception about you and your professionalism based upon appearance before you ever get a chance to open your mouth. You want a higher price? Look the part! (Use an iron…it’s becoming a lost art!)

These 15 points are a good start to get you heading towards higher margins and thus, better commissions. You can see that there are no tricks and no shortcuts--and really little rocket science to it. Simply applying more in the areas of focus, self discipline, commitment, and a customer focused approach will change the customer’s perception of value regarding you and thus, your company, product or service.

Of course, you don't have to do any of these things....you could always make a bunch more cold calls! That'll probably work....:)

Differentiate, Stand Out, and EARN Your Price!

What is it that you bring to the table that your competition cannot or will not? What is it that you offer that your prospects, customers, and clients would be willing to stand in line and/or pay a premium to have? What value do you bring to the equation that creates a greater perception of value for your product or service and thus commands a higher price?

Would you buy from you at premium prices? If the answer is yes….and I hope to high heavens that it is….Why?

We are selling in a marketplace today that demands more from sales professionals. Communication tools such as cell phones, email, texting, Tweeting and other forms of Social Media are creating a level of expectation and feedback from our customers that is getting harder and harder to meet. The internet is leveling the playing field as far as access to information. (Everyone can Google you and your competition before you walk in the door.) The result? Buyers that have a higher degree of sophistication (or at least a higher level of belief of their sophistication) than ever before. It used to be said that, “Where there is mystery there is margin!” Well now, the internet has removed much of the mystery about you, your company, your products & services, and your pricing.

If we keep selling into the marketplace the same way that we have in the past, we will get passed up by SMART competitors and passed over by SMART customers.

What can we do to keep up? What can we do to get ahead? What can we do to earn the top margins in our ever changing and competitive marketplace?

Below, please find a list of 7 things (8 more coming on the next blog) that you can start to do today to stand out from the crowd, differentiate yourself (and thus your product/service), and command the respect and attention of prospects, customers, and clients:

1. Start a strict regimen of pre-call preparation.

Do your homework before making that call on any executive or decision maker. Google them, research their industry, read their industry magazines, learn about them and their company. The things that you learn will help you build a platform from which relevant questions and conversation can begin. In order to have something relevant to offer, have something relevant to ask and something relevant to say!

2. Decision maker or decision influencer?

Being clear about with whom it is you are meeting/dealing with before you begin. This will help you build the appropriate value proposition. If you are developing a “champion” or a “flag-bearer” in an account, make sure that the value of your offer speaks to their needs. Typically, the decision maker is motivated by, and thus will act upon a much different set of criteria than those you met on the way in—sell accordingly. Never assume what their motivation is. Always dig, probe, & listen before you diagnose.

3. Make a few phone calls in advance.

I suggest calling anyone who may know anything about an account before actually attending a meeting to get a flavor for what you are about to face. Knowledge is power—power can be leverage. In addition, if there are to be several people in the session, I suggest calling as many of them as possible in advance to discover or uncover any issues or expectations.

4. Speak the customer’s language.

Too many salespeople have a tendency to present their offer in language that is filled with their industry words. The problem? The customer doesn’t know your industry like you do so a “disconnect” or confusion can occur. I suggest that you record your value propositions, presentations, conversations, and questions as often as possible. Get these recordings in the hands of non-industry people and get their opinion. You might be surprised that the reason you are not closing enough sales is that the door to understanding has never been opened due to a language barrier.

5. Read, learn, grow!

Commit to reading a book every month on how to become a better sales professional. You will be amazed at the new moves that you will adopt for your sales success. In addition, read at least 2-3 business or industry magazines every month. You will learn things that you did not know. This can add to your confidence and, if you figure out ways to use this knowledge to differentiate you from the crowd (adding value to your customers) it will add to your commission check!

6. Be the quarterback of your sales efforts.

Someone has to call the plays. Make sure that on every interaction with prospects, customers, and clients you clearly define the purpose of the call and stick to it. When the call purpose is met, clearly identify next steps with the customer in addition to who is responsible for what. You guide the timelines, you run the plays, and you call the shots. The result will be getting to yes faster. (as well as getting to NO faster…see next item.)

7. Ask for the yes once you’ve earned it-but don’t be afraid of the no.

Occasionally, you need to drive your pipeline business further along towards a yes knowing that the result will most likely be a few fresh nos. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not! Stop wasting time on those who cannot or will not buy from you. A full pipeline of nos is worse than no pipeline at all. The time you invest qualifying OUT the non-buyers will be well spent once it’s re-invested in prospecting for those who can and will say YES!

Replace Desparation with Determination

In working with a client yesterday, I spent a good part of the day with one of the top salespeople of the company on a couple of sales calls. Just like many of our businesses, this company is experiencing some revenue and margin "slide" during this economy. In fact, overall, the company is off about 13%. This individual salesperson is currently off about $2500-$3000 per month in personal income due to a drop in sales and margins as well.

The thing that I noticed most was a dramatic change in his approach compared to that of a year ago. On a sales call that was designed to recapture a LOST customer (one worth about $250k per year in revenues) the entire approach was focused on getting to the lowest possible price. All that was discussed was price and product. Although the customer was specifically focused on "what they pay," (and this particular customer was a considerable hard case) the salesperson did not even venture into the areas of benefits. Never once was a discussion approached about profitability or productivity. The conversation started and ended on a negative note of "times are tough" and was only mixed with pessimism and lack of trust.

The offer was presented from weakness. The entire building wreaked of desperation! The customer actually took the written offer from the salesperson and said he would show it to the existing competitor (who took the business away in the 1st place) to see if he would match it and this salesperson said NOTHING! "Oh please buy...oh please...oh please...oh please!" I thought I was going to be ill! Desparate times do NOT call for desparate measures....desparate times call for determination and commitment!

Yes I understand that we needed to get that business back. Yes, I understand that this customer was purely focused on price....most are today! THAT is exactly why I need a committed, determined sales professional today more than ever. Desparation seeks the weakest point and the path of least resistance. Desparation forces us into battles that we are destined to lose. Desparation challenges our character and our standards--a challenges we often lose!

Now is the time we need to draw that line in the sand and determine who we are and who we are NOT! Now is the time that we decide that IF we have to lose, we lose on OUR terms---not theirs! Now is the time that we need to man-up and make a stand for what we know is the RIGHT path. It is not easy but it is simple. As Nancy Reagan once taught us, "Just Say No!" In fact, while we were in the account--and it was not going well--I asked the question "What would the President of your company do right now?" You want to know his answer?

He said, "I have no doubt that he would walk! He would not let this customer ever buy from us again!"

At the end of the day as we de-briefed our time together, this particular salesman and I broke down a few of the numbers and realized that for all of the work that had gone into this customer thus far (and all that would need to go into to it should he decide to come back because cheap customers are the biggest pain in the asses!) the overall commission for the salesperson would come out to be about $40 per week. I asked him if he felt if (as a past $150K per year earner) that was worth his time. You could see his head drop. You see, desparation causes us one final, ptentially fatal problem: We lose sight of our priorities.

I challenge you to re-visit your goals and your approach from last year. (Remember? Back when times were better and customers weren't as focused on your price?) Although a tough economy forces us to adjust our approach, it cannot force us to lower our standards and to challenge our character. Now is the time that we need the strenth of conviction the most from our leaders and from our sales team. Now is the time that determination needs to kick the crap out of desparation!

In many of the battles in our nation's history, many men have died trying to grab the next piece of land or to "take the next next hill." This economy has created a new war-like mindset for many of our competitors and some of our customers! It seems that we are all in a FIGHT for every dollar and every deal we can get. Perhaps we all need to take a few moments to decide who the enemy is and which "hills" are worth fighting for. We cannot make the customer the enemy and we need to decide which hills are worth the fight!

Sell-Smart!!

Too Early to Start Setting 2010 Goals?

As I sit here on yet another plane ride on another Sunday night to yet another speaking engagement/training session on Monday, I find myself mapping out my 2010. The thoughts that I have been capturing on paper are based partially on long term goals that I have had for years, (that I remain committed to) combined with new goals that are a combination of things learned thus far this year with things I wish to engage in or complete in 2010.

In years past, I have waited until late December to address the upcoming year. Like many of you (I assume) as I get older, I find myself thinking more about the things that I want to get done each year. The years seem to be cruising along faster every year and as my children grow, there is even more pull on my time from the home front. Priorities adjust and success gets redefined with every year.

I want my business to grow and yet, I want to spend more time with my children. I want to expand into different areas of value for my clients, and yet I wish to keep my firm small. I want to get in 100 rounds of golf while lowering my handicap and yet wish to continue my quest for greater health through consistent exercise and better eating. I want to travel and vacation more with my family while they (we) are young and yet….well, see all of the above. I want to complete two books currently under way. I would like to see my staff earn considerably more income without putting in more hours-and without cutting too deep into company profits. I want…I want…I want. Thus, I begin the process of mapping it out.

Have you thought through and decided what you want to DO in 2010? I suggest that give it some thought. Why not now? Why wait? Get a first draft started and share it with your family and your team at work. Get input from others. Look at the calendar and start penciling the WHENs to the WHATs. Some things will get scheduled and others will have to wait for another time. When will you take the time to read, to take a class, to grow, to get stronger, to exercise, to live, to share, to love, and to “check out?” Oh yeah, through all of that, when will fit in the time to grow your business?

This month, schedule a few hours (you have to schedule them-you won’t find them) to give some thought to your upcoming year. Think on paper! Write down everything that you’d like to engage in or complete in the upcoming 12 months. Don’t put limitations on yourself-just write them down as if you could not fail. Attach real numbers and dates. Avoid “wandering generalities” and be as specific as you can. Once you have your list, stop and schedule a second time period to prioritize and plan these things.

Creating a road map for your personal and business success is serious business and requires thought---that’s why so few people do it—and why those that do, do it poorly.

Get out of Your Comfort Zone--SHAKE Things Up!

There comes a time in every sale professional’s life that they get into cruise control. They simply get into a mode of operation that finds them grinding through the same activities day in and day out. This may be something that they have gotten into consciously or on purpose but more often it is a state at which they have arrived quite by accident.

There are several reasons that one gets into this Comfort Zone. Maybe they are happy where they are. (Or at least that is what they say) Maybe they have too much going on to even think about trying something new. (Or at least that’s what they think) Maybe they are coming off a great sales month and have decided to “take a breather” to enjoy their success. (This is a killer!) Perhaps they have fallen into a routine of “meeting management’s minimum activity requirements. (“Hey, I made my calls and filed my reports!”) Perhaps they feel that trying something new will increase their chances of failure and will cause more work for them. Maybe they are too busy taking care of customers to Maybe they are simply tired, lazy, or misdirected.

Whatever the reason, or excuse, the dreaded Comfort Zone is a dangerous place for a sale professional to be. It is a place where Maintenance is the goal and Growth is the stranger. It is the place where Goals have been forgotten and Dreams have been eroded. There is no place for a growth oriented sales professional to be!

Is a Comfort Zone a bad thing? I guess that depends upon who you are and what it is that you want out of your career and your life. Most people get into the profession of selling based upon an earning potential that is sometimes without limitations. The top performers among all sales professionals in the marketplace today are consistently looking for ways to improve and grow their results. And even they can sometimes find themselves in cruise control mode! For sales professionals, this is a BAD thing!

What need to happen to SNAP out of this Comfort Zone? You need to S.H.A.K.E. things up a bit! What does S.H.A.K.E. mean?

S-Set or Revisit Your Goals for the Year
It is my belief that when a sales professional gets too comfortable with the status quo, the main reason is that they have lost sight of their goals. Each and every year it is imperative that salespeople take the time to set their goals for the upcoming year. Why? We are in a career that necessitates self discipline and committed action in many areas. Often, there is not a boss breathing down our neck or a time-clock to punch to ensure that we are “staying the course.” Therefore, we must decide what it is that we want to accomplish each year in our business and personal lives. Our goals must be clear and concise rather than wandering and vague. They must be written down and have deadlines (or lifelines-if you prefer) assigned to them.
If you find yourself working within your Comfort Zone, you need to re-visit these goals. You need to remind yourself what it is that you really want to accomplish (to GET) out of this year! There is an ancient Eastern proverb that says something like, “When one is aware of the why, they can deal with almost any of the how.” So, refocus on what you set your sights on this year so that you can get back to the business of working towards the goal instead of just working.

H-Have a Solid Game Plan
Before you go rushing off towards a new (or re-committed to) goal, you must first have a clear plan of what to do—as well as what NOT to do. Think of all of the things that need to occur in order to accomplish the goal. What needs to happen? What needs to happen this month, next month, next quarter, etc. What needs to “go on the back-burner?
Organize your list into a plan by priority and sequence. Understand that there will be obstacles. Understand that every plan will have potential unforeseen roadblocks that will come up. Try your best to identify as many of them as you can beforehand with a contingency plan to work your way through them or around them. No excuses, no blame! If there is a game plan (a track on which to run) than you have a much better shot at accomplishing what it is that you set out to do.

A-Arrive Earlier to the Game
In reading a recent article in INC. Magazine about success traits of some of the nation’s top executives, one of the common things that all of them shared was they got an early start every day. Most of them were up well before 6:00am and “in the chair” before most of their competition. In the game of life, you have very few opportunities to “gather an edge” over the competition. The competition that we are discussing in this article is the Comfort Zone—the competition for your success! Set a goal to get up 1-2 hours earlier than usual for the next 60 days. If you are normally just getting up at 7:00am, then immediately re-set your alarm clock to “join the 5 o’clock club!” The things that you can accomplish or the way that you can prepare in those “Golden 120” minutes between 5:00am and 7:00am will snap you out of your Comfort Zone and into your Action Zone! Think about all of the things you can accomplish:
-You can read the entire newspaper (or two) and enjoy your coffee while you do.
-You can get in 30-60 minutes of solid cardio exercise to “get the crud out of your veins” and get your blood pumping.
-You can write an entire chapter in your upcoming book or an article for your prospective new customer’s industry magazines.
-You can spend 10-15 minutes in preparation (doing your homework) for each today’s sales calls.
-You could prepare 20 questions for every face to face sales call that you are going on today. (Heck, you might even be able to practice them aloud!)
-You can read a book on sales, self motivation, time management, overcoming objections, price negotiation, etc.
Are you getting this yet? All of the things that you say that you never have time to do can be accomplished if you “Arrive to the Game Earlier.” So, to quote Tom Hopkins, G.O.Y.A----Get Off Your _ss, get up, and get going early.

K-Kick up Some New Activity
I am often reminded of an old commercial for Dunkin’ Donuts that highlighted the donut maker waking up every morning, day-in and day-out, with the same phrase, “Time to make the donuts…” Every day, he went about the exact same routine of waking up at the same time and mindlessly getting to work to crank out dozens and dozens of donuts. I see to many sales professionals falling into the same trap. They get up each day and mindlessly go through a set of prescribed motions designed to identify, capture and engage new customers while, at the same time taking care of existing customers. The find themselves often times in a rut. (Which has been described as a grave with the ends kicked out!)
It’s time to Kick up some new ACTIVITY. In order to get out of the Comfort Zone rut, we need to take a long hard look (hell, make it a short glance) at the myriad of things that we do each and every day and ask ourselves if each one produces the results desired. Next, we need to identify 5 NEW activities that we can begin right now that will re-ignite our creative flames, get us out into the limelight (in front of our customers), and shake things up! Here are a few examples of some ideas for you:-Start writing 5 handwritten notes every day to your existing database of customers and contacts. Coming up with creative ways to connect or to re-connect with these folks will start to get you going. Think out of the box—use a variety of notes—handwrite each one with a little personal flair (about you as well as the customer), and put a stamp on each. I guarantee that they will get opened and some will spark action on the part of your customers.
-Identify and touch (a call, a note, an article, an email, etc.) no less than 5 new prospective accounts every day for the next 60 days. Putting out about 200 touches is bound to stir up some action.
-Attend a few networking functions with a game plan that you follow to the tee. This game plan should be designed for you to connect with and meet no less than 10 people per event that can either buy from you or influence a buying decision in your favor.
-Write 3 articles to submit to the industry magazines that your customers read. Hint: Make the articles about their world and not yours. The trick is to become visible to your marketplace.
-Call three current customers every day for the next 3 weeks and ask them for referrals. Hint: Have a solid plan for this---you need to earn referrals. How can you earn them before you make the call?Are you starting to get the picture? Action begets Action! Doing the same thing every day and expecting different results is what Einstein called INSANITY!

E-Enjoy the Results of Your Work!
When all is said and done; when you have recommitted to your goals for the year, built and taken action on a solid plan to accomplish those goals, gotten into the habit of arriving earlier to the game, and kicked up some new focused activity, the results will be apparent! It is very important to celebrate your re-birth to the land of the committed. It is paramount to enjoy the fruits of your re-found effort. Enjoy, this is a game. This is a journey. As I said however, it is you who draws the map for the journey. If you know the destination and can lay out a route to get there, you will have a much better shot of changing course when you take the occasional exit on the Comfort Zone freeway.


The choice is and will always be yours to make. It’s easy to coast, to cruise, and to remain where there is little risk. It’s easy to take the path of least resistance and stay where you know what you know. However, this path will often not get you what you really want. It may occasionally give you a taste of what you want, but if you are focused on what you really want, and are willing to stay focused, you can get what you really want!

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

The next time that you find yourself staying too long inside your Comfort Zone, understand that you are not working up to your potential. Your ability to unleash your potential is determined by your willingness to S.H.A.K.E. things up! Now go get shakin’!

Look Before You Leap---THINK Before You Speak!

I had the good fortune of taking the afternoon recently to play some golf with a few friends at my club. The game that I was invited to play in was supposedly a friendly match that included a substantial amount of financial windfall to the winner, typically funded by the losers. I love a good “money-game” on the golf course so this was a very welcome invitation.

The morning started at 5:30am at the gym. As I spent an hour on the elliptical machine, I caught my thoughts wandering toward the afternoon’s match. As I lifted some weights and stretched over the next 45 minutes, I found my actions focusing on how my swing would be later that day. On the way back to the office from the gym, I was mentally preparing the balance of my morning to best “stack the deck” for the competition to come. I thought about what to wear, what to eat, when to arrive, how to warm-up, and how to practice before starting. I thought about how I wanted to play each hole and where I would be aggressive. I thought about my previous few rounds and focused on what I had been doing great and not so great.

Although I did not plan the night before to spend the morning preparing for a golf match that could result in a few hundred bucks changing hands, the thoughts appeared nonetheless. It was during my review of these thoughts that I understood that I had developed a habit of thought when faced with an activity that required substantial results based upon my performance. Where did this habit develop? Through years of preparing for sales!

Every day, as a sales professional, each of us enters a competitive marketplace to face a variety of challenges to our success. These challenges come in many forms and the thoughts that go through our mind before we enter the marketplace DEFINE our actions and behaviors. Too often, salespeople enter the day’s activities in much the same way that many people enter the workforce; they just show up! The actions in which they involve themselves each day are not a direct result of conscious thought, but rather repetitious activity. They mindlessly go through the motions of making calls, leaving messages, visiting accounts, taking orders, and filling out reports. When the dust all settles from the day, the results are very similar to yesterday, the day before, and the day before that. As Earl Nightingale stated in his award winning audio, The Strangest Secret, “The opposite of courage is conformity.” In other words, we conform to the natural tendency to simply show up and do our jobs. The first thing it takes to get out of this RUT is to think!!

In a recent CEO workshop I held, one of the attendees asked me a question: “What is it, Gerry that you believe that you sell?” After pondering the question for a moment, I answered that when I am speaking from the stage, I am really selling new ways of looking at things or new ways of thinking! Before anyone can or will take different ACTION towards something, they must first think about it in a different way. Otherwise, there would be no motivation for the change in behavior or action! Think about it for a moment... every bit of information that enters your head comes with it the seeds of new thought and possibly newly directed behavior or action. When you are given new information, you think about that topic differently. When you view a documentary that provides a considerable amount of new information about a topic that interests you, your mind goes into a thought process that could potentially make you take action that you previously had not. Two years ago this month, ex-Vice President of the US, Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize for his documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth” which has led millions of people to think about their actions and thus behave differently based upon new thought!

So, as a sales professional, what is it that you think about each day? Pre-call preparation is an area that an overwhelming amount of salespeople could improve in. Do you want to know the easiest place to get started preparing better for every sales call? It’s in your thoughts. Those of you that have spent any time in my training know that ONE QUESTION can begin this process. That question? “What is the PURPOSE of this call?” By simply starting with that question, it will force you to think about what it is that you wish to accomplish on the sales call. Stephen Covey says that we need to “begin with the end in mind.”

Now, you need to go beyond the typical answer of the sales force: “We want to sell this guy something.” That is the reward for achieving the result that you seek. THINK! THINK! What is it that you need to accomplish? What is it that you need to get the customer thinking about? What is it that needs to occur for the circumstances (no decision to buy) to change in your favor (a decision to buy.) Below, I have listed a few thoughts that you may want to take into consideration before making your next round of sales calls. Turn off the TV (TIVO your favorites) for one week and spend your time with your thoughts. Instead of simply showing up for next week’s sales calls and “spraying and praying,” try giving some thought to the ideas below in advance so that when you open your mouth, every sound brings you closer to your desired outcome. Remember: Talking too much usually follows thinking too little.

Some thoughts to drive new actions, new behaviors, and hopefully new results:

“What is the purpose of this call?”
“What might this prospect/customer be thinking about me/my product today?”
“What are my prospect/customer’s highest value needs or most wanted outcomes?”
“What previous experience has this prospect/customer had with us in the past?”
“Where/who do they buy from now?”
“What is the benefit of ownership of my product that they desire most?”
“How much time does this person have to meet with me?”
“Who else is courting this prospect/customer today?”
“How long has it been since my last visit and what have I done since to add-value?”
“What did we talk about last visit and did I take appropriate action on it?”
“What can I bring to the table that the prospect/customer will value?”
“How can I position myself as a resource versus a vendor?”
“How can I communicate my expertise without bragging?”
“How can I get the customer to want to know more about my product/service?”
“How can I create a need where there may not be a perception of one?”
“What do I need to get this prospect/customer talking about?”
“What do I need to know that they haven’t shared with the competition?”
“How can I avoid talking about price until I establish value?”
“How can I position myself as an EXPERT?”
“What stories can I share to communicate value?”
“What names can I drop to add credibility?”
“What does the customer value more than price?”
“How does the competition approach the customer and how can I differ?”
“How can I OPEN the conversation in a more impactful way?”
“How am I prepared to address the most common of prospect/customer concerns?”
“What will I say if they DRAG me to price early?”
“What 10 questions do I seek answers to and how do I best ask those questions?”
“How can I ask for the business once I have earned the right to do so?”
“Have I practiced the time condensed visit just in case we run out of time?”
“What information do I need to get from the customer to build a better case of value?”
“What OPTIONS have I prepared so the customer will say yes?”
“Have I made it easy to do business with me?”
“Am I thinking from my point of view or the prospect/customer’s point of view?”

Can you imagine having the answers to at least half of these questions before you made each of your sales calls next week? Can you imagine the change in the level of confidence that you would bring to the market? Can you imagine the change in your level of credibility? Better yet, can you imagine how much stronger you will be and the better experience that your prospect/customer will have because of it? All this takes initially is thought! Turn off the TV and turn on your brain! Start developing a HABIT of running scenarios and thoughts through your head before showing up? Start THINKING like a customer and you will start increasing your effectiveness in your conversations with them. Dialogues will start becoming more meaningful and less about price. They will begin asking advice of you because they will start becoming more aware of the fact that they are in the presence of a professional.

Always remember that a man is not rewarded for having a brain, he is rewarded for USING it. Understand and remember that thoughts lead to action! Think better, act better, produce better, and earn better!

Or………you could make more cold calls!

Personal Branding--If You're not Known for Something, You're Good for Nothing!

Personal Branding is the absolute hallmark of the top 2% of sales professionals. Most of them don’t even know that they are doing it! Personal Branding gets your phone to ring. Personal Branding separates you from all of the competition. Personal Branding puts VALUE ahead of COST. Personal Branding elevates you and thus your company/product/service in the minds of your customer. Personal Branding, quite simply, creates more sales for you!

Companies spend millions of dollars every year to burn their brand into the hearts and minds of their potential customers. This is done with advertising, jingles, and repetition of their messages. Nike built a brand around that “swoosh” logo such that its worldwide proliferation is staggering. You cannot go anywhere in the world of sports without seeing the “swoosh.” In fact, the “swoosh” has become synonymous with excellence in sports. The result? An empire of shoes, clothing and sports gear that commands top dollar in the marketplace.

Starbucks did it with coffee in a different way. They chose to create a customer “experience” that is consistent throughout the world. They created a brand and invested their millions into teaching us a different way to order and drink coffee. They train and invest in the “experience” that we have in any Starbucks. The result? We will go out of our way AND pay a premium to “find a Starbucks shop.”

What is it that you can do as a sales professional to position yourself and your company as THE CHOICE rather than simply A CHOICE? Through the appropriate Personal Branding tactics, you can:

-Establish yourself as an expert (Don’t just be “in” your field…be perceived as the “best” in your field.)
-Be known as a resource (Don’t be a “taker” of orders….be a “maker” of profits and success for your customers)
-Create a demand for your product or service (Customer’s will call you…instead of the other way around)
-Build prospective customer’s trust in you and your company (People do business with whom they trust and know….get KNOWN to gain their trust!)
-Differentiate yourself from the competition (If you don’t stand out, you don’t stand out!)

How can you create a brand for yourself as a sales professional? Let’s look at some of the first steps that you must take:

Clearly define the “brand” that you desire to create and communicate to your marketplace. How do you want to be known? What words or phrases will your customer’s use to describe you? How will you choose to differ yourself form the competition?
Establish a “special sauce statement” that states what it is that you bring to the table in a way that nobody else does. This should be from the customer’s viewpoint (benefit driven) not from yours (feature driven.)
Create a list of no less than 10 ways to communicate this BRAND every day in every way to your prospects, customers, and clients. You must walk the walk that you wish to be “known for.” Consistency is absolutely the key. Every move that you make needs to be preceded with the following questions: “Is what I am about to do consistent with the brand that I have created?”

Personal Branding is the key to greater sales for the best professionals. It is often the difference between you getting the contract or the other guy getting it. More importantly, it is most often the main difference between you having to sell your product or service and people wanting to buy your product or service.

It has been said that in the profession of selling, it’s not who you know, but rather who knows you that counts. Call our office today at 866-979-LAYO (5296)---yes, the phone number is one way that I am Personally Branding my name---and get enrolled for any of our upcoming events. You can also go to http://www.gerrylayo.com/ and enroll for any of these events online.

Remember, if you can’t name 2-3 reasons that YOU would choose to be known, how can you expect your customers to list ONE?

Put Some MAGIC in Your Customer Service

Customer Service is a dying art! Phones in 6 out of 10 companies are getting answered by a machine. In fact, I just saw a commercial on TV that was advertising a credit card. What was so special about this credit card? Whenever you call the credit card company you will actually speak to a live human being! Say it isn’t so!

The average attendee in my seminars, when asked, state that they have had mostly average experiences of customer service in the past month compared to a few horrible experiences and just one fantastic experience. Tony Alessandra calls these Moments of Mediocrity, Moments of Misery, and Moments of Magic. It has been my contention that every company has the ability to stand out by simply striving for the WOW experience that Alessandra calls a Moment of Magic.

Most of us feel that the customer service departments in our companies are responsible for this experience. While I agree that the customer service professionals on your team do absolutely drive the customer experience, I would like to challenge those of us in the sales side of the business to take a closer look at our role in this process.

Let’s see if we can break down that MAGIC into an easy-to-digest (and apply) acronym:

Managing Expectations
The sales process really “tees up” the customer service process by setting up the customer expectations. Let’s face it; anyone can get anyone to buy anything by telling the buyer whatever they want to hear. In fact, it is exactly this fact that has given salespeople bad reputations for years. The true sales professional understands that they seek a customer for life (a client relationship) out of every transaction. Just as with any relationship, there are expectations that both will have. It is the salesperson’s job to discover the true expectations of the customer from the onset and to temper those according to true deliverables. In addition, the sales professional must explain in detail to the customer the role that they must play in the relationship. With properly discovered and mutually agreed upon expectations set in advance, the customer service experience has been properly arranged in advance so that the customer “knows what they are in for.” At that point, it is up to the entire organization (every touch point) to EXCEED those expectations!

Assessing Needs
The first and most vital conversations that are held with a customer are done so with the sales professional. It is during these conversations that we are to gather information in addition to giving it. We have defined the shortest course on selling for years as “Asking Questions and Listening.” This process is not important only for the discovery of a potential customer’s hot buttons and motivators which will guide them towards a purchase from us. It also helps us assess their HVNs (Highest Value Needs) so that we may communicate them to our internal customer service teams.
Here is an idea: Create a form that will allow your salespeople to capture some of the basic HVNs of your new customers. On the form, simply list categories that are important for the smooth transition from the sales process to the service process. In addition, capture the communication style of the customer and any pertinent information that will create a strong communication foundation for the service team. What has been promised? What does the customer expect? Where are the potential “landmines that we need to avoid?” How can we WOW them early in the relationship? What do we need to know about them personally as well as professionally to best serve them?

Growth (vs. Maintenance)
There are two ways to look at every interaction that we have with prospects, customers, and clients. We can simply strive to MAINTAIN our current status, relationship, or loyalty with these folks or we can strive to create GROWTH in these areas with every interaction. From a sales perspective, it is my belief that there should never be such a thing as a MAINTENANCE call! The purpose of front line sales reps is to GROW the customer relationship, GROW the trust that a customer has in you and thus, the company, GROW the value that the customer perceives in you and thus, the company, and GROW their account within the organization. When your goal is simply to MAINTAIN, there is very little preparation necessary. There is very little need for pre-call planning, practice, or customer focused thought. Here’s a good drill: Write down the two words above (Growth and Maintenance). Under each word, write down 10 things that you need to DO to either Maintain or Grow an account. I bet the list is longer and requires more action under GROWTH!

Interest-(Show one-before, during, and after the sale)
As a sales professional, if you were to be judged and compensated on the overall length and value of your relationships with your customers and clients, I would bet that your actions would be more focused. We are all guilty of “moving on” from a relationship in the mind of the customer. The courting stage is full of surprise, passion, excitement, and over-the-top communication when we have the prospective customer in the pipeline. Early into the customer phase, we will stay in touch, make the occasional call to see how everything is going with our product or service, and do some of the things necessary to grow the customer (one-time, price focused buyer) into a client (lifetime, value focused buyer). However, it has been said that familiarity breeds contempt. Too often, salespeople tend to lose interest in an account after a while and in doing so create the perception that they are taking the relationship for granted. Although you may think this way, it is really not important what you think—the customer/client is the king. Good drill here: Identify your top 10 accounts right now. Next, schedule a face to face meeting with each one of them within the next 60 days. The purpose of that meeting is to reconnect; “to renew your vows,” and to get into their hearts by attempting to re-visit their business needs (they most likely have changed since you were dating.)

Communication
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why customers get fed up and leave is a lack of true communication on the part of the company with whom they are doing business. Of course, people don’t do business with companies—they do business with people. Think about the world that we live in today. Phones are answered by machines that guide us through a seemingly unending series of “press this” or “enter that” before we can get a chance to communicate. Our email boxes are so loaded with spam that we have a tendency to DELETE courteous correspondence out of lives before it is read. We are forcing our customers to websites to interact with us. We are using “self-checkout” lines at grocery stores. What in the world happened to good old-fashioned one-on-one communication? When we survey customers as to what it is that they are looking for in the “service experience,” the answers rarely, if ever, mention cost effectiveness, efficiency, and electronically based communication. Instead, they say they are looking for knowledgeable help, follow-through, basic courtesies, dedicated attention, feedback, empathy, and respect. This begins with the sales professional.

As a salesperson, how can you create all of this and still be focused on getting new “fish in the boat?” It’s not easy—especially on your own. Don’t fall into the trap of keeping others in the company away from your accounts. Furthermore, don’t micro-manage every detail of the customer’s interaction with your company. Instead, create a team to deliver consistent Moments of Magic.

Using the acronym above, turn “inward” toward your support staff, your delivery staff, your installers, your customer service team, your help desk staff, and the accounts receivable staff for help. First of all, set and manage their expectations of you and what it is that you can and will do with the customer on the front end and throughout the relationship. Next, assess their needs. What is it that they need from you in order to best deliver on your promises? Next, look for ways to grow their knowledge of the customer, the sales process, and the service expectations of the customer. In addition, try growing your knowledge of their position and what it is that they go through every day to meet your customers ever changing needs. Next, show an interest in them. As a salesperson, you try to spend time with top accounts in the interest of building a relationship. Why? So they continue to buy from you and never leave. Create a plan to do the same with your inside team. Spend time with them. Show an interest in who they are and where it is that they come from. Meet their families. “DO” for them and they will line up to “DO” for you and your customers. Finally, learn how to best communicate with them on a regular basis. If you communicate with them via email only, you will eventually create a disconnect. Try to develop the habit of the regular “team huddle.” Regular, value-add communication breaks down the walls and allows for the creative juices of your inside team to come up with the best ways to take care of your customers!

The profession of sales is for sales professionals but you need to know that, as a sales professional, the customer experience is something that demands your attention and commands your focus! Sell Smart all the way through and you will find yourself with a never-ending stream of referrals and leads generated by over-the-top loyal fans on the outside (customers) as well as the inside of your business!

This Week, Listen UP!

Here is a quick checklist to evaluate your own listening habits. I got this list from a recent article that I read by Rick Phillips. Try to be brutally honest with yourself and see how you do.

Do you ever catch yourself looking at your watch while you are listening?

Do you ever finish other people’s sentences?

Do your ever find yourself patiently waiting for your turn to talk?

Is it hard for you to maintain eye contact with people who are talking to you?

Do you really give the other person a chance to talk?

Do you ever interrupt while someone is trying to make a point?

Do you ever think to yourself, “I’ve heard this all before?”

Do you sometimes anticipate what the other person is going to say?

Do you find yourself occasionally distracted while the other person is speaking?

Do you ever find yourself wondering what the other person has just said?

Do you ever mentally begin structuring your remarks while they are still talking?

Could you encourage the other person to continue their remarks more often?

If you have answered yes to more than half of the above questions, don’t fret, you are normal. In both sales and leadership, listening is one of the greatest tools that one can possess. Below are a few quotes pertaining to listening:

"It is the province of knowledge to speak. And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." Oliver Wendell Holmes

"There's a big difference between showing interest and really taking interest." Michael Nichols--The Lost Art of Listening

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." Winston Churchill

"The reward for always listening when you'd rather be talking is wisdom." Anonymous
"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something." Wilson Mizner

"You learn when you listen. You earn when you listen—not just money, but respect." Harvey Mackay

"The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It's terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys." Sam Walton

"I only wish I could find an institute that teaches people how to listen. Business people need to listen at least as much as they need to talk. Too many people fail to realize that real communication goes in both directions." Lee Iacocca

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood." Steven Covey

"Of all the skills of leadership, listening is the most valuable—and one of the least understood. Most captains of industry listen only sometimes, and they remain ordinary leaders. But a few, the great ones, never stop listening. That's how they get word before anyone else of unseen problems and opportunities." Peter Nulty

How do you rank in your listening skills? How would you customers rank you? How about your employees? The Good Lord gave us two eyes and two ears with only one mouth. There HAS TO BE a good reason for that.

The art of solid, empathetic communication is founded in the ability to effectively respond to the other person. Some of the people who you have met in your life that you found to be the most interesting have also been the ones that have been the most interested. They asked questions and listened to your response. They cared and they showed it.

I’ll close with a challenge to you. This week, no matter what it is that you currently do as a leader, a sales manager, or a salesperson, I want you to ask a minimum of 10 questions to everyone with whom you engage in a conversation. Make note of what it is that they tell you and make it a point to bring that up the next time you speak. You will be amazed at the response that you will get in return for your attentive listening.

Never Quote Price Until You Establish Value

You know, I have been quoting that little gem (Never quote price until you establish value!) for years and, until recently I was always under the assumption that most salespeople had to first establish value for their product or service before actually stating a price. For most sellers, this comes down to giving a solid presentation of the FAB points (features, advantages, and benefits) of their product or service. This, of course, is typically on top of all of the history and background on the company. The assumption here is that the prospect or customer will find something in that presentation that turns them on and that they will find valuable to meet their needs.


The true meaning of this quote is somewhat different: You should never quote price until you establish what they value! You see, the value that you put on your products or services is not as important as what the prospect or customer values at that time. If your products (and the presentation of those products) do not connect with their MWO (most wanted outcome) then your products do not matter and they certainly hold little value to the customer. We need to first establish a connection with the customer by understanding and relating to their needs. Do your homework, prepare your questions, choreograph the dance, and design the dialogue.
The key word in relationship is RELATE. Do your best to relate their needs to your product by understanding what those needs are before you do your presentation or quote your price. A VALUE PROPOSITION is a statement (or series of statements) that follows a diagnosis of the customer’s issues. You can only propose VALUE if you know what it is that they VALUE! So the age old quote goes “If you ask enough of the right questions, and really listen to the answers, your customer will explain your business to you!”