New Year's Resolution: First Impressions Matter a LOT

Or not

 

Make a Great First Impression

From Inc. Magazine: "Science has just discovered exactly how long first impressions linger.... To test the durability of quick first impressions, a team of researchers at Cornell University had 55 volunteers view pictures of a woman they had never met before.  In some photos she was smiling, in others she was serious-faced.  After viewing the picture the subjects rated her personality for qualities like extraversion and friendliness.  Then these same volunteers actually met the woman in real life between one and six months later. ... The impression of the woman's personality the subjects received from the photograph still heavily colored their face to face conversation."

So, what can constitute a bad first impression:  not paying attention; having your head buried in your computer or cell phone during the meeting; not smiling; not asking intelligent questions that show your interest in what is being discussed; sitting with a frown on your face and your arms folded.

And what makes a good first impression: smiling; firm handshake; listening deeply to the conversation; asking questions that further the discussion; putting your computer and cell phone away; good posture.

A good first impression is a lasting impression; make your first impression a great one.

Details, Details, Details

We go through our sales day not really thinking about the details--the little things--about the customer's issues and personality, about his business, about little things in his office that display his personality, etc.  Let's take a lesson from Bill Belichick, New England Patriots coach.  This is from an article by Kevin Duffy, published on MassLive.com December 16, 2016  (emphasis is mine):
"Its essence: Entry-level coaching assistants are responsible for weekly breakdowns of the upcoming opponent, handed in to Belichick more than a week in advance of the game so he can use them as reference points as he conceives a strategy. Offensive assistants focus on the opponent's defense. Defensive assistants focus on the offense. Both focus on details so insignificant that you'd think Belichick was playing a prank on these kids. 

Phil Savage, who worked as a coaching assistant in Cleveland under Belichick, remembers logging the direction in which the quarterback turned his head prior to each snap.
Between the identification of scheme and detail, each play could take as long 20 minutes to diagram in full. Each game had 50-70 plays on each side of the ball. Each coaching assistant had three breakdowns per week....
In this job, McDaniels said, 'you learned the most valuable lesson that you keep to this day: everything is important.'"

We love to watch football--without realizing the preparations that these teams make for each game.  If we prepared for sales calls the way coaches prepare for games, we'd get every order.  Keep a pad, make notes on what you see in your customer's office or facility--details are important.  They are the key to understanding your customer's needs and understanding his needs can get you the order! We recently got an order for a product because our color scheme fit in with the customer's requirements.  You just never know, and if you're not attentive to the details, you could lose the order--even with a better price.

Strategy and Tactics in Selling

Hannibal Crossing the Alps into Battle 206 BC

From Wikipedia: "A tactic is a conceptual action aiming at the achievement of a goal. This action can be implemented as one or more specific tasks. The term is commonly used in business, protest and military contexts, as well as in chess, sports or other competitive activities.

Strategy is undertaken before the battle. Tactics are implemented during battle. These two concepts must work in tandem, without doing so, one cannot efficiently achieve goals."

In many ways, sales is, indeed, a battle and your enemies are your competitors. The prize is the order--planting your flag on your customer's desk.

I want to stress strategy in this post.  Your strategy is to bring all your forces to bear in order to win the order.  And what are these forces?
1.  Product knowledge.  This is the absolute foundation for success in sales.  Your customer will see right through you if you don't know your product thoroughly.  I can't stress this enough--know every little detail of your product; understand why every component of the product is used and what its function is. Do not go forth into battle until you do.
2.  Knowledge of your competitors' products.  You need to know your competitors, not in order to belittle them, but in order to address the questions your customer may have regarding those products.  Remember, your competitor is the enemy in this war and you need to know and understand your enemy.
3.  Know your customer.  This is the third leg of the strategy stool.  If you don't understand your customer and his needs, then you don't know how to present your product in such a way that you will win the order--win the battle.  Understanding your customer is more tactical than strategic and we will discuss this in the next post.

If you go into battle with knowledge of your product, knowledge of your competitors' product and knowledge of your customer and his needs, then the battle is yours to win!

Etrategy is undertaken before the battle. Tactics are implemented during battle. These two concepts must work in tandem, without doing so one cannot efficiently achieve goals.^[1]

The Welcome Mat: Getting Customers to Like You

Back in "the day", there was an elderly salesman on our staff.  He used to love to tell stories when he went in to see customers--often the same stories over and over again.  It got so that, when he got out of his car and the customer saw him coming, they would head out the back door.  This is not recipe for success in sales.

What is the trick to being welcomed when you visit customers:  

Always have an agenda--know what you're going to talk about before you get there, and be prepared with the proper information.  OK, that gets you the appointment; what gets you welcomed back:

1.  Know your customer's interests and be prepared to talk about it for a minute or two.  (Sports is always a good way to start.)  Or you may want to bring up a good book that you've just read; or a good movie that you may have seen.  These are conversation openers.  But keep it short; respect your customer's time constraints.

2.  Know your customer's industry.  Understand what's going on in business news that affects your customer.  Have a handle on personnel changes in the business.  LinkedIn is a great source for this kind of information.  Get on LinkedIn and use it.

3.  Bring your customer a lead or an idea that he can use to enhance his business.

Make yourself a valued and welcomed vendor; learn the art of small talk:

whatever your profession, you are in sales.

Thinking Like a Journalist

Salespeople often think they stand alone in their profession.  As I've stated several times in this blog, everyone's a salesperson and, therefore, we need to look at other professions for inspiration.  Today we look at journalism.
Journalists are among the bravest information gatherers on the planet.  They go to dangerous places and ask difficult questions.
What can we learn from this profession?

Ask questions, always and everywhere.  Ask your customers why they like or don't like your product and build a list of product assets; ask your customers about your competitors' products.  Talk to your competitors--don't be afraid.  Just be careful how you ask the questions so that you don't want to appear to be prying.  Ask, ask, ask--only by asking can you learn.

Journalists let the answer to one question lead them down a path to further questions--digging deeper into the issue.  You need to do the same.  Delve deeply into the issue.  And listen deeply. 

What are you trying to learn?  How to sell your product better by knowing what your customers like about your product.  How to answer their objections to the issues with your product.  And how to understand your competitors' strengths and weaknesses.

Salespeople spend too much time talking and not enough time listening and learning and asking questions.  Watch a journalist or TV interviewer next time and learn from their technique.

Back to Basics: When the Thrill is Gone

 

There are days and weeks and even months in every salesperson's life when we wake up and don't have any idea where we're going today or even in life.
What do you do when that day comes?
When a football team starts to falter, the coaches take the team onto the practice field and they run, over and over again, the fundamentals that made them great: blocking, tackling, running, passing.  Over and over again.
And what is the selling equivalent of blocking and tackling?  It's talking to the people that have brought you to the level that you've reached.  It's talking to the good and loyal customers about their business--getting ideas from the discussion; it's talking to your managers and listening for ideas that they may have. 
Do not sit in your office and feel sorry for yourself.
Salespeople are natural talkers--like blocking for a football player.  Find your five best and loyal customers and go see them.  Listen to them.  Let them talk about their businesses and where they see their sales coming from.
Talk to your best customers and Listen Deeply to what they're saying.  This is guaranteed to get you out of your funk.

"I Hate Salesmen"

How often over the past 40 years have I heard that statement: "I hate salesmen".  My response is always--"what do you do for a living?"  The answers range from: "I'm a priest", "I'm a full time mom (or dad)", "I'm an auto mechanic", or "I'm a supervisor (or manager) at XYZ factory (or XYZ store)".

And then I launch into my lecture: "Everyone's a salesman".  

 

If you're a mom, you're always trying to convince someone (your husband, your kids) that your decisions or ideas or methods are the right ones.  When you do that, you're a salesman.  And when you truly believe what you're saying, you're a good salesman.

The same can be said for a floor manager in a store or factory.  Sales is a part of everyone's job--a minister or priest trying to convince people to follow biblical precepts, a cashier in a store trying to convince a customer to sign up for a loyalty card.  Sales is everything; salespeople are everywhere.  They just don't think they're selling.  But the components are there:

• Product knowledge (why should I sign up for your loyalty card?)

• Firm belief in the value of your product (a waiter who has eaten that special plate and vouches for its wonderfulness.

• Personal belief in the value of what you're trying to convince the other person: "you can't get that tatoo, you're only 3 years old".

The problem is that there are people out there who try to convince you about something that you know they don't believe in.  They are NOT true salespeople.  True salespeople believe in what they're selling.  What I called "transactional" salespeople are not true salespeople; they are NOT interested in the sale, or bringing a product or idea to you that will make you or your life or your company better.   They are interested in the commission or achieving a quota.

Relational salespeople are the only true salespeople and when you hear the statement "I hate salesmen", you should challenge it.  Sales is a noble profession and we should be proud that we are part of it.

What does it mean to "sell a song"

Alicia Keys: true salesperson

We occasionally hear the phrase: "She (or he) really knows how to sell that song".  What does that mean?
Any salesperson who understands what it means to really "sell a song" will understand what it means to truly sell a refrigerator or grinding tool or insurance policy.
It means that you believe so strongly in what you are saying (or singing) that you can convince your audience (or customer) he should buy your product (the song or the refrigerator).  A singer who cannot sell his song is boring; when you hear a song that is just being sung and not being sold, you turn it off.
This is the same in sales.  If you can't believe in what you're selling, your customer will be bored--will turn you off and you won't make the sale.
If you don't believe in what you're selling, you need to find another product or another profession.
If you do believe in what you're selling--if you believe it will change your customer's life, or his business, or the world, reach into your soul and SELL IT, just like a singer sells a song.

The Winding Path to Sales Success

From a September 9, 2016 article by Neil Irwin:

"How does a person get to be the boss? What does it take for an ambitious young person starting a career to reach upper rungs of the corporate world — the C.E.O.’s office, or other jobs that come with words like “chief” or “vice president” on the office door?

The answer has always included hard work, brains, leadership ability and luck. But in the 21st century, another, less understood attribute seems to be particularly important.

To get a job as a top executive, new evidence shows, it helps greatly to have experience in as many of a business’s functional areas as possible. A person who burrows down for years in, say, the finance department stands less of a chance of reaching a top executive job than a corporate finance specialist who has also spent time in, say, marketing. Or engineering. Or both of those, plus others."

We often think, as salespeople, that our jobs start and stop with knowledge of the product that we're selling.  That couldn't be further from the truth if you're seeking to become a real sales success story.

A successful salesperson understands all aspects of his customer's business; all aspects of his company's products; and all aspects of his competitor's products.

If you think that you're done once you understand a little bit about your product because you have great sales skills and you think that will carry the day, you are wrong. It may get you an order, or a contract, but it won't get you to the top of your field.

I met a young new car salesperson recently who was developing his capabilities as an entrepreneur by running a small weekend business, who was developing his capabilities in engineering by racing a car he built and repaired, and developing his sales skills in a car dealership.  This young man is doing all the right things to get to the top because he doesn't stop work at 5pm, he STARTS work at 5pm and never stops.

Preparation: the lesson of Rick Porcello

Rick Porcello: Pitcher

We have talked a lot about the Mission and how important it is to have a clearly defined mission when you start your week, or when you go into your sales call.  It would seem that the job of the baseball pitcher would be simple and easy: the catcher tells you what pitch to execute and then you execute it the best that you can.

Although that may be the norm, that is not the way that Porcello has achieved his success.  As of September 10, 2016, Porcello is the first major league pitcher to reach 20 wins (with only 3 losses).  That kind of achievement is not accomplished by either luck or doing what the catcher signals.  Porcello spends hours before a game watching videos of the opposition hitters.  Every hitter has weaknesses--they swing at splitters into the dirt; they are suckers for the changeup; they can't handle a curveball.  Porcello studies this and then executes.  He doesn't walk hitters because he knows what their weaknesses are.  Study and preparation are the hallmarks of this 20+ game winner.

As salespeople, we become sloppy in our preparation.  We think, because we know our product, that that will carry us through the sales call.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In today's world, the dynamics of the sales call changes every day--for example, your customer may have bought a new company or have been bought by another company.  So much changes in this dynamic world we live in.  And, walking into a customer unaware of the current dynamics is a recipe for failure.

Google has made our jobs easier.  Prepare for each sales call by checking all the current dynamics out: the company's website; their Facebook account; your contact's LinkedIn profile; the company's Manta profile--all this information is available and will make your call productive.

Preparation is the key to being a 20 game winner in sales.

"Brief" and "De-brief" in the sales process

Major "AB" Bourke

I was fortunate, recently, to be present at a keynote address given by Maj. "AB" Bourke, fighter pilot and motivational speaker.  He stated that he had two concepts to discuss in his speech: 1. "Briefing" and 2. "De-briefing" and to show how these they were essential to achieve peak performance in our jobs.
The ideal of the "briefing" is obvious: what is the mission?  Everyone involved in a mission needs to know the purpose and intended outcome. 
In the military, the de-brief is when all involved in the mission take off their name tags and rank insignia and get together as "equals" to assess the mission and evaluate every component of the process.  According to Bourke, the de-brief is the most powerful way to accelerate results.  The de-brief is "a sacred learning environment and a path to getting better".  
Without these two components (brief and de-brief), peak performance is not achievable.
I asked him how this concept applies to an individual sales person who works alone.  His response was that we must create a checklist of outcomes that we want to accomplish for the week and for each meeting during the week. This is the "briefing"; this is the mission. We know we're going to be thrown off track during the week, or during the meeting, be we need to continuously refer to the list to put ourselves back on track.
Then, most importantly, at the end of each meeting and at the end of the week, we need to evaluate our performance--the "de-brief". Did we accomplish our overall objectives?  If not, why not.  Be brutally honest with yourself.
How essential is this?  Bourke gave an example of the Blue Angels flying group. At the end of an air show, the pilots land and walk from their planes. The crowds want autographs; want to touch them and talk to them.  But the pilots all head to a quiet room for the de-brief.  It is never, never skipped.
Sales people who aspire to peak performance should never skip the brief and the de-brief; should always have a "mission" for the week and for each meeting and then evaluate the success of the mission with an honest de-briefing.

Sales Lessons from the Olympics

Katie Ledecky

Watching the Olympics, we see these incredible performances by athletes like Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Michael Phelps (of course), and so many others--and say "Wow!"  Then we get up the next morning and go about our mundane jobs of selling insurance, or refrigerators, or air compressors, or houses, or whatever.  "What do they have that I don't have"? you may ask.   They are human beings just like us, born with bodies just like ours; some have overcome great physical, mental, or environmental obstacles--just like us.  What is it, then?
"Inc." magazine's Jeff Haden did a write up on Katie Ledecky and the psychology of success.  How do Katie, and other Olympians, do it?
1.  They work very, very hard.  "You can't be great at anything--unless you put in an incredible amount of focused effort."  Katie swims 6,000 yards in the morning and 7,000 yards in the afternoon. Every morning and every afternoon.  Not just when she feels like it.  "There are no shortcuts."  You have to work harder and longer hours than everyone else and that's the simple fact.
2.  They put in the time.  Jeff Haden: "Every extremely successful entrepreneur ... works more hours than the average person -- a lot more.  They have long lists of things they want to get done.  So they have to put in the time."  If you think you can be successful working 9 to 5, it ain't happening.  When everyone else goes home, you need to keep going--learning, growing, searching for new customers.  One of the best salesman I know told me the other day--"when I'm feeling really good about myself, I make cold calls because I know I can deal with rejection then."  He just keeps working--there's no way to be successful without continuous, hard work and long hours.
3.  Set hard goals--not easy ones.  Ledecky's goal was Olympic gold.  Wow!  How about setting a goal to get that customer that you never thought you could get?  Make a plan and work that plan step by step.  As Haden says, "Never start small where goals are concerned.  You'll make better decisions--and find it much easier to work a lot harder --when your ultimate goal is ultimate success."  ... When your ultimate goal is that impossible customer.
4.  And never stop.  "Ledecky won gold medals at the London Olympics and then set her sites on Rio".   Successful salespeople never stop establishing goals and then working harder than anyone else to achieve them.

Today will be better than yesterday

The first thought of many successful CEOs at the beginning of every day is:"I will work today to be better than yesterday."  This underpins everything and needs to be our daily mantra.  Emile Coue', a French philosopher who lived a Century ago, was a proponent of "auto-suggestion"--using your own mind to convince yourself how good and important you are.  He started every day with the thought: "every day in every way I'm getting better and better."

In a couple of earlier posts, I discussed the importance of posture--good posture gives you confidence--posing like a super hero makes you feel like a super hero.  Well, constantly talking in positive terms to yourself--"auto-suggestion"--and telling yourself that you are good and you are smart and you can do good is just as important as good posture.  All of these components go to making up a good salesperson and a good sales call. Any successful professional sports figure has to have two essential components: positive mental attitude and excellent physical capabilities.  Mental attitude is critical to success in sales.  Start your day:

Every Day in Every Way I'm Getting Better and Better; and I Will Work Today to be Better Than Yesterday.

Starting the Day--Every Day

"Inc." Magazine has an excellent summary of 10 things successful CEO's say to themselves every morning.  I think this applies to salespeople as well--maybe even doubly so:

1.   I will work to be better today than yesterday.

2.   I will make what is important a priority.

3.   I will cultivate deeper connections.

4.  I will stay positive no matter what.

5.   I will keep pushing boundaries.

6.   I will refuse to take failure personally.

7.   I will help as many people as I can today.

8.   I will appreciate people.

9.   Everything I do will be grounded in integrity.

10. I will live in gratitude.

I will be exploring each of these inspirational items in depth in future posts.

Scales....Yes, Scales

My hobby is music.  I play a couple of instruments (piano, bass, ukulele) and the thing I hate most about learning music is learning scales.  Scales are patterns of notes based on a "root" note.  The foundation of music is the "scale".  The foundation of any song is the scale.  Learning scales on an instrument involves learning finger patterns that are unique to the instrument and that produce the sound that makes the music beautiful.
I went to a concert recently ("Dead and Company"--the re-made "Grateful Dead" group) and was amazed by the perfomance of the 38 year old lead guitarist (I mention his age because the six member group's accumulative age was 485 years).  The camera closeups showed his fingers dancing over the guitar fretboard--seemingly randomly.  But NO!  He was playing scales as fast as a human being could in a pattern that created a wonderful musical sound.  The foundation of this music was scales.  And he would do these solos night after night in town after town--and they would sound fresh and exciting every time.  Just like a great actor in a play running on Broadway year after year.
What does this have to do with the fine art of selling?
We are musicians; we are actors.  We need to learn our scales or our lines (product knowledge) so intimately that we can perform them day after day.  We need to love what we do so much that the performing of these "scales" sounds fresh every time we solo.  Our fingers need to dance over the fretboard so well that the customer's only possible decision is to buy our product.
We, salespeople, often sell our profession short (pun intended).  Done properly, the sales job is just as wonderful as the rock musician's job, or the Broadway actor's job.
I was introduced to a church minister a few years ago and he asked what I do for a living.  I said that I was a salesman. He responded "I guess someone has to do it".  I wanted to say (but didn't out of respect for him) "Mr. Minister, you are a salesman.  Every Sunday you are selling."  And everyone, at some point in their lives, are salespeople: applying for a job, convincing your kids to do something, etc. etc.
Selling is a great profession.  Be proud of it.  Be good at it.  Be the best at it. Practice it like the musician practices his scales.

Spotlight on Passion

Mark Ruffalo plays a Boston Globe writer, Michael Rezendes, in the movie "Spotlight".  This was a very powerful movie, but what stood out for me was Ruffalo's characterization of a very passionate journalist.  The movie won an Oscar and the only reason Ruffalo didn't was because of Leonardo Dicaprio's incredible performance in "The Revanant".
Ruffalo protrays a journalist with true passion--the kind of passion that a good salesperson needs; the passion that comes from belief in your cause--in a salesperson's case, the cause is your product.
So how do you get passionate about your product?  Let me start with a negative: if you can't be passionate about it, you have no right to be selling it.  If it is just a way to generate income to support your true passion, you will not be successful.
If, after much research and study, you find out that your product is inferior to your competitors' products, then you probably can't be passionate about it.
I have sold industrial air compressors throughout my sales career; I have sold different brands of compressors.  My technique is to find the features and benefits of the product that I can be passionate about: the efficiency, the volume of air produced per horsepower--whatever.  I find it and I'm passionate about it.
Another product I've sold throughout my selling career are fiberglass tanks.  Through most of my career I sold one brand and then, because of circumstances, changed brands.  How do you change your passion for one into a passion for another?  By understanding the manufacturing and how it is better; by understanding the company and the company's service--going beyond that materials in the product to all the "bones" that make one company different from another.
If you can't find the passion, then you can't sell the product.  You can take orders, but you can't SELL the product.

Passion

I have written before of the importance of Product knowledge and Personality as critical ingredients for a good salesperson.  The third P is Passion.  Three legs of the stool: Product knowledge, Personality and Passion.  But not just the generalized notion of passion--but the ability to be passionate about what you're selling.  Product knowledge can be taught; even personality can be worked on; passion cannot be taught.
You know what you're passionate about.  I have a friend who gets very passionate about the subject of fusion; another who is passionate about rock bands.  But can you be passionate about refrigerators and air compressors?  Can you be passionate about Subaru's or a house you have to sell as a realtor?
Passion for selling as a career--not a job to create income for your true passion (whatever that is) is the first step on this path.  Passion for your product--truly believing that it is better than the other guy's, that it serves an important function for your customer,  that you truly believe in it, is critical to success as a salesperson.
Passion for your product arises out of product knowledge and knowledge of your competitors' product.  Passion for your product arises out of knowledge of your customer's business and how your product can improve your customer's business, or lifestyle in the case of a consumer product.
You can "feel" passion--when a salesperson believes in what he's selling.  That passion arises out of confidence in his product knowledge and confidence that he understands you as a customer.
Passion is the leg that the stool must have to support your weight.

Build up your nerve to sell by just doing it

The story below is from Dan at empowermentnation.com.  (Check out www.empowermentnation.com) The point of the story for this blog is that the best way to becoming a better salesman is to go out and sell.  Fear is the enemy of sales. Just Do It, as the Nike motto goes:
A few days ago, I was inside a cafe, having lunch, drinking coffee, and reading a book. Through the cafe window, I saw another guy at a table outside, also eating. (I'm one of those strange "people watchers" that always pays attention to the people around me.)

Shortly after he was finished, the guy (I later found out that his name is Brian) reached into his bag and pulled out a flute. The flute was one of those Native American-type of flutes with six holes, and it looked something like this:

A few minutes later, I could see that he had started to play it. Brian wasn't with anyone. It was just him, his empty plate, his bag, and his flute.

I decided it was time for an after-lunch coffee and moved outside with it to continue my reading. Now I could actually hear Brian. Honestly, he was not the best at playing, but was much better than I would be.

While I heard people comment about how he lacked skill, I thought what he was doing showed something else about him: he didn't care how good (or bad) he was; he didn't fear what others thought. He was enjoying practicing his flute.

Eventually, Brian had two, then three other people surrounding him, asking questions about the flute, while he gave little demonstrations of what he could play. (He must have played "Frère Jacques" ten times, which was driving some people nuts, but didn't bother me much.) He was more than happy to share what he knew to his little audience and didn't worry about what others thought.

Later, I walked up to Brain and talked to him. I asked him about his flute, and he was happy to explain what he probably already had explained multiple times to the others that were with him previously.

Then he told me something interesting:
He had only practiced for a few hours before playing in public.

After he told me that, I was really surprised by how little fear Brian had and that he didn't really care how good he was or not.

I said, "I have to give you credit: many people would fear playing in front of others like this." Brian then told me he practiced for a few hours and was "good enough" to play.

After those few hours of practice and with his little audience, it showed that he was "good enough" to capture the attention of others and to teach them what he knows.

Many times we think that we aren't "good enough" to help others or display our talents. Before we help others, we need to have more: more knowledge, more time to learn, more time to research... when we may already have the talent that can capture the attention of others, or help or teach them.

Just Driving Around....

When I was in business school in the 60's, there was a management concept promoted by Tom Peters called "Management by Walking Around" (MBWA).  The idea was that a good business manager does not sit in an office and manage by looking at spreadsheets.  A good manager walks around his shop and talks to his people and listens.
But how does this apply to the sales process?  When I started selling, my father was my mentor and he used to tell me--"if you really want to know your territory, don't take the highways--take the side roads; drive through the towns; see what's going on on the ground".
Sales people tend to drive to the customer's location and then drive to the next appointment and the next and then drive home, all on the highways.  "Avoid local roads if at all possible; I'm just too busy to take the time."
And how many times have I been in a retail store and watched the sales people congregate and gossip while I founder about looking for something?
Just as a good manager finds out what's going on in his shop by walking around, we all need to find out what's going on by looking around, walking around, driving around, talking to people. Spreadsheets are one dimensional. Don't stand still waiting for someone to come to you--go out and talk to people and look around and Just Drive Around.....
There's so much out there to see and learn if we just get out of our cars and offices and shells.

Doing What Comes Naturally

Everyone has something they do really well.  You may not have found this "thing" yet, but there IS something you do well.
This theory works the same in sales.  Our company sells tanks and air compressors.  We once hired a salesperson who had spent his sales career selling tires. After several months trying to sell tanks, he went back to what he was comfortable with: tires.  If you ever notice the sales people in a musical instrument store--for the most part, they're musicians. They're comfortable with musical instruments and music, and they often make good musical instrument sales people.
I consider product knowledge the most important ingredient for a sales person. Therefore, you're going to be good at selling something you want to learn about, something you love.
I am a manufacturers' representative, so I sell multiple products.  I love learning about anything and everything, so this profession worked for me--it was natural.
If you love your product and you love the people who buy your product, you'll succeed in sales.
This rule applies to every type of sales person--from the minister on the altar, to the Sears salesperson selling a washing machine, to a mother in a day care center. I know someone who struggled finding herself until she became a mother--and then she became the best mother because she loved being a mother.  Is she a sales person?  Yes indeed.  She works in day care and mothers entrust their children to her because she exudes "motherness".
Sales is something that's in your soul:  love what you do and do what you love and you can be the best sales person on the planet.

Listening Deeply Part Two

I attended three meetings this past month, one was a teleconference and two were two day meetings in a conference room with ten people at each meeting.
One thing jumped out at me--there was a very high percentage of attendees who were NOT listening.  You might wonder how I could tell on the teleconference when I couldn't see anyone.   Two ways:  1.  participation.  (If you're listening and mentally participating, you have to have questions. It's just the nature of things. Questions asked means that you're listening deeply.) 2. involvement.  (When the organizer asks for comments and only one or two comment, one can assume that the rest aren't listening.)
During the sales meetings at which everyone was present, out of ten people at each meeting, only five were listening deeply.  The other five were doing emails on their computers.  The thing about opening computers at a meeting, the organizer may think that you're participating and using your computer to make notes, so you think you can get away with it.  Or the organizer may not want to make a scene.  But how disrespectful is this!
Back in the "day", before computers, when I started in sales, there were no cell phones or computers.  Customers waited for their quotes or their call backs. Now, every salesperson feels that every customer needs an immediate response.  And what is the result of this "immediacy"?  Everyone loses.  The group loses the possibly important comments of the distracted participants and the distracted participants lose by not learning the content of the meeting.
This distracted "attendance" has to stop.  Computers and cell phones have to be shut off.  We need to LISTEN DEEPLY and participate.  Do the quote later.  The world will not come to an end if the quote is done later or if the call is not returned immediately.
Think about the financial investment that the organizer has in the meeting. When you're not involved, when you're not listening, you are wasting the organizer's money.
Show respect: to the meeting organizer and to the other participants.  Listen Deeply and participate!!!

Listening Deeply

Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, when asked what the most critical attribute of a manager is, said: "Listening Deeply".  He cited two examples of this: Charlie Rose, the legendary interviewer and co-host of CBS Morning, and Steve Jobs.
What does "listen deeply" mean exactly?  First, it means listening with NO distractions: no cell phones, no computers in your face checking emails.  When I'm talking to someone on the phone, I know when that person is looking at emails on his computer because the response to a question is slow or non-existent.
We have become a rude nation.  We have stopped really listening to people.  We are constantly distracted.
Listening deeply means getting rid of thoughts about what you're going to say, and thinking only about what the person you're listening to is saying.  Listening deeply means shutting the cell phone down, turning off the computer, emptying your mind of distracting thoughts, and just listening to what the person you're talking with is saying.

Stop talking; stop commenting; stop finishing sentences.  Just LISTEN and ask questions with the purpose of deepening your understanding of what someone is telling you.  Great salespeople LISTEN DEEPLY.

Product Knowledge

Flex hoses in a jet engine

Several months ago, when I started this blog, I put product knowledge at the top of the list of necessary attributes for a successful salesperson.
I want to re-address this issue.
A customer that I'm familiar with lost an order for an air compressor recently because he said "the end user wanted rigid pipe connections on his compressor rather than flexible hose".  Our compressor had flexible hose and the salesperson did NOT have enough product knowledge to overcome the objection.
Our lives are surrounded by flexible hose of all types.  There are thousands of flexible hose connections in a jet engine; tens of thousands of flex hoses in a Apollo rocket.  Flexible hoses (usually a corrosion resistant interior liner surrounded by wound stainless steel braiding) are everywhere--look under your toilet at the connection to the water inlet.
Why are flex hoses so prevalent?  Two reasons: They're easier to install than rigid. And because they can absorb shock and vibration better than rigid pipe--flex absorbs, rigid pipe cracks.
We all know that rocket engines and jet engines vibrate, sometimes rather dramatically, so flex is a natural solution.
But air compressors vibrate and therefore, flex hose is a better option than rigid pipe.
Customers may want a particular configuration on a product you sell.  That configuration may not be an appropriate one.  The salesperson's job is to explain the issues to the customer, to explain why his product is better than the competitor's.
In my mind,  a salesperson without product knowledge is not a true salesperson.
An order taker is "transactional": take the order, give the customer what he asks for, and don't try to educate the customer on why he may be wrong.
Take the time to understand your product.  Take the time to understand your competitor's product.  Understand why your manufacturer's design may be different and use that difference to sell your product.  Don't be an "order taker".  Learn your product, right down to the little components that make your product different and better.

Linkedin.com as a sales tool

Linkedin often gets a bad rap as a resource.  I've had two conversations recently about Linkedin which were 180 degrees apart.  One VP of Sales for a large national company has found out how to use it to find potential customers.  Another, the president of a rep agency, was concerned about the privacy since anyone could see your connections and who were looking at you.
Both are corrrect, but the privacy complaint is fixable.  Just like Facebook, you can go into your profile and settings and set the privacy settings so that the people who may be connected to you or who may be viewing you are invisible to the rest of the world.
So, if you want people to see you, leave the privacy settings at the default.  If you want privacy, change your profile settings to allow privacy.
The next decision to make is whether to go "Premium" or not.  Before making that decision, let's look at ways to use Linkedin as a sales tool.
First, if you're on Linkedin and your profile is up to date, then you've basically opened the door to allow people to contact you. (More on this in a future post.)
Since finding the decision maker is a critical component of a successful sales strategy,  Linkedin is the absolutely best tool for that.
Our next post will show how to use Linkedin as a way of finding the right person.

The Long Tail (continued)

The long tail theory was not developed with the sales person in mind.  But there is an important lesson to be learned by the salesperson. Inside every customer demand (hit), are a lot of latent requirements (niches) that a good salesperson understands.
You go into a auto dealership to buy a car (the hit).  A good car salesperson pitches the navigation system, the satellite radio, the moon roof (niches).  These are the high profit items for the dealership.  An air compressor salesperson pitches the air compressor to the interested customer (the hit) but also pitches the receiver tank, the dryer, and all the fittings and regulators (the niches).
The manager or owner of a store or sales agency or distributorship realizes that the long tail theory means that adding products to the salesperson’s offerings works to everyone’s benefit as long as the products will be purchased by the same person, or same company. The expense of the call has been covered with the “hit”, the money can be made with the “niches”—everything else that the salesperson can sell during the same call.
Amazon got people to go their website by selling books.  Now, while someone is buying a book, he can buy anything else he can think of—almost unlimited.  While someone is going to iTunes to buy an Adele album, he can buy another other piece of music he may think he wants even if no one else is interested—almost unlimited--because the additional of additional songs adds insignificant cost to Apple.
Their secret is now our secret.  Make the tail long and make the sale profitable.

The Long Tail

The concept of the Long Tail was developed by Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of The Wired magazine.  The two components of the tail are: "hits" and "niches". The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail.
What does that mean to the sales process?  I have discussed my ideas with Chris Anderson, and he agrees--a salesperson needs a "hit" to get into the door, but he needs "niches" to really make sales and money.  When you call on a customer, there is what Anderson calls "latent demand" and you don't know what it is unless you ask.
Start your sales call with the reason that you're there (your "hit"), but understand that the customer needs other things that you offer and unless he knows what these other things are, he may not know that he needs them.
Once Amazon developed their system, adding an infinite number of products became possible and every new product added revenue without adding significant cost.  The same with iTunes and Google.
We will discuss the long tail in the sales world next time.

Don't forget the little stuff

I was at a Van Heusen store recently and bought a pair of slacks, a couple of polo shirts, and some socks.  The cashier asked whether I needed a belt.  I asked him why he asked and he said:  "you seem to have everything that goes with an outfit but the belt and thought I'd ask."
So then I asked him where his salesmanship came from.  He said that his grandfather, a sales rep for a chemical company, used to take him on sales calls.  Sales was in his genes.
What do we learn from this?
A salesperson goes in to sell his main product, but all the stuff that goes with that product is forgotten.
There is a current theory in sales called "The long tail".  For example, once Apple developed iTunes, adding more songs to iTunes was relatively cheap.  The incremental cost of adding a piece of music that may sell very little was easily overcome with just a few sales.
The point here is, once the salesperson is making the call, once he's in the customer's office making the grand pitch, the cost of pitching additional products is infinitesimal.  The big expense is getting in front of the customer.  The Van Heusen cashier had me in front of him.  That was the biggest thing--the long tail is anything else he could convince me to buy while I was there.
When you go into a Men's Wearhouse and buy a suit--by the time you're fitted for the suit, an assistant has the shirt, tie, socks, etc. that will go with the suit all laid out.  That's The Long Tail theory of sales.

More on this later.

Sitting by the phone, waiting for the order

You made your pitch. Now you're sitting by the phone waiting for the call from the customer.  Waitng to get the order.  I have one word for you:
DON'T.
You need to stay in touch with the customer who is in the process of making a decision.  You need to email him, call him, call on him in person, anything to let him know that you want the order.  Some of the approaches could be:  "here's some information I forgot to give you the last time", or "here's an update on the product", "if you're still having a difficulty making this decision, can I see you so that we can discuss your questions?".  Use any reason you can think of to stay in touch with the customer during the decision making process.  

MAXWELL'S LAW: THE LAST SALES PERSON STANDING GETS THE ORDER.
I play in a big band orchestra and the conductor at a recent rehearsal made a great point:  what the audience remembers is your last song.  You can mess up in the middle of the concert, but make the last song perfect and that's what they'll remember.  Be the last person the customer remembers and you'll get the order.

Passion Enthusiasm Confidence

A new vacuum cleaner salesman knocked on the door on the first house of the street. A tall lady answered the door.
Before she could speak, the enthusiastic salesman barged into the living room and opened a big black plastic bag and poured all the cow droppings onto the carpet.
"Madam, if I could not clean this up with the use of this new powerful vacuum cleaner, I will EAT all this cow poop!" exclaimed the eager salesman.
"Do you need chili sauce or ketchup with that?" asked the lady.
The bewildered salesman asked, "Why, madam?"
"There's no electricity in the house..." said the lady

There is nothing that beats being passionate about what you're selling and feeling confident in your product.  But how can you be passionate about a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner or an air compressor?
Passion and enthusiam come when you're confident, when you know your product inside and out and when you truly believe that your product can solve your customer's problem.  This all starts with product knowledge and product belief.  Whether you're selling cars, refrigerators, air compressors, lights--whatever, you need to know everything about your product and why it's better than anyone else's.  If you don't believe in your product, your customer will see this and you will not make the sale.  Although his approach may have been a little over the top, the vacuum cleaner salesman in the joke believed in his product.
Without passion, enthusiasm and confidence, sales becomes a tough job and not a joy.  

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Aretha Franklin made these letters famous in her song of the same name.  It's a good subject for a discussion in sales.
Several years ago, I was working a booth, helping a business owner at a trade show.  During a lull in the trade show action he confided in me that he really didn't "like" his customers.  He felt that he was too well educated--"better" than his customers--after all, he owned a business, was college educated, etc., etc. . I thought to myself, during this discussion, this guy's not going to be in business in five years.  I way overestimated; he closed his business a year later.
He thought he was smarter than his customers.  He wasn't.  A good salesperson has to RESPECT his customers.  If you don't respect your customers--respect them for what they have achieved, for their own capabilities, for who they are, you cannot sell them anything.
From the moment you come into contact with a customer, that customer is evaluating you, testing you.  If you think you're the smartest person in the room, the customer will sense this lack of respect and your chances of getting the order is reduced geometrically.
If you can't respect your customers, you are in the wrong business.  If you can look at a customer and realize--really realize--the value in this customer, then you will be successful as a salesperson. Product knowledge is the easy part; respecting your customers can be difficult.  But it is absolutely essential to the success of a salesperson.

Muscle Memory in sales

One of the joys of my life is playing double bass in a big band.  Some of the music we play is at a very high speed.  I have to 1. read the notes; 2. have my left hand play the notes at the proper position on the neck; and 3. have my right hand pluck the proper string to have that note make a sound.  All at two to three times the speed of a heart beat.  You just can't do this if you have to think about what you're doing.
In sales, muscle memory is just as critical as in performing music.  When you're in a situation with an aggressive customer who has given you a couple of minutes of his precious time, you had better be able to present your case without stumbling--just like a musician performing before an audience.
A standard question and answer among musicians is: "what are the three things a musician must do to get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice."
In sales, being able to state the best qualities of your product in a couple of sentences, without hesitation and with conviction, is critical to success.
Step 1:  ask the smartest people you know to give you the 5 sentences you need to memorize that describes the best attributes of the product you're selling.  Step 2: memorize these 5 sentences until you don't have to think about them.  Step 3: be able to expand on each of these 5 sentences.  Have these sentences so deeply engrained in your brain that they are automatic.
And, if you're selling more than one product, you need to repeat this process for each product.
I can't emplasize enough the importance of this process.

Powerful Selling: Body Language

I am going to focus on body language to promote good selling for the next couple of weeks of this blog.  I strongly suggest watching this Amy Cuddy TED talk video.  What she says is critical to success in any field, but especially in sales.

"Always On": key to success in sales

I was talking to the owner of a landscape company who was replacing the trees at a location.  He was asking me--"who makes the decisions at this location.  I want to do the mowing.  I'm very reliable and can promise a great job.  Just introduce me to the decision maker."  He didn't know who I was or what I could do.  But he was "always on",  always selling.

A good sales person is always selling, primarily because you don't know know where your next sale is coming from.  A good sales person combines the "referral" with the "always on" concept.   Talk about your product with anyone who will listen and see where it goes.  

Sales is not a job.  It is a lifestyle.  It is a career.  Being always on and always selling is the lifestyle.  The important thing to remember is, when you're always on, you need to be very informational about your products, rather than direct. Your're letting people know what you do; what you sell.  Let them take you further; let them think they're helping you by referring you to someone who needs your product. 

Getting a Referral

I referred to an excellent salesman I know in a previous blog.  His name is Mike.  He taught me another important thing a sales person has to do: ask for a referral.  You have made your pitch; you have been successful--or maybe not successful.  You have the opportunity to turn the sales call into something more important--ask for a referral.  Ask your customer if he knows anyone else that can use what you're selling.  I can't make enough of a point about this.  We lose great opportunities when we don't explore the knowledge of our customers.  Maybe they belong to trade organizations or a local group and can provide an introduction.
This is an opportunity that is too often lost--the opportunity to ask the person we've just made a presentation to if there is someone else that can benefit from our service or product.
Ask for a referral and ask for an introduction to the referral.  Or you're missing out on potential sales.

The Perfect Salesperson: a blend

We've talked about the three types of sales person: the relational sales person; the route salesperson (or "order taker") and the transactional sales person ("get the order at any cost").   The perfect sales person is able to blend all three types into one.  

I used to have a plaque on my desk that stated: "It All Starts With The Sale".  The sale triggers everything; the sale creates jobs; the sale supports manufacturing, engineering, invention--everything. The sales job is critical to our economy.  A relationship sales person creates a feeling of trust; the route sales person creates a feeling of stability; the transactional  sales person creates a feeling of urgency.   Trust, stability and urgency are the three legs supporting the sales process.  The seat of the stool is a joyful attitude that what you are doing is important.

The customer wants to believe you, wants to know that you'll be there for the duration, and that you really want the order--you still have to ask for the order.  Can't get away from that.

That salesperson has "attitude"

I was discussing my blog today with someone I consider in the category of "excellent" in the sales profession.  Our conversation revolved around attitude, but not in the negative sense of "he's got attitude", but in the positive sense of someone who loves what he's doing, who loves to be alive, who loves to meet people and help them out, who is cheerful and confident.
Give me a person with a good and cheerful attitude, who is happy selling stuff, and I'll teach him the product and show him where to go to sell it.  You can teach product, but you can't teach attitude.  And selling, like many professions, involves rejection.  Dealing with rejection with a positive attitude, an attitude that says "I'll keep coming back until he gives me an order", is the essence of success in sales.
Give me someone who says--"I love to meet people and get to know people and to understand their  business", give that person product training and you have an unbeatable combination.  Hire a "Debbie Downer" with an engineer's knowledge of your product and he will fail as a sales person.