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.