TOO OLD OR TOO YOUNG

Over the past several years, as I get a little more grey in my beard (I would have said hair but I have more beard than hair) I have been asked two questions repeatedly;

1)      Do you think young sales reps relate to you and what you teach?

2)      Do you relate to young sales reps and the stage of their career they are in?

Both of these are great questions, and I never shy away from giving a direct and complete answer.

The first question, “Do you think young sales reps relate to you and what you teach?” is usually asked by a sales manager or someone in a position of authority. I understand why they ask me, however I sometime can’t believe that they don’t already know the answer.

Not only do I think that young sales reps relate to me, I think they relate to any sales rep, manager or trainer who has been in the industry for a long time and has achieved a level of success. Young sales reps are looking for short cuts to success (the same short cuts I looked for as a young sales rep) They want to be trained so they can avoid some of the bumps that the “older guys” (guys is a northern term with no gender attached to it) have encountered.

I actually think a young sales rep relates better to someone my age then they do a peer because they don’t see the peer as able to “warn” them of trouble before they are in it. I have found that young sales reps today are even more eager to learn from successful people than reps were when I was coming up the ladder.

Over my years as a trainer I have seen other trainers that were a lot younger than myself have a harder time relating with young reps not because of age but because of attitude. It seems the closer the reps and trainers are in age the more they seem to bump heads. The learners don’t think the trainer knows enough to be a trainer and the trainer sometimes can’t understand why the learners don’t understand everything as well as they do.

The second question, “Do you relate to young sales reps and the stage of their career they are in?” is usually asked by the sales reps themselves. They are afraid that my years of experience will dull my ability to see them where they are and offer the help they need.

Relating isn’t dependant on age, it is however dependant on each side understanding the point of view of the other and respecting one an others positions. I never lose sight of the fact that young reps are usually scared. Sometimes they don’t even know what they are scared of. Some are scared of failing, some of getting fired, some of rejection some of success, and some are just scared of the unknown.

So many sales trainers look at these fears as being stupid and make light of them to the reps. I have always viewed these fears as real and have worked to dismiss them in a logical, professional way that never makes the reps feel silly or demeaned.

It really doesn’t matter which question is asked of me or by whom. What does matter is the fact that there is a question in the minds of managers and reps which need to be answered, my job, even before I start to train is to give the answers.

If you don’t think you can relate to a trainer don’t be afraid to step up and ask question like these. You may find that what they tell you makes relating easy for you both.

Lorin

NOW YOU SEE IT SOMEPLACE ELSE

Last Friday on 2/25/12, I posted “NOW YOU SEE IT NOW YOU DON’T” Which was about my awful customer service experience at a DIY home improvement store. Today I want to tell you about what happened next.

The next morning, Saturday, my daughter came to my house and we sat down and made a plan as to how we were going to find a new floor for her Condo. My closest friend happened to call when my daughter was there and he suggested a flooring store close to his home. He said he hasn’t personally bought anything from them yet, but has had several people tell him that this store was honest, fast, carried top quality floors and most important had excellent customer service.

I didn’t see where we had anything to lose by going to look, so into the car we went and up to the store we drove. The store wasn’t much to look at from the outside. It is located in an older strip center and didn’t have anything as far as street presence was concerned. When we walked into the store there wasn’t much to impress us there either. It was one very large open floor with stacks of flooring in rows. Each stack had a 4X8 sample sheet of the flooring standing in front of it with the information about the floor on a sign attached to the sample.

Against one wall were large rolls of carpet with the same signs on each roll and on another wall the same layout for vinyl and linoleum. Like I said nothing to impress us so far. To one side of the floor area were kitchen and bath cabinets along with displays of special order flooring and the “service desk”.

I will admit I was starting to get a little worried at this point. But we decided to walk around a little while since we were already there. NOW IS WHEN I STARTED TO GET IMPRESSED! The hardwood flooring that was in this store was the same as I had seen at the DIY store except it was less than half the price.

In a few minutes a sales rep came over to us and he was dressed in jeans and polo shirt nothing fancy but wow did he know his flooring. I was now really impressed. He told us more in 15 minutes than I ever needed to know about floors and yet he didn’t do it in a sales pitch, he did it as we carried on a conversation.

He also told me about his company (he was the owner) and what he did for his customers. He told me that he was there to help my daughter decide what she wanted and what she could afford. He wouldn’t sell, he would let her buy! OK NOW I WAS VERY IMPRESSED!

After listening to him my daughter started looking around based on his recommendations. SHE WAS IMPRESSED! It took her about 20 minutes to have 3 floors picked out which she liked. The owner came over and told her about each floor. He never mentioned price, he simply told her what was good and what was bad about each floor.

He ended it with the statement, I would not buy this one, and pointed to one of the floors. It was the most expensive one. When I asked him why, he said I have a floor so close to that you can’t tell them apart and they are of equal quality. He then said and the other floor is about 50% of the price. If you like this one the most I will show it to you. My daughter didn’t think that it was her first choice so we did look.

I looked at the signs and saw that the remaining floors were within 20 cents per SF of each other. I told my daughter that. She made her decision and the owner took out a pad and did some calculations. He then turned to my daughter, showed her the price and asked her if it was within her budget. She told him yes and he showed the price to me.

Now I NEVER buy only on price, the quality and value has to be there. This floor was better quality than what we saw the night before at the DIY store and the price was…$1200.00 less.

The owner than said he could have it installed Tuesday (today). I asked about the flooring being in the house for 3 days to climatize, he said all his floors are in a climate controlled store so there was no need. I asked about measuring the floor, he said he would send his man out Monday. Every question I asked he had not only the answer, but a great answer.

I just got home from my daughters condo where she has the most beautiful new floor I have seen in a long time. I also now have a flooring store that I can and will recommend to everyone I know for a long time to come.

Customer service, value, and honesty isn’t dead, it is hiding in places like OVERSTOCK FLOORS etc.

Lorin

NOW YOU SEE IT NOW YOU DON’T

Here is another example of a BAD SALES REP, brought to you by a neighborhood DIY store.

My youngest daughter had a water leak in her condo and as a result needs a new floor in her entire downstairs. My wife, older daughter and I took her to a local DIY store to look at floors about a week ago. A super nice sales person was helping us and answering our questions, so we thought!

Let me tell you what she told us a week ago;

1)      They were running a special and installation of the wood floor for under 500SF (my daughters down stairs is about 490SF would be $275.00 flat fee.

2)      No charge for the measuring of the space to be floored.

3)      She could give us a 10% discount on the flooring and materials.

4)      There would be no sales tax charged on the installation OR the materials.

5)      The entire job could be completed within 10 days.

6)      When they came out to measure they would give us the total estimate before they left.

All this sounded pretty good so my daughter picked out a wood she liked and we set an appointment to have the measurement taken. The appointment was set for 2 days later (not a problem and what I thought was more than reasonable). So far so good. The guy showed up right on time and did the measuring quickly. Still looking good.

Here is when things started to go badly, he told me that he would turn in the estimate and I would hear back the next day. (Look at #6 above) I wasn’t happy about another day being gone but I thought it was reasonable.

The next day came and went and I didn’t hear anything. The day after that came and went and still no word. Now I was starting to see that this wasn’t going to be as smooth a process as I was hoping it would be. The third day I called them and was told that they were very busy and running behind (I wondered if I was supposed to feel sorry for them being busy) but I was assured I would hear by that evening. (I would have bet a pay check that I wouldn’t have heard, I would have LOST) about 9PM the phone rang with the estimate.

The installation charges on the estimate were over $1500.00 (look at #1 above) There was no 10% discount (look at #3 above) Sales Tax was charged on the entire job (look at #4 above) I was told that it takes 10 days just to get the flooring in and then it needs to be in the home for 72 hours before it can be installed making it at least 16 days since we first talked to the sales person (look at #5 above) There was NO measuring charge (look at #2 above, the only true statement made so far)

This evening after dinner my wife, oldest daughter and I took my youngest daughter back to see the sales person. I knew it wasn’t going to be a good visit when she started with the words, “I don’t understand”. She then started to double talk and backtrack everything that she had told us. Like I mentioned my daughters down stairs area is under 500 SF but they were charging us installation on 550SF. The sales person actually told me that was because the flooring is sold by the SF but installation is figured by the SY (square yard)

When I questioned all the items that didn’t match with what she told us she said she would rewrite the order. I stood there with my family for over 2 hours waiting for her to finish. When she was done she showed us the new estimate. THE EXACT SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY!

I asked her what she did and she said she was trying to make it closer to what she told us.

My family was very proud of me, I calmly told the sales person that we were leaving and headed towards the door. No yelling or fighting, just calm resolve NOT to do business with this store.

What lessons can we all learn from this experience?

1)      Don’t say things that you are not sure of.

2)      Don’t promise discounts that you don’t control.

3)      If you make a promise and can’t keep it, admit the mistake don’t make it worse by stalling, double talking or making up more lies.

4)      Don’t waste the customer’s time, if it isn’t what you said it will be let them know and allow them to move on.

I am sure that this DIY store won’t go under because my daughter buys her floor someplace else, but I am just as sure that the management would hate to hear they lost a sale not because of the product or the price, but because of the misleading promises made by one of their employees.

If you say it, do it. If you are not sure you can do it, Don’t say it!

Lorin

WE GOT TROUBLE

In the classic musical movie, “The Music Man”, one of my favorite songs is called “Ya Got Trouble”. I am here today to tell you about some trouble many of us have, and to paraphrase the song,

Ya got trouble

Right here in every city

That’s a capitol “T”

That rhymes with “P”

And that stands for “PROCRASTINATION”

Ok I admit it doesn’t rhyme very well but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true!

Today as I have never before seen companies are cutting back on the number of sales reps while they increase the number of leads and customers they have. This means that sales reps are being asked to make more sales calls per day to meet the demand. Usually this would be a good thing, but if you factor in the hesitation on customers parts to spend right now, the sales rep is doing a lot of work for fewer sales.

What this scenario has caused is sales reps having to do more for the growing amount of customers. I am not saying this is an overburden for reps, I am saying that to keep up with everything they have to do reps are waiting until the last minute to get things done. In other words, they are PROCRASTINATING!

This procrastination is becoming a self perpetuating problem for reps. The longer they wait, the more they need to do, the more they need to do, the longer they wait to get it done. The unfortunate part of this is the customer is the one suffering the most.

YES, the customer, you see by waiting until the last possible minute to do things reps are not as prepared as they could be. They are delivering work that is at best not perfect and at worst sloppy and in some cases unfinished. This means the customer isn’t getting the service before or after the sale that they deserve.

I know also that this means the rep isn’t making sales which means they aren’t making commissions. I also know if the rep doesn’t make sales the company doesn’t make money. I also know that if the customer doesn’t get the service they deserve they feel they have lost the money they have spent which causes the customer to stop paying which causes the company to have charge offs, which causes the rep to have charge backs against their commissions.

Holy smokes, all that because of PROCRASTINATION, we really do have trouble.

So what is the fix? Like Larry the Cable Guy always says, “GETTER DONE” and getter done NOW! Don’t wait, when you know you have to deliver on a promise you have made start early and get the work done right and completely. That way when the time comes to deliver the customer gets everything they deserve which in turn gets the rep and company everything they deserve also.

If you have never heard the song “YA GOT TROUBLE” go rent the Music Man this weekend and enjoy one of the all time best musicals ever produced.

Lorin

SHOW AND SELL

While driving to a meeting today I was on the phone with an old training partner of mine. Last week he was at a trade show and ran into a rep that he and I had trained several years ago. My friend relayed this story to me and I thought it is worth sharing.

The rep has long since left the company that my friend and I trained him at and was talking about the company he is with now. He told my friend that when he went to work with his new company they showed him their sales process. The rep immediately questioned many of their basic concepts.

I found this very funny when I was told this because I know how I feel when a sales rep questions what I am teaching them. However in this case I found that the basics of selling were stronger than the concepts of the company.

The rep was told to walk in empty handed. When my friend and I teach we tell reps to ALWAYS have something in your hand to show. One of my friends favorite saying is, “Show a lot of “stuff” to a lot of people”.

This rep said that he started bringing in one of the products with him. He said his manager questioned him from the start why he was bringing it in. All he told my friend was that he remembered hearing over and over, “Show a lot of stuff to a lot of people” so he told his manager that. The rep said his manager thought he was crazy but let him do it.

After delivering his sales presentation on the very first call the customer said, “Let me see that thing”. In about 5 minutes the sale was made. His sales manager was stunned to say the least. The rep then said he brought the sample in with him the rest of the day and had the best day the sales manager had ever seen a new rep have making 3 sales.

To make a long story short (and it was a long story, my friend and I were on the phone for over an hour) the rep continued to carry his product in and his sales were off the charts. He said that after only 3 weeks with the company he had made his quarterly quota. All this as a new rep!

After the first month the sales manager started showing all his reps how to carry the product in and use it to make sales. It only took a short time before the manager had the top producing team in the country.

Needless to say I was feeling pretty good as my friend was telling me all this. But then he told me the rep was asked to speak at their national meeting about how he was taught to carry in the products and use them as sales tools. The best part of all is he told us that he mentioned my friend and me by name as the trainers that changed his life.

I don’t know what product or service you sell, I do know selling. A customer likes to see what they are buying, it may just be a stack of papers as with an insurance policy or it may be a small nut and bolt from a findings company. Showing what you have makes your product REAL to the customer. Spending money on a description is a lot harder than spending money on something you can see and feel.

If you are walking in empty handed, try filling your hands with products or handouts, or a pitch book. Something that a customer can relate to better than just air being forced over vocal cords resulting in sounds that we form into words!

Lorin

ANOTHER BOOK WORTH READING

I know that I told you about the book “Social Boom” by Jeffrey Gitomer a few weeks ago. I usually only talk about a book worth reading once a quarter, however after I finished “Social Boom” I found another book and was so impressed I had to tell you about it.

The book is titled “Secrets of Question Based Selling” by Thomas A. Freese. I think the one thing that makes this book so outstanding to me is the fact that it was written in 2000 and the ideas in it are the cutting edge in today’s markets.

To view the book on Amazon click this link; http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Question-Based-Selling-Powerful/dp/1570715882/ref=cm_lmf_tit_3#_

This book is available in all bookstores and online so shop around and ENJOY!

Lorin

WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME

This morning on the way to a meeting I did what I enjoy doing second only to training, I stopped and had a bagel. I am sure that doesn’t surprise many of the people that have known me for awhile, but I love bagels.

Sorry I am getting off track, I didn’t want to write about eating a bagel, I want to talk about my experience buying the bagel.

The bagel shop I went to this morning is one I go to often. Over the years I have gotten to know several of the employees and they have gotten to know me and my family as well. For some reason I have not gone in to buy bagels for the past several weeks. (I was going through bagel withdrawals) When I stopped in this morning I felt like Norm from the TV show Cheers. # of the four employees behind the counter called out my name. As I walked over to the bagels the manager who I have known the longest asked me where I have been and then asked me how my wife and daughters were.

I have to say I felt pretty special. Other customers looked at me, I guess they were wondering who this guy getting the celebrity treatment was. Before I had a chance to give my order one of the other employees handed me a cup of coffee exactly as I like it, I didn’t have to say a word.

After a few minutes of chit chat the manager asked if I wanted my usual everything bagel with cream cheese, I said yes and it was handed to me almost as fast as I had answered the question.

Have I told you yet how good I felt?

As I sat at my table enjoying my breakfast I watched a few dozen people walk in and out of the store until a guy named Chris walked in. I knew it was Chris because just like the greeting I received, several of the employees greeted him by name as he walked through the door. I witnessed Chris receive almost the exact same experience I had a few minutes earlier. Looking at Chris I could tell he felt as good as I did about the reception and service he was given.

As Chris left with his breakfast in hand I thought about sales reps I have worked with and tried to think how many of them had relationships with their customers like Chris and I had here.

It struck me that of the hundreds of sales calls I have been on with reps over the past year I could only recall a small handful that were at this level. Sure, there were a lot where the rep and customer knew each other, but very few where the rep knew the customers family and was able to talk as much as a friend as a customer.

We hear a lot about building relationships with customers. I have heard managers tell their reps that they need to build a relationship during the initial visit. My perspective is rapport can be built on the initial call, relationships need to be developed over time. Relationships need a foundation of trust and knowledge to be built on and that doesn’t happen on initial visits.

Relationships are built after sales are made. They are usually formed over weeks, months and years after the initial sale based on the service the sales rep brings to the customer. As the customer sees that the rep has their best interest in mind the customer will open up to the rep and bring the rep into the inner circle that is normally reserved just for friends. Once the rep has entered the inner circle the relationship has been established and can now be nurtured and formed into stronger and stronger bonds of friendship.

You may not have many customers that call out your name as you walk through their doors as Norm did in Cheers, but if you have only one you will feel as good as I did buying my bagel this morning.

Lorin

TRAINING IS FOREVER

A close friend and ex training partner of mine called me the other day. I wasn’t able to take the call but his message was awesome and a message that I will keep in my phone as long as I can.

He told me he was at a small trade show in Florida working the booth for his company. A gentleman walked up to his booth and as the two of them saw each other the gentleman said, don’t I know you? They stood there looking at each other thinking about where they knew each other from until the gentleman said, I got it, didn’t you used to train with Lorin?

My friend told him that we trained together for four years and the guy said he was in one of the training classes we taught. As they spoke the gentleman told my friend that he still used all the techniques and skills that we taught him all those years ago today with his company.

As I listened to the message I really felt good. As I thought about the message afterwards I really felt great. As I am passing on this story I am feeling awesome.

Sales Trainers all have one common thought that we share, is what we are teaching really making a difference? We teach a lot of different methodologies and for the most part they are all valid and useful. We teach in a lot of different ways and once again most are valid and useful. But the real test of our effectiveness is what the reps we teach do with the information and how long the information remains valid to the reps we teach.

Hearing this rep say that information we taught him almost a decade ago is still not only still useful but still being used every day is as close to an award as a sales trainer will usually get.

I believe it is impossible to ever have too much training or education. Information and skills can never be taken away from you once you have them. By using the skills you have and constantly gathering more and more information you will continue to improve over time. The better you get the more valuable you become to your employer, your customer and yourself.

To all the people I have trained during my long and wonderful career as a Corporate Trainer, Thank you! You are why I do it.

Lorin

WHY WON’T THEY BUY

Every sales rep in the world has asked themselves this question, Why Won’t They Buy? Such a simple question that can have so many answers. Some of the answers are as simple as the question and some are not.

Here are some answers to this bewildering question;

1)      They won’t buy because the sales rep hasn’t shown enough value to the customer. If the customer doesn’t see the return on their investment they will not usually buy. It would be a bad business decision.

2)      The customer doesn’t like the sales rep. It’s a fact that people buy from people they like. It is just as much a fact that people will not buy from people they don’t like.

3)      They won’t buy because they still don’t understand what the sales rep has told them. If there are unanswered questions about the product or service you are selling no sale will be made.

4)      The customer not buying has nothing to do with you at all. It may be that the customer doesn’t have the authority to make the decision. They may not tell you that because they led you to believe they were the right person to talk to, but the truth is they can’t say yes.

5)      They won’t buy because they were the wrong prospect to begin with. You didn’t do your home work about them or you are working with wrong information. The wrong customer is as bad as having the wrong product.

6)      They won’t buy because they need to get more information about competitor’s products first. This happens in larger businesses many times, the buyer needs to have several companies present their solutions so a team can then decide which one to purchase.

So here are 6 reasons they won’t buy, I am sure that you can think of 6 more with very little effort. The question is what can we do to eliminate these reasons?

We have already done the most important thing, we have identified the whys. Knowing why prospects won’t buy helps sales reps do a better job selling. If you know a customer has a question you can make sure you answer the question during the presentation thus eliminating their reason not to buy. The same holds true for each reason here and on your list.

Next, analyze your sales calls and discover why YOUR prospects won’t buy. You may find a specific pattern or one specific thing they have in common and be able to make adjustments to avoid the things you have identified.

Don’t look for something that isn’t there. While you are looking for the reasons your prospects won’t buy, keep in mind that most sales is a 2-6-2 game. This means that 2 prospects will buy just because you show up, 2 will never buy no matter what you say, do, or offer, the final 6 need to be sold. Your prospect may not buy because they are one of the 2 that will never buy.

The best sales rep in the world will not sell everyone. The difference between the best sales reps and the worst is sometime the fact that the best sales reps don’t look at themselves as the reason for not making sales before they first look at all the other possibilities. Then if they come to realize they are the problem, they do whatever is needed to make the corrections so it doesn’t keep happening.

Lorin

CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCCESS

In today’s world where customer service seems to be disappearing I have a customer service success story.

My daughter had a water problem in her townhome this week. It was a big enough problem that she had to call a company to come to her home and clean up some of the mess caused by the water.

Not that it should matter but just for the record, my daughter is only 5 feet tall and she lives alone. Calling a company to have someone come to her house can be very unsettling. She never knows who is going to show up and in most cases doesn’t know the reputation of the company except for the recommendation of a friend.

This company was different. When my daughter called to set the appointment the scheduler gave her the company web site. My daughter was given the name of the person that was dispatched and told on the web site there is a picture and bio of the person.

My daughter called me as soon as she looked at the web site to tell me about it. I thought it was a great idea, seeing the picture assured that she would open the door for the right person. Now I understand that this doesn’t assure the company to be reputable or the person to be honest, but it is better than blindly opening the door to someone.

This idea was novel and to me told a lot about the company and how they were attempting to supply better customer service to their clients.

Keep in mind, this didn’t help them make a sale, the information was supplied after the appointment was made. There were no ads or banners on the web site trying to sell you additional services. You didn’t need to navigate through page after page to find the picture and bio it was right there on the main page. This was nothing more than an additional service done for the customers benefit.

How much customer service do you or your company do for your customers simply because it is a service not to send a message to buy more? I have been sent to web sites to find information where I have had to navigate through page after page of ads and propaganda before I found what I needed. I have made appointments with dozens of companies to send service people to my home and had never been given information on the person other than possibly a name.

This was to me, and to my daughter, a very big deal and in a small way gave us both added confidence in the company. It added value to what they did and when the service person was there gave him more of an “expert” status.

Did the picture and bio make this service person any smarter, any better, any more honest, or any more qualified? Not even one little bit! But it didn’t hurt either.

Lorin

THE HARDEST SALE YOU WILL EVER MAKE

People often ask me, “Do you think I could be a sales rep?” My first question usually is, “Are you married?”

As you can imagine this causes me to get some very strange looks and every so often comments. If I don’t get an answer quickly enough I ask again, “Are you married?”

By this time I either have them laughing or getting ready to punch me in the nose. Usually the next thing they say is, “What the heck does me being married have to do with anything?” With a smile I usually tell them that they have already made the toughest sale they will ever make.

Today is Valentine’s Day, that special day on which we celebrate LOVE. Love usually isn’t the first word that comes to mind when you think of sales, but just like falling in love, a sales rep and customer have to go through the “courting” process.

It starts as a look between two strangers, and then becomes a brief conversation leading to both parties making their first impression. As the conversation progresses they start to get to know each other by asking important questions. The longer they talk the deeper the questions probe into one another’s likes and dislikes, needs and wants, and what will make them both happy.

Their body language is another chapter in the courting ritual. Are they invading each other’s space or are they rapidly learning to share the same space together? Are they taking an open and honest stance or a closed and mysterious posture?

What are their faces saying? Is there mutual interest in their eyes or are they looking for an exit strategy?

And if all the stars align properly and everything goes well, the customer / sales rep relationship will develop into a long lasting mutual “Like Affair” both enjoying the relationship equally for years to come.

Now that I explained it to you, I am sure that each of you understands why I ask, “Are you married?” If by chance the person asking me if they could be a sales rep tells me they aren’t married, I tell them to go find a spouse and then ask me.

AMORE

Lorin

THE BASICS OF THE BASICS

Looking back over the past 25 years, there really are not a lot of things that we can honestly say haven’t changed. However I know one thing that hasn’t, THE BASICS OF SALES!

I’m sure there are people that would say that sales have changed totally over the past 25 years. They would talk about consumers being smarter, information being more available, prices going sky high, government regulations, the green movement, the list could be endless.

My answer to all of these people would be, all the outside influences have changed, but the pure act of selling really hasn’t changed.

The basics of selling have always been the same and are the same today. People buy from people they like and trust. The sales reps that do the best job for their customers will have the longest relationships with these customers. Sales reps that fill the customer’s needs before their own pockets are going to be the biggest winners.

These basics hold true for selling bubble gum at the local convenience store or selling stocks and bonds on Wall Street. (Well no one really trusts Wall Street anymore) The problem is too many sales reps have gotten so far off track that the line between what is right and wrong in sales has become blurred.

If your line is not as sharp as it should be, get back to the basics. It isn’t too late for anyone to start changing what they are doing today and start doing things as they know they should be done. If you work for a company that intentionally keeps the line blurred, you either need to get to work clearing things up within the company or start looking for a company that has a crystal clear vision of what is right and what isn’t. Now I am not telling anyone to leave a position today without having another position to go to, that’s just crazy in this job market. But you can start looking now.

It isn’t going to be long before this economy turns around fully. The United States will come out of this recession a leaner meaner country positioned better to compete on the world market. The companies and the sales reps that have set themselves up as world class in every way will be the companies and sales reps that will become the greatest successes.

Get back to the basics and back to doing what we all know is the right thing to do for all parties involved.

Lorin

A BOOK WORTH READING

A few weeks ago I was at the airport and happened to wander through one of the book stores. There on a table right in front of the shop was a book that immediately caught my eye. It was by one of my favorite authors Jeffrey Gitomer. The book is called, “Social BOOM!; How to Master Business Social Media to Brand Yourself, Sell Your Product, Dominate Your Industry Market, Save Your Butt,…and Grind Your Competition into the Dirt.”

How is that for a title?

To view the book on Amazon click this link; http://www.amazon.com/Social-BOOM-Business-Yourself-Competition/dp/0132686058/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328919593&sr=1-8

This book is available in all bookstores and online so shop around and ENJOY!

Lorin

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

It never fails to amaze me that after I think I have heard every training horror story someone tells me about a trainer they once had that simply floors me. Tonight at dinner was no exception.

It seems there is a local PMP (Project Management Professional) trainer that recruits a lot of his students from the state using the federally funded WIA (Workforce Investment Act) money for tuition. The stories I heard tonight from not one but two people that took his course at separate times made me sick.

This guy (I refuse to call him an instructor) was to say it very simply ripping off the state and every student that attended his classes. Here is a partial list of some of the things he did;

1)      Class was supposed to start at 6 PM and run until 9PM, he would show up at 6PM and start setting up the classroom. The class would usually start around 7Pm and some started as late as 8PM.

2)      He would bring food into the room for the entire class (seems like a nice thing) but after starting the class late would take time to eat without teaching (not such a nice thing after all)

3)      He would have students roll his food carts back to his office after class.

4)      He wouldn’t answer questions, or allow discussions

5)      He didn’t cover all the information needed for the certification test

This is only 5 of the many things I heard about.

I am relaying this story because as a trainer I want every sales rep out there to understand what they should and shouldn’t expect from a sales trainer.

In the classroom a sales trainer should always be professional. A sales trainer should be attentive to the needs of the learners. A sales trainer should always take the time to answer any and all questions as fully as possible. A sales trainer should set time aside during the day to give one on one help to any learner that needs it. A sales trainer should have the classroom set up before learners arrive and broken down after they leave.

In the field a sales trainer should be setting a good example. Starting early and working a full day maximizing your time together. A sales trainer should be answering ALL your questions, no matter how big or small and should take whatever time is needed to assure that you not only hear the answer but understand the answer. A sales trainer should observe and make recommendations on areas of improvement while reinforcing your strengths. A sales trainer should be preparing you for “the real world” not just spouting theory. A sales trainer should leave you with an action plan, items for you to do to improve your skills. A sales trainer should follow-up with your manager and share what was discovered during the training.

DON’T ACCEPT ANYTHING LESS FROM YOUR SALES TRAINER. Remember, a bad sales trainer is hurting you AND the company. You owe it to yourself and the company that you make a living from to hold the sales trainer to the highest standards.

Lorin

ISN'T ALL ENOUGH

I have said it, you have said it and I will bet just about everyone else in the world has said it at one time or another. Had we thought about how silly it is we would never say it. If we thought how silly it sounds, we would never say it. If we thought how impossible it is we would never say it. Yet we will all say it again and again, and again.

What is it I’m talking about that is so silly? The saying, “I’LL GIVE IT 110%” OR “I GAVE IT 110%”.

Really? 110%? Is that possible? I’m not a physicist but I know that 100% is all we have to give. 100% of anything is the entire thing. How can we give 100%? I know what the saying means, you will go the extra mile and do more than usual but after you do all the extra things isn’t that now your 100%.

That is my whole point, if we say to our boss or our customers we will give them 110% aren’t we really telling them that we could have been doing more up until now? We didn’t give it our all, we were slackers.

As a manager I had employees that said this to me and I never questioned it. I have said it in the past and never thought much about it. I have heard it said by reps I have been working with and didn’t give it a second thought, until today.

Today I had a sales rep in a retail clothing store tell me I will be 110% satisfied with the suit. Being the wise guy I am and being able to think a lot faster than this sales rep, I said, “Does that mean if I don’t like it you will give me my money back PLUS 10%?” After a few seconds of silence he laughed and told me I knew what he meant. As he continued to laugh I looked him right in the eye with as serious a look on my face as could muster up and said, “NO I don’t, what does it mean?”

I thought I was going to need a defibrillator for this guy, he turned red in the face and said, “Really? You don’t understand what that means?” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face any longer and started to laugh at his reaction. He gave a big sigh and the redness brightened a little in his cheeks.

I understand, but now that I have had time to think about it why would I say a statement like that? Why would you want to make a statement like that to your customers? Wouldn’t it sound better if you said I will do everything I can for you, or I will work harder for you than I have ever worked for a customer before? Both of these statements could be true, and they could both be promises that can be kept.

I know that this is a small point to make in a blog about sales training, but as I have said before, it isn’t usually the big things that eat our lunch, the devil is always in the details!

Lorin

HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A DOCTOR

I had the pleasure of having coffee with an old and dear friend of mine today. Although we talk on a regular basis, we hadn’t seen each other in over 2 years. Like so many people we met at a Starbucks that was about half way between his home and mine. He arrived first and had a table waiting for me, after a big hello and a 10 minute wait for an overpriced cup of coffee I sat down with him. I immediately noticed that he had brought a pad and pen with him and had it out and ready. I felt unprepared, I didn’t bring my portfolio with me.

It was great seeing him again and we talked about a dozen things while I sipped my coffee. All the while he kept writing things down. After about an hour and his 3^rd sheet of paper I asked what he was writing so diligently. He told me that his wife will want to know everything we talked about and he wanted to have all the information. (My wife Jackie and his wife have been friends as long as we have been)

So I asked what he had written down and he flipped back to page one and started covering our conversation. It only took about 15 seconds before he first said, “I can’t read my own writing”. Then it seemed like he said it every 10 seconds or so. We had a good laugh about what he was going to tell his wife Linda and I made a joke that she was going to think he was having an affair because he had such awful notes.

We sat and talked for well over 3 hours and finally departed Starbucks. It was great seeing him and we both said the words that we all say in situations like this, “We need to do this again and next time it shouldn’t take 2 years”. We both promised to make sure it didn’t, I hope we make an effort to keep this promise.

When I got home my wife wanted to know what we spoke about (sound familiar) without notes I reconstructed our meeting right down to the overpriced coffee. We both laughed when I told her about his handwriting and inability to read the notes he took. That is when I realized I had been in this situation many times before.

It struck me that I have been with reps that pull out notepads and can’t read their own writing. It is one thing to miss a detail about a meeting between 2 old friends, but to miss details about a sales call can hurt not only you, but your client and company as well.

I tell reps all the time that taking notes during a sales call is a great idea. No prospect or customer will mind you jotting down things as you talk, as a matter of fact they will appreciate the fact that you want to remember details and are taking the notes. However, if you can’t read your own handwriting, than you might as well not have taken the notes. It looks so worse if you write something down and still get it wrong than just getting it wrong without notes.

So here is my solution to poor handwriting, a pocket recorder. For as little as $10 you can buy a digital recorder which will hold an hour of messages. After the sales call you can get into your car and while the information is fresh make the voice notes you need. At the end of the day play them back and you will have all the information you need.

A few tips on buying a recorder. Make sure the recorder stores each message as a separate message. This is important because you want to be able to delete messages. If all the messages are stored as one file it makes deleting difficult and in some cases impossible. Buy a recorder with “one touch recording”, this way you can be driving and as you see something like a new business or think of something you can easily record the note.

I know what many of you are thinking, you smart phones have recorders, why not just use them? First in most cases you need to navigate a menu to get to the recorder and this isn’t easy driving at 70MPH in traffic. Secondly, in many cases our phone batteries are overtaxed keeping up with our e mails, text messages and oh yes, phone calls. Recording takes a lot of battery power and will make the battery life even shorter. My final reason is I don’t like bringing my cell phone into a sales call with me. I leave it in the car. If I want to record a note I will need to form the habit of bringing my cell phone in with me, this could cause other problems like a ringing phone during a sales presentation.

It is true, a short pencil is much better than a long memory, but bad handwriting trumps this every time.

Lorin

WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN

I was at a meeting today and the speaker was talking about success. He was a good speaker and had the entire audience engaged throughout his entire speech.

As with any speaker I am always listening to his message and at the same time I am trying to find the one nugget I can take with me. This morning I found no nuggets, I didn’t hear anything that I haven’t heard dozens of times before and I didn’t come away with a new outlook towards success. What I did get was a great idea for today’s post.

The speaker used about every old saying and cliché that has ever been written or spoken about success. It was when he said, “IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME” that the idea came to me. Just before he made this statement, he was talking about being too dependent on others in your journey towards success.

As I thought about the two ideas I realized that there were a lot of people in the room who were misunderstanding what he was saying. I agree that you can’t depend on others to hand you success however you can’t become a standalone success either.

Every successful person has someone that was either directly or indirectly partially responsible for their success. A teacher, trainer, mentor, clergy, spouse, coach, parent or one of a thousand other relationships was there to help guide, teach or council.

No one has ever become a success alone. They may say that they did the bulk of the work, that they did the majority of the research or they did most of the planning but every one of them had that other person or team that was there for the journey.

IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME is true, the one thing that the successful person must supply is the dream. The dream comes from within and the successful person needs to be the catalyst that gets things moving, but once they start the ball rolling they need that special person or persons to help them along the way.

So many people this morning heard the phrase and thought that they needed to do it all and no one could help them. Nothing is further from the truth.

This morning made me more aware than ever how careful a speaker needs to be. They can say all the right words, but if the words are taken in the wrong context they can do more harm than good.

As a listener we need to be careful also. We need to assess what we hear and make sure it makes sense to us. We need to listen and filter what we hear through our experience and knowledge and make sure that it is consistent with our beliefs.

As sales reps we speak to customers all the time and we need to make sure that we are making ourselves clear also. If we say something and it is misunderstood by the prospect, the sale moves a little further away from us. If we do it enough times the sale is lost.

Thinking about this morning, the one thing that is very clear to me is that LISTENING IS THE OTHER SIDE OF SPEAKING. If we don’t speak in a way that is easily understood by the listener, why speak at all.

Lorin

THE 31ST SECOND

As sales reps we have all been taught that we need to have a GREAT 30 second elevator speech. Most of us have written and rewritten our elevator speech dozens of times and have spent untold hours practicing delivering it into recorders, mirrors, and don’t forget to your spouse (or dog if you’re not married).

But once you have delivered your elevator speech and have gotten the appointment or at least the attention of your prospect, what do you say next? While I am in the field with reps the most common mistake I see is their inability to build upon what they started with their elevator speech.

During the thousands of field rides I have taken with reps, across a dozen industries, the biggest breakdown I see in their sales presentations is their inability to back fill the information from the elevator speech.

We need to practice the second part of the sales presentation as much as we did the beginning. When we get our chance to give a full sales presentation we need to have a full sales presentation to give.

Most of us have been taught, and rightfully so, to ask questions. We need to find things out about the prospect and their business. I have to admit that the majority of reps I have been with do this rather well. The breakdown is what they do with the information they gather.

A good sales presentation will take the information gathered and pair it with the information about the product or service you are selling. Now I don’t mean sell features and benefits, not at all. During the discovery or questioning, you should have uncovered some problems the prospect is having or points of pain in their business. What you then want to do is use the features and benefits of your product to show the prospect how owning your product or using your service will eliminate or at least lessen the problem or pain. This is establishing VALUE. The price of your product or service vs. the amount of pain or number of problems your product or service will solve.

The best way to start this process is to have some “industry stories”. These are bits and pieces of information that you have discovered talking to other businesses like theirs. These will be issues and problems that the overall industry shares. Telling a prospect that you have been told by other shops that… or you have heard that…. is a problem, will give you some immediate credibility as to at least knowing the industry. Couple that with your ability to then talk about how by using your product or service the problem is solved and now you are an industry consultant.

Don’t get caught in the trap of giving too much information. You always want to assure that the prospect needs you to solve the problem. Don’t volunteer so much that the prospect can go elsewhere, you want to feed them small amounts that leave them wanting more and wanting it from YOU!

I have been with sales reps that have called themselves sales story tellers. These reps have taken the questioning and feeding of information to such a level that they don’t even feel like they are selling anymore. The customers ask them for the product or service because they feel so good about the rep they want to do business with them and them alone.

Getting to the presentation takes 30 seconds, a difficult 30 seconds in many cases, but making the sale starts at the 31^st second.

Lorin

SERVER TO SALES REP-CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

The other evening I did one of my favorite things, I went out to dinner with my family. Going out to dinner isn’t really that unusual, we go out several times a week together. The restaurant we went to didn’t make it unusual, we went to Cracker Barrel a restaurant we have eaten at dozens of times. It wasn’t the food, the atmosphere, or the prices, none of them were unusual. What made this meal unusual was the server. (Servers were formally known as waiters)

As we sat down and our server walked over I immediately noticed his smile. He looked like he was enjoying himself. As he introduced himself his voice was the next thing that struck me, he sounded as happy as he looked and genuinely happy to be our server.

He did everything all the other servers have done for me at Cracker Barrel before, but he was different. He did it with more excitement, more energy, more fun, and in turn made himself more money! We talked to him more about things other than the menu and in the very short time we were there he had made a connection with us.

At the end of the meal he asked if we wanted desert, when we all said no he walked away with a gleam in his eye, you could tell he was up to something. A few minutes later he walked back to the table with 2 other servers and he was holding a piece of his Coke Cola Cake with ice cream. In the cake was a candle and all together the three servers sang Happy Birthday to my daughter. We looked surprised and he just winked at us and kept singing. When he was done he placed the cake on the table with 4 spoons and told us that he could give a few deserts away each night and he wanted us to have one of them.

All I could think about is WOW, what a server, WOW, what a nice guy, and WOW, how much I would love to have someone like him on my sales team. That’s right, he was a great salesman.

What I haven’t told you is that as we were talking about deserts every one of my family said we had not tried the Coke Cola Cake. He was telling us how it was his favorite. After he placed the piece down for us and we ate it, every one of us said that next time we go to Cracker Barrel we each wanted our own piece.

Tonight my family ate home, and the topic around the dinner table was how much we wished we had a piece of Coke Cola Cake tonight. I don’t know exactly what night, but I know in the next few days we will be eating back at Cracker Barrel and he will be our server.

I think you can tell by the way I have talked about this server that I was very impressed. My question to you is how many of the customers that you serve are as impressed with you? Do you make the right first impression?

How many of your customers do you have conversations with beyond your sales pitch? Do you really know your customers?

How many of your customers have you done something special for knowing that you may not get anything in return but hoping you were laying the groundwork for future sales? Or do you only do the acceptable minimum?

How many of your customers would take the time to write about you in their blog in as positive a way as I have done for this server? Or would you only make the “Don’t expect too much” list?

It is people like this young man that has changed the name from waiter to server. He was not only doing me a service, but he was doing a service for his employer as well. He didn’t just make an extra 10% tip from me, he has made a customer out of me for the future.

As you make your sales calls for now on, think about this server and ask yourself if you are giving the service to your customers he gave to me.

Lorin

THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER

We have all heard them for the past 2 months, in December it was, “I am not going to make any decisions until after the holidays”, in January it has been, “It is too early in the year to make any decisions.”

Well I have some good news, the holidays are over. The new year is 1/12 gone and all the excuses are finished. (At least the holiday excuses)

So what do we need to do now? First, we need to get it into our heads that it is February and we need to move ahead. In talking to reps since the first of the year I heard so many of them tell me that they couldn’t stop into this customer or that business because they are waiting for the year to really get started or they were waiting for the holidays to get over, or any of a dozen other rotten excuses for not calling on the customers.

GET OVER IT! We need to get it through our own heads that the year has started and the excuses are just that, excuses. It is now business as usual and we need to start calling on all the businesses we have been avoiding for the past 60 days.

Don’t be afraid to stop in and remind them they wanted to wait until February to start buying again or to make decisions about buying new products. Don’t be afraid to tell the customer that you respected their time and hadn’t stopped in until now as they asked you to do. Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale.

Now, please, don’t think that just because you waited they are all going to buy. As a matter of fact customers who gave you an excuse 60 days ago are 75% more likely to give you another excuse now according to Selling Power Magazine. But that shouldn’t stop you from making the sales call. Be ready for the, tax time excuse and the election excuse. Both are very popular this year.

Excuses will always be a part of the sales rep vs. customer relationship, how you react to them and how well you can overcome them will make the difference.

Lorin