IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL YOU WIN

I was listening to Les Brown speak a few weeks ago and he said, “It’s not over until you win”. I LOVED IT!

I have heard the sayings like, “It’s not over until the fat lady sings”, “It’s not over until we say it is” (one of my favorites from Animal House), and, “It ain’t over until it’s over” but all of these leave out the element that Les Brown adds, WINNING.

Every other statement about “IT being over” is basically talking about quitting, or giving up at some point. I will give all these other statements some credit, they all have the message to keep trying and push through adversity. However they then end with the idea of FAILURE, IT’S OVER.

Yesterday I was talking to a friend who has an idea for a business. As we were talking she said something to the effect of, “how will I know when to give up”? Now I need you all to understand, she hasn’t started the business yet and she was looking for advice about quitting. I immediately said, you need to go into this with ideas of how to WIN not when to quit.

I know that you should have an exit strategy, every business school and MBA program tells you that you need one. This woman was opening a business where her start-up costs were literally nothing! I am talking pocket change! If she was investing hundreds or thousands of dollars I wouldn’t have reacted like I did, but investing $10 to start a business that has some real potential, WHEN IS IT OVER shouldn’t be the first thing you think about.

There are a lot of stories about people focusing on the wrong message. One of my favorites (I don’t remember any of the specifics so I will paraphrase) is about a major league pitcher who was in the final playoff game. If his team won this game they would go to the World Series. It was the bottom of the 9^th inning and his team was leading by 2 runs. There were men on first and second, the winning run was at bat. The count on the batter was 1 ball 2 strikes. His catcher came out to the mound, the catcher told him, “Keep calm this batter loves high and outside pitches, give him ANYTHING else and we can strike him out but whatever you do DON’T throw a high and outside pitch”! The conversation was about a minute long, but the pitcher only heard, “DON’T THROW A HIGH AND OUTSIDE PITCH”! So what do you think the pitcher was focusing on? HIGH AND OUTSIDE! As you can guess, he threw a perfect HIGH AND OUTSIDE pitch and the batter sent it for a ride and scored the winning run.

You can’t focus on a negative and expect positive results. How many of you start a sales call with negative expectations? While riding with rep I hear it all the time, “They won’t need anything”, “This guy is always too busy to see me”, one of my favorites before making a cold call is, “This place doesn’t LOOK like they need anything”. With this kind of thinking before you even walk into the customer or prospect what are your expectations? You expect to be turned down! I would offer a guess that every time I am with a rep that starts out with a statement like this, 90% of the time they get EXACTLY what they are expecting.

If you expect anything short of WINNING, if you are looking for your way out before you find your way in, your chance of succeeding is negligible. Just like I told my friend who wanted to start the business (remember her?) Don’t think about when to quit, think about how to WIN!

Lorin

“WHAT” “IF”

Spoken one at a time these two words appear to be totally harmless, Spoken together they ask a question that has made more sales, brought in more revenue, and broken more sales reps than any other two words in the world.

Say them with me separately, WHAT and IF. No harm done, we use these two words hundreds of time a day in our normal conversation. What is that, what did you do, what did she say, what does that mean; all these are simple questions we ask everyday and there are hundreds more. If you did this then, if that had happened, if she had said, if he had done; are also very simple statements that are used in normal conversation.

Now, say these words together with me, “WHAT IF”? Together they make a question, “what if” you did, “what if” this happened, “what if” he said, “what if” I did, “what if” I said, “what if”, “what if”…

“What if” has helped make some of the greatest inventions in the world possible. These two words can question status quo and force people to look into an issue further and try new never before tried ideas. “What if” drives humans to go in directions they never thought of before. “What If” stirs the imagination and helps thinkers think.

There is another time we use “WHAT IF”, and it is usually not a good thing in this context. “WHAT IF” I HAD ONLY…? When “what if” is used to second guess your life long decisions, these two words become tools of destruction. They can destroy a career, they can destroy a company, and the worst of all, they can destroy a family.

How do you avoid “what if”? You avoid it by following the words made famous by Nike, “JUST DO IT”! If we start to do more and question ourselves less we will not be using “what if” in the future. Now stop right there!! Some of you are saying that you are too young to have “what if” moments, nonsense; you can be 21 or 91 and have “what if” moments. Any time you think back to a time that you had to make a major decision you can be having a “what if” moment.

“JUST DO IT”! Take the chance, roll the dice, cut the cards, “JUST DO IT”. The absolute worst thing that can happen is you make a mistake. A mistake today can usually be corrected rather easily, a “what if” moment years from now will never be able to be corrected. It will be the 800 pound gorilla that you will need to live with for the rest of your life.

The decision is yours, “WHAT IF” or “JUST DO IT”?

You know my vote!

Lorin

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This will be the last post of the week. Like many of you my family and I will be spending time together, giving thanks for what we have.

This time of year should always make us reflect on the good things that life has given us. Even in these tough times, when many of us are seeking jobs, and some of us are struggling to make ends meet with the job we have, we should still be thankful for some of the little things we have.

I went to a meeting Monday morning and the speaker had a wonderful idea, he said that everyone should take out a piece of paper and write down everything they have that is good and that they are thankful for. Please allow me to share some of my entries with you.

I am first and foremost thankful for my wonderful wife of 35 years, Jackie. She is today as she has been since the day I met her, my best friend and biggest fan. I am thankful for my daughters, Alyson and Erin; they keep me young while aging me quickly. Their constant reminders of how little I know, yet how wise I am grounds me. The way they view the world and treat each other and everyone else makes me proud and lets me know that Jackie and I did something right along the way.

I am thankful for my family, my brother Barry who I don’t get to see as often as I like, but is always a phone call away. I am so thankful for my Mother-in Law who is the strength behind the strength. She keeps the family together no matter what the issues are and is always there with encouragement and love. My sisters-in-law and brothers-in law, they are not my sisters and brothers but you would never know it because of the caring, support and love we have for each other. All my nieces and nephews that I can now say I watched grow up to be great young adults.

I am thankful for my many friends all throughout the world but especially Tom, Mary, John and Debbie who are as much family as any other members of my family. Tom (Dr. Dr. Tom as my family calls him) is my oldest and dearest friend, we went to elementary school together and have been friends ever since. His wife Mary and daughters Kim and Kristen are all a part of my life and I hope always will be. John, Debbie and their son Michael (my IT expert) have been there for me since we first met 33 years ago. We have traveled together, vacationed together, and most importantly have shared most of the things that we both are thankful for together.

I am thankful for my house which because of all the above is truly a home.

My list goes on but I won’t bore you anymore with it. I will tell you that sitting down and writing it out makes you feel like the king (or Queen) of the world.

My family and I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and hope that your list goes on for page after page after page.

Lorin

WHEN THE STUDENT IS READY, THE TEACHER WILL APPEAR

No, this isn’t a saying from the TV show Kung Fu. BUT! It is so insightful (no pun intended) that it  could have been said by the wise old man and as truthful as most Chinese proverbs.

What does it mean, “When the Student is Ready”? To me this is when a person is at wits end and can’t think of anything to do to help them out of a situation or find a solution to a problem. Yesterday I talked about “I’ve Tried Everything”; the student becomes ready when EVERYTHING hasn’t worked!

“The Teacher Will Appear”, OK does this mean that out of a cloud of smoke with a crack of thunder and a lightning bolt an old wise man or woman will walk up to the student slowly and tell them the meaning of life? Maybe... Just Kidding! What this means to me is it is only when someone is at the point where nothing seems to solve the problem that they open their minds and are willing to listen to ideas and other solutions that are offered.

The facts are the teacher is always there. The teacher is ready, willing and able but can’t teach until the student is willing to learn.

At many points of our professional careers we will become students. This may happen once or it may happen many times to each of us. It will be up to us each and every time to decide when we will allow the teacher to appear.

Some of us will be like the average rep and wait until we are so frustrated that the teacher is our last hope for success. Others of us will see that the normal solutions and actions we have taken are not going to be the answers we need this time and will allow the teacher to appear early on in the decision process.

The last thing to talk about is WHO IS THE TEACHER? You may be surprised. The teacher can be just about anyone that is around you. It isn’t always a person who has done more, been around longer, is smarter or has a better education. It may be someone who has never seen this problem before but because they have no preconceived ideas they are able to look at the problem with a clean and unbiased mind. Don’t make judgments on the teacher, make judgments on their teachings.

WHEN YOU CAN TAKE THE PEBBLE FROM MY HAND, THEN YOU MAY GO!

Lorin

I’VE TRIED EVERYTHING

These are the first 3 words that usually lead to failure! I’ve Tried Everything! Most people should add a fourth word, ONCE!

Every sales rep I know (including myself) have tried tens, maybe hundreds of different approaches to sales. We have also tried an equal number of closes, probing questions, trial closes, and demonstrations. We have found that no one method works all the time. If this is a surprise to you, you haven’t been selling long enough yet to have discovered it, keep going and you will!

Trying new ideas and methods is awesome, it allows us to experiment. However, like any other experiment, you need to allow it time to either prove or disprove itself. Trying something one time and declaring it a success or a failure isn’t enough.

I once worked with a rep who had been selling for about 3 years. As we started out in the morning I asked him what the plan was for the day. He looked at me and said, I very rarely have a plan, I usually wait and see what happens during the day and play it by ear. This disturbed me, but I went along with him to see how his method worked. After about an hour of driving aimlessly around I asked him where we were going first. He said it didn’t matter because no one had called him yet so he didn’t have any place special to go.

Now I was really concerned. I asked him to pull over at the next Starbucks and I pulled up his sales for the past year. I saw a steady decline, month after month for the last 8 months. Looking back further I saw that he was steadily growing his business. I pointed to my computer screen and asked him what he saw. He said, I haven’t been doing too good lately have I? I then asked him why he thought he had been spiraling downhill for the past 8 months. I asked him to think back and try and determine what he did different 8 months ago as compared to what he was doing for the last 8 months.

He really wanted to help himself out of this rut and we sat there for a good while as he thought about his answer. He finally said he thinks he knew what happened. He said that it was about the time he started to decline that he had a busy spurt in his business. For a few weeks he was getting phone calls just about every day from customers wanting to either place orders or to see him about selecting products. He told me that is when he STOPPED making plans for the day and started to “play it by ear” waiting for the customers to call.

This is the normal way people get off track. They try something that gives them success but fail to realize that it is short term success. Unfortunately, what they try is usually the “EASY” way to do the task. Being easy and seeming to be successful, the rep makes it a permanent part of their daily routine. Not wanting to go back to doing what took more time, and seemed “HARDER” the reps allow enough time to creep past to make the easy way a habit. By the time they realize how much damage they have done to their careers many of them don’t know what to do to change.

The facts are that simply getting “BACK TO THE BASICS” will turn things around for them. When you think you have tried everything and there is nothing new for you to try, then go back to what you have done before and give some of the ideas a chance to work.

Isn’t it amazing that the same people that give things long enough to fail will not give things long enough to succeed?

Very rarely does the easy path lead to success. If it did there would be a lot more successes. We all need to get back to doing what we know is best! As hard as it may be to take that step backwards. As hard as it may seem to do what we used to do, as hard as it will be to admit to yourself that what you have morphed into isn’t what is the best for your future, you need to make the shift NOW!

Don’t wait! Every day you wait takes you a day further from success.

By the way, I always ask friends of mine to review these posts before I publish them onto this blog. I ask them to read the information and make sure it is factual and relevant. One of the people I ask brought this back to me and said that it didn’t relate to everyone. He was 100% confident that many of the reps that read my blog did the right things and this wasn’t going to hit home with them. I asked him if he put himself into this category. He in fact did. We sat down and it took me about 5 minutes to find something he stopped doing that he said he should be doing. If you have gotten this far into reading this post and are saying to yourself that this doesn’t apply to you, I ask that you sit down with someone and get a second opinion.

There is an insurance company that uses the catch phrase, “15 minutes can save you 15%”, I will tell you that, “15 minutes can make you 15% more income”

GO BACK TO YOUR BASICS FOR SUCCESS!

Lorin

CARROTS, EGGS, & COFFEE

This was sent to me and I thought it was worth passing along.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up; she was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hardboiled egg.
Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich flavor and smelled wonderful aroma.

The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a disappointment, a failed attempt, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward towards success until you let go of your past failures.

May we all be COFFEE!!

Lorin

REACH FOR THE STARS

I first heard this saying about 20 years ago. It was the theme of the national sales meeting for the company I bought most of my products from when I owned my distribution business.

At the time I was already into positive motivation, goal setting, and doing what most people won’t do to be able to do what most people can’t do. When I saw this phrase it was an inspiration to me. I imagined myself reaching up to the stars and trying to grab one. I saw myself stretching as far as I could and standing on my tip toes trying my best to get a little closer to the nearest star.

I understood what the saying was supposed to mean to people. I also understood that most of the people at the meeting had no idea of what it meant! You saw people looking at the banners and posters that were hung all around the Fox Theatre and wondering what they were all about. Some people were mocking the saying and said things like, “WOW now I am an astronaut”, or “I always pictured stars as being larger”. These people didn’t grasp the idea that if you reach for the stars you will be reaching higher than you ever did before. I always liked to say if you reach for the stars and fall short you still have a hand full of clouds.

Going further, faster, higher is what keeps people striving for more. Companies have reinvented themselves to be better able to perform at a level higher than they ever did before. People are continuously finding ways to elevate themselves to levels of performance never dreamed of before. I am not just talking about athletes; I am talking about professional goals by sales reps just like you and I.

Today we are facing the hardest economic market since the great depression, and yet company after company are telling stories of their reps exceeding their goals and hitting new highs. Why do you think some companies and some reps can achieve results like this in these times? LUCK? NO! The companies and reps that are overachieving are the ones who set good stretch goals, make their plans on how they are going to accomplish these goals, and work hard until the goals are met. These are the companies and reps that truly REACHED FOR THE STARS.

Lorin

STOP TALKING ABOUT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE AND MAKE IT BE!

Most of us know Bill Cosby from his award winning TV show the Cosby Show where he played Dr. Heathcliff (Cliff) Huxtable. Some of remember him when he was a standup comedian and produced a series of records (as in vinyl records) about growing up talking about his parents, brothers, and don’t forget his group of friends including FAT ALBERT!

I saw another side of Bill Cosby last week, I saw Bill Cosby the MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER. Using his hallmarked humor and his unbridled wisdom, he did a 45 minute speech which brought the audience to their feet several times.

He said a lot of great things and I wrote down a full page of his ideas. The one that I want to share today is, “Stop talking about what you should be and make it be”!

Before I go any further, what do you think are the key words in this statement? I will give you a hint, there are 2 of them. If you said “you” and “it” you would be absolutely wrong! (Bill would be laughing at this) The 2 key words are “Talking” and Make”!

So many of us talk about what should be, or could have been, or should have been, or might have been. These people spend their lives looking backwards at opportunities they either missed, or never had. Some of these people try and place blame for the lost opportunities on everything around them. Others say that the opportunities never came at all.

Then there is another group of talkers who keep talking about what they would be if only… as with the others, the “if only” is never if only they had worked harder or done more for themselves.

The people who MAKE IT BE are the people who don’t have time to place blame. They know that when they point one finger at someone there are always 3 fingers pointing back at them. These people may have chased opportunity after opportunity and not caught one yet, but they know they will as long as they keep moving and trying to MAKE IT BE!

The amazing part is, it has been said in so many ways in the past. The most famous one being the 10 most important 2 letter words in the world. IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME

We make things happen for ourselves. We keep our eyes open for opportunity, we practice and prepare for our chance, we work hard knowing that it will pay off in the end, we help others with the knowledge that we are paying forward for our success through the success of others.

Get uP (strong emphasis on the “P” in UP) is the way Bill Cosby said it last week. Get uP and start moving towards something. I once hired a young man who was about as down as I had ever seen anyone in my life. As I got to know him he told me that he was trying to run away from his past failures. When he told me this I asked him how that plan was working. He said it wasn’t. He told me that he has been failing at everything he had been trying and moving from one failure to another. I asked him if he wanted the cycle to break. I asked him if he was ready to try something new. I had to laugh when he answered I am trying something new, I have never been in outside sales before. I then said I wasn’t talking about a new type of job, I was talking about a new plan for success.

I explained to him that you can’t run from failure, it will follow you wherever you go, but instead of running from failure he needed to start running towards success. I told him it is the same distance, the road is just as bumpy and you will get just as lost and tired, but in the end instead of looking back to see if you had outrun failure, you will look forward and see how much closer you are to success.

He worked for me almost the entire 15 years I had my company and became my best manager. He made money, got married, had a beautiful family and is still running everyday towards bigger and better things.

He stopped talking about what should be, and made it be.

As Bill Cosby’s best friend Fat Albert says, Hey Hey Hey, Make it be!

Lorin

WHAT YOU SEE DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU SIT

Last week my wife, my daughters and I sat down to buy our tickets to Cirque du Soleil. We sat around the computer to select our seats and the web site had the absolute best application I had ever seen before. It application allowed you to view what seats were available and then if you clicked on the seat a new window popped up that showed you how the stage would look form that seat. I had so much fun, clicking seat after seat and seeing all the different vantage points.

After the novelty wore off (about 45 minutes later, I am so easily amused) we all sat down for dinner. My daughter Alyson started to talk about something that happened at work. As she was talking about her opinion of what was going on I said to her, “It all depends on where you sit”. For the next few minutes we had a pretty good debate about the issue and when we were done we agreed to disagree.

When I sat down to compose today’s blog, I was thinking about the tickets and the cool views the application let me see, and about the debate I had with my daughter. The saying, it all depends on where you sit, kept coming back to me. I was thinking about how often where you sit changes everything.

This certainly comes to life when you think about sales. Where you sit, the sales rep or the customer makes a tremendous difference as to how things are viewed. When a customer buys a product or service it is an expense, when a rep sells a product or service it is an investment. When something goes wrong it is a “BIG PROBLEM” to the customer, it is just a small bump in the road for the rep. This 180 degree difference in points of view are what sometimes not only costs reps sales but in some cases cost reps customers.

Just as sitting in different seats under the tent for Cirque, sitting on different sides of an issue will cause you to see things differently as well. Think of it like this. When you buy a sheet of red poster board both sides are red. Now without you knowing it I painted one side blue. I sat you and another rep across from each other and carried the poster board between the two of you. You see the red side and because poster board is the same color on both sides you think the other rep is seeing red also. However from where they are sitting they are seeing BLUE! If I then said to you, so how did you like the blue color you would think I was nuts, but the other rep would consider it a reasonable question. Depending on where you sit, you might be seeing very different things.

So what do we need to do as reps to keep from getting ourselves into conflict with our customers? First realize that what you see and how you see it depends in where you sit. Keep an open mind to other peoples view points and try and do your best to see things from their seat.

Here is another good saying for you, THE MIND IS LIKE A PARASHOOT, IT WORKS BEST WHEN IT IS OPEN!

Next, as reps we need to minimize our opinions and maximize the customers. If we can make their opinions our biggest priority and start to see things from where they sit we will be better prepared to assist the customer in making a good decision.

Finally we need to be honest with ourselves. Ask yourself, am I looking at this the way I am because it is truly the right thing, or am I looking at it the way I am because it will lead to a bigger sales and I am greedy? Greed may pay the bills this month, but truthfulness will pay the bills for years to come.

Before I end this, I want each of you to do a little experiment today. Go into any room in your home and sit in a chair. Now look around very carefully. Look at the pictures on the walls, the books on shelves, the TV, whatever you have in the room. Now change seats and look around. You will find you notice different things. From one seat the picture looked straight from the second you see it is crooked. From one seat you don’t see all the dust on the book case; from the other you see it all. As you look around you will really start to realize that, WHAT YOU SEE REALLY DOES DEPEND ON WHERE YOU SIT.

Lorin

TACKLE THE THING

I thought I had seen most of the poems and stories about success, and then over the weekend a friend of mine sends me an e mail with a poem I had never heard before.

 Tackle The Thing

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he tried.
So he buckled right in with a trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and did it.

Somebody scoffed: Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one has ever done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done," and you'll do it.
                                                    Edgar A. Guest

The message and moral aren’t new we have all heard it said one way or another. What is sad is most of us have been on the receiving end of the people who tell us we can’t, won’t or shouldn’t. Unfortunately, many of us have listened and never tried.

Next time you hear someone say you can’t, take off your coat and go to it. The hardest thing isn’t the job, or failing at doing the job; it is looking in the mirror and realizing that you never tried!

Lorin

HAVE YOU HAD YOUR LAUGH TODAY?

I went to the doctors today for my yearly physical.

I know that this sounds like way too much information but I promise there is a point to this that relates to sales...keep reading!

The doctor I went to see was a new doctor. When she came into the examination room for the first time she introduced herself and then proceeded to do exactly what most doctors do, started to ask me a lot of questions. The probing (no pun intended, probing as in a step to a sale) was going along as you might expect, pretty sterile (once again no pun intended, oh get used to it I am going to use this theme the entire blog) and to be honest boring. She finally asked me a question that allowed me to give her an answer that put her in stitches. She asked me if I got a lot of heartburn. I first said no, and then she asked me if I knew what heartburn was and what it felt like. Here is where I was able to draw first blood and make her laugh. I answered, “I have eaten a lot corned beef sandwiches and hotdogs in my life and I knew what heartburn was and how it felt” I continued, “As a matter of fact, one morning I woke up and had to rush to the hospital. When I got there the nurse asked me what was wrong? I told her I must be dying; the burning in my chest is gone!” (Rim Shot)

Ok so now I can start to make my point and start to relate this to sales.

Once I got the doctor laughing, her entire attitude changed. Not just about me, but I could almost see all the worries of the day disappear off her face. We went from an exam to a conversation in about 5 seconds. I have no doubt that I was in good hands (never mind), but now I felt that she would go the extra mile and take more interest in me as a person not just as a patient.

When was the last time you made a customer laugh? You don’t need to be a great joke teller, or tell outrageous stories. All you need to do is talk with someone about everyday events and sooner or later something will be funny enough to make you both laugh. Laughter is a vital sign of having a good time. Customers that have a good time with you will also have a good sales experience with you.

Try this test right now. Start laughing and try and shake your head no. It is one of the most un-natural motions you can do. Your reflex is to nod yes while you laugh. A laughing customer wants to nod, a nod is a yes, a yes is a sale, a sale makes you smile, a smile is only a chuckle away from a laugh, a laughing sales rep makes the customer laugh, a laughing customer wants to nod, and so the cycle begins!

 If you are the type of person that finds it hard to smile and laugh, PRACTICE! YES I said PRACTICE! You can practice your smile and your laugh in a mirror. Do it 25 times a day for a week and you will find that you can smile and laugh and make it look natural. The amazing part about this self examination is as you start to cure your seriousness you will find yourself enjoying life more. People will start to see your lighter side. You will start to be the most sought after person at parties and become the center of attention. Who knows, you may be discovered and become the next Jeff Foxworthy or Larry the Cable Guy! Or better yet, you may be my next new doctor!

SMILE, LAUGH, LIVE!

Lorin

POSSIBILITY BLINDNESS

Have you ever known someone who actually believed that every silver cloud has a grey lining? You know the type of person I am talking about, nothing is ever good enough, everyone is always out to get them, if you gave them a gift of gold they would want to know why it wasn’t platinum. They think that the whole world is working together simply to harm them. Just describing these people is making me negative.

The saddest part about these people is that even the people that want to help them the most are turned away because these negative people feel there is more to it than just wanting to help.

These people are handicapped with an affliction that 100% of the time is fatal to success, it is called Possibility Blindness. Whenever a possibility for success shows itself these people can’t see it. It goes totally unnoticed and disappears. The few times these people do catch a fleeting glimpse of a possibility they never act upon it because they are sure it is just another false opportunity placed there to make them fail.

This affliction usually starts as a small setback. It could be a customer saying no, or a boss giving constructive criticism. Upon hearing the customers say no enough times these reps start to EXPECT customers to say no. They stop trying to turn the no into a yes because they believe nothing they can say or do will make a difference. After enough time these reps stop making the sales calls all together because they know that every customer is going to say no.

As the disease spreads into other areas of the reps life, they become blind to opportunities other than business opportunities. They start to miss social opportunities, educational opportunities, and family opportunities. The only opportunities they don’t miss are negative opportunities. They never miss opportunities to tell others why they shouldn’t do things, opportunities to talk negatively to people who are succeeding in what they do, opportunities to tear down someone else’s hopes, and opportunities to spoil someone’s dreams.

After years of research, a cure for Opportunity Blindness has been discovered. It isn’t a pill or an injection. It doesn’t take any surgery or medical procedures at all. The cure is a heavy dose of positive influence. It can come in the form of reading, listening, seeing, or the hardest of all the cures, proving. This positive influence needs to be taken twice a day for at least 15 minutes each. The treatment needs to last for the rest of the reps life to assure never slipping back to a negative state.

There are some side affects to the treatment. The afflicted rep may break out in smiles. A large number of reps being treated see financial improvement. In a few rare cases reps have been seen talking in positive ways about their business and life in general. Although it has never been documented, some reps are said to have actually recommended treatment to other reps with Possibility Blindness.

If you feel that you may have been infected with or have been in contact with a rep who has been diagnosed with Possibility Blindness consult your manager or mentor immediately and seek positiveness immediately.

Possibility Blindness is the silent killer of sales careers. It slips into a reps mind over a period of time and isn’t noticed by anyone until it has become a raging infection of the mind. If you know anyone who fits this description, recommend they log onto this blog and start their treatment today.

The preceding message has been a sales service announcement supported and approved by the Training Buffet, Help Yourself.

Lorin

THE FREEDOM NUMBER

The concept of the Freedom Number was shown to me a few years ago by someone I was sitting next to on a flight from Atlanta to LA.

I started talking to this guy next to me and after a few minutes of small talk the conversation came around to what we did for a living. As it turns out we did just about the same thing except he did it as a freelance trainer and I was a Corporate Trainer. I told him I was traveling out to LA to work with a few reps and he said he was going there to deliver a keynote speech to the board of directors of a company he has been doing some contract training for.

About 2 hours into the flight and our conversation, he asked me to please listen to his presentation and view his slides and tell him what I thought. His talk was about the Freedom Number. I listened and watched as he developed the idea and built a story around this important number. Allow me to relate some of what he said to you today.

The Freedom Number is the most important number to anyone who works to make a living. The Freedom Number affects all aspects of your life, business, personal, social, spiritual, and especially financial. What you do every day you work is in direct relation to your Freedom Number.

OK, are you tired of me dancing around what it is? Here you go; the Freedom Number is the amount of money you would like to make that will be enough to SET YOU FREE! It is the amount of money you want to make to not only pay your bills, but the amount that will allow you to fulfill your dreams. If buying your parents a beautiful home and buying your kids cars and giving enough to your church or synagogue to build a wing with your name on it, or donate to a museum, of just have enough to retire and live comfortably, it doesn’t matter the Freedom Number will give you want you want.

Why is this number so important, because if you know your Freedom Number and constantly work harder and harder, doing whatever it takes to work towards this figure, you WILL be successful!

Now, we need to define SUCCESSFUL. I am not talking about how people see you. It has nothing to do with your job title, your job function or what company you work for. SUCCESSFUL in this case simply means SATISFIED! Satisfied with who you are, what you are and what you have accomplished.

You may never reach your Freedom Number. Most people don’t. The fact that you are constantly working towards the number will make you a better rep, a better employee, and the most important of all, a better person.

Lorin

STICKS AND STONES WILL BREAK MY BONES, BUT OPINIONS SHOULD NEVER HURT ME

The great Les Brown said, “Other people’s opinions of you do not need to become your reality”.

Today I saw Les speak at a motivational seminar I attended and when he made this statement I knew right away that it was going to be the topic of my blog tonight.

I am vertically challenged and horizontally endowed. (This is a nice way to say short and fat) Over the years I have taken off and put on more pounds than some small towns weigh! Many people who don’t know me and look at me think my weight will make me ineffective in job performance. I once worked with a rep that tried to blame me for the bad day he was having because he said I was slowing him down. Let me tell you a little story. I am from New York and drove a NY Cab for 4 years. I have the shortest legs you can imagine (an inseam of about 25 inches). I have short legs, but they move really really fast and I can keep pace with just about anyone. (Doc Weller runs me into the ground, but come on he is 6’9”) When this rep said this to me I told him I would make him a deal, if I didn’t walk through a door while it was open for him, I would wait outside. For the rest of the day I found myself holding the door open for him because I got there first.

His opinion of me was based on his belief that short overweight people were slow. He painted every short overweight person with the same brush. I PROVED HIM WRONG!

People will always make opinions of other people based on what they have experienced or have been told. The opinions are usually generalities that may be true for some but are absolutely NOT true for all. Furthermore, people will try and influence you based on their opinions of you. Have you ever had someone tell you that you can’t do something? These people will do their best to convince you that you are not good enough, in good enough shape, smart enough, strong enough, educated enough, or from the right part of town to do something. The saddest part of this is the people that tell you these things are usually the people you are closest too, your friends, family or relatives. I call this group the FFR’s.

This group actually thinks they are helping you by placing their own shortcomings onto you. They are protecting you and stopping you from, “Making A Big Mistake”.

My father was an auto mechanic. He worked in gas stations his entire life. While I was growing up he would always tell me that the only opinion that counted was my own. We all have a teacher that made the biggest impression on our lives, mine was Thomas Murray. Mr. Murray (Uncle Tom as we called him) didn’t care what it was you wanted to do, he always told us we COULD do it if we just stopped listening to our distracters and started listening to our cheerleaders.

Unfortunately, there are so many people who have other opinions drilled into them so deeply they start to believe them. They allow other people to influence how far they can go by allowing their opinions to become the roadblocks to their success. I have seen firsthand a young student who has been told by his parents that he is stupid and can’t do math, can’t read very well, can’t write sentences. The facts are this sweet little guy can do all these things but he has been so beaten down  that he believes his mother’s opinion and repeats it whenever he is asked to do one of these assignments. I have worked with him to try and overcome this brainwashing and am making headway, but the fact is his mother’s opinion has become his reality.

Don’t let anyone influence you like this. NO ONE! Not your FFR’s, teachers, bosses, customers, prospects, or coaches. NO ONE!

Someone else’s opinion ISN’T your reality unless you allow it to be.

Lorin

YOUR MIND IS THE RUDDER OF YOUR LIFE

There is an old saying, “What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve”. I am not sure I agree with this fully. I can conceive myself climbing a mountain or winning the Boston Marathon, however for those of you that have seen me, this body just isn’t going to get that job done!

On the other hand, I do believe that the mind directs your life. You can focus on whatever you want and if you focus long enough and each time you think about something you get more and more in depth with your focus, the mind can do amazing things.

There is a legend about this very subject. Many of you may have heard either Zig Ziglar or Dr. Denis Waitley tell the story of the Vietnam serviceman who was a POW and kept his sanity over the his years of capture by playing rounds of golf on his favorite golf course. How could he play golf from his prison? He played round after round in his mind. He imagined every hole in exact detail. Every club he would use and every stroke he would make. He saw the traps and the rough; he saw the fairways and the greens. He played in wind, rain, cold, heat. He played the course over and over so many times that the legend states when he was released, he went to the course and shot his best round ever after not holding a club for 7 years in captivity.

This legend, to the best of my ability to confirm, remains simply a legend. However there are verified stories of Olympic Athletes who have had problems performing a certain move that have improved and been able to perform the move by using mental visualization. Former Olympian Sylvie Bernier was a spring board diving athlete and she would practice all 10 of her dives every night before she went to bed. Not in the pool, but in her mind. She states that she got to the point where she could feel herself on the board doing the dives, she could hear the crowd cheering and she saw herself performing the perfect dive.

In sales we can do the exact same thing as the POW and the Olympian. We can visualize ourselves in front of the customer, we can hear ourselves making the presentation, doing the demo, probing, closing, and making the sales. If we practice enough in our minds, then we will have no problem when we go live in front of the customer or prospect. If we mentally cover every objection, answer every question, and add the value to our product or service in our minds we will be at our best when it is time to earn our livings.

Please don’t get me wrong, if all you do is to think about making sales and you don’t actually go out and call on customers all you are going to do is think about eating and not really have any food! Your actions after the mental visualization is what will make you a success.

Visualization will dramatically improve your performance. Although, unlike the stories and legends, visualization alone isn’t enough. Visualization works in combination with other performance enhancing factors to make you better NOT as a substitute for them.

I think I weigh 180 pounds, I think I weigh 180 pounds, I think I weigh 180 pounds… OH FORGET IT!

Lorin

YOU TALKIN TO SME?

How much information can your brain hold? Albert Einstein believed that the mind had a finite amount of memory. Have you ever seen a picture of Einstein? He is always wearing a white shirt, black pants and either a sweater or black jacket. How do I know this? That is all Albert Einstein ever wore! Because he thought the mind was limited in the amount of information it could hold, anything that he could do to eliminate taking up storage space he did, so all he had was white shirts, black pants, black jackets, and sweaters.

Today we know better, we don’t know exactly how much information the mind can hold, but we do know that we have never hit the limits yet. This causes another problem, how do we get all this information into the mind? All the bits and bytes, letters, numbers, words, and pictures need to be read, listened to, watched, or seen to be locked into our mind. So what’s the problem? TIME! To get unlimited information into your mind you will need unlimited time.

So what can we do to get the information needed to make a sale to the customer without taking all the time necessary to get it into our minds? We can use other people’s minds and knowledge. We are already doing this when we call a technical support line. No one person can know everything so we use the combined knowledge of many people to solve problems and disseminate information.

Now let’s take this thinking to the sales field. When you are in front of a customer, you can definitely pick up the phone and call a service center to get information, but the question now becomes, what is the quality of the information you are getting. We have all had the experience with a call center where we received less than excellent information and a lot less than excellent service. Both are unacceptable when you are in front of a customer.

Here we are in front of the customer and our choice is to not have an answer or call someone that may or may not help us make the sale. What’s a rep to do? BE PREPARED! No matter what you sell, a product or a service you need to have a SME available to you. NO NO NO not a little blue person, that’s a Smurf, I said a SME. A SME is a Subject Matter Expert. This is a person that is full proficient in a given subject. It may be about one particular product, a group of related products, or an entire product line. This is a person that you have confidence in. Someone you trust to help you answer the questions and make the sales.

Some SME’s are official, and have the actual designation of Subject Matter Expert, however in the majority of cases, the SME is simply someone who has already had all the problems, has already muddled through and found the solutions, has done his or her homework, and just knows more about the service or product than anyone else in the company.

I have seen SME’s that were on production lines that had no idea how to sell but helped top reps make sales every day. I have seen SME’s in purchasing roles, sourcing roles, and believe it or not I have seen SME’s that have been in management roles… YES… managers that knew more about something than anyone else… OK… JUST KIDDING!!! (The blog was just put on the banned list in thousands of companies worldwideJ)

How do you find a SME? Start asking around your place of business. Find out who compliance, finance, safety, shipping, and other reps go to for information about the service or product. That is your SME!

If YOU AIN’T TALKIN TO SME, you ain’t talkin to the right person.

Lorin

JUST LOOK’IN

How many sales that you have made started with the simple words, “JUST LOOK’IN”?

I just got back home from meeting a friend of mine at a Starbucks (I know I have said how I don’t like Starbucks, and I really don’t, but he was buying!) and I saw a very funny thing happen that gave me the idea for today’s blog.

My friend and I were standing on line waiting to order our ridiculously expensive cups of coffee and there was a couple in front of us. The husband was getting the coffee and his wife was over at the pastry counter ooooo’ing and ahhhh’ing over all the delicious sweets. Being a good husband he asked her, “Do you want anything”? His wife glanced over at him and replied, “No, JUST LOOK’IN”. This made me laugh out loud and when the both turned to me I said, “That’s the first step to most sales”! With that being said, the husband laughed and the wife nodded and ordered a coffee cake. Needless to say, I stood there laughing like I was at the Punch Line!

Just look’in is a common statement made by prospects and customers. We hear it a lot and yet some sales reps take it as a negative statement. Whenever I see a rep get negative about it I ask them, what was the last thing you bought that you didn’t look at?

When I ask this question, some reps start to give me all kinds of examples of “stuff” they bought without looking. I hear them tell me about items on the internet, items from ads like Craigslist, they tell me about catalog sales, mailers, television shows and ads, the list is endless. I always reply that all these things they are telling me about only stop you from physically holding the product, but isn’t reading a description or seeing the product work look’in at the product? The woman at Starbucks didn’t taste the coffee cake before buying it, it might as well been a picture, all she did was look and decide.

Look’in is the first step to buy’in! Every day millions of dollars are spent by companies to make their products look better than the competitions. Billions of dollars are spent every year by commercial property owners to make their properties look better so they can attract more businesses and charge higher rent. Think about all the catalogs and flyers you get in the mail that have you look’in at products in hopes of making you buy them.

Don’t think LOOK’IN is a bad thing, other than the customer saying yes, LOOK’IN is the next best thing they can do. As long as they are LOOK’IN they ain’t SAY’IN NO! (Wow is that southern or what?)

So what is the lesson to be learned here (other than Starbucks coffee is too expensive) always bring something in to the customer with you to give them something to look at. Never walk in empty handed. A sell sheet, catalog, flyer, a sample, whatever you have.

Keep the customer LOOK’IN and you will be LOOK’IN at success!

Lorin

WHAT’S IMPORTANT NOW

Introduction, probing, trial closes, demo’s, close, follow-up, paper work, delivery, billing, collections, training, follow-up, introduction, probing, trial closes, demo’s, close, follow-up, paper work, delivery, billing, collections, training, follow-up. You may have an extra step, or you may not use one of these steps, but the idea is always the same for sales reps.

The question I have had asked of me hundreds of times is, “What is the most important step to making a sales?”

My answer is always, “It depends on what is important NOW!”

When you are working with a customer, you go through the steps of the sales, sometimes in order and sometimes it will depend on how the customer replies. I have seen reps go from hello to thank you for the order in as little as 3 steps. Introduction, probe and close (actually the customer said send it so you could say it happened in 2 steps).  In this case the “Most Important” step could only be Introduction or probe.

What steps will you use on your next prospect? You don’t know do you? Either do I that is why you need to know all the steps and be ready for all the replies a customer can give you.

If you are thinking that that is really not an answer, you are right! Now you think about it for a minute and tell me if you have a better answer.

We know that every customer is different, and every sales call is different. Sometimes the product or service you are selling fits perfectly and sometimes you need to tweak it to make it fit. All these factors influence the steps you will use and the order you use them in. At any time a customer may tell you send it, or that they are not interested. You need to know how to react immediately to the situation. I will go back to the original question, “What is the most important step to making a sale?” and I will go back to the original answer, “It depends on what is important NOW!”

Let’s understand that we do NOT dictate what the customer says or how a customer acts. Therefore we need to be experts of our own sales process. Think of a football team, they all have set plays they practice over and over again. Even after all the practice the opposing team may show a different type of defense that the team may have not seen before or may have not practiced against. So what do they do? They adjust! They make changes right there on the field. How do they know what to do? PRACTICE! They focus on what they know, NOT on what they don’t know. In other words, they focus on WHAT’S IMPORTANT NOW!

How will you know what is important NOW? PRACTICE! By going over your selling process hundreds of times and thinking about the transitions from one step to the next, not just in order, but in EVERY order, you will become the expert that will KNOW WHAT’S IMPORTANT and be able to make the adjustments necessary to get the order.

The only other unknown is what the customer may say that you didn’t think of. Let’s say that the customer drops a bomb on you in the middle of your sales process and you are caught off guard, what is important now? My experience has always shown me that when this happens getting myself some time to regroup is the most important thing. What you need is an escape hatch, a way to get out of the sales process without hurting the sales possibility. A great way I have always found to do this is to stop things from moving forward by asking for time to “Look something up”. I would say a very simple line, “Hold on, I need to look something up” (gezz, I am so smart) then I would open my catalog, crank up my laptop, or go to my smart phone and start a search. I would always try to keep the customer right there with me as I searched. I didn’t want the customer getting sidetracked with something else before I finished. What was I searching for? WHO CARES? I was just giving myself some time to figure out what to say to the customer and get back into sales mode. Remember, IT WAS GETTING TIME THAT WAS IMPORTANT NOW! With a little creativity and a lot of practice, you will find your escape hatch and learn the best way to use it.

If you can focus on what’s important now, you will always stay in control of the sale and be better prepared to guide the customer through your sales process.

Lorin

IF YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM

Today is Election Day! I am not going to dive into some long speech about how voting is your DUTY or wars have been fought to give you the right to vote. However, I am going to talk about change and fixing problems.

I get calls every day from sales reps who are telling me how awful the economy is, or how slow business is. I get e mails everyday from people who have been laid off or have had the company they work for go out of business. I talk to my neighbors and friends who have been unemployed for weeks, months and some a year or more. I hear it over and over again how “THINGS” need to be fixed.

Today is your chance to try and fix them, if in fact you think they are broken.

Yesterday in the blog I wrote about, “YOU CAN’T MAKE MONEY AND EXCUSES AT THE SAME TIME”. Today I will tell you, “YOU CAN’T COMPLAIN AND DO NOTHING AT THE SAME TIME”.

Every Election Day I hear people say things like, I didn’t vote because it doesn’t matter anyway, or it’s no big deal my one vote isn’t going to make a difference. I HATE HEARING THESE THINGS.

The same people who say these things are the people who so many times are watching their own business going downhill and saying to themselves, there is nothing I can do it is the economy, or until things turn around I am going to need to live with it.

Today is a perfect time to stop being part of the problem, and start being part of the solution.

If your business is going where you want it to go, if it is growing and it is profitable and you are happy with things as they are YOU STILL NEED TO VOTE TO MAKE SURE THEY STAY THAT WAY FOR YOU. If you think that things need to be changed, that your business is going downhill because of the way Washington, and your state and local leaders are doing things, YOU NEED TO VOTE TO START THE SOLUTION IN MOTION.

Tonight we will hear what percentage of voters cast their ballots. I am always shocked to see that it is always such a small number. Tomorrow I will start to hear the excuses I talked about earlier. I then start to think about how if each of these people actually voted, and each of the people they know who gave excuses actually voted and so on and so on, there would be millions of new ballots and THAT COULD MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.

All the people that I have ever supervised have heard me talk to them about making contributions to their 401K plan. I tell them that if they don’t at least put in the percent that the company matches, they can never come to me for a raise. If they are willing to leave money on the table they can’t then put their hand out to me for money.

I will end with the same thinking. If you don’t go out to vote today you can never complain to me again about the economy being bad or there is nothing you can do until it turns around. It isn’t going to turn by itself; you need to become part of the solution.

You have finished reading today’s post. Thank you for stopping by the Training Buffet.

NOW STOP READING AND GO VOTE!

Lorin

YOU CAN’T MAKE MONEY AND EXCUSES AT THE SAME TIME

I went to an awesome seminar today. It was the “Get Motivated” seminar at the Georgia Dome. The speakers were an “A” list of people from all types of backgrounds. Rudy Giuliani, Bill Cosby, ZIG ZIGLAR, Gen. Colin Powell, Lou Holtz, Goldie Hawn, Rick Belluzzo, Brian Tracy, Gen Stanley McCrystal, and Steve Forbes were all there IN PERSON. Needless to say I was MOTIVATED!

As the speakers were talking I was jotting down ideas that I thought would help me in future training and also give me topics for future blogs. As you can see from the title of this blog, I got some really good stuff!

Every business in every industry starts with an idea. Either one person thinks of it or a group all brainstorm to come up with it, the idea is the first step in starting a business. This first step is usually easy. IT HAPPENS in most cases all by itself. The second step is always the hardest, TAKE ACTION! Making things happen, getting up and doing something to start the process is always hard, but until you make the first move, nothing else can happen.

You may have the idea for the next computer, or the next hit product like a better Snuggie. You may have a service that the world is waiting for, or the elusive better mouse trap. It doesn’t matter what you thought of, if you don’t go into action and move on your idea you will never make a penny off of it. Let me give you an example. My first daughter was born in 1980 on my 5^th anniversary. Jackie and I had moved into our first house 3 years before this and our closest friends lived 4 doors down the street. When Alyson came along we wanted to find a way to go to each other’s houses while she was asleep and still be able to know she was OK. I had a great idea. I went to Radio Shack and bought a pair of walkie talkies. I took a big rubber band and keyed one of the walkie talkies. By placing the keyed unit next to the crib, I could hear every sound my daughter was making while at our friends house. This was an awesome invention that I did nothing with. In 1983 the first baby monitors hit the market. Do you think I could have made a few dollars with my idea?

NO ACTION, NO MONEY! I knew it was a good idea, but I made all the excuses I could think of, someone else has this already I’m sure, who would want to carry a walkie talkie around with them, it only works for short distances and even if it could go further you wouldn’t want to leave your baby alone that far away. This is only the short list that I remember. The point is, instead of acting and making money, I made excuses. You can’t do both.

In your business you either need to take action on every opportunity to make money, or make excuses why you didn’t take action. You can’t do both at the same time. Maybe it is a customer you already have and you think of a new way to get more products into their business, or maybe it is a new business you are trying to open. Maybe it is a new industry you are trying to break into or maybe it is a revolutionary new way to perform an application in an existing industry. ACTION OR EXCUSES, one makes money, one helps you rationalize failure.

You decide!

Lorin