MAN UP AND SELL SOMETHING

This is going to be a fun post for me to write and I am sure you will enjoy reading it also.

My wife, daughter and I went out to dinner tonight and on the ride home I told them I needed to write my post for today when I got home. My daughter, who has inherited my humor, said “That’s simple, tell them to man up and sell something.”

I laughed and told her those were some pretty big words from a first grade teacher who doesn’t sell anything. She quickly told me to think about what I said. She told me that she doesn’t sell anything now, but she has sold tons of things in the past and has always been the TOP (she said it VERY loud, like father like daughter) salesperson.

I had to agree with her, when she sold Girl Scout cookies she would sell more than anyone else in her group, when she was in band she would sell Vidalia Onions for the yearly fund raiser and she would sell 2 to 3 times more than anyone else would sell. I had to admit, the kid could sell.

I asked her what her message would be to sales reps. There was absolutely no hesitation, she said be persistent, have a good attitude, and don’t stop until you get it done. I was beaming. My little girl has listened to me and learned from me.

So here is sales 101 from a first grade teachers point of view (remember, this is MY DAUGHTER, so not just any first grade teacher)

1)      Be Persistent – Erin told me to tell you that no matter what anyone says, it has no affect on what the next person says. You need to keep going with the same smile, the same excitement and the same enthusiasm. She actually repeated a line that I have used for years and had told her all the time, two jerks never live next to one another. In your cases as professional sales reps change the live to work and you have the same idea.

2)      Have a good attitude – In her words, no one wants to buy from a cute little girl who isn’t smiling! OK maybe that line doesn’t have a lot to do with anyone reading this but Erin did make it meaningful for all of you. She said, all the cookies were the same and sold for the same price. She told me she couldn’t sell them for any less than anyone else. The onions were the same way, everyone (including the grocery stores) sold them for just about the same amount. She asked me to tell her why she sold so many more than anyone else. I told her it was simple, she acted like she really enjoyed selling them. She made people happy to buy from her. Her message to you, start making people happy that you are there selling them something.

3)      Don’t stop until you get it done – Erin told me that she really doesn’t remember the first year selling Girl Scout Cookies, but she does remember the second year. She knew how many she had sold the previous year and she wanted to sell more! She went door to door (and so did I) asking everyone. I remember her going to a neighbor’s house that had a daughter in the same group she was in and she still asked for the sale and they bought a box! She told me that in Band she kept the list from year to year of each neighbor that bought and how many they bought so when she went back she could remind them. I can definitely tell you that she worked hard and got the results she wanted or she didn’t stop.

I am a proud father. My daughter Erin is not just a great teacher but she was an awesome sales person as well.

I have to tell you what just happened. As I am sitting here typing, my other daughter Alyson came by and she was reading over my shoulder. She stopped me and said, “What the heck? I was selling cookies and onions before Erin and I was the best at both also!” So here I am, bragging on one daughter when I should be bragging on both.

I am a lucky man to have such great kids and I couldn’t be more proud of their sales ability and their willingness to remind me of!

Lorin

ALIVE AND WELL

Over the past several months I have told stories about BAD customer service that I have experienced. Today I want to tell you about a company that still believes in exceptional customer service, RADIO SHACK.

I went into my local store to buy a headset for my cell phone. The salesman in the store listened carefully to what I wanted and then recited back to me what it was I just told him to make sure he understood. He then walked me over to a wall of headsets and ear bud and started to point out different things to me. He asked me how much I was looking to spend, he asked me if I wanted wired or wireless, (all questions I didn’t answer when I told him what I was looking for. He then told me that he was sorry, he had nothing to match what I wanted exactly.

I was disappointed, I loved listening to this guy and wanted to spend my money with him. He then told me if I had a second he will show me what he has closest to match my “wants”. He showed me a pair of ear buds and said that these were the best he had and came closest to what I wanted. He acknowledged they were not a headset, but he felt confident that I would like them. He told me that Radio Shack will refund my money within 30 days if I didn’t like them as much as he said I would.

WOW, what did I have to lose? I took them. We got to the cash register and he told me how much they were, $42.39! I have got to tell you I almost fell over, Delta sells ear buds for $2.00 on every flight! But he said I would be happy so I paid and left the store.

This may have been the best sales experience I have had in months. It was nice to see a pro at work.

I got into the car and excitedly opened the package, plugged the new ear buds into my phone, placed the buds in my ears and WOW they felt awesome. I couldn’t wait to make or receive a call. I started driving away and there it was my first call! I pushed answer and said, “This is Lorin”, my heart fell, I could hear my daughter clear as can be over the buds but I couldn’t hear myself. When I talked it sounded like I was hearing myself through a bucket of water.

After we disconnected I turned the car around and went back to the store. I walked in with the buds still in my ears. He looked at me and said, “Is something wrong”? I told him about the sound and he said that most ear buds work that way.

He could see how disappointed I was and without me saying a word, he took the package from me, asked for the ear buds and started the return. He asked if I wanted to try any others, he asked if I wanted to keep these a little longer to see if I got used to them, he asked if there was anything he could do to make me a happy customer. (Those were his exact words) I said no, but thanked him. In about 2 minutes I was out the door one set of ear buds light and with a full refund. NO QUESTIONS, NO HASSELS, JUST CUSTOMER SERVICE!

I am still looking for a headset for my cell phone, but I am glad I am able to write a positive post about customer service.

HUMMMM, if your customers had to write a post about how your customer service was would it be this positive?

THINK ABOUT IT!

Lorin

HERE WE GO AGAIN

It has been a few years since we have seen such sudden hikes in gas prices. It seems like yesterday I was paying less than $2.50 a gallon and today I paid $3.09! The last time this happened I saw some very good sales reps take the road to self destruction because they stopped making sales calls and tried running their business by phone.

The experts are saying that gas could hit an all time high in the next several months and with the unrest in the Middle East there is no telling when things will settle down. So here we are at a crossroads in our business. Do we stop making sales calls because of the high gas prices or do we accept a cut in our income and keep doing what we have been doing?

I am not a big advocate in pay cuts neither am I a big advocate of failure, so what we need is a way to serve our customers and save our wallets. What we need to do is take a good look at our business and make decisions as to what is the best way to service each customer.

It isn’t going to be possible to treat each customer the same. If you make sales calls you will need to evaluate each customer and decide the frequency or even the necessity of making the sales call. What I am talking about is ranking your customer base. I will admit, this doesn’t work for some reps. If you sell only one product or service and every customer is paying the same and using the same amount then there is no way to rank your customers. I will discuss a plan for you in the next few paragraphs. Right now I want to address the reps that have customers which buy different products, services, use different amounts and pay different prices.

Where is your time and money best spent? Is it with your best customers trying to keep them happy? Is it with your worst customers trying to make them better? The answer is your time and money are best spent where you have the most potential to make sales. That is always the answer! In most cases your best opportunity for growth is where you don’t have the majority of the customer’s wallet for your products or services. These are the customers that are buying but you are not the primary source for your type of products or services.

You have a relationship with these second tier customers, they usually have a good degree of trust in you, and they know what you sell and the value you bring to the table. Now is the time to go for the gold by asking for and EARNING more of their business. Why do I say this? Most sales reps will be cutting back, they will be making less calls and leaving the door open for smart aggressive reps to capitalize on their “FRUGALNESS” (a nice way of saying they are cheap)While all the other reps are servicing customers less and cutting back, you start to give them more service and showing up more regularly. As they become discontent with the other reps you work your way up the food chain to become the main supplier.

The real work here is making the decisions as to which customers you are going to make the push with, which customers you are not going to change anything with, and which customers you are going to decide to give less and in some cases NO service too at all. These are hard decisions, but so are deciding between paying your rent and eating.

Now back to the reps that have no way of ranking their customers, you have another question to ask yourself. What does each customer expect? Because you can’t rank your customers by the amount of business they give you and the amount of potential they have you need to look for other ways. Expectations are one way. You may be calling on each customer equally today, but does each customer expect that? You may have customers that only need occasional touches rather than weekly or monthly sales calls. Some customers may be served as well over the phone as they are in person. One good way to help you make these decisions is to ask the customer. I wouldn’t tell them you are getting cheap and trying not to make calls, they may get the wrong idea (ya think) but I would say that you are rebuilding your territory and need to change your schedule, what is the frequency you would like to see me?

However you do it, ranking by the amount of potential or expectations, changes are going to need to be made to stay ahead of expenses. The most important thing is to remember, we are all in this together. Gas may vary by 20 cents from station to station but overall we are all going to feel the crunch, how we react to it will make the difference.

Lorin

WHAT’S LEFT

It doesn’t matter if you are 25 or 65, a question that needs to be answered is, WHAT’S LEFT IN YOUR CAREER?

If you are just starting your sales career this seems like a silly question doesn’t it? Well it isn’t! As I said it doesn’t matter if you are 25 or 65, you only have a limited number of years that you are going to work, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO IN THAT TIME? So many young sales reps start their careers without any real long term goals. Sure they want to be rookie of the year, and then they want to become the “BEST” rep in the office or the company. These are great goals but they are all short term goals in comparison to what I am talking about. How about 20 years from now? Is being the best in the company still enough to keep you motivated? Maybe you need to be the best in the industry or the best across several industries. You may want to become the “Legend” of the industry.

Can a goal like that be planned? Maybe not, but you can plan on becoming better every year. You can plan on breaking records. You can plan on expanding your sphere of influence within your company and industry. All of these goals can lead directly to becoming the legend you want to be.

Now let’s talk about seasoned reps. Reps that have been doing their jobs for many years. What’s left for them? Many of the same things. One of the best things about being a professional sales rep is age, education, religion, race, gender, or any other factor has no influence on how successful you can become. There are stories about the top sales guru’s in every industry that started with no education, no money, NO CLUE and rose to the top in their field. How many multi-millionaires started on a street corner or got their first job in the warehouse and worked their way up?

If you have only 5 years left in your career before you are going to retire there is still time to set goals and achieve great things. Don’t RIP (RETIRE IN PLACE) and just sail along. Go out with a bang! Who knows, you may start having so much fun you don’t want to get out at all.

If you have worked your entire life and want to retire and enjoy life, you deserve it, DO IT. But don’t do yourself the disservice of allowing yourself to dry-up on the vine. Treat your last years at least as enthusiastically as you did your first years. Use your knowledge and experience to set the bar in your company or industry so high that reps will be striving to reach it for years to come.

Each of us needs to look at ourselves and make the decision of how they want their next 5 professional years to look. I know that the years in front of me are going to be my best years. I want to do more in the next 5 years as I have in the past 5 and then even more the 5 after that.

I love sitting in sales meetings and hearing the names of reps who are just starting their sales career get recognition, but I love it even more hearing reps that have been selling for 30, 40 even 50 years getting recognition. I have seen 30 year reps have their best month ever. 40 year reps open the most new accounts for the month. 50 year reps break company records.

WHAT’S LEFT FOR YOU? As much as you want, you just need to go for it!

Lorin

OPTIMISM

When I graduated from High School, I won a small scholarship from the Optimist Club of Bay Shore. At the time I had no idea what the Optimist Club was but I was happy to get the money.

Several years ago I had the pleasure to speak at several meetings of the Optimist International Club local chapter. It was a great experience and after a long time of waiting, I finally found out what the Optimist Clubs were.

Little did I know that although I wasn’t a member, we shared many of the same core beliefs.

Here is the creed of the Optimist International Club, I am sure that many of you will be pleasantly surprised to see that you also have many of these beliefs.

The Opimist Creed

Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

I think you will all agree, if more people had these core beliefs and values we would all be in a better place.

Think POSITIVE, Talk POSITIVE, Be POSITIVE

Lorin

LET HIM RUN HIS RACE

I saw the movie Secretariat this week, if you haven’t seen it I recommend it. In the movie there were so many great lines, one of which is the title of today’s post, LET HIM RUN HIS RACE.

In the movie it is obviously said about Secretariat, but the same line can be used for each of us. We all run our race differently and the best way for us to win is to simply LET US RUN OUR RACE.

I am not saying that we don’t need leaders and guidance, we all need these two things, what I am saying is that our own way of doing things will always be where we are the most comfortable. If a manager can see where our strengths are and allow us to use those strengths than we will grow to be great.

What does this mean to you and me? Well first we all need to realize that if what we do naturally isn’t the best way of selling WE need to change. Think of it like this, doesn’t every sports great have a trainer and a coach? The trainer works on the mechanics of the game the coach works on the strategies. If the players’ natural way of doing something isn’t the best, the trainer will work on changing it so the coach knows that he has the best he can have on the field. That’s what sales trainers and sales managers do. The sales trainer works on the mechanics, the sales manager works on the strategies. Together this triad can make amazing accomplishments within a company.

LET US RUN OUR RACE and we will pace ourselves to maximize our ability. LET US RUN OUR RACE and we will push ourselves to the limits of our ability. LET US RUN OUR RACE and we will accomplish more than we ever will trying to run someone else’s race. LET US RUNOUR RACE and no one will catch us.

We all may not be able to win the Triple Crown as Secretariat did, but we can all be in the winner’s circle if WE CAN RUN OUR RACE!

Lorin

HOW FAR BACK DID IT ALL START FOR YOU?

I was talking to some friends today who all happen to be in sales. We talked about all sorts of things and then one of them said he was born to be a sales rep. Every time I hear that I say, “Really? I was born naked and screaming, I don’t think I was thinking about becoming a sales rep.” We all had a good laugh and then I asked when was it that everyone realized they wanted to be in sales?

One of the guys looked right at me and said, “What makes you think I WANT to be in sales?” He said, “It seems to be the only thing I’m any good at so I am doing it.” With this we all laughed again but then one by one we started telling our stories and by the end we discovered that not one of us ever set out to become sales reps, we all just became one somehow along the way.

I told my story, which I used to tell in class every week. I went to school and graduated with a degree in Biology and minors in Entomology and Botany. My goal was to be a forest ranger. When I discovered that I would starve to death as a forest ranger I went into sales because my father told me to get a job or come home. I went to work for Friendly Ford selling cars. I HATED selling cars, but I was good at it. Sales seemed to be something I could do, make a living, and didn’t need to go back to school to get any more degrees.

The more my friends and I talked the more our stories sounded about the same. Not one of them ever thought they would be in sales and yet here we were.

When was it that you decided to go into sales and why? Most people never think about it because it “JUST HAPPENED”. Like the story of the frog and the boiling water. If you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water it will hop out before it get burned, if you place the frog into a pot of cool water and then put it over the heat the frog will sit there until it is cooked. So many of us became sales reps like the frog in the cool water, S L O W L Y.

Now I want you to think about being a sales rep and the living you are making as a sales rep. There are a lot of people who went to college for years, and graduated at the top of their classes, but don’t make the living we make.

We are a gifted group, we become top in our field without degrees, without years of school, without tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loans. We learn by our mistakes and grow with every one of them. We learn by listening and watching. We grow by trying things and experimenting. We grow by keeping a GREAT attitude and having a POSITIVE outlook.

As my friends and I talked you could hear the pride we all had in our accomplishments. The more we talked the more passionate we became about our jobs, our companies, and our opportunities. These are the same friends that would usually be telling each other about everything wrong with their companies, but when you start to talk about them being a part of the sales force and the sales force being a part of the company, they will defend it to the end.

As I walked away I really felt good about myself. More importantly, I felt good about my profession. I never doubt myself and my ability but hearing everyone talk made me feel like a king. WE WERE ALL SALES REPS! WE ARE GOOD AT WHAT WE DO! WE ENJOY WHAT WE DO! WE APPRICIATE WHAT WE HAVE!

Do you?

Lorin

DUCKS QUACK - EAGLES SOAR

Today I am passing on a story that my wife sent me. I have mentioned before that she teaches school and the administration posts things in the restrooms. The following story was a post from the restroom.

Ducks Quack - Eagles Soar

No one can make you serve customers well....that's because great service is a choice.
Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.
He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey. He handed my friend a laminated card and said: 'I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'
Taken aback, Harvey read the card.. It said: Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment...

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean! As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.' My friend said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.' Wally smiled and said, 'No problem... I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice...' Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet Coke.'
Handing him his drink, Wally said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.'

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'
And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

'Tell me, Wally,' my amazed friend asked the driver, 'have you always served customers like this?'
Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. 'No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.'

'That hit me right between the eyes,' said Wally. 'Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'
'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.
'It sure has,' Wally replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.
Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

One of the reasons I like this story so very much is because it talks about subjects that I have posted before.

1)      What do you do to differentiate yourself

2)      Choices

3)      Image

4)      Service

5)      Attitude

6)      Success

I write these posts for 2 reasons;

1)      To help Ducks

2)      To encourage Eagles

Lorin

LIVER AND ONIONS

About 10 years ago I had my Gall Bladder removed. During the operation the doctor nicked a blood vessel which caused me to have internal bleeding. Not just a little internal bleeding, but enough to  cause me to pass out and spend the next 5 days unconscious and wake up in ICU.

I know, that was a lot more information than anyone of you wanted to know, but I have a point. The hospital wanted to give me a blood transfusion and I didn’t want to take any blood. They told me that it would take weeks for me to regain the blood on my own and a transfusion would be much faster, again I didn’t want a transfusion. When I was ready to leave the hospital they gave me a list of foods that would build my blood back the fastest. I was thrilled, on top of the list was one of my favorite foods, LIVER! I LOVE LIVER!

I will wait until you stop gagging… (la de da la de da) are you done? NO? (la de da la de da) NOW? OK, this is my point! I was one of the people who actually liked every item on the list. When I showed the list to my friends as I was recuperating I was told by most of them that they would have rather taken the transfusion.

Sometimes you need to do unpleasant things to help yourself. (Not really fair that I like liver, but you get the picture) It is almost a shame that we are put to these “tests” in our professional lives, but it is the way things happen.

You need to ask yourself “WHAT IF”. What if I don’t want to do these unpleasant things? Then you need to ask yourself “IS IT WORTH IT”. Is what I will gain worth what I will need to do? Then you need to ask the most important question of all, “CAN I LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES” Will I be able to live with the discomfort of doing it? Will I be able to live without the reward?

In other words, can you eat LIVER AND ONIONS?

Yesterday was the first weekday since starting the Training Buffet, help Yourself that I didn’t have a new post. I am traveling and had no internet access last night. I know you missed me as much as I missed you. I will do my best to not let it happen again! Thanks for your understanding.

Lorin

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

How great is a day to celebrate LOVE? So many people look at Valentine’s Day with a tainted eye calling it the “Hallmark Holiday” or saying it isn’t a real holiday. I believe it is an awesome holiday.

So many holidays are draped in serious tones and history that we really don’t always celebrate them as holidays but rather we view them as spiritual, emotional, or personal days of participation. Well “V”day is different. Love, passion, and romance are the keys to this holiday and it doesn’t matter who you are, what you do, how much you earn, or how old you are everyone can partake in this holiday.

Now how does this relate to sales in any way? That’s easy, as reps we sometimes tend to limit our own participation in some events because we don’t feel they are “REAL” or they don’t meet the standards that we think they should to “deserve” our attention. The truth is, like “V”day, every chance we get to interact with customers and clients outside of our sales calls is a good event.

Don’t be a snob! Why limit your interactions because of your own personal prejudices, if a customer thinks it is important then it should be important to you too.

If Valentine’s Day is a made up holiday, I wish we would make up a lot more like it. If your customers have a lot of made up meetings and events, you should hope they make up a lot more.

This is a short post today. It is Valentine’s Day for me to, and my fantastic Bride of 35 years and both wonderful daughters are waiting for me to finish posting so we can go to dinner.

I hope that all of my readers and followers have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and that the love of your life (If your single it may be plural, Loves of you're life) enjoy this wonderful day along with you.

Lorin

TIP TOE IN AND GET ALOT OUT

I was searching the net today and found this wonderful article, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Stepping (Gingerly) Into Sales: Tales from a Reluctant Salesperson

When my business partner Emira announced that she was expecting a baby, my delight at her good news was accompanied by a creeping feeling of dread about taking on some of her key responsibilities at work while she went on maternity leave. See, we’d always divided the workload between us so that while I handled all of our studio’s design work, she tackled all of the sales. And sales work has never been high on my list of favorite things.

We briefly considered hiring a salesperson to help out in her absence, but as a web development agency, our sales process is highly consultative and technical, and we knew that training someone to take over sales would be far more challenging than hiring help on the design side. So it made far more sense for me to set aside my designer’s hat and put on the sales mantle.

Although I knew it was the most logical solution, I wasn’t sure I was cut out for my new gig. While I love the client-facing side of my work, I’ve always cherished the odd workday when I can turn off the phone, ignore email, and just cozy up to my computer to design something new. I’ve always considered myself to be 50/50 introvert/extrovert… but sales felt like an extrovert’s game. Would my phone-free days be a thing of the past?

Well, as it turns out, they are. But I’ve learned a great deal about my business in my first six weeks as a salesperson. And I’ve picked up a few things about sales, too — though I definitely have lots to learn in that department.

It’s become much clearer to me that sales work — at least, the kind of sales we have to do — is not so much about pitching your services to people as it is about asking and answering questions. I know that’s what sales gurus have been saying since the dawn of time, but I’m late to the party and just figured it out. When someone comes to me asking about a new website (or social media strategy, or whatever), more often than not they have decided on a tool before they’ve decided what their goals are, and it’s critical for me to dig deeper to find out what’s behind their decision-making process.

So I ask a lot of questions – and not just “What’s your budget?” and “What’s your timeline?” (although those are both important). I ask them to tell me about their organization and their goals – to tell me what led up to them getting in touch with us. Their response typically conveys information about the size and structure of their organization, as well as their motivators.

It turns out listening, and asking good questions, is a huge part of what I now do for a living. And I’ve got a lot of experience doing that, because it’s also a big part of what I do as a designer and web strategist.

This probably all sounds pretty elementary, and I know it is — it’s just that as a sales newbie, I’m finding it a novel concept that I might already have many of the skills I need in order to do my new job well. I’ve realized that the biggest source of my fear of sales was a presumption that I would need a major personality transplant. I thought I’d need to become magically super-gregarious, able to spin a sales pitch like a spider spins a web, and spot a business opportunity at a hundred paces.

But I discovered that you can be half-introverted and do sales work, so long as you have two key qualities:

1. You take an interest in people, and
2. You enjoy being helpful.

I am using Laurens story to help you help others. With unemployment at an all time high there are millions of people looking for jobs. Many of these people are your friends. As Lauren says if they have the 2 key qualities above, maybe you should tell your friends to think about sales as a career.

Lorin

ONCE UPON A SALE

I took some liberties with the title of today’s post. However I think you can remember when just about every story we were told started with Once Upon A Time. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go out into the sales field and start each sale with the same line?

Story telling in sales is a great way to deliver a memorable presentation. We have all heard sales presentations that were less than memorable, what made them that way? Usually it is because as reps we sometimes get caught up in the facts and figures of our product or service rather than the solutions our product and services deliver. By telling a story that sets things in a surrounding the customer is used to, is based on a situation the customer has experienced and offers solutions that will help the customer you can give a great sales presentation.

About 5 months ago I met a guy here in Atlanta that handed me his business card and under his name where most people have their titles, he had, “CORPORATE STORY TELLER” I was so jealous! Why didn’t I think of that? It was catchy and something that would be remembered by anyone who reads it. Maybe you should all stat to call yourselves Sales Story Tellers rather than Sales Reps. Imagine the look on your customers faces when they read your new business card and see that as your title.

I have talked about this concept before to people and have some say to me that it wouldn’t work for them because they couldn’t tell a story very well. I understand what these people mean, I have heard some people try and tell stories and to be honest, not everyone can pull it off. However, a SALES STORY is different. It isn’t being told to strictly entertain. It also is being told to an audience (even one person is an audience) that will be able to relate to the story and put themselves, via their experiences, into the story.

For this reason alone I believe any sales rep can tell a good story. If the customer you are telling the story to is an existing customer, they are already used to the way you speak and the story will be very natural for them to listen to.

You need to develop your stories to assure that they follow a good logical progression, are pertinent to the product or service and the way the customer will perceive the story, and finally contain the 3 pieces of good selling stories, 1) Surroundings, 2) Situation, and 3) Solution.

A few more tips to a good selling story;

1)      Don’t get technical – remember that this is one of the big reasons you are telling a stoy to begin with

2)      Tie it as closely as you can to the customers type of business – if the customer can’t relate the story to what they do it will not have the impact or make the impression you are looking for

3)      Instead of a moral, you need to show them a solution – the story has got to give them answers to their problems

4)      The HERO of the story should be the customer NOT you – the customer needs to see how the product or service will help them become better not help you become rich!

5)      A LITTLE humor goes a long way – if the customer smiles they are engaged. If you are usually not a funny person, the story is a great way to practice your comedy routines.

6)      KISS – KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE -  this is a story not a novel. 2 to 3 minutes is long enough to make your point.

7)      After you tell the story refer back to it in your conversation – if you told a good story the customer will be able to make the connection when you refer back to what you said to close the sale.

8)      Bring it home to the customer – using phrases in the story that will relate directly to what your customer does makes it personal

9)      Use names of your customers employees or co workers – if you can say this is what JOE does or exactly like MARY’s job, the customer will have a clear mental picture of what you are trying to describe

10)   ENJOY YOURSELF – just like when you were a child, story time is a fun time. You and your customer should enjoy themselves.

If you start telling stories to help make sales it will be a new and refreshing method you and your customers will benefit from.

One word of caution, DON’T ASK YOUR CUSTOMER TO SIT ON YOUR LAP,  and DON’T OFFER TO TUCK THEM IN!

Lorin

EXACTLY THE SAME, BUT DIFFERENT

Many of you that follow the Training Buffet, Help Yourself have figured out that I write about things that happen to me. I like taking non-sales related incidents and relating them to sales. I believe that most things we do, most things we say, and most things we experience can be related to selling.

Today I was in a store and they had a display set up with a young woman next to it handing out samples. The sign next to the display said, “JUST LIKE THE NATIONAL BRAND”. This brought to my mind a commercial for Toyotas that I have seen telling me that if so many cars compare themselves to Toyota Camry, why shouldn’t you just buy the Toyota Camry instead of the want-to-be’s?

I had to laugh, let’s face it we have all seen this kind of advertising thousands of times for everything from frozen pizza to airlines and until Toyota said it, how many of us thought about the idea, why should I buy the knock off when I can get the real thing?

When I got home I was in the kitchen and saw a bottle of hand lotion my wife has on the counter top and in big bold print across the entire front of the bottle it said, “HEALS LIKE A CREAM”.  I was already going to write about this subject but now I was really getting excited about the topic.

I started thinking about all the sales calls I have made while riding with reps and how many times I heard a rep tell a customer, “IT IS JUST LIKE ….” and I never thought to correct them. Telling a customer that your product is “JUST LIKE” another better known product is stupid when you think about it. I understand that in most cases the customer doesn’t think the way I am thinking now and they simply go right past the statement, but if just one customer thinks like I am and you lose the sale because of making the comparison isn’t it smart to STOP comparing your product like that?

I can hear your thoughts (really I can) you are thinking if comparing helps the customer better understand what your product or service is or what your product or service does isn’t it worthwhile making the comparison? NOPE! At least not the way you are doing it now.

A better way is not to compare your product with the other product, but to compare the other product to yours. Instead of saying that your product or service is “JUST LIKE” the others, turn it around and say something to the affect of, “There are other products that come close to working like my product” or “There are other companies that offer services that are close to mine” and end with, “but close isn’t the same is it?

By setting your product or service as the judging point, you make the others have to come UP to your standards. Now it doesn’t matter what the other products or companies do or cost, they AREN’T the same as what you are offering.

Is this a small point? ABSOLUTELY! But like with most things, it isn’t the big stuff that will eat your lunch, it is the small things. If we pay attention to the small details, the big stuff will usually take care of itself.

I am sure you may have read other blogs that had information almost as good as the information here on the Training Buffet, Help Yourself. But there can only be one BEST, and you are reading it right now.

Lorin

IF YOU REDESIGN THE WHEEL PLEASE KEEP IT ROUND

I was talking to a gentleman yesterday who was looking for a job. I asked him about his background and he told me he was with his last company for over 20 years and had worked his way up from stocking the shelves in their retail stores to VP of sales. The next question I asked was what happened? He told me the company shut its doors. He went on to tell me about how the company was bought by a competitor and in the first 4 months the name of the company changed, the labels changed, the prices almost doubled, and the entire management structure was realigned. He continued to tell me that for the previous 40 years the company has always had growth, in 4 months they went broke. He said that all the change happening at once was too much for the customers and the employees.

Hearing his story I was amazed, then as I thought about it more and more I almost got sick. I have worked with sales reps for years and I have seen my share fail and for the first time I had a new insight as to why. So many sales people that I have seen fail had been trying to reinvent themselves.

I started to think about individual reps who I knew that failed and what they were doing as they slipped down hill and finally out the door. So many of them were trying to change EVERYTHING about themselves all at once, much like the company I was just told about. They changed their sales presentation, the way they worked, their daily routine, their pricing, their dress and everything else that they could change. As I thought about these reps I realized that they needed to change all these things, and some needed to change even more things about themselves, the question is did they need to do it all at once?

I think about my years as a Band Parent (no wise cracks). During my oldest daughters years in the band she had the same Band Director. He did things the same every year from the first day of summer practice to band camp (I said no wise cracks) to football games and competitions. Then in my youngest daughter’s freshman year a new Band Director came to the school and he changed everything about the Band Program. From one year to the next the band went from the number 1 band in the State of Georgia to not winning any awards at all.

All 3 of these stories have the same basic theme, fast and complete change. All 3 of these stories have the same ending, fast and complete failure. All 3 of these stories have the same moral, change is good but it doesn’t all need to happen at once.

I believe that as sales reps we need to be constantly reinventing ourselves to keep up with all the changes that are happening in the market place. How our customers buy is changing, the amount of information our customers have access to is changing, pricing, manufacturing, shipping, regulations, liability, and just about everything that is associated with selling has changed or is changing. We need to change also, but just like the company, the sales reps and the band, we don’t need to do it all at once.

Pick what you think will give you the biggest bang for the buck. Maybe you think changing your sales presentation will help you the most, then change that one thing and leave everything else alone for now. Once you have settled in on the presentation that works for you and is meeting your expectations then you can move to the next item that will give you the next biggest bang for the buck. Is it how you cut your hair, or the perfume you wear? It doesn’t matter, whatever it is you decide, make the one change and then wait until you get the results you want before you tackle the next item to change.

By making changes slow and waiting until they settle in the changes will be better accepted by you, your customers and your company. If we manage change and use change to make positive strides towards our goals we won’t be afraid to continue to change a little at a time.

It is said that the only constant is CHANGE. I don’t think that we can stop change from happening, however I do think we can control the degree and speed of the change to stop the catastrophic results that we know are possible with rapid and total change.

Lorin

I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

OK, I admit it, I didn’t make this line up. I borrowed it from the “A” Team (the TV show not the movie) but it doesn’t matter where I got it, I DO love it when a plan comes together, don’t you?

As business people, we make plans on a regular basis. We make plans for many different aspects of our careers. Plans are made for sales growth, profitability, customer penetration, order count, collections, and countless other factors. Like so many other things related to sales, our plans usually don’t go as smoothly as we thought they would. In fact many of our plans fall apart before we ever get a chance to implement even the smallest part of the plan.

The good news is, every now and again, every once in awhile, every blue moon we hit it right on the money and a plan comes together not as we planned it, but BETTER than we could have ever dreamed it could.

So what is the difference between plans that fall apart before they ever get started and plans that happen better than expected? NOTHING usually, it is one of the mysteries of sales. Well, because so many plans fall apart and so few come together, does that mean we should stop planning and let whatever happens happen? I HOPE NOT!

If we stop planning we stop looking toward the future. Even if the plan is bad and it falls apart we at least took time to look to what we should be doing. In many cases the end result we are looking for is the right result, it was how we decided to get there that was wrong. So many times one plan that fails leads us right to a better plan. Sometimes the second plan also fails but the result leads us to yet another plan and this progression can go on, plan after plan, until we finally hit upon the plan that leads to success.

Can we stop making plans because most don’t work, come on we are in sales, do you stop making sales calls because someone says NO? We keep going, we are persistent, we dig in deeper with every failure and our resolve gets stronger as we go forward with our sales calls. The same attitude, resolve and commitment needs to be associated with your plans.

One key to success is to make planning like any other part of sales, learn from every failure. As you make a plan think about the plans you have had success with and the plans that have failed. Try to fashion the winning ideas into your new plan and see if you can isolate and remove any losing ideas from your plans.

Now we have hit on another important part of the planning process, write things down! It can be days, weeks, months, maybe years between the time you make a plan and it either failing or succeeding. The details of the plan may be forgotten or become a little “fuzzy” in our memories over time. If we write the plans down in detail we will have them to look back on and decide what we want to keep and what we want to throw away. One part of a plan you decide to throw away today may come in handy at another time with another plan. You don’t want to lose the details, take good precise notes during your planning sessions and keep the notes for reference.

Lastly, don’t compare the success or failure of one plan against another. Different times, different circumstances, different situations will affect how a plan plays out. Look at each plan on its own merits and rate its success or failure on its own merits as well.

I DO LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER! I hope this plan on how to help you make your plans comes together!

Lorin

I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

Have you ever heard the saying, “No Man Is An Island”? I bet we all have at one time or another. Well I am here to tell you that it is true. Having a network of friends makes things a lot easier to get through.

In sales we sometimes try to stand alone against the world. I have written here telling you that you can’t wait for your company to get things for you. You need to do them yourself. Doing things FOR yourself is very different from being BY yourself.

Networking with fellow sales reps will help you to get better views of what is happening in the sales world. It is a way for you to keep up with not just your business but a host of other businesses as well. The combined resources of a network can be amazingly large. Having the ability to tap into the knowledge, experience and skills of dozens maybe thousands of people can give you tools and information that has never before been available to you or any other rep.

So how do you build a network? Easy, start doing what sales reps do best, TALKING! Talk to everyone, anyone about what you do and as you find others in the industry talk to them. Let them know that you are willing to help them in any way you can. In turn, most will offer to help you in the same ways. Keep in touch with these people, and not just to ask for help, but just to say hi and remind them that you are ready to assist them at any time.

From this sales network, you will start to develop a network of business people that are not in sales. These will become a network of people that you may be able to do business with at some time. As with the sales network, this isn’t a group that you only communicate with when you want them to buy from you. You should contact these people just as often as the sales network, and for the same reason.

In past posts I have talked about the “Double Win”, if I help you win I win too. Networking is the double win to the power of thousands.

Wouldn’t it be nice to one day have a network so large that every sales call you made was to a friendly face with whom you had an introduction? Believe it or not, it is happening. There are people out in the field today that never make cold calls, they rarely make warm calls, they make network calls which are always hot leads to familiar people.

Start networking today it is never too late to start. I will make you an offer you can refuse, contact me and I will not only help you, but I will make my personal network open to you as well.

Lorin

WHAT YOU HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

Remember when we were kids, we played the game Telephone? The following is a grown-up’s version of the game.

Colonel to his executive officer: Tomorrow evening at approximately 2000 hours Halley's Comet will be visible in this area, an event which occurs only once every 75 years. Have the men fall out in the battalion area in fatigues and I will explain this rare phenomenon to them. In case of rain, we will not be able to see anything, so assemble the men in the theater and I will show them films of it.

Exec to company commanders: By order of the colonel tomorrow at 2000 hours, Halley's Comet will appear above the battalion area. If it rains, fall the men out in fatigues then march to the theater where the rare phenomenon will take place, something which occurs only once every 75 years.

Company commander to lieutenant: By order of the colonel in fatigues at 2000 hours tomorrow evening, the phenomenal Halley's Comet will appear in the theater. In case of rain in the battalion area, the colonel will give another order, something which occurs once every 75 years.

Lieutenant to sergeant: Tomorrow at 2000 hours, the colonel will appear in the theater with Halley's Comet, something which happens every 75 years. If it rains, the colonel will order the comet into the battalion area.

Sergeant to troops: When it rains tomorrow at 2000 hours the phenomenal 75-year-old General Halley, accompanied by the colonel, will drive his comet through the battalion area theater in fatigues.

We have all fallen victim to this. Someone tells us something and we never take the time to find out where the information came from, and how direct the information is. Last year I was riding with a rep and we called on one of the reps new accounts. When we walked in the rep didn’t see the buyer he talked to so he started talking to another guy in the office. This guy started telling us all about how the buyer wasn’t happy and that the product didn’t work, and before we were done talking I think he told me he his tire was flat and the world was also.

The rep and I walked out and he was all worked up because he couldn’t figure out why the buyer was so mad, none of that stuff should have happened. I flew home the next day and it was about a week later that the rep called me and told me what happened. The buyer wasn’t upset at all. He had been talking about our product and then someone must have asked him about another product that he was upset about. The guy in the office missed the switch in topic and was passing on HIS version of what he heard from the buyer.

The story above and the experience I told you about should have a little meaning to you. Don’t listen to hear-say. If someone tells you that this guy said this and that guy said that, always go to the source and confirm the information. There is nothing worse in sales than working under false information. Nobody wins, and usually everyone loses.

If this post has no meaning to you, here is what I want you to do. Next time you are in a group of 4 or more people, play the kids game telephone. You will only need to do it once to become a believer.

BTW, let me tell you what I heard……….

Lorin

THREE LEFTS MAKE A RIGHT

My first car was a 1955 Ford Custom. Straight 6 engine with “Three on the Tree” (That’s old talk for a 3 speed manual transmission with the shifter on the steering column). I sold this car to my best friend when I got my next car, a 1959 Plymouth with Push Button Automatic transmission. My friend Tommy drove the Ford for almost a year before he tore the front end out of it. I followed him to the junk yard to bring him home. Because the Fords front end was such a mess Tommy couldn’t make a right turn, we had to plan our trip to the junk yard making only left hand turns. Yep, you guessed it, this is when I first realized that “THREE LEFTS MAKE A RIGHT”!

In sales this is sometimes how we need to plan our sales calls. It would be faster and more direct to make right turns, but we know if we go in that direction the customer will not come along with us. (I hope you are getting the masterful way I am using analogies here) We need to make turns that the customer is willing to follow even if it takes longer to get to the final destination, the close.

Selling is sometimes a balancing act. You need to balance the customer’s likes and dislikes with the potential of the customer. The act of estimating the potential of the customer is in itself a balancing act, will this customer need a lot of service? Will the customer expect discounts? Will the customer pay the bills on time? All these and more need to be considered when looking at a customer’s potential. Once you have gotten an idea of potential, you then need to balance how much time you can invest with this customer. Sometimes, I hate to say, a customer just won’t be profitable. In this case you need to walk away.

If you evaluate a customer and find out that you can afford the time to make 3 lefts to go right then get to work and start selling.

Here is one of the hardships of this situation. Many times we need to invest a considerable amount of time just to make a good evaluation. If the decision is to move on, we feel we have lost the time. Maybe not! During the evaluation process we need to look for common traits with other customers we have evaluated. If we see enough good traits then the 3 lefts are worth the gamble. If we don’t, then we need to cut the presentation short and move on.

Planning the sales call around the evaluation is the key to success. Start the evaluation process as soon as you turn into their parking lot. Look around, if there are 50 parking spaces and only 7 are filled a flag should go up. This doesn’t mean you leave, just keep it in mind. If you walk into the lobby and it loks like no one has been there in a long time another flag should be raised. When you walk down the hall and all the offices are empty, up comes another flag. However if you get back to the production area and see that it is an automated shop and that they are running full speed all the other indicators go away. This is why you need to invest the time to do a FULL evaluation. If you had decided to leave before seeing the production area you would have 3 lefts and they would have equaled a WRONG!

Plan to take the time needed to make good solid decisions about potential, go ahead and make all the lefts you need to, because for every 3 lefts  you make, you make a RIGHT !

Lorin

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW

I don’t know about you, but if I see something once I will remember it far longer than I would if I just heard it several times. There are statistics that show seeing something is almost 60% more effective then hearing the same information.

OK, so then why is it most sales people try and talk themselves through a sale? If everything points in one direction, and you believe that what you see is correct, shouldn’t you accept it and take advantage of it as much as you can? YES!

How many of you have a “Pitch Book” for a lack of a better term? This is a book or binder that has visual aids that you can use to help with the sale? Some companies make them mandatory, others make them for their reps and train the reps how to use them affectively.

Before I go any further, I want everyone to know I am NOT a fan of a canned speech where you go page by page and ask robotic questions along the way. I am however a big fan of having supporting material that reinforces what you are saying with visuals that are easy to understand and remember.

In today’s sales world there are so many new ways to present material in a very professional and relaxed way. The days of the 3 ring binder flip chart are past, today we have Power Point and laptop computers, we have iPhones and iPads, web pages and digital images, I carry my entire presentation, catalog, order forms, and support material on a jump drive that is half the size of a pack of gum. All I need to do is plug it into a customer’s computer and there is everything I need to support my sales presentation.

It used to cost a fortune to have a good looking piece of literature printed and you had to make thousands to make the price affordable. Today a $100 color laser printer can make a professional looking piece of literature customized for each and every customer you have.

A few weeks ago my daughter had a home inspection done on the townhome she was looking at. The young man came into the house and I was astonished, he didn’t have a pad and pen with him, he had a personal recorder and a digital camera. As we talked he told me he had voice recognition software and that he would have the complete report, including pictures to me in no more than 48 hours. What he sent to my daughter was amazing, 47 pages, pictures descriptions and he even added web site addresses where we could go to see what the average cost of the repair would be so we didn’t get ripped off by a repairman. I bought the house I live in 21 years ago and I had a home inspector come in then too, he gave me 5 hand written pages and it took him a week to get it to me.

Technology has given us the ability to make better presentations, we can do more today in less time and we can do it for less money as well. Visual aids can sometimes be more meaningful than the facts they represent. I know that sounds stupid, but it is the truth. A customer will usually remember the look and feel of the presentation longer than the information presented.

So what should you do if your company doesn’t provide you with visual aids? GET OFF YOUR LAZY REAR END AND MAKE SOME YOURSELF! Don’t wait until the company gives them to you, that may never happen. Sit down and think about what would help you make your point when delivering a presentation. Write it out in detail, and then make a rough sketch of what you would like for it to look like. Once you have the picture in your mind, get on your computer and start searching for the right graphics, look for the right pictures, hunt for the best backgrounds, and select the font that fits the story. Put all these together to make a literature piece and laminate it so you can mark it up and then wipe it off for the next customer. Your investment will be time, your return on investment, REAL DOLLARS!

Lorin