WHO TUBE

Today I was asked if I had any of my training sessions posted on You Tube. I didn’t know what to say, the truth is I don’t. I knew I didn’t but I guess in the back of my mind I also knew I should have.

After a few seconds I responded with no I don’t but I am planning to put some there very soon. As I said it I regretted it, HOW WEAK was that? I was embarrassed to offer such a lame answer.

If you think about it for a few seconds doesn’t it make perfect sense to have a clip or two posted where people can see what I do and my style? Many of you have been in my classes and you know how I work, but if you had never been in one of my classes you only have my written words to go by and nothing else.

I have made a promise to myself to have a sample posted by the middle of May. I think it will be a great asset to me.

Don’t stop reading, I know you are now thinking what does this have to do with sales training? Well it happens to have a great deal to do with it. You each have a service or product that you represent. You call on customers and make sales presentations all the time. I believe that for most of you if you get the time in front of the customer you will close the sale, YOU ARE THAT GOOD! The question is what are you going to do with all the potential customers you DON’T get in front of? HUMMMM any ideas?

OH wait!!! What if you had a You Tube video posted with the highlights of your presentation on it! What if a prospect could click on a link and see YOU talking to them about your service or product! WOW I like it!

This is the power that the internet and social media puts in your hands. It doesn’t take a lot of money, as a matter of fact you could do it for free if you have access to a video camera. It doesn’t take a professional studio, your den or living room would be a good place to present a service and depending on the type of product a room in your home or your front yard may be the ideal place for a demo!

What it takes is a little creativity and effort to make yourself a You Tube STAR! If you have several products or services make several videos, keep in mind it is FREE and all you invest is your time and mind power to create some interesting and compelling videos.

Don’t try and close in the video, as a matter of fact you should not give enough information to have the customer want to buy in most cases, but you should give enough information for the customer to want to hear more and make them call you to give a live demo or presentation.

I like being able to deliver my message in person, but I know that over the past few years I have used more and more webinars to get my message out to my audience. The limitations to my webinars are that I can only have a set amount of people watching at one time, I need to be there live to do the webinar, and the people watching need to be free at the same time I am doing the webinar to participate. A You Tube video is available 24/7/365 it can be viewed as often as someone wants to see it and I can be on a beach reading a book sipping an ice tea when people watch me. I LIKE THAT!

If there is one thing that I have always tried to teach it is to use all the tools available to you to succeed. The internet, social media and your creativity are a great partnership for your success!

Lorin

YOU DID WHAT WITH MY PAYMENT

About 6 months ago I added an additional line to my AT&T wireless phone account. When I did this AT&T gave me a new account number, why? I have no idea, but they did.

Last Saturday morning AT&T called me with a courtesy call to tell me my payment wasn’t received. I immediately went to my online banking and saw that the bill had been paid on the 13^th, 2 weeks prior to the call. To make sure that nothing showed up as late I paid the balance again and figured it would show up a few days later. IT DIDN’T.

I called tonight to check and found out that the first payment that was made on the 13^th was credited to the OLD account. So while my active account was showing past due the old inactive account had a nice credit balance on it. I wasn’t happy, but I just asked to have the credit from the old account moved to my new account so my next bill would be paid ahead. Now is when I got a little mad, no A LOT MAD. I was told that it couldn’t be done. They would need to send me a check and it would take 4 to 6 weeks.

I held my temper and asked for a supervisor, he told me the same thing. I asked for his supervisor and was told the same thing.

So here is what we have, I paid the same bill twice, one payment was on time but credited to the wrong account due to an AT&T mistake, my second payment was credited to the right account, instead of being able to move the credit from the old account to the new account they will need to send me a check in 4 to 6 weeks. Does this sound like good customer service to anyone reading this? It doesn’t to me either.

I am in a contract for another 18 months with AT&T so there isn’t a lot I can do, but each of you need to remember this episode and make sure that you and your company NEVER get to the point where you forget that the customer needs to come first.

If you find something like this happening in your company, bring it to someone’s attention. Do what you can to change the process. It is a simple fact, ease of doing business and customer service are two of the biggest value added features a company can offer in today’s market. Make sure the value of your company is raised not lowered by the way you treat your valued customers.

Lorin                                                                                             

MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH

I’m out of town tonight in a town I have never been to before. While I was checking into the hotel I asked about a good place to eat. As usually happens this question starts a debate between everyone within ear shot. The desk clerk asked what I was in the mood for, I told him that I usually like something that is unique to the area. He told me that there was a great seafood restaurant. I knew it was going to be good because everyone that was involved agreed to the choice.

Not having ever been in the area before I asked for directions. One of the locals gave me these exact directions. “Go out of the hotel and make a left. At the first light make another light and go over the bridge. Make the first right over the bridge and it will be down overlooking the water.”

OK so here I go, left out of the hotel, right at the first light, over the bridge, first right, NO WATER! I knew I went over water when I was on the bridge so I went a little further down the road to see if it was there. Finally I found the water, no restaurant. I drive a little further, no more water. I went against my gender and asked someone, I was told to back to where I first made the right after the bridge and it was right there, but NOT on the water. After a few more turns and backtracking I found the restaurant.

So now I was there, but I started thinking, if the directions I got were so flawed how is the food going to be? Maybe that information is as flawed. I sat in the car and thought for a few minutes. There were not a lot of cars in the parking lot, the cars that were there were nice cars, the building looked like a typical seaside seafood restaurant (made to look like a shack). I decided to give it a try. I went in and got seated (not a water view table) and the menu looked great. To make a long story short, the food was wonderful!

So like so many everyday things that happen to me I started thinking about how this would relate to sales. It was really quite easy.

I started thinking about the information we give to our customers. How accurate is it? How accurate are the directions we give our customers and how easy are they to follow? If the customer follows our directions will they get lost like I did? How many customers do we cause to sit and think about our products and services because of hard to understand or inaccurate information? How many sales do we lose because we gave bad directions or inaccurate information?

I made a decision to try the restaurant even with the bad directions, but I was only investing the price of a meal. If it was truly bad I could always grab a burger and go back to the hotel. A customer may be investing hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands with you and your product or service. Will the customer decide to go ahead anyway?

The directions and information you give can’t be as inaccurate as the directions and information I got. A customer looks at you as the expert like I did the person giving me directions. The difference is I will never see that person again, your customer will hopefully see you over and over again, or at the least know how to contact you. Bad information or directions will cause YOU as many headaches as your customer maybe more!

I am sure that if the person who gave me the directions had thought about it for another second, they would have corrected the mistakes and I would have found the place the first time past. You MUST think about what you say and make sure what you say is dead on, no mistakes, no errors. Close isn’t close enough, you need to hit the bulls eye every time.

Here is the sad part, just like my food, your service or product is most likely excellent and exactly what the customer needs and wants. Wouldn’t it be a shame if the customer had to accept second choice because of your inaccuracy? Wouldn’t it be a shame if you lose your commissions because you didn’t take the extra second to think about what you are saying and making sure it was correct?

If you are ever in Natchez, Mississippi go over the bridge that crosses the Mississippi River, make the first right and immediately on your left is a restaurant called The Sandbar. It is NOT on the water, there is NO sandbar, but the food is excellent!

Lorin

WE NEED TO START WORKING HARDER

Today I was talking to a Field Sales Manager I know and we were discussing his sales reps. He was not completely satisfied with their performance but wasn’t exactly unhappy either. He was telling me about each of his reps and what he thought of them. One by one he told me about how this one prospects, another one closes and another probes. He gave me a pretty good insight to each rep and what he felt their greatest strengths are and their greatest weakness. He ended the talk about his reps with a statement that I have come to absolutely hate. He said that with all their faults his reps all worked Smart!

These words were as bad as running your fingernails over a blackboard to me. I cringed and shut my eyes trying not to explode. My friend saw my reaction and asked me what was wrong. I said to him in as mocking a voice as I could, “Don’t tell me, your reps work smarter not harder, right?” He glared at me, I actually thought for a second he was going to take a swing at me. He snapped back, “That’s right, they DO work SMARTER not HARDER, what’s the problem with that?”

Anyone think they know what I said?

Well here is what I said, “The problem is if your reps aren’t performing to the levels you want them to and EXPECT them to then maybe they should dumb down and work harder!”

My take on this entire WORK SMART NOT HARD is that it doesn’t matter how smart you work without effort nothing happens! A rep needs to be smart in today’s sales field. Our competition is getting smarter so we need to at the very least keep pace. But along with working smart, we need to work hard. Here is where we can leave the competition behind. While the competition is focusing on smart, we can shift some of our focus too HARD and do more for the customer than anyone else is doing. SERVICE and VALUE are what makes sales. It takes hard work to out-service a competitor and your service will be viewed as VALUE!

The saying you have to work smarter not harder is a great saying, and I can remember when it actually was a true saying, but today it doesn’t hold water anymore. What it does is breed a sales force that is lazy, a sales force that tries to take short cuts, and a sales force that stops putting the customer first!

The great Vince Lombardi once made a speech about winning. The following is an excerpt from that speech;

"Every time a football player goes to play his trade he's got to play from the ground up — from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body.”

As my friend and I finished our “chat” I could tell he wasn’t real happy with me, but I could also tell he understood what I was saying. As a matter of fact, I think the reason he was upset with me is he knew I made a good point. He knew that he was one of the causes of his reps not being on top of their games. He knew that I just created a lot of work for him and that if he wanted to have his team on the top of the company sales lists, he needed to make some drastic changes.

If you have been focusing on working smarter not harder, maybe you need to take another look at your strategy and make some changes that will help you work a LOT harder AND a little smarter.

Lorin

TO SPEND OR NOT TO SPEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION

If you are anything like me you have been reading and listening to the so called authorities trying to decide if the recession is still going on, coming to an end, or is over. As near as I can tell we are in the middle of the recession coming to an end and will be until it is over. (In other words, I don’t think anyone really knows)

What I have figured out is that many customers seem to think that we are well on our way out of the recession. When I talk to customers most, not all, seem to be optimistic and say they are looking forward to a big year of growth.

With that being said, I can’t seem to find any link between customers spending now or waiting to spend. Even though they feel we are past the worst part of the economic storm, they refuse to spend.

Is this a case of,”If I tell myself things are getting better maybe they will?” or is it a case of, “If I tell you that things are getting better they will?” Either way, what is being said and what is being done don’t line up very well.

It is a matter of to spend or not to spend. Lot’s of customers think that spending money right now is a little premature. I am not talking about spending a lot of money, some customers will not spend ANY money thinking that if the recession doesn’t end they will need every penny to keep their doors open. Other customers have started to spend a little more in hopes of rebuilding and being prepared for the time when the recession is over and business starts to pick up again. And then others are spending at levels equal to and maybe even ahead of the levels they were spending before the recession to really shore up their business and be on the front side of the growth curve as the country comes out of financial hibernation.

I believe that we are on our way out of the recession, however with all the world disorder right now, it is going to be a much slower rebuild than we first thought. What does this mean to you and me as far as our sales careers? It means that we need to be bringing the GOOD news to our customers. We need to be the people that keep positive indicators and positive outlooks on the future. NO, don’t lie or make things up, but do your homework and constantly be looking for the good economic news that you can share with your customers. Be on the lookout for the stories of growth and success. Talk about your personal successes.

As reps we have all been told that customers want to have a sales rep that helps them make the decision to buy. The same applies here, to spend or not to spend! You can be the catalyst that sparks your customer to placing an order by being the person who tells them about the good economic news and let’s them know that the sky isn’t falling and the world isn’t coming to an end.

Be positive, think positive, talk positive, and act positive!

Lorin

8 SIMPLE TRUTHS

When the mail was delivered today I received an envelope from a company I had never heard of. I opened the envelop and found a book inside with a one page letter from the author. The letter said that I was getting this book to help the author promote it to the training world.

I get several books a year this way and some are good and some not so good. Whenever I get a book like this I always read the cover to see what it is about and if it sounds interesting enough to put in my “must read” pile. (I usually have 2 to 3 books in my must read pile at any given time). This book really didn’t grab me when I read the cover. I was going to put it on the shelf and if I got around to it I would read it. Then as I was putting it away I noticed a small note that was in the envelop the book came in. I almost missed it, it was the size of a business card. The note said, “Here are the eight simple truths the book talks about”.

1)      NO MATTER WHAT – accept responsibility and move forward

2)      AND THEN SOME – give more than is expected

3)      CONSIDER IT DONE – do what you say you will do

4)      ABOVE ALL ELSE – hold fast to your values

5)      FROM NOW ON – learn from mistakes and welcome change

6)      SEE IT, FEEL IT, TRUST IT, DO IT – set, envision, share and take action on your goals

7)      FOCUS INSIDE YOUR BOAT – invest your time in things you can control

8)      KNOWLEDGE IS POWER – read, listen, observe and learn

OK now the author had my attention. After reading these 8 truths I knew this book was not only going on my MUST READ pile, it was NEXT to be read!

I went onto the trusty internet to try and find out what I could about the author, David Cottrell. It seems he is the CEO of Cornerstone Leadership Institute and has authored over 20 books including a series of “MONDAY MORNING” books. The book I had received is titled Tuesday Morning Coaching, and is a follow-up to his Monday Morning series.

As I started to write this post the 8 truths he talks about were burning in my head. How simple yet awesomely strong are these 8 truths. There is nothing that is over our heads, and none are illegal, immoral, or fattening!

As I read and reread them, I realized that over the past 8 months that I have been blogging I have written posts on ALL of these. I realized that over the past 25 years I have talked about and trained reps on ALL of these, and in my life I believe in ALL of these.

I have not started reading the book yet because I am reading another book and won’t be finished with it until the weekend. However if you can get your hands on a copy, even without reading it I know it will be worth your while.

Tuesday Morning Coaching by David Cottrell the next best seller!

Lorin

THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

Today’s post unlike most of my posts was not witnessed by me, I didn’t actually hear the conversation either. As a matter of fact I was about 3000 miles away when it happened. I did however get this story told to me by the rep it happened to. Although you are getting the information second hand, I heard it right from the horses, well reps, mouth.

I received a call from a rep today who works in the Pacific Northwest. He called and was laughing so hard I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. I just sat in my car with my cell phone to my ear and watched the minutes float by while he laughed. Finally after what seemed like an hour or more, but I am sure it was only 2 to 3 minutes (which is a long time to laugh, try it if you don’t believe me) the rep finally caught his breath and told me what he found so funny.

The rep told me that he had just left one of his larger accounts and that he was thrown out and told (from the reps own words he was told in a very vulgar way with no room for misunderstandings) to never come back and if the rep could arrange it to stop using oxygen. (My words, the rep told me the customer told him to drop dead)

As you can imagine I was a little confused, on one hand the rep is laughing so hard I couldn’t understand him, on the other hand he just told me he lost a large customer. I think we all need to admit these two things don’t usually go together.

I didn’t say anything, I didn’t know what to say. The rep asked me if I heard him. I told him yes, but I didn’t see anything that was funny yet. He asked me to try and guess why the customer threw him out. I played along and went through all the usual reasons a customer throws a rep out and requests a death sentence for the rep. I started with asking if the rep sold him a product that ruined something. He said no. I asked if the billing was wrong, he said no. I asked if he shipped the product without the customers permission (I knew this wasn’t it, I know this rep) the rep said no. After about another guess or two I told him I gave up and asked why. The reps said FOOD! Once again I was stumped. I said, there has got to be more to the story, tell me what happened.

This was a mistake, the rep once again burst into uncontrollable laughter and there I was watching cell minutes flash by as he laughed. He then said, have you ever taken a customer out to lunch and had them get so mad about the food that they wanted you to die? I had to admit, this was a new one on me.

Here is the story, the rep took this customer out to lunch at a local restaurant. The customer told him that he had never eaten there before and was happy the rep chose this place. They sat at their table and waited for the waiter. The rep said that it took a long time for the waiter to get to them but the conversation he was having with the customer was going really well. The waiter finally came and took their drink orders. The rep tells me that NO ALCOHOL was ordered. Once again it took a long time for the waiter to bring the drinks to the table, but the rep told me the conversation he was having with the customer was still going good.

Finally the waiter came with the drinks and took the food order. According to the rep it took at least 30 minutes for the food to come out. The rep didn’t tell me, but I am guessing that the two of them have now been at this restaurant for about an hour and they just got their food. They ate their lunch and anticipating a long wait for the check the rep asked the waiter before they were done eating. As the rep suspected it took almost 15 minutes to get the check and another 10 to pay. All total they were out for lunch for almost 2 hours. The rep says that they were still talking and that it wasn’t an issue.

The two of them walked into the customer’s office and one of the employees was waiting for the customer in his office. It seems that in the two hours they were gone 6 people walked off the job and forced the line to shut down. The rep knew this was trouble and asked if there was anything he could do. A simple question that many of us would have asked trying to show we care and our willingness to help.

Here is where things went sideways! According to the rep the customer turned around and looked at him and said, haven’t you done enough taking me to that %#%*!@* restaurant! The rep was stunned. Before he could say anything the customer started blaming him for keeping him away for so long that this had a chance to happen. It was someplace in this moment of time the customer asked the rep to stop using oxygen.

The rep said that he just was amazed. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The customer brow beat him for another minute or two before the rep just walked out.

I asked the rep if he was OK. He said that he thought it was the funniest thing that ever happened to him. The entire meal was bad, service, price, and food, then to top it off he was told to drop dead and never come back by the customer.

He said it was the craziest thing he has ever seen and had to tell me about it. He asked if I had ever heard anything like this happening before, I told him that I had not. This seemed to thrill him even more, he said that he had stumped the master. I guess he did.

My next question to the rep was did you learn anything from what had happened. Now it was my turn to laugh. He said heck yeah he learned something. He said he learned never to try a new restaurant out with a customer.

I am still laughing from that reply!

Lorin

I LOVE BEETS

How is this title as an opening line for a sale? Imagine the look on your prospects face if you shook their hand, introduced yourself, and then looked them in the eye and said, “I LOVE BEETS”.

I can imagine one of two responses.

#1) The customer looking back at you and either telling you they also like beets or telling you how much they don’t like beets.

#2) The customer looks at you like you have two heads and thinks you’re nuts.

My gut feeling is most will fall under the #2 way of thinking.

What I have described isn’t at all exaggerated, I have been with reps that have used opening lines even more bazaar than “I LOVE BEETS”. I have heard lines that have left me speechless (and I don’t usually get speechless). I have heard a rep tell a customer that the picture of their wife on the desk was an awful shot and he hoped that the customer’s wife looked better in person. I once had a rep compliment a customer on build of the customer’s girl friend (who was standing right next to us as we were talking). I guess the best all time opening line was said to a customer in downtown Atlanta. The rep walked in and asked the customer who named the business. The customer told him his father named it over 50 years ago. The rep said, I kid you not, what a stupid name for a restaurant!

I have no idea what these reps were thinking at the time, or what possessed them to say things like this, but they were said. Now here is the amazing part, not one of these reps got shot, punched, kicked, or had the police called on them. As a matter of fact the rep who complimented the customer on his girlfriends build actually made the sale. However all these reps had me kicking them in the rear end when we were finished with the sales call.

The good news is that most reps don’t use stupid opening lines like this. Actually I have never seen a rep do it all the time. The bad news is most reps make mistakes like these every now and again. (Maybe not this bad, but most will come close)

How do you assure that you won’t make a mistake like this? Have your sales presentation down pat. Rehearse until you say the words without thought. When you get this good at it the words will sound natural and you will never tell a customer that you look great in a Speedo or their mullet haircut is outdated.

Lorin

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO

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How many races has this title line started? Millions? Billions? Who really knows, the fact is that when we hear this line we all know exactly what is going on and what to expect.

There are lines that have become such a part of our life and culture that there is no misunderstanding their meanings. Lights, Camera, Action! Let the Games Begin!, Halt or I’ll Shoot! (OK maybe we have just heard this one on TV…I HOPE), Gentlemen Start Your Engines. Each one of these lines immediately brings a picture into our minds of the event that is about to take place.

Do your customers form a picture in their minds when you say certain lines? They do if you have taught them what to expect. When I was in the sales field, I would say, “Let me show you what I mean” and my customers knew immediately that they were about to see a demonstration of the product I was showing. How? I trained them, just like you train a pet, my customers were trained to follow me to wherever I went to see the product work. If I said to a customer, “Fair enough” they knew I was closing the sale and that this was the time to say no if they had a question or concern, if not I was writing the order.

How do you train a customer to react in these ways? Actually it is simple, you need to use the same terminology every time you make a sales call. The first time the customer won’t know what to do when you say the phrase, you need to help them by giving them guidance. The next time they may or may not remember so a little gentle push in the right direction will help them recall what you expect. Usually by the third time they are fully trained and will know what to do on your “signal”.

This training is very useful. It can help you in a lot of situations when selling. I have seen reps unable to make the transition from the warm up where you are talking about all sorts of things and usually not business to starting the sales presentation. If you have a line that you use over and over your customer will know when you are starting to sell. I used the line, “I have some great things to show you today”. As soon as I said that line, my customers knew they were about to see products.

Some reps have trouble asking for the sale, as I said earlier, after I showed the customer the demo, answered what I thought were all their concerns and gave them my value statement and price, I would say Fair Enough? That was my close 9 out of 10 times.

There are books written that have hundreds of statements in them for each step of the sale. Read one of these books if you don’t already have your own lines. If you have a line that works, you need to start using it over and over again. I have had sales managers tell me that I sound like a broken record. Maybe I do, but I sound that way while I am breaking records! Sales records that is!

I am a sales trainer, you are a customer trainer. We both have to use methods that are time tried and proven. This method is one that has worked for years. I didn’t make this up, my sales trainers didn’t make this up, my trainers trainers didn’t make this up. …..

If you don’t think this method works ask any of your friends that have small children (or maybe you have the small children yourself) if there isn’t a noise that the child makes that tells you exactly what they want. Notice, I didn’t say word I said noise. Even before children start to speak, they use simple noises to train their parents what to do by making certain noises. If a 6 month old can do this, I THINK you can use the same ideas to help yourself succeed.

Lorin

I CAN’T BELIEVE IT HAPPENED

We all have our favorite sales story. Sometimes they are stories about others and sometimes they are stories about ourselves. Let me tell you about one that happened to me a few years ago.

I was out of town doing a training loop around the Mid West. I was staying in a hotel that had a breakfast buffet included with the room. I got up early to have my coffee and this hotel had fresh baked muffins. I usually don’t like muffins, but as I was scanning the trays I saw a chocolate chip bran muffin. I don’t know what it was about this, but it sounded good so I picked it up. I made my cup of coffee and got into my rental car for the drive to the training session, about 45 minutes away.

On this day I was wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants. I was driving and eating my muffin, which was as good tasting as I thought it would be. A crumb fell off the muffin but I was on the highway so I couldn’t pull over to brush it off, and as luck would have it, the crumb fell between my legs onto the seat.

Here lies the problem, was the crumb a piece of muffin or a chocolate chip? I had no idea and couldn’t stop. I got to the training session, dropped my computer case and ran to the bathroom. I locked myself into a stall and quickly took my pants off. I was really afraid to look, I slowly turned the pants around so I could see the area where the crumb landed. IT WASN’T MUFFIN!

I got some paper towels and hand soap to try and clean the chocolate off my pants, after about 2 minutes I had made a 1 inch spot into a 6 inch stain. My clothes were back in the hotel, a round trip of about 90 minutes. The training was supposed to start in 30 minutes. What was I going to do?

I got dressed and left my shirt tails hanging out to “cover” my situation. I walked out of the bathroom and asked if there was a Walmart close to where I was. I caught a break, there was a Walmart about a mile from there. I jumped back into the car and headed there (first remembering to clean the seat so as not to make any bigger a mess. I found a pair of pants, but like every pair of pants I buy, they were about 10 inches too long. No big deal, I got back to the training site and found a stapler, rolled the pants up, and in about 5 minutes and 10 staples later had pants that fit.

The rest of the training session went great. On my way out one of the managers that had sat through the class came up to me and said, “Great training, but next time you should take the tags off your pants before you wear them”

When I got back to the hotel I took the pants off and looked. I still had the price tag, manufactures tag, and size tags on the pants.

The reason I am telling you this story is because I got an e mail today from a rep that was in that class. In his e mail he said he had something to tell me that he never told me before. He proceeded to tell me how at every break my tags were the topic of conversation.

All I can say is, DOO DOO HAPPENS! or so it seems!

Lorin

WHERE DID ALL THE BLOCKBUSTERS GO

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I can remember driving around town a few years ago and it seemed that there were 2 businesses popping up on every corner, Starbucks and Blockbuster Video. As I was driving today I made another observation, there is still a Starbucks on every corner but just about every Blockbuster Video is either closed or closing.

These two companies had very different beginnings. Blockbuster was one of the many video rental companies that all started at the same time and were competition for the public’s dollars. Starbucks on the other hand was the frontrunner in the gourmet coffee business. Blockbuster had to compete on inventory, pricing, and rental policy while Starbucks set the industry standard.

How is it that a onetime industry leader like Blockbuster is forced into closing so many stores? SIMPLE, the brick and mortar store is a thing of the past in the video business. Netflix, ONDEMAND, Cable, Red box, Blockbuster Express are all places videos can be rented for the same or less money than Blockbuster stores and costs. Convenience is another factor to take into consideration. Some of these companies allow you to rent through your cable box or computer, some deliver by mail and some have outlets in a lot of locations that you find yourself in all the time.

Keeping up with the times, and adjusting your business model to meet your customers needs and wants is paramount to success in today’s business climate.

What have you done to adjust the way you do business to meet your customers needs? If you believe that “leaving well enough alone” is the right way to do business, then don’t be surprised to see your customers “leave you alone” and take their business elsewhere.

Oh where, Oh where has Blockbuster gone, Oh where, Oh where can it be… sing along with me…

Lorin

STUMP THE EXPERTS

In your sales circles, who do you trust to give you information?

This was a question that was asked of a group of us at a sales conference I attended a few weeks ago. The group consisted of 20 people, 10 sales reps, 5 sales managers, 4 VP’s of sales, and 1 sales trainer (I wonder who that was). The conference was conducted by a national sales magazine and the results of the discussion will be published sometime this year. I would like to tell you the name of the magazine but was told not to. (Sorry, they would revoke my membership badge and make me forget the secrete handshake)

It was rather funny to see how the answers broke along the same lines as the positions, it reminded me a lot of our congress...LOL... the sales people said trust experienced sales people, the managers said trust your sales manager, the VP’s said trust the company, and I said.. I will tell you what I said later.

To me this was very amusing, especially when you saw the looks on the moderator’s faces. I am not sure what they expected but I can tell you for sure it wasn’t this. It was easy for me to see the experts were stumped.

As the room got louder and louder with each person in each group trying to exert their own rationale onto the other groups I watched as one moderator after another left the room and came back into the room. They were obviously going to talk to “the people behind the glass” that were watching and listening.

Then one of the discussion leaders pounded on the table and restored order and silence to the room. The discussion leader then asked each of us to think of one reason we said what we did and one reason we think each of the other groups said what they did. I knew this could get ugly...LOL... But I was proud of myself and everyone else, it didn’t get ugly, as a matter of fact for the first time in the day we were all having a single discussion and seemed to be very open to one another’s thoughts.

It took about an hour for us to finish this exercise. When we were done the leader of the conference came into the room, looked at us, and said, “WOW”.

That one word said it all. He went on to tell us that what he and the other people conducting the conference just saw was absolutely unexpected. He was very candid and said they all thought that the sales managers would be the group that everyone thought they could trust for information. They said that in the observation room were what he called SALES EXPERTS and they were all stumped at the responses of our group. He then continued to tell us that one reason they were all so stumped is not only because it went against what they thought, but it was the exact same answer they got from the group before us!

He then looked at me and asked why I hadn’t expressed my opinion (remember I told you I would let you know what I said, I said NOTHING) I told them that it would depend on the person asking, the person being asked and the advice being sought. He asked me to explain my statement. I told him that each group had their own skill set and knowledge. If the information wasn’t in the area the person knew then how could they be expected to give information that was reliable?

The leader kept trying to pin me down on the “what and when” of each group and their knowledge. I just said that we all can’t be everything to everyone. I am not sure if this was what they wanted to hear but it is what they got from me.

The bottom line on the whole day, even the experts don’t always agree. One person’s opinion is just that, ONE person’s opinion. Don’t try and make one size fit all.

Seek who you feel is qualified to give you information. Don’t settle for just any answer that comes your way. You don’t ask a doctor to fix your car do you? Allow people to use their expertise to help you in their own areas of knowledge. You need to trust someone, make it an expert!

Lorin

SEEING RED CARS

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Once again, daily life has supplied me with my idea for today’s posting.

My wife, daughter Alyson and I went out to an early dinner tonight at IHOP (senior discounts from 3 to 6) and while we were eating a gentleman came into the restaurant alone and sat in a booth nearby. I didn’t think much of it until I saw him pull a book out of his computer case and he started reading.

I looked over at him and the way he was holding the book I could read the title very clearly, “SEEING RED CARS”. I said to my wife and daughter that without ever hearing of the book I knew it was a motivational book.

I got up and walked over to the man and asked him, he looked a little puzzled at first when I said, “Is that a good motivational book? The title caught my attention.” He asked me how I knew it was a motivational book? I told him it was easy, a great title, awesome color, and it could be read in a day.

I told him I had seen my share and that I had not heard of that one. He asked what I did and I told him I was a sales trainer, with that he shook his head and understood how I knew. He told me his manager just handed every sales rep a copy of the book and told them to read it by Friday’s sales meeting.

He had just started it when he sat down so he couldn’t even give me a hint about what it was about or how good it was. Here I go, deep diving to my favorite book site, good old Amazon.com. It took about 20 seconds to pull it up and there it was that bright red cover I just saw at the IHOP.

After about 5 minutes of reading some of the pages and about the author, I got back in the car and over to Barnes and Nobles and I am now the proud owner of SEEING RED CARS by Laura Goodrich.

There you have it, need I say more? GO GET THE BOOK AND START READING! Let me do one better, GO GET ANY BOOK AND START READING! (I know some of you too well, make sure the book is of the motivational kind, and by that I mean BUSINESS motivation! Gezzz, sometimes I wonder about my friends and followers!! J)

A friend of mine who passed away about 2 years ago, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, had a famous quote that he was known for; “You are the same today you’ll be five years from now except for two things: The people you meet and the books you read”.

If you are not ALWAYS reading a book, you are not growing. If you are not ALWAYS reading a book, you are not learning. If you are ALWAYS not reading a book, you will be the same person you are today 5 years from now except you will have more people asking, whatever happened to that person?

BTW, the new CINN-A-STACK Pancakes are AWESOME!

Lorin

IT’S GREAT TO BE ME

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I wish each of you could be Lorin for one day, just to see how wonderful it is.

I would want you to understand the great relationship I have with Jackie, my wife of over 35 years. I can remember everyone telling us that “THE FIRST YEAR IS THE HARDEST” and I can also remember Jackie and I looking at each other on our first anniversary and wondering why they said it.

If you could just feel the love I have for my daughters Alyson and Erin and know for one second how proud I am of them both. My two daughters are so much alike, and yet different in so many ways. They brighten my life with their smiles, and sometimes darken my door with their attitudes. But they are always there when Jackie or I need them, and always do the right thing.

Each of you should know what it is like to have a home. NOT JUST A HOUSE, or a place to live, but a real home. A place where you are safe, a place where you can go no matter what has happened and know that only good things are there waiting for you.

IT IS GREAT BEING ME! But you are not Lorin (I know some of you that know me well just gave a big sigh of relief) you are you. Is your life a happy one?

I don’t want this to turn into a sermon, I do however want you to think about the life you have made for yourself. Does this life help you to succeed? Is your house a home where you get the encouragement and support you need to survive in the sales field?

When I started out in sales I didn’t know how fortunate I was to have a wife that would push me every day. She would never allow me to fail. She would always find the words that motivated me and got me up when I was down and got me going when all I wanted to do was STOP!

We all know how negative a day in the sales field can be. Not all days thank goodness, but some are worse than others. If we have a negative day in the field, and come home to a negative environment that would be a lot for anyone to stand up to on a long term basis.

Get your family involved in your business life as much as they hopefully are in your personal life.

I have talked to husbands and wives of sales reps that had no idea what their spouse did every day. The spouse knew very little about the company, product, customers, or details of the reps job. It was frightening to me to see a couple that had so little knowledge of what one another did for a living.

I suggest you start by sitting down with your entire family and have a good talk about what it is you do. Explain to them “A Day In The Life Of” and what you see and hear from your customers. Depending on your company, maybe taking each family member out in the field with you for a day (make sure they are old enough, don’t be a baby sitter for your 3 year old) Let them see firsthand what you do and how you do it.

Next, tell them what you need from them to be successful. You may want them to be exactly as they are now and know nothing about your business, maybe you want them to know your daily quota and don’t let you back in the house until you hit it! TALK, LET THEM KNOW what you need.

Tell them what it will mean to them if they help you to hit your goals and succeed. Maybe that vacation you have wanted to take, maybe just paying all the bills so the collectors stop calling, or anything in between. If you can get your entire family behind you, there is very little chance you will not be a success!

IT IS GREAT TO BE ME! MAKE IT AS GREAT TO BE YOU!

Lorin

EVER BEEN KICKED BY AN ELEPHANT

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Let me ask you a few questions.  Is it possible to have too many big customers? Can a customer get too big?

NO and YES would be my answers, how about you?

I don’t think you can have too many big customers, the reason is that if all your customers are big, you will have the biggest, medium, and smallest of the big! In this case it would be like finding the shortest giant. If all your customers are big you are writing great business and I hope making good commissions or salary.

If this describes your customer base you really only have one thing that can be a problem, if all your customers are big are you forced to give them pricing so low that it is hurting you? If not than you should keep doing what you are doing and continue to build your customer base on big accounts.

I DO think a customer can get too big. I have a friend who is a rep and she has one customer that is over 50% of her total business. 50% think of that! The obvious question is what is going to happen when you lose the customer? You can’t just run out and replace 50% of your business overnight. In this reps case this one customer doesn’t only hold her success or failure in their hands, the customer basically hold her entire future in their hands. I have never seen a rep that has lost 50% of their business and doesn’t leave that job and seek another.

For arguments sake, let’s say that this rep doesn’t lose this account anytime soon. (And I hope she doesn’t ever lose it) The next question is can she affectively manage this account? Will she be able to grow this account? Can she maintain her profits? What leverage does she have if they start paying their invoices slow?

All of the positive things about big accounts can start to work against you when the account becomes too big. You can lose the leverage you have with smaller accounts. The big accounts usually have departments that pay the bills and these departments very rarely interface with reps if ever. The buyer sometimes doesn’t know who is in the accounts payable department because the buyer is in a different city, state, or sometimes country. What I am talking about is “control”. Who is controlling who?

Ask yourself, how hard would I push a customer that was 50% or more of my business? I bet the answer is not very hard. When one customer gets to be this important to your survival you have lost the objectivity and ability to make good business decisions concerning this customer.

So what should you do if a customer starts to grow so fast that you know it will soon be in this position? Should you tell them you can’t sell them more? Should you tell them that you are going to need to give half the business to another rep so they don’t have control over you? Should you tell them that the company doesn’t want their business any longer and walk away from them? HECK NO! Don’t get stupid on me! If you have been following my blog from the first day or if this is first day reading my blog, think like a sales rep and what should you do?

OPEN MORE ACCOUNTS, work to help keep this one customer from becoming that large a percent of your business. In other words, work harder, work smarter, just work! You may not keep the customer from growing (I hope you don’t at least) but you can keep it manageable within your customer base.

You don’t want to get kicked by an elephant. The best way I know to avoid this is to make sure your elephants never get a chance to kick you!

Before I end today please join me in extending our prayers and wishes to all the victims of the earthquake and tsunami’s. If any of my readers were directly affected or have friends or family directly affected we pray that everything turns out well. My family and I wish you all our best during this time of great tragedy.

Lorin

A NEW DEFINITION TO INTERNET SALES

When most people hear the term “Internet Sales” they think of products and services that are sold over the internet and purchased over the internet. When I hear the term it means something different. To me Internet Sales are sales that I make in person using the internet to find leads and information.

We can all agree that the internet is awesome. There isn’t much you can’t find on the internet in a few seconds of searching. If you want a recipe for black eyed peas or if you want to learn how to build a tree house, it is all there for you to find on the internet.

Other information on the internet may be a little more useful to you (However a good black eyed pea recipe is almost priceless) what businesses in your territory are growing, shrinking, going out of business or just opening up. By doing some very simple searches you can narrow down prospects and customers by streets, zip codes, towns, counties however you want them listed.

Open up Google and type in auto repair Main Street and then add your home town name. My search would be auto repair Main Street Norcross Georgia. This search gave me over 95,000 results in .18 seconds. OK, let’s see if I call on 10 of these a day I will have about 9500 days worth of calls lined up. There are 365 days a year so I will be busy for the next 26 years (with no days off and no sick days) are you starting to see my point?

I have talked about information being power and power is money, this kind of information, just like the black eyed pea recipe, is PRICELESS.

The internet is more than just a place to buy stuff, it is more than just a place to meet people, and it is a lot more than just a place to read jokes. The internet is a place to find hidden money. It is a place to build your list of potential customers. It is a place to help you gather the information you need to become more successful faster than you ever thought you could.

DON’T pay for this information. There are hundreds of sites that charge you for leads and the kind of information I am talking about. Don’t spend your hard earned money on them. Go to your local library, most of the best data bases are available free of charge from the library.

You local labor department has data bases you can use for free. The Chamber of Commerce in your area has this information. Before you spend a nickel for information, look around and see what is available for free.

Other great places to look are local trade schools, community colleges, business association offices and your local news papers. Many churches and temples have job boards, if a company is hiring it is usually a good sign that they are in a growth mode.

A little imagination and some time investments can give you all the information you will need to not only survive the hard times, but grow exponentially in the hardest of times!

Lorin

P.S. I get several e mails and messages a day about the Training Buffet, Help Yourself, and yet very few of you have signed up to follow the blog. Please take a second and sign up to follow me. Click on the “FOLLOW” button just to the right of the title of today’s post to sign up.

Thanks

DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY

Last evening I was speaking at an International Toastmasters competition. It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. I won the competition for my area and will now advance to the next competition.

The topic of my speech was, “THE POWER OF THE MIND”. As I was putting my thoughts together for the speech I knew I wanted to make a post to give all of you the same information.

The title of this post is, DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY”, I don’t know how many of you know where this line comes from but it was said by Yoda to Luke in the movie Star Wars.

I based my speech around this quote because it captures the intensity of the power of the mind. The mind is a powerful tool, and every great event and invention started with an idea in someone’s mind.

I bet you didn’t know that on May 6, 1954 the human race went through an evolutionary jump. On that day humans became stronger, bigger, and faster. How do I know this, simple, on May 6, 1954 Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier. Over the next month his record was broken and he regained the record. No one in history has ever run a 4 minute mile before and in one month it was done at least 3 times. That is why I am sure that humans took an evolutionary jump that month!

I can prove it, before Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier doctors said that it couldn’t be done. They said that the heart would literally explode in the chest because it couldn’t beat fast enough to supply the amount of blood that would be needed by the muscles. The doctors said that our lungs would collapse because the oxygen needed would have humans breathing so hard the lungs couldn’t keep up. Doctors said that running a 4 minute mile would kill anyone who tried it.

Someone forgot to tell Roger! He had run miles in 4 minutes and 3 seconds and he didn’t believe that cutting 3 seconds off his time would kill him. He was quoted as saying that he just felt too good to die over 3 seconds!

So here is the question, did the human race really get bigger, faster, and stronger on May 6, 1954? NO! What happened is the real barrier that was broken was the mental barrier not the 4 minute barrier.

The mind doesn’t work on a rheostat, it works on a switch. For mental barriers to be broken there has got to be 100% belief and commitment. Just like Yoda told Luke, DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY! 100% or nothing. If you leave even the smallest seed of doubt it will grow to a vine that is as strong as a steel cable and keep you from succeeding.

There is another saying that I shared with the judges and Toastmasters last night, “What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve”. What the mind believes the body achieves.

Believe in yourself, believe in what you do, believe in what you CAN do and you will achieve the success you deserve.

Lorin

ASKING THE RIGHT SALES QUESTIONS, THE WRONG WAY

Knowing what to say and when to say it isn’t enough when it comes to selling. The real home run hitters have a very fluid tone to their conversations that put prospects at ease. Their prospects can “feel” the sincerity in their voice and in return, feel safe to open up and share the vital information needed for sales professionals to qualify / set up and close the sale.

Asking the right questions but getting little results? Let’s assume for a moment that we are asking the appropriate questions at the correct times within the sales process… even if the right questions are asked, if they are said in the “wrong way” the prospect only feels one thing, “DANGER”. When that signal gets raised, you can almost certainly forget about closing the sale. You’ll no longer be viewed as a value added resource. Instead, you’ll be back in the “pesky” sales person column with the rest of the pack.

Here’s a simple way you can avoid having this self-inflicted derailment from happening to you: It’s called ROLE-PLAYING! Maybe you’ve heard of it? It seems to be a lost practice these days.

Role-playing is especially helpful when you are learning new sales techniques. By practicing what to say, when to say it and how to say it, you shorten the learning curve of the new sales techniques you learn and you’ll experience greater success faster (i.e. Close more sales / write more business / make quota… you know, that sort of thing) with your new sales techniques than if you simply “try them out” on live prospects.

A simple 20-minute role-playing session each morning will pay high dividends in short order. Just make sure your practicing the right techniques. Practice doesn’t make perfect, PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!

Put yourself in front of a mirror and start selling. Look at yourself that is what the customer is seeing. Listen to yourself that is what the customer is hearing. If you can concentrate while you talk, video yourself. Play back the video and make notes on what you see good and what you want to change. If you will do this several times a week you will see your sales improve immediately.

Ask for help from someone who can help you. So many people role-play for their family or friends and they don’t get the feedback they need. Role-Play with someone who knows sales and can be honest with you. This isn’t a time to be “nice” and practice PC. You need thick skin, but in the long run (actually not so long run) you will be the winner.

Lorin

FRIENDS DO

The following dialog comes from the Rocky series;

Rocky Balboa: “Nobody owes nobody nothin’. You owe yourself.”

Paulie: “You’re wrong! Friends owe!”

Rocky Balboa: “Friends don’t owe! They do because they wanna do.”

In all of his bone crushing wisdom, Rocky really hits this one out of the park.

So many people think because they have friends, the friends are obligated to be their best customers! I hate to break your bubbles but more times than not, your friends will NOT buy anything at all! They would love to, they want to help you succeed, they want you do well, but they usually don’t have the last word in the decision making process.

Don’t hold it against them, as a matter of fact in many cases save yourself and them the embarrassment by not even asking them to buy. Instead, ask them for their help finding other prospects. Many times these friends can give you names and point you in the right direction to find good customers.

Remember what Rocky said, “Friends don’t owe, friends do because they wanna do”. Your friends “wanna do”, you need to make it as easy as you can for them “TO DO!”

THEY DON’T OWE YOU, friendship isn’t built on a payback basis. You don’t do things for friends because you expect to get paid back. You do things for friends because you want to. No one is keeping score, no one is going to hold court and decide if everything is FAIR.

If we all have the same expectations of one another than no one will feel they didn’t get what’s coming to them. If by some chance a friend has expectations that are greater than you think they should be, you need address it and make sure that you both reach an agreement.

I have seen some long time friendships come to an end because of the expectations that because they are my friend I can depend on them to buy from me. In class after class a new rep would tell me about their best friend who they are going to call on first thing and make a huge sale. A week later I would get the phone call and hear a deflated rep telling me about how their friend let them down.

Friends are hard to come by. REAL friends are rare. We all have many people that we call friends, but if push came to shove, how many of these so called friends would be there for you in times of trouble? Experience tells me NOT MANY! Does that mean you should cross these people off your Christmas Card list? Heck no, it means that you need to re-evaluate your relationship and get a better hold on who you can and can’t count on. I have a lot of people that I love and enjoy being with, but I know that NONE of them will be the ones to come to me aid if I were in trouble. If you were to sit down and make the same sort of list I am certain you would come to the same conclusions.

I don’t want this to sound like a negative post. It isn’t, it is a post that needs to be read and a post that needs to be understood by new reps and experienced reps alike. The old saying don’t mix business with pleasure is true. As reps mature in the profession they start to develop two sets of friends, their personal friends and their business friends. Occasionally a crossover happens and a business friend becomes a personal friend and vice versa.

I have a few personal friends that started as business friends. I have never crossed the line in either direction. I don’t ask nor do I expect anything special from them. I simply enjoy their friendship and they do the same.

This is a balancing act that you will need to develop the skills for. When you do, you will find that:

Friends are priceless. Don’t put a price on them.

Friends are hard to find, but easy to lose

Friends are friends because they want to be friends

FRIENDS DON’T OWE! THEY DO BECAUSE THEY WANNA DO.

Lorin

YOU BET YOUR LIFE

One of the first television shows I can remember is a game show called YOU BET YOUR LIFE which starred the Great Groucho Marx as the host. Every day the show had a secrete word. If the contestants happen to say the word during their time on the show they would win $100.00. (which was a lot of money back then) As each pair of contestants came out Groucho would say to them, “Say the secrete word and win a hundred dollars”. If the word was said a bell rang and a bird would fall from the ceiling with the word written on a sign.

I see reps playing this same game all the time trying to win. The reps try and say the secrete word that will make a customer say yes and buy something. The problem is there is no Groucho or bird to tell them when they have said the word like there was on the show. Reps just keep talking until they run out of words or run out of time.

Here is the problem as I see it, THERE IS NO SECRETE WORD! No one word will make or break a sale. A sale is made when all the customers concerns have been addressed and all their questions answered. No one word will do all of that.

The best way to get a customer to say yes is to ask questions to uncover their concerns, listen to their questions and then systematically give the customer all the information they need to be comfortable with making a purchase.

This is not the time for a guessing game. It isn’t a time to take shots in the dark. It isn’t the time for random conversation in hopes of hitting a nerve. It IS a time for you to make a plan and work the plan. Have a selling process that you use. Work your system to keep yourself on track and help guide the customer through the selling maze.

If you will stop looking for the secrete word and start looking for solutions to your customers problems, you won’t need to BET YOUR LIFE, you will be able to LIVE YOUR LIFE!

Lorin