DANCE LIKE NO ONE IS WATCHING

There is an old poem that I am sure many of you have heard or read, it goes like this;

Dance like no one is watching

Love like you'll never be hurt

Sing like no one is listening

And live like it's heaven on earth

This is a fun saying that has been around for many years. As usual, I have a new line to add that is for Sales Reps;

SELL LIKE YOU DON’T NEED THE MONEY!

That’s right, sell like you don’t need the money. Sell without desperation, Sell without fear, Sell without worries, JUST SELL.

When I am in the field with sales reps working, I can almost tell you their financial situation by the tone of their voice, I can tell you how happy they are by the look in their eyes, and I can tell you if their manager has had the “MAKE YOUR NUMBERS OR ELSE” talk by the way they react to a prospect saying no.

Back in September I was at my companies National Sales Meeting. At the meeting we had a speaker from the Jeffrey Gitomer group come in and address the sales force. He had one of the best lines I have ever heard, he said that some reps are so desperate that they have “COMMISSION BREATH” and the customers can smell it a mile away!

Customers want to do business with sales reps that are sure of themselves. They want their sales reps to have confidence. They want their sales rep to be honest and relaxed. None of these can happen if you have COMMISSION BREATH!

I know many very wealthy sales reps; these are reps that truly don’t need the money. Yet each of them wants to make sales. They NEED to make sales, not for their managers but for themselves. These reps make the sales more often than not simply because they sell like they don’t need the money. They have an “I don’t care” attitude about them. If the customer buys that’s GREAT, if not they say Oh Well and move on to the next customer.

It is that I DON”T CARE attitude that helps the rep because the customer doesn’t see any weakness in them. The customer doesn’t see any desperation and the customer doesn’t feel any pressure.

Sales if the most fun career I can think of. I went into sales for all the freedom, and stayed for all the rewards. I enjoy all the things that selling and Training have afforded me and my family. You need to adopt the same mindset of thanks rather than resent. You need to learn to enjoy selling rather than dreading it.

So it doesn’t matter how you dance, love, sing, or live, as long as you SELL LIKE YOU DON”T NEED THE MONEY!

Lorin

20/20 SHAME ON YOU

I am writing this post later than I usually do because I had heard that the TV show 20/20 was going to have a “SALESMAN” interview.

Well I am mad, first off they didn’t have a salesman on, they had a retail clerk on. Before any of you start throwing stones at me for differentiating between a salesman and a retail clerk you need to understand what I am talking about.  Mt background, training and training methods are built around a sales rep that either goes out to call on customers or calls customers on the phone. Either way the sales rep is initiating the sale. A retail clerk stays in a store and waits for the customer to come to them. To me one of the hardest things for a sales rep to do is to build interest in their product or service. A retail clerk already knows there is interest, that’s why the customer came into their store in the first place.

OK, I hope that you can now understand my definitions and why I make the distinction.

The clerk that was on 20/20 started about all the underhanded “tricks” he used to MAKE people buy. He was an unscrupulous dirt ball who either played on emotions or out and out lied to customers to get them to buy.

The show also had a car salesman on who talked about tricks he used to get people to sign on the dotted line.

There is no nice way to say it, both of these so called sales people were dishonest crooks and it is people like them that give the average person the negative image they have about sales people.

I want to also say shame on a show like 20/20 for only telling the story of the dirt bags in the industry. They never even made the statement that these were only 2 people and that the majority of sales people were not this dishonest.

I AM MAD!

I am PROUD of my profession and I want everyone to know what I do for a living. When I say I train sales people I don’t want people to think I am the king of dishonesty and teaching sales people how to do all these dirty tricks.

I am today as I have always been a believer in good honest sales technique. I am committed to teaching sales reps the right way to approach a sale. Win or lose a rep that I teach knows that they did the best they could and have nothing to be ashamed of.

I was talking to a friend of mine this morning and I said to him that he needed to feel good about himself. I told him that only 1% of the people of the world could ever be sales reps, and that only 1% of those that are sales reps are good at it and successful. I guess after watching 20/20 this evening I need to add that the 1% that are sales reps less than 1% can be good at it, successful and HONEST!

Lorin

LUCK (CONTINUED)

I am happy to say that I have gotten more feedback on yesterday’s post than any other post to date. I am sad to say that most of the feedback has been disagreeing with me about the part LUCK plays in making sales.

I didn’t upload the post until late yesterday evening, but that didn’t stop a friend of mine from calling me after 11PM to “give me a piece of his mind” (actually he should keep that piece, he needs all he can get…You know who you are!) I started getting e mails about the same time and because not everyone lives in the Eastern Time Zone my computer was “BINGING” all night.

After reading almost 3 dozen emails the #1 point that people wanted to make was they believe LUCK plays a part in sales. Some even took it to the point of LUCK playing a part in EVERY sale. The #2 point was they couldn’t believe I didn’t believe that LUCK was involved and many accused me of not believing in LUCK.

So to all my readers and friends that took their time to contact me let me take a few moments to answer your questions and address your concerns.

I said it yesterday and I will say it again now, YOU MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK! You work hard and make calls, you put yourself in situations that allow you to close sales, this doesn’t make you LUCKY it makes you a hard worker!

To those of you who say I don’t believe in LUCK, I most certainly do! I love going to the Dog Track, the Horse Track and playing the lottery. All of these take LUCK to win, NO SKILL AT ALL! I will tell you that I am not very LUCKY but I do believe in LUCK.

I am not trying to be funny about this (although I am very funny about this) but I know that if the reps that say they are LUCKY didn’t get up in the morning, go into the field or get on the telephone and make calls their LUCK would immediately run out. If you don’t believe me just stop and see what happens. JUST KIDDING! Don’t stop, just imagine what would happen!

However I will make a concession to all of you that disagree with me. If you want to call yourself LUCKY rather than competent go right ahead. After all, everyone including myself will know the truth. (Can’t you almost see my big grin? LOL)

Lorin

Instead of calling or emailing me about this, leave a comment here so we can all read them.

LUCK

What is it about sales reps that make them give luck the credit for their hard work?

We have all heard a rep that just closed a sale tell everyone how LUCKY they were. We have all heard reps that have had their best sales period tell everyone how LUCKY they were. We have all heard reps that have had their best year tell everyone how LUCKY they were. And we have all heard sales reps that win awards for top rep of the year get up on stage and give luck credit for all the reps hard work.

Well I am here to set the record straight! There is no luck! There is hard work! There is a plan! There is strategy! There is effort! There is time! But there is NO LUCK!

Many of you have listened to me give my definition of when a rep can blame luck on making a sales, if not here it goes.

If you are driving on an expressway at 60 MPH and your right front tire blows out and your car goes into a spin, you spin in front of a another car that slams on its brakes and causes the 18 wheeler behind them to go into a jack knife, to avoid the 18 wheeler the tour bus behind it swerves off the road and passes by everyone including you, when it comes to a stop 100 yards in front of your car a guy gets off the bus walks back to your car and says, “Hey, I don’t know what it is you sell but place an order for the largest quantity you carry and here is my BLACK AMERICAN EXPRESS card with an unlimited credit line to pay for it with!

If this ever happens to you, even I will agree that it was pure luck that made the sale. However, if you go into the field every day, make calls and do demos, talk to people and answer questions every day and make a sale it isn’t luck! It was hard work and your plan coming together.

If you still insist on giving the credit to luck I want you to think of this. Have you ever noticed that the reps that work the hardest, work the longest, and work the best plans have more luck than those who don’t work as hard, work as long or work a good a plan?

Yes, what I am saying is we make or own luck every day. We make a decision to be lucky by deciding to do what we are supposed to do, SELL!

I know the old saying, “I would rather be lucky than good” and I say bologna! (Oscar Mayer spelling). The facts show the GOODER (my own word) you are the LUCKIER you get!

As a sales rep and a sales trainer, I know that I need success as much as I need air to survive. My success is just that MY SUCCESS not luck. I truly believe that if each of you talks a long hard look inside yourself you will find the same thing hold true for you as well.

L = LABORING

U = UNDER

C = CORRECT

K = KNOWLEDGE

Lorin

WORDS FROM SALESBUZZ

One of the many newsletters I subscribe to is called SalesBuzz and is written by Michael Pedone. Today I received my latest copy of SalesBuzz and I want to pass along Michael’s message to you. This is worth a read if you are in your first week of sales or you have been selling for a lifetime.

THE DOWN SIDE OF BEING TOP DOG (& Why We All Need Mentors & Role Models)

There aren’t many businessmen (or women) in the world that would cause me to feel a “nervous energy” when being around them. In fact, there are only three that I can think of:

1.            Donald Trump (Love em or Hate em, the guy is on top)

2.            Jeff Vinik (The Owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning) And...

3.            One of my previous bosses (who for his privacy, I will keep confidential)

I have yet to of have the pleasure of meeting Donald Trump (But I do watch Celebrity Apprentice like a hawk simply to learn how he makes business decisions – and to learn from other peoples fatal business mistakes) Nor have I met Jeff Vinik yet but respect what both have accomplished in their lifetime as well as all the good they do for others and their families.

While at a wedding this past weekend, my wife and I were seated at the same table as #3 on the list above.

I expected #3 to be at the wedding but certainly did not expect to be seated at the same table together. I was both honored and slightly horrified at the same time. Success isn’t all about money – but when someone can live the lifestyle of their dreams because of the success they have from their business making decisions, I want to learn everything I can from them.

Self-Awareness

Recognizing this “nervous energy” made me realize that I haven’t felt this way in a long time. That’s because when I stopped working for #3 it was to start my first company… and I quickly became top dog. Others in my company looked up to me in some of the same ways as I looked up to those I mentioned earlier (albeit a much smaller scale)

After being fortunate enough to have sold my first business, I did some consulting / sales help for another company while getting SalesBuzz created. Again, I was top dog in my own circle.

There’s a certain sense of responsibility you get when others are looking up to you for advice but what this weekend reminded me was that when we have no one to look up to ourselves, we tend to vacation in our own (success) comfort zone longer than we should. We can easily go into a “cruise-control” mode - but what often gets us to our peak performance is “stepping on the gas” mode.

Rising to that next level only stops when we stop reaching for it. Like numbers, there’s never an end. We can always go up one more. And even when you are a self-motivated success-driven individual, if you’ve reached the top in your circle and are no longer looking “up”, you can lose that great gift of “nervous energy”. And that gift is usually the difference between being “good” and being “great”.

Where did your "nervous energy" come from? When was the last time you met with that person or revisited their teachings? What would they say if they saw you now? If they were with you everyday this week, watching your every move, what would you be doing differently?

I don't know about you, but there's a little extra pep in my step this week.

Michael Pedone

CSS: Chief Sales Scientist

SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

I hope you enjoyed this message.

Lorin

DID I SEE WHAT I SAW

Sometimes in sales things happen that although you see them and hear them you still can’t believe them, today one of those special times happened.

I was in the field with a rep and we stopped into an old customer of his to check to see if they needed anything. The rep approached his customer and they shook hands and gave all the normal small talk greetings that I have heard hundreds of times.

The rep asked the customer if he could go and check the inventory, which is what he does every time he calls on this customer. However today was different, the customer told him no. The rep asked if there was a problem and the customer replied that there was and asked the rep to step into his office alone.

Now I have sat in waiting rooms before while reps and customers talked, as a trainer it happens quite a number of times, but this was very different. As the door closed I could hear the customer start to yell at the rep. Through the closed door I really couldn’t hear what they were yelling at each other about but I could tell that it was heated and that nothing good was going to come out of that office.

It was only about 3 or 4 minutes later that the rep and customer walked back out into the waiting area where I was. I expected to see bruises and blood from the battle that had just taken place. To my surprise they came walking out all smiles and the rep told me to follow him to the back to take the inventory.

I was almost as confused as you are right now. I didn’t know what happened but couldn’t wait to get into the car with the rep so I could ask.

We spent another 25 minutes talking the inventory and getting a $1200.00 order before we made it to the car. I sat in the passenger seat and just looked at the rep, he laughed and said he would tell me when we were driving out of the parking lot.

He said that this was his usual monthly brow beating, he said that every month the customer goes through the same conversation with him about how much product he buys and how much money he spends and how he wants either a price break or a quarterly reimbursement. The rep started laughing because he could see the amazement on my face. He continued to tell me that every month he tells the customer that he is getting the best prices, his company doesn’t give reimbursement checks and that he gives the customer the absolute best service of any vendor that supplies him.

He told me that every month the customer then tells him to just make sure that he isn’t being taken advantage of (the customer says it a little differently, but you get the idea) and to go do the inventory.

Is this normal? I have seen a lot of crazy customs between reps and customers, but I have never seen anything like this that happens on a regular basis. I am writing about it and as I am typing I can just barely believe that it really happened.

What this actually comes down to is the old saying, “The Customer is Always Right”. To some extent I believe this because I know the customer can be wrong but they can also shop anywhere they want. If a good old fashion screaming match makes the customer happy, it is our job to give him just that. But keep in mind, you need to know the customer well enough so you don’t take it a step too far.

It all comes down to this, if you are in sales long enough, and you call on enough customers just about anything can happen.

Lorin

WHY WAIT

I had a battle today with a few of my training buddies here in town. We were discussing the right time to give training to a rep that is lagging behind in sales.

There were 4 of us having coffee when this discussion stated and it quickly turned into a battle. As usual, I was one of the first to offer my opinion and I said that training should be given ongoing regardless of sales number. I told them that training helps the marginal get better and the good rise to stardom.

I was happy with this answer knowing that training should be routine and constant to everyone to help make all reps better. I didn’t think that there would be much push back from trainers about my reply. WAS I EVER WRONG!

The trainer that has the most experience, he has been a trainer for over 35 years immediately told me how wrong I was and that training should be given to reps that need it the most. He didn’t see why a rep that was at either end of the scale (the worst or the best) should be trained. The worst needed to be cut loose and the best needed to be left alone. To my utter shock the one woman with us agreed with him.

The third opinion that was given was by a trainer that has been training for over 15 years, once again a very experienced trainer. He said that only after a rep has had back to back sales periods on the decline should they be trained. (A sales period could be any length of time depending on the company. The point was to see a trend)

We got pretty involved in this discussion and also pretty loud as well. The Starbucks manager had to ask us to please keep it down. I laughed and told them I had never been thrown out of a Starbucks before.

When we were finished 3 of the 4 of us were in my corner, the only one that wasn’t was the most senior trainer with us.

Training isn’t a punishment anymore than it is a reward. Training is simply a good idea for every company and every rep. Mt tag line is “Taking People From Where They Are, To Where They Can Be”, this can only be done by delivering consistent, measurable and timely training to everyone.

If you haven’t received training from your company on a regular basis, ASK FOR IT! Don’t allow your company to let you get to the point where they think you need training. By then in many cases it is too late. Ask for and make sure you are given training. If your company doesn’t give it to you seek it out and get it on your own. Remember, you are the master of your own fate, the more you learn, the better you get at selling, the more money you will earn.

If you have an opinion as to when training should be given, leave a comment here on the blog. I would love to hear what you, the reps, think about it.

Lorin

DON’T START SELLING UNTIL YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THEIR EYES

At a meeting I was at this morning, the host of the meeting talked about what he called a “THREE FEET RULE”. The Three Feet Rule is a very simple thing to talk about but a very difficult thing to put into practice.

Here is how the Three Feet Rule works. No matter where you are or what you are doing, whenever someone comes within Three Feet you tell them what you do and ask if they or anyone they know can use your product or service.

Now I know that superficially this sounds like a pushy sales technique. And I also know that no one is going to take this literally and talk to EVERY person that comes within Three Feet (a New York subway ride could have an audience of hundreds). However if we become more aware of the people that surround us and start to look for prospects everywhere we go, the Three Feet Rule could supply enough leads that cold calling could become a thing of the past.

With this idea in mind, what is it a sales rep needs to start to use the Three Feet Rule properly? First you will need a good 10 second opener. This is an opening line that will grab someone’s attention and get them engaged with you about what you have to offer.

Just like an elevator speech, the 10 second opener needs to tell just enough to have someone what to hear more. The opener usually won’t be much more than an intriguing question focused on the person you are talking to. The best opener ever in my opinion was an opener that had no words spoken at all. Do you remember the button that said, “Lose weight, ask me how”? It was worn by Herbalife Distributors. Just seeing the button made you ask the person wearing it what it was about, and they were more than happy to tell you. Your opener needs to be as grabbing as the buttons were.

When someone gets inside your Three Feet circle, you give them your opener, if they want to know more you need to have a short and simple sales presentation (2 minutes) ready to go. This tells them about what it is you have, and most importantly asks for more time to tell them more about it. If they say yes, you have a prospect, if they say no ask for a referral.

As I said, I don’t really think anyone will do this to EVERY person they get within three feet of. However, if you will do this 4 or 5 times a day, that’s 20 to 25 times a week. If only 1 out of 10 say yes or give you a name you have a busy week ahead of you.

Start using the Three Feet Rule as a game. See how many people you can talk to in a week. As you start to develop your opener and 2 minute sales presentation you will start to see results. In a short time you will take the rule from a game to a strategy which will pay you great dividends quickly.

Lorin

THE SUN WILL COME UP TOMORROW

It is early Monday morning and you stop into a prospect and make a GREAT presentation, the prospect asks tons of questions, you need to get a few things for the customer to help answer their questions. They ask you to come back early TOMORROW, they tell you they want to move quickly on this and you have no problem with that at all.

You show up the next day bright and early, everything is ready. You have all the promised information and you have the contract all filled out and ready to be signed. The prospect is all go until you hand them the pen and they tell you they will get back to you TOMORROW!

The next day you hear nothing so you call the customer late in the day. They tell you they have been so busy they haven’t had time to consider it please call them back TOMORROW!

The next day you hear nothing in the morning, but you don’t want to seem too pushy so you wait and decide not to call that day and call TOMORROW!

The next day you call mid morning and the prospect says that they will have an answer for you by end of day. 3 o’clock comes and goes, 4 o’clock passes, at 5 o’clock you call the customer and you hear it again, I am discussing it right now, call me MONDAY!

Doesn’t it hurt just to read this scenario? The reason it hurts so much is because most of us have been in this exact situation and many of you are in it right now!

Is there a good way to push the customer to get them to sign?

I am a believer in honesty, I don’t like it when reps make false statements or outright lie about things to make a sale. However, I also don’t believe in prospects or customers pulling a reps chain. Our time is as important as their time and I don’t expect a prospect to waste my time any more than I want to waste theirs.

I think that a little push in a situation like this is called for. Not a lie, an incentive. The reason I make it an incentive is because it usually has an upside for the customer with no downside. What I am talking about are things like telling a customer that you will give them a discount if they sign this week, or by the end of a sale period. No increase if they don’t, just a discount if they do. It could be a novelty item as a give away to sign. Maybe an added amount of product or extended service period. Some of these things can be given with no cost to you or your company. I have seen reps go out on the internet and download information about the prospects industry and give it as a “helpful” sheet when the prospect signs.

A little imagination and you can come up with lots of “SPECIAL” programs and value added information to keep the prospect from telling you to come back TOMORROW!

Lorin

IT’S JUST LIKE POLITICS

I ran into an old rep buddy of mine who I haven’t seen in about 10 years. We had the normal small talk and then the conversation came around to work. He told me the company he was working for and it is a direct competitor of the company he was with when I last saw him.

I know this rep pretty well and I know how he sold, his number one technique was to BASH the competition. I can remember debating with him about if bashing the competition was helping or hurting him. He has always felt it was helping him.

I never had the chance to work with him in the field, but by just talking to him I could tell the types of things he would say about his competitors, and now he was working for one of them. I asked him how he rationalized that in his mind. He said he says what he needs to say and does what he needs to do.

All that I could think about was the political debates and advertisements that I have seen over the past several months. It seems that the candidates say what they need to say and do what they need to do to get votes in the same way this rep gets customers and jobs.

I ask him how he could walk into a customer and say he was now working for a company that a few weeks ago was the worst company on earth? I had to laugh at his answer, he said the customers don’t remember what he said. I have to believe that is what the political candidates say when they accuse an opponent of everything from tax evasion to infidelity and then at the end they indorse the same person and call him the best thing since the bread slicer.

I am almost positive that my friends answer is true. I am sure that some customers don’t remember what a rep says about a competitor, however, I am just as sure a good number of them do. Just like voters like me remembers what one candidate says about another I would remember what a rep says.

The message here is a simple one and one that I am sure you have all heard before. Sell on the merits and value of your product and don’t bash a competitor. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, you never know when you will be changing positions and companies.

It is hard enough finding qualified prospects, and out of the prospects you find only a certain percentage will buy and become customers. Why should your integrity be questioned because you bad mouthed a competitor and now you are working for the company you talked badly about. If the company, product or service was bad last week, last month, or last year isn’t it still bad? You told the customer what was wrong with the company why should they do business with it now?

I have always been taught that no matter how you cook it, eating crow is never good. Besides, as sales reps we have enough public relations problems, why do we want to bring ourselves as low as politicians!

Lorin

ALPHABET SOUP

Our world today is filled with acronyms. From the letters preceding a name which indicates the persons title (EVP, COO, CEO, CFO, VP) to all words that have been shortened for texting (LOL) to the shows we watch (N.C.I.S.) the food we eat (PBJ) the places we worship (PCBC = Peachtree Corners Baptist Church) and the banks we do business with (BOA) the list of letters we are exposed to everyday is limitless.

There are 2 new letters that have been creeping up on us over the past year or two. These letters are QR as in QR Codes. These are the funny looking squares we are seeing on everything from our morning cereal to For Sale signs on homes in our neighborhoods. These codes, when scanned with a smart phone take you to anything from a webpage to a video to an audio message.

Another place these can take you is to the BANK to deposit your commission checks.

This technology is relativity new and still has a lot of WOW value with many of your customers. Here are a few ways I have seen them being used in sales;

1) A link to your personal webpage telling about the service you supply and your credentials.

2) A link to product demos, videos that have been posted on YouTube showing how your product works.

3) A link to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN or any other social media site you want people to see. Adding this to your business card or resume is AWESOME!

4) Putting it on your e-mail signature linking any of the above items.

5) Putting it on your business card.

6) Putting it on novelty give away items.

7) Placing it on hand written thank you notes – linking old with new (I really like this one)

Seven quick ideas and I am sure with a little thought each of you can think of dozens of other uses and places to use QR Codes.

The next question is How Do I Get A QR Code? This is just as simple, GOOGLE IT! If you Google FREE QR CODE GENERATOR you will find dozens of them. Read about the ones you find and make sure they will do what you want them to do.

Once you have the Code you can put it on just about anything you want. I am sure that somewhere there is a guy with a QR Code tattooed on his forearm which links to his Match.com profile.

We always need to be on the lookout for new ways to market ourselves and our products and services. This is a great new tool for sales reps to use.

Lorin

THE 2012 NEW DEAL

For all the history buffs that follow my blog, can you tell which American President got elected by promising a “NEW DEAL”?

(Hum the Jeopardy Theme to yourself while you think)

Times up, do you know? It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932. The New Deal was his plan to have the government help the people while the United States dug herself from under the Great Depression.

In business today, many sales reps are feeling the affect of the 2012 NEW DEAL. The difference is this new deal isn’t a plan from the government, it is the reality of business today. Because of the economy, many businesses have cut back over the last 5 years, many have cut not only the fat out of their operations, but have cut muscle and bone in some cases just to survive.

The key word here is SURVIVE, the businesses had to make decisions that would either keep their doors open and keep some resemblance of the company or close their doors forever.

In this survival mode businesses found ways to get the jobs done with fewer resources, less labor, and in some cases without sacrificing quality. The companies that let quality slip did so knowingly and many of them have reinvented themselves as commodity companies rather than quality companies.

That is the background and that history lesson takes us to today. There are many signs that the economy is turning around and I personally feel that it is on the track of recovery. The companies that went into survival mode are now starting to see their efforts paying off in bigger profits and climbing sales. These companies are moving back to growth mode and are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.

The problem is because these companies have figured out a way to do so much more with much less they don’t feel the need to rebuild to the levels that they were before the economy took the down turn.

What does this mean to sales reps? Well to start, many companies that were our bread and butter 5 years ago may be marginal accounts today. Because they have survived with the skeleton staff and using minimal resources for so long they may never get back to buying levels where they used to be. This means that sales reps need to start realizing that if they want to come out of this economic slowdown and get back to the income levels they once had they will need NEW DEALS.

There are a few things reps can do to speed up their economic recovery;

1) Start from a clean slate, get rid of all the old notions about which of your customers were your “BEST” customers. Look at every customer for what they are TODAY and rank them accordingly.

2) Get back to the basics, it may be like starting over, but you need to rebuild your customer base using business information that is fresh and new.

3) Diversify (If Possible), if you have a product line that crosses industries start looking in areas that you have not worked in before. This will take some learning and effort, but tapping into a new revenue source is worth the investment.

4) Ask for help, if you feel that you can’t do it on your own, ask for help! Every sales manager I have spoken to in the past year has told me stories about reps that have asked for help and have become not only better reps but more successful reps.

5) DON’T GIVE UP! The game is never over until you stop playing. There have been plenty of reps that I have trained that have told me they changed careers. I would venture a guess that 8 out of 10 of them come back to sales within 6 to 8 months.

We all have a NEW DEAL in 2012. We all also have a new opportunity in 2012. We can all have SUCCESS in 2012 if we all take the time and put in the work it takes to maximize ourselves in 2012.

Lorin

THIS GOES HERE, THAT GOES THERE

I hope that each of you had as wonderful a spring holiday as I had. If you celebrate Passover, I hope your Seders were awesome (I know the food was at mine), if you celebrate Easter I hope you and your family had a very happy Easter filled with all the sweet Easter treats, if you don’t celebrate either of these I hope that you had a great time at whatever you did.

Last week my wife and daughter were both off for their Spring Holiday, I also took the week off from posting but didn’t take a week off from learning, observing and training.

Because I was technically “OFF” last week I didn’t have a lot of interaction with reps, but I had plenty with my wife and daughters. One of the more interesting interactions (a fancy word for friendly battle) happened when my daughter sat at my desk to use the computer. She took one look at my desk and hit the ceiling about what she called my MESS.

She told me about how organized she is and how clean her desk is at work. She said that I had to lose things and that the mess was out of control.

Here is where I had a training moment with my daughter. I explained to her that everyone has their own method of organizing their lives. Some keep things neat and some a little less neat. What I told her was that the looks of my desk didn’t diminish the effectiveness of my desk. I told her that I had a system I used that worked fine for me and that I can find anything I need as quickly as she can find things on her neat desk.

She just didn’t believe me so I had to demonstrate. With my daughter sitting at my desk, I went downstairs and called her on the phone. I then proceeded to guide her around my desk and telling her exactly what she would find and where it will be. It only took me about 3 minutes to make a believer out of her.

I came back upstairs and we had a good discussion about organization and the skill set involved. What I told her is that it didn’t matter what the system was that someone uses, the important thing is to have a system and use it. As long as it is a system that can be used every day, and IS used every day. As long as it is a system that the person can understand and follow and as long as nothing gets lost or misplaced the system is good.

This now brings me to you the sales reps. What kind of system do you have to assure that you don’t lose or forget anything? What do you do every day to keep yourself on top of tasks and makes sure you do what you need to when it needs to be done?

I have seen reps use their computers or smart phones to keep them on track, I have also seen reps that write everything on the back of business cards and ALWAYS place the card into their right front pocket. Nothing else went into the right front pocket, only notes, orders, and appointments. At the end of the day he emptied his right front pocket and had the details he needed to fulfill any promises or place any orders he took.

Is the rep that uses his computer any more organized than the rep that uses business cards and his right front pocket? I don’t think so, to me they both have a system and they both use it successfully and that is what matters most.

My daughter and I had fun discussing organizational systems, she still insisted that her way was better and that my way would drive her nuts. I in turn said the same about her system. We agreed to disagree on our methods but we also agreed to agree on the need to have a system that works.

Lorin