ONE RACE AT A TIME

I just watched a remarkable race swam by a remarkable young lady who accomplished a remarkable feat.

If you are following the Olympics, and I don’t know anyone who isn’t, you probably already know who and what I am talking about. 17 year old MISSY FRANKLIN just won her first Olympic Gold Medal in the 100-Meter backstroke, in the her first Olympic individual event 10 minutes after swimming a qualifying heat in the women’s 200-meter free style and qualifying for tomorrow’s final.

This is a Herculean task by any swimmer, but for a 17 year old at her first Olympics it becomes unparalleled.

In the interview from poolside right after the race Missy talked about the advice her coaches gave her as to how to cope with the back to back races. She said they gave her several tips but she just took the races ONE AT A TIME!

Every day as sales reps, and just about any other professional, we have back to back to back to back appointments and meetings. We run from one customer to the next, answering our phone and e mails in between sales calls. Our managers and co-workers are asking more and more from us each day and we need to win our gold medals along the way as well.

 I think that we can all learn from the wisdom of this 17 year old swimmer and simply take all of the tasks, appointments, and duties we have one at a time. The customer you are in front of IS the most important customer of the day, the meeting you are in IS the most important meeting of the day, and the task you are performing IS the most important task of the day.

If you focus on your next customer, meeting, or task you will not give the present one the performance it deserves.

I will be watching the Olympics for the next 2 weeks like the rest of the world, you can expect to hear more of my INCREDABLE OLYMPIC MOMENTS turned into INCREDABLE SALES TIPS!

Lorin

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

As we count down the final few hours to the opening ceremony of the Olympics all the excitement and anticipation is coming to a crescendo. I know that my family, and many of our friends, will be together tonight glued to the television screen to watch the performance and 10’s of millions of others will be doing the same. For the next few weeks the DVR will be collecting our favorite shows as we watch the competition every evening.

Think about how the athletes must be feeling, all their years of hopes and dreams coming down to what is for many only a few seconds of actual performance. 1/100^th of a second will be the deciding factor between achieving their life long goals and the disappointment of not receiving an Olympic Medal.

For some athletes this may be their last chance to shoot for their star, others will set their sights on the 2016 Games and work harder than ever with their goals in sight.

Young men and women from around the world all gathered to together with one common dream, TO WIN!

It is not by chance that sales and sports are so often linked together in speeches and books. The sales reps of the world, at least the world class sales reps, all work with the same intensity as an athlete.  The sales people of the world work with goals, like the athletes, and they know that in some cases their hopes and dreams also come down to just a few seconds of presentation.

I am so glad that I decided to become a sales rep rather than an Olympic Athlete, mainly because using the remote control isn’t an Olympic event and that would be the only thing I would be qualified for, but also because my competitions aren’t 4 years apart, they happen several times daily, every time I approach a customer or prospect.

Reps work as hard perfecting their WORLD CLASS presentations as athletes do perfecting their specialized sport. Reps are shooting for their Gold Medals, the order, as intensely as the athletes shoot for theirs.

Here is the best news of all why we should ALL feel great about our decisions to become sales reps, we have a long and winning career to look forward to. Imagine if you worked as hard as you do and at the age of 19 knew you were too old to pursue your dreams. Think about what you would need to do if after years and years of working towards one goal, one performance, one dream you had to make the decision what you will do next in life because your chosen “SPORT” doesn’t hold any future for you.

Reps always have the next competition in sight, we are always in the hunt for our Gold Medal and we know that we may not win the gold every time we compete, we will stand high on the winners blocks and receive our medals in time.

Sales and sports are very closely related, in both I don’t believe LUCK ventures into the picture. PREPARATION is, in most cases, the deciding factor.

Are there other factors involved? ABSOLUTELY, sheer physical conditioning and build play a huge part in any athletic event. I could have swam more hours and practice 10 times harder than Michael Phelps when I was his age, but I can tell you I would never have been a great swimmer even on the baby pool circut.

We may not be able to match the physical attributes of the Olympic Athletes, but we can all have competitive spirit, we can match their desire to win, and we can exceed their success rate over the years of competition that we call selling.

All my best wishes to the 2012 US Olympic Team, may each of you achieve your goals and dreams over the next few weeks and I know you will make every citizen of the United States PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

Lorin

SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE ARE SIGNS

I walked into a business today and there was a sign that read, “I’M NOT BUSY BECAUSE I DID IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME”.

When I first read the sign I thought it was pretty funny, like many of you I have seen the sign that says, “THERE IS NO TIME TO DO IT RIGHT BUT ALWAYS TIME TO DO IT OVER” and thought his sign was just mocking this sign.

Then I walked into the shop area, and I was amazed at what I saw. It looked like a bee hive of activity. There were 20 bays (individual work areas), 16 of the 20 bays had lifts and all 16 had cars in the air at various stages of repair, several of the bays had a car under the raised car with the hood up and repairs being made. I asked the shop manager how many cars they turn a day, he said anywhere from 40 to 60.

As we talked the sign in the lobby kept coming back to mind, “I’M NOT BUSY BECAUSE I DID IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME”. The manager asked me why I was smiling, I mentioned the sign and we both started to laugh as we looked at the flurry of activity going on around us.

He said to me that the sign was not only in the lobby, each mechanic had a copy of it someplace in their work areas. He said that was the way he wanted everyone to think every day. He continued to tell me about how before he started the “DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME” program he would get as many as 2 out of 10 cars back within 2 days with problems from the repair being either done wrong or incomplete.

He told me about all the things he tried to get his guys to not rush the repairs and stop the returns. First he would not pay the mechanic for the time spent doing the second (or third) repair, when that didn’t help he started charging the mechanic a “FINE” of $25.00 for every return that was deemed their fault. He raised the fine to $50.00 and then started charging the mechanic what the shop lost because of the time AND inability to repair another car. He said that this could be anywhere from $100.00 to as much as $500.00 depending on the time it took to do the second repair.

He finished all of this explanation with, “AND NOTHING WORKED”! Until he saw the sign in the lobby hanging at another shop owned by a friend of his. He loved it and immediately had dozens of them made. He held a meeting and told the mechanics that all the fines were eliminated. He told them that doing the job right the first time was going to be the #1 priority and the guys who did the best would be rewarded for it.

The first reward was money, he offered $1000.00 to the mechanic with no returns for the month. NO ONE WON! He then offered gift certificates to stores and restaurants worth hundreds of dollars each for the next month, NO ONE WON! Finally he offered paid time off. The mechanic that had no returns would get 3 days off and be paid what he averaged per day that month. 3 MECHANICS WON! He said he kept the reward program going and the next month 7 MECHANICS WON!

As we were talking he was getting more and more excited about the story. He told me that the shop went from 20% returns to less than 2% in 6 months. The shop also went from 25 to 40 cars per day to the 40 to 60 they are doing now. He said the best thing of all is the attitude in the shop, the mechanics have all changed their thinking from, “GET IT DONE” to “GET IT DONE RIGHT!”

As sales rep we can all learn from this shop. As we go from customer to customer or call to call we sometimes take the occasional SHORTCUT to save time that day. The shortcut usually costs us twice as much time another day.

We have the “GET IT DONE” mentality, we need the “GET IT DONE ROGHT”! mentality.

A shortcut may get you to the store or a friend’s house a little faster but it rarely will get you a lifelong customer.

Lorin

IT ISN’T EASY BEING THE BEST

As I usually like to do while I drive, last week I was listening to a motivational CD which I bought. I had not heard of the speaker before but found her to be very entertaining and informative. As I was listening she said a quote from Sir Laurence Olivier, “The art is masking the art”.

Sir Laurence was speaking of acting, and making reference to rehearsing enough that the performance is so natural no one knows you are acting. As I heard it I immediately put a sales twist on it to mean a great sales presentation is so well practiced that the presentation seems like a conversation. Please take note, I didn’t say the prospect doesn’t know it is a sales presentation, I want my prospects to know it is a presentation. I just want it to be so natural that it seems like we are talking as friends rather than a sales rep and customer.

Why is this so important? Quite simple, the better you know the presentation the more likely you are to be able to perform while at the same time listen to the prospect. I have been with sales reps that are so focused on their presentation they forget the prospect is there at all. They are going through the motions and reciting the words without any connection to the customer.

These reps forget that the object of the presentation is to inform the prospect, to pique the prospects interest, TO GET THE PROSPECT INVOLVED, and to get them to want to buy your product or service. If you are just saying words and not relating to the prospect you won’t be hearing a yes.

As a sales trainer I usually practice at a ratio of 10:1. That is I practice 10 hours to present a one hour class. As a sales rep I use the same ratio. I will practice a demo and presentation time and time again, until I am comfortable with it and until I can perform the demo and presentation while paying close attention to the prospect and how they react to what I am saying and doing.

Sales reps very often don’t understand the importance of practice. I believe it is because we are so good with our words, we are so good at thinking on our feet, and we are usually people that others can connect with very easily. Although all of these characteristics are positive, and the truth is in many cases we CAN talk ourselves into and out of problem situations, imagine how much better every one of us could be if we put in the time to master our presentations.

Personally I hope I never get to the point where I believe I don’t need to practice. That would mean I feel I can no longer improve.

Over the years I have had the privilege of seeing several people who were the BEST at what they do. I saw Arthur Ashe  play tennis, Duke Ellington perform on stage, Zig Ziglar speak, Joe Namath play football, and in 1996 I saw the world’s best during the Olympic Games here in Atlanta. None of these SUPER STARS became the best by only performing during shows and competitions. Each and every one of these world class stars practiced 100, 200 maybe 300 times longer than their performances.

We have all heard the saying, “Practice makes perfect”. This isn’t true at all. Practice makes permanent! You need to remember the following saying to become world class at what you do.

“PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!”

Sir Laurence Olivier was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20^th century. He knew as an actor the importance of practice, a sales rep that masks the art of selling will be one of the most successful reps in their industry as well.

Lorin

ADD ON’S ADD UP

This weekend I had a great experience that I haven’t had in over 10 years, I BOUGHT A NEW CAR! No I didn’t get a super luxury car or a sports car, I didn’t get a classic muscle car or and antique. I bought a basic car just for running around town training or selling.

Before I went out driving from dealer to dealer I did what so many of our customers do today, I let my fingers do the walking over the keyboard of my computer. Because I haven’t been in the car market for so long I had no idea what I was going to need to spend to get a car with A/C and automatic transmission that gets GREAT gas mileage.

I started with all the manufacturers that I perceived to be inexpensive. I went from website to website looking at the least expensive models they had to offer. The assortment was astonishing, I saw models that I had never heard of before or have ever seen.

As you can guess the price on almost every low end vehicle started within a few hundred dollars of each other. After looking at several models I had narrowed it down to 3 that I wanted to look at and drive. Off my wife and I went to “LOOK” at cars.

Our first stop was the least expensive of all the cars. It didn’t take long for a salesperson to walk up and introduce herself to me. I told her what I was looking for and she looked at me like I was crazy. She very nicely said, “The MSRP of the model does start at the price you saw online, however we NEVER get cars like that in. All our cars have add on’s either from the factory or one’s we put on after they are delivered. Basically you can expect $1700 to $3000 added to the price you saw online.”

I stood there speechless. (Something that doesn’t happen to me very often) The add on’s as she was explaining were 10% to 25% of the price of the cars. I recognized very quickly that my budget had just been blown out of the water.

I asked about what these add on’s were, and she was very happy to show me a few window stickers and what was on them. I can honestly tell you that not one of the items listed made a hill of beans difference about how the car drove, handled or the mileage it got. Everything was protective this and coating that, a light here and a switch there. Nothing that made any difference.

After hearing the same thing from the next 2 dealers I went to I started thinking how this could be an advantage to me. The only thing I could come up with is it gives me a great posting here on the Training Buffet, Help Yourself.

What I noticed most about all these add on’s wasn’t what they were as much as how the sales people just acted like it was the most normal thing in the world to add 25% to the price of a car and offered no apology for doing it. I thought about sales reps that I have worked with over the years and how many apologize time and time again for a 5% shipping charge.

As I looked at other models of cars I saw that this add on practice was done to EVERY car! From the basic starter car to the top of the line models, thousands of dollars were added to the MSRP sticker price. (In most cases the dealer had an additional sticker they applied to the window showing the add on’s added after delivery)

The end of the story is I now have a car with power door locks, power windows, AM/FM/CD with USB and AUX inputs, and Bluetooth for my phone, along with a few other un-needed options.

Most of you reading this post have add on’s that you can offer your customers. I am betting that most of you are a little shy about doing it thinking the customer will not want the add on’s. Do what car dealers do, bundle them with the product from the start of the sale. Don’t make it optional, tell the customer about the add on’s up front and don’t apologize for them. Sure some customers will not want them and unlike the car dealers you can always remove them from the package, but if you ask you will be amazed how many times your customers will say YES!

Did I mention I also have carpeted color coordinated floor mats for the car?

Lorin

I FEEL MY TEMPERATURE RISING

It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was saying to myself, “I can’t wait for summer to get here, I HATE THE COLD WEATHER”! Now that summer is in full bloom and the temperatures here in Atlanta are soaring into the nineties day after day I find myself saying to myself, “I sure miss February”!

Many of us climb in and out of our cars 10, 15, 20, as many as 25 times a day, and when the thermometer shoots up into the nineties we need to look at what we are doing very closely for not only our health but for our sales.

During these times of heat everyone, but especially outside sales reps, need to exercise extreme caution while working the field. Here are a few tips that can help you in the heat of the day.

1)      DRINK, DRINK, and DRINK some more! – I know this sounds like the motto for some fraternity but the reality is your body needs plenty of water in this extreme heat. Not only will the water give you more energy, but your mind will function at a higher level if you are fully hydrated. A good rule of thumb is to drink one ounce of water for every pound of body weight. (Let’s see, that means I need to drink…wow I hope there is a bathroom close by ALL the time!)

2)      COOL OFF – As you work in the heat, your core body temperature will start to rise. The higher it gets the harder it will be to cool off. You are better off taking fewer longer breaks to cool down than many short breaks. Driving between customers with your AC on in your car isn’t a very good cool down. It can actually hurt you in the long run by causing respiratory problems because the AC vents are usually blowing directly into your face. Get out of the car and sit in a cool place for 15 to 30 minutes. This allows your entire body to cool off and will rejuvenate you for longer periods of time.

3)      WEAR SUNSCREEN – I hate to sound like your mother, but the summer sun can cause a lot of skin damage. I think you look great with a deep dark tan, however, your doctor may disagree. Put on sunscreen, especially on your left arm (it hangs out the window exposed to the sun more than any other part of your body), face and if you are folicly challenged like I am your head!

4)      PARK IN THE SHADE – If you park your car in direct sun for as little as 15 minutes the inside of the car can reach temperatures of 150 degrees or more. Getting back into the car will overheat you even faster than being outside in the sun. If you can’t find shade, make your own. Use sun shields in your windshield and side window. I know it takes time to set them up, but the temperature difference will make it well worth it.

5)      LISTEN TO YOUR BODY – The week before last the thermometer rose to the upper 90’s every day. On Thursday, I got so hot that I was actually feeling sick. My body was telling me something, I had to stop and take a break. If you are feeling lightheaded, nauseous, faint, or any other feeling that is not normal, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!

I am not a doctor and I am not your sales manager, but I know plenty of doctors and even more sales managers and every one of them agree that keeping healthy is the key to long term success.

I have always believed that a sales rep should always push themselves to their mental limits everyday to assure their success. I also agree with Vince Lombardi when he says, “I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.” But even Vince Lombardi wanted to have a healthy team on the field.

BE COOL, and not only in a Fonzie sort of way!

Lorin