A GREAT SAYING

A GREAT SAYING

I found this saying on Facebook and it immediately hit me as one of the best sayings I have ever seen.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

I CHOOSE…

TO LIVE BY CHOICE, NOT BY CHANCE;

TO MAKE CHANGES, NOT EXCUESE;

TO BE MOTIVATED, NOT MANIPULATED;

TO BE USEFUL, NOT USED;

TO EXCEL, NOT COMPETE.

I CHOOSE SELF-ESTEEM, NOT SELF PITY.

I CHOOSE TO LISTEN TO MY INNER VOICE,

NOT THE RANDOM OPINIONS OF OTHERS.

Read this once, read it again, and then THINK about each line and how much better off we would all be if everyone acted on it.

CHOOSE!

Lorin

I WANNA GO HOME

I have always been amazed at what I hear come out of a reps mouth when they are having a challenging day. Today I received a call from a rep to tell me they wanted to go home to gather their thoughts.

Now I am not someone who gets shocked very often. I have been in sales and sales training long enough that very few things I see or hear anymore shock me, THIS SHOCKED ME.

I sat at my desk with the phone in my hand just staring at top of my desk, I was speechless for a moment. Finally I asked the rep what thoughts she was going to gather at home that she couldn’t gather just by pulling over in her car and grabbing something to drink for a short time.

I could just imagine her on the other end of the phone thinking about what to say next, and then it struck me. She was already home, this was a call to cover her rear end.

Not wanting to simply call her a liar, I asked her where she was that moment and offered to meet her and ride with her the rest of the day. She started to stutter a little and then said she didn’t want company she just wanted to be alone. I offered to buy her lunch so we could talk for an hour or so, once again she opted for being alone.

It wasn’t until I asked her if she wanted to quit that I got the truth. I was right, she told me that she had given up by 9:30AM. She had stopped by a customer that told her he would definitely buy the next time she stopped in. She stopped in and he didn’t buy. She said she made 2 more stops and both told her no. (Can you imagine 3 stops and 3 no’s… what is the world coming to) She said by then it was 9:30, she knew her husband was out of the house at work and she just gave up and went home.

 I wanted to know why she called me. What was she trying to accomplish by calling me? So I asked her directly what she wanted me to do. We both stayed silent for at least 20 seconds and she said, “I want you to help me make sales”.

This cracked me up, I blurted out, “FROM YOUR HOUSE?” Once again 20 seconds or more of silence. Then she told me I was right and she was just being stupid.

I looked at the clock and it was getting to be noon, so I told her to come meet me at the office and we would see what we could do about helping her. She showed up about 45 minutes later and I could see she had been crying.

I asked what she was crying about, quitting or quitting on herself. She shot daggers at me with her eyes and said she had NOT quit on herself. She told me she could do it.

She started to get up and walk out of my office and I asked her where she was going, she said to work. Why? I asked. She said to prove to me she could do it. I told her that she was going to fail.

Talk about a shocked look, she looked like I had just punched her in the stomach. She said how could I say that, I answered, she didn’t need to prove anything to me. I told her I believed in her a lot more than she believed in herself right now. I said to succeed she needed to go and do it for her. She needed to prove to herself that she was as good as I thought she was.

It doesn’t matter how long a rep has been selling, how successful they are, or how confident they seem to be. Every rep at some point gets an acute case of SELF DOUBT. There is only one cure, WINNING! It may be making a sale or getting an appointment with a buyer that you have not been able to get to before. It might be winning a contract or making a hire. It might just be opening the car door and getting out in a place that has intimidated you for days, months or years.

A win is a win is a win. We all need wins.

It is now 9:30 PM and I just got off the phone with the rep. She told me that her day got better, but not by much. She did make a few small sales but nothing to be excited about.

I told her that she needed to be excited about the entire day. I told her that she pushed herself to do things she really didn’t want to do and that the day might not have been an award winning day, it was still better than it would have been had she stayed home.

Lorin

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

Customers come in all sizes and shapes. They come in all levels of intelligence. They come in all socio-economic groups. But the most important group they all come in are the talkers and the silent ones.

I was out in the field with a rep last week and we made a call on business that he told me he has been wanting to call on for a year. I said let’s go.

When we walked in there were a few guys standing around a workbench looking at a motor and talking about what was wrong with it. We asked who was the boss and were told to go to an office in the back of the shop. Before we walked away we watched the guys and listened to what they were saying. The rep and I looked at each other because we knew we had several items with us that these guys could have used. We decided to go see the boss and tell him.

We walked to the back of the shop and met the boss. He was a man of few words, VERY FEW. The rep introduced us and started to tell the boss about whom we were and what it was we were there for. The boss didn’t say a word. The rep told him about our company, the boss didn’t say a word. The rep told him about what we had, the boss didn’t say a word. The rep pulled out one of our most popular products and did a great demo for the boss, he still didn’t say a word, he just looked at us.

The rep tried a few things to engage the boss but the boss just kept looking without saying a word.

The rep finally said that he would be back in 2 weeks and we left.

When we got into the car the rep asked me what else he could have done, I told him nothing. I explained that there is no harder customer to sell than the one who tells you nothing. I said to the rep that he would appreciate objections from now on.

I told him that an objection is the second best thing a customer can give you. A sale is the best, but an objection gives you something to work with. It doesn’t matter what the objection is, any objection gives you information. Silence gives you NOTHING!

Over the years I have found one thing that a rep can do when they are with a silent customer. ASSUME THE SALE! When I am doing demos and trying to close I simply assume the customer wants what I have. I say, “I’ll go ahead and send in xxxx”, it doesn’t matter how silent the customer is, if they don’t want it they will talk! Drastic situations call for drastic measures.

Just because the customer is silent doesn’t mean you need to be.

Lorin

THAT’S RIGHT, I SAID IT

The great Yogi Berra once said, “I never said most of the things I said”. At least I think that is what Yogi once said, but maybe he never said it…

Anyway, have you ever noticed how some customers always think you said stuff you never said?

I don’t leave samples behind, I do demo’s. Over my years of sales I have found that leaving a sample doesn’t pay off. You can’t control how the customer uses the sample, if in fact they use it at all. If the customer does use the sample, and happens to use it wrong, my products from then on are never as good in the customer’s eyes. Also, in most cases, the person I am talking to is not the person who actually uses the product. So I hope the person who actually uses my sample will report back to the person I left the sample with how it worked.

All in all, there are way too many chances for things to go wrong. That is why I do demo’s. I can control the demo and point out all the features and benefits to the buyer so he or she can really see the value in owning my product.

This is why I was so shocked today when a customer told me I had promised to bring them a sample of one of my products.

The customer said that he was expecting me 2 weeks ago with the sample so he could try it out on one of the jobs he was working on. I asked him if he may have me mistaken with another good looking sales rep that calls on him and he said no he was sure it was me.

We talked some more and I asked him if over the last 20+ years I have been selling him at any of the companies I have been selling for if I have ever left him a sample of anything before? He thought for a minute and said he didn’t think so. I asked him how many demo’s he thought I had done for him and his employees over the past 20+ years and he laughed and said a million. (Actually it was more like a million and a half, but I never argue with a customer) Finally I asked him if he really thought I was the one who promised him a sample. It didn’t take him long to agree that it probably wasn’t me.

I could have handled this in several different ways. I could have told the customer I was sorry and tell him I forgot the sample. I could have went out to my car and gotten my sample and given it to him. I could have made up a story about the warehouse not getting the sample to me or being out of stock of the product. But I always try to be honest as I can be with a customer. I know what I say and I usually say what I say!

After talking with the customer I did go to my car and get my sample of the product he wanted and did a great demo for him. I showed him how my product did what he needed better than he expected and that I could deliver my product at a price which was a better value than anyone else he has asked. After I was done I asked for the sale. My customer could have told me that he wanted to wait to see who he had asked for the sample and see how their product worked. He could have said no or not yet or one of a thousand things. He didn’t, he said yes.

I believe that not leaving him a sample and doing a demo which I controlled made the difference. My demo made the difference between put off and a sale.

I understand that it goes against most of our sales rep instincts to say “NO” to a customer. But if you know what you say, and say it ALL the time, no customer can ever trip you up.

Yogi also said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” You are right Yogi, it can be better!

Lorin

WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

I am trilingual; I speak fluent English, SOUTHERN and sales.

I’m sure that it won’t shock any of you to learn that over all my years in business I have always found a way to communicate with a customer using one of my languages. That is until a few weeks ago!

I was in the field working with a rep and we stopped to make a cold call at a business that he had targeted as a prospect. The call started like most with the rep doing some basic introductions and probing. He then did a great job telling the customer about what we do and how we do it.

As the rep and customer started to chat about how we could help the customer, the rep asked me if I wouldn’t mind telling the customer about one of our products.

I opened our demo case and got out a sample of the product and started to set up the demo when the customer got a very funny look on his face. I asked if something was wrong and he just looked at me as if he were lost. I apologized for talking too fast and asked where it was that I lost him. (I couldn’t imagine where it happened since I was just starting and hadn’t even gotten into to demo yet)

The customer said that he didn’t understand why we were there. With that I went back to the introduction the rep had just finished and tried to help the customer understand what we were there for. When I got back to the same spot, about to start the demo, the customer put the same look back on his face.

Now I was starting to think the customer was just messing with me. I laughed and said very funny trying to make him admit he was just playing around. But as I watched his face I could plainly see he was not joking.

I tried a third time to explain what we do and as I was talking I could tell the customer just didn’t understand what we were all about.

Not wanting to show my amazement or frustration, I decided to just continue on with the demo and see if he caught on at some point.

The demo was almost over when the lights came on in the customers mind. He got a big smile on his face and said (actually almost yelled) “Are you selling this?”

While the three of us stood there looking at each other we all started laughing. The customer told us he thought we were the guys that were coming to work on his front end loader and really thought we were kidding when we started talking about selling things.

Going back over the first few minutes of the call I have been trying to pinpoint where the miscommunications broke down. Then it hit me, it didn’t break down, it was never started. Right from the start the customer was looking for one thing and we were looking for something else. Because we were both looking for something that wasn’t there, we were not communicating.

I could have spoken 100 languages and the customer could have spoken all 100 of them, we still would not have been communicating.

When you are making a sales call, and you start the sales process, always make sure that the prospect knows who you are and why your there. NEVER assume that your words alone will tell your story.

Lorin

WEST SIDE STORY

If you were looking for the Jets and Sharks, I’m sorry.

This West Side Story has to do with a rep I worked with that had more than just a little trouble finding his way around his territory.

I was out on the West Coast and was asked to work with a rep for a day. With all my traveling around, there are not many cities I haven’t been to, however in all but a few cases I don’t know my way around the city at all. I usually see the airport, a taxi, and a hotel in each city I go to. Not exactly an in depth knowledge of the area. The city I was working in with this rep was no different.

The rep picked me up at my hotel right on time at 7 AM and we went for a cup of coffee so I could get a feel for what he had planned for the day. He gave me a good briefing on each stop we were going to be making and told me he had a few cold calls that he wanted to make as well. I was all set for a great day.

We left the restaurant and drove directly to our first stop of the day. It was a customer of his that buys several lines from him and he showed me the business and how he works it. After writing an order and chatting with the buyer for a few minutes we were back in the car and on our way to stop number 2.

As we drove to the second stop I noticed that we drove back through an intersection we drove through on our way to the first stop. Not really thinking much of it because sometimes doubling back on a route is the shortest distance to travel, we made it to stop number 2. This was a small shop that the rep told me only buys a few items from him. He wanted me to see if there was anything I saw that I felt would help sell more in the account.

As we walked in I looked around and saw a few things, but agreed with the rep that this was a small business and the opportunity was going to be limited. After 2 demos of new products we left without an order and headed to stop number 3 which the rep said was his number 1 account.

The next stop went very well for the rep, and after selling a new item he took a large order for the customer. We were doing well, 3 stops, 2 orders and several demos and a new item sale.

As we drove to our next stop I once again recognized the same intersection we had driven through twice already.

To make a long story short, over the next several hours we made 4 more stops and drove back through that same intersection 2 more times.

As we were driving to a restaurant for lunch I asked the rep if he had a map in his car. He didn’t so I asked him to stop at an office supply store so I could buy one. When we got to the restaurant I grabbed a table big enough for the map to be laid out on.

Still not knowing the area, I asked the rep to put dots on the map for the 7 stops we made so far that day. He made the dots for me. I then asked him to number the dots in the same order we stopped at them that morning.

When he was done I asked him what he noticed. He looked and sheepishly said that we crossed back and forth in the area all morning. I joked with him saying that I knew several people at that one intersection because we drove through it so many times. Using the scale of miles on the map I estimated that we had driven over 25 miles since we left the hotel that morning. Then I did some quick measurements and figured that if he had planned his route better he could have cut over 15 of the 25 miles off the route.

Living here in Georgia, I am a bit spoiled. Our gas is some of the lowest in the country. On the west coast things are a lot different. The gas was almost 60 cents a gallon higher. To make a point I asked the rep how many miles per gallon his car got, he said about 18. Doing some quick calculations I asked him how he would like to save almost $30 a week.

He knew where I was going with this conversation, but I went there anyway. I said, if we just save 15 miles before lunch and another 15 after lunch every day that would be 150 miles a week. If his car gets 18 miles per gallon that means he would save 8.3 gallons per week. At $3.65 a gallon that equals $30.29.

Next I asked the rep how fast he usually drives. He laughed and said he always speeded wherever he went. (I had to agree just from the morning’s time together) He said 50MPH was a good average. (I didn’t want to argue with him, but around town he probably didn’t average much over 30) Either way I then asked him how many sales calls he thought he could make in 3 hours. He told me 4 or 5. I then asked him if he made 5 calls how many he would close. He said at least 2. My follow-up question was what is your average sale? To which he said about $300.

Once again I did some fast calculations and asked him if an additional $31,000 in sales was something he would be interested in. I am sure you all can guess his answer. I explained that is what an extra 3 hours a week of selling time rather than driving time would get him.

I called this post WEST SIDE STORY because it happened on the west coast. I know that I could have called it EAST SIDE, NORTH SIDE, SOUTH SIDE, INSIDE or OUT SIDE STORY. This same thing happens thousands of times a day all over the country.

My challenge to you is to take a little time and do the same exercise with your days as I did with the rep I was working with. Go step by step and come up with the figure you are missing because you are driving instead of selling.

Lorin

IS IT ME YOU’RE LOOKING FOR?

I didn’t invent the internet, that was Al Gore. I didn’t start Rock and Roll, that was Elvis. I didn’t invent the “GIBBS SLAP”, that was Leroy Jethro Gibbs aka Mark Harmon. I didn’t invent sales, I have just enjoyed it for the past 40 years.

What I did do is start this blog 8/18/10, almost 3 years ago. Over the past 3 years I have made over 400 posts (none for the past 7 months).

Well I am happy to say, I’M BAAAAACK”.

I wish I had a good reason for not posting since last December, but the truth is I have been focusing my attention on settling in to my new position. It has been a wild 7 months but some of the most rewarding I have had in all my years as a sales rep and sales trainer.

I have had to remember things that I hadn’t thought of for years. It was exciting to once again be challenged to learn while I was teaching. I had to be as open to new ideas as I was to helping others accept new ideas. I was in a position of being new, while being the expert.

This entire time I have been making notes and planning this blogging comeback. I have been outlining posts that I felt would be as useful to everyone reading this blog as they were to me while I lived them.

To say I am excited is an understatement. ELECTRIFIED, ENERGIZED, SUPERCHARGED, MOTIVATED, and plain HAPPY are all the feelings I have about where I have been and what I have done over the past 7 months.

I am going to be doing what I have always tried to do here, have fun while telling stories that will help sales reps of all tenure and all industries. At the same time I will be as motivating as I can be, thought provoking as I can be, and entertaining as I can be.

I look forward to your comments, e mails and communications of all types.

Let’s get started.

 

YOU SAY WHAT?

I am sure that everyone reading this has gone into a “big box” store to purchase some sort of electronics. Last night was my latest experience.

One of the TV sets I had went bad and it was time to buy a new one. Off I went in search of an inexpensive set to fill the vacant space where the old TV sat for years. My first stop was a favorite store of mine, Best Buy.

I know that over the years best Buy has had some very bad press about its lack of customer service, and I will be the first to say, they deserved it. However over the past few years, at least for me, they have really turned it around and improved greatly.

So, here I was in front of the GREAT WALL OF TELEVISIONS, trying to make a selection. Was 32” too small? Was 60” too big? LCD, LED, HDTV, 720P, 1080P, PLASMA, the market has truly turned into an alphabet soup and unless you know what all these letters mean, a decision is hard to make.

Up walks my “salesman”! A young man who wore his blue shirt with pride. I told him what I was looking for and in seconds he had me pointed at a set. It didn’t take me long to make up my mind and I bought the one he suggested.

While the stock people were bringing my new TV up from the stockroom, my SALESMAN started to write up the order and have me pay. As he was ringing up my purchase he said, “I’ll go ahead and add the $160.00 for the extended warranty”. To that I said, “WHAT”?

I believe in the assumptive close, and I guess he made the ultimate assumption.

Does anyone see what I had a problem with? Before you can close you need to SELL. My SALESMAN forgot to do what his job description says he is supposed to do, SELL! He never told me anything about the warranty, NOTHING, not what it covered, how it worked, how long it lasted, NOTHING! He just TOLD me he was going to add it to the invoice.

At this point the Sales Trainer came out in me. I reached over and snatched my credit card away from him and said, “Don’t you think I should know what I am getting for $160 bucks?”

As he started to give me all the features of the warranty I once again stopped him. I said “so what does that mean to me?” I guess he saw the smile on my face because he asked me if this were some sort of test. I replied YES, and you have failed miserably.

As sales reps we all want to assume the sale, but we all need to understand that to assume a sale there needs to be a sales presentation. The customer needs to have at least a minimal idea of what you are offering and how what you have will benefit them before you can assume the sale.

If you sell a service, let the customer know what the service is and how the service will make their business or life better. If you sell a product, either tell them or better yet SHOW them how your product is better than what they have now. If they don’t have one now, let them know how owning yours will make their business or life better. SHOW, TELL and then SELL!

There is an old saying in sales: A PRESENTATION WITHOUT A DEMONSTRATION IS JUST A CONVERSATION!

Do what we do best SELL. If we forget to sell our product or service we are just visitors.

By the way, I did buy the TV and I didn’t buy the warranty. I spent about 30 minutes trying to make my point with MY SALESMAN about selling. I hope that everyone reading this catches on quicker than he did.

Lorin