Sales Machine

One of my favorite people, Lt. Col. Rob “Waldo” Waldman, just published a new and highly inspirational book entitled “Never Fly Solo.”   Its message, in a nutshell, is that you achieve greatness in business (or anything else) through disciplined training, dedicated teamwork, impassioned leadership and (most importantly) unwavering trust.

Never Fly Solo is the opposite (and antidote) to the kind of cynicism that dominates most business decisions — and it’s full of some great tools (and perspectives) that you can use to build better relationships with your teammates and customers.

Waldo is (as you can imagine) a pretty inspirational guy.  He’s a former fighter pilot who put his life on the line for his country — and then took the lessons he learned into the business world.  So, somehow it’s not surprising that he’s dedicating the profits from his book to help veterans in need.

Since it’s Veteran’s Day in the United States, I thought it would be great if some Sales Machine readers helped out and bought the book.  (If you click on the book cover above, it will get you to the Amazon.com page.)

BTW: I spent about an hour with Waldo when he was working out the details of his contract with the publishers, helping him position the book and getting him to stop worrying so much about the financial of that deal and start focusing on the impact that he can have on the world.

So I have a personal stake in wanting Never Fly Solo to be successful.  Waldo is a good man and deserves our support.  And so do the vets who have given so much and ask so little in return.

READERS: Keep an eye on this blog because this afternoon, I’ll be posting some of Waldo’s invaluable advice.

Getting motivated to sell isn’t difficult.  All you need do is connect the dots between what you need to do and what you want to accomplish with yourself and your life.  Here’s a quick way to get yourself seriously pumped up to sell:

• STEP #1: Remember why you’re in sales. Focus for a moment what makes you happy and how that’s tied to making a living in sales.
• STEP #2: Remember why you chose this firm. Remind yourself that whatever you’re selling is a vehicle to help fulfill that purpose.
• STEP #3: Quickly Review your manager’s objectives. Visualize your manager’s objectives as being in line with your purpose and how your achievement will make your manager happy.
• STEP #4: Quickly review your company’s strategy. Helping your firm fulfill its strategic goals not only helps fulfill your purpose, but helps your friends, colleagues and customers, too.
• STEP #5: Quickly review your most ambitious goals. Review the goals that, if achieved, will create success for yourself, your manager and your company.  Don’t have goals?  Get some!
• STEP #6: Review your plan for achieving those goals. Having a specific plan builds confidence, commitment and puts you in control of your destiny.  Don’t have a plan?  Get one!
• STEP #7: Decide what you can do, NOW, to move that plan forward. Start executing your plan.  Right now.  It will build momentum that will carry you forward.

With practice, you can easily complete this mental review in 45 seconds or less. I recommend making this a daily habit, right up there with the morning cup of java.

BTW, the above is based on a conversation I had a couple of years ago with the motivation speaker Omar Periu.  It was truly one of the most motivating hours I ever spent!

I’ve been rereading Jeff Thull’s book “Exceptional Selling“.  He’s peppered the book with interesting observations and insight about selling, many of which have sparked me to think about key sales issues.

Here are some of his gems, with my own interpretation of their deeper meaning:

• INSIGHT #1: Salespeople are guilty until proven innocent. While you and I know that selling is the soul of business and a good way to help people, most folk (even in business) tend to look upon the profession with suspicion.  The minute you walk into an office, you need to prove that you can add value and that you’re not trying to pull a fast one.  Sad but true.
• INSIGHT #2: When you’re feeling pressure, you’re doing something wrong. If you’re constantly end the quarter with a flurry of activity, trying desperately to make your numbers, you haven’t managed your time, or you’re not thinking your sales process through.  Selling is not an “unnatural act.”  It’s supposed to be easy, not a struggle against time and fate.
• INSIGHT #3: Never answer an unasked question. It’s all too easy to scuttle a sale by raising issues that haven’t yet entered a prospect’s head.  Such behavior usually occurs when the sales professional is so afraid of losing the sale that he begins surfacing (and answering) objections that exist only in his own paranoia.  Remember, you can’t read minds, so don’t try.
• INSIGHT #4: One opinion does not make a consensus. It’s human nature to take one opinion (usually the last you just heard) and turn it into a final judgment.  However, one opinion is meaningless.  Just because the last prospect thought your offering was a waste of time, doesn’t mean that the next prospect will feel the same way.
• INSIGHT #5: Always protect the customer’s self-esteem. It’s absolutely true that EXACTLY half of all the customer you meet will be of below average intelligence within their demographic.  Even so, it’s your job to help them make good decisions and advance their careers.  And you have to do this gently, without making them feel foolish.
• INSIGHT #7: The purpose of a proposal is to reinforce already-made decisions. While proposals can sometimes help to develop an opportunity, in most cases, the proposal requesting (and writing) process happens after the prospect has already defined the problem and (probably) defined the solution as well.
• INSIGHT #8: Remain professionally involved and emotionally detached. This is perhaps the best advice that anyone ever gave a sales professional.  Taking things personally is the surest way to make yourself miserable.  You can care about the customer, your career and your own firm, but it’s crazy to use any of those as a proof point for your self worth.

READERS: Got any additional insights to share?

I was recently looking through Jeff Thull’s new book “Exceptional Selling” and came across this little nugget of wisdom:

When in doubt, do the opposite of what a salesperson would do.

That’s good advice, because in most cases acting like a “salesperson” is a great way to annoy a prospect.  In fact, you should check your entire shtick to ensure that you don’t sound and look like somebody that’s in Sales.

Not that I’m against Sales!

However, like all professions, Sales has acquired a particular “voice” that’s supposed to be “how a sales pro sounds.”  If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself talking in the overly-glib, fakey-flakey “sales” voice, because you unconsciously consider it part of the identity as a sales professional.

Same thing with your appearance.  There’s a dressed-too-much-for-success look that screams “sales pro” and which, frankly, turns off many prospects.

Am I saying you should mumble all the time and dress like a clown?  Of course not.  But I do believe that you should distance yourself from the stereotypes, because those stereotypes work against you.  They put the prospect on guard and create barriers to closing the deal.

Nowhere is that more true than when you’re at a loss for what to do next. The big danger is that, when you’re in doubt of what to do next, you’ll trap to some “salesy” behavior, like giving a sales pitch or attempting some kind of rapport building.

In such cases, you’re probably better off doing the opposite — like ending the meeting prematurely or even openly questioning whether the prospect really needs your product. I know that sounds crazy, but if you TRULY don’t know what to do, you’re better off doing something completely off the wall than simply continuing to sell.

This morning’s post “More Real Life Sales Managers from Hell” provides some real horror stories about sales managers who wreak havoc.  However, not all — and not even most — sales managers are from hell.  Quite the contrary, many of them are truly committed to helping their sales team become more effective.  With that in mind, here’s two of my favorite people, Gerhard Gschwandtner, publisher of SellingPower magazine and ES Research CEO Dave Stein discussing the nature of sales leadership.  Definitely worth watching.

Full Disclosure: I write for SellingPower magazine, the producers of this video, which also has a distribution agreement with BNET for video content.

The following post was edited from some great material provided by Roger Hamilton, VP of Sales & Marketing at Contact Science.

The underlying reason for poor performance (and low productivity) when setting first appointments on the telephone is a lethal combination of three fears:

• Fear #1: Fear of Sounding Stupid. You’re afraid that once you have a target on the phone, you will stumble and fail to convert the conversation into an appointment.  This is not a fear of “rejection”; it fear comes from not having mastered the skill of converting a conversation into an appointment.
• Fear #2: Fear of Wasted Effort. You’re afraid that you’re not “working” the target correctly; that you are in a random pursuit.  A call here, a call there; leave this voicemail; craft an email, etc., etc. . You’re flailing and you fear your results will correspondingly flail and your efforts will be ineffective.
• Fear #3: Fear of Lousy Process. You have the same hesitation and take the same deep breath you would take before starting to rake leaves with a shovel in a wind storm. Experience says that, even if you’re successful in getting the appointment, there is no efficient way to develop and close the deal.

OK, now what?

Here’s a three point plan to eliminate these fears::

• Step #1: Develop Your Skills. Either through available training or available written material work to improve the ability to control the flow of the conversation, to handle pushback’s and to secure an agreement to meet.  You must learn how to deftly and professionally handle the predictable negative responses to a request for an appointment and still secure an appointment.  As a result, you’ll feel the confidence that comes from being able to control the conversation. (Geoff’s note: Start advice: “The Ultimate Cold Calling Tool.”)
• Step #2: Adopt a Sales Methodology. Find (or create) a written methodology that sets in place the specific pursuit of any group of suspects, including how many times to call, the frequency of those calls and the messaging used in voicemails, emails, and/or videos. Developing the “Best Practice” model will eliminate the feeling of flailing or being caught up in a random pursuit going nowhere.  (Geoff’s advice: Start here: “The Customer-Drive Sales Process.“
• Step #3: Measure and Adapt. Either manually or with available technology develop a way to execute your best practice and training in a way that enables you to track the pursuit of targets very precisely and in the most efficient way. By tracking activity you will gain control and give purpose to your telephone activity. You can begin to determine how many initial appointments you need to make quota, how many conversations you need to get those appointments, how many calls you need to make that conversation goal. (Geoff’s advice: Start here: “Live Post: Sales 2.0 Conference in Chicago“.)

READERS: Got something you’d like to share with the Sales Machine community? Email me a guest post — instructions are HERE.

Use lousy words to describe what you experience and you’re programming yourself to produce lousy results.  Use powerful words to describe those same experiences and you’re programming yourself to be more successful.

Earlier this week, I gave some advice about rejection in “Personal Rejection is an Illusion.“  That advice was so basic that I almost didn’t post it.  Even so, some readers thought the post was just some sort of word game.  Behold:

“I feel that you were circling around the term rejection and trying to convince us that it doesn’t exist. What you say later in the anecdote about the girl confirms rejection, and with the recruiter, it is rejection because you were not chosen.” (comment by Bob Wileman)

“Honestly Geoffrey, it read like you were skirting round the issue and just playing around with words. If a girl you ask out says no, it doesn’t matter whether you call it rejection or you not fitting her rules - it hurts.” (comment by Ian Brodie)

Well, gentlemen, that’s simply not the case.

It’s crazy to cling to the word “rejection” — with all its negative connotations — to characterize an event that’s inevitable in selling situations.  Here’s why…

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A comment to last week’s post “Do You Believe in Rejection?  Too bad.” elicited a comment so completely in error, and so dangerous to sales success, that I’m rebutting it here before it does any serious damage.  Frequent Sales Machine commenter JacquesWerth writes:

That a prospect hangs up on you is not a textbook definition of rejection. It’s merely one type of rejection, which happens during less than ten percent of contacts the average salesperson makes. Most salespeople would not have much of a problem if rejection was limited to that ten percent. However, it is during most of the other contacts they make when more serious rejection occurs.

The most frequently occurring rejection is when the prospect’s response is clearly a personal rejection, whether subtle or overt. The prospect may become non-responsive or display annoyance, frustration, sarcasm, anger, spite or abusiveness. That type of rejection is very difficult for most salespeople to deal with because it is real rejection. Salespeople who experience that kind of treatment and “do not believe in rejection” are hallucinating.

Sales managers and sales trainers who urge salespeople to ignore personal rejection, to develop a thick-skin, or to get over their fear of failure, do not provide a cure for the problem. That just prolongs the agony.

Jaques, what can I say?  While I know from your previous comments that you’re a smart guy, you’re dead wrong about this one.

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This morning’s post “Do You Believe in Rejection?  Too Bad.” explained that rejection is an illusion.  This video has another take on the subject — a complete reframe of the entire situation.  It’s short.  Watch it.  Thank me later.  Because it’s the truth.

The video, BTW, comes from groovtoon, a sales guy who makes his own sales training videos.

Here’s a key secret to sales success: rejection isn’t real

You heard me right. Rejection is an illusion. It doesn’t exist. It’s an half-baked attempt by your brain to impose a reason for an event that has nothing to do with you.

If you can free your mind from that illusion, you’ll be far more successful in sales.

Let me explain.

Fear of rejection is the bane of sales success. If rejections scare you, you’ll avoid cold-calling, balk at hard bargaining and hesitate to close.

Suppose you make a cold call and the prospect hangs up on you. While that’s a textbook definition of “rejection”, the truth is that the prospect’s reaction has nothing to do with you.

What’s actually happened is that you accidentally broke the prospect’s rules. You had no way of knowing that the prospect was busy and that the prospect thinks it’s OK to hang up on unfamiliar callers.

Now it may very well be true that if you said something different or called at a different time, you might have made a sale, but that’s just a fiction that you’re making up in your mind.

If you had called at a different time, the prospect might just as easily have added a expletive before hanging up and then sent a memo directing the company to never buy from you ever again.

The prospect’s reaction really didn’t have anything to do you with personally, because anybody else taking the same action at the same time would have gotten the exact same result. You simply you took an action that didn’t work.

The “rejection” part of the story is just a hallucination that your emotions are creating in order to “explain” what happened.

The problem with fear of rejection is that, once it’s got hold of you, it gets stronger and more debilitating the higher you set your sights.

Once you realize that “rejection” is just an illusion, you can focus on noticing what works and what doesn’t, and on changing your approach to make the most of what you’ve got to offer.

READERS: Do you get this concept?  It’s pretty darn important.