Shawn Johnson wins the gold medal in balance beam!  She gets the picture on the Wheaties Box.  Nastia comes in second - no cereal box contract.  Same as in selling, there isn't a cereal box contract when you come in 2^nd.

Not only isn't there a cereal box contract, but there also isn't:

1. Revenue
2. Margin contribution or profit
3. Commission
4. Increase in market share
5. Improvement in status among your competitors

Don't delude yourself into thinking that 2^nd is ok because it isn't.  Thinking so only lowers your standard for success for your next sales opportunity.  Thinking that ‘at least they know what we can do' is a good thing is anything but; all it demonstrates is that you didn't come to the table to get the deal done.

Coming in second means nothing more than you were the top one to lose the opportunity.   Yes, lessons learned are good, but commissions aren't tied to lessons, and lessons don't become lessons learned if you fail to learn why you didn't get the deal.

This isn't school yard soccer or baseball where parents wipe the noses of crying kids that lose the big game and tell them ‘it's ok, winning isn't everything'.  This is the big leagues where winning does count and it does mean everything.

Therefore, the next time you want to find comfort in doing a good job and working hard, remember the famous line from the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation:

Audrey Griswold:  "he worked really hard grandpa"

Grandpa Art Smith:  "So do washing machines."

In my post "5 Questions to convert more appointments to sales opportunities" I talked about asking 5 key questions to get more of your appointments to become actual sales opportunities.  In addition, regardless of how well you conduct those questions, and the additional questions about time, money and resources and undoing a current relationship, typically, you will leave an appointment, only to be disappointed by unforeseen delays.  We have to fix that problem.  We will do that with the following steps:

1. What will get in the way of getting started and how do we overcome any hurdles or obstacles?
2. (Assuming that you've eliminated or helped your prospect overcome their hurdles then you proceed)  To move forward in the process of fixing your problem, I need for you to provide to me today a signed letter of agreement on the following:
1. We will begin the assessment process of the severity of your problem
2. We will deliver our findings of your problems as they compare to best practices.
3. We will provide you with a direction to take so that when you take that direction, either with us or someone else, you will begin to convert your problem today from a completely unsatisfactory (how they described it today) problem to extra-ordinary results
3. The cost to conduct the assessment, provide findings and direction is __________.  I will need a check for that amount by _________.
4. Spread some corn for the chickens - this is what you can expect to happen over the next 90 days.

It is absolutely critical that you ‘test' the waters relative to your prospects commitment and actual tipping point to take action.  Do not delude yourself into thinking that you will actually get a signed agreement or the check.  They are important but not critical.  What is critical is that based on their response to these steps you now will know if you have an appointment with a suspect that has been successfully converted to a sales opportunity.

Here are 5 questions to help you accomplish the 3 "not complicated" steps in selling.  These 5 questions have everything to do with finding out the problems and getting them to commit to fixing those problems.

• 1. What is the biggest problem that you are having now that caused you to take time out of your business schedule to meet with me? (Assume it is something to do with your product and service.)
• 2. In a word, how would you describe your satisfaction with (Company) today? (Assume the word is not extra-ordinary)
• 3. What is the key metric that you are using today to measure your success at (Company) (the problem)?
• 4. What is your "tipping point"? In other words, how much worse must the problem become before you decide that you will fix the problem?
• 5. (Assuming your prospect says: I have to fix it now) Suppose we / I could fix that problem what would happen next?

I'm sure you are aware that there are more than these 5 questions; however, asking these 5 questions will help you separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.  You still have to uncover budget to fix the problem, and their ability to fire their current relationship; however, until the prospect has arrived at this "tipping point' or "have to" moment, nothing else matters.

In many of our sales training classes we talk about the importance of asking open-ended questions of your prospects.  We talk about how your success in selling more business, more quickly, is proportionate to your ability to ask more of the right questions, the right way at the right time.  Today here are the 3 questions you need to ask yourself to determine if you have what it takes to be a world class sales person.

1. Are you passionate about selling?  Do you love contacting people, asking them questions and being strong enough to get people to make timely decisions?  Or, do you hesitate to call new people, shy away from fierce conversations and tough questions and do you have prospects that tell you they will think it over and get back to you?
2. Are you committed to success in selling?  Are you today doing everything possible to succeed, or are you only doing those things that are comfortable for you?  Being committed means doing everything to succeed.  That means changing, learning, challenging, risking and failing.  Is this you?
3. Do you take responsibility for your results?  Not just sales results but also your sales activity results.  Do you make excuses when you don't prospect as you should?  Do you blame your company and its' approach to the market if you find that your product is more expensive?  And just as important, do you take credit for your success or in your attempt to appear humble, do you attribute your success either to an individual sale or to ‘luck'.  If you allow yourself to be lucky, then certainly you will allow yourself to be unlucky.

There are many attributes to look at when attempting to identify those shared by top sales people. There are many personality traits and characteristics that you could point to that if possessed would lead you to believe that you should be successful in selling.  But ultimately the true assessment of your ability to grow and succeed in selling is based on your desire, commitment and ability to take responsibility.  Without those three, you will sell, but you will be challenged to be as good as the world class salesperson you aspire to be.

Michael Phelps won the 200 meter individual medley in world record time with water in his swim goggles.  I can't imagine that if he had lost we would have made the water in the swim goggles problem the reason for his loss.  I just can't imagine.  What does this have to do with selling and sales goggles?  Everything if you want to sell more, sell more quickly and at higher margins.

What I do hear during our sales training sessions though is:

• Our prices are not competitive
• The competition is better positioned in the marketplace
• We got into the deal late
• The incumbent relationship came in at the last minute and took our proposal
• We don't have the right product mix to compete
• The goals are unrealistic in this economic environment

If Michael Phelps were a sales person I cannot imagine him ever making excuses as to why he didnt' get a deal or why he was failing to hit target in the above fashion.  In stead he would say something that started with "I".

So here is my encouragement and lesson in 3 steps:

1. Know that there is always a likelyhood of getting 'water' in your sales goggles
2. Have a strategy to deal with 'water' in your sales goggles
3. Take full responsibility for your results even when you have 'water' in your sales goggles

I believe you will be amazed as to how often you will win when you compete for business when you begin to realize improved sales results are entirely up to you.  I also believe that once you accept that responsibility then not only will you begin to set new higher personal best but others will begin to consider you and Olympian sales professional.

     When you blow out the birthday candles, how do you normally do that, sitting or standing?  I have to believe that our family is representative of most other families and, except for my son, Anthony, who is in a wheelchair, we blow out candles standing up. I'm not sure why.  But it did get me thinking about presentations to close a sale.

     You should present standing up.  It is show time.  After all that time of asking questions and listening, now is the time to demonstrate that you are extra-ordinary.  You are in command.  You are the expert.  You know what to do and you will now divulge to your audience, the prospect, why they should buy from you. 

1. Standing gives you the appearance of confidence.  Do you want to buy from someone with confidence?
2. Standing up is different.  Do you want to be judged just like all the others who present or do you want your prospect to think, ‘well now, this one is different'?
3. By standing up your voice will change to a deeper tone which will grab people's attention.  Do you not love listening to James Earl Jones?
4. Standing up changes your posture in the room.  You will no longer be viewed as a potential vendor but more like someone in authority within their own company.  Is that a good thing?
5. And, if you crash and burn, it's easier to run out the door.

     Call to action:  Prior to your next sales presentation, conduct a dry run of the meeting in front of staff or peers.  Ask them to prepare for the meeting as if they were the prospect.  And make sure that, as part of this dry run, you strategically plan when you will stand, why you will stand and what impact that you are hoping to achieve as a result.

     If you truly want to be different and have a significant impact while presenting, stand for what you believe in:  yourself, your product and your company.

I'm heading to a sales training session about 12 years ago.  It's a client in downtown Cincinnati and I've been working with them for two years.  They know me as a high energy, enthusiastic and entertaining sales trainer.  In other words I stand up, I move around, I'm engaged, I role play, we learn a lot and people make more sales.

I'm running late this one particular day so I grab a chocolate chip bran muffin (These are the best bran muffins made in the world and they are made by my wife Linda) and a bottle of Gatorade and off I go.  It is early, about 6:45 and it is dark, mid January.

As I am driving and eating I sense that something has fallen from my muffin onto my lap or more accurately under the crotch of my pants.  My best hope is that it is a piece of the bran muffin.  My worst fear is that it is a chocolate chip.

I get to the office early, thank goodness no one is there yet, and I sprint to the men's room only to discover my worst fear.  As I turn around and look at my ‘disaster khakis' (They are called this because it seems that I always come home wearing some food on them somewhere), there in exactly the right spot on the back of my pants is a notable brown spot that will easily be seen by anyone behind me.

I get to the training room, set up my flip chart with my notes, the white board with further information and then firmly plant myself in the chair at the head of the conference table and do not move for the next 3 hours.

Now I don't know what the participants thought.  Surely they had to find this strange as I never sit down during a session.  And certainly I was polite as I shook hands with them as they left.  Then and only then did I find a way back out of the office with my spot unrevealed by any of my participants,  to come home and rid myself of the disaster khakis once and for all.

So what is your funniest sales story ever?  We know that you have one!  What we're looking for here is a little fun over the next several weeks.  We would love for you to share with all those that view this blog your funniest or most embarrassing sales moment, sales call or selling situation.  After 30 days we will announce a winner for this years' "Funniest Sales Story'.

Come one, come all, let's have some fun.  As a matter of fact, I will call on our CMO, Jeni Wehrmeyer, to share her story.  It may be one of the funniest of all time.

You want to become ‘sales buff?'  If yes, then you have to make sure you understand what it takes to be buff and what happens if you are buffalo.

If you exercise at all, or if you've seen someone that really works out a lot, then you know the term ‘buff'.  To get buff you have to constantly improve in at least three areas:  your food intake, your cardio vascular fitness and your muscular definition.  You work on those three items and you end up with those well defined muscles .

Click here to find out if you are buff or buffalo in your professional sales career.

First let me make it clear that I'm not talking about actually selling raccoons, nor am I talking about raccoons that can sell.

At State Dock in the Lake Cumberland State Park we have raccoons.  I'm sure you are thinking ‘dah'.  Raccoons at a state park.  No, I'm talking about at the dock.  Our slip is about ½ mile from the main entrance to the marina and we have raccoons.  And yes, they do what all landlubber raccoons do and that is; find left over food where ever they can find it and eat it.  The interesting part of this and the link to our post today is the ‘where ever they can find it' segment.

These raccoons, like all raccoons, have those qualities that we would all admire and hope to develop as sales people:

1. Instant bonding and rapport.  Even though we all know that these raccoon supposedly are carriers of the rabies disease it never fails that people describe them as cute and clever.  Never, not once have I heard some one scream in terror at sighting a raccoon.
2. They truly are fearless - no matter what you attempt to do to scare them off.  They do not scare off.  (No need for approval, no fear of rejection). They may leave your boat or slip area but they will not run away.  They just kind of saunter or scamper off.
3. Once they leave you will find them somewhere further down the dock - prospecting - for new food.  (No difficulty recovering from rejection or failure)
4. Once they smell the prospect for food they will try multiple ways to get over, under, through or around any kind of containment device that is the barrier between them and their meal.  (passionate, committed and persistent)
5. They close.  They may not get every meal but they eat.  The only metric you need to verify that they close is the girth of the bodies of these animals. They are not the scrawny scavenger type of animals that barely eke out an existence.  It is very evident that they eat well and often.

So next time you are thinking about your sales skills and those characteristics necessary for success in selling, think raccoon.

When it comes to sales and sales training you can't begin to imagine how much information is available on the internet.  Well maybe you can.  If you have searched for information and just typed in sales training you will get page after page after page of info.  Some great, some ok and some, well let's just leave it at that.

I've taken the liberty of providing you my favorites and my recommendations for books, sites and other trainers that will enhance your overall sales development:

Books:

Baseline Selling - Dave Kurlan

You can't learn to ride a bicycle in a seminar - David Sandler

How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success  - Frank Bettger

Little Red Book of Selling - Jeffrey Gitomer

Strategic Selling - Miller / Heiman

Getting To Yes - William Ury

Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi

Sites:

Baseline Selling

Objective Management Group

Gazelles

Guy Kawasaki

AllBusiness.com

Sales Force One

The Sales Coach

Trainers:

ACTG Staff - Chris Carlson, Mark Trinkle and Walt Gerano

Dave Kurlan Associates - David Kurlan, Chris Mott

Sales Concepts Inc. - Al Strauss

Gulas Group Inc. - Ted Gulas

HRU Goals - Mark Riesenberg

Referral Coach - Bill Cates