Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

I am confident most sales people do not consider themselves boring.  Most consider themselves 'people people'. When I read the article, 'Eight Tips to Know if You're Boring', it got me thinking about my own sales meetings with prospects and certainly my presentations as a sales development expert. Here are 4 of the 8 tips (click the link above for the rest):

1. Repeated, perfunctory responses:  I see, okay, that's interesting;  if you hear this, you are boring.
2. Simple questions:  How many employees, what are your total losses, what do you like best about your current provider: boring
3. Request for clarification:  When you say, 'tell me more about that I"m not sure I understand', or, 'when you say unhappy with, what do you mean unhappy'; not boring
4. Imbalance of talking time. - if you are doing most of the talking - boring

As I read the article, I thought that we need to be looking at this from both sides of the table:  1)  Are we sending messages that the speaker is boring? - not good when you are in front of a prospect.  2) How are they reacting to me?

Next time you have a sales call, bring someone with you to evaluate your boring quotient.

 The benefits of off-site sales training are clear.

1.  You don't get distracted.  It never fails; if you go to a training session that is held in the same building where you work, you will get distracted.  Either as a sales person or a sales manager, you won't be able to help yourself. 

•  During the break, you will go to your office and see the phone light blinking, and just like Pavlov's dogs, you've been trained to check the message. Inevitably, it will be someone leaving you an urgent and important message that you just MUST attend to now.
• Even when you are not on break, someone will poke their head into the meeting, point over to you and indicate that you have a phone call or that they need to speak with you urgently.

As a result of the interruption, you don't get back into the training session on time and you miss critical conversation or concepts. Not only does that happen, but you've also become distracted mentally, and even though you are now back in the session, you are not fully back 'into' the session.

2.  When you go to an off-site, during the breaks you spend time with your peers instead of going to your office or dealing with staff in the building. Over coffee and a plate of fruit, you get the chance to hear what others are doing that is working as well as hear about their challenges and failures.  These learnings are as important, and in some instances, more important than what is being said as part of the agenda.  This free form conversation carries back into the session and now becomes part of the agenda via questions and open discussion about what others are doing well and what they are facing.  Any well facilitated training program will have an agenda of important items to discuss but the facilitator must customize that content to meet the current needs of the participants.

3.  I am 30,000 feet above Kansas as I post this blog and I have internet connectivity.  That, in itself, is way cool.  I'm heading home from an off-site that I just participated in and facilitated. The 3rd benefit of having an off-site is that you can get the chance to learn Texas Hold'm.  

Post our training for the day, we had a wonderful dinner prepared by Allison and then we started our last learning for the day.  How to negotiate and influence people by subliminal suggestions, body language, asking questions and having fierce conversations about someone's actions and intents.  Certainly, practicing these skills while participating in a game like this has a direct correlation to improving skills in sales negotiation.

So, if you are going to have training sessions, make the investment of time, resources and money to maximize your return on the investment and get out of the office, focus on learning and have some fun.

"Sales vows? Tony, what are you kidding? I've read your exploits about roller skating and selling. I tolerated your stories about ‘if sales people could fly'. Sales vows? Okay, I'll bite."

Thanks.

Yesterday, Linda and I attended the wedding of her cousin's daughter, Kristen. During the ceremony when the priest was providing guidance to what helps a marriage thrive, grow and last, Father Wayne talked about several things but these three hit me as very applicable to sales and selling:

Thank you,forgive me and I love you.

1. Thank you: Anytime you get the chance to tell a prospect or client "thank you", tell them "thank you". Though you've earned the right to be with them, they still have the option to tell you "no" so thank them. Though you did what you needed to do to sell them, they could have still told you "no", so thank them. And when they bring you a problem you would rather avoid or make excuses for, thank them. This leads us very well to "forgive me".

2. Forgive me: Instead of saying, "I'm sorry we messed this up", ask them to forgive you for the mistake. No, you can tie the two together- "I'm sorry; I ask that you forgive me."- but now it is up to the client or prospect to offer the olive branch with forgiveness. Saying "I'm sorry" is an attempt to sweep the event under the rug and hope they forget it. I'm sure you've been in situations in a store or airport where something has gone wrong and the representative says they are sorry. I'm also sure that it does nothing to solve the problem and usually it sounds like something they've been trained to say. It is meaningless most of the time. "Forgive me" on the other hand is a great deal more sincere and it acknowledges that your client now has the power and option to determine what happens next. I promise you it will make them feel better and they will look at you differently.

3. I love you: Well, I admit this is a bit of a stretch for some of you and for others this will make perfect sense. I truly love and care about my clients. I tell them in the very beginning of the relationship that if something is keeping them awake at night, it will keep me awake at night. If something is bothering them, I want it to bother me. Nobody they can hire will care more about their success than I do. When you love someone there is no blame, there is no bitterness, noone boasts, envy doesn't exist and pride fullness is non-existent. This is how relationships, business and personal are supposed to be. Love your clients.

The reception was great. There was lots of laughing, dancing, singing, remembering of weddings past and guessing as to whom is next to walk down the aisle. One of the great moments was when two couples on the floor continued to dance. One couple had been married for 57 years, the other for 61. I imagine that many times they executed the trilogy of "thank you, forgive me and I love you". Imagine having those types of long lasting relationships with your clients.

Selling more can happen in 3 seconds. 

In selling or in boating, you can and will have to make decisions and/or impressions in 3 seconds or less. One of our dock mates at Lake Cumberland was bringing his 18' x 80' houseboat into the marina.  It was dark and he misjudged the entry point to the dock just a bit.  When he attempted to use his thrusters (jets that allow you to move the boat sideways), he discovered that they didn't work.  Apparently, the generator that provided the power to the thrusters had malfunctioned and was no longer running.  He had less than 3 seconds to make a decision and make an adjustment or else he was going to make a ‘real' physical impression on a neighboring boat.

The same holds true when you are attempting to convince a new prospect that they should meet with you.  You have about 3 seconds to make a first impression.  You have to get through the noise of all the other sales people that have called on your prospect (even if you were introduced and they were not).  This prospect compares you to all others regardless of how they got your name.  You have to make an impression and you have to do that with a message that is irresistible.  The purpose of your opening statement is to get the listener to listen to the rest of your pitch.  Much like the boat entering the dock, the first move into the dock sets up the successful landing of the boat within the slip to which you are assigned.  This opening statement, sentence, first paragraph of a presentation, or first page of a proposal is to get the participant to decide to keep listening or reading.  You have 3 seconds to make an impression.  Trust me, regardless of what you do, they will have an impression. The impression you leave them with is up to you.

What you decide in the next 3 seconds can and will impact your success.