I was bidding on a piece of business that was referred to me by one of the phone vendors I work with. I consider business referred by a vendor to have a high probability of closing. Smaller businesses can’t afford to have full time I.T. or telecom personnel, so they lean on their vendors and typically go with their recommendations.
The phone vendor and I met with a woman given the responsibility of gathering pricing and product information. She had experience working with my vendor contact and was pleased with his work. Since I was an independent agent, I could offer her any option available in the market place. After meeting with this woman, I was 90% sure we would win the business. So, I was a bit taken back when I followed up with her a week later and was informed that they decided to go in a different direction.
What happened?
We never met with the decision maker, that was a problem, but we did meet with the influencer. The main reason was that the decision maker had a personal relationship with the sales rep that won the deal.
In this deal, there was a third party who had no personal connection; they just happened to show up at the right place at the right time. But where did that get them besides wasting their time and effort? If the sales person that sold the deal was the back door, I represented the side door and the third rep was the front door.
If you’re dependant on earning a living by approaching every prospect cold, with no personal connection - coming through the front door - get ready to apply for food stamps and always have your resume ready.
Here’s another example:
I was assigned Yuma, Arizona for a territory when I was with Qwest. 99% of the Qwest reps that were assigned Yuma never set foot in the place. When I went prospecting in Yuma, I was warmly received and many decision makers dropped what they were doing and met with me on the spot. After 20 or so cold calls, I felt like I owned the town. Right away, I made a list of the top companies headquartered in Yuma. I figured, over time, I would own all these accounts. One of the biggest companies was a seed company. They had the competitor’s service and my prices were lower. What I didn’t know was that the phone vendor, who sold them their service, was the boss’s wife.
Yuma, Arizona seemed like front door heaven, but there’s no such thing. The only way to have long term, sustainable success in sales is to establish a dependable source of referral agents. That’s the closest thing to owning a key to the back door of selling. Keep that in mind and spend the majority of your efforts towards making that a reality. You still need to cold call, but instead of trying to determine who’s in charge and if the company is shopping for your service, focus on determining who the company’s vendors are and how to make contact with them. Have a way to incent them to work with you. If you’re professional and have something to offer, you still might need to find them some business before they agree to work with you.
I made contact with a commercial leasing agent. Commercial leasing agents are sort of the holy grail of referral agents in my business, because they could get you in on the ground floor of a lot of different opportunities. I called this guy because he advertised in a magazine we were considering advertising in and I wanted to know if he was receiving value for his investment. I thought that was a clever approach because it got him to drop his guard and allowed me time to talk to him. Turns out, he was opening a new office and happened to be shopping for the services that I sell. We met and hit it off because he had run in college, like I did, and had similar personalities. I thought I had hit the jack pot; I thought I had finally found a real estate professional that was going to send me a stream of new business.
I bid on his services but lost out because Cox was available where he was and that was the one provider I couldn’t sell and their rates were dirt cheap. I didn’t think that was too big of a deal. Then one of the phone vendors I work with missed our appointment. Then he wasn’t impressed by the other phone vendor I brought in. Then I missed the rescheduled appointment for the first guy because my car wouldn’t start. Then he went with his own phone guy. I went from the reaching the holy grail to making some guy wonder why I drove a crappy car.
Sure enough, he stopped taking all my calls and when he did get on the phone, he was short with me. It got so bad that when he wanted to return a book I lent him about running, he tried to leave it outside his office for me; he didn’t want me to come in to retrieve it from him in person. I had to find another way. I didn’t panic. I waited until I found an opportunity for him. I did that but didn’t call him about it. I waited and found a second opportunity. Then I called and I could tell his attitude had changed. He realized that it was going to be a mutually beneficial business relationship.
And where am I headed with this? If making a sale is equivalent to receiving a meal, establishing a relationship with a referral agent is the equivalent of learning how to farm. And farming is the back door of selling.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Resting On Your Laurels
What have you done for me lately? That seems to be the sales battle cry. A sales career can be one without progress. In every other profession, you start out near the bottom and work your way up. Not so much in sales. You may gain experience and product knowledge and be assigned larger accounts…and still be competing with kids right out of college. In other careers, experience leads to promotions, prestige and more money. In sales, you’re only as important as your last month of production.
In sales, your base salary will stay pretty much the same from the start of your career until the day you retire. The only increases you’ll see will be due to inflation. And, if you get a boost, you’ll be expected to sell more.
So, let’s say you have a run of success and you end up being top salesperson for eight straight months. You start feeling pretty darn good about yourself. You got a strut to your step, managers repeatedly use you as an example to your underperforming cohorts and gradually you start forming the opinion that odor and you are mutually exclusive. If you’re a man, every woman in the office smiles at you, if you’re a woman, you make all the male reps’ privates shrink.
Then a few things transpire, in descending order:
1. You lose some of your fire.
2. You start feeling pressure to stay on top.
3. You start looking for management to rescue you with a promotion.
You’re making money and you need time to spend it. You start shopping during work hours, eating lunch at nice restaurants and leaving work early on Fridays. You take more vacations. You start relying too heavily on your sales funnel and stop prospecting. All of a sudden sales aren’t pouring in as they used to. Some other sales rep’s totals start approaching your own. Pretty soon your manager starts asking you what’s going on, what you’ve been up to and how you’re going to fix things. You start feeling disrespected. You vow to work harder but you’ve developed bad habits that are difficult to correct. Your sales figures continue to dip and you start to lose confidence. As your confidence drops, you get nervous when you prospect; you put off callbacks and hesitate to close. You start to wonder if you lost confidence because you stopped selling or if you stopped selling because you lost confidence. Next thing you know, your manager starts talking about an action plan. Action plan? You were top rep, eight months in a row! You can’t believe you’re being treated with such contempt. You start looking for a new job but no one seems interested because they sense your desperation.
What happened?
You rested on your laurels. You started to believe that sales was something it isn’t and that your sales totals from one month would mean something months later. Instead of building on your efforts, you’re going to have to start all over again, with another organization. Hopefully you’ll be able to get the hunger to sell once again.
What to do?
Stay humble and hungry. Don’t look at sales reports or listen to managers. Don’t think you have some kind of special gift or that you were born to sell. Don’t get too high or too low, stay even keeled.
In sales, your base salary will stay pretty much the same from the start of your career until the day you retire. The only increases you’ll see will be due to inflation. And, if you get a boost, you’ll be expected to sell more.
So, let’s say you have a run of success and you end up being top salesperson for eight straight months. You start feeling pretty darn good about yourself. You got a strut to your step, managers repeatedly use you as an example to your underperforming cohorts and gradually you start forming the opinion that odor and you are mutually exclusive. If you’re a man, every woman in the office smiles at you, if you’re a woman, you make all the male reps’ privates shrink.
Then a few things transpire, in descending order:
1. You lose some of your fire.
2. You start feeling pressure to stay on top.
3. You start looking for management to rescue you with a promotion.
You’re making money and you need time to spend it. You start shopping during work hours, eating lunch at nice restaurants and leaving work early on Fridays. You take more vacations. You start relying too heavily on your sales funnel and stop prospecting. All of a sudden sales aren’t pouring in as they used to. Some other sales rep’s totals start approaching your own. Pretty soon your manager starts asking you what’s going on, what you’ve been up to and how you’re going to fix things. You start feeling disrespected. You vow to work harder but you’ve developed bad habits that are difficult to correct. Your sales figures continue to dip and you start to lose confidence. As your confidence drops, you get nervous when you prospect; you put off callbacks and hesitate to close. You start to wonder if you lost confidence because you stopped selling or if you stopped selling because you lost confidence. Next thing you know, your manager starts talking about an action plan. Action plan? You were top rep, eight months in a row! You can’t believe you’re being treated with such contempt. You start looking for a new job but no one seems interested because they sense your desperation.
What happened?
You rested on your laurels. You started to believe that sales was something it isn’t and that your sales totals from one month would mean something months later. Instead of building on your efforts, you’re going to have to start all over again, with another organization. Hopefully you’ll be able to get the hunger to sell once again.
What to do?
Stay humble and hungry. Don’t look at sales reports or listen to managers. Don’t think you have some kind of special gift or that you were born to sell. Don’t get too high or too low, stay even keeled.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Be Like Lenny
Baseball is a sport that requires mental toughness. You can have all the talent in the world but if you can’t control your mind, you won’t be successful. The best baseball players fail 70% of the time. An At Bat can range from swinging and missing to fouling off a pitch, to stroking a single up the middle. You can hit a sharp line drive that‘s snagged by a baseman, or a weak floater that somehow drops in. Slumps can hit you like a disease; they’re consuming and the harder you try to overcome them, the more you’ll struggle.
To be a good hitter, you need to forget striking out the moment you start your walk back to the dugout. Players that don’t possess this ability are bound to fail. As a fan, you want to see your favorites fired up and competitive, but the best players stay cool and collected.
In Michael Lewis’ book, Money Ball, he describes two players, Billy Beane and Lenny Dykstra. Billy Beane was a five-tool player; he could run, throw, hit for power and average and field his position. But failures ate at Beane and baseball is a game of failure. Dykstra didn’t know any better. He was talented, but not like Beane. Self doubt wasn’t part of Dykstra’s make up and if he got one hit and struck out three times in a game, the only thing he remembered was the hit.(1)
In his book, Lewis described how a few Mets’ players were watching in awe as Hall of Fame pitcher, Steve Carlton warmed up. Carlton won over 300 games in his career and had one of the nastiest sliders in baseball history. Dykstra didn’t know who he was, and after being informed, he proclaimed, “Shit. I’ll stick him.”
What does this have to do with sales? Sales is like baseball. When you’re making calls and someone is rude to you, it’s like striking out in baseball. If the best baseball players fail 70% of the time, the best salespeople fail 75% of the time. And just as the best baseball players shrug off strike outs and errors, the best salespeople shrug off rejection.
If it’s Monday morning and you find out you lost a big sale, you got to forget about it and move forward, the same way a hitter needs to forget a 0 for. If you check out or take the rest of the day off, how many others sales are you affecting?
In baseball, if you start thinking of all the stuff stacked against you - fast balls, change ups, curve balls and sliders, all the fielders – you’re going to fail. The same thing is true in sales. If you start thinking about your competition, your pricing, whether or not people want to talk to you, no solicitation signs…you might as well stay home. Heck, if you were thinking of all those things, you already called in sick.
In sales, ignorance is bliss and introspective salespeople fall like flies. Enter a business or a call like you have the greatest news or the most valuable information to share. If you’re hung up on or asked to leave, don’t give it a second thought. If a potential customer calls to inform you that they decided to go another way, thank them for the opportunity and start looking for your next opportunity. Focus on success, strengths and acceptance, not failure, weaknesses and rejection.
Be like Lenny.
(1) Dykstra had the same mentality in the financial world and although it started out well, he lost everything, including his wife, and made a lot of enemies along the way.
To be a good hitter, you need to forget striking out the moment you start your walk back to the dugout. Players that don’t possess this ability are bound to fail. As a fan, you want to see your favorites fired up and competitive, but the best players stay cool and collected.
In Michael Lewis’ book, Money Ball, he describes two players, Billy Beane and Lenny Dykstra. Billy Beane was a five-tool player; he could run, throw, hit for power and average and field his position. But failures ate at Beane and baseball is a game of failure. Dykstra didn’t know any better. He was talented, but not like Beane. Self doubt wasn’t part of Dykstra’s make up and if he got one hit and struck out three times in a game, the only thing he remembered was the hit.(1)
In his book, Lewis described how a few Mets’ players were watching in awe as Hall of Fame pitcher, Steve Carlton warmed up. Carlton won over 300 games in his career and had one of the nastiest sliders in baseball history. Dykstra didn’t know who he was, and after being informed, he proclaimed, “Shit. I’ll stick him.”
What does this have to do with sales? Sales is like baseball. When you’re making calls and someone is rude to you, it’s like striking out in baseball. If the best baseball players fail 70% of the time, the best salespeople fail 75% of the time. And just as the best baseball players shrug off strike outs and errors, the best salespeople shrug off rejection.
If it’s Monday morning and you find out you lost a big sale, you got to forget about it and move forward, the same way a hitter needs to forget a 0 for. If you check out or take the rest of the day off, how many others sales are you affecting?
In baseball, if you start thinking of all the stuff stacked against you - fast balls, change ups, curve balls and sliders, all the fielders – you’re going to fail. The same thing is true in sales. If you start thinking about your competition, your pricing, whether or not people want to talk to you, no solicitation signs…you might as well stay home. Heck, if you were thinking of all those things, you already called in sick.
In sales, ignorance is bliss and introspective salespeople fall like flies. Enter a business or a call like you have the greatest news or the most valuable information to share. If you’re hung up on or asked to leave, don’t give it a second thought. If a potential customer calls to inform you that they decided to go another way, thank them for the opportunity and start looking for your next opportunity. Focus on success, strengths and acceptance, not failure, weaknesses and rejection.
Be like Lenny.
(1) Dykstra had the same mentality in the financial world and although it started out well, he lost everything, including his wife, and made a lot of enemies along the way.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Selling During the Holidays:
Send every networking contact, prospect, customer and referral agent a personal email wishing them a Happy Holidays. But, you can’t say “Merry Christmas” because not everyone believes in or celebrates Christmas. If you broadcast an email, make sure it’s personalized.
Visit all your customers and bring a gift. If your company provides you with gift baskets or cookie tins, use those. If not, shell out your own dough and write it off at tax time.
Make sure you send a nice gift to your biggest referral agents. If someone has sent you business during the year or could send you some business, make sure you honor them. Use services like Proflowers and have gift baskets delivered to their homes. If you’re dealing with a man, send something he can give his wife or girlfriend. It will make him look like a big shot and he’ll want to help you out in the future.
Sponsor a holiday party. Many businesses are cutting back. If there’s a large sale that you’ve been trying to land, sponsor that company’s onsite holiday party.
Prospect. It’s easy to say that it’s the holidays and no one is working, but if you look, rush-hour is still taking place every morning and afternoon. Someone is working. If you’re out there working it, you’ll set yourself apart from the competition, business owners will admire your tenacity and everyone is in a better mood during the holidays, so they should be nicer.
Plan ahead. Write down a strategy for success to follow throughout the next year.
Set goals. Write down a list of goals you want to accomplish during the coming year.
Don’t disappear. Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than calling or emailing you and then hearing an away message or receiving a “Out of Office” email. Imagine if someone wanted to buy, called you and heard an away message? Who do you think they would call next? Your competitor, that’s who. In today’s world, with Black Berries and web based email, there’s no excuse to not check your messages. You’re in sales, if you want to disappear over the holidays, get a job at a college.
Visit all your customers and bring a gift. If your company provides you with gift baskets or cookie tins, use those. If not, shell out your own dough and write it off at tax time.
Make sure you send a nice gift to your biggest referral agents. If someone has sent you business during the year or could send you some business, make sure you honor them. Use services like Proflowers and have gift baskets delivered to their homes. If you’re dealing with a man, send something he can give his wife or girlfriend. It will make him look like a big shot and he’ll want to help you out in the future.
Sponsor a holiday party. Many businesses are cutting back. If there’s a large sale that you’ve been trying to land, sponsor that company’s onsite holiday party.
Prospect. It’s easy to say that it’s the holidays and no one is working, but if you look, rush-hour is still taking place every morning and afternoon. Someone is working. If you’re out there working it, you’ll set yourself apart from the competition, business owners will admire your tenacity and everyone is in a better mood during the holidays, so they should be nicer.
Plan ahead. Write down a strategy for success to follow throughout the next year.
Set goals. Write down a list of goals you want to accomplish during the coming year.
Don’t disappear. Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than calling or emailing you and then hearing an away message or receiving a “Out of Office” email. Imagine if someone wanted to buy, called you and heard an away message? Who do you think they would call next? Your competitor, that’s who. In today’s world, with Black Berries and web based email, there’s no excuse to not check your messages. You’re in sales, if you want to disappear over the holidays, get a job at a college.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Selling in a Small Town
If you’re ever assigned a small town for a territory, here are some tips:
• Visit as many businesses as possible. When you visit a business, don’t solicit as much as mine information; act like you’re a detective solving a crime. What you’re trying to determine is the state of the market place: who are the key players, how your company and its competition are performing and what issues the business community is facing.
• Identify all the key vendors servicing the community. Small businesses rely on vendors and it’s important to work through them. Typically, you need a way to compensate the vendors for referred business. At the same time, you want to reach out directly to the businesses in the community. Word will get back to the vendors that you’ve been proactively looking for new business and that should provide you with more leverage in your dealings with them.
• Use the phone as little as possible. Small town people are wary of outsiders. Outsiders pester them with phone calls. Showing up in person means a lot.
• Attend Chamber and other networking events. Normally, I think Chamber events are a waste of time, but not in a small town.(1) In small towns, business leaders actually attend events and will talk to you.
• Make regular visits and keep in touch with existing customers. This shows that you care and will lead to referred business. Small town business people know each other and if you perform and prove to be trustworthy, they will recommend you to their friends.
• Find something, anything, to connect you to the town. If your wife is from the town, if a relative of yours lived there or is married to someone that grew up there…mention that information when you are talking to the business people. Know the area; throw out names of local businesses and business people. Use their terminology. I sold in Yuma, AZ and there was a part of town called the “big curve”; they had an “old mall” and a “new mall”.(2) If I was asking where a business was, for instance, and it was near the “big curve”, I would say, “big curve”. It helped make the people there feel more comfortable around me.
(1) I went to a Chamber breakfast in Yuma, AZ that started at 6:30 am and when I showed up at 6:35 it was already packed and I had to scramble to find an empty seat.
(2) The “new mall” was over five years old and will probably be called the “new mall" until an even newer mall is constructed, sometime in 2020.
• Visit as many businesses as possible. When you visit a business, don’t solicit as much as mine information; act like you’re a detective solving a crime. What you’re trying to determine is the state of the market place: who are the key players, how your company and its competition are performing and what issues the business community is facing.
• Identify all the key vendors servicing the community. Small businesses rely on vendors and it’s important to work through them. Typically, you need a way to compensate the vendors for referred business. At the same time, you want to reach out directly to the businesses in the community. Word will get back to the vendors that you’ve been proactively looking for new business and that should provide you with more leverage in your dealings with them.
• Use the phone as little as possible. Small town people are wary of outsiders. Outsiders pester them with phone calls. Showing up in person means a lot.
• Attend Chamber and other networking events. Normally, I think Chamber events are a waste of time, but not in a small town.(1) In small towns, business leaders actually attend events and will talk to you.
• Make regular visits and keep in touch with existing customers. This shows that you care and will lead to referred business. Small town business people know each other and if you perform and prove to be trustworthy, they will recommend you to their friends.
• Find something, anything, to connect you to the town. If your wife is from the town, if a relative of yours lived there or is married to someone that grew up there…mention that information when you are talking to the business people. Know the area; throw out names of local businesses and business people. Use their terminology. I sold in Yuma, AZ and there was a part of town called the “big curve”; they had an “old mall” and a “new mall”.(2) If I was asking where a business was, for instance, and it was near the “big curve”, I would say, “big curve”. It helped make the people there feel more comfortable around me.
(1) I went to a Chamber breakfast in Yuma, AZ that started at 6:30 am and when I showed up at 6:35 it was already packed and I had to scramble to find an empty seat.
(2) The “new mall” was over five years old and will probably be called the “new mall" until an even newer mall is constructed, sometime in 2020.
Monday, December 14, 2009
5 Ways to Beat the Stress of Sales
Selling can be very stressful and eat at your psyche. What other occupation regularly subjects you to hang ups and abrupt emails, requires you to walk uninvited into businesses, compels you to reach out to so many people and expose yourself to so much rejection?
Typically you need to make ten phone calls to make one appointment and four appointments to make one sale. That means you will hear the word “no” thirty-six times before you’ll make one sale. Many times, you would love to hear the word “no” because so many prospects just stop returning phone calls and communicating with you.
Making a sale can expose you to a whole slew of other issues. These include: botched installs, missing signatures or paperwork, mispriced products, serviceability issues, delayed or canceled orders, sales and commission disputes.
A manager once told me that sometimes you just need to go home, get some rest and come back the next day ready to go.
So, sales can get rough. Here are some ways for you to stay strong and positive:
• Get a dog. There’s nothing like coming home to your dog. A dog greets you like it won the lottery and you’re delivering the check. There’s no way you can’t feel better when your dog goes crazy each time you walk in the door. Dogs love to go for walks, which brings me to my next suggestion.
• Exercise. Exercise burns off stress, will make you feel better about yourself, keeps you in shape and energized and releases endorphins in your brain. Depression seems to be a modern phenomenon. Before the 1900’s people didn’t have time to be depressed, because they were working their asses off. So now things are easier and we’re all living like kings, so you have to move your body and get your blood pumping. At least you’re not digging graves or cleaning up after horses.
• Avoid alcohol and tobacco. When you drink and smoke, you might feel better but it’s only temporary; you’re only delaying the effects of stress. If you feel bad and drown your sorrows, you’re going to feel even worse when you sober up.
• Live a healthy lifestyle. Get your sleep and eat right. If you’re stressed and you aren’t sleeping enough and eating garbage, you’re going to be a stressed out, sleepy, fat person.
• Enjoy yourself when you’re not working. Don’t live to work, work to live. Don’t be one of those people who sit around until they have to work again, live your life. It will make you a more interesting person when you’re in front of clients.
Typically you need to make ten phone calls to make one appointment and four appointments to make one sale. That means you will hear the word “no” thirty-six times before you’ll make one sale. Many times, you would love to hear the word “no” because so many prospects just stop returning phone calls and communicating with you.
Making a sale can expose you to a whole slew of other issues. These include: botched installs, missing signatures or paperwork, mispriced products, serviceability issues, delayed or canceled orders, sales and commission disputes.
A manager once told me that sometimes you just need to go home, get some rest and come back the next day ready to go.
So, sales can get rough. Here are some ways for you to stay strong and positive:
• Get a dog. There’s nothing like coming home to your dog. A dog greets you like it won the lottery and you’re delivering the check. There’s no way you can’t feel better when your dog goes crazy each time you walk in the door. Dogs love to go for walks, which brings me to my next suggestion.
• Exercise. Exercise burns off stress, will make you feel better about yourself, keeps you in shape and energized and releases endorphins in your brain. Depression seems to be a modern phenomenon. Before the 1900’s people didn’t have time to be depressed, because they were working their asses off. So now things are easier and we’re all living like kings, so you have to move your body and get your blood pumping. At least you’re not digging graves or cleaning up after horses.
• Avoid alcohol and tobacco. When you drink and smoke, you might feel better but it’s only temporary; you’re only delaying the effects of stress. If you feel bad and drown your sorrows, you’re going to feel even worse when you sober up.
• Live a healthy lifestyle. Get your sleep and eat right. If you’re stressed and you aren’t sleeping enough and eating garbage, you’re going to be a stressed out, sleepy, fat person.
• Enjoy yourself when you’re not working. Don’t live to work, work to live. Don’t be one of those people who sit around until they have to work again, live your life. It will make you a more interesting person when you’re in front of clients.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Embrace Sales
Often, I’ve let myself feel down about being a sales rep. I’ve let myself fall into the trap of wishing I had pursued a more dignified or specialized career; one that didn’t have the ups and downs and the “what have you done for me lately?” mentality that comes with sales.
Why?
Sales is a career that doesn’t seem to have a barrier for entry. There’s seldom a license required, college is not a prerequisite; if you can talk and know how to get dressed, you’re in. I have worked with reps that didn’t attend college, could barely write, had trouble reading, were chronically late and didn’t know how to use a single Microsoft Office program. I worked with a woman that wanted me to help her with her computer, because the screen was dark, and after looking at it for ten seconds, I realized that the monitor was turned off.
When you get right down to it, your brain might be your own worst enemy in some sales jobs. If you think about things too much in sales, you’re going to talk yourself out of cold calling and making follow up calls.
So, for whatever reason, you ended up in sales, had some success, formed a life style that required a certain level of income, couldn’t get yourself into management and now you’re stuck working in an industry with a bunch of half wits. And every time some receptionist talks down to you, a prospect
no-shows for an appointment or someone won’t return your call or email; you ask yourself, “What did I do to end up in sales?”
When being in sales gets you down, keep in mind a few things:
• The reason most people are rude and condescending to sales people is that they are too afraid to take a job in sales. They’re sitting around making 35k, struggling to make ends meet. A sales job, that could make all their money troubles go away, is right there for the taking, and they don’t want it. So what do you do when you’re too afraid to try something? You put it down. Just ask broccoli some of the things I’ve said about it in the past.
• All these business owners with the no solicitation signs and the bully temperaments; they wish they had a sales rep that would cold call and be persistent, to sell their products. Heck, most of those guys wish they could afford to hire a good sales rep.
• We live in America, a country and society built on capitalism. Sales people are red blood cells in the country’s capitalistic circulatory system. You want to be a patriot? Go out and sell!
• Maybe we dress up and put gel in our hair, but we’re the bad boys of the business world. And it takes balls to be in sales.(1)
(1) There are a lot of tough sales women, without balls, who do just fine.
Why?
Sales is a career that doesn’t seem to have a barrier for entry. There’s seldom a license required, college is not a prerequisite; if you can talk and know how to get dressed, you’re in. I have worked with reps that didn’t attend college, could barely write, had trouble reading, were chronically late and didn’t know how to use a single Microsoft Office program. I worked with a woman that wanted me to help her with her computer, because the screen was dark, and after looking at it for ten seconds, I realized that the monitor was turned off.
When you get right down to it, your brain might be your own worst enemy in some sales jobs. If you think about things too much in sales, you’re going to talk yourself out of cold calling and making follow up calls.
So, for whatever reason, you ended up in sales, had some success, formed a life style that required a certain level of income, couldn’t get yourself into management and now you’re stuck working in an industry with a bunch of half wits. And every time some receptionist talks down to you, a prospect
no-shows for an appointment or someone won’t return your call or email; you ask yourself, “What did I do to end up in sales?”
When being in sales gets you down, keep in mind a few things:
• The reason most people are rude and condescending to sales people is that they are too afraid to take a job in sales. They’re sitting around making 35k, struggling to make ends meet. A sales job, that could make all their money troubles go away, is right there for the taking, and they don’t want it. So what do you do when you’re too afraid to try something? You put it down. Just ask broccoli some of the things I’ve said about it in the past.
• All these business owners with the no solicitation signs and the bully temperaments; they wish they had a sales rep that would cold call and be persistent, to sell their products. Heck, most of those guys wish they could afford to hire a good sales rep.
• We live in America, a country and society built on capitalism. Sales people are red blood cells in the country’s capitalistic circulatory system. You want to be a patriot? Go out and sell!
• Maybe we dress up and put gel in our hair, but we’re the bad boys of the business world. And it takes balls to be in sales.(1)
(1) There are a lot of tough sales women, without balls, who do just fine.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Freezing Vodka - Part One
Fabi was my first sales manager at Cox Business Services. I remember that I had one interview with her and she offered me the job. At the time, I had been in sales for over ten years but had no outside sales experience. In every outside sales job I interviewed for, my lack of experience was discussed and scrutinized, but not with Fabi. It never came up.
I was going to be part of new business division. This was going to be the fourth time Cox was attempting to start up a business division. All the previous attempts had failed.
This time around, Cox was going all out to make the business division a success. They hired Ken, our G.M., who leased the 30th floor of a class A building in downtown San Diego.(1) The lease was $45,000 a month for 5 years. They spent $75,000 to build a display room, to demonstrate the phone, video and internet services.(2) The location was supposed to impress customers and attract the best employees. Everyone was given free parking and free cable.(3)
Fabi, as it turned out, hired a team with a heavy emphasis on looks and personality and little emphasis on ability. We were all single, attractive men with little outside sales experience. Typically, salesmen are attractive but it went a little further than that. One guy, Eric, looked like Brad Pitt but with less sales ability than Brad Pitt. Fabi called us her “dogs” and had us each buy a stuffed animal dog and place it in our work space.
There were seven other sales reps when I started, Dan, Philippe, Thomas, John, Eric, some other guy and some lady(4), I forget their names.
Dan was a stocky, little Filipino guy. He had good command of the language, was well dressed and professional. Dan sounded great in person but sounded completely gay on the phone. The first time I heard him I thought he was talking to a gay guy and was mirroring him. But then he talked the same way on every call.
Philip was a whiny, nasally French guy from Northern California. He was good looking, in a John Davidson from “That’s Incredible”, sort of way. There wasn’t a subject or a situation that Philip couldn’t complain about. He made me seem positive and upbeat.
John used to come into the office grumbling and sullen, disappear for a few minutes and came back singing and smiling. Rumor had it that he used cocaine. If he did, he never offered me any. John could identify any song, after hearing just a few notes, even if someone was humming them. He left a really good job selling auto glass. He was making close to six figures and had a company car.
Eric was the before mentioned good looking guy that needed the Wizard of Oz to give him a brain. Fabi hired him without any telecom and very little sales experience.(5)
Thomas was a big, pudgy guy with a huge head who transferred from inside sales. He was the single worst salesperson I’ve ever worked with. One day I overheard him on the phone talking to a potential customer. From what I could gather the caller was ready to buy but had some questions he needed answered. Thomas couldn’t get the guy off the phone fast enough. He kept saying, “Okay? Okay?” almost like he was irritated. The guy had no clue.
Thomas wrote his own sales letter that he mailed to prospects that resided on Cox’s network. Because Cox didn’t utilize the Phone Company’s local loops, a business had to be on the Cox network to receive service.
Thomas’ letter was his way to let those businesses know they were connected to Cox’s network. It was a bit presumptuous. Imagine a company mailing out a marketing letter that said, “Guess what. You can buy our service!” In Thomas’ letter he wrote: “I want to inform you that your business is serviceable. Yup, that’s right. Cox service is available to your business.”
First, the word “serviceable” didn’t mean anything to anyone outside of Cox. Second, what professional uses the word “yup”? Who types it in a business letter?
On my first day at Cox, we reported to the main office and went through a haphazard training session. It was obvious that nothing was planned ahead of time. Philippe, who was a quick study, was all ready complaining about the products and pricing. That afternoon, we sat through an absurd session on contract folders. We were supposed to use a yellow folder if we sold phone service, red if we sold internet, purple if we sold web hosting and an orange one if you sold a combination of phone and internet. If you made a sale and placed the contract in the wrong color folder, it would be returned to you.
Afterward the folder training we sat around for an hour before Fabi informed us she nothing else and sent us all home.
We dicked around for a couple more days, until the office downtown was ready. The first thing I noticed was that we had about four times more space than we needed. Fabi had a corner office. Hugo, the Build Out Manager had a corner office. The other two corners were for the Customer Service Director and Ken. Before we made one sale we had a Customer Service Manager and Director(6), Inside and Outside Sales Managers, a Sales Director and a General Manager, a Marketing Manager and a Marketing team, an Operations Manager and Director and a Network Build Out Manager. I think there were three customer service representatives and they had a Manager and a Director.
The man making all the decisions was Ken, the G.M. Ken was simply the worst person I’ve ever worked for. I can’t imagine what the people responsible for hiring him were thinking. The first time I met him, he shook my hand violently for a full ten seconds. I felt like I was a bull rider trying to stay on a bull. Afterwards, he advised me to wash my hand because he just gotten over the flu.
Ken used to walk around the office closing the blinds to save electricity. We were on the 30th floor and there were beautiful views in every direction and he wanted the blinds drawn. One time he came over to the sales area and asked for help from someone with muscles. One of the guys told him I worked out. He looked me up and down, in a real creepy way, and told me to follow him. He wanted me to move some potted plants in the lobby. I literally moved them an inch or two and he was thrilled because he thought that made the lobby looked so much better.
Ken waited about two weeks before he expressed his frustration with the sales team. He would come over and ask us questions about something sales related. When we didn’t answer appropriately, he would become agitated, and then go bitch about us to one of the administrative employees.
He would take over our sales meetings. He would ramble on about outdated sales techniques and strategies. Fabi started scheduling our meetings on the fly and held them on the sales floor instead of the conference room, to avoid Ken.
Thomas never should have left inside sales. He was in the residential call center and it was easy pickings over there. They had people working 40 hours a week and making six figures. There was some skill involved but basically all you had to do was stay open for calls, be aggressive and good on the computer. There was no outbound calling and the pricing was very aggressive. Cox was competing with the local phone company for phone service and under cutting their prices. A second line cost five bucks a month when the phone company was charging more than twice that. The residential side was a success because of their low prices and they were the only alternative to the phone company. The business division wanted to charge more than the incumbent and there was a slew of competition.
We were pricing our internet service by number of computers connected to the network. When someone asked me how much are service cost and I asked them how many computers they had networked, they looked at me like funny. We were selling high tech but our pricing system was no tech. Networking had become more sophisticated and routers were being utilized, so there was no way for Cox to know what they were connecting to. If you priced the service the way the company wanted, a company that had ten computers on their network would pay $400 a month, ten times what a residential customer would pay for the same service. Meanwhile, the phone company was selling their high speed service for as little as $29 a month.
Our only hope was to count every other computer and bundle our internet with the phone service. Then we could hide the cost of the Internet. Our phone service was only slightly less than the phone company’s, but if you didn’t quote the taxes and surcharges, prospects would do the math in their heads and think that we offering a better deal. Everything would be fine until they got their first bill.
At first, big, fat Thomas had the inside sales team spoon feeding him leads. He had worked with everybody over there, when they were all in the residential call center. They would send him the stuff that wasn’t automatically serviceable and Thomas would work it though the system. He was the only one us making any sales. He would sit and stare at his computer while the rest of us were busy making cold calls. He never left the office. We would go out and prospect and Thomas would sit in front of his computer. And then, all of a sudden, he’d pull a sale out of his ass. It wasn’t fair and I took it up with Fabi. He was making the rest of us look bad. Fabi went to the inside sales manager and put a stop to it. Fabi was probably willing to do this because Thomas was the least attractive one on the sales team. She probably thought she could replace Thomas with someone more dateable. From that point on, all of the leads from inside sales were distributed evenly. Thomas was done. He kept staring at his computer but never made another sale. He tried to transfer back to residential. He had to quit and get rehired and he lost all his seniority.
(1) If you watch the movie Traffic, Dennis Quaid’s office was one of our conference rooms.
(2) Imagine bringing a customer up to your floor to show him phone service, like it had just been invented.
(3) Including the Playboy channel if you wanted it.
(4) The lady quit right after I started. She quit because Cox was going to establish sales objectives. I guess she had worked there for some time and was never measured. Imagine that.
(5) Think Liam Neeson hiring his secretary in Schindler’s List.
(6) There were three customer service representatives; almost a one to one, employee to manager ratio.
I was going to be part of new business division. This was going to be the fourth time Cox was attempting to start up a business division. All the previous attempts had failed.
This time around, Cox was going all out to make the business division a success. They hired Ken, our G.M., who leased the 30th floor of a class A building in downtown San Diego.(1) The lease was $45,000 a month for 5 years. They spent $75,000 to build a display room, to demonstrate the phone, video and internet services.(2) The location was supposed to impress customers and attract the best employees. Everyone was given free parking and free cable.(3)
Fabi, as it turned out, hired a team with a heavy emphasis on looks and personality and little emphasis on ability. We were all single, attractive men with little outside sales experience. Typically, salesmen are attractive but it went a little further than that. One guy, Eric, looked like Brad Pitt but with less sales ability than Brad Pitt. Fabi called us her “dogs” and had us each buy a stuffed animal dog and place it in our work space.
There were seven other sales reps when I started, Dan, Philippe, Thomas, John, Eric, some other guy and some lady(4), I forget their names.
Dan was a stocky, little Filipino guy. He had good command of the language, was well dressed and professional. Dan sounded great in person but sounded completely gay on the phone. The first time I heard him I thought he was talking to a gay guy and was mirroring him. But then he talked the same way on every call.
Philip was a whiny, nasally French guy from Northern California. He was good looking, in a John Davidson from “That’s Incredible”, sort of way. There wasn’t a subject or a situation that Philip couldn’t complain about. He made me seem positive and upbeat.
John used to come into the office grumbling and sullen, disappear for a few minutes and came back singing and smiling. Rumor had it that he used cocaine. If he did, he never offered me any. John could identify any song, after hearing just a few notes, even if someone was humming them. He left a really good job selling auto glass. He was making close to six figures and had a company car.
Eric was the before mentioned good looking guy that needed the Wizard of Oz to give him a brain. Fabi hired him without any telecom and very little sales experience.(5)
Thomas was a big, pudgy guy with a huge head who transferred from inside sales. He was the single worst salesperson I’ve ever worked with. One day I overheard him on the phone talking to a potential customer. From what I could gather the caller was ready to buy but had some questions he needed answered. Thomas couldn’t get the guy off the phone fast enough. He kept saying, “Okay? Okay?” almost like he was irritated. The guy had no clue.
Thomas wrote his own sales letter that he mailed to prospects that resided on Cox’s network. Because Cox didn’t utilize the Phone Company’s local loops, a business had to be on the Cox network to receive service.
Thomas’ letter was his way to let those businesses know they were connected to Cox’s network. It was a bit presumptuous. Imagine a company mailing out a marketing letter that said, “Guess what. You can buy our service!” In Thomas’ letter he wrote: “I want to inform you that your business is serviceable. Yup, that’s right. Cox service is available to your business.”
First, the word “serviceable” didn’t mean anything to anyone outside of Cox. Second, what professional uses the word “yup”? Who types it in a business letter?
On my first day at Cox, we reported to the main office and went through a haphazard training session. It was obvious that nothing was planned ahead of time. Philippe, who was a quick study, was all ready complaining about the products and pricing. That afternoon, we sat through an absurd session on contract folders. We were supposed to use a yellow folder if we sold phone service, red if we sold internet, purple if we sold web hosting and an orange one if you sold a combination of phone and internet. If you made a sale and placed the contract in the wrong color folder, it would be returned to you.
Afterward the folder training we sat around for an hour before Fabi informed us she nothing else and sent us all home.
We dicked around for a couple more days, until the office downtown was ready. The first thing I noticed was that we had about four times more space than we needed. Fabi had a corner office. Hugo, the Build Out Manager had a corner office. The other two corners were for the Customer Service Director and Ken. Before we made one sale we had a Customer Service Manager and Director(6), Inside and Outside Sales Managers, a Sales Director and a General Manager, a Marketing Manager and a Marketing team, an Operations Manager and Director and a Network Build Out Manager. I think there were three customer service representatives and they had a Manager and a Director.
The man making all the decisions was Ken, the G.M. Ken was simply the worst person I’ve ever worked for. I can’t imagine what the people responsible for hiring him were thinking. The first time I met him, he shook my hand violently for a full ten seconds. I felt like I was a bull rider trying to stay on a bull. Afterwards, he advised me to wash my hand because he just gotten over the flu.
Ken used to walk around the office closing the blinds to save electricity. We were on the 30th floor and there were beautiful views in every direction and he wanted the blinds drawn. One time he came over to the sales area and asked for help from someone with muscles. One of the guys told him I worked out. He looked me up and down, in a real creepy way, and told me to follow him. He wanted me to move some potted plants in the lobby. I literally moved them an inch or two and he was thrilled because he thought that made the lobby looked so much better.
Ken waited about two weeks before he expressed his frustration with the sales team. He would come over and ask us questions about something sales related. When we didn’t answer appropriately, he would become agitated, and then go bitch about us to one of the administrative employees.
He would take over our sales meetings. He would ramble on about outdated sales techniques and strategies. Fabi started scheduling our meetings on the fly and held them on the sales floor instead of the conference room, to avoid Ken.
Thomas never should have left inside sales. He was in the residential call center and it was easy pickings over there. They had people working 40 hours a week and making six figures. There was some skill involved but basically all you had to do was stay open for calls, be aggressive and good on the computer. There was no outbound calling and the pricing was very aggressive. Cox was competing with the local phone company for phone service and under cutting their prices. A second line cost five bucks a month when the phone company was charging more than twice that. The residential side was a success because of their low prices and they were the only alternative to the phone company. The business division wanted to charge more than the incumbent and there was a slew of competition.
We were pricing our internet service by number of computers connected to the network. When someone asked me how much are service cost and I asked them how many computers they had networked, they looked at me like funny. We were selling high tech but our pricing system was no tech. Networking had become more sophisticated and routers were being utilized, so there was no way for Cox to know what they were connecting to. If you priced the service the way the company wanted, a company that had ten computers on their network would pay $400 a month, ten times what a residential customer would pay for the same service. Meanwhile, the phone company was selling their high speed service for as little as $29 a month.
Our only hope was to count every other computer and bundle our internet with the phone service. Then we could hide the cost of the Internet. Our phone service was only slightly less than the phone company’s, but if you didn’t quote the taxes and surcharges, prospects would do the math in their heads and think that we offering a better deal. Everything would be fine until they got their first bill.
At first, big, fat Thomas had the inside sales team spoon feeding him leads. He had worked with everybody over there, when they were all in the residential call center. They would send him the stuff that wasn’t automatically serviceable and Thomas would work it though the system. He was the only one us making any sales. He would sit and stare at his computer while the rest of us were busy making cold calls. He never left the office. We would go out and prospect and Thomas would sit in front of his computer. And then, all of a sudden, he’d pull a sale out of his ass. It wasn’t fair and I took it up with Fabi. He was making the rest of us look bad. Fabi went to the inside sales manager and put a stop to it. Fabi was probably willing to do this because Thomas was the least attractive one on the sales team. She probably thought she could replace Thomas with someone more dateable. From that point on, all of the leads from inside sales were distributed evenly. Thomas was done. He kept staring at his computer but never made another sale. He tried to transfer back to residential. He had to quit and get rehired and he lost all his seniority.
(1) If you watch the movie Traffic, Dennis Quaid’s office was one of our conference rooms.
(2) Imagine bringing a customer up to your floor to show him phone service, like it had just been invented.
(3) Including the Playboy channel if you wanted it.
(4) The lady quit right after I started. She quit because Cox was going to establish sales objectives. I guess she had worked there for some time and was never measured. Imagine that.
(5) Think Liam Neeson hiring his secretary in Schindler’s List.
(6) There were three customer service representatives; almost a one to one, employee to manager ratio.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Telecommunication Sales – Tricks of the Trade
If you work in an area service by AT&T:
If you call AT&T’s repair phone number, it will ask you to enter the number you need service on. If you enter a number and it’s not an AT&T phone number, the system will tell you who’s providing the service. I used to cold call and then go back to the office and check the phone numbers on all the business cards I collected, to tell what company the business was buying their phone service from.(1) Then when I called the contacts, I mentioned the carrier’s name. It made it seem like I knew more than I did and the person was more likely to listen to me. The information also helped me tailor my sales pitch.
If you work for Cox Business Services:
When I worked at Cox, no one could tell the salespeople where the company’s service was specifically. Many times reps would go out canvassing in an area that the company couldn’t service. A number of times, reps made sales to companies that were too far off Cox’s network. There was no way to cost justify the build and the sale had to be canceled. That didn’t make for a happy sales environment. I discovered that you could search by name in the Cox’s database. So I would search for words like, “National”, “United”, “First”, etc. and then look for businesses with suite numbers in their address. I knew that Cox could service any business in the existing customer’s building and I could sell phone service to existing Cox internet customers.
Make friends with the network engineers. They are given plans for network build outs. If they are building out to a new mall or shopping center, they’ll have plans that should include store names and contact information for the mall management. Proactively call all the out of state retailers and tell them Cox is the incumbent phone service provider. I did this for a new mall in San Ysidro, California and won 60% of the mall business.
If you work for Qwest:
Qwest has a system called Exchange and if you type in a phone number, it will tell you which carrier is providing the service. If it comes up Qwest, look up the account in BOSS and look to see if you can cost justify a PRI, if the customer is paying too much for their long distance or would be better off with an integrated T1 instead of phone lines and DSL.
If you work for a competitive local exchange carrier in Verizon territory:
Verizon is one of the few incumbents that still offers fixed bandwidth, integrated T1’s, and their pricing is horrible. I sat through an hour long conference call, webinar, learning about this service.(2) After the conference, there was a question and answer session. I wanted to ask the moderator what year it was because I thought I had gone back in time and 512k was still considered a good Internet speed. I also wanted to ask them for a list of their customers utilizing the service. I wanted to market to the world’s most uninformed customer base.
The way to identify these businesses is to conduct a speed test on one of their computers.(3) If their speed is less than a megabit, they probably have one of Verizon’s pre-tech-stock-crash, integrated T1’s.
If you work for a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC):
Try to locate areas that are too far from any of the phone company’s wire centers and can’t receive DSL service. Offer the businesses integrated T1 service.
When you get a business’s phone company, phone bill:
Look for “crammed” charges. These are monthly charges from third party companies that the phone company bills for. They are almost always erroneous. On the bill, near the charge, is a toll free number for inquiries. Have the company call to get the charge removed. This practice will help you create good will and trust.
If you’re selling against an incumbent phone company’s integrated T1 service:
The phone company is new to integrated service and horrible at it. They don’t manage their installations, conduct site surveys and they charge to extend the demarc. The integrated T1 has always been the CLEC’s bread and butter; feel confident in pushing your company’s service.
(1) I put the number in my mobile phone and called when I was out in the field sometimes, to avoid places my company was already servicing.
(2) I hung in there because I wanted to win an iPod.
(3) www.speedtest.net is a good site.
If you call AT&T’s repair phone number, it will ask you to enter the number you need service on. If you enter a number and it’s not an AT&T phone number, the system will tell you who’s providing the service. I used to cold call and then go back to the office and check the phone numbers on all the business cards I collected, to tell what company the business was buying their phone service from.(1) Then when I called the contacts, I mentioned the carrier’s name. It made it seem like I knew more than I did and the person was more likely to listen to me. The information also helped me tailor my sales pitch.
If you work for Cox Business Services:
When I worked at Cox, no one could tell the salespeople where the company’s service was specifically. Many times reps would go out canvassing in an area that the company couldn’t service. A number of times, reps made sales to companies that were too far off Cox’s network. There was no way to cost justify the build and the sale had to be canceled. That didn’t make for a happy sales environment. I discovered that you could search by name in the Cox’s database. So I would search for words like, “National”, “United”, “First”, etc. and then look for businesses with suite numbers in their address. I knew that Cox could service any business in the existing customer’s building and I could sell phone service to existing Cox internet customers.
Make friends with the network engineers. They are given plans for network build outs. If they are building out to a new mall or shopping center, they’ll have plans that should include store names and contact information for the mall management. Proactively call all the out of state retailers and tell them Cox is the incumbent phone service provider. I did this for a new mall in San Ysidro, California and won 60% of the mall business.
If you work for Qwest:
Qwest has a system called Exchange and if you type in a phone number, it will tell you which carrier is providing the service. If it comes up Qwest, look up the account in BOSS and look to see if you can cost justify a PRI, if the customer is paying too much for their long distance or would be better off with an integrated T1 instead of phone lines and DSL.
If you work for a competitive local exchange carrier in Verizon territory:
Verizon is one of the few incumbents that still offers fixed bandwidth, integrated T1’s, and their pricing is horrible. I sat through an hour long conference call, webinar, learning about this service.(2) After the conference, there was a question and answer session. I wanted to ask the moderator what year it was because I thought I had gone back in time and 512k was still considered a good Internet speed. I also wanted to ask them for a list of their customers utilizing the service. I wanted to market to the world’s most uninformed customer base.
The way to identify these businesses is to conduct a speed test on one of their computers.(3) If their speed is less than a megabit, they probably have one of Verizon’s pre-tech-stock-crash, integrated T1’s.
If you work for a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC):
Try to locate areas that are too far from any of the phone company’s wire centers and can’t receive DSL service. Offer the businesses integrated T1 service.
When you get a business’s phone company, phone bill:
Look for “crammed” charges. These are monthly charges from third party companies that the phone company bills for. They are almost always erroneous. On the bill, near the charge, is a toll free number for inquiries. Have the company call to get the charge removed. This practice will help you create good will and trust.
If you’re selling against an incumbent phone company’s integrated T1 service:
The phone company is new to integrated service and horrible at it. They don’t manage their installations, conduct site surveys and they charge to extend the demarc. The integrated T1 has always been the CLEC’s bread and butter; feel confident in pushing your company’s service.
(1) I put the number in my mobile phone and called when I was out in the field sometimes, to avoid places my company was already servicing.
(2) I hung in there because I wanted to win an iPod.
(3) www.speedtest.net is a good site.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Sales Indignities:
• Generic business cards: Nothing says “temporary” like a generic business card. You know, the type with a blank space where your name and phone number would be. You need to handwrite your name and contact info on the card, which is made worse if you have bad handwriting.(1) If you get a job with a company that wants you to use generic business cards, you have to figure they don’t have high expectations. Management has decided to put off investing $50, until they feel better about your prospects of making it. Of course, your chances of success will be diminished by the use of the cards. What do you think of when you’re handed a generic business card? “Does this person know what they’re talking about?” “Will they be around in six months?” “What kind of company am I dealing with?”
• Gimmicks: When I sold roofs for The Home Depot I was supposed to wear an orange Home Depot apron to a prospect’s house. I never did. I wore a polo with a Home Depot logo on it.(2) But, the people that set my appointments told the customers that I would be showing up wearing the apron. I remember one time when an entire family came to the door when I arrived. They were all smiles until they noticed I wasn’t wearing the apron. Then they simultaneously frowned. They must not have owned a TV set.
• Sales results: Public display of sales results is a staple of every sales organization and completely foreign to the rest of the world. There’s a sales board displayed predominantly, usually on the first wall you see when you enter the office. The reps that are on plan, their names and numbers are written in black or green (the color of money) and a red marker is used for the reps that are deficient. Just in case the board doesn’t provide enough embarrassment, a portion of every sales meeting is dedicated to taking turns vocalizing your sales commit.(3) Nothing is more fun than waiting for your turn to speak with a sales commit of zero.
• All Hand Meetings: These are meetings that the entire sales department attends. They’re a complete waste of time. They give the managers and annoying marketing people(4)a venue to pontificate. It’s also the time when sales awards are presented. That’s fine if you’re receiving one. If you’re not, you want to throw up.
• Call blitzes: This is a sales strategy employed by desperate sales managers. They’re about as creative as a coloring book. By no means am I against prospecting, it just bugs me when a manager forces everyone to engage in an activity. If you need to be forced into cold calling, you shouldn’t be in sales. There’s usually a competition(5), and one of the worst reps invariably wins. We had one of these when I was working for the phone company. I was the only “hunter” in our department. The rest of the reps were “farmers”, which means they were account managers. Farmers don’t prospect. Of course, some guy who only left his desk when he was headed towards the vending machines or the restroom, won. He ended up with the most business cards. More likely, he robbed some restaurant’s fish bowl.
• Sales contests: If you’re on the ball, you know what you need to do and you do it. If you’re not on the ball, you have to be prodded and poked into doing what you need to do. So, who wins sales contests? Reps that need to be prodded and poked. Any good rep has a regimen, an amount of activity that they engage in each and every day. They’re not going to spike it to win a sales contest. Reps who win sales contests are like fat people who diet. Thin people don’t diet; they make it a routine to eat right and exercise.
• Action plans: Nothing’s worse than being put on an action plan. Typically, an action plan requires you to be in the office between 8:30 and 9:30 and again between 4:00 and 5:00. You need to meet with your manager daily and provide progress reports. Usually you have to cold call with your boss. This is presented as a strategy to help you make sales but it is a cloaked strategy to get you to quit. Usually, the rep being put on a plan has developed horrible work habits that can’t be corrected. For example, they routinely cold call malls and movie theatres or worse, bars and strip clubs.
(1) No matter how good your handwriting is, your printing is going to be much larger than the print on a business card. Your writing looks like Manute Bol standing next to Muggsy Bogoes.
(2) This was another indignity. Instead of The Home Depot providing us with shirts to wear, they provided us with iron on logos that we were supposed to affix to our own shirts. When I left the company, I was able to remove the logos, but they left a mark and made the shirts unwearable.
(3) Commits range from fact to fiction; from 60 Minutes to H.R. Pufnstuf.
(4) Some failed sales rep with a big personality. They routinely come up with unhelpful promotions and pricing plans.
(5) It’s even worse when sales managers have completely unrealistic expectations. They’ll always add getting a signed contract to the list of ways to score points. Like, the whole time, you were going about it all wrong. You were bothering with first appointments and proposals when all you really needed to do was pop in with a contract in hand.
• Gimmicks: When I sold roofs for The Home Depot I was supposed to wear an orange Home Depot apron to a prospect’s house. I never did. I wore a polo with a Home Depot logo on it.(2) But, the people that set my appointments told the customers that I would be showing up wearing the apron. I remember one time when an entire family came to the door when I arrived. They were all smiles until they noticed I wasn’t wearing the apron. Then they simultaneously frowned. They must not have owned a TV set.
• Sales results: Public display of sales results is a staple of every sales organization and completely foreign to the rest of the world. There’s a sales board displayed predominantly, usually on the first wall you see when you enter the office. The reps that are on plan, their names and numbers are written in black or green (the color of money) and a red marker is used for the reps that are deficient. Just in case the board doesn’t provide enough embarrassment, a portion of every sales meeting is dedicated to taking turns vocalizing your sales commit.(3) Nothing is more fun than waiting for your turn to speak with a sales commit of zero.
• All Hand Meetings: These are meetings that the entire sales department attends. They’re a complete waste of time. They give the managers and annoying marketing people(4)a venue to pontificate. It’s also the time when sales awards are presented. That’s fine if you’re receiving one. If you’re not, you want to throw up.
• Call blitzes: This is a sales strategy employed by desperate sales managers. They’re about as creative as a coloring book. By no means am I against prospecting, it just bugs me when a manager forces everyone to engage in an activity. If you need to be forced into cold calling, you shouldn’t be in sales. There’s usually a competition(5), and one of the worst reps invariably wins. We had one of these when I was working for the phone company. I was the only “hunter” in our department. The rest of the reps were “farmers”, which means they were account managers. Farmers don’t prospect. Of course, some guy who only left his desk when he was headed towards the vending machines or the restroom, won. He ended up with the most business cards. More likely, he robbed some restaurant’s fish bowl.
• Sales contests: If you’re on the ball, you know what you need to do and you do it. If you’re not on the ball, you have to be prodded and poked into doing what you need to do. So, who wins sales contests? Reps that need to be prodded and poked. Any good rep has a regimen, an amount of activity that they engage in each and every day. They’re not going to spike it to win a sales contest. Reps who win sales contests are like fat people who diet. Thin people don’t diet; they make it a routine to eat right and exercise.
• Action plans: Nothing’s worse than being put on an action plan. Typically, an action plan requires you to be in the office between 8:30 and 9:30 and again between 4:00 and 5:00. You need to meet with your manager daily and provide progress reports. Usually you have to cold call with your boss. This is presented as a strategy to help you make sales but it is a cloaked strategy to get you to quit. Usually, the rep being put on a plan has developed horrible work habits that can’t be corrected. For example, they routinely cold call malls and movie theatres or worse, bars and strip clubs.
(1) No matter how good your handwriting is, your printing is going to be much larger than the print on a business card. Your writing looks like Manute Bol standing next to Muggsy Bogoes.
(2) This was another indignity. Instead of The Home Depot providing us with shirts to wear, they provided us with iron on logos that we were supposed to affix to our own shirts. When I left the company, I was able to remove the logos, but they left a mark and made the shirts unwearable.
(3) Commits range from fact to fiction; from 60 Minutes to H.R. Pufnstuf.
(4) Some failed sales rep with a big personality. They routinely come up with unhelpful promotions and pricing plans.
(5) It’s even worse when sales managers have completely unrealistic expectations. They’ll always add getting a signed contract to the list of ways to score points. Like, the whole time, you were going about it all wrong. You were bothering with first appointments and proposals when all you really needed to do was pop in with a contract in hand.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Glengarry Glen Ross vs. the Tin Man; the Battle of the Two Greatest Sales Movies.
Before I start with these two gems, I’ll dismiss all the other sales movies that people mention when discussing the great sales movies.
Boiler Room:
Boiler Room is dismissed because the Ben Affleck scene is a blatant rip off of the Alec Baldwin scene in Glengarry Glen Ross (GGGR) and Baldwin’s watch is worth more than Affleck’s car. In GGGR you caught yourself thinking. “Baldwin would be an awesome salesman” then you remembered Baldwin makes 10 million a film and has more money than God and the last thing he needed to do was go on a sit. In Boiler Room, you caught yourself thinking, “why Affleck?”
Wall Street:
By the end of Wall Street, during the Gordon Gekko, Charlie Sheen bitch slap scene, you wanted to jump in and administer some De Niro type kicks to Sheen’s gut.
The Pursuit of Happyness:
Although it’s a great movie, something tells me that Chris Gardner wasn’t the perfect angel he portrayed himself to be.
A Death of a Salesman (Dustin Hoffman version):
No sales person should ever watch this movie. For the same reason that no white male should ever watch Eddie Murphy’s white people dancing routine. I’ve never danced since and after watching Death, I have a panic attack every time I can’t locate my keys.
No other sales movie is even worth mentioning.
Now the contenders:
Glengarry Glen Ross (GGGR):
For:
Possibly the greatest cast in movie (any movie) history. The cast makes the Dream Team look like an intramural team. Kevin Spacey is an afterthought in the movie and he’s won two Oscars. The cast is six hall of famers deep and the seventh guy, Jonathan Pryce, might be runner up for the movie’s MVP.
The opening scene in GGGR is right up there with the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, and that’s without exploding bombs, warships, machine guns and fighter planes.
What’s a worse travesty, Hoop Dreams not getting an Oscar nomination for best documentary or Baldwin not getting one for best supporting actor? I stopped watching the Grammy’s in 1989 when Jethro Tull beat Metallica for best hard rock/heavy metal performance. I didn’t know it at the time, when Hoop Dreams was robbed, but still stopped watching the award show when I found out. The Hoop Dreams’ robbery was worse but you could make an argument for Baldwin.
I watched GGGR two times in a row, when I first saw it, and that was on video tape, so I had to rewind the damn thing. I’ve never did that for any movie before or since.
GGGR makes non sales people squeamish. It makes salespeople look like bad asses. If the movie wasn’t such a cult classic, people might get caught saying things like, “Watch out, that guy’s wearing a suit!”
Against:
You got three guys that obviously had some sales chops, so why would they put up with what appears to be the worst sales position in sales history…and for zero salary no less?
The Harris – Arkin dialog has more words in it than in a public library. There’s no way that Arkin wouldn’t have jumped out of the car into an oncoming semi, if it was real.
No company would hold back its best leads. What would be the purpose? So they would get old and stale and some guy across the street would pay another guy to break into their office and steal them?
The firm gives Shelley Levene one night to close, close! a sale and make him work a lead that later is revealed to be submitted by a crazy couple. He closes the sale and then Spacey’s character tells him he’ll be surprised if their check doesn’t bounce. So, the firm wanted him gone and this movie enters A Death of a Salesman territory. It’s depressing to see a guy as polished as Levene being thrown out with the garbage and that’s why every young sales rep sort of feels sorry for the old rep that shows up new to a networking group. The older sales rep is like the oldest guy in the bar. If you’re an older guy and you’re still selling, everybody wonders what went wrong.
Tin Men:
For:
Hands down, the funniest sales movie ever. Danny Devito has been in arguably the best sales movie ever and the worst sales movie ever.(1) Devito’s the best player on a championship team. His character, Tilley’s, dialog about overhead, “Why do ya need a back yard?” Picnics, “I don’t understand a picnic. We go someplace, put a thing on the ground and eat.” Taxes, “I figured they could wait a few years… it’s not like they need my money to build a bomber. You think they’re waiting for my money before they dig a new road? Are they all sitting there saying, ‘Well, it’s time we went to see that guy on Pimlico Road… can’t run this government without his four thousand dollars.’” Then there’s this scene where he discusses buying a new Cadillac:
Babowsky
“Yeah… they’re changing the body. I hear it’s a beaut.
Tilley
“Maybe I should put in my order now.”
Babowsky
“What’re you talking about? You ain’t got a pot to piss in.”
Tilley
“Give me the pot… I’ll fill it.”
The scene with Dreyfuss and the car salesman is the best illustration of how bad buyers, salespeople can be. I’ve been selling for over twenty years but have made some of the worst car deals ever.(2)
The best thing about this movie is what bothers me about GGGR. These guys are not only losing their jobs, they’re losing their industry. They sell aluminum siding; all of a sudden the Home Improvement Commission comes in, starts snooping around and takes away their licenses. Does that bring them down? No. They see a VW Bug and spot opportunity. Meanwhile, the boys in GGGR are clinging onto shit jobs like they are their beating hearts.
Against:
There’s not too much wrong with this movie. Is it too unbelievable that Barbara Hershey’s character is married to Danny Devito’s? Maybe. Do we wish that Richard Dreyfuss’s character didn’t get all soft on us? Yes.
Conclusion:
I checked both movies on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie critic website and GGGR scored a 98%. That means that 98% of the 41 critics that reviewed it, liked it. Tin Men scored a 79%.
David Mamet wrote the script for GGGR.(3) When I watched it, I imagined it was some sales lifer that broke free from the endless grind of sales and wrote one of the greatest scripts of all time, then stuck to the bastards in management. But Mamet never sold anything besides a script.
Barry Levinson wrote and directed Tin Men. His works include Diner, Rain Man and The Natural. He directed Wag the Dog, which Mamet wrote the script for.
As good as Tin Men is, it’s like the weather in San Diego. Never bad enough to complain about, but never so great that it makes you want to quit your job and live on the beach.
GGGR plays out like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.(4) There are four amazing scenes that tie the movie together: the opening scene with Baldwin, the bar scene with Pacino and Pryce, the contract scene with Pryce, Pacino and Lemon and later with Spacey, Pacino and Lemon. Those scenes are so powerful that they propel the movie to heights that Tin Men can’t hope to reach. Tin Men might be a better movie to watch when it’s the 25th of the month and you haven’t posted a single sale but GGGR is a better movie. You could make an argument that GGGR is one of the greatest movies ever made but you couldn’t make that claim about Tin Men.
Winner:
Glengarry Glen Ross.
(1) The Big Kahuna is one of the worst movies ever filmed. The whole film is shot in one room; this movie will make you more claustrophobic than a casket. The writers have no understanding of selling, which was made clear when in a pivotal scene a prospect is given the sales team’s contact info and instructed to call them. Doesn’t happen. We all know we have to initiate every conversation until our service is installed, and then the customer calls us every day to bitch us out. Kevin Spacey was also in this movie.
(2) My problem is I want to trust people. Trusting car salesmen is like trusting a coyote to cat sit for you.
(3) He also wrote The Verdict. Imagine having those two on your resume’?
(4) Dark Side has four main tracks that pill the album together: Breathe, Time, Money and Brain Damage.
Boiler Room:
Boiler Room is dismissed because the Ben Affleck scene is a blatant rip off of the Alec Baldwin scene in Glengarry Glen Ross (GGGR) and Baldwin’s watch is worth more than Affleck’s car. In GGGR you caught yourself thinking. “Baldwin would be an awesome salesman” then you remembered Baldwin makes 10 million a film and has more money than God and the last thing he needed to do was go on a sit. In Boiler Room, you caught yourself thinking, “why Affleck?”
Wall Street:
By the end of Wall Street, during the Gordon Gekko, Charlie Sheen bitch slap scene, you wanted to jump in and administer some De Niro type kicks to Sheen’s gut.
The Pursuit of Happyness:
Although it’s a great movie, something tells me that Chris Gardner wasn’t the perfect angel he portrayed himself to be.
A Death of a Salesman (Dustin Hoffman version):
No sales person should ever watch this movie. For the same reason that no white male should ever watch Eddie Murphy’s white people dancing routine. I’ve never danced since and after watching Death, I have a panic attack every time I can’t locate my keys.
No other sales movie is even worth mentioning.
Now the contenders:
Glengarry Glen Ross (GGGR):
For:
Possibly the greatest cast in movie (any movie) history. The cast makes the Dream Team look like an intramural team. Kevin Spacey is an afterthought in the movie and he’s won two Oscars. The cast is six hall of famers deep and the seventh guy, Jonathan Pryce, might be runner up for the movie’s MVP.
The opening scene in GGGR is right up there with the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, and that’s without exploding bombs, warships, machine guns and fighter planes.
What’s a worse travesty, Hoop Dreams not getting an Oscar nomination for best documentary or Baldwin not getting one for best supporting actor? I stopped watching the Grammy’s in 1989 when Jethro Tull beat Metallica for best hard rock/heavy metal performance. I didn’t know it at the time, when Hoop Dreams was robbed, but still stopped watching the award show when I found out. The Hoop Dreams’ robbery was worse but you could make an argument for Baldwin.
I watched GGGR two times in a row, when I first saw it, and that was on video tape, so I had to rewind the damn thing. I’ve never did that for any movie before or since.
GGGR makes non sales people squeamish. It makes salespeople look like bad asses. If the movie wasn’t such a cult classic, people might get caught saying things like, “Watch out, that guy’s wearing a suit!”
Against:
You got three guys that obviously had some sales chops, so why would they put up with what appears to be the worst sales position in sales history…and for zero salary no less?
The Harris – Arkin dialog has more words in it than in a public library. There’s no way that Arkin wouldn’t have jumped out of the car into an oncoming semi, if it was real.
No company would hold back its best leads. What would be the purpose? So they would get old and stale and some guy across the street would pay another guy to break into their office and steal them?
The firm gives Shelley Levene one night to close, close! a sale and make him work a lead that later is revealed to be submitted by a crazy couple. He closes the sale and then Spacey’s character tells him he’ll be surprised if their check doesn’t bounce. So, the firm wanted him gone and this movie enters A Death of a Salesman territory. It’s depressing to see a guy as polished as Levene being thrown out with the garbage and that’s why every young sales rep sort of feels sorry for the old rep that shows up new to a networking group. The older sales rep is like the oldest guy in the bar. If you’re an older guy and you’re still selling, everybody wonders what went wrong.
Tin Men:
For:
Hands down, the funniest sales movie ever. Danny Devito has been in arguably the best sales movie ever and the worst sales movie ever.(1) Devito’s the best player on a championship team. His character, Tilley’s, dialog about overhead, “Why do ya need a back yard?” Picnics, “I don’t understand a picnic. We go someplace, put a thing on the ground and eat.” Taxes, “I figured they could wait a few years… it’s not like they need my money to build a bomber. You think they’re waiting for my money before they dig a new road? Are they all sitting there saying, ‘Well, it’s time we went to see that guy on Pimlico Road… can’t run this government without his four thousand dollars.’” Then there’s this scene where he discusses buying a new Cadillac:
Babowsky
“Yeah… they’re changing the body. I hear it’s a beaut.
Tilley
“Maybe I should put in my order now.”
Babowsky
“What’re you talking about? You ain’t got a pot to piss in.”
Tilley
“Give me the pot… I’ll fill it.”
The scene with Dreyfuss and the car salesman is the best illustration of how bad buyers, salespeople can be. I’ve been selling for over twenty years but have made some of the worst car deals ever.(2)
The best thing about this movie is what bothers me about GGGR. These guys are not only losing their jobs, they’re losing their industry. They sell aluminum siding; all of a sudden the Home Improvement Commission comes in, starts snooping around and takes away their licenses. Does that bring them down? No. They see a VW Bug and spot opportunity. Meanwhile, the boys in GGGR are clinging onto shit jobs like they are their beating hearts.
Against:
There’s not too much wrong with this movie. Is it too unbelievable that Barbara Hershey’s character is married to Danny Devito’s? Maybe. Do we wish that Richard Dreyfuss’s character didn’t get all soft on us? Yes.
Conclusion:
I checked both movies on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie critic website and GGGR scored a 98%. That means that 98% of the 41 critics that reviewed it, liked it. Tin Men scored a 79%.
David Mamet wrote the script for GGGR.(3) When I watched it, I imagined it was some sales lifer that broke free from the endless grind of sales and wrote one of the greatest scripts of all time, then stuck to the bastards in management. But Mamet never sold anything besides a script.
Barry Levinson wrote and directed Tin Men. His works include Diner, Rain Man and The Natural. He directed Wag the Dog, which Mamet wrote the script for.
As good as Tin Men is, it’s like the weather in San Diego. Never bad enough to complain about, but never so great that it makes you want to quit your job and live on the beach.
GGGR plays out like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.(4) There are four amazing scenes that tie the movie together: the opening scene with Baldwin, the bar scene with Pacino and Pryce, the contract scene with Pryce, Pacino and Lemon and later with Spacey, Pacino and Lemon. Those scenes are so powerful that they propel the movie to heights that Tin Men can’t hope to reach. Tin Men might be a better movie to watch when it’s the 25th of the month and you haven’t posted a single sale but GGGR is a better movie. You could make an argument that GGGR is one of the greatest movies ever made but you couldn’t make that claim about Tin Men.
Winner:
Glengarry Glen Ross.
(1) The Big Kahuna is one of the worst movies ever filmed. The whole film is shot in one room; this movie will make you more claustrophobic than a casket. The writers have no understanding of selling, which was made clear when in a pivotal scene a prospect is given the sales team’s contact info and instructed to call them. Doesn’t happen. We all know we have to initiate every conversation until our service is installed, and then the customer calls us every day to bitch us out. Kevin Spacey was also in this movie.
(2) My problem is I want to trust people. Trusting car salesmen is like trusting a coyote to cat sit for you.
(3) He also wrote The Verdict. Imagine having those two on your resume’?
(4) Dark Side has four main tracks that pill the album together: Breathe, Time, Money and Brain Damage.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Selling Is A Lot Like Attracting Women
Okay this article does not apply to sales women, but sales men will understand. Selling is a lot like attracting women. There’s no harder time to meet a woman than when you are without one.
When you’re alone and wanting, you reek of desperation, and that works like woman repellant. The same holds true in sales. If you need a sale like nobody’s business, prospects drag their feet, they don’t return calls, seem to always be in meetings and stand you up on appointments. They ask you to email proposals; they get fixated on price and then, all of a sudden, drop off the face of the earth.
When you really, really want a girlfriend and some girl unknowingly agrees to a date, she instantly becomes your future wife. You try too hard, you stop looking at women, you call too often, talk too much; you tell your friends about her, tell your mom about her, you’re pathetic.
When you’re six weeks into a new sales job and haven’t made a sale and some prospect unknowingly agrees to a meeting, you practically build a shrine honoring that company. You talk about it in front of your manager, your coworkers, your girlfriend or wife(1) and your friends. You unnecessarily involve support staff.(2) You stop prospecting. All your phone calls are directed to one person.
And what happens just about every time? That girl picks another guy(3) and that prospect goes with another sales rep's proposal.(4)
Unfortunately, the rich get richer and you’re left holding your proverbial sales dick.
Do yourself a favor. If you’re in a new sales position or if you’re in the midst of a prolonged sales slump, and someone you’re calling on agrees to a meeting, get greedy and make another call.
(1) In some circumstances, your wife and your girlfriend.
(2) I once had a sales engineer travel with me from San Diego to Orange County to meet with a prospect to discuss a single dial up Internet account. Oh, the good old days, when the Internet was slow.
(3) Probably some guy cheating on his wife.
(4) Probably with some sales rep that has already qualified for President’s Club.
When you’re alone and wanting, you reek of desperation, and that works like woman repellant. The same holds true in sales. If you need a sale like nobody’s business, prospects drag their feet, they don’t return calls, seem to always be in meetings and stand you up on appointments. They ask you to email proposals; they get fixated on price and then, all of a sudden, drop off the face of the earth.
When you really, really want a girlfriend and some girl unknowingly agrees to a date, she instantly becomes your future wife. You try too hard, you stop looking at women, you call too often, talk too much; you tell your friends about her, tell your mom about her, you’re pathetic.
When you’re six weeks into a new sales job and haven’t made a sale and some prospect unknowingly agrees to a meeting, you practically build a shrine honoring that company. You talk about it in front of your manager, your coworkers, your girlfriend or wife(1) and your friends. You unnecessarily involve support staff.(2) You stop prospecting. All your phone calls are directed to one person.
And what happens just about every time? That girl picks another guy(3) and that prospect goes with another sales rep's proposal.(4)
Unfortunately, the rich get richer and you’re left holding your proverbial sales dick.
Do yourself a favor. If you’re in a new sales position or if you’re in the midst of a prolonged sales slump, and someone you’re calling on agrees to a meeting, get greedy and make another call.
(1) In some circumstances, your wife and your girlfriend.
(2) I once had a sales engineer travel with me from San Diego to Orange County to meet with a prospect to discuss a single dial up Internet account. Oh, the good old days, when the Internet was slow.
(3) Probably some guy cheating on his wife.
(4) Probably with some sales rep that has already qualified for President’s Club.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
The Dos of Selling:
• Answer your phone. I knew reps at the phone company that would let a customer’s call go to voicemail instead of answering, because they didn’t want to deal with an unhappy customer. If you don’t answer the phone, all you’re doing is prolonging the problem and creating stress. Customers will appreciate being able to get a hold of you.
• If you can’t answer the phone, return calls promptly.
• Call a prospect more than one time. You need to make a certain number of calls to make a sale but that doesn’t necessarily mean first time calls. Why is it sometimes that someone you called in the past, ends up buying from one of your coworkers?
• Give a firm handshake and look a person in the eye.
• Listen. If you’re talking, you’re not listening and if you’re not listening, you won’t be selling.
• Always have a next step. If you're on a first appointment, always set a next appointment before you leave. If you're proposing, schedule a time to follow up. If you don't have a next step, your sale is dead.
• Be proactive. Don’t wait until a problem or a situation arises. Try to prevent them from happening.
• Develop a sense of urgency. Don’t think about doing something, do it. This might be the most important key to success in sales.
• Create “to do” lists and check off items after you complete them. Trying to remember everything you need to do creates unnecessary stress.
• Quote install charges. It’s a rookie mistake to automatically waive installs. That action stems from a lack of confidence. There are two possible outcomes to quoting an install charge: the customer asks that it be removed and you make a sale or they pay it and you make more money. If it stops them from buying, they weren’t likely to buy anyway. If you don’t quote an install charge, you cheapen your product or service and you leave nothing to negotiate.
• Follow up. If you make a proposal, follow up on it until the prospect agrees to buy or tells you no. Do this in a professional manner - don’t call too often and when you do reach the prospect, get to the point. I keep a business card in my pocket for every prospect I gave a proposal to and call them when I have some down time. Keeping the cards handy jogs my memory. Note on the cards when you called and what was discussed.
• Smile. People like people who smile. It’s disarming and humanizing; prospects will treat you better if they perceive you to be a person, not just a sales person.
• Ask for the sale. The only way to uncover a customer’s objections is to ask for the sale. Objections aren’t always valid and can be easy to overcome, unless you don’t know them.
• If you don’t get a sale, thank the prospect for the opportunity. Unless you were attempting to sell a casket to dying person, there will always be another time around. You never know, the company that did win the sale might drop the ball. That and the prospect will appreciate your professionalism.
• If someone provides you with a referral, act on it right away and keep the person who gave it to you up to date, as to its status. If someone provides you with a referral and never hears back, they’re going to be less likely to provide you with another.
• If you can’t answer the phone, return calls promptly.
• Call a prospect more than one time. You need to make a certain number of calls to make a sale but that doesn’t necessarily mean first time calls. Why is it sometimes that someone you called in the past, ends up buying from one of your coworkers?
• Give a firm handshake and look a person in the eye.
• Listen. If you’re talking, you’re not listening and if you’re not listening, you won’t be selling.
• Always have a next step. If you're on a first appointment, always set a next appointment before you leave. If you're proposing, schedule a time to follow up. If you don't have a next step, your sale is dead.
• Be proactive. Don’t wait until a problem or a situation arises. Try to prevent them from happening.
• Develop a sense of urgency. Don’t think about doing something, do it. This might be the most important key to success in sales.
• Create “to do” lists and check off items after you complete them. Trying to remember everything you need to do creates unnecessary stress.
• Quote install charges. It’s a rookie mistake to automatically waive installs. That action stems from a lack of confidence. There are two possible outcomes to quoting an install charge: the customer asks that it be removed and you make a sale or they pay it and you make more money. If it stops them from buying, they weren’t likely to buy anyway. If you don’t quote an install charge, you cheapen your product or service and you leave nothing to negotiate.
• Follow up. If you make a proposal, follow up on it until the prospect agrees to buy or tells you no. Do this in a professional manner - don’t call too often and when you do reach the prospect, get to the point. I keep a business card in my pocket for every prospect I gave a proposal to and call them when I have some down time. Keeping the cards handy jogs my memory. Note on the cards when you called and what was discussed.
• Smile. People like people who smile. It’s disarming and humanizing; prospects will treat you better if they perceive you to be a person, not just a sales person.
• Ask for the sale. The only way to uncover a customer’s objections is to ask for the sale. Objections aren’t always valid and can be easy to overcome, unless you don’t know them.
• If you don’t get a sale, thank the prospect for the opportunity. Unless you were attempting to sell a casket to dying person, there will always be another time around. You never know, the company that did win the sale might drop the ball. That and the prospect will appreciate your professionalism.
• If someone provides you with a referral, act on it right away and keep the person who gave it to you up to date, as to its status. If someone provides you with a referral and never hears back, they’re going to be less likely to provide you with another.
Friday, November 13, 2009
26 Sales Activities
Are you in a sales funk? Here are 26 different sales activities that you could involve yourself in, to get your selling motor running:
1. Prospect – walk into 20 new businesses a day.
2. Make follow up calls – calling the business cards collected while prospecting.
3. Follow up – calling on companies that you made proposals to.
4. Telemarket – phone call prospects.
5. Network – activity in networking groups and associations.
6. Recruit vendors – call on vendors that provide products or services that compliment yours, that could refer new business to you.
7. Foster existing vendor relationships.
8. Follow up visits – go to businesses you’ve visited in the past, but with a contact name.
9. Call on property managers and commercial leasing agents – they can provide you with a different avenue to reach customers.
10. Visit existing customers to assure customer satisfaction and to obtain referrals. Customers can always become repeat customers.
11. Conduct building events – work with property management in large buildings to be allowed to set up in the lobby or go suite to suite with marketing material. I used to give away donuts.
12. Find a mentor – some older businessman that could mentor you and act as a center of influence, to help you acquire new business.
13. Join a Chamber of Commerce.
14. Join Toastmasters.
15. Set up a business blog.
16. Email prospects.
17. Join a leads group.
18. Join another leads group.
19. Join the Elks.
20. Join the Knights of Columbus.
21. Conduct a sales blitz – pick one day every week to make cold calls non-stop, for at least four hours.
22. Visit every business in a business park, in one day.
23. Call or visit businesses that you lost sales to – check how things went with the other provider. It’s always easier to talk to someone when there’s no sale pending. Maybe they’ll use you next time.
24. Attend local trade shows and business expos.
25. Join a business park association – all business parks have associations and some meet once a month. Join one and use it as a way to market to the businesses in that business park.
26. Join a business or professional association – No matter what the industry, there’s probably an association that caters to it. It’s a good way to rub elbows with potential customers.
1. Prospect – walk into 20 new businesses a day.
2. Make follow up calls – calling the business cards collected while prospecting.
3. Follow up – calling on companies that you made proposals to.
4. Telemarket – phone call prospects.
5. Network – activity in networking groups and associations.
6. Recruit vendors – call on vendors that provide products or services that compliment yours, that could refer new business to you.
7. Foster existing vendor relationships.
8. Follow up visits – go to businesses you’ve visited in the past, but with a contact name.
9. Call on property managers and commercial leasing agents – they can provide you with a different avenue to reach customers.
10. Visit existing customers to assure customer satisfaction and to obtain referrals. Customers can always become repeat customers.
11. Conduct building events – work with property management in large buildings to be allowed to set up in the lobby or go suite to suite with marketing material. I used to give away donuts.
12. Find a mentor – some older businessman that could mentor you and act as a center of influence, to help you acquire new business.
13. Join a Chamber of Commerce.
14. Join Toastmasters.
15. Set up a business blog.
16. Email prospects.
17. Join a leads group.
18. Join another leads group.
19. Join the Elks.
20. Join the Knights of Columbus.
21. Conduct a sales blitz – pick one day every week to make cold calls non-stop, for at least four hours.
22. Visit every business in a business park, in one day.
23. Call or visit businesses that you lost sales to – check how things went with the other provider. It’s always easier to talk to someone when there’s no sale pending. Maybe they’ll use you next time.
24. Attend local trade shows and business expos.
25. Join a business park association – all business parks have associations and some meet once a month. Join one and use it as a way to market to the businesses in that business park.
26. Join a business or professional association – No matter what the industry, there’s probably an association that caters to it. It’s a good way to rub elbows with potential customers.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Sales Management
Not many sales managers are great sales people. I’ve had over a dozen sales managers in my career and I can only think of two that had any previous, prolonged success in sales and who could offer me any decent advice.
Most sales managers had a single period of success that they leveraged into a management position. Their success was more of a case of being in the right place at the right time; they couldn’t tell you how they did it and knew they had to get out of sales while the getting was good. So, they transitioned into management and became managers. They became very good at processing paperwork, creating spreadsheets, tracking sales, making sales projections, communicating new policies and procedures, filling out commission reports, and everything else sales managers do. What they might not do is motivate and inspire you, help you on appointments and close sales.
If you’re a sales rep you pretty much need to figure out things for yourself. Unless your manager was a sales rep for the same company and sold the same services you do, he or she is not going to be able to offer you much practical advice.
What you should expect from your manager:
• Help you resolve internal issues that impede your selling
• Help you resolve internal issues that delay your installs or product deployments
• Help you resolve commission disputes
• Help resolve sales disputes with other sales people
• Help you get better pricing or anything else that might help your product or service match up better against the competition
What you shouldn’t expect from your sales manager:
• To find opportunities for you
• To close sales for you
• To know some secret that will make you successful
When you get right down to it, you’re better off with a world class administrator and diplomat than an ex hot shot salesperson for a sales manager. You should be self motivated and sales isn’t nuclear physics.(1) You shouldn’t need a sales manager to push you or tell you what to do. You need them to take care of shit so you can get out and sell. You also need them to deal with all the internal b.s. that can make you want to want to shoot a staple into your eye.
There are four ways your sales career can go:
1. You’re lousy at sales, you get fired or quit and are forced to find a different vocation.
2. You experience success and then land a promotion into management.
3. You work hard, achieve success and then fuck up somehow, like getting caught having sex on your manager’s desk, get fired (2) and have to do it all over again somewhere else.
4. You are great at sales and keep selling and making money until you’ve had enough and call it quits.
Don’t get caught up in wanting to manage. Managers and sales people are two completely different people. Sometimes, when you’re good at sales, you wonder how so and so, who you outperform month after month, can get promoted, when you seem stuck in the endless grind of sales. That’s because a manager can spot another manager and you’re more valuable to your company when you’re selling. Feel better in knowing that when layoffs come around, so and so will be let go long before you will.
I spent the first part of my career clamoring to get into management. I didn’t appreciate sales as a career; didn’t think there was any dignity in it. Felt that if I didn’t get out, I would become pathetic, schlepping products into my old age.(3) Then I made it. I was hired to manage a team of inside sales reps at a cable company. I had to deal with twelve different personalities on a daily basis. I had reps that couldn’t talk their way out of a night club. I had reps that blew smoke up my ass, told me how they were going to work hard and then went back to their desk, played computer solitaire and talked shit about me. I had a rep that papered his cubicle with Navy Seal photos when he was never in the Seals and didn’t look like he could swim.(4)
I was making good money and the job wasn’t very demanding. The incentive plan was so good that management could leave the reps alone for the day and they would stay at their desks and work.(5) I’m not going to lie; I would still be there today if I didn’t decide to commit career suicide by exchanging emails with some company plant and lose my job.(6) But, there’s a big difference between having control vs. depending on others. If you’re a talented sales person, you’re probably a lone wolf type; you might not enjoy all the cajoling required in a sales management position. Instead of management, I say, stick to what you’re good at. Seek more and more professional sales positions that offer higher pay, more responsibility and better commissions.
(1) Sales requires more effort than brain power. Actually, intelligence can get in the way. Dumb people don’t think about the odds against success and how stupid it is to walk cold into a business and expect them to listen to you.
(2) Or worse, they keep you around, cut your territory in half and double your quota.
(3) Probably not a good idea to read Death of a Salesman when you’re in sales.
(4) Weird thing is, he had more than one of the same photo pasted up on his wall. He seemed harmless but I wouldn’t want to be around if something pushed him over the edge.
(5) That happened. All the managers were sent to opening day at the baseball park and I think the reps were even more productive that day.
(6) I found out half way through a Hawaiian vacation.
Most sales managers had a single period of success that they leveraged into a management position. Their success was more of a case of being in the right place at the right time; they couldn’t tell you how they did it and knew they had to get out of sales while the getting was good. So, they transitioned into management and became managers. They became very good at processing paperwork, creating spreadsheets, tracking sales, making sales projections, communicating new policies and procedures, filling out commission reports, and everything else sales managers do. What they might not do is motivate and inspire you, help you on appointments and close sales.
If you’re a sales rep you pretty much need to figure out things for yourself. Unless your manager was a sales rep for the same company and sold the same services you do, he or she is not going to be able to offer you much practical advice.
What you should expect from your manager:
• Help you resolve internal issues that impede your selling
• Help you resolve internal issues that delay your installs or product deployments
• Help you resolve commission disputes
• Help resolve sales disputes with other sales people
• Help you get better pricing or anything else that might help your product or service match up better against the competition
What you shouldn’t expect from your sales manager:
• To find opportunities for you
• To close sales for you
• To know some secret that will make you successful
When you get right down to it, you’re better off with a world class administrator and diplomat than an ex hot shot salesperson for a sales manager. You should be self motivated and sales isn’t nuclear physics.(1) You shouldn’t need a sales manager to push you or tell you what to do. You need them to take care of shit so you can get out and sell. You also need them to deal with all the internal b.s. that can make you want to want to shoot a staple into your eye.
There are four ways your sales career can go:
1. You’re lousy at sales, you get fired or quit and are forced to find a different vocation.
2. You experience success and then land a promotion into management.
3. You work hard, achieve success and then fuck up somehow, like getting caught having sex on your manager’s desk, get fired (2) and have to do it all over again somewhere else.
4. You are great at sales and keep selling and making money until you’ve had enough and call it quits.
Don’t get caught up in wanting to manage. Managers and sales people are two completely different people. Sometimes, when you’re good at sales, you wonder how so and so, who you outperform month after month, can get promoted, when you seem stuck in the endless grind of sales. That’s because a manager can spot another manager and you’re more valuable to your company when you’re selling. Feel better in knowing that when layoffs come around, so and so will be let go long before you will.
I spent the first part of my career clamoring to get into management. I didn’t appreciate sales as a career; didn’t think there was any dignity in it. Felt that if I didn’t get out, I would become pathetic, schlepping products into my old age.(3) Then I made it. I was hired to manage a team of inside sales reps at a cable company. I had to deal with twelve different personalities on a daily basis. I had reps that couldn’t talk their way out of a night club. I had reps that blew smoke up my ass, told me how they were going to work hard and then went back to their desk, played computer solitaire and talked shit about me. I had a rep that papered his cubicle with Navy Seal photos when he was never in the Seals and didn’t look like he could swim.(4)
I was making good money and the job wasn’t very demanding. The incentive plan was so good that management could leave the reps alone for the day and they would stay at their desks and work.(5) I’m not going to lie; I would still be there today if I didn’t decide to commit career suicide by exchanging emails with some company plant and lose my job.(6) But, there’s a big difference between having control vs. depending on others. If you’re a talented sales person, you’re probably a lone wolf type; you might not enjoy all the cajoling required in a sales management position. Instead of management, I say, stick to what you’re good at. Seek more and more professional sales positions that offer higher pay, more responsibility and better commissions.
(1) Sales requires more effort than brain power. Actually, intelligence can get in the way. Dumb people don’t think about the odds against success and how stupid it is to walk cold into a business and expect them to listen to you.
(2) Or worse, they keep you around, cut your territory in half and double your quota.
(3) Probably not a good idea to read Death of a Salesman when you’re in sales.
(4) Weird thing is, he had more than one of the same photo pasted up on his wall. He seemed harmless but I wouldn’t want to be around if something pushed him over the edge.
(5) That happened. All the managers were sent to opening day at the baseball park and I think the reps were even more productive that day.
(6) I found out half way through a Hawaiian vacation.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sales Titles
I was speaking to a woman today and when I asked her if she was a sales person, she informed me that she was a Business Development Manager.
I’ve been in sales for over twenty years. In my first job, I had the following titles: Sales Representative, Senior Sales Representative, Sales Specialist and Retail Sales Representative. At the next company I worked for, I was a Consultant, a Data Specialist, an Account Manager and a Senior Account Executive slash Hunter. I’ve also been an Account Executive, a Sales Consultant, I’ve been in New Business Development and once I was a Senior Account Executive slash free.
My point is, during this whole time, I did one thing: Sell.
Why all the different titles?
Because somehow “sales” became a dirty word (probably after half the population made a bad car deal) and someone had the brilliant idea to re-title ourselves. Meanwhile, does anyone really care? I just looked through about a hundred different business cards I’ve collected from the networking events I’ve attended. “Business Development” seems to be the “Isabella” of trendy sales labels.
I was a little disturbed to discover that some of the less spectacular sales professionals I know have better titles than I do. This one guy I know, who’s in his twenties and doesn’t even wear dress pants, is going around calling himself Vice President of New Business Development. What gives?!
The best title story I have, doesn’t even involve a sales person. I was working with an individual at a local credit union. The first time I met with him, he was an I.T. Manager. A few meetings later, he was the Director of I.T. The next time we met, I noticed he was the Vice President of I.T. I felt pretty comfortable with him at that point and mentioned the title change and asked him if he received a raise. He said no.
I’ve been in sales for over twenty years. In my first job, I had the following titles: Sales Representative, Senior Sales Representative, Sales Specialist and Retail Sales Representative. At the next company I worked for, I was a Consultant, a Data Specialist, an Account Manager and a Senior Account Executive slash Hunter. I’ve also been an Account Executive, a Sales Consultant, I’ve been in New Business Development and once I was a Senior Account Executive slash free.
My point is, during this whole time, I did one thing: Sell.
Why all the different titles?
Because somehow “sales” became a dirty word (probably after half the population made a bad car deal) and someone had the brilliant idea to re-title ourselves. Meanwhile, does anyone really care? I just looked through about a hundred different business cards I’ve collected from the networking events I’ve attended. “Business Development” seems to be the “Isabella” of trendy sales labels.
I was a little disturbed to discover that some of the less spectacular sales professionals I know have better titles than I do. This one guy I know, who’s in his twenties and doesn’t even wear dress pants, is going around calling himself Vice President of New Business Development. What gives?!
The best title story I have, doesn’t even involve a sales person. I was working with an individual at a local credit union. The first time I met with him, he was an I.T. Manager. A few meetings later, he was the Director of I.T. The next time we met, I noticed he was the Vice President of I.T. I felt pretty comfortable with him at that point and mentioned the title change and asked him if he received a raise. He said no.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Cold Calling
If you think about it too much, cold calling seems like a complete waste of time. I mean, what are the chances of you walking into a business that just happens to be looking for something you’re offering? Unless you’re offering them a way to get rid of you, you’re not going to get a lot of takers.
Personally, I’ve visited over seventy businesses in one day, in a business park and over one hundred in a high rise. I’ve done most of my cold calling while working in telecommunications. Telecommunications is a mature industry; there aren’t a lot of businesses without access to high speed internet and none without phone service. Prices keep dropping, so there’s not much motivation to comparison shop. It seems like every day, there’s a new company selling service. The sales reps range from complete newbie amateurs to know it all pros. Next to selling photo copiers, I can’t think a harder service to sell door to door.
I’ve witnessed someone crumble my business card right in front of my eyes. I’ve had receptionists tell me that their companies weren’t interested, before they found out what I was offering.(1) I’ve been escorted out of buildings. There have been times when I wondered why I went to college if all I was going to do with my life was to schlep phone service. I’ve spent days drinking coffee, running errands, shopping at the mall that were as productive as entire days I’ve spent cold calling.
Every time I’m ready to give up on cold calling, I’ll get a call back or I’ll be Johnny on the spot, and a business I’m visiting will just happen to be looking for exactly what I’m selling.
My point is: you have to cold call, even if it’s just to keep you sane. What choice do you have? You can sit and stew at your desk, worrying about how you’re going to find your next sale or “waste” some time cold calling. I don’t know how many times, I’ve felt like my body was filled with toxic stress and then had that feeling disappear after just a few visits.
Here are some tips to help you on your way:
• Be insanely optimistic. Make yourself believe that if you leave a flier in an empty suite or tacked to a bulletin board, someone will call you back.
• If you don’t know which door to enter, look for the one with the “No Solicitation” sign on it. If a “No Solicitation” stops you, you’re in the wrong line of work.
• If you want to make some calls in a high rise, never let the security guards in the lobby see you carrying fliers and never get caught studying the tenant directory. Hit a few random floors and get out. Keep good records, so you know what floors to hit next time around. Never, ever, try to sell to the property manager’s office. You can go in and ask the PM how to market to the building’s tenants but you can’t offer them your services. Not unless you want to be walked out like a terminated employee. The PM might help you, probably won’t, but at least you tried. If they won’t help then all bets are off and hit the building guerilla style.
• Be brave. If you walk into a lobby with no receptionist, ring the bell to call someone up. If there’s no bell, walk into the office and ask someone for help. If the door is locked and there’s a door bell, ring it. Why? Because there aren’t many reps who will and you’ll separate yourself from your competitors.
• Be extremely polite. Always say, “Excuse me” and “Thank you”. Ask for the receptionist’s name and then say, “Thank you, Elizabeth” or “Bob”. Don’t let the door slam.
• Smile. No one can be mean to someone who’s smiling. Not unless they’re a cold hearted bastard. I cold call with a sales rep that works for me. I've noticed that the person he's speaking to tends to mimic his facial expression. If he smiles, they smile. If he's grim, they're grim.
• Be earnest. People appreciate someone who’s just trying to do a good job.
• Make it a habit. Once you get over the fear of cold calling, keep it up. If you stop, starting up again will be as hard as the first time.
• Be consistent. You should attempt to make twenty calls a day but make at least make ten. And do it every day. Pretend you’re preparing for a competition and your calls are your training.
• Try cold calling during the lunch hour and after five. During these times, the receptionist is off duty and you might be able to talk directly to a decision maker.
• If you need to go, the bathrooms on the first floors of office buildings are usually locked, but if you go up to the higher floors, they’ll be open.
• If you’re approaching a glass building, plan your entrance ahead of time. Nothing’s worse than being seen peering into windows, trying to determine which entrance to use. Everyone inside can see you. People in these buildings must be entertained all day by stumbling sales people.
One thing I think of whenever I’m struggling with and questioning the importance of cold calling: Where I live, there’s a small company that sells phone and internet services. They don’t advertise. It’s amazing how many businesses have their service. The only way they market their service is through sales people making cold calls. If cold calling didn’t work, this company wouldn’t exist.
(1) This has always been a stick in my crawl, receptionists getting too caught up in themselves. They’re paid to answer the phone and greet people and instead, they start thinking it’s their job to decide who their company should speak to. I don’t know how many times I’ve come to find that the companies with these types are paying way too much for their services.
Personally, I’ve visited over seventy businesses in one day, in a business park and over one hundred in a high rise. I’ve done most of my cold calling while working in telecommunications. Telecommunications is a mature industry; there aren’t a lot of businesses without access to high speed internet and none without phone service. Prices keep dropping, so there’s not much motivation to comparison shop. It seems like every day, there’s a new company selling service. The sales reps range from complete newbie amateurs to know it all pros. Next to selling photo copiers, I can’t think a harder service to sell door to door.
I’ve witnessed someone crumble my business card right in front of my eyes. I’ve had receptionists tell me that their companies weren’t interested, before they found out what I was offering.(1) I’ve been escorted out of buildings. There have been times when I wondered why I went to college if all I was going to do with my life was to schlep phone service. I’ve spent days drinking coffee, running errands, shopping at the mall that were as productive as entire days I’ve spent cold calling.
Every time I’m ready to give up on cold calling, I’ll get a call back or I’ll be Johnny on the spot, and a business I’m visiting will just happen to be looking for exactly what I’m selling.
My point is: you have to cold call, even if it’s just to keep you sane. What choice do you have? You can sit and stew at your desk, worrying about how you’re going to find your next sale or “waste” some time cold calling. I don’t know how many times, I’ve felt like my body was filled with toxic stress and then had that feeling disappear after just a few visits.
Here are some tips to help you on your way:
• Be insanely optimistic. Make yourself believe that if you leave a flier in an empty suite or tacked to a bulletin board, someone will call you back.
• If you don’t know which door to enter, look for the one with the “No Solicitation” sign on it. If a “No Solicitation” stops you, you’re in the wrong line of work.
• If you want to make some calls in a high rise, never let the security guards in the lobby see you carrying fliers and never get caught studying the tenant directory. Hit a few random floors and get out. Keep good records, so you know what floors to hit next time around. Never, ever, try to sell to the property manager’s office. You can go in and ask the PM how to market to the building’s tenants but you can’t offer them your services. Not unless you want to be walked out like a terminated employee. The PM might help you, probably won’t, but at least you tried. If they won’t help then all bets are off and hit the building guerilla style.
• Be brave. If you walk into a lobby with no receptionist, ring the bell to call someone up. If there’s no bell, walk into the office and ask someone for help. If the door is locked and there’s a door bell, ring it. Why? Because there aren’t many reps who will and you’ll separate yourself from your competitors.
• Be extremely polite. Always say, “Excuse me” and “Thank you”. Ask for the receptionist’s name and then say, “Thank you, Elizabeth” or “Bob”. Don’t let the door slam.
• Smile. No one can be mean to someone who’s smiling. Not unless they’re a cold hearted bastard. I cold call with a sales rep that works for me. I've noticed that the person he's speaking to tends to mimic his facial expression. If he smiles, they smile. If he's grim, they're grim.
• Be earnest. People appreciate someone who’s just trying to do a good job.
• Make it a habit. Once you get over the fear of cold calling, keep it up. If you stop, starting up again will be as hard as the first time.
• Be consistent. You should attempt to make twenty calls a day but make at least make ten. And do it every day. Pretend you’re preparing for a competition and your calls are your training.
• Try cold calling during the lunch hour and after five. During these times, the receptionist is off duty and you might be able to talk directly to a decision maker.
• If you need to go, the bathrooms on the first floors of office buildings are usually locked, but if you go up to the higher floors, they’ll be open.
• If you’re approaching a glass building, plan your entrance ahead of time. Nothing’s worse than being seen peering into windows, trying to determine which entrance to use. Everyone inside can see you. People in these buildings must be entertained all day by stumbling sales people.
One thing I think of whenever I’m struggling with and questioning the importance of cold calling: Where I live, there’s a small company that sells phone and internet services. They don’t advertise. It’s amazing how many businesses have their service. The only way they market their service is through sales people making cold calls. If cold calling didn’t work, this company wouldn’t exist.
(1) This has always been a stick in my crawl, receptionists getting too caught up in themselves. They’re paid to answer the phone and greet people and instead, they start thinking it’s their job to decide who their company should speak to. I don’t know how many times I’ve come to find that the companies with these types are paying way too much for their services.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Getting Started
If you’re considering a career in sales, enter an industry with the most expensive products and services. Sales people are compensated in percentages; the more something costs, the more you get paid. Also, it takes no more talent and effort to sell a large, expensive item than a small, inexpensive one. In fact, it is probably easier to sell a big ticket item because you will be dealing with a more sophisticated, educated buyer and have less competition.
You feel more important when you sell large, expensive products and services and that will give you confidence.(1)
When I sold roofs and gutters for The Home Depot, I worked just as hard to sell a gutter job as a roof that would pay me ten times as much. I spent more time and suffered more aggravation selling phone lines and DSL to a small business then I ever did selling an entire data and a voice network to a large business. Here’s a secret, the bigger the product - the more it costs - the more support you’ll receive. The major account reps at the phone company have sales support to create proposals, inventory services, manage installations and answer service calls. The regular account reps do all that on their own.
It is easier and less humiliating to prospect to larger clients. Which would you rather do, go door to door selling meat or rubbing elbows with C level executives at association events?
Enter an industry that sells to businesses. When I sold roofs for The Home Depot, I had set up shop at the store and solicit free roof quotes. I was mortified that someone I knew would come into the store on a Saturday, shopping for a new hedge clipper, and see me in my orange apron, next to my bright orange, handmade “free roof quotes” sign. My counter parts in commercial roofing sales worked Monday through Friday afternoon(2) and were off weekends. That’s when they did things like go to The Home Deport and shop for new hedge clippers.
(1) Confidence is horsepower to a sales person. Ambition and motivation are the fuel.
(2) Professional sales people do not work past 2:00 on a Friday afternoon. And most sales people include their afternoon commutes as part of the work day. So, if you arrive home at 5:00, you worked an entire day.
You feel more important when you sell large, expensive products and services and that will give you confidence.(1)
When I sold roofs and gutters for The Home Depot, I worked just as hard to sell a gutter job as a roof that would pay me ten times as much. I spent more time and suffered more aggravation selling phone lines and DSL to a small business then I ever did selling an entire data and a voice network to a large business. Here’s a secret, the bigger the product - the more it costs - the more support you’ll receive. The major account reps at the phone company have sales support to create proposals, inventory services, manage installations and answer service calls. The regular account reps do all that on their own.
It is easier and less humiliating to prospect to larger clients. Which would you rather do, go door to door selling meat or rubbing elbows with C level executives at association events?
Enter an industry that sells to businesses. When I sold roofs for The Home Depot, I had set up shop at the store and solicit free roof quotes. I was mortified that someone I knew would come into the store on a Saturday, shopping for a new hedge clipper, and see me in my orange apron, next to my bright orange, handmade “free roof quotes” sign. My counter parts in commercial roofing sales worked Monday through Friday afternoon(2) and were off weekends. That’s when they did things like go to The Home Deport and shop for new hedge clippers.
(1) Confidence is horsepower to a sales person. Ambition and motivation are the fuel.
(2) Professional sales people do not work past 2:00 on a Friday afternoon. And most sales people include their afternoon commutes as part of the work day. So, if you arrive home at 5:00, you worked an entire day.
My Background
My mom claims I’ve been selling my entire life. There’s some truth in that statement. Since I can remember, I was always selling something. I sold yard service, snow and leaf removal, gutter cleaning, Christmas wreathes and newspaper subscriptions to my neighbors. I was the first kid on my block to sell my beer can collection and my baseball cards.(1) I was always organizing yard and garage sales.(2) In college, I majored in sales. That's your major when you have horrible grades or you don't learn a marketable skill.
I started my professional career selling insurance, with the determination to get out of sales. I sold insurance for eight years, until I got a job selling for the phone company. During the first fifteen years of my professional life I sold over the phone. I don't have a good speaking voice, it lacks inflection, and many times I’ve been asked if I was tired or down. I've also managed to create my own accent. I grew up in Philadelphia, but people there asked me if I was from Boston. Go figure.
For the next eight years I sold outside. No, I didn’t sell grass, trees and the sky. I prospected, went on sales calls and appointments.
For the past 23 years I've engaged in every possible form of selling. I've sold inside and outside, residential and commercial, tangible and intangible, short and long sales cycles, products and services, I've worked on the direct and agent side, I've been full commission and salaried, I've sold big and small ticket items..you name it I've sold it. I've sold insurance, every imaginable telephone service (I sold the first versions of "high speed" internet service. Just imagine paying over a hundred bucks a month for "high speed" internet and then experiencing your internet moving slightly faster than dial up.), I sold roofs, commercial landscape maintenance, phone systems, cable TV, sporting goods and men's wear. I've executed every possible sales activity. I've cold called, prospected, networked, speed networked, presented, partnered, consulted, bribed, paid off, solicited, marketed, pleaded, begged, prostituted myself, seduced, failed to tell the truth, told the truth even when it jeopardized a sale. I managed inside and outside, salaried and full commissioned sales people.
No one in my family was a sales person (I have five sisters). My first wife thought sales was something you did when you couldn't do anything else and never considered commissions or bonuses to be money you could count on. My second wife worked in research and was mortified that our sales results were posted for everyone to see. (Luckily, I was first that month.)
If you read this blog on a regular basis, if you're in sales, you'll get the feeling that you're not alone and might pick an idea or two. If you're not in sales, maybe you'll get a better understanding of what a sales person goes through and you'll be nicer to sales people in the future.
1. I was a little crafty in my younger years. I had over 10,000 baseball cards. I went through them all and removed the best of the best. Then I put the best remaining cards at the beginning of each row of cards. I ran an ad in the classifieds. The first guy that came to see my cards bought them. He must have thought it was the greatest score ever because the few cards he looked at were all allstars and hall of famers. Meanwhile, if he went up a row a few inches, he would have seen half a dozen Milt Pappas’ cards.
2. Keep in mind, these were clearing house events where merchandise was sold for pennies on the dollar. Getting your dad to pay full price for a baseball mitt and then selling it later for a quarter of its value does not show proof of sales prowess.
I started my professional career selling insurance, with the determination to get out of sales. I sold insurance for eight years, until I got a job selling for the phone company. During the first fifteen years of my professional life I sold over the phone. I don't have a good speaking voice, it lacks inflection, and many times I’ve been asked if I was tired or down. I've also managed to create my own accent. I grew up in Philadelphia, but people there asked me if I was from Boston. Go figure.
For the next eight years I sold outside. No, I didn’t sell grass, trees and the sky. I prospected, went on sales calls and appointments.
For the past 23 years I've engaged in every possible form of selling. I've sold inside and outside, residential and commercial, tangible and intangible, short and long sales cycles, products and services, I've worked on the direct and agent side, I've been full commission and salaried, I've sold big and small ticket items..you name it I've sold it. I've sold insurance, every imaginable telephone service (I sold the first versions of "high speed" internet service. Just imagine paying over a hundred bucks a month for "high speed" internet and then experiencing your internet moving slightly faster than dial up.), I sold roofs, commercial landscape maintenance, phone systems, cable TV, sporting goods and men's wear. I've executed every possible sales activity. I've cold called, prospected, networked, speed networked, presented, partnered, consulted, bribed, paid off, solicited, marketed, pleaded, begged, prostituted myself, seduced, failed to tell the truth, told the truth even when it jeopardized a sale. I managed inside and outside, salaried and full commissioned sales people.
No one in my family was a sales person (I have five sisters). My first wife thought sales was something you did when you couldn't do anything else and never considered commissions or bonuses to be money you could count on. My second wife worked in research and was mortified that our sales results were posted for everyone to see. (Luckily, I was first that month.)
If you read this blog on a regular basis, if you're in sales, you'll get the feeling that you're not alone and might pick an idea or two. If you're not in sales, maybe you'll get a better understanding of what a sales person goes through and you'll be nicer to sales people in the future.
1. I was a little crafty in my younger years. I had over 10,000 baseball cards. I went through them all and removed the best of the best. Then I put the best remaining cards at the beginning of each row of cards. I ran an ad in the classifieds. The first guy that came to see my cards bought them. He must have thought it was the greatest score ever because the few cards he looked at were all allstars and hall of famers. Meanwhile, if he went up a row a few inches, he would have seen half a dozen Milt Pappas’ cards.
2. Keep in mind, these were clearing house events where merchandise was sold for pennies on the dollar. Getting your dad to pay full price for a baseball mitt and then selling it later for a quarter of its value does not show proof of sales prowess.
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