The Selling Sherpa

PROFESSIONAL SALES LIBRARY

Being a professional salesperson means dedicating yourself to constant learning. You should create a professional sales library of the best material you can get your hands on and make a commitment to read or review material daily. Yes, that means every day.

When? How about getting up a half hour early and spending some quiet reading time to start your day.

How much time do you spend commuting? Convert that time into Car College and pick up some insights by listening to audio-books.

Find the time, make the investment, and become a lifetime student of selling. It will pay handsomely in the long run.

SUBTLE DIFFERENCE

The other evening I went into a nearby location of the big coffee giant and ordered up a cool beverage.

A young lady who was clearly new to the job rang up my purchase under the supervision of one of the veteran team members. She informed me of the total, I fished around in my pocket for a twenty, and as I was handing it to her, she plucked it from my fingers.

It was just a subtle difference from being allowed to hand her the bill, yet it bothered me. And the more I though about it, the more it bothered me.

I think the same thing happens whenever someone is sold a product or service that is inappropriate. They feel like the money was plucked from their hands, and the longer they think about it, the more uncomfortable they become.

Make sure you are never the one doing the plucking.

Instead, just give your prospects a fair opportunity to purchase from you, an honest compelling reason why they should buy from you, and a favorable environment so they will enjoy making the purchase.

If you do, your customer will gladly hand you the money it takes to own what you sell.

ANOTHER GREAT REASON

Yesterday’s Sales Tip about being a stock-holder reminded me of another great reason to own stock in a company.

Early in my career, I discovered a wonderful resource for information about most big companies. It’s called an Annual Report and it gets mailed to every one of the company’s stockholders, no matter how few shares they own.

Long before the internet made access to data so easy, purchasing just one share of a company’s stock granted me access to all kinds of information about a corporation, its executives, its future plans, and even some of their weaknesses. Instead of fighting to find market intelligence about a competitor, I could buy a single share and actually be invited inside their corporate headquarters to personally attend the annual shareholders meeting. Owning one small fraction of the company was the difference between being locked out or welcomed.

Of course, search engines and financial web resources makes much of this un-necessary today. In the course of a few keystrokes and some intelligent assumptions about where to look (“media center” is usually a treasure trove), you can have all the information you need to contact the people who can say “yes” to your offer.

STOCKHOLDER

Do you work for a publicly traded company? Is it possible to own stock in the firm that employs you?

If the answer is yes, then you need to make an investment in ownership.

Not necessarily because doing so is a great way to build a retirement fund, although I hope that is the case too.

By being a stockholder, you invest yourself in the success of your firm, and you also demonstrate belief in what you sell and a commitment to the company that employs you.

You might even consider adding “ /Stockholder ” to the title on your business cards, which is another way to stand out from the crowd.

[BTW – if you want real investing guidance, talk to a financial advisor.]

ASSISTANT BUYER

In my experience, one of the most effective ways to get myself (and my sales teams) in the right frame of mind for sales greatness is to take on the persona and responsibility of an assistant buyer for my clients and prospects.

The last thing most buyers want is one more salesperson pressuring them to make a decision; but, they welcome someone willing to help them sift through the options and determine which offer makes the most sense for their company.

You might even consider adding “ /Assistant Buyer ” to the title on your business cards. If nothing else, it might make people stop and ask about it.

THE BARKING GECKO

A decade ago, I was a part-owner in a bistro restaurant. It was a funky little place called The Barking Gecko. (Cool name, huh? And yes, geckos really do bark.)

The food was awesome. Ten years later, I’ve yet to experience a gorgonzola pasta, shrimp scampi, lemonade, or pumpkin pie that could rival those that chef Sean prepared. Not every one of his dishes hit (I absolutely could not tolerate the polenta) but everything he created was edgy, innovative, and expertly prepared.

In the early days, service was a little dicey because the servers were still learning their way. Sometimes they got a little too caught up in conversation with each other, but the meal more than made up for any service shortcomings.

The bar had an incredible collection of single malts that was the envy of every other establishment in town.

Sounds like a great place, doesn’t it. It was, but it closed within a year, and I think the biggest reason was lack of communication.

In mid-December, I arrived at the front door to find a sign on it informing me the place would be closed for the next 2 weeks while the chef was on vacation. This was unexpected. Not only from an owner standpoint, but also from a customer’s.

If you drove by and didn’t get close enough to see the sign, all you saw was another restaurant that had closed it’s doors. There was no advertising on radio or in the newspaper. Regular customers had no advance warning from the chef that, “hey, I’m taking a break in December, but we’ll be back in January, so come back and see us then.”

The problem with The Barking Gecko was that it didn’t. Bark, I mean. It didn’t tell it’s customers what was going on, what to expect, and, most importantly, why customers should come back. So, they didn’t.

If you want your customers to keep being customers, constantly inform them about things that affect them, like upcoming sales, new product launches, changes in hours, revised procedures, and when you will be on vacation.

Don’t bark just for the sake of making noise. But if you fail to bark when there is reason to do so, it might come back to bite you.

BIRTHDAY

Do you send birthday cards to your best customers? If not, why not?

Yes, it means you have to take a little time. But wouldn’t you benefit from investing a little bit of effort in deepening your relationship with the people who are ultimately the ones who pay you?

More importantly, be sure you find out the birthdays of any spouses/partners (be sure you know which is which) or children. Remembering the birthday of your client is one thing, but when you acknowledge the birthdays of those they love, you really stand out.

If you need to ease into this habit, start with your Top 10 customers or the Top 10% of your customers.

Don’t take my word for it, try it!

MASQUERADE

When I go into organizations to help sales teams get focused, I will sometimes encounter an actor instead of a salesperson.

You know the kind of person I mean. They are the one who is trying their best to ‘act’ like a salesperson by showing off how polished they are, asking rehearsed questions, and generally behaving as someone who doesn’t realize their charade isn’t fooling anybody.

Hey, I know that’s not you, but you might have met someone who is like that.

If you do, would you do them, and me, a favor?

Would you tell them selling is not a masquerade?

Would you gently inform them that selling is all about being your true self and serving others with integrity?

You tell those you come into contact with, I will tell the ones I come into contact with, and maybe, just maybe, between the two of us, we can make the world a better place by getting rid of all the phonies. Or at least we can reduce their number

With less of those guys running around, our job as professional salespeople might actually become a little bit easier.

A SALE WAITING TO HAPPEN

While teaching my Rockin’ Referrals™ system during a private mentoring session, my client shared a referral horror story that I have to pass on to you (with his permission, of course) although identifying details are omitted.

He participates in a group that meets regularly for the purposes of sharing leads and referrals. One of his fellow members is in an industry that serves home-owners and it just so happened the neighbor of my client desperately needed help. My client told his neighbor he knew just the right guy to handle the job and asked permission to pass the neighbor’s name, number, and details on to his colleague, which the neighbor eagerly agreed to.

So, the prospect has a specific need the vendor can fill, my client has done the groundwork to get his neighbor interested and ready to work with the colleague. Basically, it’s a sale waiting to happen. Sounds good, right?

But when he provides his colleague with the referral and asks him to call the neighbor, the colleague tells him to have the neighbor call instead so he will be entered into their CRM system.

The colleague never calls, the neighbor is waiting, and nothing happens. After waiting a long time, my client’s son offered to help the neighbor and now that enterprising 16-year-old has developed his own stream of revenue.

Because the colleague didn’t call, the neighbor went without (for awhile) and, worse yet, he failed to follow up on the promise my client gave his neighbor, which means he will never again refer anyone to that colleague.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Any time a business friend of yours tee’s up business for you, you must follow through and make the call.

If you don’t, you may miss a sale and you will definitely miss out on any future referrals you might have gotten.

THINK TWICE

It was almost noon the other day when I finished a consulting session with a client in downtown Seattle, so lunch was in order. I decided to visit a fairly popular sushi restaurant and, on the way through the front door, I was stopped cold by a sign in the window.

The sign, featuring large block letters written with a thick black marker, read something to the effect of, “We know who you are Tommy Tip-stealer (not the real name). You stole money from our tip jar and you are not welcome in any of our locations.”

While I understand the frustration of that situation, the sign will solve nothing. Worse yet, it doesn’t send the best message to the other patrons, or to those looking through the window who might become patrons. Or, might not.

Think twice about every communication from you that might be seen by a customer or a prospect, because it only takes one mistake to make people think twice about doing business with you.