Sales Blog with Sales Tips

I had to strongly reprimand a nice young sales professional recently.

This occurred when I met my new account manager for the first time at a Fidelity office. We went to his office. He asked if I wanted something to drink. Everything was fine.

I had been seated in his office about 120 seconds when he made his blunder. Brace yourself. “Scott, when I first saw you I was worried you might think I was too young to help you. I have been through Fidelity’s rigorous training program…”

I stopped him in his tracks. In a most fatherly and firm way I leaned over his desk (I even think I pointed my finger at him…bad form on my part) and said, “The issue is not mine. The issue is yours. If you think you’re too young, you’ll project that belief on others and they will ultimately agree with you. Stop saying this kind of thing to your customers right here and right now.”

“Yes sir.”

For possibly the first time in my life, I didn’t tell someone not to call me “sir.” Sales tips and sales training can be a soft science at times. However, I knew I was right about this. No uncertainty. He needed some immediate and firm coaching. He got it and, frankly, I felt good about it. It helped that he was physically much smaller than I was.

But Scott, I Would Never Say Or Think Something Like That
It doesn’t matter whether you say it or think it (that’s Biblical I believe). If you think it, you’ve done it. Just thinking invalidating thoughts about yourself, your employer and your customers will hurt you. This kind of thinking takes all forms, by the way. There are a million variations; below are just a few examples.

Do You Ever Hear Any Of These In Your Head?

• I’m too old.
• This industry isn’t right for me.
• I’ll never be able to sell in this recession.
• Our product line is junk.
• This is a loser company.
• Our prices are too high.
• I wish I worked for competitor X.
• My customers never have the budget for anything.
• I have the dumbest customers on the planet.
• Our customer service is a joke.
• The quality of our products and services is not even close to our competitors.
• My sales manager is an idiot.
• Our corporate management is lame.

Sales Tips For Real World Successful Thinking Habits

1. If you say or think invalidating ideas long enough, they will come true. You’re committing sales suicide and not even realizing it.
2. I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. No one is. Get real. Quit minimizing your opportunities for success by creating a foundation of negative and baseless thoughts about your customers and yourself.
3. No surprise here, but your employer isn’t perfect. Never ever will be. Oh sure, you can change jobs, but you’ll find all the same dummy-ridden-management but with different names. Stop wasting energy bellyaching about something you’ll never be able to change, no matter where you work.

Sales Blog Epilogue
I’m going to recommend a book to you in further reading below that was not sent to me as a freebie to review. I recommend very few books in this sales blog, but this one is an exception. I bought this book myself and have no financial interest in promoting it. It is not a sales training book, but it will make you more successful in sales.

It covers in detail what I’ve written about above. You won’t be able to put it down. It will permanently change how you see yourself, your employer and your customers.

Further reading:

• “The Power of Intention” by Dr. Wayne Dyer

My new book, “Comatose Management,” will be available from amazon.com and other distributors by mid-November.

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Advertisement

Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com

Many of the things we say and do to create and enhance customer relationships actually erode them instead. That’s right. We regularly use exactly the wrong behaviors to get what we want when it comes to rapport building.

2 Principles of Relationships
There are two essential truths when it comes to bonding with one another. These truths are counterintuitive. As you read these two points in this sales blog, think of your past customer experiences in creating and nurturing relationships as reference points.

Principle #1
Detachment. You will never be everyone’s friend. Not everyone is going to like you. Don’t try to force a psychological relationship on customers. It will backfire.

However, oozing an aura of detachment ironically draws people to you. People naturally put up defenses when they feel anything is being forced on them. Including you. People want to be friends with people who don’t need friends. They want to choose to be in the relationship.

Simply stated, be the cool-kid in high school who everyone liked.   The cool-kid never needed groupies. Don’t be the popular-kid who always had to be the center of attention and felt worthless without adoring fans. Have you noticed that post high school cool-kids are generally much more successful in life than post high school popular-kids? Check it out at your next high school reunion.

Psychological detachment is a good tool; however, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be available to others.  More on this below.

Principle #2
Abundance. Exuding – or even fully verbalizing – that you don’t need someone’s business will make you a more attractive business associate. Customers like doing business with people who aren’t desperate, or needy, or twisting their arm.

When your personality radiates the idea that there is plenty of business to be had, even if a particular person doesn’t buy from you, it is called abundance. “There’s enough business for everyone, and unless it’s a good fit for both of us, we won’t force the issue.”

This is the New Authenticity in action.

Principle #3
Okay, I know I wrote there were two principles. But, there is a third. The first two concern things we tend to do, but shouldn’t (i.e. psychologically clinging to people and pushing customers into actions they aren’t ready for).

The last principle has to do with showing interest. This is something we should do. Always let your customers know you value them, have time for them, respect them, will listen to them.

Further reading:

• 8 Speed Traps in Sales [Customer relationship building takes time and deliberate effort.]
• Our Professionalism May Be Killing Us [Sales tips on allowing our real personality to help us sell.]
• Why Dogs Make Bad Sales Professionals [Brown-nosing our customers can backfire.]
• Can Hillary Clinton teach us something about sales? [Sales blog post on the dangers of not being authentic.]

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Advertisement

Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com

If you aren’t a “connector,” no problem. However, make sure you have three or four of these people in your business network.

Connectors 101
When I define what a connector is, you’ll immediately recognize the concept. Connectors are individuals who absolutely love connecting people. They are energized by it. They have a smile on their face when they introduce one person to another.

We all know people like this. What’s important is that you have a small handful of these people in your network.

Connectors can greatly magnify your ability to meet people, build relationships and ultimately write more business. There are certainly benefits to having connectors in your inner circle, but there are also limitations. More on that below.

Connectors, The Good
Connectors allow you to bypass all of the time you’ll waste at Chamber of Commerce meetings and their ilk. A few good connectors in your network are exponentially more fruitful in helping you find new decision makers.

If you’re not already a connector and want to become one, you’ll have no problem finding one who will gladly mentor you. Think about the power of not only knowing a few connectors, but actually being one.

A handful of good connectors in your fabric of business relationships can virtually end cold calling.

Connectors, The Bad And The Ugly
They’ll occasionally introduce you to people before they know your full name – I’m not making that up.

They’ll introduce you to someone they really don’t know. This can be awkward, but it breaks the ice nonetheless.

Connectors can be fickle at times. The very thing that makes them connectors is the same reason they’ll forget about you. This is one of the reasons you want three or four in your network.

Sales Tips On Managing Your Connectors
They’re easy to find. They’re always “working the room.” They can’t help themselves. If they don’t get to you first, make sure you meet them. When you find a connector who seems to be a good fit, develop the relationship further by meeting him or her for lunch, etc.

You can also find connectors on LinkedIn. In fact, LinkedIn is a tool that was created just for them. They love it. Look for people with 500+ connections (they’ll have more, but LinkedIn only shows up to 500). Take it beyond a virtual acquaintance and meet them for coffee or lunch if there is a mutual business justification.

An Important Final Note About Connectors
Connectors who have their Ph.D. in networking don’t necessarily need you to introduce them to more people. They know everyone already. However, don’t naively believe they’ll just feed you names indefinitely.

As you develop a relationship with your connectors, they will reveal how you can help them. They may need you to educate them about certain industries. You might assist them in being part of their brain trust by advising them on sales strategies for specific customers. Networking always involves reciprocity, but in the case of connectors, they don’t need you to find people.

Further reading:

• 6 Basics For Potent Face-To-Face Networking

>You can automatically receive this sales blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Advertisement

Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com

The customer you start with is the customer you end up with. We have to establish rules, boundaries and limitations with our new customers immediately after consummation of the relationship. Like spoiled and ill-behaved teenagers, if we don’t follow common sense “parenting” principles right from the start, it’s hard to cure customer problems later.

Areas Where We Go Wrong
Here is where I see sales professionals get in trouble right from the outset with virginal customers:

1. Pricing. Train your new customers about your pricing; you aren’t the cheapest in town. You probably never will be, and there’s a reason. If price is their only concern, they need to look elsewhere.

2. Payment. Instruct your baby customers on the fine art of paying their bills. Let them know right from the first order that you are not intending to finance their business with your accounts receivable – and lost commissions.

3. Products. Educate your customers early on about your broad line of products and services. Let them know you intend to fill all of their needs with your products and services and won’t tolerate cherry picking.

4. Decision Makers. Help your newborn customers learn that you will be contacting decision makers at all levels of their company. Dealing with just the purchasing department won’t work for you.

5. Communication. By example, teach your newbie customers that you will return emails and voice mails within 60 minutes. You expect them to respond quickly to you as well.

6. Relationship. It’s impressive that one of the decision makers you’ll be working with at your newfound customer is a manager/director/VP/president/CXO/Intergalactic Lord of Nations/etc. However, you don’t really care about titles when it comes to how they treat you personally. You’ll treat them with respect, but you expect complete reciprocity in this regard. Can we say boundaries?

The Dance
When we initiate a relationship with a new customer, we begin a dance. A more sterile description would be to say that we are testing one another. A little push here. A little give there.

Sales Blog Epilogue
Confidence, authenticity and assertiveness will “break in” those fresh customers in all the right ways. If you let them grow up to be a teenager with a handful of bad habits and attitudes,  it will be difficult to fix the issues down the road.

The customer you start with is the customer you end up with.

Further reading:

• Ask Yourself, Am I a Pricing Wimp?
• Wrestling With Fear in Sales

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Advertisement

Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com