“As a man thinketh, so he becometh”. Very important part of sales and management. When I was first growing up in sales the mentors I had were all old timers with horrible habits. When I reflect on how they spoke about their prospects and employees it was easy to understand what destiny had in store for them. It was ugly to witness. Gifted sale persons and managers by the age of 40 totally lost, buried in a great industry they had turned into a living hell!

How did it happen? By the spoken word. Yes. And that quote at the beginning of this post is right on!

I remember when I was brand new asking my manager what a gump was? What was a mullet? What was a gopher? These are terms I heard daily describing prospects or completed sales. I vowed that if I ever got into management I would do everything in my power to erase this horrible description of our industry’s prospects. What these misguided people were implying was that the customer was a sucker! Imagine selling something to someone and laughing at them behind their back. It happens in almost every sales organization in the country. I bamboozled that prospect. Boy did I suck them right in. These are not professional sales persons! They are losers!

I find it to be an honor when someone allows me the privilege to earn their trust enough to sell them something. The amount of integrity you display in front of or behind some one’s back is a direct reflection on your longevity in our great industry. It is also a direct reflection on your ability to maintain good staffing in your management team. I have fired people faster than you can blink for being disrespectful in their description of our customers. I hope I have said enough on this very important subject. Please believe me, you will pay the price for your lack of respect. Unfortunately you will pay for it for the rest of your life!

People have often asked me outside of technique what is the one thing, if I had to pick one, that enabled me to excel in sales for so long the way I have? My overwhelming response has always been the same. Physical and mental conditioning.

I found it to be imperative. On a smaller scale I always conditioned myself to make the last presentation of the day my BEST! Why? One, because it took mental and physical toughness to pull that off. When you are tired after a long day it is very easy to give a lazy presentation, and miss! Now in order to pull this off you have to work on keeping yourself in shape physically as well as mentally.

There have been a million times in my career I just wanted to go home or dish off the prospect to someone else because I was tired. Hence the heading “Fatigue makes cowards of us all”. Many times during my career that last sale of the evening was the difference between a double, triple, or even a personal record, not to mention the times it resulted in a company record. When you develop this mental and physical toughness you will see yourself separate from the pack as your peers even with more talent don’t know about this important key in being a true professional. It goes back to hard work, but it actually gives you the inside track as to how to channel your hard work.

Remember the statement, “Work Smarter not Harder”.

When I was very young I had the good fortune of owning a restaurant and nightclub. My partner was an expert in the food and beverage industry. I was kinda like a front man. Well one night we were closing and we found 4 prime ribs (approx. value $240 each) in our dumpster wrapped in aluminum foil. It was obvious the cook was going to come back in the middle of the night and retrieve them. My partner asked me what I thought we should do with the cook. Without hesitation I stated that we should fire her. I mean It was close to $1000 in theft. He agreed, but said we should sleep on it and we would meet in the morning.

The next morning came and as we talked about it he once again asked me for my opinion. My position had not changed. He said he agreed and proceeded to throw me a white apron. I asked him what the apron was for and he said we needed to go in the kitchen and cook because when we fire the cook there was no one left but us.

I got It. It was then that I realized that maybe it wasn’t necessary to fire the cook so fast. My partner made me realize that maybe we should wait until a time of our choosing, like after we hired someone else then let the other cook go. Like I said I was very young. The lesson here for all you young managers is when you have a situation where you find it necessary to relieve someone of their position make sure you have all of your bases covered. Your time can be put to much better use by managing, not cooking!

I have never forgotten that lesson and it has served me well throughout my career.

The Assumptive Close

Now, all of my readers know by now that I am not a big fan of “closes”, especially taken out of context. Everyone knows how I feel. You should be closing continuously from the time you meet someone, forever. Now I am going to elaborate and incorporate a style in the process of continuously closing… “The Assumptive Close”. Quite the contrary to popular belief, the assumptive close is not just about assuming the sale and going for the paperwork. That is a small part of it. The real art of the assumptive close is to make EVERY WORD in your small talk and presentation imply that the sale is already done and that you are just discussing formalities. It is all about attitude.

I had the opportunity to call on a potential client the other day and truly it wasn’t whether they were going to do it but whether I had enough time in my busy schedule to accommodate them! I have mentioned before that sales professionals often invite me to make a sale with them and I thoroughly enjoy the occasional interaction. Well, on this particular occasion the prospect told me within minutes that they were shopping the product and I was lucky to come at this particular time. I did not take the bait! Quite the contrary. I politely informed them that since our company was the largest with the lowest rates that we really didn’t participate in that kind of business but I would certainly try and help them if I could. They then proceeded to tell me that I could take the information and come back at another time with the proposal. Again “The Specialist” didn’t take the bait. I assured the potential client that I could take care of everything in a few minutes IF I could help them. I then proceeded to present my proposal and informed them of what I expected of them, in fact I made a list of what I would need in order to make it happen for them.

The sale was done. There was really nothing else to talk about except small talk. Everything I did and said during that sales call was from beginning to end an assumptive closing technique! If you noticed the sale was closed and I hadn’t done any paperwork! In fact to show how powerful this technique is I informed them I didn’t have time to finish but I would TRY and come back the next day. Well needless to say before I ate breakfast the next morning they were calling me to see what time I was coming back and could I squeeze them in that day so they could enjoy the benefits of their product.

I don’t think I need to go any further! It is all about attitude! To be able to pull this off you really have to be a master of assuming you have made the sale the minute you meet the people, and every word you say has to be pointed in that direction all the way through. That customer knew from my attitude that they would be doing business with “The Specialist”.

Today I got to watch a young but future great sales professional (You heard me correctly “sales professional”) blow and I mean literally BLOW a lay down sale. I hurt for this young professional. The purpose of this post is not about what he did wrong but how does anyone rebound from a devastating blow like that.

The first thing he must realize is that EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE that has ever been in sales has blown an easy one. Anybody that says they haven’t is either a liar or has NEVER sold ANYTHING!

Secondly he has to have a short memory and forget about it.

Third and most importantly he has to get back on the horse and hurry up and close another prospect. It is just that simple. Consistent hard work solves everything! “The Specialist” GUARANTEES IT!!!

“The Specialist”