Today “The Specialist” Spotlight was on the best Master Closers you will ever encounter. Your children! Thats right, your children, they are naturals. Children have the ability to attach the emotional needs of their wants directly to their prospects. Their parents!

I personally know 2 little girls that convinced their father who dislikes cats intensely to buy not one but two cats at the same time! By the way I was the prospect that bought the two cats! This one young lady wanted a new car and explained to her parents that since she was attending an out of state college she was sure her parents wouldn’t want her walking the streets in a strange town. Incredible! Talk about knowing your prospect and attaching emotion to the sale…that is truly a work of art.

Here is an example that I read about that was really a stretch but worked! A young boy convinced his parents that by buying him that new video game he would be a lot safer than hanging out at game rooms where there were bad influences and maybe trouble. What a close. If you do not have any children go baby sit your sisters or brothers children and watch them very closely and marvel at their expertise. Their parents already know! I GUARANTEE it!

“The Specialist”

Today I was invited to a luncheon where a gentlemen was to speak and in return everyone received a FREE luncheon at a Mexican restaurant. The reason I was in attendance was the group consisted of sales type people that wanted to exchange ideas. Here is what took place.

The speaker was representing a Fortune 500 financial planning company and he hoped to acquire some leads from this event. I am sorry to say this gentlemen could not pass salesmanship 101. First, he never asked even one person their name. Imagine that! Then he went on to tell everyone repeatedly how he was paying for EVERYTHING including the tax and tip. Nice until he went on to emphasize that no-one could order anything over $10.00. Say what! He was representing a Fortune 500 Company. Not to mention there was nothing on the menu that was even close to $12.00! On top of that he proceeded to ask everyone to fill out this form with personal information while explaining the only reason he wanted this information was to call us to see if we enjoyed our meal. Come on!

To top it off the final straw was that he asked questions of his guests that insulted their intelligence and if someone didn’t answer the question the way he wanted it answered, he told them they were wrong in front of everyone! I don’t think I need to explain any further. It is obvious why this was “The Specialist” Spotlight on this day.

“The Specialist”

Most people would not even attempt this subject for obvious reasons. “The Specialist” doesn’t back down on controversial issues. I will tell you, my 40 years of experience tells me it is.

First, anyone that tries to tell me that there is a level playing field between White and African-American salespersons is in self denial. I have gone door-to-door with almost every race in a training situation in my career. I will address the door-to-door experience first.

When you go to someone’s residence, the boldness of the residents is incredible. The vile and cruel things that come out of some of these people’s mouths cannot even be repeated. The abuse that African-Americans suffer is unspeakable! For that matter any minority is at a grave disadvantage. I have shielded many minorities from abuse in this setting.

Lets go to business to business or retail sales. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, there are segments of this country, like the deep south, that still would rather not buy from a specific minority. The classy African-Americans, as well as other minorities, publicly refuse to admit that they realize they are at a disadvantage. Being “The Specialist”, I have befriended many minorities and they have confided in me about their true feelings, knowing they would get a fair shake.

Now that we have established the truth I do have the solution to level the playing field.

First, the minority MUST become the consummate professional. They have to have superior product knowledge. Their counterparts will not find that necessary because they have a perception, PERCEPTION being the key word, that they don’t need superior product knowledge.

Second, they must have an extremely neat appearance. Again, their counterparts, because of perception, don’t feel that is so major either.

Third, they must out-work their counterparts. Again their counterparts will never work as hard because they perceive it’s not necessary.

Fourth, they must have tremendous voice inflection! You should know the drill by now, their counterparts won’t find it necessary to perfect that skill either because of their perception.

Finally, you must be extremely sincere! You must master the art of making the client not only like and trust you, but enjoy being around you. These are the necessary steps that all minorities MUST perfect to level the playing field.

Do I like it? NO! Being “The Specialist”, my job is to give you the solutions, not join in a pity party. Nothing is accomplished from the latter. Master these points and watch the results…you have just been SPECIALIZED!

“The Specialist”

Today we talked about giving personal information about yourself when speaking with a prospect. I STRONGLY disagree with doing this. Remember what Donald Trump always says “It’s nothing personal, It’s just BUSINESS”! Keep your personal life out of conversations with your clients. The only way I incorporate my personal life with my business is to make a joke about my life or possessions that will make the client think he has it a lot better then me. That is the ONLY time!

Remember, you are there to learn and talk about YOUR Client, NOT YOURSELF! Check yourself before you speak and you will see bigger checks in your bank account.

“The Specialist”

We had another great “Specialist Spotlight” today on “The Specialist” Radio Hour. What started or inspired this segment was a caller, I’ll call her Peggy, who was insulted that I said on previous occasions that I could train anyone to sell. I pointed out to this young lady that training anyone to sell was not saying that I could train anyone to become a sales professional.

There was the rub. She had been in sales at least 29 years and was very proud of the fact that she devoted her life to becoming a true sales professional. I respect that a tremendous amount, but she misunderstood me.

What I have said, and stand behind, is that I can teach anyone to sell, not train anyone to become a sales professional.

As my listeners know there is a big difference, in my eyes. But the part that inspired this Post was that she went on to say that just training someone to sell was a waste of a lot of valuable time and effort that could be spent else where rather than dealing with a problem. That is where I had to draw a line in the sand. I pointed out to her that if no one had taught me how to sell and been patient with me I would never have become “The Specialist”!

Someone saw me as potential not as a problem. All my loyal readers know that I was fired 5 times as a door to door salesman! No one gets fired from door to door sales! They need every able body they can get. What I am trying to say is it is not a waste of time teaching the less talented or the slow to pick up the sales profession. In fact I owe my entire career to those that kept pushing me and spent tireless amount of hours taking this wandering generality and teaching me a trade.

Of course later on, as I mentioned to Peggy, as everyone does that learns to sell, there will become a day when you find yourself at the crossroads of whether you want to make sales your profession or try something else. In all careers someone must teach you the basics in order for you to ever become a professional.

“The Specialist”