Today I would like to talk about something very commonplace in our great industry, the “I’ve arrived!” syndrome. It is incredible that when new sales persons enter our industry it is almost without fail that when they accumulate some product knowledge and start to make sales they all of a sudden hit that brick wall and they don’t understand why, but all of a sudden they can’t make a sale.

Relax, it’s normal. What happens is that when they start making the sales they forget what helped them get the sales to begin with and they think they have it! They also stop doing all the right things they were doing.

Selling is a combination of never-ending education and never-ending good work habits. So the new salesperson thinks they have all the knowledge necessary, and at the same time stops working as hard as they once did because they’re good! Stop it. Unless you can sell everyone that approaches you, there are many mountains still to climb.

The art of a true Professional Salesperson is the ability to keep his/her axe sharp by constantly learning, regardless of how good he or she perceives themselves. Most importantly, you need to constantly develop good work habits so you can capitalize on your increased skill level. I have seen many people fall into self induced slumps because after a sale they relax and get careless in their presentation and decide after the sale they deserve some time off. Gosh, they can make a sale anytime they want to. They don’t need to work that hard.

When you finish a sale, that is the time to apply yourself even more and eventually, regardless of your results, you will learn to always work consistently hard and you will always be striving to learn something new that will enhance your chances with the next prospect. You will be learning one of the hardest lessons in sales, work habits!

If you are one of the few that take your profession seriously, you are definitely headed in the right direction. Keep it up and the future will be yours!

“The Specialist”

Are Children Good Closers?

Today “The Specialist” Spotlight is 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 two 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! Another 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”

I have kinda taken a little time out from during posts because of the extra project that I have been working on. About 2 days before Thanksgiving John, my co-host and I made a pledge to use the forum we had on our radio show to help the community.

While on an airplane flying to California to do some consulting I read State by State stats on the number of children that are not guaranteed a meal for dinner each night. Right here in America! Since I am from Virginia I could not help but notice that 14.3% of all of Virginia’s children fell into that group. So we decided to step up and have a massive food drive. The goal for “Specialist” was to collect as much food as possible as long as I am on the air.

The GREAT news is that with everyone’s help, as of this writing we have already collected 13,000 lbs. of food! We had a lot of great help from our terrific listeners! Just to mention a few of the great people and I am not going to give last names but a special thanks to Chris, Santea, Steve, Tom, Louis, and William. All of you know who you are and even though we have reached the first 13,000 lbs. I am going to look to you all for a long time to come. Thanks again!

The Surprise Close

You see, most people are taught to do everything to close the person right on the spot. Never let them leave without closing them. I completely disagree with that philosophy. If you do statistical research on this you will find long term two things happen with this philosophy. First, the rate of cancellations are much much higher. Secondly, the amount of charge backs increase dramatically. I have never used a close in my entire career other than an assumptive close, or automatic close.

I have never had a problem letting the consumer digest everything and letting them think it over. In fact I have found that it is so unusual to approach the consumer that way that it has the same effect as reverse psychology. The customer is just not expecting that and consequently they appreciate you, your product, and your company that much more. I have legions of people that I have trained and they are amazed how it works.

Remember, opposites attract, and when you do the opposite what the consumer is expecting, they are attracted to you and your product much more. That is why I call it the “Surprise Close”. Not only is the consumer surprised, but the salesperson trying it for the 1st time is also surprised! Try it, ease up on the pressure and back off. Watch how fast they come back. Also remember, if the client cancels or doesn’t end up paying for the product, were they really closed?

Bonding with the Little People

As usual I was talking with a salesperson today and they were explaining to me how they went into this business and got past the girl at the desk and managed to speak with the “decision maker”. This particular salesperson proceeded to go to great lengths to bond with this owner of the business assuming that the sale was imminent.

Well, a funny thing happened along the way. After the salesperson got done with the presentation the alleged decision maker pointed to the girl at the front desk and informed the salesperson that whatever the girl out front decided was fine with him, but he leaves it all up to her. What a shocker!! The salesperson went up front to speak to the young lady only to find out that she was really cold to his idea. You see, the error that the salesperson made was that along the way to the decision maker he has to win over everyone in his path and semi-close all of them into liking him. The salesperson completely missed this point and is now trying to figure out a way to get back into her good graces.

When I am prospecting or going to give a presentation everyone around the person I am trying to sell becomes my new best friend. I leave no stone unturned. Just imagine, if on the way into see the alleged “decision maker” I had made that young lady feel good about herself and took an extra second to make her feel important. I assure you the results would have been completely different. When you think people are insignificant or irrelevant to the sale, that is when you should stop and go out of your way to go the extra mile. Not only will they feel better, even if they don’t effect the sale directly, you never know what they will say about you behind your back after you leave. The extra bonus is if you make this a daily habit you will feel terrific about yourself!

Silence is Golden

Too often in sales you will see the young and experienced sales person talk themselves OUT OF THE SALE!

The reason being is that when you are finished with your presentation you have to STOP talking and give the prospect time to digest what you have said. The sales persons that continue talking more times than not talk themselves out of the deal. When I am done with my presentation or just done with everything I had to say, it’s time to relax and see if what you said registered.

It is amazing to watch a true professional finish his presentation and just kick back and watch the prospect talk himself or herself into the sale. The worst that can happen if you button up is that the prospect may start to say something negative and you have plenty of time to counter with positive reinforcement. On the other hand if you don’t stop talking the prospect never gets to air his or her views and you might just miss the KEY to the sale.

Sometimes I have sat for a full 2 to 3 minutes without saying a word. Is it unnerving? YOU BET! Is it effective? YOU BET!

Just remember, when you get to that critical part of the sale, “An Ounce Of Silence Is Worth A Pound Of Explanation”! Just a passing thought. I have run into several people that read this blog religiously and they continue to amaze me. When they are introduced to me they tell me almost with disbelief that the things in the blog that they have used actually WORK! Imagine that!

“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”.

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”.

What a great show today! We had a lively debate and a lot of great topics. As usual if you missed or tuned in late for “The Specialist” Spotlight today it was a good one. Not often talked about in public but I assure you a BIG topic discussed in private was wide open today on the airwaves. Personal hygiene in sales and management.

Wow! What a topic. Basically, what was said was that it is everyone’s personal responsibility to eliminate any and all offensive odors when being at the workplace. Having said that “The Specialist” Radio Hour focused on how managers should address the problem.

First off I recommend that, so as not to spotlight anyone in particular, even though you may know the culprit in your weekly staff meeting, you can address the problem and let your staff know the importance of personal hygiene. Not only is it uncomfortable for your employees to work under these conditions but it will definitely cost you sales. If you are not successful in your weekly staff meeting, remember some of your employees may be in denial or worse yet may know there is a problem but may not know how to solve it.

As a manager your responsibility is to fix the problem! Your next step is to take the individual aside and assist them in rectifying this problem. It is NEVER to be discussed with the other employees if the individual approach is needed. You also do not want to do the ridiculous and leave mouthwash, deodorant, or other props on the unfortunate persons desk. To some people this may seem helpful, but it is clearly offensive (pardon the pun) and insensitive. As a manager your job is to solve problems and be as compassionate as possible. Usually once this situation is rectified it is not only a relief to you and your staff but to the guilty person as well.

“The Specialist”