The Lazy Salesman

Subjects for January 2002: The Worst Customers I Ever Had, Fill the Funnel, Negotiation, Collecting NOs, Thinking Time, Number 76 of my Selling Manifesto, Change Now!, Sales Job Interviews, Fail, Cluetrain, Action, The Perfect Customer, Integrity, Closing, Objection Handling, Summarising, Objectives, Rapport, Networking, Decisiveness, Qualifying, 3 Wise Things of Selling.

 

Thursday 31st January 2002

The Worst Customers I ever had

I never had a really bad Customer.  More weird than bad.  Nearly all the customers who I was told were nasty, I got on well with.  Just a few who were beyond nasty that I didn’t get on well with.

And I’m going to name them.  The Organisations but not the individuals.  You know who you are, and I think honesty is important here, and explaining the way I saw things.

 

One of my first customers was Godfrey Armstrong at Mersey Regional Health Authority.  Because I was new to sales I always felt on edge, on the back foot, and a little afraid.  No reason to be, Godfrey was ok, except he used to answer the phone with that annoying habit of surname only.

Ring-ring, ring-ring, ring-ring “Armstrong” still sends me into a cold sweat.

This was about me being new to sales and very little to do with Godfrey Armstrong.

Godfrey, you could at least have answered the phone with a “Godfrey”.

And you did order the first Clinical Diagnosis System from me which made me a hero for a very very short while.

 

The ones that stand out are;

 

The Indecisive

Babergh District Council:  Nice place, nice people, nice nice nice.  Beware, the death of the salesperson, are nice customers who don’t buy anything for 5 years!

 

Suffolk County Council:  Nice people (generally speaking), but indecisive senior management at the time which treacled down on to everyone.  They caused me my worst year in selling (bit of victim there, I should have seen it coming), but actually they caused me my best year, by ordering the following year.

 

Legal Aid: Not particularly nice, one nasty person, and most of the rest indecisive.  They threw me off the account by complaining to my manager.

About what I don’t know.

And here’s something important to note.  I gave up moving house with my partner (for which she never forgave me), slipped on ice on the way to the meeting and damaged my suit, to make a meeting with Legal Aid who in the end crapped on me.

I learnt one very important lesson from that day about priorities.  Family and Friends always come first and no customer or business is that important.

 

The Smug

Better not name this place or customer.  But there is one particular customer who I would like to punch in the face (and I’m not a violent person or ever hit anyone).

He was the smuggest, smiling, “I know it all”, over confident, piece of shit, I’ve known.

 

The Weird and The Strange

Two customers come to mind.  One who traded on being blunt because he was a Yorkshireman.  He made life difficult, but one day realised that he may have a brain tumour (he didn’t).  One bright spark in the office suggested delivering a £1m mainframe to their doorstep, and when questioned what the hell was going on, claim that this customer had signed for it, under the guise of him not being able to remember he’d signed for it with forgetfulness from disease.  Black Humour

 

And the other who had a split personality, Mr Nice and Mr Nasty, and you didn’t know which one you were going to get on any given day.

We called him “The Two Patricks”  Oops that may give his identity away.  I only had one meeting with this guy so only met Nice Patrick, the rest was hearsay if I end up in court.

 

Mr Angry  There was a character on BBC Radio 1 Steve Wright Show called Mr Angry, who phoned up every day, angry about everything.

I had one of those customers who phoned up most days angry. “Tony, this is Ken (Mr Angry) form Bromsgrove and I’m very angry, where is…………”

Actually he was a nice guy and we got on well, he just sounded like Mr Angry with his strong Black Country accent.

 

Mr I’ve Nothing Better to Do so I’ll Call you and Nitpick, is one of the worst types of customers.

There are some customers who seem to have delegated everything they do to other people, or don’t really have a job, just a title, and a telephone.

So they call you every day to discuss and criticise the minutest detail.

 

The Most Frustrating

And the award for the most frustrating customer goes to Richard at the Training Agency (Department of Employment).

I was short-listed on a Government contract with two other suppliers.  Part of the contract award was benchmarking our proposed systems for performance.

Each supplier was assigned a customer manager to see us through the process.  We had Richard.  Richard attended our benchmark and was checking that everything was running ok.  Suddenly he disappeared and I saw him at one of our terminals.  He seemed to have his head very close to the screen.  I couldn’t see what he was doing.

“Richard, what are you doing?”

He turned round and had a plastic ruler in his hand.

“I’m measuring the Capital Letters on the screen to make sure that they’re at least 3mm high!!!!!!!”

Let me explain.  In the early days of I.T procurement bids to UK Government, the definition of what was a PC and what you get from the supplier wasn’t the self inflicted standard that it is nowadays, so some Government departments developed a set of definitions to define an IBM compatible PC, 102 Key Keyboard, Tactile (whatever that meant), adjustable keyboards and screen etc etc etc.  One of the definitions to make sure the screen was of the right definition is that the Capital Letters on the screen should be at least 3mm high.

 

And yes, Richard was measuring the screen with a ruler.  Ok, I can understand a Civil Servants fear at being found out for not having measured the letters on a screen for a 3000 PC order and a total contract value of £21m, but I knew then we did not have the right person assigned to us for our bid, and that I would get the hell out of selling via Open Tenders to Government.

 

Of course it’s about expectations.  Every time I’ve been given an account and told,

“Tony this is our most prestigious account, don’t screw up.”

I screw up because the expectations are so high and I’ve never been very good at making good customers look bad and lowering my employing company’s expectations.

 

On the other hand I’ve been given numerous accounts where the customer is “difficult” or “nasty” and “wouldn’t buy from us in a million years” where I’ve come up with a miracle.  Firstly the expectations are lower than with a prime account and secondly, nasty customers unless they are clinically mad are usually pussycats.

They just want to be listened to, agreed with, and then turned a bit.  I always think of them as big Super Tankers which take a bit of time and advanced warning to turn.

 

And finally, one story I have to tell.  I approached MAFF, the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food in about 1989-90 with an Animal Tracking system.  The reason for this was that I was looking for ways of not having to go through a long tendering process which given the above Training Agency story was driving me mad.  I discovered that my company had an Animal Tracking System running on a Mainframe which another country had implemented to track the flow of Livestock across its border.

What this meant was there was a system in operation to track Cows!

 

Now with the outbreak of BSE (Mad Cow Disease) I guessed that it would be a great idea for MAFF to implement a system quickly for initial outbreak and potential threat.  I contacted them.  The answer was always,

“We’re looking into this, we want to implement an ‘Open System’ (that meant UNIX at the time), thanks but no thanks.”

 

Now I don’t know if my system would have stopped the spread of BSE in the UK but it has cost the UK over £10Billion since as the result of Mad Cow Disease.

Do you think an initial investment of £5-10 million would have helped stop the spread or at least they could have got off their pompous arses and come and talked to me?  I’m not imagining this either because I met a Salesperson of a different mainframe supplier who had a similar solution and also approached MAFF and was given the same rebuff.

Now that has to be the worst customer ever.  In retrospect, a £5-10 million investment may have stopped or reduced a £10Billion loss.  You work the savings out.

 

And there is one Local Government customer that I know of, has been forecast for each year as going to order a system and haven’t yet to my knowledge.

In other words they have been in the company forecast for 10 years and haven’t ordered a thing.

They were never my customer so I can’t include them in my all time worst list!

 

Any customer that didn’t buy from me was/is of course the worst customer!

 

Wednesday 30th January 2002

Fill the Funnel

One of the primary reasons that most problems occur in selling is because there aren’t enough prospects in the Funnel.

 

Filling the Funnel or pipeline is making sure that there are enough prospects both for now and later,  No use working on something now and having no prospects in the future.  You have to work on the now stuff, and the future stuff.

 

Most Salespeople get too concerned with a particular sale.  If they had more prospects they wouldn’t let one sale or person get to them.

 

Life is too short for bad customers.  The classic names for the stages of the funnel are;

Blue Sky: That’s everything that is possible

Suspect: The customer is alive and breathes

Prospect: You’re actually talking to them and it’s looking good

Best Few: You’d expect to win a few of these

 

Can’t see much wrong with those description and there’s lots of books and methodologies that explain funnelling.

 

My reminder is to make sure there are enough in the funnel, to not worry about one going wrong, and allowing yourself to choose to drop one.

 

This also applies to dating.  Yes I said dating.  I call it Frog Kissing.

How many Frogs do you have to kiss to find the perfect Prince/Princess?  Actually, it’s about 13.

The meaning of life is not therefore 42 but “about 13”

 

People on dates put too much on the success or failure of it.

Get a few more frogs in the funnel and spread the risk.

You don’t have to sleep with all of them!!!!

 

Tuesday 29th January 2002

Negotiation

See negotiation as joint problem solving.  You’re both in it together and you need to find a solution and a way out, that is satisfactory to both of you.

 

The best bit of advice about negotiation I’ve ever seen, is to see the Interests and not the Positions.

 

People fight over Positions.  Countries fight over land which is a position.  Divorcing couples fight over money.  Also a position.

 

But look at the Interests of the parties.  Often the Interests are very different and by satisfying the Interests then you can usually agree on something.

 

Examples of Positions and Interests

Position: Two countries fighting over the same piece of Land.

Interests: One country wants sovereignty and the other wants security.  If you give them what they each want then you have a deal

 

Position: A couple divorcing, fighting over money

Interest: One partner wants the other to leave ASAP, the other wants somewhere to live.

 

By satisfying differing interests even though parties fight over the same thing, you can often negotiate an agreement by separating the Positions (BAD thing) from the Interests (GOOD thing)

 

Monday 28th January 2002

Collecting NOs

This is a bit of an old and naff technique (so’s the word Naff)

It works for some people and used to work for me.

 

How many people do you have to talk to get a sale (“get a sale” sounds very old but you know what I mean) or how many prospects do you need for success.

 

Say for every 10 people you talk to 1 says yes (this could apply to dating as well!), well the converse is 9 NOs for every 1 Yes, so go and collect NOs

 

Every NO is a step towards a YES, and you know that as you collect NOs, a YES is just around the corner.

 

Like I said, it’s the same with dating, how many frogs do you have to kiss to get a prince/princess?  Go kiss the frogs.  Go collect the NOs.

 

Sunday 27th January 2002

Thinking Time

50% of your work time is spent internally in the company, if you work for one.

10% of selling time is spent with the customer

 

So what’s the other 40%?

Yes Thinking Time.

 

It’s important to give yourself time to think.  Have a Break, Take a Walk, Do something Different.

 

I remember in my best selling years one of my nicknames was “Spreadsheet Tony”

Shit that sounds boring!

 

Why the Nickname?  Because I used to stare at a Spreadsheet for hours and days trying to get the figures to work for both the customer and the company.

In reality it was Thinking Time.

 

I was playing around with the figures.  I was playing Tetris on the PC. 

 

It’s a fine line between Thinking Time and Wasting Time.

I’m off to play FreeCell again.  Still Hooked.

 

Saturday 26th January 2002

Number 67 of my Selling Manifesto

“One big reason why men do not develop greater abilities, greater sales strength, greater resourcefulness is because they use neither their abilities nor their opportunities.  We don't need more strength or more ability or greater opportunity.  What we need is to use what we have.  Men fail and their families suffer deprivations when all the time these men have in their possession the same assets other men are utilizing to accumulate a fortune. . . .     Life doesn't cheat.  It doesn't pay in counterfeit coin.  It doesn't lock up shop and go home when pay-day comes.  It pays every man exactly what he has earned.  The age-old law that a man gets what he earns hasn't been suspended.  When we take that truth home and believe it, we've turned a big corner on the high road that runs straight through to success.”  Basil S. Walsh

 

Friday 25th January 2002

Change Now!

I’ve copied this over from my Weblog.

 

Change is easy, very easy.  You can decide now that you’re going to change, in a split microsecond.

 

It’s keeping the change going that’s the difficult bit!

 

But think about it.  You could decide from the second of reading this that you will make more calls, call a senior executive, network with someone you’ve been meaning to, give up smoking, stop eating so much.  Whatever.

 

Profound.  Make the change now!

 

Thursday 24th January 2002

Sales Job Interviews

I digress a bit here but Sales Job Interviews is a whole book on its own.

 

Rule number one; let the recruiters do the work.  If you want to call them head hunters and brag then ok.

 

CVs should have lots of achievement words in them like, “Sold” this, “Closed” that, “Created” the other.  Not too long and not too short.  Maybe a summary of skills and achievements (for those reading with a short attention span) and then the main body of work and achievements.

 

And as for the interview, well, what can I say.

 

One of the best ones is that when they ask you what you bring to the job, ask them first what they’re looking for and repeat back to them your skills aligned with what they’re looking for.  That’s if you want the job.

 

Always be prepared for you current boss to offer you the world to stay, no matter how unlikely that is, and it’s always easier to negotiate salary and grade before you start the job than once you’re in the job.

 

Mind you, it’s only over the last 2 years that I first interviewed people for a job, and realised within 10 seconds if they were right.  I also realised what bullshit and exaggerations I’d given in my job interviews and how transparent my lying capability is!

 

Probably the best advice is like giving presentations, the more you do the better you become.

 

Wednesday 23rd January 2002

Fail Fail Fail

It’s the only way to succeed.  Keep failing and learn from your failures.

But keep the activity up.

 

I’ve often said that when interviewing Salespeople, ask them more about the ones they’ve lost than the ones they’ve won.  Firstly it’s easier to lie and exaggerate about the ones you’ve won.  But the ones you’ve lost really show up.  They also show your character, your experience and your ability to bounce back and learn from the experience.

 

I think the Americans have a culture of failure.

They allow failure and they learn from it.

That’s why they’re so successful, in spite of themselves.

 

They fail, fail, fail, fail, succeed Big Time!

 

Tuesday 22nd January 2002

“Have a sense of humour.

Find your voice and use it. 

Tell the truth. 

Don’t panic.

Enjoy yourself.

Be brave.

Be curious.

Play More.

Dream Always.

Listen Up.

Rap On.”  (Cluetrain)

 

Tuesday 15th January 2002

Action

Nothing but Nothing beats being in action.  This can apply to anything, not just selling.

 

Stay in Action.

Stop worrying about outcomes.

Action Action Action.

 

Some of your action might be misguided but if you stay in action it doesn’t matter because new opportunities will come up.

 

Get on the Pitch.

There are those who are spectators in life watching and criticising from the stadium stand.

And there are those who are the pitch playing out life.  Fully Engaged.

 

Which are you?  I’ll leave you with today’s quote.

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making me happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and, as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.

I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

George Bernard Shaw,1902

 

Monday 14th January 2002

Cold Wet Rainy Day – The Perfect Customer

It’s a cold wet rainy day.  What sort of customer is going to get you out of bed on the worst of days?

What would the perfect customer be like?  Here’s a few of mine to help.

 

 

My favourite customer and I hope I was their favourite all time salesperson, once turned up to a product launch for a Mainframe server.

They were seated at the guest table next to a senior executive who was hosting the day.  We received feedback from the senior executive about how the conversation went.

“Very unusual conversation,” the senior executive emailed to my manager,

“When I asked them why they were here for the product launch, they said they turned up to physically see what their salesman had sold them!”

 

In other words, they bought from me on trust.  I trusted them and they trusted me.  I enjoyed going to see them, and you know what, it was everyone in the organisation that were nice and we got on well.  Interesting, one bad apple is often the reflection of the whole organisation.  These guys were great top to bottom.

 

One day I’d just parked my car at the same customer’s car-park, and as I was walking across the car-park, the Director of Finance opened his window from the first floor and flicked me the “V” sign yelling,

“Go away Goodson, haven’t we ordered enough stuff from you!”  He was of course joking.  I hope?

 

Life is too short for having Bad Customer.  And I don’t mean customer who complain because you or your company are genuinely bad.

I look back on the bad time wasting customers that I’ve had, and I cringe.  I think of the precious time in my life I’ve wasted on them

Go get some good Customers.

Go create your own list of what you’d like from the Perfect Customer.

 

Sunday 13th January 2002

Integrity

Your job is to make your target, with Integrity.

 

Making your target isn’t good enough, because there are ways to make your target dishonestly.

 

When I was new to selling, I’d had a good first year and an average second year.  The pressure was on me in my third year.

A salesperson had recently joined and was having rapid success.  He was large, flash suites, Mont Blanc pen, nice car etc.

“Why can’t you be more like him?” My sales manager kept berating me.  He’s bringing contracts in all over the place.

These words kept ringing in my ears.  On and on and on this went for several months

I wasn’t happy and things just didn’t seem to be going my way. Eventually I left the company.

 

Three years later I rejoined the company I’d left, but in a different division.

For my first few days I was reacquainting myself with the company’s commercial procedures.

There seemed to be one big change I could see which was a request to bind all correspondence with the customer into the contract.

This seemed a bit excessive.  In a long sales campaign there may be hundreds of pages of documentation and correspondence.

Why the change?

 

I was told that a Salesperson a few years back had been agreeing large discounts in the form of credits and equipment once a customer had signed a contract, but redeemable several months later.

This Salesperson had confirmed this in writing to the customers but didn’t declare it to the company.

So over 9-12 months he’d been taking orders and contracts with “Side Letters” to the customer which they started to invoke.  The company didn’t know anything about the letters and were being presented with huge amount of claims for promised credits and equipment.

 

Of course the Salesperson who had done this was the one I who I was supposed to be more like. 

 

What goes around comes around.  In the end you’ll be found out.

Many are found out and become very wealthy in the process, but I wouldn’t say rich.

 

Saturday 12th January 2002

Closing

ASK!

 

That’s it simple, if you don’t Ask you don’t get.

 

If you really want to hate salespeople and selling as a profession and stereotype then read all the literature on closing.

 

There’s nothing like cheesy closes.  The Summary Close, The Half Nelson, The Wellington, The Step Close, Information Close, Puppy Dog close, Assumptive Close.

I think most of it as patronising shit, both for the customer and the salesperson.

 

If….Then statements are very powerful in conversation.  They are known as a “Trial Close” but see it more as clarifying.

“If I can show you a way of saving $100,000 per annum would you be interested?”

“If we can match the price on that you’ll by it from us?”

“If we ensure that it’s delivered today you’ll take it?”

 

All trial closes but really part of the conversation.  Nothing cheesy or manipulative about that.

 

The other one which I think it fair game, is the Implementation Close.

 

You agree with a customer when they want the product or service, and work backwards to agree a contract date, include some contingency, and hey presto you have an implementation plan which has an order date and a completion date, and it includes some contingency.  You could call it an “Assumptive Close” or you could call it a professional implementation plan presented to the customer early which lays out all the things involved in ensuring your product or service is successfully delivered on time.

 

To be honest I’ve never really thought about closing.  Either I do it naturally or I’m not very good.  I don’t know which.

 

I tend to concentrate on my objective, build the relationship, make sure I’ve got enough prospects in the pot, and if one slips it slips, as long as they still want to buy from me.  If my relationship is good I tend to say,

“Chris, when are you going to sign for it?

I’d like it to be complete by this date for these reasons.

What do you think?”

 

Honesty.  This is what I’m trying to achieve for these reasons, what do you think Customer?  Perhaps this is a new closing technique

 

“The Honest Close”

 

Friday 11th January 2002

Objection Handling

Classic objection handling teaches that the customer is a problem to be dealt with and clearly they are stupid because they’ve not heard the advantages and benefits of your fantastic product.  And you point this out to them with a series of cunning techniques.

 

To hell with that.  It’s fair to say that an objection is one step better than a smiling customer who does nothing for 5 years.

Objections do show that the body is still warm, just.

 

PCEL

Pause

Clarify

Empty

Lock

 

One of my favourites, and I always forget to use it.

If a client raises an objection?  What to do first?  Rejoice!  It shows they have something to say.

Then, Pause.

Why?  A number of reasons.  Firstly it shows you’re listening.  Most people step in after 0.9 secs with a clever reply that winds the other person up.  Wait a few seconds, 4 if you can manage it.  Secondly, pausing gives you time to think.  Finally and most importantly, it gives the customer more time to continue talking and maybe if you’re lucky answer their own objection.  Of course they might raise more objections, but isn’t it better to get them out now?  They might also wonder why you’re smiling at them gormlessly for 4 seconds!

 

Clarify.  Repeat back to them what they’ve just said, either word for word, or paraphrase.

Why?

Again firstly, it shows you’re listening.  Secondly it checks for understanding of what they’re saying is really what you’re understanding.  And finally it buys you more time and again gives the customer the opportunity to answer and solve their own objection.

 

Empty.  Here’s the scary and most important one.  After you’ve clarified, ask if there’s anything else concerning them!  Why?

Well, again it shows you’re listening, gives you more time, and they might talk their way out of the objection.

More importantly is that when people raise objections there is usually something behind the initial objection.  Could be a bad hair day, could be they don’t like you, could be something else.  Might be useful to find out what it is.  Often it could be a long term grudge against your company or something which has happened recently or a long time ago.  You could do as much classic objection handling as you like but really they hate you and your company.

 

Emptying may lead to a number of objections which should all be Pauses Clarified and Emptied until there are no more objections,

 

Finally Lock.  Lock is an “If….Then” statement (Known sometimes as a trial close), which summarises all the objections and satisfies the client.

“So Mr Armstrong, if we ensure that the PCs are delivered by tomorrow, the invoice is sent to the right address this time, and my manager gives you a call by this afternoon that will solve things?”  Of course you need to follow that up with another Emptying statement!  You could be there all year!!

 

Of course this in theory should be tried on your partners when you get home.  The next time they raise an objection about not emptying the bin, or not doing anything around the house, PCEL them!

But be warned

Firstly, PCEL is difficult to remember at first.  Write it on your hand.  Yeh sure and be thrashed to within an inch of your life.

Secondly, PCEL is good and works but trying it on someone who knows you, they sense a change in rhythm, they suddenly ask,

“What’s going on, what’s different here, are you trying another new thing you learnt, on me?”

What they sense is that suddenly you’re listening, taking your time and being totally reasonable.

 

Unthinkable.

 

Thursday 10th January 2002

Summarising

Always look to be summarising when meeting and speaking with people.

Why?

It shows that you’re listening, and everyone likes confirmation that they’re being listened to.

It checks understanding of what they’re saying is what you’re hearing.

And it stops you talking too much and give you time to think.

 

Don’t just summarise at the end.

Summarise every 4 minutes.

 

Enough said on summarising!

 

So to summarise what I’ve just said…….see above.

 

Wednesday 9th January 2002

Objectives

In meetings, the single thing most lacking and missing are not skills, asking questions, summarising, closing, rapport.

 

It’s setting and having an objective and trying to achieve it when meeting people.  Or even remembering to achieve it when in a meeting.

I stand as guilty as anyone for sometimes forgetting to achieve my objective in meetings and presentations.

 

I presented recently to a groups of CEOs and got so carried away (let’s call it excitement) that although the presentation was good, so what, it neither achieved an objective for me or an objective for them.  I came away disappointed that I’d not served them better by helping them achieve an objective.

 

Objectives should be SMART.  Specific. Measurable.  Achievable. Realistic.  Timely.

Selling $1m worth of PCs to General Electric by the end of 2002; is more or less a SMART objective.

I hope you get the idea and I don’t need to say any more.

 

More important I think is to have a Normal Objective, a Stretch Objective, and a Fallback Objective.

A Normal Objective is what you want to achieve in a meeting or presentation or contact.

A Stretch Objective is something well beyond what you’d expect to achieve.  Why?  Well shoot for the stars and hit the moon.  It gives you something to aim for beyond your reach and you never know.  The best example I can give, is going on a 1 mile run for the first time.  Murder.  But if you go on a 2 mile run to start with it’s amazing how the first mile is easier.  Also, you may achieve your Normal Objective within the first five minutes.  What are you going to do then?  Go to the beach?  Probably.

 

A Fallback Objective is in case things go wrong or are unexpected.  It’s usually getting another meeting and a few more contacts.

 

I want to stress again the importance of a Stretch Objective.  In my experience of watching a lot of salespeople with clients, an objective, especially a stretch objective is the single biggest and quickest thing I can improve in people selling.  The objective will drive everything else and to hell with the rest of the planning and skills.

 

Tuesday 8th January 2002 9-41

Rapport

I call it rapport.  Getting on with people.  Seeing it from their point of view.  Putting yourself in their shoes. What’s in it for me (WIIFM), from their perspective.

 

But it’s all of those and none of those.  Writing about it, defining it almost makes it disappear.

Can you train someone to have rapport?  Vaguely.

I think it’s about playing to your strengths with people.  Some salespeople will be and can be chameleon like, being all things to all customers.

Good if you can do that.  But what if you can’t?

 

I think it’s about finding something in common which interests both of you or having a common interest but maybe for different reasons.

But avoid “Hairdresser” Conversations. 

“What are you doing at the weekend?”

“Have you been on holiday?”

“Did I cut your hair this last time, then who did this?”

 

Personally, I like nothing more than to have my feet up on the customer’s desk, and talk about anything other than business which is generally very boring.

The idea of “We’re both in this together” seems to be the easiest way.

And more than anything be honest.

Open up.  Tell them your agendas, You’re there to sell them something, Make money out of them, Get even more business.

 

Ask a customer to recall their favourite salesman.  He’s always called Gary, and was a rogue who got on well with them.

Gary also made the most money out of them and often ripped them off.

Funny isn’t it that although people say they don’t like the typical “Salesman” Many love being sold to by the lovable rogue.  Gary.

 

I’ve always wanted to draw my diagram of rapport so here goes

It looks more like a toilet sign!  But what I mean is it’s about finding something in common with the other person.

Something to talk about and it doesn’t have to be the business in hand.

 

Monday 7th January 2002 13-03

Networking

Calling High on senior clients, and Cold Calling are the two areas of selling I’m most often asked about, and that which is most feared by new Salespeople.

 

Forget It!

 

Network.  Six Degrees of Separation.  Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

 

In fact, most people can get to someone in about 3 or 4 degrees of separation at the most.  I often ask a group to name someone famous.  Then I ask the whole group if they know a way of getting to that person through people they know.  I’m always amazed at how close we are to anyone.

 

Don’t Call High or Cold Call and see it as a chore.  Look on it as a game of how you can get to see or talk to that person by referral, preferably through friends.

 

It’s as simple as that, when you contact them you just say that blah blah suggested I contact you because you might be interested in blah blah or know someone who is.

 

The Golden Rule of networking is that with the person you are contacting, you are seeking their advice and are looking for other people to contact through them.

You are not trying to sell them anything.  I mean this; this isn’t a way of conning your way in.  Just see people as interesting and knowledgeable and full of contacts with other interesting knowledgeable people.

 

I can think of so many anecdotes of Networking.

 

Landing on these shores of Australia, I knew no-one except my wife’s family.  I haven’t sold anything to anyone yet, but just through contacts, I’m doing business, mostly through one name I was given by 3 different people in the UK has resulted in 5 contacts and more contacts and business.

 

I once decided I wanted to leave sales and get into advertising.  My friend’s friend worked at McCann Ericsson as P.A to an Account Director at the advertising agency.  I went to see the Account Director to find out about the advertising industry.  I was totally relaxed.  We had a long conversation, which included that lack of good quality people in both industries.  At the end of the conversation she wanted to offer me a job and had a word with her directors.  I never expected anything like that to be the outcome.

 

Networking!

 

Sunday 6th January 2002 12-20

Decisiveness

The greatest waste of a Salesperson’s time are the deals they lose.  That’s why qualifying is so important.

 

Part of that qualifying process and something that often isn’t included in the processes I’ve seen is;

 

“Can they make a Fucking Decision?”

 

Ask a salesperson who has been successfully selling for many years what the qualities of customer that helps with selling and Decisiveness often comes top.

I’d rather have a decisive customer with no budget than a customer with budget and need who is indecisive.

 

Indecisiveness is like a fucking plague that spreads through the organisation usually emanating from the Chief Exec or the Financial Director.

 

And beware the nice client making you coffee and having a chat which goes on for 5 years.  Most new salespeople most fear the nasty customer.  At least with the nasty customer you know where you stand and get the hell out.  But Mr Nice with his tea and bickies.  They’ll suck you dry and never order a damn thing.  I often want to get up from across the table and strangle them for wasting my life.

 

It’s like drowning in treacle.  Slowly.  Quicksand.

 

Proof of this is often that a customer who has just bought something and appears to have no budget often orders more.  It’s a bit like going shopping for a suit and you come away with, suit, socks, boxers, tie, shirt, t-shirt, popcorn, chocolate, magazine.  Retailers understand this decisive mood and spending mode.

 

I know of one client that has been in a company’s forecast for 10 years now and they’ve never bought a thing.  Every year the salesperson on the account forecasts a deal at £1Million and every year it fails to happen.  I even had a bet with a friend who inherited the account that she wouldn’t get any business.  She left before it was ever likely to happen.  And to this day I don’t know if they ever have ordered anything or done anything.

 

And this reminds me to remind you about competition.  Competition usually doesn’t come from other competitors but from the customer.

Will they buy or won’t they buy?

That’s the stiffest competition.

And potentially the biggest waste of time.

No problem if they decide not to buy, quickly, move on.

But hanging in there for sometimes years on end, when you look back it soul destroying.

Mind you the view from their office was nice, the conversation was pleasant, and the tea was drinkable.

 

Saturday 5th January 2002 12-25

Qualifying

Let’s look at this way and work backwards.

 

If you give a consistently successful salesperson with at least several years of selling success a new target of $5m they will not say to themselves,

“Who can I ask some Open Question to?”

“Let’s close someone”

 

They say to themselves,

“Where am I going to make the target from?”

“Is it going to be 5m $1 sales or one big one?”

“What is the average size of each sale I’m going to make?” and

“How many prospects will I need to fulfil this target?”

 

And this is called Qualifying.  It’s something mature Salespeople do automatically and have an automatic nose for, a sixth sense, knowledge and experience for.

Even a tough looking situation at the beginning of the year may be okay because they’ve been in this situation and seen it change to good by the end of the year.

 

Qualifying lead to Funnel Management.

There are a number of qualifying techniques, including SCOTSMEN and MEANACTS.

 

There’s also BIG and EASY (courtesy of Dermott Bradley).

 

Text Box: HARDText Box: EASY  

Simple really.  If you want to make your target, first go for the BIG and EASY and stop pissing around with the SMALL and HARD/DIFFICULT which very rarely grows into Oak trees.

 

And if you only have Small and Difficult then get the hell out, life’s too short for crap and crappy customers, and it means you don’t have enough prospects.

 

Friday 4th January 2002 22-45

3 Wise Things of Selling

Ok this one is easy.  I think there are 3 things to selling which all skills and processes fall into.

 

 

There is a fourth which is important but isn’t essential and that’s

 

 

I’ll explain and define these at a later stage.  See also my Selling Manifesto which I will copy some of the ideas in that into this daily writing.