Sales Autopsy!

The sheriff said to the outlaw, “I’ll give you a fair chance. We’ll step off ten paces and you fire at the count of three.” The men pace off, the sheriff shouts, “One, two” – and then he turns and fires. The dying outlaw says, “I thought you said to fire on three.”

The sheriff said, “That was your number. Mine was two.”

Hey, when you’re selling, did you ever notice that your buyer’s timing is never quite in sync with you? Not on the same page? Not working with the same number?

As sales pros we prefer urgency and a quick decision. As buyers we’re often fairly cautious, slow, even methodical before making our choice.

So shame on us, when we sell, that we are surprised by buyers who won’t give us a clue how soon they’re deciding what to decide.

Like any objection, we should be prepared to pre-empt a buyer’s propensity to delay decisions.

At the very least, we can request the time-frame whereby the prospect’s company needs to conclude its evaluation of products and services.

So you’ll find that you have the skills to create urgency (more on how to do that, on a later date) or not.

If not, at least get that buyer to share when they’ll be done talking and ready to take action.

This way, you find out what his or her number is and you adjust your sales approach accordingly.

Now that we’ve addressed this repeating problem you should never let it happen again. If you do, that’s weak selling. And in the eyes of your manager, criminal behavior.

The Scottish caddies are great. One old fellow at St. Andrews told me, “I had a golfer who was so lousy he threw his clubs into the water. Then he dived in himself. I thought he was going to drown, but I remembered he couldn’t keep his head down long enough.”

Are you “keeping your head down” during your selling day?

This is all about focus and attending the right things at the proper time.

You get a prospect who wants to chat about the latest sports news, or dress styles or the weather. What to do?

Answer with a smile and move the conversation right to business. Be creative and smooth; “Yes, that was a great game. We have our own game to play in the business world as well, don’t we? You have your company to grow, to defeat the competition. I’m my company’s role player to grow and win business for them.” And you’re right back on track, head down, hitting straight and true to the center of the green.

That will keep you on and in the green. You make more money by keeping your focus.

When I’ve managed sales teams, and in my coaching practice, I talk about how nutrition can affect performance.

So eating healthy and getting exercise AND GETTING REST is not just good advice from Mom. Here are a couple rules which will be expanded upon in a future book, or in my keynote, if you have a sales event and want to open it with humor and smart ideas for your team.

1) The WORST foods in the world are french fries and donuts. Anytime you eat something that is fried through and through your body cannot break it down, that is, digest it, unless you could get your internal temperature up to 300+ degrees and liquefy the oil which crystallized in the food. Don’t eat them, ever.

2) You eat for FUEL first, not for FUN. Be smart about what you put into your body and you’ll live longer and healthier. You know it’s true, so stop rationalizing about deserving and rewarding and all that crap. When you’re in fantastic shape, reward yourself with something fun (bad) once a week, but stop this ONCE A DAY garbage.

3) Get exercise at least 3 times a week, but 5 would be better. No excuses here! You can exercise in front of the TV (yes, that would be getting stronger while getting stupider) .

4) Rest and recovery are critical for your body’s health. Think of it as a wavy line - speeding up, working hard, slowing down, cooling off. So you can go hard, as long as you rest well and often. Hey interesting coincidence - a wavy line on a heart machine indicates health. A flat line indicates death.

5) Everyone should know that, more often than not, disease centers on your flawed digestive process. Food that doesn’t get used in the body sits there and not only turns to fat, but sticks in your intestines and ferments, leaching toxins into your body. So here comes the “Clean up Your ACT!” advice…

Go do a good intestinal cleanse. It’s the FIRST thing anyone should do that wants to get truly healthy. The program I’ve had tons of people do (friends as well as business relationships) is a two week program. You don’t have to fast (stop eating). The first week you just take some herbal pills with dinner. That’s easy enough, right? The second week you take some powder in water, 5-6 times a day. This powder sticks to the bad stuff in your intestines and eventually pries it off the walls of your intestines and it leaves by, well you get the picture - your normal process of elimination. Sounds a bit disgusting, but you’re rather have that junk in your toilet than in your body.

By the way, the best resource for great cleanse products and related natural treatments is Health Freedom Resources: www.healthfree.com. I use them for treating myself, my wife and my kids - phenomenal results without drugs!

Anyway, you won’t believe what a good cleanse does to your energy and health.

So sales reps, clean up your act!

Stop playing with your health and energy and discover how well you will sell when you’re physically stronger.

You might have read this story before, but it bears repeating, the sales tip is new and you could use the laughs…

I’m newly married and Valentine’s Day is creeping up. What do I do? Well, everything I stand for in selling is about standing out from everyone else.

So I thought everyone gets roses, I’ll be different and get something truly unique. My Princess Bride will be overjoyed at my creativity.

But what would I do? Then it hit me. Remember Venus - Goddess of Love from mythology? I’ll do something related to Venus.

So I got her a plant - a Venus Flytrap.

You know, they’re the little plants that slam shut on insects when they crawl into them. Digestive juices begin to dissolve the little bugs which end up as plant food.

Then I felt bad at the store buying them, they were so inexpensive.

But I felt better by getting her two.

Gotta be honest, it didn’t go over very well.

But I realized later what I was doing was perfect from a salesperson’s perspective. It just wasn’t the wisest thing to do with my wife.

Our job is to distinguish ourselves from everyone else who sells. So I resisted roses because I wanted to stand out in my gift-giving.

Well I now know that I’ve already “sold” my bride on me. She “bought” the day she said yes to “Will you marry me?” And she proved there was no buyer’s remorse when she said “I do.”

But you do still have to separate yourself from other sales reps. How are you doing that? Get creative and have fun. And please let me know what you come up with.

Michael Windisch, proprietor of the Maltermeister Turm restaurant in Goslar, Lower Saxony, Germany, solved what has become a crisis for other restaurants since the state extended a smoking ban in August. Windisch opened three holes in an outer wall so that, in cold weather, a smoker need not venture outside but can stick his head and arms through the holes and puff away while remaining inside (according to a December report in Der Spiegel). [Spiegel.de, 12-20-07]

Creative solution to accommodate (SELL!) more customers! This sales approach is more about problem solving than benefits (i.e., here are all the good things that will happen when you buy from us).

So what secret do we see in this news item? What does work better than Feature/Benefits selling?

Every sales pro should have two approaches developed to promote their products and services. Some buyers are sold by solving problems. Some are sold by gaining benefits.

How do you identify which animal is which? More later or contact me directly on this fascinating and critical element which ever salesperson should adapt.

But for now, just create a list of benefits you offer and problems you solve. You gain flexibility on your calls and can smoke the competition!

Lee Myung-bak was elected president of South Korea in December, with experts in “poonsgoo” (similar to the Chinese feng shui) attributing the victory in part to the favorable location of his ancestors’ graves, which is an important predictor of good fortune. Candidates not so lucky spent part of the campaign moving their ancestors’ remains to better sites. Former president Kim Dae-jung is said to have learned the hard way, losing an earlier election with poor burial location, then winning after moving some dead relatives around, according to a November Reuters dispatch. [Reuters, 11-14-07]

Wow, what would you do to win a sale?

Light a candle? Sacrifice a chicken? Relocate dead relatives’ graves?

Whatever happened to simple prayers like, “God, please - I need this client. I’ll do anything…”

How much outside control catapults or crashes your career?

If you depend on spiritual entities aiding and abetting your success, you might spend more time sharpening knives and shovels than your skills.

Leave your dreams and fantasies on the altar. Put more leg power and tongue power into your day. That’s how you bury the competition.

Your ancestors will be proud.

A long-married couple was sitting in their living room. He was asleep in his favorite chair. She was watching TV. Suddenly, a violent tornado struck the house. It ripped off the roof, picked the man and woman up, swirled them in the air, and deposited them a mile from home. The husband, seeing his wife sobbing, said, “Stop crying, can’t you see we’re safe?”

She whimpered, “I’m crying because I’m so happy. This is the first time we’ve been out together in ten years.”

So when was the last time you visited your territory? When did you last engage in a saturation campaign to declare - to your little, finite world - that you still exist?

Get out. Get a date with some of those old prospects. We could think of a rockpile of reasons that they’re ready to talk to you…

They’re unhappy with their existing service provider who is taking the relationship for granted.

They’re spending too much for similar services and need to review costs to compare what you can do for them.

Your old contact is retired or fired or dead, and the new buyer doesn’t know who you are.

Get out, and start ‘08 with a tornado of activity in your backyard. And see what kind of business you can send spinning in your direction.

My little brother, Kenny, just had a problem at home - heavy rains caused flooding on his first floor.

So the insurance company sends a cleanup crew with gigantic fans to help air out the place.

The two cats who reside there (or run the place, as cat lovers might believe) are curious about the fans, so the bravest one walks toward the loud device, sticks its nose around the front of it, then quickly runs down the hall, away from the force of the wind.

Moments later, my brother hears the cat crying and looks down the hall.

The cat is attempting to walk back toward the fan, but the force is so strong that the animal is only walking in place, fur forced back by the wind.

Curiosity has turned into confusion as the pet continues to cry for help.

Kenny scoops the little one up, walks into and beyond the blowing wind and places the animal into the safe zone behind the fan.

Question for you sales reps - do you ever get stuck somewhere and are not sure how to unstick yourself?

It might be boxing yourself into an objection you’ve encountered, but can’t yet handle.

It might be you’re sitting on a sales plateau that is too low to give you the money you’d like to be earning.

Or it might be that the job you’re in has no future, and you’re not sure how to leave or where to go.

If any of these strike a chord, you’re heading into the fan and need some help to get out.

Find that mentor - I’ve been encouraging you to do this for long enough.

Or just find the guts to step out in faith and get training, or interview for that better job.

So shame on all of us who are pushing against that mighty wind and are (hopefully) smarter than a cat.

Go get help, and you can know you’re heading into a GREAT ‘08!

Least Competent Criminals (from News of the Weird)

Failed to Master the Art of the Getaway: (1) Robert Hickey Jr., running from a Hamilton County (Tenn.) sheriff’s deputy in October, dashed into nearby woods, fell into a well and had to be rescued. [Chattanoogan, 10-30-07] (2) Rudy Aguas, 25, running from a Reno, Nev., police officer in November after a failed carjacking, ducked into a building but got stuck in a freshly poured concrete floor. [KOVR-TV (Sacramento), 11-23-07] (3) A suspect in car break-ins, running from Miccosukee Indian Reservation police near Miami in November, dove into a retention pond but apparently failed to notice a “Live Alligator” sign, and was killed by “Poncho,” a gator well-known to locals. [WPLG-TV (Miami), 11-13-07]

Can you escape your fate?

Do you control your future, or does it just happen to you?

The three jokers above seemed destined to be caught for their crimes.

Do we, as salespeople, have to suffer fortunes that are too similar to our pasts? Do we continue, for some, that downhill plunge into mediocrity?
Or can we evade average and improve ourselves in 2008?

Do this, right now, while you’re focused on your future;

1) Find a mentor to accelerate the learning curve to success (list 3 right now and contact them to ask for their guidance),

2) Stop chasing poor prospects, this is our #1 failing in sales. So define the perfect prospect and only attend to that target,

3) Pick out, read and apply the learning from a great book. Now you know I’m biased, believing that Sales Autopsy (a #1 business best-seller the third week it hit the shelves) is a smart choice. And as you read it, you’ll realize that it simply focuses on a few places in the sales process where you can most easily and fruitfully improve.

http://www.salesautopsy.com/sales-autopsy-table-of-contents.html

See, you don’t need a system the length of a freight train to sell well.

You just need to fix a few spots where you’re weak, and see how strong your performance can grow.

Do these three things to start your day and you’re off to a GREAT ‘08!

Tough times, in particular for television shows that need daily or weekly writing.

Here’s a thought - what do you think those screenwriters are doing, now that they’re not doing what they want to be doing? (say that 3 times fast, with a keyboard in your mouth)

I bet each of these individuals is working on their own stuff. They’re crafting shows or plays or movies that they would love to bring to life, but nobody is paying them to do so.

Guess what? We’re heading into holiday times for sales reps, when the prospects are on strike.

You can’t reach them. So what are going to do with your time over the next week or two?

How about working on your own stuff as well?

Get a book, listen to an audio, spend some time sitting with other sales pros and chatting about techniques to get past gatekeepers, close business and lead generation strategies.

Be fruitful, keep busy, but most of all stay positive during your prospects’ strike.

It’s a great time to get better at your craft. So when those buyers come back to work, you’ll be readier than you’ve ever been to write a contract that leads to more happy endings in 2008!