Always have a toothpick handy!

Can you imagine seeing a new doctor and without even saying a word to you she began writing a prescription!  She didn’t know your medical history, didn’t take any vital signs or even talk to you as to why you were there!  How comfortable would you be?  Would you take the drugs or even pay for the office visit?  Probably not.  In the medical field, prescription without diagnosis is called malpractice. 

Well in the sales arena, recommending a product or service without finding out if it fills a want or need of your customer is every bit as unprofessional.  

Medical doctors and other “perceived” professionals have a built-in level of trust and confidence that society bestows on them.  Unfortunately, this blind trust allows them, at times, to step over the boundaries of acceptable practices thereby harming  their patients or clients by giving care or advice that is not warranted by current symtoms or problems.

We salespeople, on the other hand, have to earn the trust of our customers.  Many times that is an up-hill battle because of our poor reputation and the fact that we pay the sins of every salesperson that has come before us. 

We need to “earn the right” to recommend our product or service.

How do we do that?

Well, to begin with we need to know our product or service backwards and forwards.  We have to know it cold!  Many salespeople think that they need to know everything about their product or service so they can give their customers an encyclopedic education and by giving all that information the customer will eventually hear something they like and buy. 

 Big mistake!

It’s like asking your customer to take a sip of water out of a fire-hose!  Too much information confuses customers and makes them want to “think about it.” All of your product or service information are just “tools” of your trade.  The key is knowing which tool in your toolbox you should use.

Take the example of a furnace repairman.  Here in Iowa I am sure they were very busy this winter.  Do you think when he shows up at someones house to fix their furnace that his goal is to use all the tools in his toolbox?  Of course not.  He wants to diagnose the problem as quickly as possible using whatever tests are necessary and then use only the appropriate tool to fix the problem and get on to the next broken furnace.   End of story.

In sales, we also need to run our diagnostic tests to find out what is wrong and what is needed.  We call it our discovery or fact-finding process.  These are the questions we are going to ask of our customers to get a conversational dialogue going so that we can find out what is important to them and in so doing help them discover for themseves that they want or need our product or service.

By asking these questions we develop trust and also discover the dominant buying motives (DBM) of our customer.  Its been said that if you ask the right questions your customer will tell you exactly how to sell them.  There is also a truism to sales that you need to never forget.  That is:

If you say it…they can doubt you.  If they say it…it’s true!

Remember that you are a salesperson and until you develop the appropriate level of trust with your customer, everything you say will be taken with a grain of salt and a bit of skepticism.   For example, If I am a salesperson trying to sell a vacation condo in the caribbean and I TELL my customer that it is more convenient to the beach…is less expensive than a motel/hotel…and is luxurious, the customer may doubt me because I am just a salesperson trying to sell them something.

How about instead of TELLING your customer…try ASKING your customer:

“Sandy, let me ask you a question.  If you had a choice of staying in a fully furnished, luxury condominium right on the waterfront versus a standard hotel room 1/4 mile inland and the cost was the same…which would you rather stay in?” 

 ”I would stay in the condo of course.”

“Of course you would…you would be crazy not to…but let me ask you… why would you stay in the condo?”

“Well, because it is right on the water.”

“So what you are saying is that convenience is important to you… is that right?”

“Yes”

“Great, any other reason?”

“Well, the fact that it is fully-furnished condo instead of a hotel room”

“So, in other words, luxury is important to you also, correct?”

“Yes”

“Any other reason you would choose the condo over the hotel room?”

“Well, if I could get it for the same price that would be great!”

“So saving money is important to you also?”

“Yes”

“Well Sandy, if I could show you how you could save a few dollars, get the luxury you want and at the same time enjoy the convenience that is important to you…do you think you might be interested?”

“Yes”

See how much better that is?  We not only got some dialogue going by asking questions but we also got the customer to say what was important to them instead of the salesperson telling them what is important.  The whole key was asking a great first question which forced the customer to think and imagine a possibility.

Selling is not telling…it is asking.  It is what separates the peddlers from professional salespeople.  In addition, if you don’t ask questions of your customer you are just as guilty as the physician who prescribes without diagnosis.

Make it a great day, Rick

I have always said that people LOVE to learn but they HATE to be taught.   You would do well to remember that advice in all your communications with others.  Anytime you can get your point across using a story, anecdote or humorous event you will find that not only will your audience hang on your every word but they will LEARN at the same time.  

If you are in sales (and all of us are!), you can be taught that if you want to be successful you must first find out what is really important to your customer before you try to sell him your product.   That is great advice, but you could have learned it much more effectively if you were given the same advice wrapped up in a story.  Try this one on for size.

I first  read this story in Readers Digest about 30 years ago.  It took place during World War II around 1943. ( I verified it with my 88 year old Dad who was in the Army in Europe at the time.)   Uncle Sam, in an effort to raise more money for the war effort, started a war-bond program for the men in uniform.  The program was that all the soldiers, marines, airmen and sailors could buy war bonds.  The upside for the servicemen was that if they bought the war-bonds and were killed in action then the government would have to pay a $10,000 death benefit to the servicemen’s heirs back home.  Of course $10,000 was a lot of money in the early 40’s and was the big appeal and benefit of the program. 

The downside was that the war-bonds would cost the servicemen around $3.00 per month which was a hefty chunk of what the military men were making in 1943.  The bottom line was that the cost was too much and the servicemen weren’t buying the war-bonds because they were just too expensive.

The story goes on to tell of a young 2nd Lieutenant fresh out of West Point, standing on a stump, in front of his platoon in France.  He was trying to “Sell” them on the many reasons they should buy the war-bonds.  He talked passionately about why they should get involved, saying things like, “It’s the patriotic thing to do, it will help the war effort” and “The government needs the money.” All to no avail.  The men just stood there with blank faces and their arms folded. They were thinking, “It’s just too expensive.  I don’t care how many reasons you give me, I can’t afford them.”

A crusty old Sergeant standing off to the side said. “Sir, let me talk to the men.”  He got up on the stump and said in a loud voice, “Men, I have a statement to make and a question to ask.  The statement is this:  If you buy these war-bonds and are killed in action then Uncle Sam will have to write a check for $10,000 to your loved ones back home, Right?”  The men all answered, “Right.”   Now, on the other hand, if you don’t buy the war-bonds and are killed in action, then Uncle Sam doesn’t have to spend a dime, Right?” Again, the men responded, “Right”

“So, the question I have to ask is this:

“Who do you think they are going to send to the front-lines first to be killed? Those that are going to cost them $10,000 or those they get by with for free!?”

Needless to say, everyone bought the war-bonds!

You chuckle at the simple logic but you have to stand in awe of the message.  Rather than talk about features of the program, the Sergeant cut to the very basic premise of sales.

Sell your product based on what is important to your customer and not what is important to you.

The message to us is easier to understand because of the story.  The message is clear.  Be like that Sergeant.  Find out what is important to your customer and then share your product and service using a story.  Remember that your customer might just be that son you are trying to get to mow the lawn or to do their homework.  We are all in sales every day.  Be a sergeant and not a lieutenant!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Rick  

PS. I need your help!! What can I do to make my blog better and what more can I do to advertise it? I will cherish your comments and/or advice. Let me know. Thanks for stopping by and sharing some of your valuable time with me! Rick

Stop!  Don’t leave yet.  I am not done!

Stay and be enlightened some more! In the last few posts we have talked about communication and the affect that words, tonality and physiology have on the message we are trying to convey. Remember the breakdown?

PS.  I need your help!!  What can I do to make my blog better and what more can I do to advertise it?  I will cherish  your comments and/or advice.  Let me know.  Thanks for stopping by and sharing some of your valuable time with me!  Rick

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon a few years ago.  I was laying on the couch watching a golf tournament when all of a sudden the door bell rang.  I shuffled to the door and was a bit upset to see that nobody was there….until I looked down and found that there was somebody there!  It was a little boy looking up at me.  He was maybe 4 or 5 years old and he was wearing an old, raggedy and ill-fitting little-league baseball uniform.   I immediately looked to the end of my walkway and saw a car.   There was an anxious looking man and woman inside who, I rightly determined, were the young man’s parents.  They had obviously shooed their son up the walkway to my front door and were waiting for him.  It  became crystal clear that I was about to be hearing a sales-pitch.

Believe me when I tell you that this little boy was about as cute as a young man could get and not be a girl.  He had one of those round pumpkin shaped faces that just lit up like a jack-0-lantern when he smiled.  And that smile never left his face!  He opened his excited presentation with the words, “Hi, Sir” and I have to tell you, from that moment on I never understood another word!  He was all over the place.  His words were unintelligible.  Every once in awhile I picked up “money” and “new uniforms”  and “donate” but beyond that he might as well have been speaking in Sanskrit.   Even so, he was having no trouble “communicating” with me and getting his message across.

It was his obvious passion.  You could just tell that he was so excited to be out trying to raise money to help his little league team.   He truly believed in what he was selling!  Having raised 4 sons of my own I could just picture him in his little bedroom last night practicing and rehearsing his sales presentation.  By the time he was finished with me I couldn’t wait to get my checkbook and help him out.  I was sold!! 

Obviously, what sold me was his enthusiasm and sincere energy.  Of course, the fact that he lived about 4 doors down and I knew his family didn’t hurt his chances either, but I digress.   The point I want to make here is to follow up on my post of yesterday. 

The little guy didn’t have the words but, so what!  He sure had the tonality and physiology!  That is where the communication occured.  Words make up only 7% of the effectiveness of communication.  Tonality, (how we say the words) is 38% and our physiology is 55%.

Professional selling is really nothing more than a transference of feeling.  And nothing transfers that feeling more than  tonality and physiology.  It’s that unexplainable “aura” around a person when they are truly excited about what they are trying to communicate.  Ask any parent if their infant child who hasn’t developed words yet has any trouble communicating what they want.  The baby’s body language and tonality (sometimes crying or screaming) definately gets their point across. 

Over the years I have seen many brand new salespeople who haven’t yet learned their sales presentations (words) do very well in their first couple of weeks because they are excited and enthusiastic about what they are doing and that excitement registers with their customers and sales are made.  It’s almost like the customer is thinking, “I don’t know what this guy is selling but I have to have some of it!”  Sadly, after the newness wears off and the excitement wanes, sales start to fall off also. 

I wish I had the formula for excitement and enthusiasm and could bottle it up and hand it out.  We all have had it at various times in our lives just like the little kid but for some reason we lose it along the way.  The folks that stand out and excel are the ones that are able to summon it up when they need it.  Take entertainers for example.  I saw the play “Fiddler on the Roof” many years ago and the program said these actors and actresses had performed the same show over 4,500 times!  How do they keep it fresh night after night after saying the same lines thousands of times over and over?  Simple.  They are able to treat every performance like it was Opening Night!  That is the sign of a true professional.  

We have to find out what motivates us….what melts our butter…..what blows our skirt up… what gets our juices going.  We need to charge into each day with the excitement and enthusiasm of that little kid.  My motivation was always my sons.  We all get lazy at times and I admit there were times that I didn’t want to make another prospecting call or talk to another customer but I would pull out a picture of the kids and say to myself, “If I take a shortcut.. who am I really hurting?”  That was my motivation.  We all have something that fires us up!  We just need to focus on it until we feel the energy.  I once read that the best way to make sure you always do your best is to imagine that the whole world were watching you.  Talk about an audience!

Maybe the best way to explain what a “real professional” attitude is would be to share with you a story of Joe Dimaggio the great Yankee outfielder and hall-of-famer.  Known as the Yankee Clipper (and for you non-baseball fans, he was also known as Mr. Coffee) he played 15 years and retired in 1951.   The story is told of  an event that occured in his final season.  It was late August and the Yankees were playing a Sunday double-header in Detroit.   It was late in the second game and Joe was at bat and hit a weak pop-up to the shortstop.  Instead of just stopping and returning to the dugout, he hustled all-out to first base like it was the 9th inning of the World Series.  When he got back to the dugout his teamates started ragging on him a little bit with comments like, “Lighten-up Joe, you’re a hall of famer, relax a little bit, you don’t have to prove anything.”  One of his teamates asked him, “Joe, why are you working so hard?”  His answer illustrates why he was one of the greatest of all time. 

“The reason I work so hard is that there may be someone in the stands today who has never seen me play!”

Wow!  Not hard to see why he excelled.  That was his motivation.  What is yours!  As you step onto the ballfield of life each day bring your enthusiasm, excitement and passion with you. 

 Make it a great day, Rick

PS.  I need your help!!  What can I do to make my blog better and what more can I do to advertise it?  I will cherish  your comments and/or advice.  Let me know.  Thanks for sharing some of your valuable time with me!  Rick

But in this case it is not opinion but fact.  Read on and be enlightened! 

There are only 3 ways in which we human beings communicate.   Only three!

1. Words
2. Tonality
3. Fizzyology  (Yes, I know how to spell it but wanted to see if you were paying attention)

Of even more interest is the relative effect each of these have in our ability to get our message across to each other.  Experts have shown that the breakdown is as follows:

1. Words - 7%
2. Tonality - 38%
3. Physiology - 55%

Words, as you see, have the least effect on our communication.   HOW we say those words, or the tonality, is over 5 times as important than the words themselves and of course the real  communicator is our physiology, i.e. body language, eye contact, hand gestures etc.

The sad thing about blogging is that the only way we can communicate is with our words.  Punctuation marks can help a little by taking the place of tonality or physiology but unless you are a great, great writer you will never be able to get your point across as well as you could if you were speaking to your audience face-to-face.  Exclamation points and italics are a sad substitute for true passion and excitement that people can read in your face. 

I have been a public speaker and trainer for over 30 years and feel really hamstrung with this blogging thing cause I don’t feel I can communicate as well as I would like and am used to.  Take tonality for example.  With HOW I say a word I can actually change the meaning of what I am saying.  Take the following sentence:

“I didn’t say I shot my wife.”

Depending on my voice inflection, (tonality) I can make those simple words mean many different things.  For example: (Inflection on the subject word is italicized and bolded)

“I didn’t say I shot my wife.” (the man over there did)

“I didn’t say I shot my wife.” (I implied it)

“I didn’t say I shot my wife.” (My mistress did)

“I didn’t say I shot my wife.” (I poisoned her)

“I didn’t say I shot my wife.” (I shot his wife)

“I didn’t say I shot my wife.” (I shot my dog)

Each sentence had the same seven words but depending on my voice inflection they had six totally unique meanings.  Great speakers understand tonality.  They vary the pace of their speaking, sometimes they are loud, sometimes they whisper, sometimes they use accents.   They understand that the meaning of what they say can be affected by how they say it.  They use anything to keep from being monotone which not only weakens the communication but puts the audience to sleep. 

That is why I really respect great writers.  They have a tough job.  They need to get their message across using just one of the means of communication.  And the least important one at that!

Don’t get the wrong idea from me.  Words are very important.  Mark Twain once said that the difference between the right word and ALMOST the right word is like the difference between lightning and a lighting bug.  No wonder he was a great writer.  More later, 

PS.  I need your help!!  What can I do to make my blog better and what more can I do to advertise it?  I will cherish  your comments and/or advice.  Let me know.  Thanks for sharing some of your valuable time with me!  Rick