Always have a toothpick handy!

Here’s the deal. 

If you want to start making more sales….quit trying to make more sales! 

Think about that for a moment.  It might dawn on you that there is a reason that most salespeople enjoy a less than stellar reputation among the buying public. 

Why do you suppose that is? 

Could it have something to do with the idea that most salespeople look at the sales process as a contest.  In other words, if they sell you…they win and you lose!  If you don’t buy…. you win and they lose.  The more competitive the salesperson is the more they try to win the contest and thus also earn the well earned reputation of being “high pressure.”   Try this on for size.

Selling is something you do FOR your customer… not something you do TO them!

It is no wonder that many customers approach  the sales environment with anxiety, fear and trepidation.  As salespeople we have to remember that:

We salespeople pay the sins of every salesperson who has come before us! 

If our customer’s past history with salespeople has been nothing but a litany of disrespect, high-pressure and a total disregard for what is important to them then obviously the customer will approach the sales situation with a pre-conceived idea of what is going to happen.  They have already reserved a litle “pigeon-hole” into which they tend file away ALL salespeople.  You may be the total exception to the rule and a true professional but you still are going to be stuffed into that little pigeon hole unless you do something different to earn your customer’s trust. 

What can I do?

Well, for starters, say nothing important for the first 2 or 3 minutes you are with your customer.  Why?  Because when you first meet your customer there is going to be some tension.  You don’t know each other yet.  You are feeling each other out.  If you start in with your sales presentation too early or before that “relationship tension” has been reduced you are just acting like every other salesperson who couldn’t wait to make a sale.  Now your customer is thinking… “Yeah, this guy is just like the last one!  He doesn’t care about me… he just wants to make a sale.”

So what do we talk about instead?

How about talking with your customer about their most important subject!  Them!!!  You will discover what makes them tick and what is important to them!   They will love you for it!  Talk about their job, their family, hobbies, back-ground, future plans etc.   Take the attitude that you just met your customer in your favorite social setting and get into a conversation and not a presentation. 

Really listen to your customer! 

All of us love to be recognized.  Find something about them to compliment that you sincerely like.  Maybe it is a piece of jewelry, shoes, their yankee ball-cap or just about anything else other than your product or service.   Remember, that the compliments must be sincere.   Whatever you talk about… don’t get into your presentation until you have established common ground.   Actually, what will probably happen is that your customer will eventually ask you about your product or service once he feels comfortable with you.   You then will have permission to begin your sales process.   Remember this always:

More sales are lost in the Opening than in the Closing!

If you handle your first 2 or 3 minutes like a true professional you will find that everything else will just fall into place and you will also find that:

People love to buy… they just hate to be sold!

Go 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

In my ”about” bio at the top of the page,  I mentioned that I moved to South America in 2004 to retire and work on my Spanish.  It was a great plan!  What I didn’t tell you is that everything in retirement didn’t work out exactly how I planned it.  If it had, I would probably still be relaxing in Ecuador. 

Before I explain what happened I have to share a funny line I heard from one of my co-workers in August of 2004.  We were talking about my upcoming decision to retire and he said, “I myself have also planned well for retirement.  I have saved enough money over the years so that I will be able to live like a king for the rest of my life….. that is, as long as I die by February of 05′!!! ”

That line really cracked me up when he said it.  Little did I know that life was going to throw a bit of a curve at me making my real retirement eerily similar to his tongue-in-cheek witicism.   Without going into all the gory details I am bemused to tell you that I went broke!  I lost it all due to some poor choices and a little bad luck.  Now I find myself starting over again at the age of 61 and I have to say, I have never been happier!

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be! 

I spent so many years on the fast track in Las Vegas trying to amass all the goodies and toys that I could.  I thought that that was how you kept score.  You need to amass all the material things that you could.   WRONG!   All that approach does is give you ulcers with worry and constant stress and anxiety.  I now know that instead of increasing my material wants, I should have been decreasing my material desires. 

Don’t get me wrong, I like money as well as the next person because it gives you a security and freedom to do the things you want for yourself and your loved ones.  Where I went wrong was  thinking that the only reason for doing something was to make money.   The correct thinking should have been, and still is, the truism;

You will get everything in life that you want, if you just help enough other people get what they want! 

I realize I have lost my money but I haven’t lost my wealth.   I have my health, my talent and a new zest for life that has been missing for many years.  

I wandered around with no direction for about 18 months.  I was a headless vector!  I finalized a “War of the Roses”  type of divorce and went through a bankruptcy.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do until my son gave me the idea of starting this blog.  I now see the real mission of my life.  I not only want to rise out of the ashes myself but with your help maybe assist others who are in the same boat as me.  I realize I am in the autumn of my life but I have never been more jazzed and motivated than I am right now.  

I’m not worried about dying…I’m now worried about not living!

No one wants to die.  Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.  And yet death is the destination we all share.   No one has ever made it out alive.   And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.  It is Life’s change agent.  It clears out the old to make way for the new.  Right now the new are my sons and the youth of the world, but someday not too long from now, they will gradually become the old and be cleared away also.  Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Our time is limited, so we can’t  waste it living someone else’s life.  We can’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  We can’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out our own inner voices.  And most important of all, we must have the courage to follow our hearts and intuition.  They somehow already know what we truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary.

So my days of being a headless vector are over!  I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!  Later, 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

You want to separate yourself from the pack?  Be a better salesperson? Listen up!

We have already talked about the importance of asking great questions to develop trust.  Unfortunately, the ability to ask clear and concise questions is of no benefit at all if we don’t actively listen to the answers.  So, I also shared the keys to effective listening in an earlier post.

What we want to do in this article is to chat a bit about what our approach should be when our customers ask questions.  Remember that perception is reality for both us and our customer.  We can’t assume that we know exactly what our customer means when they ask us a question.  Many times, I have found, our customers don’t really know what they want.  We have to help.  It takes a little proding and deducing on our part to help our customer make an informed choice.  I have always felt that a truly professional salesperson doesn’t really sell anything!  What they do is create a warm, friendly and credible environment in which the customer can discover for themselves that they want to purchase our product or service.  Never forget:

 People LOVE to buy but they HATE to be “sold!”   

Let me share an example with how easy it can be to have the wrong perception with a customer’s question.

   A lady walked into a cutlery store and was admiring the knife displays when a salesperson approached and asked if he could be of assistance.  She asked, “Are these knives very sharp?”  Her salesperson couldn’t wait to get into his sales presentation.  “Are you kidding me?” he replied, “These are the sharpest knives on the planet.  They have been designed using the newest laser technology and are guaranteed to be the sharpest knives you will ever use!”   

The lady replied, “Gee, I’m sorry then.  These knives won’t work because they are to be a gift for my elderly and frail mother and I’m afraid that she might hurt herself with knives so sharp.”  Oops!  See how easy the wheels can come off?  Obviously, the salesperson assumed wrongly that he knew what the customer meant when she asked her question. 

What should have been done differently? 

Don’t assume! That is the first piece of advice.  Never assume you know what your customer means.  The professional never assumes.  He first asks questions for clarification.  Our hapless salesperson above could have increased his chances greatly by just asking the obvious follow-up question. “Is sharpness important to you?”  He would have then learned about the feeble mom and then he would know what type of knives to show to better fit his customer’s needs.  He also would have developed trust by taking an active interest.  By discovering the ultimate use of the knives he could now act as a caring counselor and not a pushy salesperson.  He could have responded with something like, “So, if I understand you correctly, you would like to purchase some quality knives as a present for your Mom that she can use with confidence but at the same time give you peace of mind that she is not going to accidentaly hurt herself.  Is that correct?”  “YES!”  “Great, then if you would allow me to make a recommendation why don’t you inspect these knives over here…………. ”

Wow, that response is stronger than 3 acres of garlic!  It shows that not only were you listening to your customer’s concerns, but you also have empathy.   

You can, I am sure, think of many more examples depending on the type of product or service being offered.  I might also add that the best follow-up questions are asked in a conversational tone of voice.  Remember that although selling is asking…how you ask is every bit as important.  This is not an interrogation.  It is a transference of feeling and information.  

  I would be interested in hearing from you professionals out there on similar sales examples you have witnessed  that can help the rest of us.  Rick

      To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What a glorious quote!  It really cuts to the core of what it means to lead a life based on the dedication of helping others.  I am quite sure that all great teachers share that simple philosophy.  If only one person benefits they have been a success.  From my standpoint it seems such a daunting task to write an article for my blog that will have a positive impact on somebody I have never met.  I guess I can take relief from the fact that there are potentially many, many millions of folks around the planet that have access to the internet and could actually stumble onto this blog.  So, if I just consider the immense size of my conceivable audience my chances of making a positive impact on just one person are pretty good.  I can’t fail with those odds!

The  mission I have set for myself today is to make an impact on anybody that is brand new to commissioned sales.   After 3o years or so in commissioned sales I have listened to many novice salespeople lament the idea that their customers won’t trust them or do business with them because they lack experience and know-how.  They feel that they need to get a lot of time in the sales saddle before they can attain a level of trust.  Nothing could be further from the truth.   Although I agree that trust is the most important ingredient that must be earned by the salesperson, I don’t agree that it takes years to develop it.  New salespeople can establish credibility and trust very easily.  How, you ask?  Well, assuming that your customer is not a referral where the trust level is already built-in a bit; the easiest way to develop trust is by asking great questions.

  Let me share with you an example of how the ability to ask questions can earn trust in sales.  Suppose your car has started to make a weird noise so you take it to a mechanic and say to him, “My car is making a noise that I have never heard before.”  The mechanic replies, “Great, leave it and pick it up at 5:00.”  That response doesn’t really appeal to you so you take your car to a mechanic across the street.  You say, “My car is making a strange noise.”  He asks, “What kind of noise?”  “Well, it’s kind of a thumping sound,”you answer.  “Is is a metallic sound or more a rubbery sound?”  ”It’s metallic.”  “Is it coming from the front of the car or the back?” he asks.  “It’s coming from the front.” “Does the sound get faster as you speed up or is it the same sound all the time?” he asks.  “It gets faster when I speed up.”  “Great, he answers, leave the car and pick it up at 5:00.” 

Now… which mechanic do you want to work on your car?  The second one, of course.  Why? Because he took the time to be concerned with your situation and showed by his questions that he had expertise.  You feel much more comfortable with him than the first mechanic.  Now, let me ask you….who was the best mechanic?  Can you tell?  You don’t know, do you?  The first mechanic might have been the best and most honest mechanic in the world.  The second mechanic might have started yesterday and didn’t know much of anything.  But that didn’t matter to you.  You only trusted the second mechanic to work on your car because he was interested in your problem and, by extension, interested in you.   We all love it when others are interested in us!  So if you are new to sales…don’t despair that you don’t have all the knowledge yet.  Just learn to ask great questions and “fake it till you make it.” 

Tony Robbins says that the one skill salespeople need to cultivate more than any other is the ability to ask clear and concise questions.    Every day it is proven in sales arenas around the world that the only difference between good salespeople and great salespeople is in the quality of the questions they ask.  The bottom-line is this: 

People buy your product or service not because they understand it,

They buy because they believe you understand it and they believe you!

Selling isn’t telling…selling is asking.  You may be new to selling but if you spend your free time creating and learning to deliver great questions (toothpicks) you will be soon weighing your money instead of counting it!

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

  Remember that great Simon and Garfunkel song from the 60’s?   One of the verses went:

People talking without speaking, 

People hearing without listening. 

How true, how true!!  Truly good listeners are very rare.  We all love it when we come across one because they make us feel so good.  They seem to hang on every word we speak and can actually feed back what we say to us thus confirming how important they feel we are.  We recognize them easily.   Good listeners make us feel important and we trust them.   To stand out today, you don’t need to be a great listener –just be a good listener because everyone else is so terrible at it.   Unfortunately, for most of us, listening is tough.  We seem to have so many distractions that get in the way.  We have all experienced situations in which we have been  speaking with someone and all of a sudden we realize that although we have been hearing the sound waves excaping the speaker’s mouth, we have no idea what they have been saying.  We have been caught with our minds wandering and have been justly embarassed by our inattention.   

It’s sad that nobody taught  us how to be good listeners when we were younger.   Why do some people seem to do it naturally?  Do they know something the rest of us don’t know? 

 Read on and discover the secret to being a good listener. 

I had the pleasure about 20 years ago of attending a seminar in Las Vegas.  The speaker talked on many subjects but the most interesting to me was a short session on something called  Neuro-Linquistics.  He showed that as powerful as our remarkable brain is, it can only process new information one bit at a time in serial fashion.  In other words, our brain, the most powerful computing instrument known to man can only process one bit of information, one after another, in single file.  It can’t process two bits of information at the same time or in parallel fashion.  Now, of course our wonderful brain can process new information very, very quickly but still; only one bit at a time.  To prove that, for example, we can’t think of brown cow and white horse at the same time.  You can think of the cow and an instant later think of the horse but not both at the same time. 

So what does that little known fact have to do with our listening skills with others? 

We all have this little voice inside of us.  It’s constantly carrying on a dialogue with us.  Call it what you want but our little voice never shuts up.  It’s talking to you right now as you read this article.  It’s saying things like, “I wish this guy would get to the point, or, I’m really spending too much time on line or, this is the best blog I have ever been to.”  Whatever it says, its no big deal when you are reading.  If your inner voice distracts you, you can just go back and reread what you missed.  No harm, no foul!

  However, it’s not that easy when you have another human being across from you.  Now if your inner voice distracts you, you’re in trouble!  All you can do is pretend you were listening and hope you get lucky.  Or, you can just apologize and say something inane like, “I’m sorry, I just checked out there for a bit and didn’t hear what you said.”   The problem is that brain of ours can only process information in serial fashion.  Since there are two voices playing, we have to choose which one to listen to….our inner voice or that of the person we are speaking to.  We can’t listen to both at the same time!  The problem is that we tend to listen to our internal voice above all others because it is US.  It is who we are and our egos won’t let our inner voice be shut out by others.  This fact sure makes it tough to be a good listener.   The solution, however, is easy!  The key is to shut down our internal voice which frees us up to totally focus on what the other person is saying. 

The technique is simple.  All you have to do is repeat silently and verbatim to yourself exactly what the other person is saying as they are saying it.   By doing that, we totally shut down our internal voice and focus 100% on what the other person is saying.  Try it.   It works like magic.   Go grab someone and start a conversation.  You will remember exactly what they are saying because you are 100% laser focused.  We all, at times, let our inner voice begin to interrupt when we are speaking with others.  It doesn’t have to be a sales situation either.  We can be talking to our wives or husbands or kids or anybody in any situation.  We are the victims of our inner voice.  So, the next time you find your mind wandering and you recognize that you aren’t paying total attention like you should…you can get back on track immediately by shutting down your inner voice using this technique.  

Please let me know if this technique worked for you.  Thanks for sharing some of your valuable time with me.  Rick