Tough Times = Time to Train

This article understandibly caught my eye at the Top 10 Sales Articles website: “Tough Times Call for Tough Training”.  

Often people think of “training” as only skill and knowledge building. However there are additional plusses from good training – motivation and a positive attitude. These can be even more important than the skill and knowledge development.

Training takes time and money – two resources that are in short supply at the moment. However, both can be overcome with a little creativity.

The author goes on to discuss the type of training, who should attend, who should conduct it and how to make it cost effective. You can read the full article here.

Unlocking the Door

When you hear the term gatekeeper, what does the term imply to you? Some people visualize David Spade’s famous Saturday Night Live character that was tasked with controlling access to Dick Clark’s office. In the skits, one notable person after another would come in to visit Dick Clark. Spade was famous for his “and you are…?” line. You’d be surprised how often sales professionals hear those words used in a condescending manner. Just recently, one rep described how one gatekeeper went through three of those “hanging questions”…

“And you are…?”

“And you’re with…?”

“And you’re calling about…?”

What makes those questions frustrating is that the next sound one usually hears your call being routed to voice mail. The gatekeeper has successfully blocked you from the decision maker. Ugh!

Positive in Tough Times?

Tony Robbins was on the Today Show recently talking about being prepared mentally and staying positive through tough times.  Good clip and only about 4 minutes long.  Check it out below!

Reality Sales

Paul Cherry at EyeOnSales.com gleamed some sales lessons from his local hardware stores.   The main lesson?  Being real with customers goes further than building superficial relationships.

The store’s been at the same location for close to 50 years, and as far as I can tell, it does a terrific business. There are plenty of other places to buy hardware: bigger stores with more selection and better prices. So what keeps people coming to this one?

I think it’s those crotchety, opinionated salespeople.

These days, many salespeople are polite, efficient and helpful – and utterly anonymous. It’s not their fault; they’ve been trained that way. They sell from a script and never take a chance. You might as well be talking to Robby the Robot.

Not so at the corner hardware store. For better or for worse, you never walk away from the counter without feeling that you’ve just engaged in a deeply human interaction. Sometimes I’m amused. Sometimes, frankly, I’m a little annoyed. But in the end, I keep coming back because I feel somehow connected to them. They’re an institution, and the neighborhood wouldn’t be the same without them.

Click HERE to go read the full article.

Saying “You’re Fired” to a Customer

It’s hard for sales people to say “no” to customers.  I mean, sales reps do all they can to make the customer say “yes”, but when is it good to tell a customer “thanks, but no thanks”?

That was the question posed by someone at SalesTeamTools.com and they got a lot of responses.  Among the top ones are:

1. When it’s illegal or breaking ethical standards
2. When you compromise quality standards
3. When the deal is not win-win

You can check out more over at he post.  What other reasons would you fire your customer?

Arresting the Time Bandits

No, not those Time Bandits.

How often do you look up from your desk, see that it is almost closing time, and feel frustrated that, yet again, you weren’t able to complete one or more of the important tasks that needed to be finished today? If you regularly find yourself wondering where your time goes every day, you need to be on the look out for these five time bandits. Once you see them coming, you can arrest them so they will never bother you again.

Sales Lessons from….Starbucks?

What can we learn about sales from Starbucks?  Mark Tewart wrote an article about five sales tips he gleamed from spending some time at his local coffee franchise.  Below are some excerpts.

Lesson #1 – Make sure you ask for the business. I have just watched a beggar collect at least $5 worth of donations in the last half hour with a sign that says – “I am saving up for a hooker, weed, wine and a steak dinner.” Not one of the people bothered to read his sign and know what they were even donating for. Not the family man with his wife and children, not the group of older people probably in their 80s, not the business man in the suit, nobody. The beggar obviously learned the power of asking, no matter what.

Lesson #2 – It’s not the money. People pile into Starbucks one after another spending three and four bucks on of a cup coffee. Obviously you can get a cup of coffee at a diner down the street for a lot less money. But yet, people willingly spend a $100 per month or more at Starbucks. Why?

[snip]

Lesson #3 – Change the process to win. I am watching out the window as people scurry on the streets. The whole world is moving faster today; the Internet, news, businesses and people in general are moving faster and faster.

People will willingly pay lots of money for a process that either speeds things up or slows things down. Although many people want things and processes that speed things up, just as many are fighting brain drain because of all the speed and want to slow things down. Change your process with your customers in mind, sell your unique advantage and experience to the customer and they will pay for the process.

Lesson #4 – Change the wrapping. I am staying at a smaller but kind of funky and cool hotel here in San Francisco. Because I travel so much and stay in so many look-a-like chain hotels, it’s a treat to stay somewhere unique. In the last several years there has been a big push towards dealers upgrading and improving their facilities.

[snip]

Lesson #5 – The money is in the niche. Watching traffic go by in San Francisco makes you understand the wide array of cultures, diversity and multitude of options people desire in their choices. I often watch in amazement as many dealers are lead by advertising agencies to spend vast sums of money trying to be everything to everyone with a generic non-benefit driven message.

I’m Pro-crastination

Chances are, if you are not a procrastinator, then you work with one.  You know, that person that is always putting stuff off until later?

To this end, I recently read an article from The Sideroad with some tips on how to deal with them. Here’s an excerpt:

1. Lack of Interest
If your priorities and theirs do not match, explain to them why this is important to you and what the consequences are in not doing it.

2. Lack of Time
When they typically underestimate how long something will take, and then end up with incomplete work, teach them “back-timing,” where you go from the final deadline through the steps to the must-start date.

3. Perfection
If they delay because they are not sure they will produce a perfect result, use the “What if…” scenario, evaluating possible outcomes and consequences of each to recognize what an acceptable outcome could be.

4. Others’ Opinions
If you think that the procrastinator is worried about possible failure and subsequent rejection, help him or her understand it is natural. Share your own fears.

5. Uncertainty
When they are not sure what is expected, encourage them to go back and seek clarification from those involved so that they can fully understand what will be needed to produce the result.

6. The Unknown
They fear new things and this risk factor causes avoidance. Recall things in the past that they accomplished, reminding them that conquering something new can also be stimulating and rewarding.

7. Poor Work Habits
To limit their multitasking habits, you can remove distractions. Keep the children out of the way or handle phone calls so that they can focus.

Turn Your Voicemail to Email

SalesTeamTools.com had a post last week about a service called PhoneTag that transcribes your voice mail messages into email format.

This sounds pretty darn cool.  Initially I was ho-hum about it, but the feature that got my attention was that since it comes in as an email, now your voicemail messages are searchable!  Can’t remember a message from that customer?  Depending on how you organize your email, you can find a specific message almost instantly.  Neat stuff.

Have any of you used this service, or one like it?  Or if you haven’t, would you look into getting something like this?

Elephant Hunting

I’ve heard two analogies that involve elephants and time management.  The first one is in the form of a riddle: “How do you eat an elephant?”  The answer is, “one bite at a time.”  In other words, you accomplish the really big things just a little bit at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed.

The other elephant analogy is called “elephant hunting.”  This is nothing more than doing the big things first before you focus on the little things.

I found a really neat tool recently to help you with your elephant hunting.  It’s a web to-do list called NowDoThis.  You list out your to-do’s and then it displays them one at a time.  When you’re done with one item, you click the Done button and then it displays the next item on the list.  Pretty simple and pretty effective.

Give it a shot.  And if you want something with a bit more to it, try out WhatShallIDoNow or Next.