Tuesday, July 1, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

The environment for professional salespeople has changed more in the last 10 years than in the previous 100.  Today’s Internet-driven information society has produced a more educated, savvy customer base that demands more than the old, tactic-heavy sales techniques.  Today’s salesperson must earn his or her way into the customer’s buying process; if they do not, the customer can simply buy over the Internet.  In this workshop, Troy Harrison shows salespeople the way forward into the brave new world of selling.  Topics covered include:

· What’s different about selling today
· The three categories of salespeople
· What your customer demands from you (and will cut you out if you don’t provide it)
· What your customer demands that you NOT do
· Becoming an All Around Profit Center
· And More!

Who Should Attend:  Professional Salespeople and Sales Manager

Learning Objectives:  Attendees will learn a new approach to selling that will allow them to survive and thrive in today’s Internet driven sales environment.

Click here for more information or to register!

I get asked frequently how to deal with voice mail.  Interestingly, in today’s world, it seems that some aren’t prepared to NOT get voice mail.

In my Sales Training programs, I get asked frequently how to deal with voice mail.  Interestingly, in today’s world, it seems that some aren’t prepared to NOT get voice mail.  I had just such an incident on Friday after hours.  I was recruiting, and I had called a woman about a position that she had applied for, and left a voice mail.  About 6:30, my cell phone rang, and I recognized her number.  So, I answered the phone.  And she hung up.  Then she called back about two minutes later, and again, I answered – and again, she hung up.  Clearly, she was hoping to get voice mail and leave a message rather than talk to the live human being that she’d called.  If she calls back today (I think she will), I’ll still give her an interview – but I’ll definitely ask her why she didn’t talk to me on Friday.

The sales parable here is this:  A lot of salespeople fail not because they don’t prepare for the WORST, but because they don’t prepare for the BEST.  They assume that they won’t get the sale, so they don’t take order forms into the call; they assume that they’ll get dumped to a subordinate so they’re unprepared to talk to the owner; they assume that the owner won’t talk to them so they settle for middle management that has to ask their boss in order to buy; or they assume that they’ll get voice mail so they are unprepared to talk to the live person.

Do any of these sound familiar?  If so, your biggest competitor isn’t other service providers or even the status quo – it’s YOURSELF.  Don’t ever compete with yourself.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten went something like this:  “If you always tell the truth, you never have to keep your story straight.”  A candidate that I interviewed last week should have gotten this advice.

Without going into detail, a potentially strong candidate lost a shot at a job that he very much wanted because his stories didn’t match up.  I interviewed him and my client interviewed him, and at the end of the process, we compared notes – and his reported compensation didn’t match.  In fact, it wasn’t even close.  In my world, one lie = disqualification, so he’s out.

There’s a lesson in this for a lot of people.  For salespeople, know your numbers and report them HONESTLY, even if you don’t really like what you think they say about you.  Even a mediocre number is better than a lie.

For hiring managers, this is the best argument against the one-interview hire that I can think of.  Multiple conversations force salespeople into consistency; if no consistency exists, the salesperson is out.

And of course, nobody spots a lie quicker than your CUSTOMERS.  Lie to them, and you’re history, never to recover.

Oh, and being on time is a good thing as well.  I’m actually taking a few minutes to write this while waiting on a late candidate.  In three more minutes, her opportunity is gone, too.

I was recently interviewed for an article on the Wall Street Journal’s Digital Network; the subject was advice for salespeople over 50. 

I’m proud to announce that Independent Dealer Magazine, a digital magazine specializing in the office products industry, has decided to start carrying my column, “Sell Like You Mean It!”  This month’s issue is now online at www.idealercentral.com.  I’m looking forward to a long relationship with this quality publication!

Lessons learned from the B2B Sales Expo

Once again, the Overland Park Chamber did it up right.  A great B2B Sales Expo today.  And of course, I have been inspired.  Following are a few random thoughts and tips that don’t fit anywhere else.

Again, as I noted, the OP Chamber did it first class.  A good trade show can be a great source of leads for me, and this one was no exception.  When I attend an event like this, I tend to see several situations and types of contacts that inspire content.  The problem is that a lot of these things do not fit within a HotSheet, since they just don’t justify the 700 to 1000 words necessary for a good article.  Hence, here is a collection.

I don’t give away free stuff at trade shows.  I used to; I had the pens and candy like a lot of other people.  What I discovered was that I’d give away lots of stuff to the people who go to trade shows specifically to get free stuff.  That’s OK.  The problem, I found, was that a lot of these people would feel guilty about just grabbing a pen, so they would engage me in conversations to feign interest while having no real interest or reason for discussion.  While those conversations were happening, I’d miss real leads.  So, I don’t give away freebies.  I get less people to the booth, but the interest factor is MUCH higher.  Give it some thought.

Don’t be afraid of B2B Sales

Along with that, I give very little time to those who wish to sell to ME at shows.  I’m spending money to exhibit and they’re not; hence, if they want to try to sell to me, make a quick intro, give me a card, and follow up later.  On a couple of occasions, I had to politely move people along today.  Don’t be afraid to do this; that’s YOUR time that they’re using.  If you’re not protective of your time, who will be?

One such person came by offering a telephone cold-calling service.  At least that’s what I think she was offering; to be honest, getting info from her was like pulling teeth.  Which begs the question:  If she can’t quickly and concisely explain what SHE does for a living, how can she do so on my behalf?

Shows like this are great networking opportunities, and the layout of the room was well set to facilitate good networking as well as good booth traffic.  There weren’t really any “bad” booths.

Overall, it was a great B2B sales show.  I had a good and participative crowd at my 3:30 Networking seminar, and I want to thank everyone with the Chamber, everyone who attended or stopped by the booth.

I’ve been asked a number of times about doing long-term business coaching.  So, in response, I’ve created this coaching program .  If this sounds like you, call me ASAP!

Do you have a hobby?  By “hobby,” I mean something that you enjoy doing enough that it is mentally engrossing, that requires (or gets) your entire mental focus?  If not, you may be performing at less than top capacity.

This was proven to me again yesterday.  I’ve always been a big believer in the need for people to have things in their lives that encompass us when we do them; there are real business benefits to doing so.  I read an article about 10 years ago (and I’m sorry, I can’t find it again), but essentially, a psychologist was suggesting that the existence of mentally encompassing hobbies or activities actually aided our problem-solving capabilities at work.  The idea is that, when you have a problem at work, sometimes the best thing is to get completely away from it and focus on another activity that takes you entire focus.  While your conscious mind is working on your hobby, behind the scenes your subconcious is still wrestling with the initial problem – with the advantage of not having the immediate deadline to take part of the focus.  If you’ve ever been playing golf, playing catch with your kids, etc., and had the solution to a problem jump into your mind, you know what I’m talking about.

This was proven to me again yesterday.  I have a couple of encompassing hobbies; one is bowling and one is working on cars.  Yesterday, I was wrestling with a particularly difficult problem on a car.  Two components essentially wanted to share the same space, and it was impossible for them to do so.  But, I couldn’t figure out how to remount one of them to make the situation work.  After about an hour of positioning and repositioning the components, and finding lots of ways NOT to make the situation work, I stopped.  I went upstairs, had dinner, and then after dinner started working on some training materials for a program I’m putting on next week.

After about a half an hour of engrossing myself in business, bingo – the right solution to the car problem hit me.  It’s simple, elegant, and will require about $5 worth of new steel and 10 minutes of fabrication.  It’ll even look good.  I quickly made a couple of notes – I didn’t even have to look at the car again to know it would work – and then went back to work on the training materials.  This, of course, is an example of the problem solving process in reverse (the work helped me solve a hobby problem), but it has worked the same way with business more often than with hobbies.  Visitors to my workshop are sometimes entertained by me stopping my work in the middle, running over to a pad and pen on the workbench, making some notes, and then getting back to my work.  This is also why, if you see me eating lunch alone, you’ll see me reading the Wall Street Journal frequently.  It’s mentally engrossing, and that gives my mind a relief valve to work on solving problems in the background.

The point of all this is that, sometimes, the least effective people are those who are 100% focused on their work, all the time.  Without a mental escape route, your mind can’t solve the problems that you encounter.  Considering that all of business is about solving problems and inventing solutions, if you don’t have a hobby – consider getting one, or find some activity that can act as an escape valve.

Well, Zack has left the Royals.  What does that mean for them, and is there a meaning for the business world?

Longtime readers know that one of my afflictions is that I happen to be a Kansas City Royals fan.  I remember the glory days of the 70s and 80s, but I have many more memories of mediocrity and failure.  Following in the footsteps of this is yesterday’s news that the Royals have traded 2009 Cy Young Winner Zack Grienke.  After thinking about it for a few minutes, I’m not sorry to see Zacko gone, and it goes along with my business philosophies.

Let’s look – quickly – at Zack’s positives.  He was a pitcher with amazing control and ability, who had the ability – when he wanted to – to dominate hitters.  The trouble is that Zack really didn’t want to all that often.  True, he won the 2009 Cy Young, but 2009 was basically the year that his potential became reality.  Last season, when it became obvious that the Royals were not going to contend, Zack basically quit on the team by going through the motions on too many nights.  I have a lot of trouble with players who complain about their team not winning when they obviously are not giving it what they have in an effort to win.

The trouble was that Zack had a lot of negatives, from the official diagnosis of “anxiety disorder” to the less commonly diagnosed, but just as present, “spoiled brat syndrome.”  The Royals did a lot for Zack.  They drafted him in the first round when other teams projected him as a second or third round pick, and more importantly, when he very nearly walked away from baseball in 2005 (in fact, he did walk away), the Royals handled him with extreme patience and got him needed treatment, continued paying him, and did not penalize his Major League service time; other teams have simply cut bait in these instances.  Had the Royals handled matters differently, there’s a good chance that Zack would have the best curveball of any grocery sacker in Florida. For that, the Royals were rewarded with Zack complaining about how much the team stunk last year, and how much he wanted to be traded.  In fact, last week, he fired his agents in the belief that they had kept him from being traded.

The Royals, of course, could have kept him under contract for 2 more years – but why?  For the record, I’ve looked at the players that the Royals got in return for Zack, and I’m fine with them.  I’m also fine with the fact that they packaged Yuniesky Betancourt into the transaction, along with his too-high salary and too-low production; this is addition by subtraction.

So, let’s talk about what this means for business.  I’ve always felt that, when managing a sales force, it was best to let my team know the rules early.  Two of those rules are:

1.  I evaluate you by PERFORMANCE, not by POTENTIAL.  Potential gives you a honeymoon, but not a marriage.  I have watched a number of companies hang onto salespeople for extended periods based on what they hoped the person could accomplish, instead of looking at what the salesperson was actuallyaccomplishing.  This gets expensive really fast; had the Royals paid Zack the $26 million owed him for the next two seasons, it’s unlikely that they would have received $26 million worth of pitching performance.

2.  If you say “quit,” you just did.  Nonsense like “I’m thinking of leaving,” “I might quit,” or other such BS is, to me, a resignation.  Too many business owners will work to try to rectify problems and turn the salesperson around when these phrases are uttered.  It’s a waste of time.  Once a person starts to think of leaving (and I can back this up from my own experience), enough energy is expended on that decision that the person can no longer perform at top capacity.  That’s why, for me, this is one of those things that there is no coming back from. I’m always open to fixing problems, but come to me as an adult and don’t threaten me.  On two occasions, salespeople have said in a fit of pique, “Well, I quit.”  Two very surprised salespeople had their resignations processed ASAP.  In the sales world, you’re either all the way in or all the way out.

Which circles us back to Zack.  The Royals did the right thing by trading him.  Interviews with other Royals have revealed that his teammates are not exactly crying in their beer over the quit.  You’ll find the same after a malcontent salesperson leaves your company.