I’ve said for years that the ancient sales art of ‘schmoozing the gatekeeper’ is dead.  D-E-A-D, as in doornail.  And yet, I had a conversation the other day that reminded me that it is not, and that sometimes, salespeople do have to know about gatekeepers.

Before I dive into that conversation, I want to remind you that, for the most part, today’s gatekeeper is technological, not personal.  The “gatekeeper” is the dial-by-name directory, it’s voice mail, it’s a million other ways that people have invented in order to keep from reaching over, picking up a telephone, and answering it.  With that in mind, every now and then, there is a gatekeeper, and what follows is one such tale.

She recounted the conversation thusly:

Salesperson:  Hello, may I speak to Jim?

Gatekeeper:  Is Jim expecting your call?

SP:  No, but it’s an important matter that Jim will want to talk about.

GK (she noted that it’s a small office, and Jim was standing right there, shaking his head): Jim’s not available at the moment, can I take a message?

Let me interject something here.  It rarely happens these days that the person who answers the phone (usually a receptionist but not in the case of my story) offers to personally take a message for you, instead of send it to voice mail.  When someone offers to take a message, you leave a message.  Human involvement in this process is always better than anonymous technology.  That said, the conversation went on:

SP:  I’d really rather leave a voice mail.  Could you put me through, please?

GK:  I’d be happy to personally take a message and get it to Jim.  Can you tell me what this is regarding?

Interjecting again.  At this point, the jig is up.  If the gatekeeper didn’t already know that this was a cold call from a salesperson (unlikely), she knows it now.  The only real solution is honesty.  The worst thing you can do is become rude or demanding – but yet, that’s what the salesperson did.

SP:  Look, I’d just like to leave a voice mail.  Can you please put me through?

GK:  I’ll take a message.

(CLICK) the call ends here.

Here’s the funny part.  The salesperson blew an opportunity.  The gatekeeper is a friend of mine and doesn’t hate salespeople at all; in fact, she always gets messages to the decision makers, and if they’re nice to her, she says so – and those people usually at least get a phone audience with their target contact, if not an appointment.  This guy will not.

So what happened?  I think several things made this call go badly.

First, the salesperson obviously wasn’t mentally equipped to deal with a live message taker.  Voice mail, hard as it is to believe, has conditioned some people to think that dealing with a live human is somehow wrong.

Second, he believed too much in the power of whatever he’d say on a voice mail.  Here’s a hint:  The best voice mail messages get a response about 10% of the time.  Best case scenario.  Your voice mail message isn’t magic.

Third, he never learned that anyone in the building can block him from a sale; hence, we treat everyone with the courtesy that we do the decision maker.

How could this call have gone differently?  Had he handled it differently, I think it would have gone something like this:

Salesperson:  Hi, could I speak to Jim, please?

Gatekeeper:  Is Jim expecting your call?  (This, by the way, is the moment where the jig is really up.  How you react to this question will determine your chances of getting to your prospect.)

SP:  I didn’t catch your name?

GK:  It’s Mary.

SP:  To be honest, Mary, no, he’s not expecting my call. My name is Troy, and I’m with (Company X).  You’ve probably guessed that I’m a salesman doing a cold call, and you’re right.  But, I really do have something that will help Jim (insert strong benefit/win statement here), and I think he’d at least like to know about it.  It’s helped other companies like yours. So, I’m calling to see if I can get just a little bit of his time.

Mary:  Well, if you leave a message with me, I’ll make sure that he gets it.

Troy:  No problem.  Could I give you one sentence to write down verbatim, and then I’ll give you my contact information?

Mary:  Sure, that would be fine.

Troy:  (Gives strong benefit statement, then contact info).

Mary:  I’ll be sure that he gets it.

Troy:  Thanks, Mary.  If I don’t hear back, can I call you again in a few days?

Mary:  That would be fine.

CALL ENDS.

You may be sitting there thinking this is a fantasy-world call, and maybe you’re right.  But, in this case, had the salesperson been polite and respectful, this is EXACTLY how that call would have gone!  Further, the gatekeeper would have suggested that Jim return the call.  Granted, this doesn’t happen all the time, but when there is a live gatekeeper, it’s not difficult.

1. Know when the jig is up; i.e. when you’ve been spotted as a salesperson. It’s almost always quicker than you think.
2. Get the gatekeeper’s name.
3. Treat the gatekeeper with respect and as a person who can make decision, because he/she can. Maybe not FOR you, but definitely AGAINST you. Make sure that the gatekeeper at least stays neutral.
4. Don’t be fake. They can spot phoniness a mile away and will block you.
5. Just sincerely articulate your pitch and why you will help. Then make sure you follow up.

It happens nearly every seminar that I do.  During the question and answer session, a salesperson – many times a very good one – describes a situation where the customer is putting them through the proverbial mill.  The situation they describe often differs, but the result is the same – the customer is leading the salesperson around by the nose.

It might be coincidental, but much of the time, these same customers are not necessarily BUYING a lot from the salesperson – but they have the POTENTIAL to buy a lot.  These tend to be what I call “neon light” accounts – accounts where every salesperson sees a neon light above the building saying “great potential here!”  Hence, salespeople line up at the door for an opportunity to beg for business, and are ready to do nearly anything to get that business.

You’re probably already seeing the problem.  Too often, these accounts know exactly the potential that they possess, and have no problem wielding said potential to play one salesperson against another, one company against another, etc., to get the most advantageous terms.  Sometimes the eventual terms mean that nobody is really making any money!  I don’t begrudge these customers for doing whatever they can do secure the absolute best buys for their companies.  That’s business.

But we salespeople don’t have to participate.

In this particular situation, the salesperson was explaining a very common scenario – she gets RFP’s, can’t contact the decision maker, fills out the RFP’s, doesn’t get business.  We’ve all been there.  And the only thing that will break this cycle – the only way YOU have a chance of getting anything good to happen – is to use a word that frightens salespeople more than any other.

NO.

That’s right.  Say, “no.”  Tell the customer that their process of doing business simply isn’t compatible with yours.  Let the customer know that you’d love the opportunity to do business with them, but you need to do X.  In this case, the need is to speak with the person who is making the actual decision, not the person who is gathering information.

At this, the salesperson began to protest – the fear factor was kicking in.  “Well, I’ve tried to tell them before, but they just keep doing what they’re doing.”

The problem was that the salesperson had in fact said no.  But, she hadn’t LIVED the no.  In other words, she had the conversation, and then the next time the RFP came in, she dutifully filled it out and responded.

It’s not enough to say “no,” you must LIVE the “no.”

I often wonder how much overall sales time is wasted by salespeople who simply respond to RFP requests without ever getting business – and how much more productive those salespeople would be if they devoted that time to finding other customers that were more interested in establishing relationships and working cooperatively.

Whenever you feel like the customer is putting you at an extreme disadvantage, you’re probably right.  At this point, ask yourself if the customer is really working cooperatively or just wasting your time to keep another salesperson honest.  If it’s the latter, don’t be afraid to say “no.”

And live it.

If you don’t protect your time and resources, no one will do it for you.

Today, I saw an interesting meme on Facebook.  Most Facebook memes are, of course, meaningless at worst and semi-humorous at best.  This one was pretty good, though.  It said, “You talk to yourself more than anyone else.  Make sure that what you say is meaningful.”

That started me thinking about our self-talk.  We all have a self-talk, whether we admit it or not or whether it’s out loud or not.  I’ve always found that my self-talk has a lot to do with my success, whether the self-talk is right before I speak or right before I sell.  I’m guessing that you feel the same way, so the question is – what IS your self-talk?

If your self-talk isn’t contributing to your success, maybe it’s time to rethink it.  Here’s my template; you don’t have to follow it exactly, of course, but if yours isn’t working for you, you might adopt parts of it that work.

Me:  The first aspect of the self-talk I give is about myself.  Don’t get me wrong; I don’t go down the Stuart Smalley route of “I’m good enough, I’m strong enough, and gosh darn it, people like me,” (although if that works for you, do it) but I do like to review some recent successes.  If I’m giving a speech, I recall a recent speech where I got a great response.  If I’m selling, I remember some recent wins that I put on the board.

The Other Party:  Now, I review what I know about the “other party;” if it’s a customer, I recall what I’ve learned about the customer, and if it’s a speech, I recall the audience.  To take it farther, in a sales call, I will bring a cheat sheet of details about the customer.  In a speech, I can’t do that, but I will review the key points of what I know about the audience, their needs, and their wants. To be completely frank, I’ve often wondered if I’m not doing this in the wrong order.  After all, the customer or the audience is far more important than me!  Should I be reviewing them first? Perhaps – but I’ve been doing it this way for 25 years and it works for me.

The Conversation:  The final review for me is the start of the conversation.  In my experience, this is the hardest part of a speech or a sales call.  For the remainder of the sales call (or speech) to be successful, I need to open meaningfully, and do so without yet getting a “feel” for the mood of the customer or audience.  In a sales call, I’ll review my introduction and the first 3-4 questions that I plan to ask.  In a speech, I’ll review my opener, which might be a question for the audience or a story that sets the table for the speech.  I find that once I’m past this point in a speech (or a sales call), that experience lets me be in the moment and lets the conversation flow.

My Tools:  I’ll do a quick check – I always call it my “paranoia check” – to make sure that whatever tools I plan to use are intact and working.  In a sales call, I typically take in a cheat sheet of details about the customer, a question list, and perhaps my speaker one-sheet.  I seldom use more than that.  In a speech, I’ll have done my ‘technology check’ well before the audience arrives, making sure that my Powerpoint works, that my slide advancer has battery power, that the microphone works, etc.

With those four points of my self-talk, I can walk into a speech, or sales call, with confidence.  And now, if you attend a speech, arrive early, and see me testing my Powerpoint, you’ll know why.  And if you happen to see me sitting in a parking lot in front of a building where a potential customer might be….and through the car window you see me talking to myself…..let me be.  I’m not crazy, I’m just doing my self-talk.

We can see it all around us, every day.  Good relationships gone bad – whether personal, professional, networking, even romantic.  And many times, the people involved don’t know why.  Right now, you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, Troy, those relationships are so different that it’s simply not possible for all of them to go bad for the same reasons!”

You’re partially right.  The truth is that there are a huge number of moving parts in any relationship, and those moving parts differ greatly between the types of relationships.  You want different things (hopefully) from a business relationship than a romantic one, for instance.  But the reasons that these relationships go bad boil down to three characteristics.

Those characteristics are Knowledge, Ability, and Desire.  In any type of a relationship, everyone has a certain level of effort or investment that they will put into a relationship, and that level is governed by Knowledge, Ability, and Desire.  This means:

The person has Knowledge of what the other person wants in the relationship;

The person has the Ability to provide those things;

And the person has the Desire to provide them.

Let’s look at a networking relationship.  We’ve probably all had potential referral partners that turned out to be successful, and others that turned out to be unsuccessful.  A ‘successful’ relationship is one that generates good referrals – an unsuccessful one is one that does not.  In this case, our three characteristics would look like this:

Your potential referral partner would have to have the Knowledge of what makes up a good referral for you.  It would be your responsibility to teach your referral partner what makes up a good referral – a type of contact, or a situation, that indicates a need for your services.  If they don’t know what makes a good referral, they are unlikely to give one.

The potential referral partner would have to have the Ability to provide those referrals.  That means they’d need to have access to the people you want to talk to.  For example, if you’re looking to speak to owners of small businesses below $10 million, and your potential referral partner has a contact base made up of office managers of larger companies, you’re unlikely to get good referrals simply because they don’t have the contact base.  You can’t expect referrals to people that your contact doesn’t know.

Finally, the potential referral partner would need to have the Desire to provide you with referrals.  This is the one area that’s really out of your control.  If you’ve spelled out what you want in terms of referrals, and the referrals are within the new partner’s ability to give, and they simply don’t give them, it’s an issue of desire.  They don’t have the necessary desire to help.

A successful relationship of any type requires all three of the characteristics.  Even in interpersonal relationships, we see relationships crash because of a lack of one of these.  In analyzing your business relationships, do both of you have all three?  If not, is there a way to instill all three?  If not, you might consider spending your time elsewhere.

Recently, customer conflicts have been in the news, thanks to United Airlines.  UA has exhibited some textbook examples of how NOT to handle a customer conflict (including not starting one), but UA, along with all airlines, has one thing going for them that most of us don’t.  Federal law.  It’s actually a federal crime to NOT obey the command of a flight attendant or any other member of a flight crew, so they can pretty much do what they want and the police will enforce their dictates.

The rest of us don’t have that backing us up (although I’m sure many of us wish we did), so we have to resolve customer conflict the old-fashioned way:  through people skills.  With that in mind, let’s look at some ways to handle an upset customer.

Since the customer conflicts on the airlines are a unique situation that, many times, is initiated by the airline itself, let’s put that scenario off to the side and look at the much more common scenario where an upset customer contacts us, either by phone or in person.

1. Let them vent. This is critical.  The first thing an upset customer wants is to be heard.  Our instinct in these moments is to try to calm the customer down, to interrupt the negativity, to change the direction of the conversation.  That’s the wrong thing.  When you interrupt the person while they are venting, you actually escalate the situation – which means that when you have to work to calm the person down, you actually have more work to do.
2. Analyze the problem. Once the customer has vented, it’s time to start doing a little digging.  Your customer has likely given you the EFFECT of the problem; i.e. the way that it hurts them.  Your job is to find the CAUSE of the problem.  Do so as best you can without verbally casting blame or doubt on the customer.  Even if the customer is at fault – and they might be – right now is the wrong time to put that blame there.
3. Fall on your sword. Now is the moment for a big ‘mea culpa.’  What your customer wants to know is that you’re sorry, that you empathize, and that you really do regret that the problem happened.  So do that right now.  Don’t get mealy-mouthed, either, and blame ‘this department’ or ‘that person.’  You are the company, so take the responsibility for the whole company.
4. Ask for their input. Once you have an idea of the problem and its cause, you probably have a way to solve it.  Your instinct will be to quickly solve the problem as best you can.  Don’t.  Instead, ask the customer what THEY would like to have happen to make things right.  The customer will likely be shocked and pleased to be involved in the solution.  You might be scared that the customer will ask for something unreasonable – and most of the time, you’ll be surprised that customers usually tend to ask for reasonable rectifications.  Sometimes they’ll ask for less than what you might have given.  This step also lets them partner in the process.
5. Give options if possible. If there’s more than one way to resolve the issue, ask the customer for their preference.  Again, this partners the customer in the process, and helps them to feel empowered.
6. Do what you tell them you’ll do. This should be obvious, but when you make a promise, you must keep it.
7. Follow Up. Once you’ve put the resolution into action, it’s time to follow up and make sure that the resolution has satisfied the customer’s issue.

If you execute these steps faithfully, many times, your relationship with the customer can come out stronger than it would have been without the problem happening.  And you probably won’t make national news!

As I write this, I’ve just returned from a trip in Spain that was one of the greatest of my life – professionally and otherwise.  For those who don’t know, I was engaged to do sales training at DocuWorld Europe, a program put on by DocuWare, a document management software provider.  I did the English speaking sales training portion.

In my room, I had about 40 people representing 15 different countries.  For most of these people, English was a second (or third) language, which presented some unique aspects – I won’t even call them “challenges.”  To make a long story short, the training was a fantastic experience for all of us. This was an all-day program, which allowed for more of a “shared experience” environment than a strict seminar environment.  And as part of the program, these wonderful Europeans (and one American) reminded me of something that I learned last year.

Sales is a universal language.

By that, what I mean is that we tend to think of business having great differences between cultures.  After this program, in which I had people from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the United States represented, I feel pretty comfortable in saying that the art and science itself of selling is probably about 95% universal worldwide – and the 5% difference is just in the details.

In fact, some of the really gratifying moments in the program were moments when I’d describe a technique (usually when answering a question), and one of the repeat attendees said, “You taught us that last year, and I tried it, and it really works!”

With that in mind, let’s talk about some of the challenges that are being faced worldwide by salespeople right now.  We’ll talk more about how to overcome those in coming weeks.

The effects of the Internet:  This, I think, is the primary challenge being faced by salespeople worldwide.  The Internet is the ultimate double-edged sword for salespeople.  Never before has something that is such a useful tool also been such a direct competitor.  The Internet is unquestionably useful for expanding our networks, prospecting in new and different ways, and in general disseminating our message.  It’s also a huge challenge because it allows customers to come to the table with far more knowledge than in the past.  It’s just that sometimes, that “knowledge” is really misinformation.  How can we as salespeople maximize the positives of the Net without falling victim to the problems?  This is something we’ll explore for much of the year.

The need to find the right prospects:  The most common question on both sides of the Atlantic is, “How can I reach the decision maker?”  There are several answers to this question.  First, you have to know who the decision maker is.  Many salespeople start out by selling to the wrong person, thinking that they’re selling to the right person.  Second, once you have the right person, you have to approach them with the right words.  Third, once you get their attention, you have to craft a sales call that will make the most of that person’s time.  None of this is easy, but all of it is worthwhile.

Building buyer urgency:  “How can we get our customers to pay attention to our proposals, and to put urgency behind them?”  That’s a huge question worldwide.  The truth is that we cannot “inject” urgency, no matter what a snake-oil trainer tells you.  We can, however, find genuine causes for urgency, and bring those causes to bear in our presentations and proposals.  Using GENUINE reasons for urgency will get you farther than all the phony-baloney techniques in the world.  And yes, I have a methodology for that, and we’ll talk about that later this year.

Fear of change:  I’m not talking about the customer’s fear of change here (although this, too, is a topic we’ll spend time on).  I’m talking about the fear that salespeople have of trying something new and different.  It’s amazing, really; even when the current techniques aren’t working anymore, salespeople will automatically respond, “I don’t think that (the new technique) will work for me.”  The truth is that no new technique will work – until and unless you try it.  And on this note, I should point out that one big difference between European salespeople and American salespeople is that – in my very small sample size – European salespeople are more likely to try to put something new to work as quickly as possible.  Don’t let fear of the new hold you back.

There are other points, and we’ll talk about them all this year.  For now, though, I’d just like to close this column with a sincere “thank you.”  Thank you to DocuWare for bringing me back to Europe for the second year in a row, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you to my European friends old and new who have welcomed me into their careers.

I am hoping to cross paths with as many of you, wherever you are in the world, this year.  This is already one of the most exciting years of my career, and it’s only going to get better from here.

I’m writing this from my room at a lovely resort in Portopetro, Spain, on the island of Mallorca.  On Wednesday, I’ll be delivering leading-edge sales training to the DocuWorld Europe conference, put on by DocuWare, for the second year in a row.  I’m excited about the training, but this article isn’t about DocuWorld.  It’s really not even about me.  It’s about one man who made a huge difference for myself and my wife.

We arrived Saturday in Barcelona, and immediately drove to Fraga.  Fraga is a little town of about 15,000 people, and the sole reason we went there was because it was the closest place to Sunday’s World Superbike Championship race with an unbooked hotel – the Hotel Casanova.  The Casanova is a great hotel, built in 1954 and still completely in the Mid-Century Modern design, with nice rooms.  One person at the Casanova changed our entire experience.

I should point out that Fraga is not a tourist area of Spain.  I was spoiled last year, because we stuck mainly to tourist areas, and hence there was someone who spoke English nearly everywhere.  Fraga is not such a place.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that the only English speaker in the city was the constantly smiling woman who checked us in to the hotel (she was the only hotel employee who did speak English).

This didn’t present a problem while walking around town, although we frequently got a look that anyone who has sold in small town America is familiar with – the look that says, “You’re not from around here, are you?”  Some things are the same the world over.

Our lack of Spanish – and their lack of English – presented a problem for us at dinner.  We sat in the bar/cafeteria, ordered iced teas (hint – in Spain, say “Nestea”), and chatted, but when we attempted to order food we just got a shaking head.  Suddenly an older, well dressed man appeared.  He also spoke no English but he mimed eating motions and we nodded vigorously.  He then led us back into a very nice, white-tablecloth restaurant that was basically hidden from view of the lobby.

To make a long story short, we got a meal of sautee’d pork sirloin and potatoes in an exquisite cream sauce, a starting course of cheese tortellini, crème brulee, a bottle of the house red wine, and of course our Nesteas, for a grand total of 33 Euro for both of us – about 40 bucks U.S.  More than that, we got great service by the same gentleman and an attitude from him that made us feel completely at home and still has us smiling two days later.

We never got his name, but we will remember him fondly.  As we will the Hotel Casanova.  We may never pass that way again – but if you are in the area, you could do much worse than staying and dining there.

Here’s the point.  Had it not been for him, we’d have felt very much like the outsiders that we were.  But one person made all the difference.  In today’s Internet age, it still takes people to create experiences, and that’s the lesson to come forth from this article.  What difference are you making for your customers?

If you’re still stuck in the mode of taking orders and showing features, that’s what the Internet does best.  You’re not going to survive.  If, however, you’re willing to find ways to be a difference maker, opportunities will present themselves every day.

Yesterday, I ran into an old high school buddy of mine.  He and I had faced each other across a wrestling mat twice in junior high, before I decided that wrestling wasn’t my thing (I won two matches – both against him), and so when we were assigned to be partners in Weightlifting class in high school, we were initially less than excited.  As it turned out, we became great friends and weightlifting partners all through high school, because we pushed each other hard.

When we began, in my sophomore year (Freshmen were in junior high in my district), I weighed 160 pounds and could bench press 120 pounds.  Weak.  But, Charles and I worked hard, pushed each other hard, and by graduation, I weighed 170 pounds – and could bench press 240 pounds.  In my weightlifting experience, there are several lessons that apply to selling.

First of all, when we started lifting, we focused on milestones.  I’ll be honest.  We focused on milestones that LOOKED good.  For instance, when we started lifting, we put the “small” weights (25 pounds and down) on the bar because that’s all we could lift.  The bar weighed 45 pounds by itself; the biggest weights were 45 pounds.  Hence, to LOOK really good, we worked our way up to lifting at least 135 pounds.  I remember how good it felt the first time I put those ‘big’ 45 pounders on the bar and got it all the way up off my chest.

As we continued forward, we focused on other milestones – for instance, adding the 10 pound weights to the 45s, then the 25 pounders, etc.  Again, every milestone was based on how it looked, but it WORKED for us.  Charles and I both built strength (not just on bench press – but this is the one that I remember well) based on those milestones.  The last semester of high school, we pushed each other hard to be able to lift 225 pounds.  Why?  Because that meant that we could put TWO 45 pounders on each side.  Yep, a visual milestone.  As I recall, it was in the last month of school that we each managed to hit that mark.

LESSON NUMBER ONE: To improve, you need milestones to get where you want to go.

Another lesson that I remember is how, over the summer, our strength would atrophy because we weren’t lifting every day.  That should seem obvious – but that first lift of junior year it was quite a revelation to put my previous spring’s maximum on the bar and find out that I couldn’t budge it.  And that was with doing pretty physical work over the summer.  In fact, between junior year and senior year, I made it a point to lift every week at a minimum.

LESSON NUMBER TWO: If you’re not going forward, you’re going backward.  I couldn’t simply maintain a level of strength – I was either building strength or losing it.

As it turned out, I did actually gain strength over that summer.  Not much, but a little.  Then, after high school, I stopped weightlifting.  The results were, well, predictable.  That 240 pound bench press is but a distant memory, and even though I’ve started lifting again, I’m still firmly stuck at junior year levels.  That’s a blow to the ego – but I do believe that, at some point, I’ll pop those four 45-pounders off my chest again.  It’ll just take awhile.  In fact, I think it’s going to take longer to get BACK there than it did to GET there.

LESSON NUMBER THREE:  It’s easier to STAY in shape than it is to GET in shape.

One challenge I see in my chosen profession is that too many salespeople get complacent.  They don’t continue to develop their skills, find new customers, and seek out new challenges that make them better.  They stop reading books, they don’t train or retrain, they don’t even conduct meaningful business reviews.

And, like my strength when I stopped lifting, their customer base shrinks – and they can’t understand why.

Today’s customer is more demanding than the customers of 10, 15, 20, or 30 years ago.  They are better informed, better educated, and more savvy in terms of how they deal with salespeople.  In dealing with them, you have several options:

1. You can take the low road and try to win on low price.  That’s never a permanent solution.
2. You can keep doing the same things you did in the past, and watch the customers move past you and on to other salespeople.
3. You can update and improve your skills to meet and exceed today’s customer’s expectations.

Today’s salesperson must be able to have a higher level of customer dialogue than salespeople of the past.  You must be able to get to the need behind the need.  You must be able to diagnose and prescribe the EXACT solution to the customer’s problem.  And then you must use advanced persuasion techniques to win the business.  The old stuff won’t get it done.

And, as my example above shows, if you’re not in constant development, you won’t be able to keep up with the marketplace.  So, of the three examples above, which salesperson are you going to be?

I’ve always said that it’s possible to learn from sales fails as it is from sales successes.  If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly doing postmortems on past sales calls, both winners and losers.  What salesperson hasn’t sat in his office, shaking his head, saying, “Good grief, why in the world did THAT come out of my mouth?”

As you can imagine, I’ve become a collector of sales stories.  People are always coming up to me and starting stories with, “Hey, you’re a sales guy, let me tell you about THIS salesperson that called on me!”  It’s fun and funny at the same time.  Today was no exception; in talking with a friend of mine in the marketing business, I heard a story that can teach us all a few things – especially with the surprise plot twist at the end.

My friend opened with, “Let me tell you about THIS sales call!”  Immediately, my ears perked up.  I knew I was about to hear something good.

“I was cold called,” she said, “by a guy who represented a company offering a service to marketers like me.  This was a couple of weeks ago, and it happened to be an absolutely horrible day.  I was slammed at work, some things had gone wrong, and my stress level was about a 12 on a scale of one to ten.  Still, what he had was of interest, and I told him that I wanted to know more.  Could he call back after 5 PM, or on Monday (this was on a Friday morning)?”

She continued, “The prospector responded that, if I was interested, he’d have Brian call me back.  Apparently Brian was the guy who really knew the program and he could handle my questions.  The caller was just a prospector.”

I’ll admit to having mixed feelings on this issue.  I’m usually not a big fan of ‘prospectors’ in selling; however, this one was at least effective enough to generate the lead.  The story continued.

“Brian called me back in about an hour.  He said that his prospector told him that I had reached out to them regarding their program, and wanted to know more.”

My note:  Why would the prospector not take credit for the lead generated by the cold call?  Especially when doing so forced Brian into a false statement?  This hurt their company’s credibility, which is one of the hardest things to establish.

She continued, “I explained to Brian that I hadn’t reached out; his caller had.  And then, I told Brian that I’d told his prospector that this was a very bad time, and that after 5 PM or Monday would be a better time.”

Brian apologized for the mix-up, and then asked, “So, what would be the best time to talk?”

My note:  She’s already told him that.  Why not instead agree to call back after 5 PM, or set a time on Monday?  Brian didn’t listen.  I don’t have to tell you what a mistake this is.

My friend responded, “Honestly?  Saturday morning would be the best.”

Brian:  “I don’t work on Saturdays.”

“OK,” my friend said.  She could have reminded him about Monday, but at that point, she was rapidly losing interest.  Can you blame her?

Brian offered, “How about I send you a written workup with costs and ROI numbers?  That way you’d have more information.”  Personally, I think that Brian’s offer to ‘send info’ was a big mistake.  ‘Send info,’ when it comes from a customer, is usually a stall or a put-off.  Why Brian would choose to offer to be put off is beyond me.  But, of course, he still hasn’t cottoned to her offer to talk on Monday.  My friend agreed to receive his information, and the call ended there.

In fact, so did the sales process. Brian never sent the info.  Offering to be put off by sending information is bad; not actually sending it is far worse.

PLOT TWIST:  The previous events happened nearly three weeks ago.  I wrote the above article yesterday afternoon.  Just as I was preparing to send it, my friend called me and said, “You’re not going to believe it.  Brian called just now.  He wanted to ‘follow up on my interest,’ he said.  My interest has GONE by now.”

This, to me, is a case where a good sale went to die.  After the first phone call, my friend was a motivated prospect – and those are like gold.  How did the sale get killed?  Let me count the ways.

1. The nature of the first call was misrepresented, thus damaging Brian’s credibility.
2. Brian was offered two choices of call back days, didn’t listen, and missed them entirely.
3. Brian refused to call on Saturday (I can’t ding him too badly for this – I try to keep weekends free – but the Saturday issue was the result of #2).
4. Brian then offered to be put off by offering to send info.
5. Brian then failed to send the info that he volunteered to send.
6. Finally, Brian called back with no recollection of anything that had gone before.

Now, look in the mirror and be honest.  Have you committed any of those errors?  This year?  Last year?  Note that none of the unforced errors above was huge – but they all add up to a customer that likely won’t buy at any price.  Sales is about the conversation; make sure yours are meaningful for you and for the customer.

One of the topics I’m frequently asked about revolves around the topic of name dropping.  This happened last week with a fairly new salesperson who happens to be a good friend.  She had, she said, received several “referrals,” and wanted to know if it was appropriate to use the person’s name who referred them.

The reason that this is a common question revolves around the issue of sales credibility.  Without exception, when someone is dropping someone else’s name into the conversation, they are attempting to establish their own credibility by borrowing some of the person whose name they are using.  This is a technique that can, depending on the situation, range from entirely appropriate to downright annoying.  Let’s dissect the issue and figure out which is which.

In the particular case of my friend, what I learned after some questioning was that these “referrals” really weren’t referrals at all.  They were cold leads.

A referral occurs when someone not only points you to a new potential client; they get in the middle of the conversation, make an introduction, and assist in making the connection.

A lead is when someone suggests that you make a sales call on a potential customer but doesn’t get involved in the conversation or help make the introduction.  My friend had leads; the other person had simply suggested that ‘she ought to call on’ a certain group of businesses without being able to facilitate the meeting happen.  Her not knowing the difference wasn’t her fault – her company termed these ‘referrals,’ as would many networking groups.

In this case, once we’d clarified what she was working with, I gave her these simple guidelines.  In the case of a lead, the name shouldn’t be dropped, since it’s entirely possible that the person giving the lead doesn’t even know a key contact at the target company.  Since name dropping is all about borrowing credibility, you might be borrowing from an empty bank.

In the case of a true referral, however, the name should be used; i.e., “John Smith suggested that I call you, as he thinks that what I do could help you.”  In this case, the borrowed credibility is real, and the name (along with whatever the other person might have done) should assist you in getting an appointment.

The same rule goes for testimonials, as well.  A testimonial should always be used in conjunction with the name of the person who gave it.  Again, borrowed (and real) credibility is at play here.

Now, let’s talk about a different situation.  This is one I see all the time in the speaking community – let’s call it, “The Name Drop Apropos of Nothing.”  If there’s anything speakers like to do when they congregate, it’s drop the names of other speakers they may have seen, might know, or whose articles they might have read.

“Have you seen Jack Smith speak?”

“Have you read Ellen Suchandsuch’s book?”

Or, they’ll pepper their speeches with references to others’ work and material.  “As Guy Kawasaki says,” etc.  I also see this happening in too many sales presentations.

Here’s the rub with this kind of name dropping.  It can work against you and be annoying to your audience (or customer).  There are a few reasons for this.

First of all, if your audience or customer hasn’t read the books or heard the speakers, then they can feel that you’re trying to diminish them or put yourself above them – or that there’s a ‘club’ and you’re not a member.

Second, remember that name dropping is borrowing credibility.  It’s one thing to borrow the credibility of someone you know.  It’s entirely another to borrow the credibility of someone you don’t know.

Finally, if you use this technique too much, it greatly diminishes your own credibility.  At some point, you cease to be an expert and become someone who read an expert’s book.  There’s no way that this can work in your favor.

Here’s my advice.  If you like to use expert quotes or examples in your sales presentations, keep them to a minimum.  You’re much better off using one great quote or study than five mediocre ones.

Remember this:  Others’ credibility might get you in the door, and it might help move a presentation along – but at the end of the day, if YOU don’t have credibility of your own, you won’t get the sale.  My advice is to build as much of your own credibility as possible.