Good advice for baseball hitters turns out to be good advice for salespeople, too.

Well, it’s another summer.  That means another baseball season.  And of course, that means more agony for those of us who are long-suffering Royals fans.  These days, I can’t even type “Royals fan” without automatically putting “long-suffering” in front of it.  Not to go into detail, but the team went up….then down again…and now back up.  The team’s recent upsurge has coincided with the appointment of Hall of Fame Royal George Brett as hitting coach.  One thing he said early on, when interviewed about the team’s anemic offense, struck me.

“We’ve got to start having quality at-bats,” he said.  “That means going to the plate with an idea and focusing on the fundamentals and the result you want.”  Well, the team is still struggling with that, but I agree with him.  In fact, I think one of the biggest things that holds salespeople back is the lack of a quality at-bat.  I’d suggest that most salespeople have one of those maybe once in every 5-10 sales calls.  Let me explain what I mean.

A “quality at-bat” in the sales world – using George’s definition and mine – begins with “having an idea and focusing on the fundamentals.”  In selling, here are the attributes of a quality at-bat:

Having a planned result in mind for you:  What do you want to achieve with this call?  Hint:  A “PR” call where we’re going to sit down and talk about sports isn’t a planned result.  Ask yourself this: How do I plan to deepen the relationship or advance a sales process when I’m in front of this customer?  If you can’t come up with an answer, you’d better get one before you open the door.

Have a planned result in mind for the customer:  In today’s selling world, it’s not enough to have results in mind for ourselves; we have to have a way for the customer to gain through the call.  You can do this by imparting knowledge, by asking good questions, by bringing something to the table that the customer wasn’t aware of, but that can generate a positive result for the customer.

Be prepared enough to be able to change the above plans as necessary:  One of the biggest attributes for a hitter is the ability to make adjustments on the fly to get the result you want.  Maybe you prepared for a fastball pitcher, and he’s primarily throwing you curves and change-ups.  If you’re still focused on the fastball, you’re going to fail.  It’s the same in selling.  We can create the best plans in the world, but if you don’t have the mental acuity to shift and change on the fly as the sales call and the customer requires, you’re going to fail – and you’ll lose business (and your future at-bats) to someone who can.

Have a quality conversation:  The one thing that is irreplaceable by the Internet is the sales conversation – the ability for the customer to have, in real time, a two-way discussion about his/her needs with someone who is expert in their business and in their products and services, and who can use that knowledge to benefit the customer.  Don’t ever short-change this.  This also means that we have to cast aside old techniques that are designed to maneuver the customer into ‘ordering NOW’ and instead focus what the customer is actually saying, react to that, and generate a positive result for both parties.

Be mentally charged:  This one is going to be controversial.  Numerous experts will tell you that you should NEVER, and I mean NEVER, eat lunch alone on a working day.  I do, quite frequently.  I always have.  It’s not because I don’t enjoy eating lunch with clients; I do. But, one thing I’ve discovered about myself is that I need a “mental recharge” period at some point during the day, and lunch is very convenient for that.  By a “mental recharge,” I mean a time during the day where I can relax, disconnect a bit from selling (or whatever I’m doing), and re-focus myself.  My sales calls and meetings are better afterwards.  It doesn’t have to be lunch, and it doesn’t have to be long.  Several years ago, I managed an inside sales department.  I discovered, early on, that my top salesperson used to come into my office and complain about something (usually a bad customer call) for about 15-20 minutes every day.  I was concerned about her “negativity” until I realized that she would come in, vent, and then go out and kick tail for the rest of the day.  She was awesome until the vent, and awesome after.  And if that was my investment in helping her succeed, that was a good investment.  That was her “recharge.”  Find yours, and take one ‘recharge’ break a day.

Every time you go up “to bat” and you don’t have a quality at-bat, you’ve wasted your time and the customer’s.  If you focus on generating quality (and it’s not that much harder), your results will thank you.

There’s an important phrase you should know and live.  It’s only three words.

Sometimes, all it takes is three little words.  I’m serious.  Sometimes, three little words – the saying, the adoption, the believing – can make all the difference in the world.  I’m not talking about the classic “I love you,” or any variations thereof; nor am I speaking of anything that begins with “go” and ends with “yourself.”  Although I must admit that all those phrases have their time and place.

No, I’m talking about business, and the three words I’m referring to are:  sense of urgency.  When I look over the various winners and losers I’ve seen in the business world, those three words tend to define the difference between winning and losing.  In a nutshell, winners have the sense of urgency; losers do not.  When you’re analyzing your own performance or that of your salespeople, ask yourself, “do they display a sense of urgency about their jobs – or not?”

One might think that tighter economic times, such as the ones we’re in at the moment, would provoke greater sense of urgency on the part of those whose responsibility it is to make things happen.  Often, however, the result is the opposite, because urgency’s enemy – fear – sets in.  Salespeople who would otherwise be highly motivated to make calls get nervous and apprehensive about “the economy,” and thus calls go unmade (“I’d rather call them when the news is better.”  Of course, since “the economy” is simply the cumulative effect of individual decisions to do or not to do business, every such postponement actually makes the economy a little worse.

Let’s take a look at some of the roles within (your?) company, and look at how a lack of urgency can negatively impact sales success.

The salesperson:  This is fairly easy.  In fact, we just discussed such an example above.  However, I see a lack of urgency in many different parts of the sales process.  As an example – recently, an out-of-town company prospected me to purchase a fairly innovative marketing program.  Coincidentally, a local KC company contacted me the very next day, offering a similar service.  I know and like the owner of the local company, and I am a buy-local guy when it makes sense.  So, I met with them and discussed some possibilities.  I then waited for a proposal.  And waited.  And waited.  Meanwhile, the out of town company is calling me to follow up.  When I finally received a proposal from the local company (after not one but two calls asking if they wanted my business or not), it was less targeted to my needs than the one I’d received well before from the out of town company.  Reasoning that if the local outfit didn’t have a sense of urgency about winning the business, they were unlikely to have one when it came to servicing the business, I went with the out of town company.  I’m pleased with my decision – but if the local company had followed up aggressively, they’d have won the deal.

The sales manager:  Sales managers can lose sense of urgency in many ways; the decision to make changes in personnel, for instance, becomes a lack of urgency.  The most common way for urgency to get lost at the sales management level is when changes are desired by ownership, and the sales manager is lackadaisical about pushing that message to his reps, and making sure that the right things happen.  The biggest way the sales manager can reflect a lack of urgency, however, is simply by not making certain that his reps are maximizing their 40 hours per week.
While there are other ways “sense of urgency” can hamper companies at every management level, hopefully, you’re getting the idea.  Sense of urgency means maximizing every lead, every call, every proposal, and every hour.  If you’re doing it, great!  If not, remember those three little words.

Fear can either motivate action or inaction.  Make it motivate your actions.

Two weeks ago, I attended a “Coaching Camp” for speakers run by Darren LaCroix and Patricia Fripp.  If this sounds familiar, it’s because this was my second time attending one of their camps and being coached by these two.  If you happen to be a speaker (aspiring or professional), I give these two the highest of recommendations. It was inspiring for me, in more ways than one.

At these camps, not everyone is coached (I was).  Most are there as “observers,” to soak up the information, learn, observe, and serve as the audience when the coachees are speaking.  And, some observers are more vocal about their feedback than others.  One such person caught my attention because he was very vocal and opinionated about giving feedback, advice, and staking out his position on what a coachee’s speech ought to communicate.  Some of his feedback I agreed with, some I didn’t (and in the interest of full disclosure, he had quite a bit of feedback for me that I disagreed with); that’s normal.  What wasn’t normal was my experience with him after the camp was over.

As it turned out, he’s from Kansas City, too, and he and I were on the same flight home.  As we were waiting for the plane, I asked him about his background as a speaker.  He indicated that he didn’t really have one – he’d been attending these camps and other functions for a couple of years, “honing his message,” and learning.  That’s OK, of course, but my mind immediately went to a rather vocal disagreement that he and I had had the day before during my coaching time.  “Wait a minute,” I said.  “You’ve never spoken anywhere, and yet you knew more about what I should do than I do?”

He explained that he was still working up to the chance to speak somewhere.  I attempted to be helpful. “Look,” I said, “There are 32 different Rotary clubs in Kansas City.  Each one of them needs to fill a podium 52 weeks a year.  That means that just in the Rotary, there are 1700 speaking slots that need to be filled, and they’re always looking for speakers.  If you’re serious about speaking, you should start contacting these people and getting up on stage.  That’s the only way you’ll really get a feel for your abilities and what you have to improve.”

He responded that he didn’t feel that the time was ‘right’ yet.  The truth is that I hear this all the time – from speakers and from salespeople.  Salespeople are constantly waiting for the time to be ‘right,’ when in fact, the ‘right’ time may be passing them by.  How do I know?  Because it happened to me.

Back in 1997, I targeted an account that was a big user of industrial plastics – which I happened to sell.  And I prepared.  Boy, did I prepare!  I researched.  I honed my message.  I practiced.  I even role-played my sales calls.  And then – finally, after a period of about five weeks of doing this – I called the plant manager.  The plant manager informed me, “You’re too late.  I just signed a contract two weeks ago with a different company.”  I was crushed.

It was, of course, my fault.  Had I made my first call on the prospect weeks before, I might have had the opportunity to be part of their buying process. I might not have made the sale – but I’d have gotten dealt in at the table.  By waiting, I missed the opportunity.  That particular opportunity never came back to me, either; they had signed a three-year contract, and by the time it was up, I had moved on to a sales management position elsewhere.

I missed because I was motivated by fear – the fear of failure.  Since then, I’ve been motivated by the fear of missing out.  I prefer the fear of missing out much better; it causes me to ACT instead of prepare.  I see salespeople all the time who look for the perfect phone script, the perfect questions, the perfect words – and they usually don’t exist.  Instead, they miss out on potentially great opportunities because they don’t get into the arena.

Whether you are a speaker or a salesperson, my advice to you is simple.  Whenever you think of delaying an action, ask yourself this question: “If not me, who?  And if not now, when?”

When people wave their red flag in front of you, do you really see it?

I’m not the biggest person in the world for short, pithy statements, but one of my favorites (which, as far as I know, is only attributable to me) is this:  People will show you how they will fail.  Whether we’re talking about jobs, business relationships, or personal relationships, it’s a truism.  There’s a corollary statement to that one, too:  You will fail if you ignore these signals.

I was reminded of this as I discussed a customer relationship issue with a client of mine today.  My client has a key account that was in the process of taking their business elsewhere.  This happens to be a company that I am fairly familiar with; their culture is anti-sales and anti-relationships.  When my client and I worked back through the initial sales process, I discovered that they had told my client’s salesperson that he would forever be dealing only with the purchasing manager; that their key managers simply didn’t have the time to deal with salespeople.

“So,” I said to my client, “they told you up front how the relationship would go bad.  Or, more properly, they told you that you would never have a relationship.”  My client stared at me for a second, and then said, “Yes, I guess you’re right – but we’d always done everything they asked!”  I responded that I’m sure they did, but that there was no value to this with the company.  In short, the customer had told my client of the eventual failure of the business relationship – but my client was so excited simply to have the business that he didn’t make any plans for the eventual collapse.

In short, my client ignored the red flag waving in front of him.  That’s the source of most bad hires, most bad deals, and most bad relationships.  We already have the senses to spot the red flags – it’s just that, as natural optimists, we don’t find them.  So, to help you out, here are some of the most common situations and red flags that will happen to us in selling:

Lack of Respect:  This happens all the time, and salespeople are the world’s best at ignoring it.  Does your contact regularly leave you cooling your heels in the waiting room?  That is a lack of respect for your time.  When I was selling, I would wait – occasionally – for a maximum of 15 minutes past the appointment time.  “But, Troy, if I don’t wait, my competitors will, and I’ll lose the business!”  Nonsense.  I found that if I simply left after fifteen minutes, telling the receptionist to have my contact call me to reschedule a meeting for a time when it was more convenient, that I seldom had to wait again.  And I NEVER lost a customer because of it.  Salespeople constantly want respect from their customers – but if you don’t respect the value of your own time, how do you expect the customer to respect you?

Restricted Contacts:  This is one of the biggest ones, and it happened to my client.  My client knew – and the customer’s contacts knew – that the Purchasing Manager was not the ultimate decision maker, nor the economic buyer, of their services.  By not allowing the salesperson to meet the end-users or the key influencers, the customer was letting my client know that they were contributing no value, and that establishing meaningful relationships was not part of their company culture (and I’m familiar with the company – relationships with vendors are not in fact part of the culture).  That doesn’t mean that my client shouldn’t have accepted the business, but it does mean that they should never have counted on the business.

Slow Pay:  Sometimes customers will pay in a slow fashion because the money is tight. More often, however, slow pay is due to the same lack of respect that I referred to earlier.  Customers that habitually pay slowly may be telling you that there is a problem with the relationship; are you listening?

In the Hiring Process:  This deserves its own article, really; I’ll just hit a few of the high spots here.  I’m constantly amazed by managers who interview and hire salespeople who show up late for interviews, who can’t compose a decent sentence, who have major mistakes on their resume’, or who show them in other ways why they shouldn’t be hired.  We do these things because we end up liking the person and making an emotional investment in them; hire in haste and repent in leisure.

I advise you to watch and listen for the red flags when you hear them – when someone shows you how they will fail, take heed – and they will ALWAYS show you.

Sometimes, the most important questions that you ask aren’t the ones you ask your customer.

  Sometimes, the most important question can be one that you ask yourself.  I saw an example of this recently; I was discussing a particular sales call with a salesperson who worked for a client.  After describing the call, he said, very frustrated, “Troy, I just don’t understand WHY they didn’t buy!”

“Don’t you?”  I asked.  He started to respond, and I said, “Hold on.  Think about that question before you answer, and give it some real thought.  Why didn’t they buy?”  He took a minute or two, and then – grudgingly – admitted that the customer might have had some legitimate reasons for not buying (at least in the customer’s mind).  “But,” he said, “If he’d raised those objections, I could have dealt with them.”  Ultimately, the salesperson failed not because of the questions he asked the customer, but because of a question he didn’t ask HIMSELF.

That question is, “Why WOULDN’T they buy from me?”  I know, I know.  This runs contrary to so much sales teaching, where we are supposed to focus on the reasons why the customer would buy.  However, sometimes, understanding and anticipating why the customer wouldn’t buy is the best way to give the customer reasons TO buy.  As I’ve noted before, the buying decision (particularly in the B2B world) is typically based on logic first, with emotion second.  You’re a logical, thinking human being, just like your customer.  Why not mentally take a moment or two during the sale, process the information given as your customer would, and ask yourself what you would do given the same set of parameters?

True consultative selling (which most salespeople claim to be, yet few really are) requires you to mentally place yourself on the same side of the desk as the customer, process the given information against the needs, and – as a CONSULTANT – help the customer better his/her condition through a purchase.  Again, that’s not a suggestion – it’s a requirement.  And when you do that, what do you find? Do you recognize that it’s truly a good spend, or do you discover that the situation is more like one of these?

The customer doesn’t know enough to buy (or you don’t know enough to sell):  During the Investigation phase of the selling process (if you need clarification on that, it’s fully explained in my book), the customer is seeking a full discovery of needs, and then a complete matching of product or service to fit these needs.  Notice that I said “full discovery” and “complete matching;” this requires a comprehensive questioning and then a full presentation.  Doing this can be scary for the salesperson.  Salespeople will settle for incomplete discovery and partial presentation if they can suggest the solution to a need through it.  Rest assured that the complete set of needs is still within the customer’s head – and if you haven’t fully probed it, they’ll buy from a salesperson who will.

You don’t solve their problem or improve their condition:  Customers buy because they believe the money is better spent than saved; products that solve problems or improve condition justify the spend.  This is where the salesperson enters a ‘pushing the rope uphill’ scenario.  Once again, if you were the customer, what would you do?  Would you spend on a product or service that didn’t create an improvement?  I’m guessing that you would not.  So why would your customer?

You don’t represent good value for the money:  Even if you solve the problem or improve the condition, and even if you have fully discovered needs and presented, this one can get you.  Salespeople always interpret this objection as a simple “price” objection, which is only true a minority of the time.  Ultimately, if you’re asking the customer to spend more money or new money, the additional spend must be justified.  Is it?  Again, place yourself on the same side of the table, divorce your emotions, and ask yourself if what the customer gets for the money is truly justified?

Relationship issues: This is where emotion enters into it.  If you’re trying to break an existing relationship, you have a bar to leap over, and your customer sets the height of that bar.  If you haven’t probed the relationship with their current supplier (which many salespeople don’t, out of fear), you won’t be able to understand where that bar is set – never mind knowing how to jump over it.

Ultimately, successful selling is an information exchange – both sides give information, both sides receive information, and both sides process the information.  Only by understanding how your customer processes the information can you understand how and why your customer will buy. So, my advice is this:  Late in the sales call, ask yourself this question:  “Why WOULDN’T they buy from me?”  And be honest.  Your own answer might surprise you – and help you snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

You can win the first sale, and yet destroy the relationship attempting a second.

Sometimes, the best sales war stories come from non-salespeople.  I heard one yesterday that was a doozy.  I was visiting one of my best friends at an apartment complex that she owns (she’s been in that business for fifteen years).  My friend is smart, educated, and most of all, business savvy.  She’s also loyal to a fault, unless you give her a reason not to be.  She told me about a salesperson who gave her reason not to be.

Several months ago, she had new windows installed in her house.  She liked the salesman and respected him, and the company did a good job.  Now, her apartment complex needs some windows.  Sounds like a great opportunity (there are many more windows in the apartment complex) and nearly a slam-dunk for the salesman, right?  Yes, it should have been.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t, and the reason was the way the salesman handled the call.

The salesman discovered what windows she needed, presented some options, and then started in on the high-pressure “buy today or the price will go up” tactic.  This is, of course, one of the oldest tactics in the world.  It’s cheap, heavy-handed, and customers spot you coming a mile away.  More importantly, it’s almost always a lie.  My good friend and I have one big characteristic in common.  Once you lie, we brand you a liar, and remove all credibility from what you have said.  She ordered the salesman out, and he will never return as long as she owns that complex.

So, where did the salesman go wrong?  He messed up in several areas.  Let’s look at them:

Not assessing the customer’s needs: The salesman’s assumption was that my friend wanted to do a mass window replacement, doing all or nearly all of the windows in one shot.  That wasn’t the truth.  My friend wanted to ‘stage’ the replacement, doing a few windows at a time to manage her cash flow.  That’s not uncommon in this business.  Why didn’t the salesman know this?  Because he never asked.  Questions unasked are answers unheard, and sometimes the key to the sale can lie in those answers.

Not understanding the time frame:  The salesman assumed that there was a high sense of urgency to the purchase.  There wasn’t.  My friend was willing to start the project in a short time frame, but needed to run some numbers first.  The salesman, however, assumed that the customer’s sense of urgency in buying matched his sense of urgency in selling.  It did not (and really, it seldom does).  The salesman wanted the sale right now, and attempted to make that happen.

Not understanding the relationship:  He treated my friend like any first-time customer.  In doing so, he did both himself and my friend a major disservice.  He did my friend a disservice because he didn’t accord her the respect earned by a repeat client.  He did himself a disservice because he had progressed beyond the “Occasional Buyer” relationship level and on toward the “Habitual Buyer” or maybe even “Loyal Customer” level.  By not recognizing that, he torched his relationship.

Using outdated sales tactics:  The old “buy today so the price doesn’t go up” is called “the old” because it is exactly that – old.  It’s been around since salespeople have been around, and what’s more is that customers have been educated to it.  It’s almost always a lie. I’ll never forget the first (and last) time I was called on the lie.  The customer’s name was George.  He was looking at a brand new 1990 Thunderbird, and it was a Saturday morning.  I had been selling for about four months.  George really liked the T-Bird.  As my close, I confidently said, “And, George, if you buy now, I can get you this price, but that won’t be good after today.”

George looked me in the eye and said, “So, if I come in here Monday with a check written for that amount, you won’t sell it to me?”  I was dumbfounded.  George was right and I’d just lied.  Of course we’d sell it to him.  What could I do?  I just sat there silent for a minute, processing this….and then I laughed.  “You’re right, George.  You caught me.  And let me tell you this – no customer will ever catch me that way again, because I’m never going to use that again.”  George smiled.  I could tell he believed me.  I asked him what he had planned for the weekend.  “I’m going to go to the lake,” he said.

“Sounds like a good time.  Tell me, would you rather do it in this new Thunderbird or in your old car?”

George smiled and said, “That’s why I’m here.”

Thirty minutes later, he drove out in his new Thunderbird.  Now you’re wondering if I’ve ever used the ‘buy before the price goes up’ tactic again.  The answer is yes.  About a half-dozen times in the 23 years since.  And every time, it’s been the truth.  Most of the time, manufacturers were about to change pricing and it was out of my control.  In those cases, I felt that it was only right to give customers the advance knowledge.  Twice, I’ve let prospective clients know that my speaking fees were about to go up, and that the proposal in front of them would no longer be valid in a few days.  One booked at the lower price.  One attempted to catch me in a lie…and they ended up booking at the higher price.

So, what are your take-aways from this?  First of all, forget the old, hackneyed tactics.  Those hurt you with every customer.  Second, make sure to assess the situation (yours and the customer’s) before you define your sales approach.  Your customers will thank you for it.  The salesperson had won the first sale to my friend (her house) but managed to destroy his relationship attempting the second sale.

What you carry with you from your past experiences can greatly affect the success of your future experiences.

I have a female friend who is moving back out into the single scene again.  She’s filled with trepidation over the issues that come with dating in your early 40s, and she asked me for some advice.  Basically, I told her that if she wanted something, she should simply ask for it – even if that pushed her outside her comfort zone (and as it turns out, asking men out is WAY outside her comfort zone).  I then used a quote from one of my mentors, Patricia Fripp:  “Life is a series of sales situations.  If you don’t ask, the answer is always ‘no.’”

She then asked me a very interesting question.  She said, “Come on, Troy, you know how rough it can be to ask someone else out.  Tell me about one that really crushed you.”  And then a funny thing happened.  I honestly, truthfully couldn’t remember one of those moments.  It’s not that it didn’t happen – believe me, I got shot down a lot – but none of it stuck with me.  I realized that, therein, lies one of the big secrets to selling success.  Oh, and then I broke my kneecap on Saturday, which reinforced my thoughts.

After realizing that I couldn’t remember a ‘no’ from my dating days, I probed my memory banks further, and started thinking about the many “no’s” that I’ve heard in the world of selling.  Here, there were some that I could remember.  Interestingly enough, however, every “no” that I could remember from selling had a lesson attached to it; i.e. I lost the sale because of a mistake that I made, not because of general ‘rejection.’  Lost sales have only been impactful enough for me to remember if it was my mistake that caused me the sale.  Hmmm….now there’s food for thought.

I knew I was onto something that would be valuable to you, and then I took a road trip.  I left with my wife and a couple of friends on a motorcycle road trip around Iowa last Thursday.  On Saturday morning, it happened.  The leader of our little group, approaching an intersection that we had planned to simply pass, suddenly slowed and put on his turn signal.  I was following him in a staggered position (on the other side of the lane from him).  Those of you who know me know that I’ve only been riding for about a year.  My instinct told me to continue straight through the intersection, stop safely, and then turn back and see what the situation was.

Then I decided that I could make the turn.  Wrong decision.  I slowed quickly, hit a small patch of gravel, and went down at about 25MPH.  My knee hit a rock or something, fracturing my kneecap.  That was the only injury I suffered; I was wearing quality protective gear such as a jacket and Kevlar lined jeans, as well as an expensive, high quality helmet.  To make a long story short, I spent the next two nights at the hospital in Carroll, Ia, getting my knee surgically repaired.  I’m back home now, and my mobility for the next few weeks will be reduced.  Fortunately I can still work.

I’ve been asked if I’m going to ride again (yes), if I’m going to be miserable for the next few weeks (no), and if I’m angry at the other rider (no).  Don’t get me wrong; I’m not delighted to be hobbling around on crutches, but the result could have been much worse.  Besides, all of the answers above come from a philosophy that has helped me succeed.

I choose to leave past negative experiences in the past, where they belong.  That’s why I can’t remember women who I asked out on a date and who turned me down.  I have made a conscious choice that those events will be left where and when they happened.

I retain those experiences that taught me lessons.  I can remember failed sales efforts in the past – IF the failure resulted from a mistake that I made, and that I learned from.  I can still, for instance, recall a sale that I lost in my first year of business because I tried for the second sale before I won the first.  That one still sticks in my craw a bit because I know better now, and I knew better then.  However, lost sales that simply resulted from a bad fit?  I honestly can’t remember them.

I choose not to dwell on current pain or negativity.  As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in my recliner with my laptop on my lap (funny how that works).  My right knee hurts.  It’s not agonizing; it is, however, achy and annoying.  The doctors gave me medication to manage the pain, and it’s doing so about as well as can be expected.  Yet, this morning, I’ve completed two telephone consultations with clients and locked in two speaking engagements for the first quarter of next year.  That’s because I have made the conscious choice to focus on things other than my knee.

These attributes, in my opinion, are core attributes of a successful sales attitude.  The successful salesperson keeps successes current, and leaves failures in the past.  When obstacles occur, the successful salesperson finds ways to adapt and improvise to work around them.  Here’s your take-away from this article; think of it as “four ways to make the most of every sales opportunity:”

1. When you fail on a sales call, examine it quickly for lessons to be learned – and then leave it behind you.  Nothing kills the next sales call quite like the last unsuccessful one.
2. Keep reminders of success close by; consciously remove reminders of failure.  I once visited a company where salespeople pinned contracts that fell through to their walls.  Not surprisingly, they weren’t getting many wins – because of the constant reminder of failure.
3. Don’t live in your pain.  My knee hurts right now and it’s hard to get up and move around – but I am focusing on the work that I can do at the moment, coupled with what I will be doing when I am able.
4. Allow customers to re-sell you.  When you’re in a slump, one of the great things to do is ask current customers for testimonials; they can re-sell you on why you do what you do in the first place.

During my conversation with my female friend, she said that she had asked two guys out in her life – one in high school and one in college – and they had both been bad experiences, and because of that, she was afraid to do it again.  My first response was, “Wow – that is a long time to carry that around!”  What I realized, though, is this – in life, what we carry with us from our past determines our future.  When you carry bad sales calls into your next sales call, you poison that well.  Instead, carry your wins with you – and you’ll find that they repeat themselves.

Your most important selling muscle can atrophy and waste away if you don’t use it!

If you read last week’s column, you know that I’m currently laid up with a fractured kneecap.  I’m still getting a lot of work done, but one of my key concerns is muscle atrophy.  Anytime you’re off your feet, it’s easy to let your muscles stiffen and/or lose their strength.  I’ve been doing a lot of research into exercise and working out, and I’ve been working out pretty much everything on my body that isn’t connected to my right knee so that my body doesn’t atrophy and my rehab becomes tougher.

When I was working out yesterday, I started thinking about how selling is a lot like working out (or simply living).  We have certain skills that we use – think of them as “muscles” – and when we don’t use them, they can atrophy.  The sales muscle that, I think, is most susceptible to atrophy is the Prospecting muscle.  Let’s talk about how it can atrophy and how we can keep it active.

Prospecting presents a dilemma for salespeople.  On one hand, salespeople typically view prospecting with a mix of feelings involving fear, dislike, and sometimes out right loathing.  Few salespeople will say that they like to prospect, and fewer still really do. Yet, prospecting may be the most valuable skill you possess, in terms of your value to your employer and in terms of your compensation.

What I mean by “value” is this:  In most cases, the most highly compensated salespeople are those salespeople who can consistently and reliably grow their businesses through the acquisition of new, profitable customers.  Hence, if you want to rise to the top of the selling profession, Prospecting is a “muscle” that you must possess – and exercise often.

It’s also the most easily atrophied muscle.  Remember; most salespeople dislike prospecting.  If there’s a way to avoid or postpone prospecting, salespeople will take it (much like many people will postpone exercise that they dislike).  It’s a human tendency.  And, in my experience, prospecting postponed is prospecting not done, and the longer that you avoid doing something, the less skilled that you become at it.  That’s what I mean by “atrophying the muscle.”

Any fitness trainer will tell you that it’s much easier to stay in shape than to get in shape.  That’s true with prospecting as well.  In my career, the toughest assignments I’ve had have been to take a salesperson who has fallen out of the habit of prospecting and get them back into that habit.  It’s much easier to stay in “shape” to prospect than to “get in shape” to prospect.

The good news is that it’s not that tough to stay in shape.  It’s a matter of discipline.  Much like working out must be a part of your physical routine to succeed, prospecting must be a part of your selling routine to be successful.  Here are five ways to stay in “shape” for prospecting:

1. Make it a routine.  Successful prospectors establish a week-to-week routine of prospecting.  In other words, instead of saying, “I’m going to set my appointments for the week, then I’ll find time to prospect in between,” they establish a routine that says, “My prospecting times are Monday morning from 10 AM to Noon (incidentally, that’s a great time to prospect), Wednesday morning, etc.”  Then prospecting isn’t a decision process; it’s just something you do.
2. Establish targets.  To succeed, it’s important to have objectives other than time.  How many new appointments do you need per week?  How many calls does it take to succeed in getting those appointments?  How many hours do you need to make those calls?  Build your prospecting time around your weekly targets.
3. Use a Quality Database.  Calling out of the phone book is dead.  It’s been dead for 30 years.  There are too many quality databases that allow you to make good phone calls, asking for the actual name of a top manager, to do the “person who” call (“Hi, could I speak to the person who purchases….”).
4. Don’t substitute “research” for real prospecting activity.  Salespeople like to fool themselves that they are ‘prospecting’ when in fact, they are surfing the Net.  Extensive pre-call research does not win you new business.  In fact, in most instances, you actually lose effectiveness in prospecting by doing extensive pre-call research over simply making the calls.  The reason is that somewhere around 2/3 of the calls you make will result in a voice mail or a no-contact; all the research in the world won’t help you succeed on these calls.  Meanwhile, on the calls where you do get a contact, the research is only of marginal help.
5. Social Networking isn’t prospecting.  I know, I know; there are many snake-oil salespeople now that will tell you that social networking is all you need to do.  Nonsense.  There is a place for social networking, but it is not now, nor will it be in the foreseeable future, a mechanism to consistently and reliably bring in new prospects to your business.  Social networking should be considered a secondary activity, prioritized below prospecting, and you should spend at least 3 times as much times prospecting as you do on social networking.

Much like staying in shape, it’s a lot easier to keep the skill/muscle of Prospecting active and vital than it is to restart prospecting.  Follow those tips, and you’ll never have that muscle atrophy.

The Internet is always competing for your customers – but you can beat it.

 Sometimes, when I tell people that I buy things off the Internet, they are insulted.  In fact, sometimes I’m treated like a traitor to the sales profession.  “But Troy,” they say, “Aren’t you the one telling us that the Internet is competing with the sales profession?  And shouldn’t you be supporting the sales profession?”  Yes, I explain, I do tell salespeople that.  However, I’m also a customer and a purchaser of items – and my buying needs and instincts are no different than anyone else’s.

Salespeople constantly complain that the Internet has made price-shopping easier, that it causes people to buy on price and price alone, etc.  Nonsense.  What the Internet has done is to make relationships more critical, and at the same time more fragile, than they ever were.  In fact, I was reminded of a perfect example last week when I sent flowers to my wife.

Last February 14, I started my day the way I always start my Valentine’s Days.  I picked up my phone and called my florist.  I’ve purchased flowers for my wife from this florist for years.  Birthdays, Valentine’s Days, anniversaries, just because…you name it.  It was a great system.  I’d call them, tell them how much I wanted to spend, they had the address and my credit card on file, done and done.   I was a Loyal Customer.  However, last Valentine’s Day, that changed.

When I called, the woman who answered the phone said, in an exasperated tone, “Look, there’s no way we can deliver flowers today!  Our deliveries are full.  You do realize that it’s Valentine’s Day, right?”  I replied that, yes, I was aware of what day it was, hence my call.  I also said that for the previous seven Valentine’s Days, I’d done exactly the same thing.  She said, “Well, I’m sorry but we’re just too busy to add another delivery this year.  Maybe a little planning would be in order for next year.”  I hung up.

Now, I’m sure that the woman felt satisfied after the call that she had admonished a silly man who didn’t handle his Valentine’s Day until the last minute (and as you read this, I’m betting that the men are nodding at what I did, and the women are rolling their eyes).  I wonder if she’d be as satisfied if she knew that I have purchased flowers three times since then – from the Internet?

You see, after that phone call, I logged onto a florists’ website.  It said, “Order by noon for delivery today!”  So, I did.  It wasn’t cheaper than my florist – but the order was accepted.  The computer didn’t give me any attitude.  The flowers were received, and generated the smile that I had hoped for.  As a customer, my needs and desired result were achieved.  And in so doing, I discovered that it’s fairly easy to order on that site – which I’ve done three times since, including last week.
Understand this – your customers will discover the same thing, IF you give them a reason to do so.  However, you can avoid this.  Here are five good ways to preserve your customer relationships:

Understand that every contact with your customer can be your last.  Think of the current sales environment as turning up the heat on every customer contact.  You should have always thought about your competitors hovering over your customer, ready to take them away at a moment’s notice.  Today’s environment simply turns up the intensity.  If you offend or anger your customer on a sales call, your customer can have a new supplier ready to go via their computer before you can leave their parking lot.

Know that everyone who has customer contact needs to be on the same page.  I don’t believe for a moment that the owner of the flower shop would have wanted his customer service person to treat customers in the fashion that the woman treated me; however, he clearly did not communicate to his people how he did want his customers to be treated.  Hence, I had a bad experience – and I’m betting that others have, too.  Companies will spend big bucks training and developing salespeople and service people, and yet they fail to recognize that anyone who has contact with the customer can affect the relationship.  I once saw the top salesperson in a company lose his best account because the customer’s people couldn’t stand dealing with the delivery person – and so they found someone with a more pleasant delivery person.

Make every contact positive.  I’ve spoken a lot about how salespeople must bring value on every call; we can do that by providing ideas, thoughts, knowledge, and expertise to our customers.  Over and above this, however, we should work to make our contacts positive.  Don’t get me wrong; things will happen and customers will get upset.  The professional salesperson can find ways to make these contacts end on a positive.  We can give customers reasons to keep doing business with us, even if things go wrong.

Move the ball forward.  You should be working to advance the relationship, and your cause, on every sales call.  Before each call, establish an objective and ask yourself how you can improve your situation with the buyer on every interaction?  Think “high, wide, and deep;” can you increase your contact base on every sales call?  Can you get testimonials or referrals?  Can you increase your access?  Can you upsell or cross-sell?

Make it easy.  One great way to compete with the Internet is to find ways to make it easy for your customers to buy from you.  Remember – up until Valentine’s Day, that was one of the reasons that I did business with the florist; it was incredibly easy for me to do business.  I gave them one piece of data (how much I wanted to spend), and then I knew I could trust their judgment on what to send.  That sustained a relationship for a long time.

It is possible, even practical, to build strong customer relationships today, even with the ever-present competition from the Internet.  However, to do so, you have to be at least as convenient as the Net to do business with.

For years, I’ve been speaking, training, and writing about how “Comfortable Customers Buy.”  It’s even become a tag line for me.  It’s something that I believe in; when we, as salespeople, put our customers in a comfortable mood, they are much more receptive to messages that help them make a beneficial buying decision.  And yet, until the last six weeks, I never truly appreciated the truth of that statement.

To review, six weeks ago, I fractured my kneecap in a motorcycle accident.  It was painful and a little scary, since I’ve never broken a bone, had surgery, or spent the night in a hospital before – yet I did all those things together in about 20 hours.  My injury happened in Iowa, and when I returned to Kansas City, I consulted with a local orthopedic specialist that I was referred to.  And then…I did something you’re not supposed to do.  I switched orthopedic specialists.  And the reasons why will fully explain why “comfortable customers buy.”  (And uncomfortable ones don’t.)

When I arrived at the first orthopedic specialist, I filled out the volumes of forms, and then was greeted impersonally by a nurse who brought me back to the examination room.  I then discovered that I was to see a Physician’s Assistant, rather than a doctor.  Well, OK, maybe that’s how this goes.  They gave me X-rays, the PA discussed the X-rays with a doctor that I never met, and basically told me that any ideas of rehabilitation would be out of the question until our next appointment three weeks hence.  Sit around until then – that was the prescription.
I was dubious but I decided to stick with them.  As the appointment approached, however, they called me to reschedule the appointment.  Eventually they rescheduled three times, and I told them to forget it.  I found a different firm, and received a completely different experience.

At the second firm, I was greeted by a nurse who asked me a few questions about my injury (the first firm had not asked me any questions), and then took me to see a surgeon.  The surgeon examined the X-rays, showed me what they meant, and then asked me questions about my work, my lifestyle, and my upcoming commitments.  With those answers, he prescribed a rehabilitation protocol and gave me a preview of what the next three months would look like (including the admonition to stay off the motorcycle until December).  It was specific, positive, and personalized based on my own answers to him.  To make a long story short, further visits to him and to his referred rehabilitation specialist have been positive and productive.

I’m now a comfortable customer. And I’m buying what the surgeon is selling.  Why?  What he did could suggest some principles of “Comfortable Customers Buy.”

They made me feel at home from the start.  From the beginning, both the nurse and the surgeon made it clear that I was welcome there (even though I’d had surgery elsewhere), and I wasn’t just an afterthought.  I’m now THEIR patient, and they’re glad to have me.  From the first moment that the nurse greeted me, she made me feel right at home.

They communicated authority and expertise.  When I’m worried about my physical condition, I want to see a DOCTOR.  And I saw one.  I was talking to the expert, I knew it, and he knew it.  Doctors can communicate expertise through a white coat – how can you do it?

They asked a lot of questions.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until I can say it no more.  Questions – GOOD questions, not leading questions – show that you care.  How good were the questions?  Well, here are some samples:  “What do you do for a living?  A speaker?  OK, when is your next speaking engagement?  Well, you’ll be able to stand and walk by then with a leg brace; will that be acceptable?  Good.”  The doctor, nurse, and even the X-ray tech made it clear that the experience was about ME, not them.

They told me what the road ahead looked like.  From the moment that I found myself flat on my back on U.S. Highway 71 in Iowa, the scariest part for me was the unknown of the future.  How long would it take for me to come back, to walk normally, to travel, to work, and yes, to ride again?  My surgeon in Iowa gave me some ideas, but he was reluctant to come up with a full plan because my after-care would be done in Kansas City.  The first ortho specialist didn’t do anything to alleviate my fears.  My current doctor was very clear about showing me the game plan – good and bad.

They connected me with other resources that I would need.  Finally, the second doctor connected me with an excellent physical rehab therapist.  He even said, “We have multiple specialists that we can use, but I think this is the best fit for you – you’ll want something a little more aggressive.”

The bottom line is that the second doctor took ownership of my recovery process and showed that he cared.  He took me from a feeling of extreme discomfort to being comfortable.  Don’t get me wrong – it’s not moving as fast as I like – but that’s biology, not his issue.

Here’s my queston to you:  How can you implement the principles above into YOUR sales program?