Sucker for a Great Sales Pitch
This weekend while doing my normal Saturday morning yard chores an older model white van pulled up. I didn’t recognize the van but the sliding door opened and out hopped a young man who could have been no more than 5 or 6 years old.
My first thoughts were he must be selling cookies or chocolate bars for his Little League team but he had nothing in hand. I was pretty sure he wasn’t from the neighborhood since it is common knowledge among the kids on the block that if the “old man” comes to the door when you ring our doorbell you won’t sell a thing. I’m almost positive the kids wait until I leave then ring the doorbell knowing my wife is a much easier sell. But I digress.
The young boy walked right up to me and introduced himself as Braden (which happens to be our oldest grandson’s name). Braden said he noticed that the numbers on our driveway had faded and asked if I would be interested in having them re-painted.
This is where my normal response of “no not today” or “we don’t need any” usually kicks in but this time was different. Young Braden had done his homework. He caught me outside and as he mentioned the faded numbers he was pointing to the driveway. There was no doubt that the numbers were nearly unreadable so I couldn’t deny the need.
I was quite surprised when “how much” popped out of my mouth.
I fully expected Braden to call his mom or dad from the van to discuss pricing but the young man had the pricing down cold. Without hesitation, Braden explained he had several options. For $15 I could get the standard white background with black lettering. But if I wanted to add a Double T or State of Texas picture that would be $20. Braden had a $25 offer but I had quit listening at that point and was admiring his polished sales pitch.
Those that know me will not be surprised that I purchased the $15 option.
Young Braden, like a pro, signaled to his parents to get out of the van and get to work. He told them the option I had selected and began overseeing their work. Once they began working he came back over to where I was standing and started telling me that when he grows up he wants to be a Driveway Sign Painter and a Car Salesman.
I have no doubt that if Braden continues to hone his sales skills and with his natural abilities he will do great at whatever he decides to sell.
I even thought about giving him a business card and telling him to come see me in a few years. He was that good!
I only wish his parents were half as good at painting as Braden was at selling.
If you were expecting the continuation of the “Signs if you are a Rabbit” post, I should have it ready this week. I was finishing up a draft of the post when I received a really good real life example of being the Rabbit from a reader. It is a much better example that I had so I will be rewriting the post this week.
And heck, a great sales pitch is better than a silly old rabbit any time.
Are you the Salesman or the Rabbit?
Do you know when you’re the Rabbit?
I’m not talking about the cute little bunny rabbit with long ears and a
cotton tail. I’m talking about the type of rabbit used in dog races to get the dogs to race to the finish line. Without the rabbit, the dogs would never finish the race much less win. The thing you always know is the rabbit never wins. The rabbit is there for only one purpose which is to get the dogs to run so the dog owner can make money.
How many times have you worked hard to get a new customer’s business only to find out later that they never had any intention to buy from you? They were either using you for price comparison (little intent to buy), keeping their guy honest (no intent to buy) or worse using you as a negotiating tool (the rabbit).
Price Comparison
I think we may all be guilty of comparing prices even when we have little intention of changing who we’re currently buying from. We use comparison shopping to confirm we are making good decisions. If you find a better price and before buying from someone else you will probably go back to your regular supplier and ask them to get right on the pricing. This is probably a good business practice and we have grown to expect such. I would be very disappointed if a good customer of ours finds a lower price and doesn’t give us the opportunity to justify or adjust our pricing. I can say that I am disappointed when we have the best price and a new customer chooses to stay with their current supplier but I can understand.
Keeping their guy Honest
I don’t know how honest it is to use someone just to keep their guy honest. I may be quibbling over phrasing between this and price comparison but to me this shows no interest or intent to change their present supplier. In most cases the customer will not ask a tremendous amount of effort from us. They are usually not going to spend much time making a decision unless our proposal is considerably less or much better than their current supplier’s. If their current supplier proves to be “not competitive” this may lead to an opportunity for good faith negotiations to begin.
Using you as a Negotiating Tool (Rabbit)
This can be possibly the biggest waste of energies and resources (money) that you and your sales team can have. You are the rabbit if you are brought into a project (sometimes quite large) and asked to provide pricing for the sole purpose of the customer using your pricing to negotiate pricing with a competitor with no intent to use you. For this to work, the customer has to convince you that you are a contender and they want your products or services. The understanding or promise is they are engaging you in good faith negotiations and if successful you will get the business. The better they can sell this promise the harder they know you will be willing to work for their business. The harder they can get you to work, meaning the more you will lower your price, the less they will have to do when they sit down with the real contender for this business. This method of negotiation while usually very effective is intentionally misleading. When it is exposed, a trusting business relationship with that customer is almost impossible.
Please don’t mistake my comments above to think that when you walk in to a new customer’s office and they don’t immediately start giving you their business that you are the rabbit. That is usually not the case
and certainly not my intent. Almost always your customer will follow a normal sales cycle. You must earn your way into their business and gain their trust before being welcomed to the final negotiation table.
In the early stages of negotiation it is very hard to determine if the negotiations are being done in good faith or not. You certainly will assume so until you start to see the signs that this may not be the case.
In my next post, I will discuss how to see the signs and start to recognize if you are the rabbit. If you have any examples of being the rabbit or being rabbited (if that’s a word) that you would like to share, please leave a comment below or send me an email at feedback@wewaonthenet.com.
Learn to Sell Like a Kid
We had the Grandsons at the lake this weekend and I realized they are
natural Salesmen. They use all of the tools they have to get us to do what they want or to put it another way, to buy what they are selling. Without any formal training they have mastered three of the essential skills needed to be successful in Sales and Sales Management.
Persistence
After this weekend I don’t think our grandsons know the Webster’s definition of “no”. It’s obvious that “no” means “not yet” to them. They realize when told “no” they just haven’t got you prepared to buy what their selling. If we could just get ourselves and our Account Managers to believe that when a customer says “no” that may mean “not yet”. We just haven’t got our customer ready to buy what we are selling.
Leading
When the boys can’t get you to understand what they want you to do, they will grab your finger and show you. They don’t seem to get frustrated with our lack of understanding, they just show us. How many times as Account Manager’s do we know that our customers may not understand the products or services we are offering? We must be willing, like a young child, to take them by the hand (maybe not literally) and show them.
Cost/Benefit Analysis
The boys have conquered the cost/benefit analysis and presentation. They can come up with (on a moment’s notice) reasons why we will benefit by giving them what they want or buy what they are selling. I have to admit their reasoning’s are usually pretty solid and hard to dismiss. However, if reasoning doesn’t work they are willing to bring pain (needs) into the analysis. You will see an example of this in the process below. We all know that in order to be successful in sales you must be able to show that the benefits exceed the cost of your products or services. In many cases you must identify the need or customer’s pain (in our grandsons case create the pain) before selling the benefits of your products.
The Child’s Sales Process using only Natural Ability
Kids don’t have the luxury of Sales Managers, Sales Books or Sales Training to teach them how to sell. They have no fancy sales brochures or business cards to help them start the process. They just use their natural abilities and probably the greatest selling tool –Emotional Selling.
- If the situation requires a big friendly smile to get you to do what they want they are pros. Who can refuse getting a cookie or turning on the cartoons for your grandkids when they give you that big toothy or toothless smile? Relationship Building: Getting your customer to like you, heck that’s Sales 101.
- Should they feel you don’t understand what they are asking for they will take your hand and show you. While showing you they will be giving you their best cost/benefit presentation and throwing in a bit of persuasive speech to help. This is the cost/benefit analysis in full motion.
- If that doesn’t work the smile can quickly turn to a frown, showing disappointment in your decision. They know that disappointment is an emotion that is hard to resist. We hate to disappoint them when the solution is easily solved by just getting them a cookie. This is their way of applying pressure to get the sale. Showing disappointment and applying some pressure to get the sale is another valuable tool in everyone’s sales toolbox.
- The final straw (step), create pain. If nothing else has worked, here come the tears (if not already used above), stomping around and possibly a little mad fit. They know that if they can create enough pain their closing rate gets much better. For kids this is a make or break strategy. It could end up getting the cookie or spending a while in timeout. I do not suggest that having a mad fit in front of a customer is appropriate but finding the customer’s pain and providing a solution is a proven and successful strategy.
If they are sent to timeout you would think the process is over but that is rarely the case. Didn’t I mention something about persistence?
They just start the process over. If they still want a cookie they will ask with that charming, beautiful, toothless smile letting you know all the benefits you will get. If that doesn’t work they will show disappointment if not given what they are asking for.
Finally, if still not able to make the sell they bring back the pain!
Sales Tip of the Month
Have you ever thought of giving a magazine subscription to a 
customer?
I never had but one of our Account Managers was doing that very thing last week. He explained that for about the price of a lunch he could give his customer a subscription to a magazine. He said he tries to find a magazine that is about the customer’s hobbies or interests like fishing, hunting, coin collecting or flying. This makes the gift more personal than an industry journal or a magazine like Time or Newsweek.
Each month his customer gets a gift (the magazine) in the mail from his salesman. The magazine will probably sit on his customer’s desk for several days hopefully reminding him of the thoughtful salesman that sent it to him and looking forward to the next month’s edition.
While not spending a lot of money, it is this type of “out of the box” thinking and doing something other salesmen are not doing, that makes this Account Manager consistently a sales leader and a valued member of our sales team.
If you have any sales tips you would like to share or would like to be considered for future “Sales Tips of the Month” posts, please leave a comment below or send me an email at feedback@wewaonthenet.com.
So Your Easily Offended
Most seasoned Sales and Account Managers are not easily offended.
Instead, they have grown thick skin through the years and are in the habit of overlooking offenses. They will give the offender the benefit of the doubt and move on. I wish more people could learn what we have learned.
What about You?
I often see people that are always getting mad at something or someone. You never know what’s going to set them off. If they feel slighted, don’t get the attention they expect or feel they were in some way disrespected, they get mad or just sulk. I hear people say “they just wear their feelings on their sleeves so don’t worry about it”.
I can’t help but worry. If I have an account manager that fits the description above I know I have a serious problem and must take corrective actions. If we have a customer that is offended over the littlest of things I have a bigger problem. With that customer I often refrain from discussing anything that I think may make them upset or could possibly hurt their feelings and lose the business. This leads to not being able to have honest heartfelt discussions in many cases. I’m not sure who loses, me or the sensitive recipient.
Thinking about this topic, those that are easily offended (at least the people I’m thinking of) are some of the most insensitive when considering others feelings. I wonder if these types of people are mostly self-absorbed or just lack the self-confidence to just move on when they feel offended. I don’t think you can or should always “just move on” when you feel offended but it can’t always be an event. Heck, my feelings are just as sensitive as anyone else’s but you have to develop thicker skin and realize when you put yourself out in the world you will be challenged, disrespected and offended at times.
If you are not being offended “often” – you are probably not out there making a difference.
Sorry for the rant but take a tip from a seasoned salesman: toughen your skin, don’t make everything an event and don’t be so easily offended!
What’s your Specialty?
As I move into the world of Social Media I am struggling with the profile page. This is often referred to as the “About Me” section. I don’t know how much or little to tell the world about myself.
How much you tell about yourself is certainly a personal decision and everyone will make their own decisions. However, there is one section to the profile page that really has me thinking. This is the “What is your Specialty?” section.
Do you let others know what special skills you have? At work, do your customers and co-workers know that you are that go-to person if they have questions or need help with the things that are your specialties? I suspect in most cases you have demonstrated these skills and are already that person in the most obvious circumstances but are you sure?
I see times where someone is struggling with a problem, gets completely stumped and either gives up or makes a bad decision when help was standing right next to them or a phone call away. This person may be the type that is unwilling to seek help, which is a whole different discussion, but what if they did not know help was so close?
Each of us have skills and interests that are less obvious but no less important to our customers and co-workers. These are skills that may not be necessary in you present position but may have been acquired from a previous job or skills you just naturally possess. If you were for example: an electrician, forklift operator, waiter/waitress, worked with computers or captain of your chess club in school, I know you have special skills and interests that can be useful if we only knew.
The specialty and interests sections on the Profile Page are a great place to let these skills and interest be known. The key is you let everyone know!
I would like to take this one step further and ask that each of you think about, then write down the specialties and interests that you feel you have that can be beneficial to your customers. This list should contain skills and things about yourself that your customer may or may not know. Then for each account determine which of these skills would be most useful to that customer. Now share your results with your customer. I would also suggest that you share these results with your sales team and co-workers.
I think you will be surprised at the knowledge, talent and skills in your branch or office. By sharing your results with others you may also see skills that you need to develop and improve upon.
The Key is to let Everyone Know!
My Hardest Sales Call
Starting this blog reminds me of when I first became a salesman and had to make my first cold call. I put it off as long as I could. Worried myself sick. Drove through the parking lot several times. Then when I thought I was ready I put it off for another day.
Luckily, I had a great sales manager that encouraged me and had the patience to help a young insecure account manager get started. I knew what I needed to do and had no doubt I could do it but the time never seemed quite right.
Finally, I got the courage, parked my car, went inside and made my call. I would like to say I got a huge order and they are still a customer but that is not the case.
I’m not sure cold calls have ever gotten any easier for me but without a steady flow of new customers and products your business will eventually fail. We as sales managers must constantly encourage, train and sometimes demand our account managers to solicit new business. If we don’t have them make time in their schedule for cold calling and growing their accounts there will be a time when a customer retires, closes their business or moves their business to a competitor and they won’t have the skills to get back in growth mode.
I’ve seen very successful account managers struggle towards the end of their career simply because they did not keep adding new customers to their account package. Many of their once profitable accounts just slowly wither and die.
Every sales plan must have expectations and goals which require some form of cold calling or as we now refer to it as networking included in the plan. Look for more on effective networking in a future post.
Now back to starting a blog. What I did learn making cold calls was; putting off what I knew I needed to do and worrying myself sick didn’t make the sales call any easier. Without making cold calls I could have never got to where I am now, a much older insecure salesman putting off and worrying about starting a sales and sales management blog.
Time to Start!
For the past year I have been seeking a way to communicate my
thoughts and experiences in a timely and effective way. As a regional sales manager for a large wholesale distributor, I travel most days of the month. Most weeks something comes up or I read an article that I would like to get to our sales team to teach and inspire.
Email would be a timely way to get the information to our team but is not as effective as in person discussions. Waiting for weeks until I can make it to their location would be more effective but is certainly not timely. Email would also limit the discussion to those within my circle of co-workers and friends. In person training would further limit my reach to only co-workers and friends that I actually see.
So it is my hope that this blog site will be both timely and effective. I believe the topics and discussions I’m sharing will be interesting and beneficial to more than those I currently know.
Sales Managers, no matter what industry or products, have much in common. We must:
- Prioritize our efforts
- Create a sales process that is effective and repeatable
- Focus and target our energies
- Maintain and cultivate new and existing customers and products
- Repeat, repeat, repeat
The list above I believe are the basics and have been proven over time to be the skills we as sales managers work with our sales teams to learn and improve upon.
I have attended many sales seminars and worked with several national sales trainers and it seems these are the consistent topics. They may call it:
- Time management
- Sales cycle
- Show a target with an arrow in the center
- Prospect
- Do all over again
The challenge we all have is how to adapt the basics, which have in the past proven to be successful, to a quickly changing sales environment. We must now adapt our training to a younger sales team that has vastly different sets of skills than the sales team of just a few years ago.
We must also focus on teaching our existing sales team how to sell into a changing market that expects more than product knowledge and a lunch every once in a while.
Those who can find a way to meld the old with the new will have the greatest success and most enjoyment.
So here we go stepping into a new and exciting adventure called blogging. I welcome your comments and suggestions. I don’t have all the answers. Heck, some days I feel I have no answers. How about you!
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