The "F" Word at Work: By Rocco De Leo

The "F" Word draws a bit of ire when it is stated in this manner. I am, however, not talking about what YOU may be thinking. The "F" word I am referring to is "FUN". Working in sales can be exciting and difficult at the same time. The challenges of being self driven, waking up in the morning and making calls, and keeping a smile through rejection are toiling. It is all worth it if you enjoy what you do. Enjoying your job is not just enjoying the paycheck or the company car. It is wearing on your sleeve the fact that you enjoy your job. Customers want to buy from a happy and upbeat person. Think from the customer's point of view: "if the salesman does not enjoy selling the product, how am I going to enjoy owning it?" When you enjoy what you sell, you add your personality to the "everydayness". Statistics, graphs, data, price, are all important, but it is still the PERSON who sells the product. Go through the day with a smile, a skip, and maybe even a whistle. If you cannot do this sincerely, consider selling something different. Good luck and good selling.

Be InterestED not InterestING: By Rocco De Leo

Ok, we've all done it! We hear from a customer, friend, or family member of a story about a vacation, site, experience, etc. Our first inclination (and probably action) was to "one up" the person. "You won $1,000 in Vegas, wow, I won $1,200 in Atlantic city". Does that look familiar. Nothing tells a person "enough about you, let's talk about me", like attempting to be interstING while not being interstED. The great Dale Carnegie in his landmark How to win Friends and Influence People uses the analogy of fishing. He says that while he is a big fan of strawberries and cream, the fish seem to be much more fond of worms. The point he makes is that he can go the lake with his interests in mind; throw some strawberries and cream on the line and wait...and wait...and wait...and wait: get the point! Take the worm to the fish, and enjoy the catch! This is very simple! I continues that the "the only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what THEY want and show them how to get it." Dale Carnegie had an idea on how to win over people. So tomorrow, go out to your customers and listen. Of course you have an objective to your meetings (ie, make a contact, appointment, commitment, etc.), but remember that you cannot make that person do what you want, you need to get them to WANT to do what you want them to do. Show them that you are interested in their business or their issues. Listen intently and sincerely when someone tells you something. Make sure you understand what is being said...ask for clarifications, dig deeper (or as we say "peel the onion"). Your opportunity to "sell" your solution will present itself. Just remember to focus on the person talking to you. If you find yourself talking too much about yourself---you may just find that you are talking yourself out of a sale...good luck and good selling.

Learning self reflection from Curt Schilling: By Rocco De Leo

As I sat watching game 6 of the ALCS this evening, I noticed one of baseball's best pitchers over the last decade, Curt Schilling, doing something that we should all consider doing ourselves. Schilling takes copious notes on each and every player he faces. He logs his experiences, reactions, and results between innings. He has the ability to look ahead at who is coming up next inning and to form a very educated plan of attack. As salespeople, trying to become great salespeople, we must be able to learn from our past experiences and build ourselves advantages over our competition. An average sales rep spends some time preparing for a sales call, maybe even reflecting on the last interaction with the customer. A great sales rep goes into each call knowing that the call is not only a call for today, but also a learning experience for every call to every customer thereafter.
My customers are doctors. I have a few key customers who can be a little tough to catch. These doctors are "hospitalists" who work only at hospitals. What makes them difficult to see is that they don't have an office like most doctors. While they are difficult to catch (at least until you build up a good working relationship and learn their "secrets"), they are very important to what I do. I was recently meeting a colleague at a hospital I don't normally work in. As I was standing in the lobby waiting for my colleague, who walks in but two (not one, but two) very influential and busy hospitalists. Not only did this happen, but I ran into one of them again in the parking lot. What did I do with this great "Manna from heaven"? I spit on it! I said hello three times, and left with nothing. Now, was this a complete loss? Not for me! Just like Curt Schilling, I take everyday as a chance to get better. At the end of the day I reflected on this colossal waste of opportunity and realized that I needed a plan on how deal with this type of situation. I need to know who are the most important customers to look out for, what do I want from them (appointment, contact info, etc), and why they want to give me what I want.
The point to all of this is to look honestly at our shortfalls, mistakes, and skills gaps. Take small bits of our daily experiences and reflect upon them and find the opportunity to improve. Good luck and good selling.

Never let go of your dreams: By Rocco De Leo

Sometimes, in the hustle of daily life, we forget our dreams. Sometimes, people tell us we CAN'T. For most of us, the first person in line to tell us we CAN'T is the same person looking back at us in the mirror. Whether you are considering a career change, a challenging account, are anything outside the status quo, "Carpe Diem"--sieze the day and go out and get it. This guy had the eyes a'rollin when he came out on stage. A cell phone salesman, wrinkled shirt, and zero confidence in his demeanor. But what happens next is absolutely amazing. He entered the world of his passion: Opera. He turned the rolling eyes into watering eyes. We all see the American dream (in this case, the British Dream) in this guy. We can go from zero to hero in an instant. It's not easy, but it is possible. I want you also to look at him when he's singing. Look at his face, his eyes...he is in heaven! When he sings, he is more alive than he has ever been. Find what does that for you. Forget the money, forget the "CAN'Ts"- just make it happen like Paul Potts made it happen. Thanks to my dad Frank for passing this on to me---just the kick that I needed. Good luck and good selling.

Brian Tracy: You Are What You Think: Comments by Rocco De Leo

Brian Tracy really captures the need for a positive attitude and a mind toward success. If you want something (money, career, education, family, etc), you must truly think it. In sales, you must TRULY believe that you r product is absolutely needed by your prospect, and that you WILL land the sale. If...and only if you can convince yourself, you will find yourself much farther ahead than your competittion. Does positive thinking guarentee you closing the deal? You wish! I can tell you this though, having negative thoughts such as failure or inferiority, will most certainly guarentee you not making the sale. Since we are what we think, we must think happy thoughts. I am motivated by "motivational" speeches by people like Brian or Zig Ziglar, also by other successful stories (I resent no one for their success), what are you motivated by? Find a way to stay positive on those bad days. If you have not taken time by now to discover your motivational gasoline, you are crazy. Good luck and good selling.

What I learned about Selling at the Driving Range: by Rocco De Leo

I have recently discovered this wonderful game of gold. I have my "cheapo" clubs that I can bang up and not even care. I am not yet obsessed with "breaking 100", but that's coming soon. What does this have to do with sales? It's not what you think. I am very comfortable with some of the middle length clubs. I prefer the 3 wood (I actually think it is a fairway metal- not sure) off the tee and the 5 wood off the tee. I also like the 6 and 7 irons. The 1 wood makes me look like an idiot. My last trip to the range was different though. I was determined to drive as far as possible (keeping it straight). After driving about 10 balls with the 3 wood, I grabbed my 1. I took the exact approach with the 1 as the 3 and got what?..a lousy swing and a 3 foot drive. I took a pause, thought about what I need to do and did it. I took about half a step back and put myself in a very uncomfortable (unnatural feeling) position, almost bending over. I took one of the best and strongest drives I have ever taken...perfectly straight and about 165 yards (with a low velocity "floaty ball"--keep in mind 165 yards is tremendous for me). I made the proper adjustment with the tool I was working with. Ok, still, what does this have to do with selling. It has a lot to do with selling. We get into "comfort zones" and expect better results without changing things up a little. Sales people will call on the same type of customers; the easy going people that don't challenge us. Sales people will also stick with similar approaches to presentations and closing methods, and expect higher and higher outcomes. We must try new things--starting with observing experts, and assessing our results...CONSTANTLY. If we don't we will never "drive home" better results and stagnate in mediocrity. Good luck and good selling.

Continuous Learning for Sales Superstars: By Rocco De Leo

For those of you who think that the last day of official corporate training is over is the end of your learning: think again! If you're not learning, you're not living. Any sales manager worth his/her weight in salt will drive away people who refuse to learn and grow. In all actuality, many reps will not get blown out, because they will simply rot in their territories because their customers (and competitors) will fly right by them. We must remember who we are. We are Sales "Professionals". The consummate professional feels he owes it to his company and his customers to be up to date on all the material related to his products and up to date on his skills (communication, business/sales acumen, etc). Continuous learning should be completely embraced as a high priority. Learning can be as intricate as an MBA program and as simple as a monthly reading schedule, or something in between. Just like everything else, we have to schedule time in our weeks to complete some form of continuous learning. The value of reading what experts and others in the fields we work in recommend is a steal for our repertoire. Think of reading a good sales book (Zig Ziglar's Secrets of closing the sale is the one I have on my desk today) as a 15$ coaching session. Zig, I'm sure, is worth much more than that. Be open minded, listen to your peers (young and older), podcasts are invaluable (and usually free) as learning tools as well. Whatever it is you decide to do to continually grow, be consistent, share it with others, and stay focused on being better. Remember, the day you stop getting better, you stop growing, and will be outdated very soon. Good luck and good selling.

Just ASK for the Business: By Rocco De Leo

Sometimes we learn more from real life situations, being customers ourselves. We are always being sold something. Today, I had two chances to give my hard earned money to two different companies. As it turns out, I gave NONE of my money out today because no one asked for it.

Situation One: Verizon-

I forgot to pay my home phone bill and called the phone company to handle the bill. I spoke with the bill collectors and asked about a cheaper phone plan. They transferred me to a customer service agent who did a pretty good job of up selling me. I told her the only thing I needed is a line for my alarm monitoring. After a few questions, she uncovered that this is indeed my only need, but I am a little worried that the kids, or the wife, or myself, might forget and use the regular phone instead of a cell phone. She upsold me on a mid level package (still at less than half the monthly fee I originally had). She told me that I needed to pay my bill before she could add one of the features. Listen close, because next comes the point where she decided that Verizon did not need any more of my money. I told her that I "hate" my Internet, and as soon as the "stupid" thing starts working again, I would pay it online (paying over the phone has a fee while online is free). "OK, call us back when you can." Are you "freakin" kidding me! I was ripe for the picking. I gave her a second chance (you see, I was well aware at this point that I was now doing research for this article). "Cable Internet has been a pain lately for me, " I told her. Nothing. I finally let her off the hook and asked about Internet options through the phone company. She still had to put in the effort to look up the information, but she made NO sale! If she had been listening to me, and seized the opportunity, instead of being happy with just one sale, she would have made another, bigger sale. I called to downgrade a $60/month phone service to $26/month. That is a loss of 34$ per month. The Internet service that she finally shared with me, is 37$/month. That would have been $63/month- a gain of 3$/month. A real good salesperson could have got from me the fact that my company allows me reimbursement of up to 60$/month plus installation fees that I would have been more than happy to sign up for if the service was pitched correctly. As it stands, Verizon not only lost $26/month, but they left another $30 to 60$ on the table. Shame on you Verizon. Coffee is for closers, so hold the coffee at Verizon.

Situation two: Moxi Pest Control

I cannot tell you the name of the rep who signed me up just 4 or 5 months ago. He did not try very hard to get me to sign up for auto pay (which I bet is huge in such a high turn over/cancel rate business). That was his first problem. The second problem is that I have not paid the bill, because I have not seen any evidence of work. Don't get me wrong, I am sure they are doing their work. Unfortunately, since no one manages the account (call me, send me a card, etc), and I never see or smell but spray, I just don't feel right paying the $80 for the bill. Today, a rep called me for my payment. Now here this, they have sent me at least 10 bills in the mail. What did I tell her to do: "send me a bill." Will I pay it? Would you take the chance. I would have made a credit card payment over the phone if she had simply asked. I think maybe the customer service rep and the salesman should split the bill (40$) and pay the company the money their incompetence and fear cost them. A little harsh! No way!

Two lessons learned. Be ready to seize the opportunity for more business, and most of all, ask for the business!!

GOALS: You better have them

I read so much about goals and the importance having them. Every self help, sales, or motivational book or speaker tells us to have goals, write them down, and have a plan to achieve them. Why then, do so many people have a difficult time doing this? Why is that I just now sat down today (after 6 years of selling in my profession) to put pen to paper on goals (and a plan) to sell a product I am having difficulties selling? It's strange, I wonder if we are afraid of success, and all the work it will take to achieve and maintain it. The insanity of simply sitting down for a few minutes and working backward from our point of success is lost on so many of us. It is so insane, because it is so easy and a non brainer. I actually think the trouble with most people, is they don't know what they want. I had a regional sales director ask me before a call, " what do you want from this call?". Of course I told him that I wanted to sell my product. That logic tells me that I should approach a customer by telling him "Hi, I am here to sell you something". That is ridiculous. This, of course, is not what my regional sales director was getting at. We need to tell the customer what we do for him and what we have done for previous and current customers similar to him. I did not know how to approach this, because I had no goal (objective) other than SELLING him on a product that he did not know he needed. I will dig deeper into this in a later post. My point is that we need to start with the end in mind. Whether this is on a call, for a quarter, for a career, or for our lives. What do we want, how can we get it, and are we willing to pay the price. The first thing to do, TODAY, is to write down some goals. I don't care what they are, try it and see yourself achieve. Let me recommend Stephen Covey's 7 Habits for Highly Effective People as a start. Good luck and Good Selling.

You're there to Sell: approaching dining and drinking with customers

You finally get time to meet with that tough (yet important customer). Your customer wants to meet over dinner. In my business, a lot of information regarding my products is presented over dinner. Sometimes one on one and sometimes in a group presentation. Either way, this is an excellent, albeit expensive, opportunity to sell my product. I cannot, however, truly share the benefits of my products (which I believe will truly improve the lives of my customer and the people he works for), if I am pouring over the menu and contemplating the specials. Even worse, after a couple of drinks, I cannot focus on the technical aspects of a question brought up by my customer. What a waste! Sales people must remember the purpose of ANY and ALL interactions with customers (no matter who they are) is to sell. This, of course, may be on different levels (rapport building for network contacts, gaining access to a decision maker, closing for business, etc). Whatever your purpose, treat your whining and dinning as you would any other sales call. Plan ahead, have resources available, and be as sharp as you can be. When dining out:

1. Go early (even a day in advance) to find a good section or seat that will afford some privacy and a table arrangement that will work best for you to "work the table". (Do I want a big round table, a long rectangle, private room?).

2. Look at the menu before your customers get there. Don't be picky or spend too much time on the menu.

3. Be aware of the VERY EXPENSIVE wines and let the server know you are paying the bill and your budgetary limits. My customers know my expense limits (as they are industry wide guidelines)- you may want to share yours with your customer--or the host customer when your schedule the meeting (use your best judgement here).

4. Don't drink--if you feel so pressured, order a reasonable glass of wine and simply sip it for a toast. Not drinking is the best--keep your senses about you--most people these days understand if you don't drink and simply don't make a big deal about it!

5. Be overly kind to the service (even if they aren't to you). Abusing the "help" is never good, especially in front of a customer---let's face it, you may be their "help" and you don't want them to abuse you.

6. As with any customer interaction, close for next action, whatever it may be. You are spending valuable shareholder dollars to be with that customer, don't make it simply a social call. Get the business.

Good luck and good selling.

It's a lazy Saturday morning and I am watching the Santa Clause movie with my son. I know it's only September, but Christmas is a "state of mind" in my home. Tim Allen's character has an arguement with his ex-wife about Santa Clause being a "state of mind". That made me think...is success or failure a state of mind? Success, because that's what we want to focus on here, is most certainly not ALL about mindset. Success, however, will not come without having a "state of mind" to succeed. This "state of mind" will motivate and drive you to do the things you need to do to succeed, such as pre-call planning, time management, facing challenging accounts, and much more. Those of you in sales more than an hour realize that we face numerous challenges that can "take us off the market" for a day. If we do not have a "state of mind" that demands success for us (however little our daily success may be), we will be knocked down by the cancelled appointment, the "for sure" deal that tanks, or a bad call from the boss. Whatever your downers are, loose 'em, and change your state of mind to that of success! I mentioned a few ways to do this in my last post, but I am sure there are other ways to do this. Good luck and good selling.

Where to start?

What makes a great sales person? If I could give you all the answers, I would be a best selling author and a very wealthy consultant. That I am not. I do have enough experience, failure, and success to tell you that everything starts with the sales person's ATTITUDE!

Do you know the "old timer" who knows everything? They "know" so much that simply no longer have any use for training, meetings, conference calls, best practices, etc. These are the people I like to call the "eye rollers". The cynicism is is ridiculous. These are the reps who have been around, through the good and the bad, and feel that they have earned the right to not try.

What does this mean to the rest of us? These people can act like a cancer to the organization. Jack Welch recognized these people as a danger to the company. They are especially dangerous if they have any performance above average. It can be hard to justify removing a rep who brings in revenue, even if he brings down others...think about it...the net may be a loss. The influence they have on new reps and experienced reps can be dangerous to morale. Don't fall into the attitude trap. Remember that "misery loves company". If you are trying to better yourself, don't let these people bring you down. Instead:

• Read motivating and skills focused books
• Listen to motivating music and podcasts ( I love Zig Ziglar stuff--some is free!)
• Hang around and talk with the positive, energetic reps.
• Drink some (not all) the company Kool-Aid---know thy master.
• Demand positive thoughts of yourself.
• Visualize your success.

Remember, the buck starts and stops with you. Good luck and good selling.