Sales Blog with Professional Sales Tips

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There’s a reason virtually all blockbuster movies have an R rating. They have sizzle. People are drawn to intensity and edginess.

In case we’ve forgotten, our customers and prospects are people too. Being human, most of them are naturally drawn to sales professionals that have energy and those that aren’t afraid to push the limits a bit. This is something written about in many selling articles.

“We might…find sales articles that tell us exactly what we need to do to be successful in sales…”

Scott’s Sales Tips Professional Rating System
G: An order processor. No skills needed. Boring. Easily replaced by the customer.
PG: An order taker after a Starbucks tall - no sugar and plenty of room for cream. Might ask if the customer needs some additional items other than what was ordered. Limited cross-selling skills. Just above a yawn in energy level. Replaceable by the customer.
PG-13: Starting to get beyond just taking an order. Pushes the envelope a little by asking about budgets, product needs and decision makers. Customers respond. Salesperson has perceived value in the customer’s eyes.
R: Now we’re talking. This sales professional is a PG-13 but with some extra juice. He or she does everything that the PG-13 does, but does it in a way that doesn’t sound like every other salesperson on the planet. Has enhanced open-ended information gathering skills. Their customers consider them valuable assets.
NC-17: An R on steroids. Has all the attributes of an R but emphasizes the relationships he or she has with the customer. Customers consider them an irreplaceable part of the team.

How Would We be Rated by the Motion Picture Association of America?
Just like movie ratings, the ratings above are not concrete. While most sales tips found in this sales blog are specific, these are not. We might read a sales newsletter or find sales articles that tell us exactly what we need to do to be successful in sales, but we must never forget that our inherent vibrancy and innovative thinking will attract and help us retain customers.

Just ask yourself, when was the last time you and your significant other got a babysitter and went to a G movie?

Further reading: Your Personality is What the Customer Wants to See

To receive this sales ezine by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

We hear the following worn out sales tip all the time. Be professional. When the pursuit of professional behavior blocks the expression of our personality, it can hurt our sales.

“Don’t you get it? These…are part of your unique formula.”

A Story About “Professionalism”
Many years ago I was having lunch with one of the top sales professionals in our organization. His name was Kyle and I was his sales manager. We were having a nice lunch and were discussing sales tips that both of us could use to improve our performance. Please keep in mind that Kyle was a consistent top 10 performer in a very large sales organization.

Our lunch was going smoothly until he said, “I need to work on talking more slowly. I think I come across a little hyperactive to my customers. I just need to tone things down. I’m not professional enough.”

Our Inherent Value
I instantly put my fork down, leaned over the table and said to him, “Kyle, no one will ever accuse you of having low energy, that’s for sure. You definitely don’t waste any time getting your thoughts out either. It’s those things about you that cause people to like you and do business with you. There are millions of low energy, slow talking sales sluggards out there. Why would you want to look and sound like them? Don’t change anything; it will only come across as disingenuous anyway. Don’t you get it? These attributes of yours are part of your unique formula.”

Our Foundation
Our core personality is what makes our sales skills work in the first place. It’s the foundation from which our sales capabilities grow. We’ve all seen people in sales who had outstanding sales skills but sadly had been subjected to a “personality bypass” at an early age. Their successes were usually few. We want to act professionally, of course, but not to the point of masking our individuality and character.

A sales tip to sales managers reading this - please don’t try to change the personalities of sales professionals. It’s not possible. It will only damage relationships with them and will hinder any sales skills training efforts.

Kyle understood my message and has thanked me a dozen times for what I said to him that day. He was promoted into sales management and to this day has fortunately not changed his unique personality. He still talks fast, and we love him for it.

Further reading: What’s the difference between crazy and genius in sales? Results.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Only a few months after starting a new sales job I unexpectedly received a message from our CEO’s assistant letting me know that the CEO needed to chat with me. I knew why he wanted to talk. I had a customer that thought I had charged them too much on some materials I sold them. They told me they were going to complain to the CEO - and apparently they did.

My sales were great at my new job. In fact, I was a top-ten producer after only a few months. This turn of events threw cold water on all of that.

Was I ever in for a big surprise.

“Is this a good sales management strategy that I’ve used about a thousand times…?”

The Call
I was out in the field calling on customers when I got the message. I nervously dialed my cell phone. I was secretly praying that the CEO wouldn’t be in his office. Of course his assistant picked up my call on the first ring and immediately transferred me. Time stood still.

“Scott, I hear that XYZ Company wasn’t too impressed with your sales skills, specifically your pricing. They called me today and didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about you.”

There was, what seemed to me, about a 30-minute pregnant pause at this point since I didn’t really know what to say. I started to mumble something about some sales tips that I had gotten on how to price an order like this.

He interrupted me. “Scott, here’s what I want you to do. Are you listening?”

“Yes sir.” I wasn’t feeling too good at this point.

“I’ll take care of this situation and you keep on doing what you’ve been doing. You’ve demonstrated outstanding sales skills and I’m impressed with your results in the short time you’ve been with us. When you’re aggressively cross-selling to existing customers, finding new business and generally stirring things up you’re going to upset a few people along the way. It’s actually a good sign. I never get calls like this from the folks that are sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. Now go back to selling and quit wasting time talking to me. Goodbye and good job.”

The Aftermath
Was his sales tip on target about high levels of sales activity generating some upset customers? Absolutely.

Did he motivate me to work even harder? Is there any doubt?

Did I feel supported by the organization, specifically the CEO? No question.

Is this a good sales management strategy that I’ve used about a thousand times in my career? Definitely.

Further reading: Sales Tips Fiction: The Customer is in Charge

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Janus was a Roman mythological god that would understand our struggles as sales professionals today. He had a unique attribute that symbolizes one of our biggest sales skills challenges. This attribute allowed him to play two major roles simultaneously. Just like Janus, we also must play two notable roles. We are responsible for two specific job functions that are challenging and often in conflict with one another.

“If we sometimes feel like we’re being overwhelmed in our sales jobs, there’s a reason.”

Who Exactly Was Janus?
Janus was a Roman mythological god who had two faces on the same head looking in opposite directions. He could look both forwards and backwards at the same time. He had the capability to concurrently manage what had already occurred while planning for coming events. He was on the leading edge of multi-tasking, one could say.

How Are We Like Janus?
We perform two primary functions as sales professionals. We need Janus-like sales skills to pull this off because we have to perform both skills simultaneously. Our ability to do this is why sales professionals are often referred to as the elite athletes of the business world.  What are these functions?

1. We manage our existing accounts. Unless we have a sales job where we do nothing but missionary work, we have a group of customers that we must tend. This means keeping them happy and increasing the amount of business we do with them. This is not easy. Customers tend to be messy sometimes as we see from the sales tips, posts and comments throughout this sales blog.

2. We must find new business. Our customers leave us for a million reasons, frequently for reasons that have nothing to do with our sales skills. We are always on the lookout for new business from all quadrants in order to meet our ever-growing sales budget, to replace lost business and to find more profitable customers to displace less profitable ones.

Sales Tip Wrap Up
Simply stated, we have to manage a demanding account base while constantly looking under every rock for new business. Meeting that challenge means we must have:

1. Great time management skills.
2. Ability to work in confusing and unclear environments (both at our customers and at our employer).
3. Innate multi-tasking skills.

If we sometimes feel like we’re being overwhelmed in our sales jobs, there’s a reason. We have to be Janus, but with only one face.

Further reading: A reader asks why prospecting is such a big deal.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Sales management has more in common with global warming than we think. Managing sales professionals, dispensing sales tips and teaching sales skills are not exactly precise sciences. I should know. I was in sales management for years.

“Is there a holy grail of sales tips and information?”

First: Does Sales Management Work?
Just as there is debate regarding the source of global warming, there is also debate whether sales management can actually have a significant impact on sales performance. Is sales management just an escape hatch for war weary sales professionals or can sales managers positively affect their employees’ sales levels? The answer to this depends on so many variables that it is impossible to objectively measure sales management’s impact.

Second: Are There Any Absolute Sales Skills?
On June 24, 1974 Time Magazine published an article entitled, “Another Ice Age?” It postulated that the world was actually cooling down and entering an ice age. They quoted all the usual smart people. These same smart people now say our planet is warming up. I’m not debating the different theories; I’m questioning how much faith we should put in these scientists. We’re trusting them for guidance on this issue.

Are there any absolutes when it comes to sales training and sales management? Is there one single sales tip that works 100% of the time? Is there a holy grail of sales tips and information? I don’t think so.

Third: Why This is Important for Sales Professionals
It’s hard to imagine an organization without some kind of sales leadership. However, just like the theories, facts and opinions about global warming, sales is not a discipline that lends itself to absolutes. Our sales managers don’t have all the answers for us. They’re doing the best they can with the information they have. Most would readily admit this.

Ultimately it’s up to the individual sales professional. We each have to cut our own path. While we can use the help of others, including sales managers, we ultimately must depend on ourselves.

Further reading: Do professional sales trainers agree on critical sales training issues?  Hardly.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer