Sales Blog with Professional Sales Tips

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I’ll never forget. It was probably one of my worst sales calls. It was my first year in sales. Rookie mistake.

I had arranged an appointment with “Bill” who was the VP of Operations at a large electronics manufacturer. Even though I had confirmed the appointment that morning, he seemed startled by my presence when he met me in the lobby.

“Watching Bill “rush” his cigarette was not an enjoyable experience.”

The “Appointment”
When we arrived at his office, he told me he only had about ten minutes to talk instead of the hour I had requested. Something had “come up.” How did I respond? Not too well. I crammed a one-hour prospect call into ten minutes. I may have left a few parts of my presentation out, but I can talk fast so I think I got most of them in.

While I was talking, and stupidly not doing any listening, he lit up a cigarette and proceeded to inhale/exhale as if he were in a high-speed smoking contest. Have you ever seen someone “rush” a cigarette? That’s what he was doing and it was really annoying to observe.

Here’s the visual. I’m talking a million miles a second and he’s sucking down a cigarette as if he were in the Marlboro high-speed smoking Olympics.

Back out at the car I did a little self-debriefing of the call I just concluded. Do you ever do that? You sit in your car and think about what just happened. It’s one of the simplest sales tips you’ll ever get, but a good one. However, don’t spend all afternoon in a prospect’s parking lot or they’ll call the police. I’m talking just a minute or two here.

Sales Tips from the Parking Lot

• We’ve all had prospects schedule appointments with us when we feel they are hoping we don’t show up. I think that was what happened to me in the story above. However, rushing through my sales presentation didn’t help my case. It probably only reinforced what Bill didn’t like about salespeople in the first place (i.e., we do all the talking and we’re frantic when doing it).
• Watching Bill “rush” his cigarette was not an enjoyable experience. Prospects most likely feel the same way when they watch us go supersonic in order to cram in a sales pitch. Neither of these habits is very pretty.
• When we find that we aren’t going to have as much time as we thought with a prospect, we need to introduce ourselves, ask a few questions and schedule another meeting. If they really didn’t want to see us in the first place, they’re unlikely to schedule another appointment. This is a good thing; we can move on. If they actually had an emergency that kept the appointment short, then they will have no issue with rescheduling.  That’s a win-win to me.

Sales Blog Wrap-Up
Slowing down and changing our game plan in this kind of situation will make us appear more professional and less frenzied. It can also provide an opportunity to get back in front of the prospect when he or she can and will give us an adequate amount of time.

Further reading:

• Stop Making Customer Appointments for a Second
• Slow Down and Pay Attention During Customer Appointments and Presentations

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

I took a walk with my best friend in the world yesterday. His name is Fred. I love Fred. He’s my German Shepherd dog. My wife hates when I talk about Fred like this…jealousy.

“…if this guy kept at it long enough he would eventually catch a fish.”

What’s Going on Here?
While we were walking, Fred got very interested in a neighbor, named Joe, that appeared to be fishing in his front lawn. You read that right. And when I say “fishing,” I mean casting a lure in all directions and reeling it in. Over and over and over. And fast. He must have been casting once every 10 seconds.

The problem is that we have no water within about 37 miles of our neighborhood. Sales tips are what I write about in this sales blog; I was hoping that he wasn’t the author of a fishing tips blog. Seemed like ol’ Joe was a bit misdirected.

Fred was about ready to come off his leash because he found all of this so fascinating…we were both in agreement on that. As I got closer, I realized this dry-land angler was actually practicing his casting skills. He was using a rubber lure with no hooks.

He Might Actually Catch a Fish
It occurred to me as Fred and I walked by that if this guy kept at it long enough he would eventually catch a fish. I’m serious. Think about it. If Joe stood on his front lawn long enough, someday there would be a flood that would provide enough water for some fish-like thing to end up on his front lawn. If he relentlessly kept casting that hook-less rubber lure at that fish-like thing, it would eventually get tangled in the line and he could reel it in. Bingo. He just “caught” a fish.

Sales Blog Wrap-Up
If we’re honest with ourselves, we sometimes prospect like Joe. We will eventually land a new customer now and then, but the return on our time and effort can be abysmal because of how we go about it.

• When we take a pure selling-is-just-a-numbers game approach to sales this can happen.
• If we just go through the motions of prospecting, aren’t we making “rubber lure” sales calls?
• Making no effort to qualify prospects can make us dry-land anglers.
• Carelessly throwing cast after cast in the wrong places wastes our time.

Imagine the difference in results and satisfaction if Joe were to put a real lure on his line and carefully cast into water where his research indicated the fish were biting. It’s a much more enjoyable and productive way to prospect for customers too.

Fred was very pleased to contribute some sales tips to his best friend’s sales blog.

Further reading:

• Contrary to popular opinion, sales is NOT just a numbers game.

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

Humor can get us in big trouble with our customers. “But Scott, my customers just love my jokes.”

Don’t be so sure you are brightening their day every time you rip off a joke or launch a one-liner. Here’s what to be careful of.

“…the joke will be on us, and we won’t even know it.”

Sales Blog Comedy 101
Humor is centered on two basic principles.

• It is unexpected.
• It is based on some truth.

It’s that second item above that can get us in trouble. Simply stated, making short jokes about a 6′2″ person is going to fall flat. Why? There’s no element of truth to it. It won’t be funny. However, making a short joke about a man that is 5′2″, “in the spirit of good fun,” might garner some laughs.

While the short person is probably laughing with everyone else, I can assure you with 100% confidence that you have hurt his feelings deeply. You might think everything is cool because he doesn’t seem upset. Wrong. He’s laughing with everyone to cover up the tomahawk you just planted in him.

There Are Always Consequences
What are the consequences of the wrong kinds of humor with customers?

• If you’re careless enough to aim jokes like this at a decision maker, you will ultimately lose their business.
• Comedy that is even targeted at non-decision-makers will result in lost respect, at the least. For you that is, not the one targeted.
• Inappropriate humor aimed at people or groups that aren’t employed at your customer will still cause your customer to lower their estimation of you a notch or two.

Sales Tips on How to be Funny
So what kind of humor is appropriate?

• If you feel the need to make a joke at someone else’s expense…make sure it’s at your expense. Customers love when sales professionals make self-deprecating jokes. You’ll find instances where I’ve taken a few shots at myself in this sales tips blog. Doing that is not only legal, but appreciated by everyone.
• Just about any kind of humor that is not done at the expense of others, including persons or groups outside of your customer, is okay.
• I’d be careful about any verbal clowning that is rated much stronger than PG too. You never know when going too far - is going too far. Play it smart and safe.

Sales Blog Wrap-Up
Here are some sales tips that I know are true. Our words are our strongest and most powerful tool in sales. If we use these words to construct jokes with the intent of laughing at others, the joke will be on us, and we won’t even know it.

Further reading:

• Sale Tip: It’s not about you.

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

We’ve all done it. We’ve sold to the wrong person. We end up spending weeks or even months developing a relationship with someone who doesn’t have the authority to buy from us.

I’m going to share two sales tips below that represent very strong techniques for discovering who you should be selling to.

“Powerful…questions in your hip pocket can mean lasering in on the right person…”

Sales Tips - One
There is no better indicator of the future than what? The past, of course. We can take advantage of that morsel of wisdom by applying it to discover who we should be selling to in an organization (i.e., the decision maker).

Ask the following question and you’ll not only identify decision makers but you’ll most likely also get a heap of valuable additional information not related to decision makers.

“How have these items (services, etc.) been purchased in the past?”

Don’t you love that question? Open ended. To the point. Non-threatening. Be ready to take notes when the prospect starts talking. Gold is forthcoming.

Sales Tips - Two
There’s not much that I’ve come to rely on in this world. There is one thing, however, that we can all count on. People’s egos. Keep the next ego-avoiding question in your arsenal in order to discover who the decision makers are.

“Besides yourself, who else would be involved in this purchase?”

Another great question. First, if the person you’re talking with has absolutely no buying authority, he or she normally won’t admit it (the ego thing). Go ahead and act like they do anyway. This takes them off the hook and frees them to tell you who really is making the buying decisions.

What you’re hoping for in this instance is for the prospect to say something like, “No one else is involved; I am responsible for buying this item.” If instead the prospect says, “Debbie will have to approve this first” then we know we’re not dealing with the decision maker at this point. It’s time to make an appointment with Debbie.

Sales Blog Wrap-Up
Powerful prepared questions in your hip pocket can mean the difference between months of wasted time selling to the wrong person versus lasering in on the right person and writing an order quickly.

Further reading:

• Is Barack Obama a Lone Decision Maker?
• The Three Stooges can teach us about decision makers
• Decision Makers, Vertical vs. Horizontal

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

Imagine for a moment that your bad accounts are like weeds. Don’t feel bad. We all have weeds.

First Let’s Define “Bad Accounts”
What do I mean by “bad accounts?”

• Low sales
• High maintenance
• Low margins
• Low to no commission
• Chronically past due on payments
• Unlimited appetite for your time
• No growth potential

You know what I’m talking about here. We’ve discussed this concept before in this sales blog.

“We become a prisoner of these junk customers.”

Sales Tips for Bad Accounts
The problem with lousy accounts is that they impede our ability to properly tend to our good accounts and find new high quality accounts.

• Weeds can become so dominant in a garden that they hide desirable plants. Bad accounts do the same thing to us. These inferior accounts become so prominent that we can’t see great opportunities sitting right in front of us.
• Weeds suck the nourishment out of the soil in a garden, leaving less for the plants we want to cultivate. We all have a limited amount of energy and time. It’s not smart to squander it on poor quality customers.
• In a crowded garden both the foliage of weeds and choice plants tend to look the same. If we let the weeds in a garden get out of control, it can become impossible to get rid of them without damaging or killing the plants we want to nurture. We lose our ability to differentiate accurately between good and bad. When we are mired down with a bunch of bottom-rung customers we can find ourselves dependent on the meager commission and revenues they bring us while simultaneously not leaving us the time and resources to replace them. We become a prisoner of these junk customers.

Sales Blog Wrap-Up
I know it’s hard to weed your garden. Revenue is revenue regardless of the source, you say. However, not all revenue is equal. We have to balance our time against the ROI (Return on Investment) for all of our accounts.

See “Further reading” below to find out how to eliminate those accounts that are genuine weeds and are squeezing you out of future sales opportunities.

Further reading:

• One of My Most Startling Sales Tips
• Fire a Customer for Fun and Profit

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