CRITICISM

by Hank Trisler

So I missed a shot yesterday morning. It happens in tennis. My partner said, "If you'd move your big, flat feet, your big fat ass might follow them and get you to the ball." 

That statement was none the more welcome for being true. I've never learned to gracefully accept criticism and find a lot of people share my view on this. Criticism hurts.


"Constructive Criticism" is an oxymoron. Criticism, by its very nature is destructive. You criticize to destroy the behavior you find offensive.

As managers, salespeople, parents and spouses, we need to correct other people to help them bring their behavior in line with our perceptions of acceptability. The tricky part is doing this without pissing them off so badly they visit physical damage on us. Try this three-step process for delivering criticism and see how it works for you.

START. This is what I'd like to have you do that you are not doing now.

"I'd like to see you meet ten new-to-you people every day."

"I'd like to have you pick up your bedroom every day, after school, before going out to play."

"Please consider moving your feet in the general direction of the ball."

STOP. This is what you are doing now that I'd like to see you stop doing.

"You're production might improve if you stop going to the movies every afternoon with a pint."

"Please stop throwing your clothes on the floor, rather than throwing them in the closet."

"Stop yelling 'YOURS' every time the ball doesn't come directly at you."

CONTINUE. Probably the most important part of the whole sequence. Leave the other party with a feeling of approval and let them know you like them.

"I want to be sure you keep on being a valued member of our team. We need your positive attitude and sense of humor."

"The dedication to your homework is wonderful. Keep on keeping on keeping your grades up." (Kids like this kind of talk.)

"Be sure to keep bringing balls to the game. That's the only reason we let you play."

If you employ the "Start, Stop, Continue" method of delivering criticism, you may well get away with it, but it's still tricky, at best. Most people never learn to do it well. Good luck.

THREE WAYS TO TRAIN

Knowledge + Attitude + Skills = Behavior

by Hank Trisler

A lot of what passes for training these days is some old dog standing up in front of a group and telling them "How I Done it." It consists of war stories and cute-sounding phrases, most which are largely ineffectual and only partially true. That sort of training is a blast for the trainers, but often bores the learners and seldom does much to change behavior.

"What's that you say? Behavior? My job is to teach 'em how to sell, not change their behavior," one might well say. And one might well be wrong. Our job is not so much to teach people what they don't know, but to help people behave as they don't currently behave. Behavior is comprised of Knowledge, Attitude and Skills, as exemplified in the Pawn Broker's Globes above. (I used to say Pawn Broker's "Balls," but that often brings about tittering, another word almost certain to induce tittering.) Let's examine these three words and how you can use them to improve the results of your training programs.

KNOWLEDGE. If a person isn't performing in a certain way and couldn't if his/her life depended on it, the problem is a lack of knowledge. The best ways to convey knowledge are lecture and reading. Lecture has fallen into disrepute, largely due to its overuse and poor quality. Trainers love lecture, as it's the easiest form of teaching to prepare and deliver. You just jump up and run your jaws. It's also the most fun, from a trainer's point of view.       

The key to effective lecture is to see how little of it you can use to convey the bare minimum of knowledge necessary to do the deed. Good lecture is strewn with real world examples and supported with visual aids and written material, from either pass-outs or text books.


The subject of effective lecture has already filled libraries, so I'm not going to bore you with more of it here. The key is to see how little lecture you can get by with and how much learner involvement you can use to supplant the lecture.


ATTITUDES. If the thinking is stinking in your sales force, look to yourself first. Attitudes are caught, not taught. As long as we're slinging platitudes, try, "What you are speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say." Sales critters are like children, in that they will obtain and reflect the attitudes of their leaders. The very best way to get an honest, positive, "can do" attitude in your team is to have and project those qualities yourself.

SKILLS. A tried and true training formula taught me years ago went:

• You tell them how.
• They tell you how.
• You show them how.
• They show you how.
• You drill for skill.

A truly skillful performance will only occur after it has been repeated often enough to commit it to the unconscious mind. Now, you can do this in the field, which is where a lot of us "old dogs" did our learning, but it's godawful expensive compared to drills you can perform in the classroom.


One of the more effective drills I have found is the three-person instant role play. The group is divided into three-person teams: salesperson, customer and a neutral observer. A problem, or objection is displayed and then the salesperson has sixty seconds to deal with it. At the end of the minute, the observer tells the team what he saw and how it might be improved. Then you change roles and go for the next problem. The key is to do things fast, to avoid boredom and to quicken reaction times. Greater detail and lots more exercises are available in NO BULL SALES MANAGEMENT. Get hold of a copy, it'll make money for you.


Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent. If you let your people practice flawed techniques, you'll end up with flawed people giving flawed performances. Your weekly sales meeting is a terrific place for practicing for a half hour, or less. It warms the folks up and get's minds moving, in addition to honing skills.


Any thoughts on training that you'd like to share? This would be an excellent place to do so.

MY GREATEST REGRET

 by Hank Trisler

No, it's not a tattoo. That's one of very few things I've not had a run at. Regrets are actually worthless, as you can do nothing about the past. That ship has sailed.


Failure to act is far more regrettable than any mistake you might make. Malcolm Forbes said, "In looking back, I'm far more sorry for the things I didn't do, than the things I shouldn't have done.


My greatest tragedy of omission is I've lost track of the buyer of the first car I ever sold. When I left the automobile bidness, I also left Seattle and couldn't conceive that I'd ever need the names of my customers again. WRONG!


If I had my hand to play over, I'd never again lose track of a customer. No matter what I might be selling, or where I might be selling it. The only way a customer could get out of my files would be to die out of them.


You'll be exactly the same person in ten years as you are today with the exception of the books you read and the people you meet. The books are another story for another day, but the people is the entire point of this rant.

NEVER FORGET A CUSTOMER. NEVER LET A CUSTOMER FORGET YOU.

MOTIVATING SALES CRITTERS

by Hank Trisler

As a sales trainer, a question I'm sometimes asked is, "Are you one of those motivational speakers?"

The answer is, "Probably not. Motivation occurs internally and is not something one person normally does to another. If I were to motivate your people, what, specifically, would you like me to motivate them to do?"

"Go out and just sell the hell out of my Doogers. Man, we're up to our hips in Doogers and I need my sales critters to make 'em go away, pronto."

Well, I suppose that would be dandy if that's the way it worked, but if you inspire people without some clear direction of what they are to do, they just get all pumped up and run out in the parking lot looking for something to kill. Can't find their car.

Before I begin to design any sales training program, I need the clear answers to four basic questions. When, and only when, the management team and I are in agreement on these questions am I able to help them direct their people. The questions are:

1. What are your people doing well now? The hippocratic oath tells doctors, "If you can do no good, at least do no harm. " Good advice for those of us attempting to increase performance levels.

As a young man, I inherited a sales team heavily reliant on "canned pitches." They had every word memorized and lists of objections with the answers thereto. I HATE canned pitches. I think they sound phony and make one look like the negative perception people hold of salespeople. Accordingly, I banned the use of canned pitches. I told them to go forth and ask intelligent questions and offer logical solutions to the customers, based the their perceived needs.

It was a blood bath. I abolished a system that was working, though not as well as I might have desired, but working nevertheless. Without it, they were lost.

2. What should they be doing better? Let's focus on the specific activities of the sales force. Do they need more prospects? Need to do a better job of need finding? Need better questions? Should they be more persistent in asking for the order?

3. What should they be doing that they are not doing at all? This is fairly straightforward. This is probably what management has been haranguing them about for years. List the desired specific behaviors.

4, Why aren't they doing those things now? Could they do them if their lives depended on it? Pay close attention, as this is where your training exercise is created. If they don't know how to do the desired activities, education is the key. More often, there are other reasons than lack of knowledge. They know how, but they just don't want to do them, or they want to do other things more.

When we have this information in hand, we can go to the next step of program design: how we bring about changes in behavior to improve performance.  Stay tuned, because in our next issue we'll discuss knowledge, attitude and skills, which combine to determine behavior.

THEY’RE ALL SUBSERVIENT WHO ONLY STAND AND WAIT

By Guest Blogger,
Joe Klock, Sr.

   With due apology to John Milton for the above play on his words from “On His Blindness” (his version was “They Also Serve”), I sound the following wake-up call to every American who cares a rat’s ass about our country’s future: 

   Regardless of your political affiliation, ideological leaning, or degree of past apathy, you owe it to yourself, your fellow citizens and your descendants to bone up on the issues and show up at the polls on the first Tuesday of November, 2010.

   However, if we (the sheeple) run true to form, a silent majority of eligible voters will stand on the sidelines or sit in the jeering stands while the fate of the nation is shaped by an energized  minority which DOES care enough to put power into hands that are either inept, misguided, soiled, greedy, or all of the above.

   Every objective poll, most headlines and the consensus views from water coolers, neighborhood taverns and cocktail party palaver throughout the USA reveals that our elected reprehensibles have dug us into an economic ditch that, metaphorically, would make the Grand Canyon resemble a pothole.

   Partisan pundits of every political stripe, in vigorous exercises of both finger-pointing and finger-giving, can agree on very few things, among them being the passionate posit that it’s the other guys’ fault and only their own guys have the right answers.

   That is to say, they point with pride to the past records and future plans of their anointees, while viewing with alarm those with opposing views.

   The undeodorized truth is that the shape we’re in has been sculpted by those of both parties whom we selected as architects of our current governance and who have proven themselves unable and/or unwilling to shore up its foundation, remedy its faults and formulate workable plans for the future.

   Meanwhile, the road ahead is cluttered with cans that have been kicked down it, such as mountainous debts, unsustainable future commitments and unresolved conflicts between law and order.

   A cynical observer might suggest that a proper slogan for our future generations might be “Give me puberty and give me debt,” but like many other phrases spoken in jest, this one is just  too true to be good.

   Arguably sure to vote in November are those who cooked up the witch’s brew of our present condition, plus those who now benefit from the status quo, plus those who hope to do so in the future, plus those who are swayed by sloganeering, plus those who are razzle-dazzled by bloviating broadcasters, plus devotees of fringe fanaticism, plus those who blindly follow the foregoing folk.

   Sadly absent from the polling places in November, unless our Rip Van Winkles are aroused from their apathy, will be that hapless majority among us who will foot the future bills and then punt the problems to our even more hapless begats.

   Now - and only now - is the time to ask every seeker of every office on which you have an opportunity to vote come November, questions like these:
   -What do you see as the problems you will face if and when elected?
   - Exactly how do you plan to combat them?
   -Will your party support this effort?
   -  Specifically how?
 
   Pose your questions by snail-mail, phone or (preferably) in-person buttonholing, and don’t allow yourself to be brushed aside by generalized talking points, references to irrelevant past events and/or personal attacks having nothing to do with the issues.


   Above all, insist on finding out where each candidate stands on balancing future budgets and dealing with present debts, including such “third rail” issues as so-called entitlements that can’t possibly be honored.

   Chances are, you are compelled to wrestle with problems similar those listed above in your everyday life, so why shouldn’t your government?

   Where do you fit in? Thought you’d never ask!

   It has been wisely written and spake that there are three kinds of people in the world: Those who make things happen, those who watch thing happen and those who, after happenings have occurred, haven’t the foggiest idea of why and how they DID happen.

   Come November, you pays your money (in future installments) and takes your choice - or you just stands and waits while others do the choosing.

   If you’re tempted to be a waiter, remember this cynical paraphrase of the Good Book sung by Mordred, bastard son of King Arthur in the musical “Camelot:”  It’s not the earth the meek inherit, it’s the dirt.
 
   Another jest that’s just too true to be good.
 

Freelance wordworker Joe Klock, Sr. (joeklock@aol.com) winters in Key Largo and Coral Gables, Florida and summers in New Hampshire. More of his "Klockwork" can be found at www.joeklock.com

CRM REVISITED YET AGAIN

by Hank Trisler

Today I got a note from an old pal. He speaks of being too late for the blog, but it's never too late to express a good idea.

"Hank,
 

"Your quest for a new CRM got me to thinking that the direction of more reports and features, as commented on your blog, is just so wrong. It is the direction that the non-field folks wanted, and since they approve the budgets, the warriors (that would be sales folks) get crappy goods for CRM. 

"To my current way of thinking, the right direction is to ask, “How do I get this to work with my handheld (iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, etc.)?” I don’t know the answer, but that is the real question. Anything that can’t be done by a sales person with their smart phone is probably generating questionable return.

"My two bits – sorry I didn’t get it into the blog."

Paul

Paul Sakamoto is the CEO of DFT Microsystems, a high tech firm based in Montreal. He's been my customer and friend for over thirty years and I value his opinion highly.

I'm strongly leaning in Paul's direction. My whole system now consists of Outlook kluged together with Word and running on a laptop and my iPhone. I'm pretty much self-contained wherever I go and I don't have to file no steenking reports with anydamnbody.

Of all the systems I heard of, by far the most fascinating to me was that created by Dale Loflin. He has stitched together Android, Gmail, Google documents and some arcane incantations to come up with something that will handle all his correspondence, record keeping  and time management and do it all by voice actuation. That, to me, is the ultimate Road Warrior. His whole office is in his hip pocket. I've asked Dale to tell me more about his system, but he hasn't had time to respond, yet. 

Is this information something you'd like to have? Have you any systems of which you are particularly fond, especially those of the totally portable variety? Please let me know where your head is by posting a comment below.

CONSISTENT PERFORMANCE

By Hank Trisler

Terry Buchanan is the sales manager for B&H Australia, a purveyor of computer projection equipment in the state of Victoria, Australia. He runs a five-person sales team and wrote in an e-mail: "The biggest problem I have is keeping everyone focused on achieving consistent results. Too often a person has a great start to the month and, for some reason, seems to start spinning his wheels."

Well, Terry, don't feel like the Lone Ranger. Anyone who has managed a sales team for more than forty-five days has experienced exactly what you're going through. 

The selling profession, by its very nature, is a "fowl or feathers" existence. The only managers I have seen who have achieved truly consistent performance have screwed their teams up to the point that no one was selling anything, and you sure don't want that kind of consistency.

The process of long-term strategic planning and the setting of long-term goals are actually counterproductive to sales consistency. Our minds don't seem to comprehend "I will," but only really hook up with "I am." Learning to talk to and program the unconscious mind is, therefore, the key to getting the best out of our people.

Manage activity, not results. The manager counsels with his salesperson and says, "We need to have you sell two million dollars worth of product this year to help us meet our company goals. Two million is your bogie."

The salesperson looks blankly at the manager and nods. He is not thinking about the company goals. He's thinking about his bills, he's thinking about a new car, a suit of clothes and the fact that his wife's washing machine has been making that funny noise again. It is clearly impossible to comprehend precisely what he must do to sell two million dollars worth of product and, frankly, that goal is fairly low on his list of priorities.

Enlightened managers find out what the salesperson wants to accomplish and finds a way to tie that into the company goals. We need be able to convert results (which we cannot control) into activities (which we can influence, if not control). A Sales Activity Calculator appears on page 172 of NO BULL SALES MANAGEMENT and is a fine tool to help you convert results into actions.

If the salesperson clearly understands and believes that when his feet hit the floor in the morning, he needs to make X calls, which will result in Y presentations, which will result in Z sales, the activities necessary to achieve the results are clear, both at the conscious and unconscious levels.

If you don't have a copy of NO BULL SALES MANAGEMENT, you can get one through our website www.nobullselling.com or call, write or e-mail me and I'll send you a copy of the Sales Activity Calculator.

Keep Goals and Contests short. Long-term goals only become real to us during the final days of the period. If you set a contest wherein the person who sells the most product this year will receive an all-expense-paid vacation, most of the work will be done during the first couple of weeks, when the excitement is high, and during the last couple of weeks when the deadline is looming. Worse yet, someone may run off and hide early on and the rest of the team will quit trying as the deed has already been done.

We can learn a lot from General Motors accounting. Each month consists of three ten-day periods. All contests, reports, and incentives are based on these ten-day periods. If you have a good ten days, you get to start all over again to make the next ten even better. Rather like the Mess Sergeant's last meal. If you have a crappy ten days, it is in the past and you get to start all over, fresh and clean.

A variation of Murphy's Law states that, "Any task will expand to completely consume the time allocated for its completion." Keep the time frames short and you'll get the most consistency possible in this inherently inconsistent business.

CURING REMORSE

by Hank Trisler

You've worked your buns off. You've listened, probed, supported and finally the sale has been made. The contract inked. The taillights blinking as the car rolls out the door. The buyer has been notified that the home of their dreams is at long last theirs. You can now sit back and breathe easy, right?

Not in this world, moose breath. Your buyer who was so hot to trot just two hours ago has now come out of the gas. The ether has dissipated. Your buyer is in the grip of the dread Buyer's Remorse and if you don't do something about it, your deal is going to blow higher than a kite.

Buyer's Remorse is a nearly universal affliction, particularly with big ticket items of high emotional impact. They like it, they want it, they try it on and it fits great, they can't live without it, so they buy it. And they HATE it. What happened?

They went back into the real world and the people who live there have spun their negative magic. 

"That's an interesting choice? What did they ever do about that safety recall?"


"Is buying a home now a good thing in view of the economic outlook?"


"You paid HOW much? Did you shop around at all?"


Yes, the people in the real world are almost always eager to tell a new buyer what a dumb deal they just made. And the closer the relationship to the buyer, the more devastating the comments are likely to be. You see the only way you can protect someone is to have them keep things just the way they are. Any time you make a change, you run a risk. Relatives are risk averse.


What to do? Prepare your buyers for the onset of remorse. Explain to them that, though they are deeply in love at this moment, they will be exposed to toxic influences the instant they part company with you. "The people you love the most will cause the most damage, because they care and want to protect you." It's far easier to deal with negative emotions if you understand the cause. 


Give them some "Buyer's Remorse Pills." For years we have given our buyers a little bottle, or envelope, containing cinnamon red-hot candies. The package is labeled:

BUYER'S REMORSE PILLS

In the event of nausea caused by the onset of the

dreaded Buyer's Remorse, promptly take two pills and 

call me in the morning. 

You made a good decision and 

nothing has changed but your feelings. 

You'll feel better soon.

People have called often and told me how effective the pills had been in the treatment of remorse. When we understand what is happening to us and can laugh about it, the threat and the problems minimize and vanish.

What are your experiences with Remorse and what have you found effective?

THE HUNT FOR CRM (IV)

by Hank Trisler

WOW! When I started this thread, I had no idea how much interest there was in CRM. I'm delighted and amazed by the quantity and quality of the discussion.

The more I dig into this matter, the deeper is my confusion. Not only is there no clear winner for everyone, I can't even find a clear winner for me. I like some parts of nearly every program, but have yet to find one that meets all my criteria.

Today, I participated in a webinar celebrating the release of a nearly-all-new Sales Nexus, the brainchild of Craig Klein, one of the nicest and brightest guys you'll ever meet. This program is targeted on sales teams of from 5 to 5,000 seats. It competes quite ably with Salesforce.com, who has been the one to beat in the big CRM game. Teams need reports and forecasts and charts and graphs and other stuff that sole practitioners eschew. Sales Nexus provides these in abundance.

Today, they rolled out a new Email Marketing segment of their program that is a solid world-beater. You can set up a campaign to reach a targeted audience of, say, 5,000 warm bodies. It will send out your 5,000 emails (but who won't?) AND notify you when your email is actually opened, AND tell you when the body clicks on the link you so cleverly included. This indicates interest on the part of the body, who is then elevated to prospect and his/her name jumps up on your screen as someone you ought to be talking to. This means that sales critters spend their time talking to people who have at least a passing interest, as opposed to spending all day chasing their tails.

They charge you a flat rate per month depending on the number of users, but regardless of use. You can send 50,000 emails a month and it costs no more. If your people are silly enough not to want to use Sales Nexus, they can continue to use Outlook and it will interface one with the other. This means you don't have to pressure or coerce your people to use your hot new program.

The frosting on the cake is the Sales Mastery Institute, which is a collection point for videos, blogs, articles, webinars and tutorials on anything pertaining to sales. This can be an enormously valuable resource for any sales team and take a little of the load off the training department.

So here's the way I see it from where I sit this afternoon. If I were faced with the task of herding the aggregation of cats that is the typical sales force, I think I'd run for Sales Nexus. If I were me, as a single operator, trying to sell a product or service and seeking to build my personal brand and stand out from the madding crowd, I'd take a long look at Ace of Sales. I don't imagine you'll go very far wrong with either of them.

We don't have to stop talking about this just because I've finished my thread. I'll be delighted to pass along whatever you experience and let you know what I learn. Keep them cards and letters coming, sports fans.

THE HUNT FOR CRM (III)

by Hank Trisler

You may remember that Dale Loflin wrote eloquently--in comments to the first post in this thread--about a system he kluged together based on GMail and Android. He says it will send and receive email, write letters, do everything but wax your car and do it all by voice activation. There's even a GPS which he claims is superior to that offered by Garmin.

Dale is an extremely intelligent and credible gentleman and I trust him implicitly. I could no more operate a system like his than run a marathon, much less invent and assemble it. If you want to know more about it, write Dale and he'll probably steer you in the right direction. He doesn't sell them for a living, though he probably should.

ACT!, by Sage, is the CRM package most often mentioned by the folks who wrote me. It is without question a very capable, if uninspiring package. The most common complaint was about the customer support, or lack thereof. I downloaded a thirty-day trial package, which claimed it would link with Outlook, but not in the trial package. Same with Word. 

I don't want to download a trial package to be told what it will do, I want to see it work. The package further instructed me not to call, as there was no support available on the trial package.

If there's ever a time you need support, it's when you're first using a program. I wrote a scathing email to ACT!, and got a response from a nice lady who promised to call me to address my concerns the following day. She never did.

I uninstalled ACT! with a bit of sadness, as I'd thought it might be the answer to my problem. It even ran on the desktop, as I wanted it to.

My friend, Jeffrey Gitomer, was only one of MANY people writing to tell me about his program, Ace of Sales. It is a bona fide, guaranteed winner. If you want lots of tables, graphs and reports, look elsewhere. If you just want to sell stuff and brand yourself and stand out from the madding crowd, take a good look at Ace of Sales. It will guide you to create email that really packs a punch. It will do ezines, flyers, post cards, letters and greeting cards quickly, easily and professionally. If you can't look good with this program, you're just not good looking.

Ace of Sales runs "in the cloud," which means all your data resides on Jeffrey's servers. This is not nearly as scary as it sounds, as the data is encrypted and safeguarded. Running in the cloud means you can access your information with any computer, anywhere you can log onto the internet. It doesn't handle incoming email, so you still need to run Outlook, or something as an email client. The downside of running in the cloud is that it seems to run a bit slow. So plan ahead.

The real ball-buster for me is that it will not sync with my iPhone. My iPhone is permanently affixed to my body and any program that will not sync with it is a non-starter, in my view.

If you want a program to help you plan a sales campaign and then execute it with style and panache, you're going to have a hard time beating Ace of Sales.

I have a couple more programs that I'm evaluating, so I'll plan to write my final installment tomorrow. If you have any thoughts, comments or questions, now would be an excellent time to flush them out, you should pardon the expression.

THE HUNT FOR CRM (II)

by Hank Trisler

I had no idea what I was doing when I put out the call for help deciding what CRM package I should employ. I had no idea not only how many CRM packages there were, but how many GOOD CRM packages there are.

I promised you a report on my research and report I will, but I'm just going to hit the high spots (IMHO) and leave it up to you to determine which package delivers the right blend of features for you.

I'm going to tell you a little about one, two or (at the most) three packages a day for the next few days. At the end of that time I hope to have my own decision made, though I know how I'm leaning as we speak. Rather than attempt any rating whatever, I'm just going to tell you about them in the order they came to me.

The first is a really nice little package called Cyrano. This is the brainchild of Scott Zimmerman, who has taken all the grunt work out of Relationship Management. He has even removed the computer. You don't have to enter any data, write any letters or do anyotherdamnthing. You just call his toll-free number and tell his people about your customer, what he/she likes and what should be done in the area of follow up. Scott and his team take it from there. You hang up the phone and go out in search of another live one. This is the individual sales person's dream. If you absolutely detest the idea of employing CRM, Cyrano is one of the first things you should look at. The followup system for those who hate followup. Call Scott Zimmerman at 330-848-0444 x 2 for a pleasant chat.

Highrise is a slick looking program among the many who have chosen to run "in the cloud," rather than on your desktop. For the uninitiated among us, this means that all the data is stored on Highrise's servers, rather than on the box in your office. The big benefit is that it doesn't matter which type of computer (PC, MAC) you use, or even if it's not your computer at all, you can log on to your personal web site and it's just like you were in your office. Prices start at FREE, for which you get precious little, and run up to $150.00 a month for which you get unlimited users and 50,000 contacts. If this isn't enough, you're too big a deal for this homey blog.

There are two to get you started. I'll take a look at some more tomorrow. Meanwhile, please feel free to express any opinions you have in the comments section. Lots of folks are listening in.

THE HUNT FOR CRM

by Hank Trisler

More years ago than I care to remember, in the dark days of DOS, I stumbled upon a contact manager called TeleMagic. I thought it the most wonderful invention since indoor plumbing and immediately signed up to be a dealer.

I sold TeleMagic at high levels until they decided to come out with a Windows version. It was horrible; slow and buggy. After an extended period of suffering, I took on a package--out of Australia--called Tracker. It ran well on Windows and was a thoroughly adequate contact manager. The Aussies never quite got the hang of marketing in North America, however, and soon ran out of money and lay, smoldering, at the side of the road.

Since I was without product to sell, a friend introduced me to GoldMine. This was the beginning of the transition from Contact Manager to Customer Relationship Manager. It was amazing. It would handle all my correspondence, my appointments, even manage my faxes and emails. I loved it and sold it happily for nearly ten years. Eventually, GoldMine wanted more time from me than I was willing to commit, so I stopped selling it, but remained a happy and devoted user.

Fast forward to a new computer running Windows 7. GoldMine wouldn't run on it. No sweat, I'd just upgrade to the current iteration. I called the home office and was told they wanted $1,100.00 to get me current. ELEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS? Do they think Mom and Dad were cousins? I ought to be able to buy ten contact managers for that kind of bucks.

And so, today, I'm on the hunt for a new Customer Relationship Manager. I've downloaded the demo for ACT!, but found it to be sorely lacking in the demo department. I'm looking for something that works and doesn't require a pilot's license to drive it. I need your help to tell me what you're using and how it's working for you. When I have some data compiled and a decision made, I'll feed back the results for our mutual benefit. Here are the factors I consider important in a CRM package.

• An excellent word processor, or integration with Word.
• An auto-dialer.
• An excellent email client, or integration with Outlook. It needs to be able to do email blasts and hide the names and addresses of the recipients.
• Obviously a trick calendar with lots of alarms and ticklers.
• Synchronization with iPhone.
• Prefer being able to network with one other computer, but not essential.

You'll notice that I have not included reports, as I have no one to read them. I also omit forecasting, as I think it's a joke.

So there you have it. Help me find a CRM solution and I'll share with you the fruits of our investigation. I'm thinking it will be interesting, educational and fun.

IN BUSINESS YOU ARE ALWAYS ON STAGE

Guest blogger Jeb Blount provides tips on creating a positive impression on your customers by controlling the behaviors you allow them to observe.

 

In sales, the people who buy from you are watching your every move and making judgments which influence whether or not they will buy from and continue buying from you. Although you may not have ultimate control over what they think, you can take steps to insure that their impression of you is positive.  

My brother in law owns a large rental equipment business in Georgia. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur he was a Sales Professional in the computer industry. Because he was in sales he is quick to give the benefit of the doubt to the salespeople who call on him. Recently, over dinner, he told me a story about an insurance agent who made a cold call on him. 

This year he bought a new building for his business. Prior to buying this building he had rented. For Brad this was a big move and owning his building is a matter of extreme pride. He even invested in landscaping to make the front of his building look great. He told me how he had personally supervised the landscapers.

A few days after he put in the new landscaping he was standing at the counter looking out at the parking lot through the front windows when he noticed a well dressed lady step out of a late model car holding a briefcase. He said that he instantly knew that it was a salesperson and readied himself for a pitch. But what happened next changed everything. He said the salesperson was holding a cigarette and before walking in his door tossed the unfinished butt into his new landscaping.

Brad told me that when he saw that happen his walls went up. In his words, “after that her chance of selling me anything was zero.” I asked him if he told her what she had done. He said no, “because I really didn’t want to get into a confrontation. I just politely told her that was not interested. The bad thing is that I was actually looking for insurance quotes – but not from her.”

The salesperson walked out of the door clueless. In fact she had probably done this on dozens of occasions with no consequences because no one really cared. However, because she did in on this occasion, with this particular business owner, she missed out on what could have been a big sale.

Now after hearing this story, you are probably thinking, “what a stupid thing to do – I would never do that.” I thought the same thing. In fact, I thought he was making it up until last week when I was sitting in the lobby of one of my clients and observed a salesperson park in the handicap parking spot (because it was close) and then walk through the hedges rather than on the side walk. He walked in the front door, gave the receptionist his card, and sat down next to me. I just shook my head.  I bet he repeats this rude, inconsiderate behavior every day and he was clueless that somebody important might be watching.

Again, you may be thinking to yourself, I would never do this and you may be right. But the question you should be asking yourself is what habits you have that could potentially create a negative perception of you with your customers and prospects. It could be your style of dress, a dirty or bent business card, disorganized samples, typos and grammar mistakes in written communication, your table manners at business dinners, a cluttered car, bad breath, talking too much, or behavior that you allow your prospects and customers observe. Think hard, and be honest with yourself. Then begin the process of changing these behaviors. 

In sales and business you are always on stage. Everyone from the guys in the guard shacks, to the receptionists, to the decision makers are watching you and based on their perceptions, deciding if they like you or not. Never, ever forget that when it comes to business, employment, and relationships people don’t buy your products, services, resume, experience, or past achievements - People Buy You.  

If you want to close more business, advance your career and ultimately earn a higher income it is imperative that you work tirelessly to influence these perceptions; because although, being likeable won’t necessarily guarantee that People Buy You, being unlikeable will almost certainly guarantee that they won’t.

Jeb Blount is the CEO of SalesGravy.com, the world’s largest sales career website. A respected thought leader on sales and sales leadership, he is author of three books, People Buy You: The Real Secret to what Matters Most in Business, Sales Guy’s 7 Rules for Outselling the Recession, and Power Principles. He is the author of more than 100 articles on sales and sales leadership and the host of the top rated Sales Guy Podcast. When you buy Jeb’s new book, People Buy You, today, you’ll also receive thousands of dollars worth of bonus gifts from sales growth leaders – learn more at www.PeopleBuyYou.com.

FRAZZLED BUYERS

by Hank Trisler

Your buyers may well be too busy for you. They had thought their lives would be a little easier by now, but no such luck. They were rather pleased when they survived the round of layoffs last year, but now they find themselves doing not only all the work they had, but all the work foisted off on them by demise of their departed compatriots. They're just flat buried.

And they can't even depend on technology to save them. They thought new computers would cut the work load. FAT CHANCE. The learning curve is so steep on all these new toys that they spend most of their time just trying to learn how to do what used to be easy with the old stuff.

And then there's social networking. The boss wants them to tune into Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and God only knows what else. The idea is to learn from others in a social setting and thereby extend their reach. These folks are stretched so thin they're about to burst and it doesn't look like it's going to get better soon.

Now along come you, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed salesperson seeking a "relationship." Here's the bad news. Your buyers don't want more relationships, they want more time and less hassle. If you can add value and do it in such a way that the decisions are quick and easy for your customer, you have a chance, but we all know that's easier said than done.

Hope is riding over the hill. Jill Konrath, author of Amazon Best Seller Selling to Big Companies, has written another goodie. Snap Selling sets forth four specific rules for successfully dealing with the frazzled buyers we encounter today:

1. .Keep it simple
2. Be INvaluable
3. Be aligned with the customer
4. Raise prioities

Well, fair enough, but just how do we go about achieving those objectives? That's what the book is about, pilgrim. Jill writes in a clear, straightforward, no-nonsense style that conveys the information in a readable, understandable and enjoyable manner. If you've experienced any problems getting your fair share of your customer's mind, get Snap Selling just as fast as you can. When you click on this link, you'll get a whole lot of free stuff, too, but the real deal is the competitive edge you'll get from the book. Don't miss it.

Is Relationship Selling Dead?

By Guest Blogger, Jill Konrath, author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies

It sure feels that way today! You rarely reach your prospects on the phone and when you do, they quickly brush you off. When you’re in meetings, they want you to get right to the point.

Sometimes they’re so busy multi-tasking, that you’re not even sure if they’re paying attention. Even your long-term customers fail to return your calls for months, making you wonder what you did wrong. 

Welcome to the new normal! Your prospects are suffering from Frazzled Customer Syndrome, a debilitating condition brought on by increased expectations, excessive workloads, unrealistic deadlines and fewer resources.They’re good people who are doing their very best to survive in a frenetic workplace. Their calendars are overflowing, they’re constantly falling behind and they feel powerless to stop the escalating demands on their time. 

The truth is, they don’t need another “relationship.” They barely get to see their best friends anymore. They even eat lunch at their desk everyday so they can get more done. It’s all work, work, work. New relationships are a low priority. 

But you want a relationship! Of course you do. You’re a relationship seller. Your best customers love you. They value your work. They refer others to you. And, you love them back even more and take great care of them. Working with people like this feeds your soul – and pays well too!

Wanting to replicate these strong relationships is natural. But establishing that great connection can be a real challenge when dealing with stressed out people who seem more intent on pushing you away than inviting you in.

Here’s the good news! Underneath all that rude, brusque behavior are normal human beings who desperately want relationships with people who they can trust to help them achieve their goals.
That person could be you. But first, you need to understand what’s going on in their mind in order to create the connection you want.

What Your Prospects Think.

Whenever you deal with frazzled prospects their brains immediately start firing off alert signals: “Warning. Pay attention. Salesperson.” While you may not see yourself that way, they do and that’s what matters.
They evaluate your voicemails, emails and initial conversation to determine if having a more in-depth conversation with you is worthwhile. They make lightning-quick decisions to allow you access to them based on these criteria:

• Is this aligned with what I need to accomplish?
• How big a priority is it? What’s the urgency?
• Does this person provide value?
• How simple is it? Will it take lots of effort?

Unless you can convey all this very quickly, you won’t get your foot in the door. But it doesn’t stop there. To retain or grow a relationship, you have to keep your focus on these decision-criteria at all times too.

Relationship selling today goes far beyond the warm fuzzy feelings that you get from working with people you like and vice versa. It’s about creating partnerships where you’re a contributing team member, working towards your client’s short- and long-term success objectives.

SNAP Rules Change the Game

You need to follow the new SNAP Rules to be successful with the “new” relationship selling. Here they are:

Rule 1: Keep It Simple
Your goal is to ensure maximum simplicity in everything you do. That’s going to require you to look at all aspects of your interactions with your prospects to see where complexity can be eliminated or minimized.

When you keep it simple, you make it easier for your them to buy from you.

Rule 2: Be iNvaluable
Today’s crazy-busy prospects want to work with sellers who “know their stuff” and bring them fresh ideas on a regular basis. Perhaps you’ve never even seen that as your role. But today it’s essential to turn yourself into the competitive differentiator.

When you become invaluable, people choose you over competitors, are less price conscious, and remain loyal.

Rule 3: Always Align
This is all about relevance and risk. At the onset of your relationship, clients need to see an immediate connection between what you do and what they’re trying to achieve. As they move through their decision-making process, they need to know that the alignment extends into core beliefs they value in the people they work with.

When you’re aligned with their critical business objectives and core beliefs, clients want to work with you.

Rule 4: Raise Priorities
It’s an absolute imperative to work with frazzled prospects on their priority projects. With their limited capacity, that’s all they can currently focus on. Because your prospect’s priorities are constantly shifting, you need to be alert to what’s going on in their organization.

When you raise priorities, your sales process goes much faster and you get the business with less competition.

Relationship selling isn’t dead. In fact, it’s more alive than ever before. You still need to connect with your prospects on a personal level, but it’s no longer sufficient.

You have to earn the right to have a relationship with them first.

They want your expertise focused on their priority business objectives, issues and challenges. They want you to continually bring them fresh ideas and provocative insights. They’re looking for you to simplify the complex and make their life easy.When you do this, they’ll be friends forever.
—-
Want to learn more about the new rules of selling to crazy-busy prospects? To get four FREE sales-accelerating tools and download two chapters of SNAP Selling, visit www.SnapSelling.com or email jill@snapselling.com

IS PASSION NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS?

by Hank Trisler

A number of years ago I began a correspond-
ence with Howard, a young man who had bought No Bull Selling and wrote for clarification on some issues. I've enjoyed our little chats, as Howard often asks thought-provoking questions.

Recently, the company for which Howard had been working shut down his sales office and gave him the Rubber Key. This gives him an opportunity for a career adjustment and Howard is facing that opportunity with characteristic introspection. Appearing below is a message he sent me this afternoon. I'm hoping you will give him some important insights and enlighten me, as well.

Hank,

Many super successful people say that you should follow your passion when selecting your career.  Here are a few examples:

"If you want to make a lot of money go to Wall Street.  More importantly though, do what you would do for free.  Having passion for what you do is the most important thing.  I love what I do." - Warren Buffett

"I'm a firm believer that you need to love what you're doing to be successful at it.  Passion is a must for great success." - Donald Trump

"This life lesson, which first clicked for me at age twenty-eight and has continued to show up at various crossroads since that time, is that there is no Plan B for passion.  Do what you love and love what you do.  Plan A has to come first.  Besides, Plan B sucks!" - Chris Gardner

On the other hand, you have someone like Larry Winget who says:

"Passion is a load of crap.  I know many passionate people.  They are passionately stupid, passionately wrong and passionately incompetent.  Passion and success have about as much to do with each other as gravy and Raisin Bran.  But this is the trash being dumped on us by the ill-informed motivational idiots who know little about true success but are quick to tell you how to achieve it.  No business ever makes it based on passion.  No successful business person every made it to the top based on passion." 

Wow, talk about opposite extremes!  What do you make of that?  Who's right?  In my job search, should I only accept a position if I'm "passionate" about it, or should I accept a "good" job when I find one and focus on making a living for my family?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks, 

Howard

Now, I don't know Larry Winget, but he strikes me as a brass-bound idiot. I can think of few outlooks as bleak as facing a long life doing something about which I feel no passion.

What do you think?

THRIVING IN A TOXIC ATMOSPHERE

by Hank Trisler

My email tells me that President Obama is driving us all to hell in a handbasket. He's screwed up healthcare and is swamping us under an avalanche of illegal aliens.

Congress is passing all manner of laws from which they are exempt. 

Global warming is melting the icecaps and threatening to submerge our very continents.

Those parts left sticking up will soon be rendered uninhabitable by the chemtrails of toxic materials being laid down daily by jet aircraft.

My morning paper tells me that the City of San Francisco is going to boycott the state of Arizona because of an immigration law they just passed.

What the hell is going on? Are these people all nuts? Is there no good news anymore? I feel like I'm wallowing in a sea of negativity and this is not particularly good, as I have a business to run. I haven't time for all this angst. I can't afford the luxury of stinking thinking.

What am I going to do? What are you going to do? How can we thrive in this toxic atmosphere?

Speaking only for myself, I'm going to severely limit my exposure to negative information. Yes, I know "denial" is not a river in Egypt, but I just can't continue to stand here and get splattered with crap.

As regards every piece of information that comes to me, I'm going to ask myself, "Can I do anything about this?"

Much of the data inundating me is completely beyond my control. Yes, Obama is ruining the country, but damn it we elected him and we have to let him run his course, like a bad case of the flu. 

There is absolutely nothing I can do about chemtrails. Write my elected representatives? Surely you jest. These poor bastards are in worse shape than the rest of us, just trying to hold onto their jobs. They can't do anything and probably wouldn't if they could.

When I have determined there is nothing I can do, that's exactly what I'm going to do. NOTHING! I'm going to do nothing and I'm not going to let some clown make me feel guilty about it.

The next question is, "Should I do something about it?" In the past, when I have gotten a negative email, along with a request for some futile action, I have forwarded it along to a select group of people whom I would seemingly like to make as miserable as I am. NO MORE.

The only emails I'm forwarding will have to do with puppies and kittens and funny jokes. I'm not only going to focus on making myself feel better, but spreading the good feelings to those around me.

I'm going to call some people with whom I have not spoken in a while and tell them what they mean to me. Tell them how important they are. It may shock and frighten them, but that's their problem.

Does this make any sense to you? Have you any methods for dealing with negativity that you'd be willing to share? Please consider this your forum to do so.

HE LIKES ME...

by Hank Trisler

Jennifer, who teaches my "gentle" yoga class, recently returned from a month's excursion to India. Naturally, she was eager to teach us all she'd learned. After a half-hour of her forcibly dismembering us, I asked her what the Hindi word for "gentle" was.

She admitted she didn't know, which I allowed was all too obvious. Several of us had a little chortle and we went on to complete an hour-and-a-quarter of medieval torture.

After the class, a stern faced gentleman--unknown to me--strode up to me and told me that yoga was a meditative process and that comments like mine were not appropriate.

Well now, I'm not real accustomed to people telling me what is or is not appropriate and I don't wish to become so accustomed. I told him I was thankful to him for helping me correct my behavior in such a way as to be more acceptable to him, but I really didn't mean it. I had the jaws.

Now I should be a big enough boy to laugh this sort of thing off, but I guess I'm not. Every time I'd see this guy, I'd get the jaws all over again and fix him with the notorious "stink eye." He would return in kind and we'd stalk around the room like a couple of dogs with their backs up. I don't know if he was enjoying this, but I wasn't. I hate to spend all my time angry. Especially in yoga class.

Paul Castain wrote in his excellent Sales Playbook blog about having a grim expression on his face as a natural state. Well, I must admit to the same shortcoming. I think I'm just looking serious, but folks have told me I look like I just ate a piece of excrement. I thought about how I look when I'm with people who like me. I smile. They smile. We smile. I wondered how I would look at the fellow in my yoga class if I thought he liked me and decided to smile at him.

Yesterday, I smiled at him and bade him a "GOOD MORNING." He looked like I slapped him. Obviously he hadn't experienced the same revelation that I had. I decided to further enlighten him by telling others of my discovery. I pointed him out to several people in the class and told them that he liked me. He must like me, or he wouldn't go out of his way to help me correct my behavior. They all agreed that he must like me and we smiled. He didn't, but I'm sure he'll come around in the fullness of time.

I meet people while walking my dog and usually just nod. I figured that's enough for people I don't even know. For the past couple of days, I've been doing something different with those I encounter. As I approach them, I think,  "He/she likes me," and it makes me smile. Almost without exception, everyone has smiled back at me. It's kind of fun. They're smiling, I'm smiling, we're smiling. Sure beats hell out of having the crimson posterior all the time.

If you're in a sporting mood, try thinking that everyone you meet likes you and see if it makes you smile more. I'd sure be interested in getting some more experiences to add to my research.

CUSTOMER CONFRONTATION

by Hank Trisler

Nick's on Main is a terrific little restaurant in Los Gatos, about 7 miles from me. I love the place and am especially fond of his meatloaf, which is without equal. Nick is a friendly and attentive owner and a master chef. I see him two or three times a week at my tennis club and always look forward to dining with him. That's why I was so surprised at recent events.

Barbara and I went to Nick's last week, anticipating our usual extremely gratifying experience.We were somewhat less than enthused. The Kobe Burger was well-done, rather than Medium-rare. It was still good, but not what we had expected. My Pulled Pork Sandwich was tasty, but oozed oil like an old Chevrolet.

Nick came out of the kitchen to see how we were enjoying out lunch, as is his custom. We told him it was just fine.

Damn. Why did we lie to him? We had just been bitching to each other and Nick comes out and we tell him everything is alright. We've asked ourselves that several times in the past few days and some answers have surfaced.

1. We didn't want to hurt his feelings. Chefs are notoriously touchy about their offerings and we didn't want to cause a scene.
    
2. We felt there was nothing to be gained. In the worst case he'd tell us to go to hell and find someplace else to eat. We knew better than that about Nick. In the best case, he'd offer to take back the food or credit us for the check. We didn't want either of those, as we'd already eaten most of the food and don't want a credit on the bill for food we had eaten. There was really nothing at that point that Nick could do. 

So we took the coward's way out and smiled and left and then I wrote a less-than-favorable review in Yelp. Oh, it wasn't a bomb, I gave him three out of five stars, but it was not what he was accustomed to and it pissed him off.

This morning, in the locker room, he asked me why I had written a poor review when I had told him all was well. I felt like the time my father had caught me stealing nickels out of the Coke machine. I twisted my toe in the carpet and made a bunch of lame excuses and eventually simply apologized. He said he didn't want an apology, but that's all I could do.

We parted with neither of us feeling really good about the relationship.

It set me to wondering how many of my past customers felt less than pleased with my efforts on their behalf and yet said nothing because they were being polite and protecting my feelings? How can I improve if I don't get that feedback? What if I ask and they just lie to me, like I lied to Nick?

What about a third party, like Yelp, to provide feedback? That hadn't worked real well, either. Nick got the feedback and it pissed him off. I'll not be doing that soon again.

Could that be one of the lessons to be learned? That there is no such thing as bad feedback, no matter from whence it comes? That even if my feelings are hurt, I have to smile and thank the customer for an opportunity to improve my product/service?

What other lessons can you take away from this experience? 

Here's one. Go to Los Gatos and Nick's on Main. Order Nani's meatloaf. You'll never have flipped a lip over anything better.