SILVERBACK SELLERS

by Hank Trisler

So you have a few miles on your chassis. So you've got a little gray in your hair, or hair in your gray. So occasionally you lose your car in the parking lot and can't accurately recall the spec sheets. Does that mean you can no longer function as a sales professional? Hell, no.

Selling is one of very few TRULY equal opportunity employers. It just doesn't matter what gender you are, or which race or how old. If you can think and listen and talk or write, you can sell.

Silverback Sellers is a group dedicated to the furtherance of senior salespeople.

Why a Silverback? Well, they're gentle creatures until you mess with them. They neither offer, nor suffer offense gladly. They got to be old because they learned to survive in their environment, just like a good senior salesperson. They help the younger members of the family learn to survive, as well.

Our group will share ideas, leads and experiences. There will be a place to pitch products, proposals and opportunities, but not in the main discussion area. We'll have a separate area for commercial ventures and the main discussion threads will remain blissfully spam free.

Please take two minutes and forty seconds to squint at the video attached. You might find it informative.

I think you'll find this a refreshing and illustrative group, but your input will be necessary to make it that way. Please click on this link http://bit.ly/44UYKa to visit our group and hopefully join. Your thoughts, questions and comments are welcome, as always.

NEW NO BULL SELLING

by Hank Trisler

You've heard them sing about it around the campfires and now you can experience it first hand. The brand new and vastly improved NO BULL SELLING has now been printed and copies delivered to me.

You can learn how to sell at high levels and retain your sanity while doing it.

This modern day sales classic is divided into two sections:

• GETTING SOMEONE TO SELL TO

and

• SELLING SOMEBODY

You're going to learn and laugh out loud while doing it. Don't believe me, ask the thousands of top sellers who have already read it.

Enough of this chit-chat. Click on http://bit.ly/WaOzK and place your order TODAY. You'll never find a better use for twenty bucks.

HI TECH, HI TOUCH

By Hank Trisler

John Naisbitt, the author of the venerated Megatrends 2000, popularized this phrase in his first book, Megatrends. He postulates that reliance on technology isolates us and deprives us of the human contact we so desperately need. I can identify with that.

When I ran a real estate company, I was shaved, showered and in the office in suit and tie by 8:30 in the morning. Every day I met new friends and lunched at a different restaurant. I heard and told jokes and generally had a wonderful time.

Then I got into the training bidness and moved my office to my home. I now have a computer, fax machine, cell phone, voicemail, a website and e-mail. There is even a program which will link to GoldMine and extract pertinent material from fields and print out a 40-page + - proposal which one can then e-mail, post or fax to a customer completely obviating the need to talk to the pesky buggers at all.

It's been six days since I started my car. My only contact with people is when I go out for a training session, tennis, golf or a lunch with my old buddies. Other than that, I communicate with electronic devices and comparatively little of that. This existence can be narrowing for a person. One's interpersonal skills can rapidly atrophy, not to mention one's personal hygiene.

I'm not the only one it's happening to, either. Salespeople in general are making fewer personal calls and relying more on electronics to do their talking for them. We are in danger of losing the human touch.

My Barbara got a star in her windshield from a rock tossed out by a truck. She wanted me to make it all better, which I did by giving her the number of our insurance agent in San Francisco. We've been with this agent for over twenty years. He's an old family friend. He'd retired, so Barbara found herself talking to a woman she had never met. The woman said that Barbara would have to make a claim directly with CNA, the carrier. Barbara called CNA three separate times, each time going through voicemail hell prior to being disconnected.

Barbara reappeared in the office. This was not going the way I had hoped it would. "Can you tell me," she said, knowing damn well I couldn't, "why we should continue to pay premiums to an agent we no longer even know, whose office is fifty miles away from us, when all they do is refer me back to the carrier, who will not take any of my calls?"

That's how I came to be assigned the task of finding a new insurance agent. Fortunately, Jim's a really nice guy, an insurance agent and he belongs to my tennis club. I see him two or three times a week and we always have pleasant chats. I decided to ask him if he would be interested in being my new agent.

"I'd be happy to," Jim said. "Why don't you fax me the front page of your existing policy, so I'll know what we're talking about."

That seemed reasonable, so I faxed him the first six pages, as I wanted our whole shebang insured. I stressed that our decision would be based a lot more on personal service than on price. I also mentioned that I had some concern about his being a direct writer (Allstate) than an independent agent, as I wanted someone to represent me, rather than an insurance company.

A couple of days later, I saw Jim at the club, but he said nothing about insurance, so I let it slide. That afternoon I got a fax from him, asking me to fax him social security numbers, driver's license numbers and dates of birth for both Barbara and me. His fax further assured me that he had been an Allstate agent for twenty-eight years and he felt he worked for the policyholder, rather than the company. I faxed back the numbers with decreasing enthusiasm.

I saw Jim twice more and we chatted, but not about insurance. I finally got a five-page fax outlining his suggestions for our coverage and quoting prices in detail. He again assured me that he prided himself on his high level of personal service.

As much as I like Jim, I'm not going to buy any insurance from him. I wanted someone to come out and schmooze with me the way insurance guys used to do. Someone to tell me I had the best possible coverage at a reasonable price. Someone to sell me, but Jim sent me faxes full of numbers I didn't clearly understand or care much about. That's just not going to get it.

A Carnegie Mellon study links the Internet to increasing loneliness. They say the average person has but sixty-six people in his/her social circle. Sixty-six? I've seen families bigger than that.

George Quinn is one of the brightest and best people I know. He's a land developer and could easily hide behind his computer without much danger of human involvement. But every day he dresses in coat and tie and goes to his office to talk with people. He has lunch nearly every day in a restaurant with someone different. I call him "Sir Lunchalot."

I'm pleased when it comes my turn to have lunch with George. He always has something interesting to say and interesting questions to ask. He reads omnivorously and is prepared to discuss anything he's read. He's a thoroughly fascinating man and my life would be poorer were it not for him.

Did technology make George the way he is? Not bloody likely. He got where he is and the way he is by interacting with people every day. To improve your business and your life, reach out and touch someone.

SQUARE PEG, ROUND HOLE

"So, where's Velma?" I asked my talented CEO friend.

"We had a career adjustment meeting with her," he answered.

"Why ever did you do that?" I asked. "She was one of your most valued, loyal and flexible employees."

"Yes, but she was in charge of purchasing and we felt we couldn't afford a purchasing manager of her caliber. The market stinks, you know."

"Yeah, I've heard those rumors. Couldn't she have performed other tasks, like being an admin?"

"The management team felt she would view it as a demotion and her attitude would suffer. Marjorie, my secretary, can do her job. It won't be done as well, but it doesn't need to be. The overall cost will be lower."

What's wrong with this picture?

Due to the present annoying market conditions, businesses all over the world are letting people go because of job descriptions, titles or long-established habits. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

If you have a good person, save them at all costs. Good people can always be re-tasked (to use a noun as a verb), retrained and repositioned. Good people are the only management asset you have that is capable of appreciation. Your desks won't be worth more next year, nor will your file cabinets. Only your people will be worth more then than now. Don't let them go without a fight.

Conversely, trying times are excellent for getting rid of dead wood. Rather than lose two good people, lose three bad ones and distribute the work over those you have left.

REAL ESTATE: THE TEFLON OF FINANCIAL PLANNING

by Guest Blogger, Joe Klock, Sr., CRB, CRS www.joeklock.com

By no stretch of the imagination do I qualify as an economist, but with respect to the current recession, I have a case to make (and I'll try to make it brief).

No longer gainfully employed in real estate, my also-retired spouse and I now happily rely on it for an income stream sufficient to finance the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed and endeared for the past several years.

During our productive period, both of earned income and dependents, we stashed away what we could, diversifying our investments in accordance with conventional wisdom.

This diversification included some dabblings on what some are now calling Woe Street, and we watched them rise impressively, then fizzle out like financial pyrotechnics.

Fortunately, we never relied on them for a cash flow which is not likely to come from that source in the foreseeable future.

The bulk of our nest egg comprised real estate-related investments, which were and still are a kind of Teflon on the cookware of our retirement portfolio.

They continue to produce a steady income, while effectively protecting us from the damaging effects of the current recession. (The icky stuff is still there, but it doesn't stick on us!)

Had enough of these lame metaphors? Here are some facts:
The bulk of our present "spendable" flows from income-producing commercial real estate, mostly net-net-leased at rental levels which we deliberately set just a smidgeon below the market.

As a result of that moderation, whatever "loss" has occurred in market value is significant only on our personal balance sheet. In other words, the rent rolls remain constant and the money rolls in unabated.

Along a related route, we have granted short-term mortgages at attractive interest rates to responsible people with good credit records and significant equities. Neither have these been diminished by gloomy headlines nor the general malaise of the residential brokerage market.

Undeniably, there has been great suffering endured by well-intentioned but underqualified home buyers and overly-leveraged investors.

This is both regrettable and irreversible, except for such relief as may be provided by government intervention. (Too late to apply Teflon when the damage has been done.)

More to be censured than pitied are the reckless gamblers who flipped contracts, falsified documents and/or knowingly assumed risks that simply didn't make sense.

It's worth noting, though, that prudent real estate investors are riding out the storm with little or no damage to their financial objectives.

In a wider perspective, homeowners who bought (or already owned) homes within their means may understandably wring their hands over the attractive selling prices of years past.

However, they are mourning bonanzas which are relatively meaningless, given the creature comforts they still enjoy - benefits undiminished by the ravages of recession.

To make a long story longer, all of this is prologue to the case (no longer brief) that I wish to make here.

Real estate - the product and benefit package service offered by readers of these words - is an attractive antidote to the venom of economic downturns.
Your potential customers - representing more than 90% of the population, according to published estimates - should be encouraged to believe that if they are managing their present housing needs, but wish to make a move, they should not hesitate to do so.

Even if sellers are unable to realize the wonderful proceeds of yesteryear sales, there are compensating bargains in the market. (No gain, maybe, but no pain either - and no real loss!)

Likewise, those contemplating the purchase of a home should be helped to understand that the present plethora of listings, and the attractiveness of financing, may not be available again in the near - or even remote - future.
Victims of the financial bloodbath on Woe Street should explore the possibility of switching their allegiance to prudently purchased real estate investments, such as the ones which are enabling this humble scribe, et ux, to ride out the current storm.

Admittedly, some folks may be beyond any substantial help you can offer them.

But, among the majority of your prospects who are still afloat, there are many who may simply need to borrow the courage of your conviction that real estate is, in the long run, the safest and surest path toward financial security.

Even those whose planning cookware was damaged in the past could be - make that should be - introduced to the Teflon-like protection of real estate.
For countless millions of Americans over recent decades, the product and service that you offer has been the foundation of their growth during productive years and their security in a good life thereafter.

If you believe that, sell the Teflon effect of real estate to those who will otherwise be unprotected from the "icky stuff" on the Woe Street Of Broken Dreams!

MOTIVATED BUYERS

By Hank Trisler

The greatest waste of time in a salesperson's life is the non-motivated buyer. Motivated buyers are those who badly need or want to buy what it is you're selling. They buy quickly, decisively and with an absolute minimum of haggling. The more motivated they are, the quicker and more decisive they become. Non-motivated buyers can't decide, always want to see another house or another model and generally suck up a lot of time.

Since all we really have to sell is our time, we want to segregate the motivated from the non-motivated and spend as much time as possible with the former and as little time as necessary with the latter. Here's the problem: Few buyers come into our lives with signs around their necks that read: "I'm Really Motivated."

That being the case, we need some identifying actions to help us know who is really motivated and who is just shopping. I'm going to use a few real estate examples here, as this is a field in which determining motivation is absolutely essential to one's survival. We'll have to extrapolate to other industries.

MOTIVATION HURTS. People are always asking how they can get motivated and I wonder why. Motivation is when you don't like the position you're in and badly want to change it. Motivation isn't something that one person does to another, but something that occurs internally. Getting motivated is not something I want to do to myself on purpose, but it happens to me without any conscious action on my part. I don't want to hurt on purpose. The more motivated I am, the more extreme are the actions I will take to get satisfied, or unmotivated. When I get the itch, I'll do whatever it takes to get it scratched.

MOTIVATED BUYERS ARE IN THE MARKET CONSTANTLY. If you really hurt, you work hard to make the hurt go away. If you have a buyer who is sitting in a motel with a wife, two kids and a cocker spaniel, you can bet he's going to do his damnedest to get out of there. If he's not looking at homes with you, he's looking with your competition, or calling Owners For Sale, or driving around town shooting For Sale signs.

My son, Howard, once got the hots for a Sport-Utility vehicle for reasons still obscure to me. He haunted automobile dealers, stroked salespeople, drove everything he could get his hands on, scoured the newspapers, surfed the Internet and generally drove everyone around him nuts. He really wanted a new truck. If worked that diligently at his business, he'd be a millionaire by now.

MOTIVATION IS SHORT TERM. Managers all over the world have told me, "I don't want my people to go to one of those ‘Motivational Seminars.' They get all pumped up, run out in the parking lot and can't find their cars. Motivation doesn't last." That's true, but neither does a bath.

We can't continue in a state of hurt forever, so we will find ways to scratch the itch, or make the itch go away. It all happens in the unconscious mind. My informal studies tell me that motivation can be kept at a peak for maybe a week, tops. If that highly motivated homebuyer you have can't find what he wants in a week, he'll rent a house or do something else to make the hurt go away. People just lose the fever.

After about a week of looking at trucks, Howard decided a new one was just beyond his reach, so he decided to slick up his old car and drive it for a bit more. It happens to our buyers all the time.

MOTIVATED BUYERS ARE DISLOYAL. Buyer who really hurt don't care who makes the hurt go away, they just want it gone. If you deal with the truly motivated, prepare yourself for the fact that you may lose them to other salespeople. It wasn't anything you did wrong, it's just that the other guy was there with a solution at the right time. In the long run, however, you'll make a lot more money dealing with motivated buyers than with loyal buyers.

Here's the key: If a buyer is truly motivated, he'll love you if you let him know that you're going to make the hurt go away. Call him early every morning and tell him what you're going to be doing for him that day. "Hi, Al, three new homes came on the market today and I'm going right out to see if any of them might be right for you. Where will you be if I need to reach you?" "Good morning, Frances. I don't have the answer to that software problem yet, but I'm going to be working on it this morning and hope to have an answer for you by early afternoon. I'll call you as soon as I have it." "Hey, Howard, I have a lead on a truck over in the valley and I'm going to see if we can get it for you. Don't go anywhere. I may need to get hold of you."

If your buyer is still motivated, he'll appreciate what you're doing on his behalf and may express his gratitude by holding still until you can solve his problem. After all, if he's convinced that you're working hard for him, he doesn't need to work so hard for himself.

If his motivation has changed, he'll tell you. "Hey, pal, you don't need to bust your pick for me. We just signed a six-month lease, so we'd have more time to find just the right house." Don't be depressed. It was nothing you did. He just found a way to scratch his itch before you did. Motivation can return as quickly and unpredictably as it left. Tell him you'll keep looking for just the right home and put him in your contact manager for a call in two weeks. If you continue to call him every morning, you'll annoy him because he's lost his motivation. Worse yet, you'll be wasting your time with an unmotivated buyer.

Will you lose the occasional deal because someone got motivated in between your bi-weekly calls? Of course, especially if you haven't really sold him on the value of having you as his salesperson. If you have, he may well call you when the motivation returns, but even if he doesn't you'll make more money by focusing on finding a new, more motivated buyer. Buyers who lack motivation will waste your time and drive you to distraction.

BRANDING MAGIC

By Hank Trisler

Would it help your sales and marketing efforts if scores of people were wearing casual clothing with your brand-picture-logo emblazoned thereon? How about banners, water bottles, coffee mugs and other items all bearing your message?

Branding has done wonders for companies like Caterpillar, John Deere, DKNY and the major networks. Restaurants, bars, contractors, virtually any small business person can benefit from the magic of merchandise branding.

But there are problems. Someone has to stock the merchandise. Someone has to affix the logo to the merchandise. Someone has to bill the customer, fill the order and ship the product. Someone has to take the heat when the size or color is wrong. I'll bet NONE of that is attractive to you; it sure isn't to me.

Now along comes ol' Trisler, together with a company named Colorado Timberline to rescue you and solve your problems.

At no cost to you, we will put up an online store for your company featuring a WIDE variety of goods, both wearable and non-wearable. When people visit your site and purchase items from them, Colorado Timberline will emblazon the goods with a revolutionary new ink jet printing process, or with laser etching, whichever is appropriate for the item selected. They will then bill the customer's credit card (or PayPal) and ship the goods directly to the customer. You're out of the loop entirely.

• NO STOCKING. Nothing at all is in your place of business.

• NO SHIPPING. Everything shipped direct to the customer.

• NO BILLING. All credit cards accepted and billed directly.

• NO MINIMUMS. Your customers can order in onesies and twosies.

• YOU DECIDE WHAT YOU WILL SELL. Select some or all of the goods available.

• YOU DECIDE WHAT YOU WILL CHARGE. Markups are determined solely by you.
  

• NO HASSLES. Colorado Timberline has HIGH quality and terrific customer service.

• NO BULL. This is as straight and clean a deal as you can imagine. You have nothing to lose.

If you'd like to see the product line available to you and see a store in "the flesh," go to our Logos Promotional Marketing store and wander around. The prices you see there are the wholesale prices you will pay.

To see an actual store in action, visit NO BULL SHOPPING.

This is a really effective way to increase your marketing footprint and employ the branding processes of the Twenty-First Century.