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.