Under the Surface

It was a cold, January day. I love the cold! The brisk air makes me feel alive. I was cross-country skiing at Saugatuck Dunes State Park with my friend, Cal Pelon. In addition to playing the bass guitar, Cal rides bike and he loves to cross-country ski.

We discovered "adventure" cross-country skiing at the state park a number of years ago. There really isn't any semblance of groomed trails. You follow the summer hiking trails. The trails were not planned with skiing in mind. They wind and curve. Sometimes you climb gently. Other times you glide smoothly downhill. Sharp turns at the bottom of some of those downhills bring the trees into play. The best part of the skiing here is the large dune hills and, my friends, those hills are not kind. They're not straight down. They undulate and curve. They're a challenge on cross-country skis - and I LOVE IT!

This 24 degree January day we opted to take the South Trail. It's our favorite. It rewards you with snow clinging to pine branches that create tunnels of trees. It's a beautiful trail. About two miles in there's "the Hill". After a steady climb, you top out and look down a trail that curves to the right. On your left is a steep drop off that, if you were the unfortunate soul who fell, you would likely impale yourself on broken stumps and dead branches. Still, "the Hill" calls to you and you just have to give it a go!

I went first. I always go first. (Cal prefers to watch me fall so that he can tell tall tales of Glen Huizenga sprawled in the snow, face covered with fluffy white snow or beach sand, and, typically, he knows I'm Laughing MAO!). The snow was fresh. We were the first to blaze the trail. With anticipation I launch myself and as I proceed down the hill the exhilaration puts a smile on my face. Today was going to be the day. I was going to make it all the way down. Confidently I lean right at the correct moment positioning myself for success. As a pick up speed I see the bottom of the hill. All I need to do is continue to lean right and I'll make it down for just the second time. I'm filled with pride with the anticipated knowledge of today's success. Pride comes before the fall, right? Right! As I lean, my right ski skids across something throwing my balance off and I begin the dance. You know this dance. You've seen it when watching others cross-country ski. One leg shoots out to the side. Arms start to swirl and flail in an effort to regain balance. Slalom skiing on one leg, I spin and begin my graceful fall. Laughter already escaping my mouth. I feel alive.

Cal couldn't see my fall, but he heard it and my subsequent laughter. I holler up the hill, "Watch out for the root!". I see him coming. Today is going to be his day! He looks like an Olympic Nordic champion right up until he hits the root. Now, I truly care for my friend, however falling gracefully and Cal are not best of friends. When he falls, he falls hard. Today... head over heels. (From my perspective it was most beautiful, scoring a full 10). Sprawled in the snow, we both laugh, give ourselves a quick visual inspection for broken bones or split skin, and continue our adventure.

Our success was foiled by something just under the surface of the freshly fallen snow. A tree root that acted like one of those rails that professional snowboarders skid across for fun - and big money!

This concept of something just "under the surface" foiling our success relates to many facets of life.

In our daily life as sales professionals it's important that we anticipate and uncover the objections that prospects or customers place in front of us as we move through the sales process. Objections lay just "under the surface", just like the tree root in my story.

How can we uncover objections?

• Study Selling Skills
• Know the common objections
• Formulate high quality questions that take away or uncover those objections
• Shut up and LISTEN
• Learn from each and every encounter. This is called "gaining experience".

Don't let the "under the surface" dangers slow you down from taking a risk. Study, Prepare, Anticipate, and Win!

On Saturday, Sarah and I hiked the South Trail for the first time since the weather turned. As we approached "the Hill", I asked her to attempt to capture the subtle nuances of the hill and the killer tree root! Her pictures did just that.

Transferable and Compelling

How's your self-confidence?

 

When you listen, do you really hear?

 



If you truly listen and hear, are you able to discern?

 



 



 



Mix your self-confidence with knowledge. Ask great questions. Listening and hearing help you understand and create, which allows you to take control

 



Self-confidence and control help you create vision







Self-confident sales professionals listen with the intent to understand so that they can blend their unique knowledge and understanding to create a vision that the customer is compelled to follow. 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self-Confidence Image: http://www.multiplesandmore.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/self-confidence.jpg

Listen to Hear Image: http://www.andistix.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Listening.jpg

Discern Image: http://www.leapfroggroup.org/media/image/discern2.jpg

Control Image: http://plassodesign.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/discern.jpg

Vision Image: http://www.aussielifecoaching.com.au/uploads/self-belief-2435.jpg


Blue Cube Strategy

Life-long learning is a choice. One that I've made. One that my mother inadvertently created many years ago when she brought my sister and me to the library on a weekly basis. My love of reading has made me into a life-long learner. I've yet to thank her. I need to do that - this week...No excuses. I'll let you know in my next post.

This past week I attended the University of Industrial Distribution in Indianapolis, IN. My Sunday class was led by Jim Pancero, a respected sales instructor. He shared a full day worth of knowledge. It was my favorite class of the event.

His parting gift to us was The Coaching Cube, a 2" square foam cube that I, quite honestly, was going to leave behind. I hate taking promotional "junk" home. However, for some reason, I felt compelled to steal this little blue cube back to the hotel room - and I'm very happy that I followed my intuition.

Each side of the cube holds a valuable reminder.

Here they are:

1. Be Proactive: Can I stop reacting and start initiating?
2. Be Tactical: Am I following my multi-stepped selling process?
3. Be Politically Aware: Can I get "higher-wider-deeper" with my customer?
4. Think Multiple Moves Ahead: Can I think and plan more moves ahead?
5. Be Strategic: Have I communicated my value and uniqueness?
6. Be Value Focused: Am I selling "lowest total cost" instead of lowest price?

As a sales team, we've been implementing a new CRM program called Tour de Force CRM. We selected this CRM program because it was created by a former distribution sales professional who understands that CRM programs only provide value if they help sales people sell more efficiently and, ultimately, grow their sales. The premise: All sales are built upon activities (Appointments, Phone Calls, Cold Calls, Tasks, To Do's, Opportunities, Proposals...) and that managing those activities should be easy and intuitive. It's pretty simple, right? Sales increase when activity increases. If you have 10 active projects, you'll close 2 - the old 80/20 principle... If you're good, maybe you'll close 3.

Jim Pancero's Coaching Cube reminders, a rock solid CRM, and a Plan increase your odds of achieving your 2013 Sales Goals.

Use them to your advantage and slay the competition!

Genuine & Transparent

Recently I was rewarded with a refreshing and validating conversation with one the sales reps on the team...

The rep was excited about a recent sales call on a prospective customer. The rep was sharing the prelimary details when I asked, "Tell me why you feel that way. What did you do right?".

Here are some of the answers:

• I'm good at building relationships with many types of personalities. I'm good at being a chameleon. I'm likeable - and likeability creates comfort
• I built credibility by offering industry insights, specific to their industry, based upon my experience. This created confidence in the customer's mind because they instantly knew that I'm not just another sales rep selling off of literature, etc. I know their industry!
• I'm genuine
• I did the hard work for the customer by doing the price comparisons for them
• My industry knowledge allowed me to assume the price they were paying
• My product knowledge helped me cross reference their current product to my product offering
• I broke down the price to a common denominator which saved the customer time - AND - will help him to make a quicker decision.
• I did the comparative work for him. He acknowledged this and thanked me
• The prospect asked me a question about a competitors product, I knew the answer and offered him my opinion supported with common sense and the logic provided by our manufacturer. Ironically, the prospect had just had a recent conversation with his wife about the exact same issue and my "common sense/logical" opinion matched the thought he had shared with his wife.

Wow! Having this conversation brought a huge smile to my face.

It was refreshing at a time when I needed a boost. It was validating in the sense that, at times, it feels like my sales training/sales managing messages are going unheard.

Many factors made the reps sales call go great. I don't need to point them out. It should be pretty obvious, right?

However, a couple paragraphs from the book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable by Seth Godin @ThisIsSethsBlog (which I just finished and am passing along to one of my daughter's college friends who is graduating this year - Go, Joy!) sum up the true magic that occurred. I've made bold the section that says it all:

   "When your boss gives you a script to read, or when you crib something from a how-to book, it almost never works. That's because you're not telling the truth, you're not being human, and you're not being transparent.

   You might be parroting the words from that negotiation book or the public-speaking training you went to, but every smart person you encounter knows that you're winging it or putting us on.

   Virtually all of us make our living engaging directly with other people. When the interactions are genuine and transparent, they usually work. When they are artificial or manipulative, they fail.

   The linchpin is coming from a posture of generosity; she's there to give a gift. If that's your intent, the words almost don't matter. What we'll perceive are your wishes, not the script."

 

How are you differentiating youself to your prospects or your customers? Are you just "reading from a script or cribbing from some how-to book"? You must be better than that! If you're not, they know...and they won't like you...and they won't buy from you...and they probably won't see you again or return your voice mail or email and you'll come crawling to me with excuses. Hmmm.

 

Be a linchpin. Start today by being genuine and transparent. Like most things, it's a choice.



Winners Fail

Have you ever found yourself choosing to not do something because you were afraid that you would fail? Of course you have. We all have. Let's face it, fear of embarrassment is a powerful motivator! Losing face hurts. Right?

Or does it? Really think about it. Does it really, truly hurt? Should it stop you from trying something new and creative? Should you be afraid to fail? No!

If you've been following my blog you will know that I've been reading Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin. The following sentences caused me to ear-mark a page (and for those of you who are book lovers, ear-marking a page in a book doesn't come easily).

"Successful people are successful for one simple reason: they think about failure differently"

I really like that sentence. In fact, I hope you read it again and choose to really like it too.

There's more...

"Successful people learn from failure, but the lesson they learn is a different one. They don't learn that they shouldn't have tried in the first place, and they don't learn that they are always right and the world is wrong and they don't learn that they are losers. They learn that the tactics they used didn't work or that the person they used them on didn't respond".

Weekly, sales reps tell me that their contact didn't respond to them, rejected their proposal, or pulled business opportunities from them. They were told, "No". After one try, many reps are willing to give up. They hear "No" and accept it as the final answer.

I often wonder if I stole this from some great author - or, hopefully, I've modified it and made it my own. Those who have worked with me long enough have often heard me say:

"Don't take it personally. No doesn't really mean no...it just means you haven't given them a good enough reason to say yes.

Hey, 80% of your sales day is going to be filled with rejection. If you don't approach each day with the mindset above you should quit and find a job that doesn't require the mental discipline that is necessary to succeed in sales.

To be successful in sales you must think about failure differently. Trying and failing does not give you permission to give up. It is up to you to regroup, create a new plan, and give them a good enough reason to say yes.

Don't fear failure. Winners fail. Winners don't give up. Winners win.

Are you a winner?