10 Steps to Become the Greatest Salesperson In the World – Part 5

“I will live this day as if it is my last.” - from The Scroll Marked V, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

I’ll never forget the scene in “Dead Poets’ Society” when Robin Williams lines his students up in the hallway in front of the pictures of students from years past and whispers in their ears, “Carpe diem, boys…seize the day”. The Scroll Marked V reminds us of this valuable lesson in a powerful way: don’t just seize the day…seize it as if it were your last!

I encourage you to consider that everything you’ve ever been told about guilt and worry is wrong (that is, unless you’ve been fortunate enough to be told that they are both wasted energy). Unscrupulous and/or misguided parents, teachers, leaders and managers have for centuries used guilt and worry to manipulate those under their supervision to do what was expected of them; that kind of manipulation is certainly effective at motivating in the short-term, but the long-term stress it causes ultimately destroys any motivation and puts the subject in a state of constant, immobilizing fear.

Have a look around and you’ll see what I mean. Way back in 1854, Henry David Thoreau identified the cumulative effect of this kind of manipulation when he wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desparation”. How many of your friends, neighbors and co-workers does that describe? The problem, of course, is fear. Fear that yesterday’s transgressions will somehow prevent us from succeeding today; fear, too, that we won’t be up to the challenges that tomorrow presents.

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Two “Must-Read” Books for March

I had a little time to catch up on some reading last week, and I’ve gotta tell you about two fantastic books that you should make it your goal to read as soon as possible.

The first is Og Mandino’s classic “The Greatest Salesman In the World“, and it’s one of those “life-changing” books (so read at your own peril) filled with “a-ha!” moments and epiphanies.  I’ve been hearing about what a great book this is for years, and it did not disappoint.  Mandino, through a cleverly-written business fable, reveals ten principles that will fundamentally change the way you think about selling.  I was so moved by the “secret” principles revealed, in fact, that I’ll be dedicating a post to each of them in the coming weeks.  If you haven’t read it, grab a copy and prepare to be moved.

The second is one of the “new classics” for business: “Go For No!” by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz.  Richard and Andrea were kind enough to contribute a guest post here last week, and it’s a great introduction to the ideas presented in the book.  ”Go For No!” is another from the business-fable genre, and an incredibly powerful one at that.  It’s based on the idea that the difference between mediocrity and greatness, in sales or anything else, all comes down to the way you deal with hearing “No”.  Sound familiar? Now you know why I’m such a big fan!  Get your copy today, read it immediately, and start putting the idea into practice!

Be sure to check back here tomorrow for the first part of the new Og Mandino inspired series: “10 Secrets To Becoming the Greatest Salesperson In the World”.

Simon Says: If It’s Uncomfortable for You, It’s Uncomfortable for Them

OK.  I’m a little disappointed.  So far, American Idol Season 9 is off to a weak start.  I’m not sure what’s happening, but there really haven’t been any stand-out performances so far.  I hope it get’s better; I’m really starting to miss Adam.

One thing did stand out though: Simon told one of the contestants (who looked like he was terrified throughout his entire performance), “If it’s uncomfortable for you, it’s uncomfortable for the people who are watching you.”  And that’s tonight’s American Idol business lesson: your mood is catchy.

Like it or not, the people around you are tuned in to your mood.  This is especially true in a sales situation.  If you’re nervous or desperate or distracted, you’re going to make your prospect uncomfortable.  And people who are uncomfortable don’t buy.  So what can you do?

First, determine what’s making you uncomfortable; then figure out how to overcome it.  Is it a lack of preparation?  That’s easy to fix: prepare better.  Is it a lack of experience?  That’s okay: it’ll get better with time if you don’t give up.  Is it because you’re afraid they’re going to say “No”?  Get over the fear of “No” by having more people say it to you.

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5 Steps To Get To the 2nd Best Answer In Sales: Remember That “No” Doesn’t Really Mean “No”

I just finished a post over at the Sales Bloggers Union about the importance of getting to “No” faster and more frequently in order to be a successful salesperson.  You can read that post here.

As I was writing that post, though, I started thinking of some ways to help salespeople get better at eliciting those “No”s from their prospects more efficiently.  I decided to write a series here called “5 Steps To Get To the 2nd Best Answer In Sales”.

We’ll start with the most important step: getting your mindset properly aligned.

Step #1: Remember That “No” Really Means “Not Now”

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What Dean Koontz Taught Me About Sales

One of my favorite things in life is a good book, and one of my favorite authors is Dean Koontz.

I first started reading Koontz novels about 4 years ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since.   For my money, he’s one of the best fiction writers alive today.  His books are incredibly entertaining ,and they always make me think about things I hadn’t considered or offer a new perspective on  life and death and being human.

What I never expected, though, was to write a blog post about the sales lessons I’ve learned from Mr. Koontz, but here it is.

#1 – It’s all about the story

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Chasing The M-Myth

I had a really compelling dinner conversation tonight with Jim Pelley, Karl Palachuk and Jeff Marmins (each a genius in his own right, in my humble opinion).  One of the things we all agreed on, and the inspiration for this post, was what I’m going to start calling the M-Myth (if Michael Gerber is reading this, I hope he’ll remember that imitation is the sincerest kind of flattery).

The M-Myth was born in the Information Age, and it’s been plaguing business professionals and entrepreneurs for decades.  It’s destroyed careers and businesses, occasionally even lives.  What is the M-Myth?  It’s the myth of multi-tasking.

Some people claim to have this ability, even wearing it as a badge of honor.  They strut around with a misguided superiority complex, thinking that their ability to multi-task somehow puts them in the intellectual elite, with a brain so powerful, one task just isn’t enough!  Well, here’s the bad news: multi-tasking is impossible! At least, that is, for humans.  Computers can almost pull it off, but even they (as Karl points out in his book Relax, Focus, Succeed) have to chunk the separate tasks down into steps that get done one at a time; it just looks like multi-tasking because they do it really, really fast.

Jeff highlighted the impossibility of multi-tasking by using the simplest example: having a cup of coffee while doing some kind of work, let’s say writing a blog post.  Some would consider this multi-tasking in its most basic form, but think about it for a minute.  What’s really going on?  Am I really doing two things simultaneously?  No.  In order to take a sip of my coffee, what do I have to do?  That’s right: I have to stop writing my blog.  Makes it pretty clear, doesn’t it?  We really can only do one thing at a time.  Multi-tasking is a myth, and a dangerous one at that.  How so?

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Commitment Makes Everything Easier

Last night, I was poking around, looking for something good to read, when I came across this post from Crystal Williams, keeper of the Big Bright Bulb blog.   Crystal discusses the fact that when we really, really really want something, we have a tendency to go after it with gusto.  We give it everything we’ve got, and it doesn’t even feel like work.

OK.  That last bit isn’t really true.  It still feels like work, but it’s fun at the same time.  And it doesn’t feel like that kind of work we do grudgingly or against our will (for me, that’d be be something like sorting and delivering mail), but like the kind of work we’d do even if we weren’t getting paid for it (for me, writing this blog).  It’s still work in the sense that it can be difficult and challenging and a real pain sometimes, but it’s exhilarating!

Crystal’s post got me thinking about my own successes and failures, about the things that work in my life and the things that don’t.  And what I’ve come to realize is that if I want something badly enough, if I commit to it, there’s really not much that can stop me from having/being/doing it.

I think most, if not all, of us are built the same way.  Sometimes, though, we forget we have this amazing ability.  I know I do.  Sometimes, we give up at the first sign of trouble.  We concede at the first “No!” we hear.  We accept the excuses our mind comes up with for why we quit, and we go about our day as if nothing was lost by our surrender.  But something was lost, because every time we set out to accomplish something and give up, we believe a little less in our ability to succeed the next time we try.  And that loss of belief in our ability to succeed actually diminishes our ability to succeed.

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Understanding the Root of Motivation

When it comes to creating and maintaining forward momentum in your career or in your business, there is one factor that rises above all the others: your why, your reason for doing things, the motivation behind your motivation.  It’s been said that you can accomplish any what, so long as you have a big enough why.  I’m a firm believer in the truth of that statement.

Have a look around, and you’ll see that those who get what they want out of life are driven to succeed by their why for doing it.  In other words, their reason for succeeding is bigger than any defeat they may experience along the way.  These may sound like empty platitudes, but look a little deeper and you’ll see what I mean.

Think of a time when you were close to achieving some particular goal but stopped just short of getting there because of some obstacle that came up.  Most likely, like the fox in Aesop’s fable, you made a declaration of “sour grapes”, justifying to yourself that not attaining the goal was probably for the best anyways.  Dig beneath the surface, though, and I’ll bet you’ll realize that, no matter how important attaining that goal may have seemed to you at the time, somewhere along the way you lost your zeal for it: you no longer had a big enough why.

Now think of a time when you did achieve some goal you’d set for yourself, in spite of any roadblocks that may have come up.  No matter what the setback, you got up, dusted yourself off, and kept right on going, pushing ahead until you got what you wanted.  What kept you going in this case?  Examine your motivation, and I’m sure you’ll find that in this case, you had a really significant reason for achieving that particular goal.  In this case, your why was big enough to accomplish the what.

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Are You a Rotten Apple?

Early last month, my friend Tibor Shanto shared an experience he’d had with the Apple store in Toronto.  The story reminded me of something out a bad retail dream: disrespectful technicians, a rude store manager and a genuine lack of regard for the customer.   Unfortunately, this scenario is becoming all too familiar, and the time has come for a little wake up call.

When is the last time you genuinely thanked a customer?  I mean really, truly thanked them from the bottom of your heart?  A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about the importance of gratitude.  Well, here’s a good place to start: how about a little gratitude for your customers?  After all, if it weren’t for your customers, where would you be?

I’ll always remember hearing Jeffrey Gitomer talk about saying thank you to your customers.  He said we should get in the habit of saying something like “Thanks for dinner!” when a customer places an order, since that will always help us remember that without the customer, we don’t eat.  Is that how you see your customers?  If not, it might be time for an attitude adjustment.

In a world where consumers have nearly unlimited choices for almost everything they buy, why would you give them any excuse to buy from someone else?  Why not give them the best possible experience each and every time they choose to do business with you?

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When All Else Fails, Sue the Competition

I’m not often struck speechless, but that’s exactly the effect this article in the New York Times had on me.  In fact, even though I knew I was going to write a blog post about it the minute I read it, it’s taken me the better part of a week to figure out what to say.

The article basically says that, while large companies used to be content to battle it out in the marketplace, they are now taking their battles to a different venue: the nations courtrooms.  Many have resorted to suing competitors over allegedly false claims made in ads, asking judges to remove the ads from the airwaves in an effort to regain marketshare.  Here’s a quote from the article:

“The increase in these actions may be a reflection of the dismal economy: in recessions, when overall spending lags, advertisers must fight harder for customers.”

Oh, if only that were true.  Rather than “fight harder for customers”, these companies are choosing a different battle. They’re choosing to slug it out with competitors rather than do the one thing that could really help them regain marketshare: focus on their relationships with their customers, a technique my friend Skip Anderson calls customer engagement.

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