Selling Yourself

People Buy From People. 

Customers deal with whom they have the most confidence. If you do a good job of selling yourself they will be most comfortable when considering dealing with you. When putting your information together, it can be about you personally, about your company or a mix of both. Some salespeople have little to talk about. Others have too much. Everyone has something and it’s important to organize your credentials and use them to your advantage.

Some sales experts think that if you do a good job of assembling your credentials and presenting them early in a selling situation you can put that behind you and get on with selling your products or services. I believe that expertly presenting credentials in your interview is a powerful tactic. I do it routinely.

My caution is that if you give them too much or if your pitch comes off as cocky or as bragging it will backfire. When you put your credentials together make the presentation short, powerful and as humble and sincere as you can. Practice it on friends, colleagues, or family. Get their honest feedback and fix problems. After working through the nuts and bolts you will be ready.

Education

Your education is a great start for building a case that you are a good person to do business with. If you have a degree in a field related to your business focus, you will establish an advantage. Certifications are also really good when building your profile.

Achievements

Speak about your business accomplishments. If you have solved some major problems for customers, performed at a high level or have done anything else of note, let people know. Results are what customers are paying you for. If you have had successes they can be used as leverage for getting your prospective customer to accept your proposal.

Awards

Achievements are great. Awards are better. Getting the word out about your accomplishments is very good. When someone else, a third party, recognizes you for your accomplishments it is much better and carries a lot more weight than when coming from you.  I have received national and local awards over the years (Technology Pacesetter, Top Partner, Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit Platinum Award finalist and more). I have used the power of these awards to separate myself from my competitors. The natural question to my prospect is “Why deal with them when you can deal with someone the industry or third parties honor…me?”

References

Reference letters are a terrific sales tool. They are not as powerful as awards, but very close. You don’t usually get these letters of reference unless you solicit them. When you do get them, make sure you have the source’s permission to use them. Also, check in with your happy campers once in a while and make sure they are still happy.

Community Service

There are times when your community service doesn’t matter to a customer. There are other times when your community service can be a difference between making a sale and losing the deal. You don’t have to go overboard, but a track record as a volunteer says a lot to a buyer about your character.

There you have it. Your credentials matter. Selling yourself as a trusted advisor, a good person to deal with is an important part of the sales process and should not be overlooked.

Invest in Yourself

Following up on last month's topic...

I find it funny that salespeople who need to upgrade their skills and product knowledge are generally indifferent to learning. Opportunity after opportunity to invest in themselves, enhance their careers and improve their income, are passed on by. And they wonder why they keep losing business to their competition and don't make their numbers. Duh!

When all things are equal, people buy from product knowledge experts before giving their money to novices. In fact, some customers will pay more for the security they get from working with experts. They have comfort that their investment and the outcome of their transaction are secure because their vendor salesperson "gets it".

Learning is an ongoing challenge. Things change. And those that don't stay current get left behind and either don't know why or have a bunch of excuses for their failures.

Whatever you studied in technical school or college may or may not be useful in your career. The truth is that it really doesn't matter where you are in the spectrum of subject matter or sales skills expertise. What matters is that you seek out materials and programs that can elevate your status and give you an edge over your competitors.

Remember, most people are indifferent to ongoing education. They don’t have or don't make the time, don't appreciate the value of learning, don't have a clue or just don't care. By making an effort to learn you will eclipse your competition quickly. The funny thing is that they probably won't even know it.

Knowledge is power. What I neglected to do last month is give you some ideas and sources for sales and industry information.

Ok, here's a start. Attend my sales training seminars.  I have been selling for over 40 years and have a lot of good material. A few gems from my class will put money in your pocket.

There are other sales and marketing experts. Attend their seminars; buy their books read their blogs. I do. I may be an expert, but things change and I need to stay on the edge. I have my own personal continuous education program.

The Internet offers a plethora of information on selling and on the topic(s) of your business. 

You can subscribe to industry and sales magazines. They arrive every month and tell you what's new in selling and in your industry. Tips, tools and tactics delivered to your door.

Go to the library. You can learn everything you need to know and more by reading books. The library has more relevant books than you have time to read.

Attend industry events. National, regional, state and local trade associations feature training. Many times the classes provide you with certifications that you can use to your advantage in a sales situation.

Take advantage of vendor sponsored training. They are highly interested in ramping up your level of knowledge in their products or services. Most host seminars, webinars, videos and other cool training opportunities.

Make friends with the top people in your space. You know the ones. They are highly successful, make the most sales and money and wipe up their unsuspecting competition. Get to know these people real well. Stick close. Observe. Ask a lot of questions. Figure it out. This is one strategy where you can really get an education and step up your game.

Don't hang out with negative people with a list of excuses. It won't help you. Run with the winners.

Finally, do it. Don't talk about investing time in yourself. Do not put it off. Start now. I know you are busy. You might say that you are too busy to devote time to continuous education.  Wrong answer.

Schedule some time every week for self-improvement. It will pay off immediately and will continue to reward you in the future.

Know more, sell more!

Product Knowledge

Some years ago, I decided that the secret of a successful sales career is based on a foundation of three fundamentals, activity, sales skills and product knowledge. As a sales trainer, coach and mentor, I firmly believe that all three elements are essential. Ignore any one of these three parts of your career puzzle and you won’t reach your potential.

I teach sales skills. I refer to my material as Sales Mechanics. You can learn how to sell. I can help. There are ways to approach selling. In very simple terms, there is a right way and a wrong way to behave as a sales professional. There are things that you should do and things you should not do to build a successful sales career (or business).

In the current edition of CRM Magazine, Marshall Lager points out that most professionals are referred to as practitioners. Why? They are practitioners because they are always practicing their professions. Like doctors, attorneys and accountants, sales professionals are on a journey that never ends. The business world is constantly moving. You have change with the times or get left behind.

I help people sharpen their sales skills. However, I do not have any control over their product knowledge or their level of sales activities. Product knowledge and sales activity are out of my control. These essentials are out of my control. I can only encourage everyone to become an expert at what they represent and to work hard and smart.

This brings me to Percy Whiting. Percy Whiting wrote a classic sales book, The 5 Great Rules of Selling. I got my copy in 1970. It was a textbook for the Dale Carnegie sales training class. I launched my sales career in 1970 after attending the Dale Carnegie program.

I picked the book up last week and decided to read it again. It has been over 40 years since I last opened it up. After reading the table of contents, I really looked forward to getting back into it. The material is timeless. I was amused when Percy noted that he got his first sales job in 1918. What really got my attention was that he led off the book talking about the importance of product knowledge. His take on the value of product knowledge consumed the better part of the first nineteen pages.

I strongly believe that people prefer to buy from subject matter experts.

My marquee client is enjoying the best consecutive sales years in the forty year history of the company with no end in sight. Why? Their sales are soaring because they employ, arguably, the leading product expert in the industry. They have a sales team of nine, but when there is something big on the line, the expert is on the sales call and in the room.

I can’t teach product knowledge, but I am a big fan of my clients becoming subject matter experts. There are a lot of ways to gain product and industry knowledge. Continuous education in your field provides you with a huge differential advantage over your competition. Become that “go to” product person. Become the expert with the answers and insight.

Oh yeah, don’t forget sales skills and sales activities along the way. And, you can still buy a copy of The 5 Great Rules of Selling. I highly recommend it.

Happy Talk

Everyone wants and needs encouragement. Positive support from our family, friends and peers helps us along our way as we journey through life. Kind words help us keep a good attitude when things don’t go our way.

Staying Positive

I try to be positive. I appreciate people who are positive, especially when I am the recipient of their good words and deeds. I always try to stand behind my friends, colleagues and clients. Being there for people is just a natural and good thing to do.

Reality Check

In my day-to-day world I meet and mentor a lot of businesses. My clients are mostly individuals who have launched a business and have taken their dream to some plateau along their way to success.

Unfortunately, some of the business concepts that are presented to me are not good. As I listen to some of the business plans of these really nice people I am really concerned that they are not going to make a go of it. How can this be?

Didn’t anyone tell them that they have fundamental problems with their dream business?

Some of the elephants in the room are apparent. Others are not.

Product viability, the market, competition, technology and funding are some of, but not nearly all, of the road blocks these brave souls face while getting up and running.

Blind Faith

When an Entrepreneur tells me that he will really get rolling “When I get funded”, I want to just stop them and tell them that they are not getting funded. Statistically, based on the reality of the business capital market, they not get funded. If they don’t have a plan “B”, they will be back in the job market just as soon as they run out of their family and friends money.

Tough Love

More often than not, I tell them what I think. My opinion is not often received well. It hurts to tell and hear the truth. Some call it tough love.

I Need Truth

This brings me to the manuscript of my latest book How to Employ Salespeople. I’ve been writing this book for years. The first manuscript was printed in 2009. I don’t even know when I started it. It was years ago. A year or so ago, I decided to get it ready to publish.

After I read it over and over again, making countless changes, I thought it might be ready to go. Before I sent it off to the publisher, I distributed copies of the manuscript to my best friends and associates. I asked them ahead of time to give me an honest assessment of the material. My editor will take care of grammar, spelling and punctuation problems; I really needed to know if the message was powerful and worthy of continuing the publishing process. Tell me true.

Getting negative feedback was like pulling teeth. Nobody wanted to go negative on me.  Fortunately, a few of them pointed out some things that I needed fix to and I did correct them.

Practice Tough Love

You are not helping anyone if you tell them anything other than the truth about their business plan, their book or anything meaningful. As a good and trusted friend and advisor they need truth, not happy talk. 

That is Not Selling

People who offer to sell their products or services based on their position as the lowest priced competitor continue to baffle me. Selling based on the lowest price may sometime be a short term success, but it always becomes a mid and long term loser.

I practiced price cutting in the late 1970’s. Among the things I sold to doctors was a diagnostic test. My price was $1 per unit. Each test cost me twenty five cents, so this was a very profitable business. I had a couple of competitors who were just as smart (dumb) as I was. Over time, we all kept chipping away at the price we sold the tests for and the retail price was ultimately driven down to twenty five cents, my cost. Some knucklehead, with my help, had killed the goose. I got out. I changed product lines and immediately helped destroy profit margins and another great market.

Price is only one element of a balanced sales proposition. The other elements are quality and service. In the real world, a company that cuts to the lowest price is often unable to maintain high quality and responsive customer service. There is a cost associated with quality and service. Quality and service are paid for by margins from the transaction.

Using the lowest price to book business is not selling. There is absolutely no skill required. Just show up and give your stuff away…often for no good reason.

I was challenged by a young lady in a recent sales skills event. Her point was that people shop at Walmart because of their low prices. The point was taken and acknowledged. If you are selling commodities to the general public you have a tough time fighting for margin. Most of us are not selling commodities to the general public.

Based on this lowest price logic, we would all dine at McDonalds daily. After all, they have a dollar menu. You can get a sandwich, fries and a drink for $3.00. How do they do it? Why would anyone go to Morton’s Steak House and order a Porterhouse Steak when they could save big with a double cheeseburger? Better yet, could you imagine sitting down at Morton’s and attempting to negotiate a deal on the steak with the waiter? They don’t have to cut the price and they won’t cut the price.

The good news is that you do not have to be the lowest price offering…ever!

Why not offer the highest price? That’s a challenge.

You can be the highest price competitor. The key to getting more for your product or service is for you to clearly understand why your customer will pay more. What is “extra” worth and why? What additional value are they going to get for paying a premium? Your argument needs to be valid and you need to deliver the message convincingly. It’s easy if you know your competition, can determine why you and your company are different and better and then hold your ground.

I have a cousin who is a home improvement contractor. For his entire career he has charged a premium for his work. The outcome for his premium pricing strategy was that he didn’t get as many jobs as his competition, but his jobs were very profitable. The net result is that he worked less for measurably more revenue. He was able to differentiate himself from the competition and convince his customers that they would be better off paying him more for the project. By the way, his work was great and he delivered the value he promised. How dumb was that?

How can Cadillac, BMW, Lincoln, Audi and other premium brands survive if low price is the standard for purchase decisions? Are Shula’s, Morton’s, Ruth Chris, Capital Grill and Mitchells’ just money losing tax shelters? I don’t think so.

Really, being the lowest priced salesperson is not something to be proud of. There is no selling skills involved. Stop doing it. You just don't have to.

Power Hour

A longtime friend of mine and sales professional started his career selling securities. There was a lot of phone work involved, it was mostly phone selling and he worked the phones as good as or better than anyone. I originally heard the term “Power Hour” from him. The concept is that everyone in your organization stops what they are doing at the same time and make sales phone calls.

I introduced this concept to my marquee client recently and the results were impressive.

The sales team consists of six Sales Engineers, a Marketing Manager and a Sales Administrator. These groups of sales professionals are young and ambitious. The company hit and exceeded all sales milestones and goals in 2012. So, what does a sales consultant (me) do? Of course, I asked them to do more.

The target of Power Hour were old customers who we haven’t heard from in a while and “Old No’s”. Old no’s are lost deals that purchased from a competitor.

Of course it’s easy to identify old customers who have not been in contact. A very good friend of mine (you know who you are) talks about milking the cows you own (brilliant). By calling and checking in you can see how they are doing and ask if there are any opportunities brewing. It’s an easy call to make and resulted in some new projects to get involved with.

Old no’s are a little bit harder to call. There is some strategic planning required. When you call, there is a chance, a probability, that the vendor of choice has not delivered on promises and the customer might be open to cancelling the project and working with you. They may or may not call you if unhappy, but if you call them it can trigger a dialog and an opening for you to get the sale back. This tactic works once in a while, it has worked for me and will work for you if you give it a try.

Again, the results of power hour for my client were excellent. The first Power Hour resulted in the booking of a $174,000 job. By doing this exercise as a team, it made it easier for everyone. It also was fun. So much fun that they have decided to do two power hours per week.

Do you need some business? If so, call old no’s and inactive customers. You be pleasantly surprised by what you will uncover.

Your New Year's Gift

Your New Year’s Gift

Here we go again. Another year gone as the next year arrives.

Like many others, I use this time to reflect on what happened and what’s about to happen. The New Year provides a clean slate of sorts. We get excited about the possibilities to grow our professional and personal lives.

Things do change. We hope, pray and work for positive change in our lives and for those around us.

I lost a business acquaintance this year. He passed away. I didn’t maintain contact with him for a number of years. He had a very positive effect on me. He was a mentor without the title. He was a living example of how to behave and succeed as a salesman, as a professional and as a trusted associate. His name was Bob. He was of Irish descent which you would figure out immediately upon meeting him.

Bob was the first Manufacturer’s Representative that I ever worked with. I was in my early-20’s selling medical supplies to doctor’s offices. At the time, he was in his mid to late 30’s making him an old guy to me. Bob represented some of the manufacturers on our line card.
He was witty and wise. He had a lot of stories to tell and all were entertaining and most had a lesson weaved in the words he spoke.

His best story, by far, was about his graduation from high school, his graduation party and the gift that his father gave to him.

At some time during the celebration, his dad asked him to get up and go outside to see his graduation present. As they walked to the door his mind raced until he decided that dad got him a car. Once on the porch he saw that there was no car, nothing whatsoever. Where was the present?

Bob’s dad put one arm around his shoulder and stretched the other arm out pointing to the trees, sky moon and clouds. “There it is son. The whole wide world and it’s all yours.” Disappointed? Yes, for a while. As he told me that story, so many years later, that gift had indeed become the greatest a dad could give a child in transition.

So, on this occasion, I would like to share that gift with you. I’ve had the whole wide world for a long, long time. I recognize the value of it and have deeply appreciated the opportunity the world has given me. Take the opportunity given to you by the world we live in and “go for it”. Don’t waste a precious minute while chasing your dream this New Year.

Thank you Bob