Persistence Matters in everything you do!

The most common cause of failure in anything can be just giving up, or losing intensity.

I will relate this to several challenges I am seeing in selling, especially in this economy. In selling anything it is common for salespeople to give up too soon. If you are not getting the results you want, or receive immediate gratification, it can be easy to look elsewhere for results. Many of the salespeople I am seeing become frustrated when a potential customer doesn’t respond to an email or voicemail. They then move on to other opportunities, many not as strong looking for easier targets. The figures below are fairly consistent across industries.

Most salespeople give up too soon:

- 40 percent quit after the first contact/attempt.
- 30 percent quit after the second contact/attempt.
- 9 percent quit after the third contact/attempt.
- 6 percent quit after the fourth contact/attempt.
- 5 percent quit after the fifth contact/attempt.



The crucial point to realize is that in more complex sales, over 80 percent of customers say "Yes" AFTER the sixth call. As you can see from above, indicates that over 80% of sellers are not even getting in the game.

Whether in sales or any pursuit you have chosen, you must be willing to go the extra mile. How are can you differentiate yourself from the competition? How can you be different and memorable to your customer? Once you have gained the confidence in your product, or your chosen pursuit, be willing to continue to look for any way to succeed.

It is those willing to take on risk, and overcome the fear of rejection that will ultimately achieve the success they deserve.

Failure is not Fatal, but not trying just rots!

My apologies for the gap since the last post. The times are keeping all of us very busy!

In these tough economic times, it is easy to get down. I have talked with many salespeople and others who are frustrated and down about failed efforts on many fronts.

That has prompted the reason for this post. Failure is not a bad thing. But it is how we view the failure, and learn from it that really matters.

I want to stress that the top performers consistently recognize that it’s not the number of shots you miss that counts, it’s the number of shots you make. The truth in that is that you must take more shots if they don’t seem to be falling for you. In other words, don’t let failed sales calls or engagements slow you down from making the next sales call, and attacking the next engagement with even more enthusiasm and passion.

In baseball, the very top performers can strike out over twice as often as they get hits. In basketball, many top performers could not hit a free throw to save their life. (Of course, this comment is not geared towards Dwight Howard, or any of the Orlando Magic) In dating efforts, many of my very good friends would never have been married if they weren’t afraid of striking out. (This applies to me as well, but that’s a different story.)

My main point is that you can’t win it, if you’re not in the game! No one succeeds all the time, and failure is not fatal. Strikeouts are good, just like failure can be good. If you have lots of both, that is not necessarily bad either. Because it basically means that you are taking a lot of attempts, and invariably are learning from your mistakes.
Here’s to all of you who are marching on in spite of set backs. Make the extra sales call, dig deeper for the effort, keep a positive attitude, and stay passionate as you pursue your goals. Nothing can replace sustained commitment towards your ultimate goals.

Selling Best Practices- Best Buy Style!

Due to a recent personal experience purchasing electronics, I thought it was a good time to share sales best practices “Best Buy” Style.

As I have been out of the country, I somehow managed to fry most of my major electronics while in China. Even though I had invested a substantial sum in currency converters, and adapters, I was forced to bury most of my US Electronics and appliances, including a TV, stereo, toaster, and a hair dryer that caught on fire.

As I am now in a new home in the US, that meant my wife granted approval to replace the deceased items, and my son and I happily set off for Best Buy with the newspaper sales in hand. As most of you know, Best Buy seems to be one of the lone survivors of the electronics retail battlefield, with competitors like Circuit City and Rex Electronics down for the count.

Based on my experience, and their utilization of sales best practices, I think I know why!

It was Saturday morning, and my son and I were there with strict intention of buying a 32 inch TV on sale, and one of those surround sound systems in a box. The key goal was to somehow get everything on one remote, which I have struggled with over the years. After engaging with several members from the local electronics Mensa chapter, who happened to be on Best Buy’s sales staff, we loaded our car with a substantially different haul. We had no idea that the items listed on sale, were in no way sufficient to satisfy our craving for superior picture and sound. In fact, it was fortunate that they had helped us, before we made a horrible mistake, and were forced to suffer with sub-standard quality, which would never have satisfied our sophisticated tastes.

By the time we left the store, we had agreed to having Geek Squad and a team from NASA, come to complete the install. It was explained there was certain necessary education including a degree in quantum mechanics, and nuclear physics would be helpful to insure optimum system performance.

While I’m not really sure how I ended up buying the system that I did, my wife was even more perplexed. It made me reflect on some of these crucial retail sales best practices observed.

Upsell, upsell, upsell- I’ve never understood how there could be more add-ons, than the actual cost of the product. (Warranties, Technical support, NASA engineers, installation, and lifetime upgrade packages to include free massages) You can’t beat the support.

Advertise some low cost piece of item to get them in the door!: There are many variations on this one, to include supplemental strategies like only having one of whatever you are advertising at that price. It’s similar to stopping in some place for Happy hour because they advertise “2 for 1”, only to find out that the special only applies to Sewage Pilsner bottled in the Okefenokee Swamp. Hey, you’re there anyway, why not have a taste. They sell one Sewage pilsner, and they upsell by replacing it with something that doesn’t taste like sludge.

Position yourself as the expert, and sell consultatively: This one can be recognized by many variations, but normally takes advantage of several key ingredients. The customer must be a little uniformed or downright stupid helps even more. In Best Buy’s case, if an individual is technologically challenged, and wants to get 27 pieces of equipment on one remote control, they have hit the gold mine.

In any event, my compliments to Best Buy on taking selling to a new level.
I also appreciate the support with window replacement after all the windows on the back side of the house were blown out after system initiation.

It sounds great!

Happy selling.

Opinions can be like colons with free hemorrhoids

I have received some feedback that every person on the planet is tired of hearing how much more money we will send AIG. With that in mind, I will deviate in this week's post to elaborate on a best practice in success, sales, and ultimately life in general.

It's easy for anyone to give their opinion, it's harder to make a difference.

Let me illustrate with the following example.

It seems that the sport of fighting or Ultimate Championships has gained in popularity. If you have not seen these events, I strongly encourage attending at least one event for the pure entertainment value. They far exceed the violence and drama present in the current WWF soap opera. These UFC fights are a cross between boxing, martial arts, wrestling, and special dance moves I learned years ago while on holiday in Tijuana. Apparently “anything goes”, and you will frequently see vicious hits to the head and privates, including the dreaded “Death Nipple Tweaks” employed by some of the more vicious fighters.

It is not uncommon for fans to be whipped into an absolute frenzy, as they cheer on their favorite gladiators in this ring of death. The juxtaposition of these well trained athletes against the backdrop of many of the most out of shape people you might ever see outside of Sonny’s Bar-b-que at “All you can eat fat night” is interesting. The obesity levels present in one of these typical crowds would seem to indicate that Diabetes testing kits might sell well at the concessions next to the pork rinds.

Here you will hear the crowds screaming coaching from their seats. “You fight like a girl, or bite his nads!” Bear in mind that the coaching is normally coming from someone at least 125 pounds overweight, and someone who probably gets winded stepping in and out of the shower. That is probably the reason they choose to only shower once per week.

Their “coaching” is being provided to superbly conditioned athletes who have a body fat of less than 4%. They are cut, hard, and appear to be lethal killing machines.

Based on these facts, I have often hoped that a fight might be briefly interrupted to allow me the pleasure of watching one of the warriors physically extract a butterball fan from his seat, so the lump of lard could show them how it is done. I doubt that will ever occur though due the legal implications of such a move. Now perhaps, if there were warning signs at the events, and the UFC could avoid liability, they might allow occasional fan participation.

The warning sign could mimic the type of informative help that is found on your coffee cup from McDonalds. “This Coffee may be hot, so if you’re dumb enough to pour it on your testicles, please don’t sue us”. In the case of Ultimate Fighting, the signage might read, “Coaching from overweight people that smell of tobacco and/or cheap beer is not appreciated. It may result in said person being pummeled into a bloody pulp in the center ring for the pleasure of the other rednecks sitting around you”

***Special Addendum: If you are able to recover, please don’t sue us.

These are the things I think about. Everybody has a comment and an opinion, but it is whether they have credibility that matters.

There will always be people who always seem to have comments and advice even though they have never been where you want to go, and they have never accomplished what you want to accomplish. They seem to want to hold you back.

These are the people who want to pee on other people’s parades. While I will never understand the negativity, I am fairly certain it is somehow Freudian, and they may secretly want to sleep with their mother, or at least their Mother’s hot friend. Maybe they don’t have their own parade, or just don’t want you to accomplish or have something they might not achieve.

Learn from those who have been where you want to go, or at least heading in the same direction.

Leadership in Strengths- Mainly for those of you who work for large companies

In my years of work in executive coaching and training, I continually see examples of why organizations never achieve their full potential. (For purposes of this discussion, I will stick to focusing on people’s strengths, and not digress into an examination of the morons running many of our largest corporations)

Take the issue of accountability. Organizations all over the globe continue to focus on people’s weaknesses. Why is this? Evaluations are typically geared in that manner. What do the people need to improve? What areas do they really suck? What training do they need to address their absolute weakest areas?

It seems so counterintuitive doesn't it? Shouldn't we really be giving people more opportunity to grow and develop in the areas they are strongest? What about the areas they actually like, and maybe even love? Just too weird.

Instead of taking this approach, many organizations prefer to focus on an individual’s weakness, and insure compliance to all standards. My personal perspective, is I have never really cared if an employee stunk in one or two minor areas. I would rather inspire greatness in a few areas that really contribute to the production of the team.

You even see this errant approach in areas such as “career development” for people who show above average potential. Many functional leaders still insist upon “rotating” these individuals into other assignments whether or not the employee has any interest in the new position. The flawed logic is that they will be better employees with a broader exposure to different functional units. While that may be true, if you are looking to develop the next CEO, unfortunately that doesn’t apply to the vast majority (read pretty much all) of these ridiculous moves.

We take talented and aggressive sales managers and people, and move
them into areas where they have no contact with customer, but can better understand “processes”. We move brilliant finance and accounting professionals into management positions even though they may have little people skills, and even less skill in leadership. We move great operators, and project team leads, into marketing management positions leads because we need to “round them out!”

What we do is create generalists, who will never be as good or valuable for your organization as they could have been if you let them grow in areas they have both skill and passion.

I sense I am rambling, so I will attempt to explain with a sports analogy.

Don Butkis is the Corporate HR Manager for Big Company, Inc. Don believes that all management candidates must have multiple rotations and experiences prior to being promoted into any functional discipline. Even once promoted into a separate discipline, Don still believes that you should continue to rotate people, so they don’t get “complacent” in their assignments. Don even gets nervous if someone shows strong interest or even “talent” in a position; because he fears they might like what they’re doing too much. Or even worse, they might become too talented in an area, and then leave Big company Inc. to start their own business. They might even work for the competition! Don can’t let that happen, so if he keeps everyone average, and constantly trying to learn new assignments, and working on weaknesses, that will not be a risk.

Now, let’s assume that Don becomes the manager of a professional baseball team that finally has a pretty stable roster. In the process of Don evaluating the team, he decides that rotations need to be made so that the players can better understand each other’s roles.

He moved his all star catcher to the outfield. His Golden Glove first baseman was moved to start catching. He started working with his top pitchers on their hitting, as their batting averages were terrible, and this was an obvious area of weakness.


I know this may be a shocker to all of you, but the team started performing much worse in the following months.
If this was a real story in professional baseball, the manager would be fired immediately, if not roasted on a grill by the fans.

In the corporate world, it is happening every day. But instead of firing the managers, or applicable leaders, the approach is very different. The managers continue to focus on weaknesses at the employee level, and the fans (shareholders) may not necessarily be holding the leadership up to the same standard of putting a winning team on the field.

The best coaches and leaders focus on the strengths of their team. They find what their people on their team do the very best, or where they have strength and passion. They then give them the opportunity to expand and grow in that role. They then look to plug weaknesses with the right people and fit. They find the best player! It is not about a rotation, or filling a hole, it is about aligning the right person with the right opportunity. That is one of the areas areas that will have maximum impact for any organization.

Believe it or not, the people will also be happier, and more driven to succeed.

Yur leadership may be smoking Crack!

I get many emails regarding “Dilbert like” moments in Sales execution.
This week’s submission came from an Account executive who was beyond tired and fed up with his sales leadership’s lack of focus on what really mattered.

He shared with me that a special conference call was scheduled (during the sales day), to review some areas the needed critical attention.

The main area of focus was on something called “success story reporting”. They introduced a new report called the “Success story compliance report”.

Apparently, this organization, in all of their infinite wisdom, had created a special report (and actually used man hours to create it) that detailed which areas down to the AE detail were submitting success stories. It would be one thing if these successes, shared best practices, or help for other sales people, but they don’t. They same useless phrases are cut and paste to satisfy someone’s insatiable appetite for activity…

Never mind the fact that this organization had CRM systems that already captured the same detail, including sales funnel movement, it seemed to be a critical business priority that a separate report be created for the Neanderthals that actually run the sales organizations, and can’t use the systems already in place. Somehow they think nothing of the hours (multiplied exponentially by your number of resources) that go into these non-value added endeavors!

My tip in this area is direct.

Does anyone actually read or do anything with the information you are being requested to provide? Here’s a shocker question- How does this report actually help you reach your goals, or even the organization?

If that question cannot easily be answered, then the report should be eliminated. Fight and rage against the machine. Life if to short…Just do it! Stop sending it out immediately, and recognize that at a minimum you have just saved your people some time.

Driving improved results in anything including sales is about relentless focus on those activities that help us achieve our goals. An additional benefit to eliminating unnecessary reporting will also be improved morale, as well as overall productivity.

While probably a discussion for a different time, overall productivity and its measurement should always be centered on the activities in the most important areas.

Measurement loses impact when it is applied to everything.

The people that are most effective are those that spend more of their time and effort in the areas that yield the highest results.

AIG, A Shining Example of Superior Sales Skills (Really, these guys are good!)

I remain shocked as to the extent of the outrage over the recent audacity of AIG, and awarding over 150,000,000 in employee “retention bonuses” in the very division that drove the catastrophic need for AIG’s very bail-out.

Who would you rather hire as a salesperson, if given the option? The executives at AIG who negotiated these terms, or any of the clowns from the Treasury Department including Timothy Geitner???

In the winning category of “you just can’t make this garbage up”, our US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner states that they had to honor the previously agreed upon bonus arrangement to avoid the exposure to potential future lawsuits. While I understand his concern, I just can’t follow the logic.

If AIG should have been allowed to go under, which (THEY SHOULD BE A DEAD DOG NOW!!!), then most certainly the bonuses would not have been awarded. Why-BECAUSE THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO MONEY TO PAY THE BONUSES.
I’m trying to remember how many last minute bonuses was paid out at Enron, or WorldCom? However, since billions have been handed over to AIG, by you and me, then we most certainly should reward the very people whose arrogance, greeed, and absolute lack of oversight led us down this path.

In my community, we are closing schools due to lack of funding. There is inadequate funding across the board, for public works, infrastructure, and education. Teachers are being cut back, and everyone is being challenged for sacrifice to make it though these times.

Yet, in these times, AIG sold the government for the “Need” for these bonuses. – Isn’t this the same company that held a multi-million dollar spa retreat for “top performers” AFTER their first round of bailout money? Some say arrogant, some say pompous, disconnected, and just plain evil….I have a different perspective….these guys are good!

Let’s follow the tactics and strategy. It’s really all about negotiation skills and ultimately salesmanship. Can anyone guess who was one of the top donors to Congressman Chris Dodd (Democrat)-, who just happens to oversee the Committee ruling on these terms.
Well, look, it’s AIG? In a very surprising revelation, it looks like AIG’s top two candidate recipients in 2008, were Obama, and then Dodd? (That seems surprising, doesn’t it?) In a candid appearance this week, Mr. Dodd pointedly (and with indignant outrage), denounced the compensation package, and wondered how in the world this could have happened???

The very next day, Mr. Dodd admitted (to the very same reporter), that he was actually the one who approved the payouts. He admits he made a “little mistake” in not remembering correctly. Are you kidding me!!!……Democrat or Republican, the incestuous nature of these clowns should sicken us all. Mr. Dodd then decided to throw the Obama administration under the proverbial bus, by stating that it was the Treasury Department that had required that the approvals for the bonuses be included.

This leadership is inspiring. Is this the same Treasury Department that arbitrarily decided to let Lehman Brothers fail, but came to the rescue of the great partners from AIG? I wonder if campaign contributions, or perhaps Paulson’s old buddies from Goldman Sach’s had anything to do with that decision?

No, it is about salesmanship. AIG understands their customers buying and “decision making” process. Follow the money! They also adapt and stay flexible to the changing times and opportunities. AIG has been generous to Republicans and Democrats alike over the years, but they somehow seem very adept at shifting their bets in favor of the winning horses. While it may be arrogant, and unbelievably despicable to most Americans, one thing is clear.

If you need to get things done, who would you hire? A multi-millionaire executive from a failed AIG investment group, or Timothy Geithner?

Just something to think about…