“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Hello everybody,

I am still very excited about the news I have to tell you about but it is not ready yet so I have to contain myself a little longer!

Thanks again for all of your loyal support. The blog has reached unprecedented heights thanks to your loyalty.

About today’s post. I find it very interesting in sales and management that there are so many “Cleo’s”… you know, the physic hot line lady…that feel that they can tell whether someone can make it sales or management. The arrogance even goes as far as to predict the level of people’s success! IMPOSSIBLE! In fact, I will go as far as to say that most of the time when someone does make a prediction it is almost always the opposite result.

Using myself as an example, I got fired 5 times, thats right 5 times, from a door to door sales job! No one gets fired from a door to door sales job. They are so desperate in that field they take almost ANYONE!

I remember working for a drug wholesaler, and I asked the main person if I could be a salesman? Not only did the owner get a GIGANTIC laugh on me but he went on to tell me that I would NEVER be a salesperson! Then to add insult to injury he fired me!

When I became “Man of the Year” for the first time in my career I had to go and show this man the error in his judgment. Quite frankly, it didn’t help much. Life went on. But I did learn a valuable lesson. Never, and I mean NEVER, prejudge someone! By the way, that also pertains to your sales prospects. I hear everyday young and old sales professionals preselect their prospects. As usual, almost always they picked the WRONG one. It happens all the time. How I have learned to protect myself against this common mistake is to give EVERYONE 100% of my being! Regardless of what I think, give every employee as well as every prospect your very best effort!

“The Specialist”

Hello kind readers,

Before I start tonight’s post I want to remind everyone that the biggest thing to be unveiled on this blog is coming very soon. I can barely contain myself without giving some clues. I can’t do it.

Be on the lookout it is coming SOON!

Now to the post. I saw an unbelievable thing in the last two months that reminded me of my past, yet 40 years later it still applies. It kinda shows that even though times change people basically stay the same. There was a company that I have a great relationship with and I watch as they have their monthly sales contests. The top three people in the country win prizes varying from money to 32″ plasma televisions. Without fail the last two winners, after receiving their cash prizes, also received a certificate relating to the level of excellence they had accomplished. I had an opportunity to meet with each one of these winners and to the person they never mentioned the money, which was substantial. All they wanted to tell me about was the certificate! This 8′x11′ framable certificate. All they could tell me was how important it was and how much it meant to them.

They proceeded to tell me they had never received anything like that since graduating from high school. Each person was going to get a special frame and hang it up in their room. To them it was validation of their accomplishment!

If more managers took note of what I am saying they will find that it is indeed the little things that mean the most to your young staff. Everything their parents and friends have told them they could not accomplish, with one certificate they are vindicated. That’s POWERFUL!

The money can be spent and then it is gone forever. The certificate hanging up in their room is a constant reminder of their success! What I am trying to tell all young and old managers is that forget about yourself…you may be jaded and only working for the money, the young people in your care need “THE LITTLE THINGS”

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

It’s that time again.

Tonight I want to talk about “An Ounce Of Silence is worth A Pound of Explanation”! To often in sales you will see the young and experienced sales person talk themselves OUT OF THE SALE! The reason being is that when you are finished with your presentation you have to STOP talking and give the prospect time to digest what you have said. The sales persons that continue talking more times than not talk themselves out of the deal. When I am done with my presentation or just done with everything I had to say, it’s time to relax and see if what you said registered.

It is amazing to watch a true professional finish his presentation and just kick back and watch the prospect talk himself or herself into the sale. The worst that can happen if you button up is that the prospect may start to say something negative and you have plenty of time to counter with positive reinforcement. On the other hand if you don’t stop talking the prospect never gets to air his or her views and you might just miss the KEY to the sale. Sometimes I have sat for a full 2 to 3 minutes without saying a word. Is it unnerving? YOU BET! Is it effective? YOU BET!

Just remember, when you get to that critical part of the sale, “An Ounce Of Silence Is Worth A Pound Of Explanation”! Just a passing thought. I have run into several people that read this blog religiously and they continue to amaze me. When they are introduced to me they tell me almost with disbelief that the things in the blog that they have used actually WORK! Imagine that!

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day! I hope you didn’t forget to call your moms.

Tonight I have another interesting post.

As usual I had the great opportunity to observe some young and experienced sales persons. I noticed that at the end of the presentations when the prospects gave replies like…well, not today, or let me think about it, the sales persons just agreed with the prospect and shook their hand and went about their business with the next potential client.

I posed to one of these sales persons a “what if”. What if you had asked a girl for a date and she said not today, or let me think about it. Before I could get the words out it was unaminous that they would have immediately asked HOW COME? or at least WHY? The light bulb went off. They realized that it is no different in business. If someone tells you they want to think about it you owe not only yourself but especially the customer the courtesy of at least asking WHY!

You would be amazed how many orders are written just because you were talking to fast or the client was day dreaming and missed the key part. By simply asking “why” you will get amazing answers that enable you to close the sale. For example, lets say you asked the girl for a date and she said no, or I need to think about it. You asked WHY and she tells you that her friends told her you were married. Being single you can see how by just explaining this to her you may have a chance for that coveted date.

It works the same in business. Maybe the prospect said not today because he misinterpreted what you said and thought a large down payment was required. A simple explanation is all that is required to write that sale. “The Specialist” always gives the prospect one chance to explain himself or herself. I act so confused or dismayed by any negative response it only makes sense to ask Why?

So remember, when you ask for the order and the prospect gives you a response other than yes you must act stunned and ask WHY or HOW COME? Then and only then do you have a chance to make the sale!

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

It’s Saturday and I have a valuable but brief “Sales Tip of the Day”.

When you are wrapping up the sale and you are going for the signature on the sales agreement, always HAND the pen in a writing position to the potential customer. I have seen so many sales persons go over the sales agreement only to lay the pen down in front of the customer. WRONG!

When you do this it is very easy for the customer to pick up the sales agreement and go through a lengthy review of everything that you have already discussed. Sometimes they NEVER pick up the pen and consummate the deal. When you hand them the pen in a writing position it is only natural for them to write with it. Of course since the sales agreement, as earlier explained in a past post, is only a formality then you should make it as easy as possible for the prospect to complete the FORMALITY!

Very shortly I have a very special announcement to make so stay tuned. It will be the biggest event that has occurred on this blog since it’s inception. SORRY, NO CLUES!

“The Specialist”

Hello everybody,

The response was so outrageous for last night’s post I thought I should go in to a little more depth.

REMEMBER, and never lose sight of the fact that YOU were chosen to become a trainer because your employer thought you had what it takes to teach and develop other people. What a compliment! You should be very proud of yourself.

Putting that aside lets get started on some things that will prove your boss made a good decision. When training new people, like I hit on last night REMEMBER what it was like when you first started. It was scary. A lot of new things to learn. One of the most important things is to be patient. Everyone cannot learn as fast as you perhaps. Don’t compare what you accomplished with your new trainee.

Each person is a unique individual, hence the training has to have a unique twist to it to accommodate the strengths and weaknesses of each individual.

“The Specialist” looks for things during the training session, regardless of how small, to catch the trainee doing something RIGHT! When I find even the smallest thing you would think that the trainee just won the lottery the way I lavish the praise and excitement. Believe me the trainee will do enough wrong to the point that they will be down on themselves unless YOU come to the rescue. I call those little things I catch them doing right “building blocks”. The student will be so happy they pleased you that they will be much more receptive to the constructive criticism, to the point that they will go over the things they did wrong continuously to fix them.

The speed of training will increase 10 fold using this technique. I think the most important thing is to make the training FUN! Have a good time with the trainee. They are not in the Marines. Lighten up and have some fun. You will find that by lacing the training with fun you will actually take the trainees mind off the hard work at hand and they will actually reach the desired results without the stress most companies put on them.

A moment ago I mentioned that each person is unique. Find out what is unique about your trainees. For some it may be their “million dollar” smile, for someone else it may be the quality of their voice, still someone else may have unusually incredible work ethics. Point this out! With this technique the trainee will realize you have spotted what they like most about them self, making them realize that you will utilize THEIR strengths to reach the goal. Boy, doing these things makes training a lot more fun and take the word of “The Specialist” a lot more effective! I will follow up with more tips on training for sales and management in future posts.

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I hope you had a nice day! I had a great day.

I was training some young up and coming sales professionals and I was giving them some advanced sales training tips. When I was done working with them I just hung around and watched them interact with their newer counterparts and the most common mistake of all new trainers did not fail to rear it’s ugly head. Maybe that’s sub-consciously why I hung around.

Without fail, while I have traveled down this magnificent highway, I have seen the mistake I am about to describe over and over again. When your mentor passes on to you some advanced training tips I realize it is very flattering to you and you cannot wait to pass on this new found knowledge. The new person in your organization should not be the beneficiary.

All new trainers should flash back to their first couple of days on the job and remember how they were spoon fed the BASICS of the job and then, as they felt comfortable with the amount of knowledge that was given them, and they became proficient at it, more knowledge…even advanced material…was given them.

The down side of giving this advanced knowledge to a brand new person is at least two-fold. First, you are overloading their brain! They cannot absorb it. Secondly, you are stunting their growth. You should be teaching them the material they were given just like you were trained. I have seen countless new people blown out of the business for just these reasons. I understand your enthusiasm and I really appreciate it, that’s why you were selected to be a trainer in the first place.

This is just another tip from “The Specialist”

“The Specialist”

Hello kind readers,

It’s me again.

Now, all of my readers know by now that I am not a big fan of “closes”, especially taken out of context. Everyone knows how I feel. You should be closing continuously from the time you meet someone, forever.

Now I am going to elaborate and incorporate a style in the process of continuously closing… “The Assumptive Close”.

Quite the contrary to popular belief, the assumptive close is not just about assuming the sale and going for the paperwork. That is a small part of it. The real art of the assumptive close is to make EVERY WORD in your small talk and presentation imply that the sale is already done and that you are just discussing formalities. It is all about attitude.

I had the opportunity to call on a potential client the other day and truly it wasn’t whether they were going to do it but whether I had enough time in my busy schedule to accommodate them! I have mentioned before that sales professionals often invite me to make a sale with them and I thoroughly enjoy the occasional interaction. Well, on this particular occasion the prospect told me within minutes that they were shopping the product and I was lucky to come at this particular time. I did not take the bait! Quite the contrary. I politely informed them that since our company was the largest with the lowest rates that we really didn’t participate in that kind of business but I would certainly try and help them if I could. They then proceeded to tell me that I could take the information and come back at another time with the proposal. Again “The Specialist” didn’t take the bait. I assured the potential client that I could take care of everything in a few minutes IF I could help them. I then proceeded to present my proposal and informed them of what I expected of them, in fact I made a list of what I would need in order to make it happen for them.

The sale was done. There was really nothing else to talk about except small talk. Everything I did and said during that sales call was from beginning to end an assumptive closing technique! If you noticed the sale was closed and I hadn’t done any paperwork! In fact to show how powerful this technique is I informed them I didn’t have time to finish but I would TRY and come back the next day. Well needless to say before I ate breakfast the next morning they were calling me to see what time I was coming back and could I squeeze them in that day so they could enjoy the benefits of their product.

I don’t think I need to go any further! It is all about attitude! To be able to pull this off you really have to be a master of assuming you have made the sale the minute you meet the people, and every word you say has to be pointed in that direction all the way through. That customer knew from my attitude that they would be doing business with “The Specialist”.

Again this is just one technique in our wonderful profession.

“The Specialist”

Hello everybody,

I have to share this with you.

IT’s NOT ALWAYS ABOUT THE MONEY! I was fortunate enough to receive a phone call that woke my wife and I up at four in the morning the other night. You are probably thinking what is wrong with this man. Don’t wake ME up at 4 o’clock in the morning. Well what made the call so special was it was from someone that I only had a chance to work with a very short period of time and this sales professional took the time to thank me for touching his life and helping him achieve success in his new endeavor.

“The Specialist” was quick to remind this young man, (by the way everybody is a young person to me, I’m OLD!) that it was 99% him and maybe 1% “The Specialist”! This is what inspired this post. If you want to be a respected trainer in any industry you have to LOVE what you do. I assure you, the disapointments will out weigh the great moments. However they will never devalue those great moments!

Those little thank you’s mean everything to a teacher. Those little moments of gratitude are what makes the real trainer keep going through all the trials and tribulations. I have dedicated 35 years of my life teaching sales and management and it has never been about the money. Yes there was compensation…but not near enough to equal the amount of effort put in above and beyond the compensation guidelines. There has to be something else. Thank goodness I have been blessed with enough of these great moments to spend a lifetime teaching.

Take note… All of you young trainers, it always seems to go back to the core values of the 8 basics of success. This one is sincerity. I know this particular person reads my blog so I want to give him special props for that late night phone call. Keep up the good work , and you can call anytime!

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I hope you had a great weekend!

This Bonus Tip of the day is very IMPORTANT. I see young and old sales professionals, constantly at the paperwork, lose all the hard work they have done in the presentation of the product by all of a sudden turning into an interrogator or a business person. The sales person has just spent “X” number of time building a relationship with the customer either through sincerity, humor, integrity, etc. or all of the above only to throw it all away at the paperwork. The paperwork HAS to be a formality! You have to be so nonchanlant that the customer feels no difference in the atmosphere then he did when you presented the product. You almost have to do the paperwork as if you are bored.

You see, the customer has adopted your mood throughout the presentation, so you do not want to do anything at this critical junction to change his mood. Certainly you do not want him to become more attentive to detail because you have made the paperwork so important! When you are showing the customer everything he or she is receiving, of course you want to build that up because it is your last chance to sell your product, but following that you want to almost turn the rest into a mere formality. A lot of that has to do with your voice inflection and your facial expressions along with your body language. Once again it is a practiced art.

People that have watched me can’t believe the transformation when it gets time to go over the money part and get the prospect to okay the contract. In fact, one way you will be able to grade your progress is to watch how many people read your paperwork. No one has read my paperwork in the past 20 some years, after all what’s there to read…it’s just a formality.

By the way don’t forget Mother’s Day! That day has always had a special place in my heart . Remember we only have one mom. I referred you to a great website the other day…Cat’s Pajamas Gift Baskets. “The Specialist” stands behind it! Talk to you tomorrow.

“The Specialist”