“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Hi everybody,

I missed yesterday while my editor was flying back from Hawaii. I took this opportunity to take a day off. I thought if you could stand an unedited version I would take this time to thank each and everyone of you for participating in my blog. Because of your support our blog has catapulted to the top rankings on many search engines for key words pertaining to Sales and Management training topics. We owe it all to you! I really enjoy sharing this information with you and sharing your responses and comments. Also don’t forget, very soon “The Specialist” will unveil a much more user friendly website with a chance to speak with you live in our teleseminars. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to actually speak to you and help resolve some of your sales/management problems. Don’t forget, available soon will be the ONLY “Specialist” gear in the world! We won’t disappoint. Thanks again for all of your support and we will resume again tomorrow. P.S. Don’t forget to send your Mother something nice on Mother’s Day! In fact there is a link on our blog for corporate gift baskets. The site is actually Cat’s Pajamas Gift Baskets. They have a wonderful Mother’s Day selection!

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

Someone gave me an idea for a terrific post so I thought I would share it with you. I won’t be able to go into near the depth for each one of these great lessons learned but I will do my best. In order from #10, I will start with sales first. Here we go…

#10. In sales, To be successful be yourself! Do not try and be someone you are not. And whatever you do NEVER try to be “MR. SALESMAN”!!!

#9. “Perfect practice makes Perfect! Don’t forget, how you practice your craft will have a direct reflection on your income and longevity in the industry!

#8. Find a Mentor…”The Specialist” had a great number of mentors that helped me sharpen my craft. Even the bad ones taught me something, If nothing else they taught me what NOT TO DO!

#7. Be sincere with your customers or potential customers. I mean really care about them, it will go along way and the customers can feel it.

#6. The most important thing I have learned in the sales profession is HAVING INTEGRITY in each an every sale regardless of who or what you are selling.

#5. In MANAGEMENT, remember these people that you are managing are under your supervision and leadership. Make sure your footprint of GOOD is all over their FUTURE!

#4. Be patient! Remember, you are not where you are as an overnight sensation. It took a lot of hard work for you and it will be a long process for them. Be patient!

#3. Be Fair to all of your employees and be even handed. Your staff will be watching and grading YOU!

#2. Lead by example! The speed of the boss is the speed of the crew! Never ask your staff to do something you won’t do, can’t do, or haven’t done!

AND the NUMBER ONE thing I have learned in sales/management is to put God first in my life, family second and my business third! I have proven to myself that if I allow God to take me on His plan and I put my family next my business is already taken care of!

“The Specialist”

Hello everybody,

As usual tonight I had the great opportunity to speak with a young salesperson that in two words has “Permanent Potential”!

Most people are not even familiar with the term and how it relates to sales/management. Permanent potential is best described as a person that goes through life with unlimited talents and gifts but never fully realizes them to their fullest. This young person is in my humblest opinion is one of the most naturally gifted sales persons I have ever come across. The problem is that this particular person believes all the press clippings and has stopped learning and growing.

This was not a sudden one time occurrence. Before one can be labeled as a person with permanent potential a track record has to be established. This particular person has burned bridges in the last three stops and has never seen any situation through to its entirety. Most importantly the key ingredient in a person with permanent potential is the inability to take responsibility for any of the failures.

As I explained to this young person, the road to success is filled with the corpses of people with permanent potential. This is not limited to the sales profession, quite the contrary it is in every industry in the world. When you are to big to learn from others and you know more than people 30 years your senior it is time to re-evaluate your attitude.

It is ironic that yesterday’s post was on Mr. Indispensable and yet this person with permanent potential is always released even before him. Imagine that.

“The Specialist” has this tip for all managers and owners of companies…cut your losses with those with “Permanent Potential” and move on, you and your entire Company will prosper in the long run for it. I call it “FOOLS GOLD”!!

“The Specialist”

Oh what a subject!

I could tell you a million stories about the people I have come in contact with that consider themselves indispensable. What a mistake!

The reason I have chosen this subject for tonight’s post is I have encountered 2, that’s right… 2, of these misguided people in the last month! Can you believe it? I want young and intermediate managers to learn how to protect themselves from these frauds. That’s right, I called them frauds because they are selfish and uncaring people that have no concept of TEAM!

“The Specialist”, long before being recognized in the sales profession, had to face this problem as I built sales organizations. I had a lot of trouble and most of the times in the early years dealt with it miserably! I, like so many young managers, even seasoned managers, see the amount of volume these people generate and are afraid to stick to their core values because they don’t want to lose the volume.

I will guarantee you this…Once you have one of these people in your organization it takes a very seasoned and cool headed manager to understand that the loss of volume is only TEMPORARY in the overall scheme of things. In fact, eliminating this problem as soon as it rears it’s ugly head will actually transfer into much larger profits in the long run, not to mention a much more invigorated staff! Not to mention the many diamonds in the rough (that you as a manager will discover within your staff) that have been smothered by this selfish, inconsiderate individual.

Even to this day, after I have to eliminate one of these kinds of people I still spend time to reflect with nervous energy hoping I made the right decision. Even if it takes TWO people to replace the volume I guarantee you it will be worth it. As soon as the volume returns and I have a fluid, cohesive staff I see the wisdom in my decision.

You will have to trust “The Specialist” on this one and take the plunge for a much happier staff and the great feeling that you are not held hostage to anyone except your own core values!

“The Specialist”

Hello gracious readers,

I had the pleasure of meeting with a young sales/trainer/manager today and this particular person is the inspiration for this post.

She was telling me how she wanted to be a great trainer and how it excited her to work on and help develop people’s strengths. I was initially caught off guard with this statement as I realized how far this young lady really had to go to reach her goals. That one statement she made spoke volumes! I explained to her that a real trainer specializes in working on and developing people’s WEAKNESSES!

Anybody can work on some one’s strengths. It takes a lot of patience and skill to develop some one’s weaknesses. Picture this, If you have one strong arm and one weak arm the optimum situation would be to bring the weak arm up to the ability of the strong arm. If you just continue to work on the strong arm you will have one lopsided person.

I also explained to her that what separates good trainers from average or poor trainers is not only the ability to teach what you want the person to learn, but in a layman’s viewpoint explain WHY!

Show them how to do it, role play with them, observe them and by all means explain to them WHY it works and the physiology behind it. Let them know in advance what will happen when you do it this way opposed to another way. That is one of the biggest missing links about teachers on the whole. They don’t explain their position and explain in layman’s terms the consequences for doing it one way opposed to another. Now while all that is going on you have to have fun with your training and make them enjoy learning.

Now mastering all of this is no easy chore, but it is obtainable for those with a passion for helping others.

“The Specialist”