“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Hi everybody,

I hope all of you great readers have a wonderful weekend. Remember kind readers, due to the preparation of the radio show I only have time to do a post Monday thru Friday so this is the last post of the week. Don’t be alarmed, it’s another good one!

Tonight we are going to discuss how you leave the sale after you have sold the prospect. As usual I was watching a sales professional close a sale, which I must say went quite well UNTIL the sales person was leaving. Then the wheels fell off, and I mean completely fell off!

As the sales person was leaving he apparently remembered that he failed to leave a business card. Instead of going to his car and getting one he made a catastrophic mistake. He stopped at the exit of the business when the client was high on his new purchase and asked the customer if he left a card with his copy of the CONTRACT. They both went in to look and the end result was he still had to go to the car and get one.

There were many errors he committed at this critical point. First the customer was very happy, then the sales person mentioned the key BUZZ WORD “Contract” and sought to find it. The bad news was that instead of leaving the customer high on his purchase he brought MAJOR attention at the very end back to the CONTRACT! Of course when the sales person left the customer reread the contract and ended up with buyers remorse.

In fact, before we could drive 20 minutes away the salesperson received a phone call with the prospect desiring to cancel. As “The Specialist” I had already started to calculate how long it would take before the salesperson received the dreaded call.

What the salesperson should have done, if he was worried about whether he left a card or not, was to immediately have gone to his car and retrieve one. Then he should’ve told the prospect that he wanted to give the prospect a personal card to keep in his wallet in case he ever needed it.

Remember, after the prospect has finished the paperwork you want it to be out of sight and out of mind. Mention anything EXCEPT the contract! Not only that, he violated a cardinal sin in the industry. You NEVER call the paperwork a CONTRACT, it is always referred by sales professionals as the paperwork or the guarantee…ANYTHING but the CONTRACT!

Everyone has been taught since childhood never sign a contract without consulting an attorney. Putting your OK on some paperwork is a lot less intimidating and a lot less formal. Lucky for this particular salesperson he was accompanied by “The Specialist” who went back to the client and reinforced the sale, eased his concerns and saved the sale. Without incorporating these techniques YOU might not be this lucky.

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“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I had a great day and once again saw something that inspired this post. Time after time when I get to watch other salespersons work I keep seeing something that bothers me. I constantly see salespersons chase after a prospect when there is no prospect! I once heard someone say that he wondered whether a prospect was a prospect or a suspect…Well put!

There comes a time in your presentation when you have to know when to “fold them”! Every prospect IS NOT a sale! I see salespersons go back 5, 10, 15 times to someone that is just NOT a sale. You have to learn to accept this. I have visited the same client 17 times before, but “The Specialist” KNEW it WAS a sale!!! You must learn to work smarter not harder. The time that is lost chasing these non sales is catastrophic in relation to your work schedule. I could visit 10 new clients while you are still wasting your time chasing the non sale! It is admirable that you want to be persistent, but not to a fault. Not to the point that you are wasting your gas and time. I guess what I am saying is that you MUST learn when to “fold them”!

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“The Specialist”

Hello kind readers,

I think one of the greatest tools a manager can use in building a successful business is to be able to sell a TEAM CONCEPT within your organization. How does one go about doing this? Well it is very simple. STOP singling out people for their mistakes, instead frame their mistakes as well as their achievements with the pros and cons their actions have on their team!

Everything I do in management is based on teamwork. I firmly sell the idea that we cannot succeed as individuals in my organization…only as a team! The really nice benefit of this is everyone starts having each others back. You even start hearing comments when one person receives a compliment like, oh we all contributed, it wasn’t just me. Those comments let you as the leader know that you have indeed sold the team concept to your staff. What a GREAT accomplishment!

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“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I hope you had a nice weekend! Tonight’s post is going to be on ‘Bashing Your Competition’.

“The Specialist” never condones or recommends this technique.

Now there are some things that you must be aware of. First, when you point your finger at someone else there are always three more pointing directly at YOU! If you bad mouth one of your competitors you are showing your prospect that you will talk behind some one’s back, a trait that is not admirable. If you will do that to a business competitor then you will surely do that to another human being. The prospect will realize you are not trustworthy.

Secondly, there are several prospects that will deliberately talk bad about their current association just to test you. DON’T fall for it! What “The Specialist” recommends is that you frame your response with something like this…I understand your point and I agree with you, that really isn’t their specialty, however what makes our company or product so special is that we DO specialize in exactly what you need. Notice I didn’t pile on with any bad comments, I simply agreed with their assessment.

Try it and you will win more friends and close more sales!

“The Specialist”

Hello kind readers,

I wish I had a nickel for every salesperson that has told me that when the people get to know me “NO PROBLEM”! What an indictment of not understanding sales! A true sales professional hasn’t got time for the customer to “get to know them”, they have to warm up and be able to bond with the prospect almost instantaneously.

Now the big question is how in the world do you learn HOW to accomplish this feat? The first step is be YOURSELF! The people that liked you when they got to know you will like you if you let them see the real you sooner. Secondly, spend your time making the people feel good about themselves by making them bigger and better than you!

In other words, instead of one upping people, be amazed and impressed with what other people have done no matter how minute it might appear to you. What you are doing is practicing how to be thrown into a room with complete strangers and and winning their hearts and minds. Not only will you benefit by increased sales but you will also feel better about yourself.

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“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I am late tonight with my post but as usual it IS a good one.

Yesterday I was observing a business in a mall similar to those mobile phone booths you see in malls where greeters try to get you to come to their booth so they can sell you something. Well on this occasion a young lady approached me finding out that I was “The Specialist” and asked me a very interesting question.

Her employer wanted her to keep asking the same people regardless of how many times they passed the kiosk, even if they said no 7 times before. She wanted to make sense of that and feel like she wasn’t bothering these people. I showed her a pair of shoes in the window of a store across from her booth and asked her why she thought they were in the window? She said of course so someone would buy them.

That is when I explained to her that the same people may pass those shoes literally hundreds of times before they make the decision to buy! It is persistence in advertising. I further explained to her that she was actually doing the same thing…just verbally.

If she would continue to ask the same people sooner or later they WILL stop by! It is just a matter of persistence beating resistance over and over again!

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“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I have a great management story to share with you this evening. Years ago when I was 100% involved in the daily routine of hiring and training sales persons I will never forget this great human being affectionately nicknamed GONGA JIM by me and my entire staff. We even used to have this saying that we all chanted when he came into the room. “When things are bleak and looking dim, can we count on GONGA JIM?

The unique thing about this story was that Jim’s brother was a judge and he was broke and without a car, and it was obvious something went wrong in his life. He walked to and from work everyday and NEVER missed a day! I have often, when talking about management, discussed the little things in life that mean so much to each employee yet are often overlooked by management. First, this gentleman Jim was older than me by a long ways and in another post I will discuss the art of being a young manager and yet finding yourself in charge of older personnel.

For this post I want to concentrate on the little motivational things that are so often overlooked. I remember as if it were yesterday when GONGA JIM finally won representative of the month and won the 13″ color television. It was snowing horribly outside and Jim was so proud of his accomplishment, I couldn’t help to notice as I looked out my 2nd floor office window seeing Jim walking home in the snow with his award plaque and his 13″ color television.

What a sight! Of course I gave him a ride home but the point was this man had to write his presentation on cheat notes! He couldn’t even remember the presentation! Yet we made him part of something and recognized his accomplishment!

For the 1st time probably in his life he was the best at something! He didn’t care about the money…it was totally about the recognition! AGAIN, it is the little things that make people excel.

I just thought I would share a great management story with you. Months after that contest we still could always count on GONGA JIM!

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I thought I would finish my week by inspiring you with the worst sales story of my life.

I don’t know exactly what day it was as I began my sales career but one thing I will never forget was that it was a day for the ages. My manager was the kind of teacher that had a very insecure personality. When he went door to door, to cover up for the insecurity he felt when people insulted him at the door he had perfected a way to insult them back without them knowing it until he was gone.

Well, being a new trainee I definitely had not mastered that skill. By the way I never tried to master that absurd so-called skill. But what happened to me that night while I was working was something that leaves a lasting impression!

I knocked on this family’s door and the man of the house did not want to let me in, so I made some wisecrack comment and before I could blink this 40+ older gentleman knocked me over the railing of his porch. Within seconds several of his neighbors in the trailer park jumped in and held me while this man beat me into unconsciousness, literally. They beat me so bad they left my body in a ditch and the police found me at 2 o’clock am the next morning unconscious in a ditch. Don’t ask me what made me come back to pursue this great industry but maybe it was destiny at work as I became the most prolific “Stranger at the Door”! Hence the name of the website!

Even though this is perhaps the worst sales story I have ever heard it just goes to show you that the human spirit can overcome anything if you are willing to persevere.

Oh, now when you sign up for the FREE newsletter you will receive an e-mail from “The Specialist” with a special membership link that will give you a 20% discount on anything on our website!

“The Specialist”

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Hello kind readers,

It’s me again, and I have a very popular pet peeve of a majority of consumers that cost more sales then you can imagine! I know this happens to everyone and I can name at least 3 different industries right off the top of my head that are sometimes extremely guilty.

Consumers or customers DO NOT want to walk into a store, electronics, furniture, jewelry or even a restaurant and be harassed by over zealous sales persons. This is the scenario… you walk into an electronics or furniture store and a sales rep greets you and then after you politely tell them you are just looking they proceed to follow you around the store almost as if you were joined at the hip. You spend most of your time telling the sales rep everything is okay you are just looking. The minute you actually look at something you are attacked again with the over aggressive sales rep starting to tell you information about what you are looking at. Not only is it annoying but it is a MAJOR turnoff to most potential customers.

I would be a multi millionaire if I just had a nickel for every customer that got disgusted and just left because of the pressure. This tactic is not just limited to the above mentioned industries. Recently I was in a restaurant and I could not even carry on a conversation without the waitress constantly interrupting me to ask if we needed anything else and was everything alright. Enough is enough! I finally had to tell the young lady that I was trying to carry on a conversation and could not complete a thought due to her constant interruptions.

What I am trying to say is there is a happy medium that has to be reached between greeting the customer and harassing them. A true sales professional would never put themselves into that position. If you are so afraid that you will miss the sale, perfect your greeting so that in a short greeting you will display enough sincerity and a nice appearance to go along with a very professional attitude that the customer will come back to YOU as soon as THEY see something they want more information about or would like to purchase.

“The Specialist” has said this before, OPPOSITES ATTRACT! The more pressure you apply the further your customer will run. If any of you great readers have a special story to share on this topic I would love to hear from you.

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“The Specialist”