“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Hey everybody! I just wanted to let you all know that the wait is over…the new Sales and Management CDs are now officially in production and available for distribution. These CD’s are a collection of real-world Sales and Management Training scenarios, advertising-free sales and management tips from the national radio show based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, “The Specialist” National Radio Hour. Whether it be door-to-door, in the office, retail, business-to-business, or at a client’s location, these in-depth adventures in leadership and sales strategy, laced with humor and life lessons, provide a real-world approach to improving your sales and management skills.

Purchase any set of CD’s and receive a free printed copy of “The Specialist” Sales and Management Bible , a $14.95 value!

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Hello kind readers,

I hope you are listening to the radio show because it is very exciting. When you sign up for the FREE newsletter you automatically receive a 20% discount on everything including the tele seminars. We are also coming out with a MUST if you are in sales, “The Specialist” pen! Everyone that makes a sale HAS to use “The Specialist” pen. Call me prejudiced, but I think it will help you make the sale. The pen will debut soon so keep your eye on the “The Specialist” Gear.

Today’s post is about the “pipe smoker”. In order to fully understand how to sell the pipe smoker one must understand the persona the pipe smoker is trying to convey. The pipe smoker wants to appear as a THINKER. Someone that is always deep in thought. To sell this person one only has to appear to be in awe of the depth of this persons thoughts. Once you have stroked this persons EGO and let them know how much smarter THEY are than YOU it is an automatic sale. Amazing isn’t it?

I welcome your comments and if you have a particular type of person that you don’t know how to sell just check in with “The Specialist” and like on the radio show be prepared to get SPECIALIZED!

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“The Specialist”

Hello everyone,

A salesperson asked me to go on a sales call with him recently and, as usual, I watched him and the prospect intently.

His first visit to this particular client was the preliminary call setting up the sales presentation. As soon as I met the client I formulated the presentation in my head and later shared this information with the salesperson. I have learned over the years that there are certain ways to present all different kinds of people.

For example if you are going to present a Jewish person FORGET the romance! All they want to know is the bottom line as fast as possible. They are NOT interested in your story. All they want to know is the bottom line. Will it benefit THEM and how much will it save them or cost them. It is just that simple. It is very important to be able to recognize the different kinds of people that you are going to present.

As it happened, even though this particular person was not Jewish I showed the salesperson exactly in two sentences how to sell that client. “The Specialist” immediately recognized the type of prospect that was in front of him. Although rare, there is definitely a time and a place to be blunt and to the point in sales!

Don’t forget to sign up for the FREE newsletter and get a 20% discount on all items including the teleseminars at strangeratthedoor.com web site. If you enjoy these posts don’t forget to sign up for the RSS feed.

“The Specialist”

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.

By the way don’t forget to sign up for the FREE newsletter and get your 20% discount on all items including the teleseminars by logging on to strangeratthedoor.com website. If you like what you see on this blog don’t forget to sign on to our RSS feed.

“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”!

Don’t forget to sign up for the FREE newsletter. By doing this you receive 20% off on all items on strangeratthedoor.com web site. By the way I hope you are enjoying the radio show!

“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.

Don’t forget to check out the radio show and sign up for the FREE newsletter that gives you a 20% discount on everything on strangeratthdoor.com.

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I hate the fact that you had to wait all weekend for the answer to my pretend scenario but if you remember about a month ago I mentioned that because of the preparation that goes into the radio show I would no longer do posts on weekends.

So lets cut to the chase and see how we can solve the question of dropping the price during a sale and still try and save face! If you remember, “The Specialist” specifically stated that he did not like doing that. Having said that, a reader who calls himself “sucker free” informed us that the technique he used was especially effective as long as he had established a tremendous rapport with the customer. What he would do was use something like a bonding situation whereas maybe they were both from the same state or something similar.

I believe that at all cost you avoid that situation. What I do is spend my time reading my customer to the point that BEFORE I ever quote a price I have evaluated the customer to the maximum extent and try NEVER to be in that position. On the few times I have been forced into this situation I find something DIFFERENT in the way I frame the product, perhaps by acknowledging that because I notice something different about the way he is going to use his product maybe we can save him some money on the price by approaching it this way. By doing this I am showing the client a genuine interest in his or her business and am actually showing a lot of creativity in order to save him or her some money.

I WILL NOT EVER drop the price because of some special bonding situation or because I want to do something special for the person. The customer hears that line every day of the week and they know you say that to everyone…there goes your sincerity! Most of the time there also goes your deal because the client then becomes greedy and knows you will do anything for the sale! I hope this helps. Try it, you’ll like the results, I guarantee it! More importantly, you will still leave with your pride and dignity.

By the way some of you missed a great seminar! I hope you enjoy listening to the radio show and don’t forget to sign up for the FREE newsletter and get the members’ discounts!

“The Specialist”

Hello everybody,

Remember this is my last post of the week as I spend the weekend preparing for my first live radio broadcast. I am going to close the week with a special one. How GREED can cost YOU the sale. Most salespersons believe that when they find the “BUYER” they should sell him or her as much as they can for as much as they can. BIG MISTAKE!

click here to read the entire post…

Hello everybody,

Just a few more days and it’s on. The biggest announcement in this Blog’s history.

Today’s Post is about young Managers being intimidated by overbearing older employees, as well as competition trying to shop your location. YOU MUST make a STAND!
It is no different than when the neighborhood bully tries to intimidate you. Eventually you have to stand up to them. You will be amazed the respect you as a young Manager will earn when that moment comes.

How do you get the courage? First off, you remember who is the employer! Without YOU, He or She has NO job! Secondly, you come to terms that without them you MIGHT lose a little IMMEDIATE volume, but the long term benefit, not only for your team but especially for yourself, will be enormous. People as a whole are looking for someone to follow. You just have to step up! If you are one of the young Managers that does not stand up, you will certainly have large problems.

I have actually seen Manager’s stay away from their location just to avoid confrontation. Confrontation can be very good. Once you have taken CONTROL your staff will follow you anywhere. You will have EARNED their respect. Isn’t that what’s it all about? What say you?

“The Specialist”

Hello everybody,

I have another special post for you tonight. I got a late start.

What I would like you to do or imagine is two straight lines drawn on a piece of paper about 2 inches apart. At the top of the 1st line put the letter “E” and on the bottom of the second line put the letters “PK”. Now if you want what “The Specialist” calls the “Perfect Storm” in your career, in other words the perfect peak performance, pay close attention.

When someone starts a new position the “E” at the top of the first line represents Enthusiasm, (by the way one of the 8 basics), the “PK” at the bottom of the other line represents Product Knowledge, (another part of one of the 8 basics, self confidence). At the beginning of the new position the enthusiasm is at the very top of the pinnacle and the product knowledge is at the very bottom of the pinnacle. As your product knowledge goes up the enthusiasm goes DOWN. Eventually the product knowledge will be at the top and the enthusiasm will be at the bottom, or at the very least at the half way point down the line.

Eventually the person leaves the job and starts over somewhere else. “The Perfect Storm” in Sales and Management or any other profession is to keep the enthusiasm at the top of the line and let the product knowledge catch up to the top. Then and only then do you have the ultimate scenario.

You can speak to almost any employer and they will tell you, regardless of the profession, that the employee was a lot more enthusiastic the first month or two on the job then the current state. Just another important tip from yours truly,

“The Specialist”