“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Hi everybody,

Some of you will like this post, others not so much.

People have often asked me outside of technique what is the one thing, if I had to pick one, that enabled me to excel in sales for so long the way I have? My overwhelming response has always been the same. Physical and mental conditioning. I found it to be imperative. On a smaller scale I always conditioned myself to make the last presentation of the day my BEST! Why? One, because it took mental and physical toughness to pull that off. When you are tired after a long day it is very easy to give a lazy presentation, AND MISS! Now in order to pull this off you have to work on keeping yourself in shape physically as well as mentally.

There have been a million times in my career I just wanted to go home or dish off the prospect to someone else because I was tired. Hence the heading “Fatigue makes cowards of us all”. Many times during my career that last sale of the evening was the difference between a double, triple, or even a personal record, not to mention the times it resulted in a company record. When you develop this mental and physical toughness you will see yourself separate from the pack as your peers even with more talent don’t know about this important key in being a true professional. It goes back to hard work, but it actually gives you the inside track as to how to channel your hard work.

Remember the statement “Work Smarter not Harder”.

“The Specialist”

Hello all of my kind readers,

Today I am going to discuss something so simple, but so misused that it is mind boggling.

The initial handshake is a very important part of the closing process. Too many men think that a strongman grip is the way to impress the male prospect. WRONG! 1st I will address the men and then the women.

Control starts the minute you meet someone. When I reach out with my hand, it is relaxed and my palm is facing DOWN! NOT SIDEWAYS! In order for the person to shake my hand they have to put their hand under mine. My hand is on top. I am subconsciously the dominant one and I am in CONTROL! Now, in regards to the firmness of the grip, guys, I am not trying to impress the prospect by showing him how strong I am. When the prospect touches my hand I do give a little firm grip but usually I make a fuss about the strength of the prospect. Remember fellows I want him to win. If the prospect wins, I win also!

Now to the ladies. There are two kind of approaches I use with women. If I read the woman to be of the dainty type, I will only reach for her fingers as if I am helping her up or GUYS (don’t take this wrong) as if I am kissing her hand. On the other hand, if I find this woman proud of her athleticism or leaning to the “woman’s rights’s” side of the coin then I give her the same handshake I give a man. The only difference is I REALLY exaggerate the recognition of the strength she possesses. Readers, if you will notice in almost every posting it always comes down to me reading the prospect while I am in motion.

Remember, AGAIN, the eyes are the windows to the soul. Every step of the way in the closing process is about reading the eyes of your prospect.

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I have another good one for you.

This is very simple but very few people in our industry know about it. When I am with an associate and we are working in a close proximity, when I am done writing the sale and the customer is leaving I always turn to the closest associate and just in earshot of the prospect I say something like, “wasn’t he a nice guy”?… Or, aren’t they a cute couple? just loud enough so the customer can’t help but hear my comment.

Remember, you want to be the ultimate closer. Believe it or not the customer IS listening to see if you say something bad about them like “man were they easy” or “I just sold them”. No one likes to think they were sold. They like to think THEY made the decision. So making that nice comment just in earshot is very reassuring to them in believing in your sincerity and them believing they got a great deal. This is very advanced, but very effective and easy for even a beginner to incorporate in their professional arsenal.

“The Specialist”

That’s an interesting title.

Hi everybody! Lets talk about the three-legged sale. First you ask, what is it? Well those of you that are in sales have missed many opportunities to close a sale because that extra person or persons that came along with your prospect just has to throw in their two cents worth. The beginner will try to sell all three or four people and end up with none of them simply because their lack of experience has not allowed them to be proficient at controlling groups of people. I hear all of you veterans out there grinning because you think you know how to do it. Conventional wisdom tells you that if you can sell the leader you will sell the rest of them. That works SOMETIMES. What do you do if the leader isn’t interested in your product or already has something similar? Aha! Now comes the real artist.

“The Specialist” does not put himself in the position of hoping the leader wants the deal. Instead, what I do is find out is who the leader is and regardless of his interest level I make sure he becomes my new best friend. Now, either way I win! If he likes the product he will influence his friends to go along as well. That’s the easy situation. Where it gets complex is if the leader does not have an interest in your product regardless of the reason. If he has become my new best friend the effect will be exactly the same! He will influence the crowd on your behalf, just for a different reason.

So as you progress in your sales career start seeing more then just the sale. Again, go back to basics and practice closing everyone all the time. In other words, start making yourself a more likeable person by pointing out the good in others and building other’s self esteem. If you work on this concept you will find that making the sale will become secondary and you will feel much more rewarded in your career because besides having more sales then you can count, you will also feel a lot better about yourself. Isn’t that what a career should be about anyway, personal growth? I will be anxious to hear your responses.

“The Specialist”

Well, how is everybody today?

Today’s subject is about “small talk”. I could go on forever about this subject. This blog is going to be for the beginner as well as the advanced.

For beginners, small talk is for two main purposes. One to relax yourself and the second is to relax the prospect. In theory it sounds pretty simple but like anything else it is a learned skill. Regardless where the prospective sale is to take place, a business, some one’s home, a car lot, a bank it really is academic, the key is to find some common bond or something you know something about so you can relate to them and they can begin relating to you.

I happened to be observing this salesperson the other day and the salesperson just went into the business and just tried to talk about the purpose of why they were there. No small talk, no nothing! Needless to say the results were not exactly what they were looking for. It could be something as simple as an article of clothing, jewelery, shoes etc.. I have also found it extremely helpful to add a sense of humor to the mix. It seems ironic that in a recent poll women were asked what characteristic attracted them to a man? Answer…If they make me laugh, sense of humor, if their funny. Sense of humor is not only one of the Eight Basics of Success, but I found it to be a salesperson’s best friend! Imagine, if you were in someone’s business or home. If you are studious you would never run out of things to talk about. Never forget, people never get tired of talking about themselves or THEIR interests. Now lets go a little deeper.

A trained professional salesperson uses small talk to try and qualify the prospect and make sure they are indeed a prospect. Real estate agents are notorious for it. They slide in things during the small talk like “Oh, where do you work?”, or “What do you do for a living?”, or “How long have you been doing this?”, that it sounds exciting?

The problem with most sales persons is that they do all the small talking and forget “The Specialist’s” golden rule of sales, you must be a good listener! To the really advanced salesperson the relaxing and qualifying takes but a few seconds even for the most standoffish prospect. What my small talk is about is closing the sale. I am listening and searching for clues on how to close this prospect. What will it take? If I am a good listener the prospect will tell me exactly how to sell them. I have proven that thousands of times in front of trainees and experienced sales persons alike. I also use the small talk to give the prospect time to like me. When I am done with my small talk the sale generally is already closed! The presentation is just a formality.

I have seen countless times the salesperson talk the client out of the sale. Over and over again. I once saw a very nice young couple come onto a car lot and the young wife kept telling the salesperson how her dream since she was little was to have a cute red car. The salesperson showed her everything on the lot BUT a red car. He was too busy “selling” her, his idea of what she wanted instead of picking up on the GIGANTIC KEY she gave him in the small talk! Cute RED CAR! I heard it, her husband heard it…Why didn’t the salesperson hear it? Needless to say he didn’t get the sale.

This next statement is for another post. Then he blamed it on THEM that he didn’t sell the car! Imagine that! As you get more advanced you will also use small talk to overcome objections that haven’t come up yet, but because you are really good only you can anticipate. You can even use small talk to plant seeds that later on during the presentation you want to harvest. Now that’s really advanced! As you can see small talk is a very intricate part of the closing process. It surprises some people, here we are talking about the initial contact with the prospect and we are already closing them. It just reinforces an earlier blog where I mentioned that the close is not at the end of the presentation but a process that starts the minute you meet the person, and never ends.

“The Specialist”