“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Whoa! What a topic tonight! Hi everybody,

A very unusual subject, but a very important one. Here’s the rub. Everyone in sales has lied to a potential customer at least once. Now, before you get indignant and send me millions of e-mails, hear me out. Unfortunately for the salesperson, most of the sales persons are just as victimized as the consumer. That’s the truth whether you like it or not…

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Hello everybody,

With all the e-mails I’ve been getting I am gratified you like my web site. A lot of you have already signed up for the FREE newsletter and just judging by the response I can tell the teleseminar on the 25th is going to be great! If you haven’t signed up for the FREE newsletter you better hurry and be one of the 1st 100 to do so, it’s got some GREAT stuff!

Now, about tonight’s post. If you are fortunate enough to have an incredible salesperson on your staff, and I am referring to one of the very few best in your field, there are pros and cons when he or she actually takes a new person out to observe. The obvious pros are that the new person will most likely…

click here to read the entire post…

Hello everybody,

I can hardly contain myself. There are only 10 more days before the biggest news on this site will be revealed. It is very exciting. I don’t mean to tease you but I can’t contain myself. I better switch subjects before I let the cat out of the bag.

Tonight’s post is the conclusion of the 3 part series on how to create a sales team. We left off last night where the crew is just starting to jell. Now the hardest part is to successfully LAYER your organization and polish everyone. The tendencies of most managers is that as soon as someone can sell they think their work is done and they can take time off or focus on other tasks. WRONG! This is a critical time to show your producers how much you care and how much farther they have to go.

Of course, while doing this you have to be doing the same beginning process with the newer people until they are producing. The objective is to have the early producers become your pace setters and then from their enthusiasm the newer people begin to shine. The real surprise is that you never know with any certainty who is really going to become your top performers out of the group. There are a lot of disappointments along the way. One of the original producers may falter or lose interest for a variety of reasons and all of a sudden one of the newer producers takes the lead and refuses to give it up. Sometimes I have gone through 3 or 4 groups of people before I find the first consistent producer. That is why I mentioned at the beginning that it takes extreme patience and persistence. It is very easy to get discouraged when one or two groups don’t work out.

Remember the “Stone Cutter” story. The people that passed by when a single blow broke the stone missed the 100 strokes before it. Pretty prophetic. Once you think you have a viable crew you can finally take a deep breath and slowly, and I mean slowly, fade into the woodwork. What I mean by this is maybe you can appoint a tentative crew leader and let them know that you have an errand to do and you will be back shortly. This is the beginning of your true evaluation of your work. If you come back and everything is working smoothly, you can step out for a little longer period of time. “Special Tip” - NEVER tell the staff when you are expected to return. Sometimes I never really leave. I watch the operation from a distance and do my evaluation. Someone once said, “It is not what you do when I am around that counts, but what you do when I am not around that is most important!”

Now once you have your successful crew built and it can function in your absence, it is imperative that you are still around at various times so they understand that you are still very much involved in the operation. It is also important that you make those times when you ARE around count! Do not miss the opportunity to show advanced techniques to your peak performers in both sales and management, while still selling everyone on the big picture of advancement and opportunity. In other words continue priming the pump. I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you.

“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”

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,

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”

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”

Hello gracious readers,

Tonight I would like to talk about the TERMINOLOGY that we use in our relationships with our customers.

So often I see young inexperienced salespersons destroy a sale by using terminology that the customer doesn’t understand. When a young sales person does that it’s usually because they want to impress the customer or his or her co-workers. When an experienced sales person does this it is usually done with complete disdain for the prospect or the outcome of the sale.

The young person can be taught the importance of learning to talk on the level of the prospect. It is imperative to realize you must fight the urge to try and impress your prospect by talking OVER their heads. The prospect will be a lot more impressed with your sincerity…Oh, by the way in case you missed an earlier post SINCERITY is one of the 8 Basics of Success!

Try and relate this to a subject you know little or nothing about and having someone using professional terms to discuss this subject with you. Just because you know a tremendous amount about a particular product or subject I assure you the prospect really isn’t interested. Remember the most important thing in a sale is relationships not facts!

“The Specialist”

Guess what, it’s me again!

I had the great opportunity to observe a young salesperson today for about an hour. You probably wonder if I ever work, I’m always telling you about people I get to watch, or share time with or even meet with and exchange ideas. The truth is people invite me to observe their performances “live”, hoping for some nuggets of information I can share with them. I am happy to report “The Specialist” never disappoints!

As I was watching this young lady I saw someone that was nothing like the person I knew! She transformed herself from this pretty self-assured giant ray of sunshine into “A DREADED SALESPERSON” Stop it! All of your friends and family members liked and loved you for who you ARE! Just because you become a sales person doesn’t mean you put on a cape and a mask and become someone you are not!

The great thing about being a true sales professional is the ability to BE YOURSELF!!! I have seen countless men and women transform right before my very eyes as they think they have to assume the persona of a salesperson. By the way what actually is that persona? After witnessing countless makeovers it apparently isn’t a very good one.

Think of it this way…If you have gone through life with family, friends and most strangers liking you, why would you change for a job? The greatest thing I enjoy about the sales profession is that I CAN be MYSELF and meet a lot of nice people. What a great profession! Believe me when I say this, your prospect will be able to see and feel right through you when you are not BEING YOURSELF!!!

“The Specialist”