“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

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”

Hi everybody,

I have a post tonight that I thought was pretty important. It’s about the roller coaster of life! I have the privilege of working with salesperson’s of ALL age groups and I find that the young people entering our great profession really need to read this! Life is like…

click here to read the entire post…

Hello everyone,

I have an interesting situation that has perplexed me for quite some time so I thought I would bring it to you my great readers and get YOUR take. Here is the situation. I have literally run into this situation hundred’s of times over the years. I interview all of these out of work alleged “Great Sales People”, and what amazes me is that some of them I sincerely believe I could…

click here to read more…

Hi everybody,

I am nice and fresh after the Holiday and I hope you are as well.

Before I start with tonight’s post I want to share with you an idea I have to blend in with the election year. What “The Specialist” is going to do is take each serious candidate from each party and, since they are very much IN SALES, in fact some would say the sale of their life, I will grade them on their sales expertise and let you the reader know what the REAL DEAL is.

There will be NO political agendas, just facts based on their sales expertise. Remember they are selling YOU for YOUR vote! Now on with today,s post.

What I have found so unbelievable is the amount of experienced salespersons out of work. I ran a test recently and actually put an ad in the newspaper for salesperson. What an experience. Almost everyone that came in proceeded to tell me of their fantastic feats of accomplishments. It was truly amazing to listen to. I will just give you a brief sampling before I highlight a few points.

I heard everything from “I was the greatest that ever lived and my boss was jealous of my success” , “I have been selling for 15 years and I have sold everything”, “I had to leave because my boss was hitting on me”, “I didn’t like my manager”, “the training was no good” to “too many hours”…and the list goes on.

The problem was all of these people had two or three common denominators. First and most obvious, THEY WERE UNEMPLOYED! Why? Well, some of the many excuses I heard had merit, while others were ridiculous.

I have been in sales/management 40 years now and I have only filled out one application…the one for my first sales job! If you are so damn good why are you out of work? My boss is jealous of my success…give me a break! You mean you didn’t know how to incorporate your boss into your great success! I’ve sold EVERYTHING…We all know this one…a Jack of ALL trades and good at NONE!

Another common denominator that I found was only one of these people took any ownership that some of it might have been their fault! It was amazing! Not only that, not one of these people were trainable! They were all set in their ways. Now, some of them gave tremendous lip service, but when the rubber met the road they couldn’t begin to take on new ideas or even learn to correct the things that flawed their last job performance.

I did meet one gentleman, however, that did have sales experience and was the only one in all of the interviews that relished the thought of being mentored by someone that had more experience then himself. For this person I say “The Specialist” will GUARANTEE your success! I will put MY name and reputation on it! For all you other experienced, unemployed sales persons, a word to the wise. When you are applying for a position, if you want to be taken seriously don’t sell all your accomplishments to the point you look silly being unemployed. Let your hopefully new employer know right up front you ARE WILLING TO LEARN! Remember he has a job, YOU Don’t! I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised with your results and you won’t be looking for a new job anytime soon.

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I have a very unusual post for tonight. It is short and sweet.

This is “The Specialist’s” TOP 10 reasons the customer won’t buy from YOU!

#10 - Lack of product knowledge.
#9 - Poor appearance.
#8 - Poor communication skills.
#7 - Over-exaggerating the product.
#6 - Lack of self-confidence.
#5 - Poor presentation.
#4 - You talk too much.
#3 - Lack of sincerity.
#2 - No enthusiasm.

AND THE #1 REASON THE CUSTOMER WON’T BUY FROM YOU…They just don’t like your ass!

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I hope you had a great weekend!

This Bonus Tip of the day is very IMPORTANT. I see young and old sales professionals, constantly at the paperwork, lose all the hard work they have done in the presentation of the product by all of a sudden turning into an interrogator or a business person. The sales person has just spent “X” number of time building a relationship with the customer either through sincerity, humor, integrity, etc. or all of the above only to throw it all away at the paperwork. The paperwork HAS to be a formality! You have to be so nonchanlant that the customer feels no difference in the atmosphere then he did when you presented the product. You almost have to do the paperwork as if you are bored.

You see, the customer has adopted your mood throughout the presentation, so you do not want to do anything at this critical junction to change his mood. Certainly you do not want him to become more attentive to detail because you have made the paperwork so important! When you are showing the customer everything he or she is receiving, of course you want to build that up because it is your last chance to sell your product, but following that you want to almost turn the rest into a mere formality. A lot of that has to do with your voice inflection and your facial expressions along with your body language. Once again it is a practiced art.

People that have watched me can’t believe the transformation when it gets time to go over the money part and get the prospect to okay the contract. In fact, one way you will be able to grade your progress is to watch how many people read your paperwork. No one has read my paperwork in the past 20 some years, after all what’s there to read…it’s just a formality.

By the way don’t forget Mother’s Day! That day has always had a special place in my heart . Remember we only have one mom. I referred you to a great website the other day…Cat’s Pajamas Gift Baskets. “The Specialist” stands behind it! Talk to you tomorrow.

“The Specialist”

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”

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”

Hi everybody,

It’s me again! I have something very special for you tonight. “The Surprise Close”.

You see, most people are taught to do everything to close the person right on the spot. Never let them leave without closing them. I completely disagree with that philosophy. If you do statistical research on this you will find long term two things happen with this philosophy. First, the rate of cancellations are much much higher. Secondly, the amount of charge backs increase dramatically. I have never used a close in my entire career other than an assumptive close, or automatic close.

I have never had a problem letting the consumer digest everything and letting them think it over. In fact I have found that it is so unusual to approach the consumer that way that it has the same effect as reverse psychology. The customer is just not expecting that and consequently they appreciate you, your product, and your company that much more. I have legions of people that I have trained and they are amazed how it works.

Remember, opposites attract, and when you do the opposite what the consumer is expecting, they are attracted to you and your product much more. That is why I call it the “Surprise Close”. Not only is the consumer surprised, but the salesperson trying it for the 1st time is also surprised! Try it, ease up on the pressure and back off. Watch how fast they come back. Also remember, if the client cancels or doesn’t end up paying for the product, were they really CLOSED?

“The Specialist”

Hello again Kind Readers,

Tonight we are going to talk about something everyone has heard of but of course from a different angle. “Persistence Beats Resistance”.

Most times when you hear that quote one thinks about never giving up on a sales call, or not taking NO for an answer. I want to talk about that phrase from the angle of your work ethics! So many people in our great profession quit or give up if the day is not going according to plan. I usually work on the basis of a regular work day opposed to working for a sale. This unique way of working in the sales profession has enabled me to learn to discipline myself and use persistence to resist the temptations that are out there to impede me from reaching my goals.

What I am trying to convey is that developing tremendous work habits takes tremendous persistence! It works the opposite way as well…Lets say your day exceeded your expectations in the first hour, again the path of least resistance is to say, oh, I’ve had a great day and go play golf. Again you have to remember that “Persistence Beats Resistance”! In the long run if you will focus on this you will develop tremendous work ethics and your sales will skyrocket! Every minute you spend in the field whether you realize it or not you are sharping your skills in one way or the other.

Who is the benefactor? You are! Remember “Persistence Beats Resistance”

“The Specialist”