“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Hi everybody,

It is 3 o’clock in the morning and I am fuming!

It drives me crazy when someone takes the knowledge I pass on to them and then tells me…You know that trick you told me about…It really works!

When a Doctor discovers a new way to cure cancer is it a trick? No! This is a profession! Those people that say those kinds of things are the exact people that I have spent 40 years trying to drive out of our great industry.

The things that I am passing on to you are techniques. Only if used in a bad way with bad intent do they become tricks! Anyone that has read this blog should know by now that I will not associate myself with people that want to try and taint our great industry with this kind of “con man” mentality.

Once again..”So a man Thinketh, he Becometh”. Take pride in our industry and be caretakers for the future!

“The Specialist”

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Happy Easter everybody! No Post today, but will post up tomorrow. Hope everyone had a nice Easter.

“The Specialist”

I’ve had it!

Recently I have been doing some interview work for a major corporation and I have been exposed to more “Pretend Sales persons” than I have ever seen! Does anybody out there know what being a REAL salesperson entails? My goodness, people think that because they are handed a lead and told exactly where to go and have a customer waiting for them with their tongue hanging out because that’s where they get their supplies that they are a great salesperson. That’s like saying the mailman is a great salesman! News flash, he’s the only option! When you are the only option for someone, or your audience is held captive on a boat, or is trapped and can’t go anywhere, or is obligated to give you “x” number of minutes because you have an appointment with them does not make you a great salesperson!

As all truly great sales professionals know, you have to know how to PROSPECT. HELLO! A great sales professional is 100% self contained! I have just witnessed alleged sales persons one after another tell me how they were the greatest sales persons on this planet only to find out they are sales CRIPPLES! Without a captive audience or a LEAD to go to they are frightened PRETENDERS!

A true professional salesperson is a lot more than a “Story Teller”. Let’s not confuse the two. It is almost laughable to me as I watch these pretenders crumble one after the other when they say “you want me to go in there without them knowing who I am”? HELLO, YES I do! That is what a true professional salesperson is expected to do. Believe it or not a true professional can actually PROSPECT and TELL a GREAT STORY!!

For all you young potential great sales persons don’t fall for a job that is going to cripple you for life! You see if you do not know how to prospect your success is always going to be limited to how many leads someone can generate for you. Think about it, you are forever at the mercy of the people giving you your leads. They control your income and eventually your lifestyle!

One of the great things about the sales profession is the freedom to make as much as YOU want. When you are crippled by leads that are doled out to you someone else is controlling your income! Don’t fall for it. Not only are they controlling your income, but they can put you out of business any time they want by cutting off your lead supply. Not to mention they weaken your sales ability by making you dependent on the very lead for you and your family’s very existence. Hogwash, take control of your own destiny and become a master prospector AND a great story teller. Then and only then can you have the peace of mind of a great professional salesperson! That’s my take and I’m sticking to it!

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

This week as usual has flown by.

Jose had three questions rolled into one sorta like those newspaper reporters who get to ask the President a question, and in one breath not only do they ask a question but they have 12 follow ups. Luckily I’m not the President. Jose wanted to know is there ever too much product knowledge? I don’t know your product, but you did mention the word software, so I have to guess you might have something to do with computers. Regardless of the product….think for a minute….no one can ever know everything about something! Even experts in their field DO NOT know everything. Jose, you are missing an important part of becoming a professional salesperson. Forget the product. It is YOU that they are buying!!! And that my friend is a subject you and you alone know everything about! You will learn more about your current product as you progress. SELL the product you KNOW…YOURSELF!!!

In Jose’s 1st follow up Jose wants to know is the customer always right? No! A thousand times NO! However, when it is all said and done, you want the customer to always feel right. That takes a little bit of practice and some very good communication skills, so you can actually show the customer the error in their ways and still make them believe that they were the ones that realized it. Again the customer appears right.

Jose, your 2nd follow up is a little more complicated. I actually had to stop typing and think exactly how I would answer this question because I do not want to offend any of my female readers. Ladies, don’t be hating on me, it is just my observation of almost 40 years. Here we go….If we have two sales persons of equal talent, starting the same job on the same day and one was a woman and the other was a man….Jose, the woman would most assuredly take a commanding lead. One reason is woman are natural when it comes to reverse psychology. That is the art of getting people to do things by pretending you don’t want them to do it. They do it every day with guys. Men on the other hand are horrible at that because they are used to being the aggressor. That works against you at the beginning. Now, it really starts to get interesting. Men that decide that a profession in sales is what they want to do, begin to take it a lot more seriously because they have been conditioned to being the bread winner and realize that is their CAREER! That raises the stakes dramatically. On the other hand, a lot of women are temporary visitors in our industry and get sidetracked with things like husbands and children, consequently stunting their long term growth.

I must say that the women that have been bitten by our industry and stayed long term are a formidable force to deal with. They are some of the best of the very best! My advice to you Jose in this section is stop your crying and be a man and kick some butt. Quit comparing your results with a bunch of women. Don’t follow a path, make one of your own! I competed with women my whole life in sales and the way I beat them was to make myself more personable and friendlier and by out working them. By the way Jose, that formula works for beating mostly everybody. Remember you are most of all SELLING YOURSELF! That’s all for tonight, Oh, by the way Jose, send me your e-mail and you will have a nice gift coming. Your’s was the question of the week!

“The Specialist”

I was honored to be riding with someone the other day. She is an up and coming terrific professional salesperson. It was the second time in about 4 weeks that I had gotten this chance. As we were riding around this nice young lady asked me how come my small talk was so relaxed? It seemed that whoever I met I was very comfortable around. This inspired tonight’s post. I warn you, you’re gonna hate It.

One of the secrets in being a true Sales Professional is to be able to relate to ALL people! I have interacted with thousands of salespeople in my career and very few have the ability to go up and down the ladder of different kinds of people and feel comfortable. For example I have sold the lowest ranking military person to commanders and captains. I have sold truck drivers and bank presidents. Presidents of major corporations to the people just starting out. Almost every kind of profession I have sold.

Now the question is, what allowed me to do this? This is the part you are going to hate. I am just a high school graduate but I have literally read hundreds of books. I have sold in almost every state. I listen to 24 hour news constantly. What I realized at an early age in my sales career was that unless I educated myself about this great country, and kept myself informed about what was going on around me and the world I would only be a PART professional Salesperson.

In other words, with some people, I had to take my game down a few notches in the ladder and wallow in the mud with those people and understand their life’s problems, and take my game up quite a few notches and understand how other people lived their lives. By doing this I became a person for all seasons. No matter what environment you asked me to perform in I could succeed. I became a true professional salesperson because I now had a chance to sell anyone at anytime, anyplace. By the way I am not just limited to news…sports, music, science, religion, just about anything someone would like to talk about, I can converse on their level.

So what I am trying to encourage you to do is READ, READ, and READ some more! I don’t know who once said this but you can travel the world in a good book. Listen to the news and try to understand what is going on around you. You will never know when your knowledge will give off an air of confidence that will make someone BELIEVE in YOU! It might be a difference maker.

“The Specialist”

Hey everybody,

It is my favorite day of the week. I am actually honored to be able to answer and solve some of your problems. Thank you for the opportunity, and N-Lo, thank you very much for the compliment. It means a lot to me.

I am going to devote this Saturday to one particular question because it is involved and can possibly help a lot of people. N-Lo states she has male and female sales persons under her supervision and even though all the women are doing great the two male sales persons have a hundred excuses for not selling. Examples: There are no prospects, girls are better at sales then men…I think you get the picture. N-Lo, I think this is a management problem far more than a sales problem. There are some potential underlying issues here. For one, they may resent that they are working for a woman and coupled with perhaps some inexperience in your management, the situation is compounded.

Before I give you the solution to this and most management problems I want you to know that if these young men do harbor resentment because you are a woman, they probably will not work out. Lets run the ultimate test. There is a system I have been using since 1985 in solving sales and management problems that I will pass onto you. It is called the PRICE system. Each letter stands for something.

The “P” is for PINPOINT… pinpoint the problem with these two young sales persons.

The “R” is record the information (example: the desired result is for them to talk to x number of prospects a day, and sell x number of them). Are they not talking to enough prospects or are they not selling them after they talk to them or both? Pinpoint the problem then record the results.

The “I” is to involve them in the solution. Let them know you are recording the data for each phase of their employment. Show them what good behavior is and what unacceptable behavior is.

That brings me to the “C” in the equation. Inform them of the consequences of the desired results opposed to the consequences of the unacceptable results.

And finally you have the “E” for evaluation. Let them know that you will have a meeting with them in two weeks or whatever time frame you feel appropriate and then DO IT! Evaluate their performance. If there is an upswing in results give plenty of praise and continue forward. If the results do not get better or go backwards you can either completely start over with them or you can talk to them about a career change.

Once you put “The Price System to work you will find out that your professional approach to them eliminates the gender excuses. I hope I was of some help if you have further questions understanding the Price System don’t hesitate to ask again for help. By the way, you are this weeks winner. Don’t forget to e-mail “The Specialist” with your mailing information.

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I was getting ready to wrap up the week when I received a comment I had to respond to NOW! I have no one else to blame except my self because I encourage your questions and comments. Mrs. Anonymous says she is the most negative person in the world but despite all that she has lead her region in the country for 4 straight years. She also went on to state that she was a WINNER.

Mrs. Anonymous, for now I will refer to you as Mrs. Negative, you are confusing some issues here. 1st, just because you are perceived as negative does not mean that you are. By making the statement that you are a winner speaks volumes about how YOU perceive yourself. Quite frankly that is all that matters. 2nd, there have been many people who have been very successful in sales with a negative persona. Remember opposites attract. You happen to be one of the very few true professionals that adapted your personality to your own sales style. The mere fact that you let “The Specialist” and all of our readers know that you have led your region 4 years in a row also tells me how much pride you have in knowing you are truly one of the best! Now that you are not Mrs. Negative anymore I will refer to you as Mrs. Anonymous. You have had many great accomplishments, don’t lose sight of the fact that a true professional takes advantage of the gifts that have been bestowed on them, and always insist on being the very best YOU can be.

Thanks for your great comment.

“The Specialist”

Hello everybody,

I left you with a very interesting question yesterday and as I review my blog I noticed one gentleman who described what he thought a salesman was in most eloquent terms.
As you will find in my writings I am usually blunt and to the point. Besides the eloquence of his description I have several problems with it. If you read his response carefully it is all about him! It’s about him knowing all about his product so he can gain their trust and sell them something with ease. In a nutshell I can summarize a “salesman” or a good salesman in three words…”A GOOD Listener”!! In future blogs I will discuss this important concept. I know, not only will your future customers appreciate it but your
wives and girlfriends will REALLY appreciate it!

Now lets get back to today’s subject, “The Pros and Cons of the Sales profession”. I STRONGLY believe that the sales profession is the only business in the world that will
allow you the opportunity to withstand any kind of financial disaster and in no time completely recover and reach unparalleled heights! In today’s society everyone has some sort of fixed income to adjust to, with the exception of the very rich and the very fortunate that have chosen SALES as their chosen field of endeavor. The entire world’s economy revolves around sales. Technically speaking, it is the only profession in the world that every human has dabbled in one way or the other from trying to get a date and selling yourself or job interviews. (you get the point). No matter your station in life, in sales any time you want to give yourself a pay-raise all you have to do is call on one or two more prospects. It is only known by an elite few that a professional salesperson is one of the most highly trained and sophisticated professionals in all the world! “The Specialist” will demonstrate to you over the next few months the depth of this statement. After almost 39 years in the sales industry I find it rare to come across any professional that has more training in their field of endeavor. Besides the independence and self esteem one acquires in the sales industry the power one has when even if an “Enron” debacle happens a salesperson is the only professional that can rebound regardless of age! In most professions they are kicking you out the door at a certain age…In sales you and only you call the shots. Once you become a professional salesperson you will never have to look for a job. They will look for YOU! You will determine the hours you work! You will determine the amount of vacations you take! You will determine your future! I could go on forever about the Pros of a sales career but I think it is the only profession in the world where all you do each day is go out and meet a lot of nice people from all walks of life and exchange ideas. What a blessing! As I am writing this I realize how one-sided this particular blog appears. Well I came up with a great idea. Since my critics would say I’m biased in favor of a career in sales I say lets let you the people blog me with your Con’s on the sales profession and “The Specialist” will respond. How about it, are you ready to be shown the error of your ways?

“The Specialist”

So you want to be a salesman? Are you sure? This week “The Specialist” will give you not only the pro’s and con’s of the sales industry but will go into great depth into helping you make an informed decision. “The Specialist” also welcomes all of your questions as well as comments. This blog is dedicated not only to the beginner in sales and management but to the most advanced as well. I will leave you with this question. What is your definition of a salesman?

“The Specialist”