“The Specialist” Sales and Management Training Blog

Hi everybody,

I thought I would lighten the mood on this beautiful Friday night. I was reminded of a story that I was involved in many years ago and it was quite funny.

I had this young man that was a top sales person for me for a number of years. He was truly a character for the ages. For the sake of this post I am going to call him William. Every time I would promote this young man into management he would amaze us with his bizarre behavior. Here is just one of the funniest stories from this young man’s tenure.

It was the beginning of the summer and all the college kids came to us for summer employment as usual. Because it was a commission job it attracted college students from all over the country. It was not uncommon at all for a student to pay an entire semester’s tuition in just one summer. Well, the day before the summer rush of students William bought a 15 passenger van to take the students around that he was going to teach and work with during the summer. I questioned him about the wisdom of buying a van when he always had a problem retaining people. William convinced me this was the “NEW” William. I went along with him and proceeded to fill his van up with people.

Then the fun began… After the first night with his 15 people William came back and reported no sales. Nothing new there for William. It only gets funnier. At work the next day only 11 of his people showed up for work and I questioned William who proceeded to inform me that he was weeding the garden and he was just keeping the best people. Well that night he came back with his crew and again there were NO sales. Again no surprise.

The next day at work only 9 people showed up and I confronted William. Again William proceeded to inform me that he had everything under control and I shouldn’t worry. Well that day I decided to follow the young manager “wanna be” and see what was up. I followed him and observed him getting out of his van at a driving range and he made all 9 reps sit on a bench while he proceeded to hit a bucket of golf balls. After the 1st bucket I approached him and asked him what on earth was he doing? With the straightest face only William could display he actually told me that he was teaching his crew an important sales lesson. He told me that he had a horrible slice with his drive and he wanted to teach his crew that PERSISTENCE BEATS RESISTENCE!

I almost couldn’t contain my self. Maybe if I had used that method of training years ago my golf game wouldn’t be so bad.

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I have a sad sales/management story to share with you tonight.

I know some “real trainers” that are very similar to myself. Unfortunately they share one of my biggest weaknesses. I believe that I can develop anyone! The fact is “The Specialist CAN! The problem is that in spite all of the belief, patience, skill, passion and training skills, there ARE LIMITS! Character and integrity cannot be developed. I am very sad to say there are people that just WILL NOT allow themselves to be successful!

I personally have given employees chance after chance only to find out that small percentage just doesn’t get it. I had this one young person that had NO social skills and no place to live, even to the point his own family would not allow him on their property. This young person continued to self destruct. No matter how much help we tried to give this young person, the more deceitful and keniving he became. It is beyond comprehension. I even fired this person once and when a new location opened up gave him another chance, hoping that a fresh start would be what he needed. All I received in return was a lesson in theft and deceit. It got to the point that it was time to cut out the cancer.

I felt very bad, having said that it could not continue. The lesson here for all of you new trainers, and even some of you experienced trainers, that truly train because you love to watch young people develop is KNOW WHEN TO CUT YOUR LOSSES! I, “The Specialist” was not a good example this time.

On my behalf, It is hard when you truly want to see these kids succeed. I used my blog to vent tonight but I do want you to know the entire staff was relieved, not just for themselves but for “The Specialist”, as they know how much I put into each person. What say you?

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody,

I had to share this with you.

Before I do that I want everyone of my loyal readers to be on the lookout for Major changes in the site in the next two weeks. Not only have we made the site more user- friendly but we will now, by popular demand, offer services like tele-conferencing, personal coaching, and available speaking engagements for your Companies or special clubs or groups.

What I really like the most is the new “The Specialist” GEAR! Mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, bumper stickers as well as ball caps. Be on the lookout for the changes. Now back to the post for tonight.

I had to share this with you. We have talked about small talk before. We have even gone into the purpose of it and certain techniques that make it most effective. Well, recently a young man was having trouble with his small talk. He just couldn’t break the ice with the families. He was a door to door salesman. Having crossed paths a couple of years ago this young man had no problem asking “The Specialist” for some help.

At first I thought he just wanted some advice, instead he asked if I would accompany him in the field and observe him in the field and see what I thought he was doing wrong. No problem for “The Specialist”. In fact I thought it was my duty. I never could have expected what I saw! You know how I tell you to kinda look around the business or home and find something you know something about that you would feel comfortable talking about or at least giving a sincere nice compliment about something you saw. Well this is the WORST small talk story of all time.

We were knocking on doors in this apartment complex when we approached this door that was wide open and almost completely melted! As we glanced inside the apartment everything was charcoal burnt from an apparent fire. There was NOTHING left in the place that wasn’t burnt to a crisp. It was horrible. The only thing left standing was a partially melted floor lamp with the shade hanging on the side by one or two threads and completely charcoal black from the apparent fire. I started to leave and the young salesperson knocked on the door. I was already ready to leave when a haggard worn out horribly depressed man came to the door and said come in.

Kind readers, what came out of this young sales persons mouth I will probably never forget! He walks in and introduces us and then glances around the ruins of this man’s house and says and I quote…WOW, I love your lamp! I almost fell to the floor. The poor man had nothing left but a melted floor lamp and the lamp shade holding on by a thread and that’s what he said! I apologized and took the young man outside. Not only had he forgot one of the most important of the 8 Basics…SINCERITY, but he didn’t have an ounce of compassion in him and at least ask the man if everyone was okay and was there anything he could do. I was blown away! I asked this young man what was he thinking? His reply was that he was taught to always find something in the home to compliment the customer on. A melted floor lamp? And he was wondering why he was having trouble in his small talk? I thought I had seen everything!

No matter what you learn in sales you MUST apply some common sense! I guess the moral of this post is that no matter how good you are in sales you will never be great until you incorporate SINCERITY into your profession! I just had to share this story with you.

“The Specialist”

Hi everybody, I hope you had a great weekend! It is going to be an exciting week and I thought I would start off the week sharing a story with you that taught me “The Power of Words”, and how, before you say something you always need to think before you blurt out your comments.

By the way even though this story relates to sales as in all my postings you will see the parallel with life in general as well.

I was a young salesman, but fancied myself as the next up and coming golden boy of the sales industry. (I was starting to believe the press clippings) Wrong thing to do! I remember it as if it were yesterday. I sold this military officer and his wife. It was a great sale, so I thought. Then the next day they cancelled. Well most people in the sales industry that do not take their profession seriously just forget it and go on to the next sale. Not me. I went back to that family and humbly asked them why they changed their mind? The man looked at me and said the only reason he would give me the time to explain his actions was because he could tell I cared. Then he explained. (It was ugly and amateurish). There was a part in the presentation where there were subtitles like “sports and games” and we had the latitude of ad-libbing a comment. Well the subtitle in question was the one entitled “The Military”. When I got to that one I just made a one liner that had gotten laughs before and I said “ways to get in and ways to get out”.

Well, to someone that took his profession seriously, and especially during the time of the Vietnam War when the public was so busy slamming the Military, you could see where someone who had a love and passion for his profession could take it the wrong way. This particular gentleman was offended and rightly so. I could have said a million positive things about the military, instead I said something cheesy for a laugh without thinking of the ramifications. He did not want to do business with anyone that made light of his profession.

I learned two important lessons that day. One was to call back on orders that change their mind and even though 90% of them will not tell you the truth…they will make up some excuse, the knowledge you will get from the small percentage that do share their reason with you will be invaluable. The second thing that I learned and that I want to pass on to each and every salesperson and manager out there is once the words are out of your mouth they can never be taken back. By the way, that means things you say to your spouse and children. Mean what you say and say what you mean. When I am in the process of closing someone no matter how natural it looks I assure you every word out of my mouth is carefully measured. Let my experience be a lesson to you all…Never underestimate “The Power of Words”!

I look forward to your comments.

“The Specialist”