The Four Most Annoying Habits of Salespeople
Below is a list of habits millions of sales people do that annoy the hell out of most other human beings. If you partake in any of these, please stop. If you don’t, let’s keep it that way.
1. YOU TALK TOO MUCH AND DON’T THINK YOU DO.
In the movie When Harry Met Sally, Harry Burns said to Sally Albright, “You’re the worst kind; you’re high maintenance but you think you’re low maintenance.” I can’t tell you how many new clients have talked for 20 straight minutes on the importance of being a good listener.
My advice: Be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet.
2. OVERLY ENTHUSIASTIC.
Here’s a conversation at national sales meeting between two territory managers who haven’t seen each other in a while:
- “Bobby Z whasssup dog? Still killin’ it in Hotlanta?”
- “Dude we killed it this year, up 28%! How are things on the left coast?”
- “Same bro numbers this morning had us up 32″
- “…Great! Fantastic! I’m finer than a frogs hair split three ways!”
My advice: You annoy the hell out of people if your energy is too high. Relax bro. Watch the two bulls on a hill story in the movie Colors with Sean Penn…just walk down.
One
It’s the loneliest number and also the spot you likely want to hold on the sales results chart. Being number one is easy. Most average performers justify why they’re NOT number one, “Well hell, Tom’s got the best territory. No wonder he’s number one.” Being number one is 85% mental and 15% skill. You’ll never be number one until you surrender to this truth. Today would be a good day to surrender.
Every Salesperson’s Dream – A Great Message
In this episode, Bill Caskey walks you through some most common (and frustrating) trends facing America’s sales people. We can talk about sales strategy and sales technique all we want. The fact is that the landscape is changing for sales people world wide, and you had best understand what you’re walking into before you walk into it.
You are also encouraged to go to samegamenewrules.com and download the eBook Same Game New Rules-for a limited price of $9.99 and receive 4 bonus videos from the author Bill Caskey.
And Brooke Green dives into “messaging.” Actually, she does it right, spending time on the “crafting of your sales message” versus just the ‘communicating’ of it. She works in a step by step process that you can use to get your message right.
How To Demonstrate Your Value BEFORE You Sell
This week’s episode is loaded with new ideas on social media, the myths of selling, and how to “be” the value instead of “talking about being” the value.
Brooke Green starts us off with a transaction she had with a client who was focused on ‘getting the prospect to be interested.’ Always, a losing proposition.
Then, Bryan Neale talks about sales behavior–and the myth that if I do more activity, I will see more results. And, he addresses some things to do instead.
And Bill Caskey takes a question from a client who writes, “How do I use social media to grow my business? I’m LinkedIn to thousands but it’s doing me no good.”
Is Your Value Really That Special? (Part II)
In this economic time, how you communicate your value—and WHAT it is—will be very important. Here, Bill and Bryan pick up on a topic they began a few months ago—what is your personal value to your customers and how does it show itself in the sales process? All sorts of goodies here.
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Professional Services Sell, Too…
“Oh, Bill, we don’t sell at our accounting firm. We prefer to wait until the phone rings with referrals. Besides, selling is so unprofessional.”
Believe it or not, I actually heard that once–from a CPA. Can you feel the fear in his voice?
Absurd I know, but talk to some young attorneys or accountants today–or anyone who sells professional services–and rarely will they say they’re prepared for selling. It was never taught in grad school–so it must not be important.
In fact the way they get around it is they call it “marketing.” Well, let’s set the record straight. Selling is the discipline of communicating your value (solutions) to a potential client with the intent of determining if they have a need for it.
If you’re a professional services deliverer (technical / subject matter expert) you sell, every day.
Whether it’s talking to new prospects, getting referred by your current clients, uncovering problems your clients have, or getting a fee increase, you are selling.
In my work with services firms, the first thing they must do — and the only point of this message –is reframe the discipline of selling. Right now, you must start thinking of selling as the “finding and solving of problems.”
Once you do that, you will be set free.
You won’t have to convince, persuade or defend your price. You’ll be liberated to go find problems. If you show up and the prospect loves his current lawyer (insert “supplier of your product” here), has no problems now or doesn’t anticipate problems, then he is not a prospect. And you can leave. Don’t stick around and tell him how great you are and how smart you are (we know you are).
I’ll go even one better than that—become effective at articulating that position to your client. Say to him, “I have no idea if I do anything that could be of service to you, but here’s the kind of people we work with–with these issues–do you fit?” It may not be quite that straight, but it’s pretty close.
If you really believe you help your clients solve problems, then you are obligated to ask for referrals.
If you don’t, you’ll leave a lot of people on the sidelines, unable to take advantage of your value. You’ll leave them laying in the muck of their own pain.
So you see, it’s time to ask for referrals and go find problems. Stop selling and convincing and start solving. You’ll get paid a lot more for that anyway.
