Stop Helping People!

February 1, 2021 By

This title causes most people to flinch and reread it.  They react with, “but that’s how I describe what I do.  I help people.  I help companies.”  I response with, “Stop it!“

What makes you think they want your help?  What makes you think they need your help?  Why not someone else?  Why now?

Helping people that don’t see a problem is being assumptive.  What upsets prospects the most is assumptive salespeople.  Don’t assume people have problems.  It is insulting.  They certainly don’t want other people pointing out their problems.  Especially a salesperson off the street, they never met.

Start working with people.  Get on the same side of the table with them and fight with them against a problem or towards a desired goal.  Here are three reasons why: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Change, Commitment, Failure, Potential, Prospecting, Questioning, Rapport, Role, Technique

Get Outside your Comfort Zone

January 19, 2019 By

In negotiation, the more information you have, the better position you’re in. The greater leverage. Same thing when it comes to sales. Prospects know this so they withhold information, don’t share it with the salesperson, and then they’re in control. The prospects are in control and the salesperson is scrambling. Because the first time they had a conversation with them, there wasn’t enough engagement.

Filed Under: Beliefs, Change, Cold Calling, Failure, Price, Prospecting, Questioning, Role, Technique

Stop Hoping, Trying and Helping

January 12, 2019 By

Imagine you are checking into a hotel and the front desk clerks says, “We hope you enjoy your stay.” As if to really say, “We haven’t done anything special for you, even though we knew you’re staying with us. We just hope, by luck, you are satisfied.” Really! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Change, Commitment, Failure, Role, Word Prohibition

I Was Wrong!

July 29, 2018 By

Last week someone came up to me at a networking event and introduction themselves and shared they first heard me present at a chamber event in 2002. I asked them what they remember from that talk, because I may have to walk some of my advice back.

Our market changes everyday and sometimes the advice I gave, is no longer true. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Change, Failure, Potential, Prospecting, Technique

What Are You Willing to Tolerate?

July 12, 2017 By

Last week I spent a day on a ride-along with a sales rep visiting existing accounts and meeting new prospects. The conversations during the miles we covered were mixed between business and personal topics. One personal story was about how the rep can’t find her hotspot at home, so she has been using the cell phone as a hotspot. I asked her how long the hotspot was missing and she said about 3 months. She was not sure if her daughter hid it or the dog ran off and buried it in the backyard.

The following week when the sales report came out, she fell short of her weekly goals.  I reminded her about the story she told me about the missing hotspot. I asked her if she is willing to tolerate substandard results at home, she will also accept substandard results at work and she will never succeed if she continued to believe she doesn’t deserve anything better than what she is getting. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Change, Commitment, Failure, Potential, Prospecting, Role

Whom Do You Admire?

June 21, 2017 By

I remember growing up and wanting to be a doctor. My grandfather was a doctor and was allowed to smoke Dutch Masters President cigar’s in the house after dinner. I thought that was pretty cool. I’m sure there were other reasons I aspired to be like him, but cannot recall them today.

Recently I asked a new client who they admire and they were caught off guard. They replied with, “Well, I guess my father.” I asked, “How often do you see your father?” “About two to three times a year, I guess.” they answered. “What do you admire about your father?” I asked. Silence. He couldn’t think of anything. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Commitment, Failure, Role

Fight and fail; the only option worth taking

October 12, 2016 By

Lately it seems I’ve be learning a lot of lessons.  Which is another way of saying; I’ve been attempting new activities and not achieving the preferred outcome.  This is frustrating for me and I imagine the same for others who are constantly doing the same.

I don’t want to learn anymore lessons for a while.  I want a normal day of mediocrity, filled with a calm contentment and no surprises; like working on an assembly line for a few months. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Change, Commitment, Failure, Potential, Prospecting, Role

It’s the bottom of the 7th and you’re trailing

December 31, 2015 By

Your team has just taken the field after another inning with no hits. You have 2 more chances at bat to change the score from being behind 5 to 3. Your focus is currently on being defensive with throwing more strikes than hits and making more outs than errors. But, you also have to get some hits in when you’re up to bat. What can you do to get more hits? That is the question.

OutfielderThis is the same question salespeople need to ask themselves when they are in the last two months of the year and they are 25% away of reaching their annual quota. You cannot have another year when you don’t make quota. At this point, with the current sales pipeline, you will fall short by $67,000 in revenue. What can you do to change the outcome of the year and make your quota? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Change, Commitment, Failure, News, Prospecting, Role

Self-forgiveness Begins with Others

August 15, 2015 By

Jack was playing center outfield during the third game of the season. He’ll be 10 this year and is starting to refine his baseball talents. It’s his favorite sport with football a close second.

In the fifth inning a pop fly was hit in his direction. He got under it, adjusted his stance, focused on the falling ball but couldn’t hold on to it and dropped it. He grabbed the ball and threw it to second base. The batter was safe.

He had a tough time letting that error go. Jack is one of the better players on the team. He commits to keeping his skills sharp with additional practices in the off season and learning by watching professional MLB players on television.
Baseball player jumps high to catch a fly ballDuring the ride home, Jack was silent, though his team won. His father asked him what’s wrong. He just kept repeating he should have caught that pop up in the fifth. He couldn’t forgive himself.

His father reminded him of a last game they played when one of Jack’s teammates, Taylor, missed a pop up, causing the team to lose the game. Jack criticized Taylor all the way home and blamed him for losing the game. “Perhaps the withheld forgiveness that Jack held towards Taylor is the same withheld forgiveness Jack feels towards himself,” his father thought. He shared that thought with his son. Then he thought about it in his own life. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Change, Commitment, Failure, Potential

Start or Wait…What should I do?

July 8, 2014 By

The summer of 2010 I took the StrengthFinders™ test and found my top strength was Learner. This means I feel strong when I’m learning (I also have Responsibility, Intellection, Empathy and Connectedness). As a Learner, I enjoy reading business and self-development books and have found a conflict in the advice from two positions. The conflict is in the mixed message of “Taking Action” and “Delaying Gratification.”

One position is taking action and getting started.  This has always been my axiom from Og Mandino as he stresses it in Scroll IX, “I will act now” from his book the “Greatest Salesman in the World.”  Supporting this position is David J. Schwartz in his book, “The Magic of Thinking Big” as he writes in chapter 10; “The way to combat any kind of fear is action.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Change, Commitment, Failure, Potential
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