The general consensus in the sales arena is "Wow, it's tough out there!" I don't disagree with this statement, but I think we have to consider a counterpoint that says "Wow, there really are a lot of sales people that suck at their job." In this instance I am not referring to performance. I am talking about that sales person (and we all know a few of them) that actually manages to sell despite the fact that they are completely devoid of the sales fundamentals. Thought I would share some of my observations and see just how close to home this hits for people.
Punctuality: sales 101, schedule your time to show up 10 minutes early. Better 10 early than 10 late. I cannot tell you how many times I have shown up for a sales meeting or networking event and THE SAME person is 10-15 minutes late every time. I had a co-worker about 10 years ago who lived in the city about 10 miles form the office. At the time I lived in the suburbs about 25 miles away. I made a point of leaving my house to get to the office 1/2 an hour early because I knew the traffic to the office could be very tricky. When I asked this person why they didn't leave earlier their response was "it shouldn't take me longer than 20 minutes to get to the office, I cannot control the traffic." But they certainly could control the time they leave for the office. This attitude almost always transfers over to all other aspects of life. The message is "it's really not that important." Whether someone consciously or subconsciously acknowledges this, it does resonate with the customer. It says "I really cannot trust this person to be reliable." No trust, means no customer. Hopefully lesson learned.
Your mobile device. If you go into a meeting, no one is more important than the person sitting across the table from you. I don't care if they are a CEO or your best friend from high school. There are times when you are expecting an important call and that is a reasonable excuse. When my wife was pregnant with our first child I would attend meetings and tell the customer "if my phone rings I will check to see if it is my wife, she is _ months pregnant, I hope you don't mind." This does two things, it shows respect to the customer and clarifies why this potential call is important. It also gives you common ground. I am no longer just a sales person, I am a husband and a soon-to-be father.
And this leads into my next topic, honesty. So many sales people are afraid to tell the truth, so they dance around uncomfortable topics or avoid them completely or they lie to the customer to make them feel better. It's is my experience that being brutally honest with the customer gains you a ton of credibility. If you're willing to tell them something they don't want to hear then they know they can depend on you to conduct yourself in their best interest, Trust equals customers.
You have got to know your company story. I am sure this happens in many other sales arenas but particularly in telecom the sale often becomes a commodity sales based on price. If you don't know your company story and you cannot articulate your competitive advantage to the customer they will look at you as "just another bid." knowing your company story also allows you to know when you are meeting with a client that you have little or no chance of doing business with. Know your strengths, know your competition's strength and know what is important to the customer. Focus on the deals you can win, not the deals you cant.
Listen twice as much as you talk. Zig Ziglar is one of my favorites and he said many years ago " you have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak." The reason for this is simple, as good as you may think you are at selling someone you have to know what they want before you can "sell" them what they need.
Your attire and grammar need to be appropriate. In sales there are many degrees of appropriate clothing and women seem to have even greater leeway. I tell you that your attire should be professional and should match your client environment. In addition, every region has little nuances to vernacular, when you are dealing with a customer it's not okay to say "Mondy" when you meant " Monday." it's not okay to say "anythink" when you really meant "anything," even if the customer speaks that way. Your attire and grammar will show a level of professionalism and they help you convey reliability and trust.
The last one to mention is preparation. Nothing infuriates me more then when I have a networking event and someone shows up without business cards or folio for writing, or a pen. That's like showing up to a meeting without pants. It's just inconceivable. I know if they do it at my meetings that they also show up to a customer appointment or a sales meeting without these items or worse, they didn't research the customer and the point of contact. You are showing a complete lack of interest in winning the business. No interest means, no customer.
I hope you read this and got a good laugh at the horror show that is many people in the sales community. If you read this and thought "hey that sound"s like Bob" please forward this on to them. There's only a couple of reactions that can come from this. They will read it, learn and change ( good for you for helping). They will read it and say "hey! what's this about?" you tell them you enjoyed it and thought they would too or they read it don't get it and don't mention it. No harm, no foul.
Thanks for reading today.
Mike Shelah
BTW I have two networking events coming up, raising money for Autism. If you are in the Mid-Atlantic area I hope you stop by to say hello.
Networking for a Cause in Savage Mill Maryland 10-17-11
Networking for a Cause at MaGerks Pub 11-11-11
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