Category: Sales

When I work at home,
I work with the radio on.
I also have a cluttered desk
(the variety of stuff
helps with creativity).

When I make an important call,
however,
I turn off the radio
and I clear my desk of everything
except for what I need
for the call.

Why?

Because if I don’t,
I get distracted
while listening.
If I get distracted,
the other person knows
(if this happens while talking to my mother,
I get an almost immediate
‘are you listening to me?’,
my clients/prospects aren’t so obvious).
Not only that,
but I miss valuable information.

The Sales Hunter
has a great post on exactly this.

The world is very, very small.
Just because we don’t do business
right now
doesn’t mean we won’t do business
tomorrow.

So how we say no
is important.

Last week,
I knew I was going to receive
a ‘no.’
The recruiter I was working with
knew I was going to receive
a ‘no.’

The client decided
that rather than give us
that simple ‘no’,
he’d ask for a reduction in rates
of 75%.

That isn’t a ‘no.’
That’s an insult,
a deliberate insult.

It not only colored
our impression of this person
but of his entire organization,
a supposedly professional organization
that I belong to
(yes, I’m a customer).

Have the balls to say no
but say it in a professional way.

I went to a seminar on Saturday.

For about an hour
(of the 6 hour presentation),
the paid speaker fiddled
with her high tech presentation.
We ended up
not getting through the entire seminar program
because of this delay.

The unfortunate part was that
the video wasn’t needed
to prove her point.

She could have
switched
to a low tech presentation
while her assistant solved
the video problem.

Except she didn’t have a low tech presentation.
She was relying completely
on having video, power, a computer that worked.

Things go wrong.
Always have a low tech alternative.

I attended a writing seminar
yesterday.
There was a side discussion
on books that make the big bestseller lists.

There are a core group of
what industry folks call
‘experienced readers.’
These readers read A LOT.
They are the bread and butter
of any career author.
They buy books every week.

But in order to land
on the major bestseller lists,
capturing the experienced reader
is not enough.

A book has to also appeal
to the less experienced
(i.e. they read less than 5 books a year)
and typically male reader.

To do that requires an easier to read,
simpler, faster paced,
plot driven story.

And often a male author
or… an author using initials rather than names
to sound male
(J.K. Rowling, J.D. Robb, etc.)

I went on an interview this week
and I absolutely knew
I wouldn’t get a job.

I got the definite no
yesterday
but the moment
my gut said I wouldn’t get the job,
I moved on.
There are plenty of maybe opportunities.
There is no use
fighting a highly probable no.

A friend of mine
sent her manuscript to her dream agent.
The agent states
it’ll take 3 months minimum
to get back to her
(that is standard).

Instead of waiting a week
and sending it to another agent
who will take 3 months minimum
to get back to her
(i.e. she’ll still hear back from the dream agent first
if only by a week),
she’s waiting
on, truthfully, a highly probable no.

Take the long shots
but don’t waste time
waiting for the long shots to pay off.
Life is too darn short.

I was at a mixer,
talking with a buddy.
Another friend came up,
I introduced the two,
and we chatted.
I noticed that the first buddy
didn’t really join into the new conversation.

I later asked her why.

She said that the new person
really only wanted to talk with me.

Incorrect.

If she only wanted to talk with me,
she would have waited until I was alone
(or she would have pulled me aside).
She fully expected and actually wanted
to talk with both of us.
She knew me.
She wanted to meet my buddy.

People make contact with you
because they WANT to make contact with you.
There are plenty of ways to avoid you.

According to a recent study
by Luca Tommasi and Daniele Marzoli
of the University Gabriele d’Annunzio,
72% of people turn their right ears
toward a person speaking.

They also found that
requests spoken into the right ear
generates more positive answers
than those uttered into the left ear.

What does this mean?
If you have to stand beside someone,
stand to their right.
Important messages, if recorded in mono,
should be recorded for the right ear.

I called up my local bank branch.
I needed a special withdrawal.
I asked that they have it waiting for me.
I was told it wasn’t policy.
I realized that.
I asked that they do it
as a favor to me,
a frequent and long term customer.

I was told no.
She repeated that it wasn’t policy.

My loyalty to that branch
decreased beyond zero.
I now am working on
having the management there changed.

Favor is one of those magic words.
It is a relationship changer.
Most people don’t use it lightly
(I certainly don’t).
When you hear it,
think long and hard
about saying no.

If your customer service policy
doesn’t allow the granting of ‘favors’,
you may want to revisit it.

Art Sobczak has a great post
on selling phrases to avoid.

One of my favorites is in the comments.
Using
‘but’

We’ve been trained
from an early age
to dislike
the word ‘but.’
It raises red flags.
“This is perfect for you but…”
“That would be correct but…”
It ranks way up there with ‘no.’
A fun killer.

cm suggests using ‘and.’
When writing,
I simply split the sentence,
avoiding the ‘but’ all together.
The simpler the sentence,
the easier it is understood.
A concept or even a problem
a prospect understands
is perceived as being trivial.

Keep it simple.
Avoid the but.

If you want a call back,
leave your name, number
and the reason you called
on my voice mail.

Yes, this is so basic,
it is almost insulting
but this blog is all about reviewing the basics
and frankly,
very, VERY few people
ever leave their phone numbers.

Including sales professionals
like recruiters.
I shook my head at that voice mail today.
What was I supposed to do?
Look up her number?
Have it memorized?

If you really, really want a call back,
leave your number slowly TWICE.
I ALWAYS, ALWAYS return those calls.
Yep, 100% call return.
I’ve never not returned a call
with the phone number repeated.

I don’t think I’m alone
in this,
considering I always repeat my phone number
and have rarely not received
the return call.