Written by Jerry Dean S on 28 August 2010
I am full of useless trivia, and it makes for a great sales person. Not because anyone cares about my random bits of knowledge but because I am able to relate to almost anyone for at least awhile. It also helps that I am curious enough to care about all of these bits of information that others have to share.
Understanding how a jet turbine engine works or what makes Bourbon, bourbon, (it’s not because it is from bourbon county) has nothing to do with the products that I sell, but it does let me relate to a broad range of people. Not only can I talk about many things, I also love to hear about new things and others experiences.
Eyes Open
Going through life with your eyes wide open, looking for the new or lost gem’s lets you enjoy life to its fullest. Many people are art lovers or sports fanatics, and go to the museum or a sporting event to see and appreciate a beautiful painting or a 98 yard TD run back. I travel a great deal and setting next to a person that is willing to share the experience and knowledge that they have is like going to the Smithsonian. Many consider the study of people to be sociology, but I find it fascinating to see what others have done or created. All of this is art, a person’s expression of their creativity or just living their life. If you start looking around, you can see it everywhere.
More important for me if, I start asking around, I can hear it and it expands my horizons without having to do it all myself.
Connecting The Dots
In business listening and understanding your customer’s problems and successes gives you the opportunity to combine one bit from here with a tip from there and before you know it you have helped them solve a problem. You become a true consultative salesperson. This is often very difficult because we are so caught up in pitching a product.
Waiting until you really understand the issues and then being able to give your customer some extra insight that may not make you any sales today, will take you to a much higher level as a sale rep that truly helps your clients.
You are building lasting relationships, this works if you are marketing online or selling in person, being interested and helping solve others problems builds trust.
After all life is really just a big cocktail party and working the room build relationships, guess what, that is what sales is too. If you don’t think you are a salesman, think again, we all sell things everyday, some just get paid better for it.
Your Thoughts
Are you a salesman? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.
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Written by Jerry Dean S on 22 August 2010
You might think that I am ragging on sale people, nope I am ragging on engineering, business development, production, management and all of the other people that are upstream in the product delivery game.
People have this idea that “Good Sales People” can sell anything, well that may be true, but really good sales people won’t sell Shit!!! That’s right if it is a piece of crap, sales people are not going to sell it, would you really risk the only thing that you have, your reputation, to push a piece of junk on your greatest asset, the trust you have built up with your customers.
Come on folks when the product is not selling don’t look at sales as the problem, look at the product that you have handed them to sell. You should be thanking the sales team for not pushing a reputation destroyer on the market, if you burn customers today you will have no one to sell to tomorrow.
Do you remember the last time you took a friend out to your favorite restaurant and the meal sucked, how long was it before you went back? Maybe you gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried it again, by yourself of course, just to see if it was a fluke. If they had not got back the old “mo jo” I bet you quit going there.
Trust is a fragile thing, it takes many interactions to build it and only one or two to destroy it, ask Sandra Bullock. In the trust game it is one strike and you are out, if you are lucky you may get one more swing but you better be on your game as you are dancing on thin ice.
Let’s here your story about the sales guy that screwed you and the store that you have not been back to. Maybe you want to share the story about the used car dealer that you just kept going back to because the pain of being screwed was so much fun.
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Written by Jerry Dean S on 16 July 2010
I just read a great post at IttyBiz by Naomi Dunford, about what she calls the “Golden Minute“, this is a really important concept, and it applies to almost all sales mediums, Print, Audio, or Visual. In Naomi’s post she is talking about the first min. that a reader is on your site, when they are interested and primed to follow a call to action.
If you have ever done a Power Point presentation to a group you have probably followed the basic format. You likely started off with an introduction of yourself, anyone with you and some kind of history of your company.
Now that your audience is total BORED you tried to finish them of with a 65 page Power Point presentation. STOP THIS NOW, make a commitment to do it different than everyone else.
The “Golden Minute”
Because your audience is there you probably have them for the first 6o seconds, after that you are going to have to earn their attention, and if you loose it to begin with you will probably never get it back.
Don’t waste this Golden Minute introducing yourself and your company to them, engage immediately with your primary message, the thing that you want them to remember if they only listen for this first 60 seconds.
This is the only time you will have everyone’s attention. Even in an engaging presentation you will be lucky to get the undivided attention of your audience for 3 out of every 10 min. and the chances are pretty slim that it will be the same 3 min. for everyone in the room.
The Presentation
Just jump right into your overall message, no “Hello, my Name is” or “Hi I am with Acme Rockets”. Just jump into the thing that you want everyone to get if they are only going to get one thing.
Follow this with some basic application of the message, how will it help your customer. If you still have their attention at the end of this you can tell them about the 3 major topics you will cover, then move into the topics.
- Each topic could have as few as one and as many items as needed to cover your information, but don’t forget “Less is More”. The less that you cover the more likely they are to remember what you say.
The magic number Three is just a good rule of thumb to follow, if my wife calls and asks me to pickup bread, milk and laundry soap, it is no problem to remember. If she then adds coffee, “Stop The Press’s” I am going to have to wright it down. People have actually studied this, and we remember things best in three’s, (Google it).
- Cover the items under each topic the same basic way, make the point, back it up with how it will help your customer and repeat the point. (does this look familiar, Feature/Benifit)
- Do the same for each topic, state it, back it up, then say it again.
Close the presentation by restating your overall message.
Power Point
Some how we have confused what power point should do with the leave behind material. If you have ever said, “Sorry about all of this info it is a bit of an eye chart” when going through your slides or had 12 bullet points on slide after slide that you then read to your audience, you are guilty of attempted death by power point.
Don’t feel bad, most of us have done this at one time or another, Power Point should be there only as a tool to change the mood in the room, or to set the stage.
Think of how a play would take place, you are the actor presenting the story and Power Point should be the quick change set.
Keep your slides to relevant supporting pictures, you should be speaking the words If you need to leave your audience with a take home sheet, prepare that separate, (and hand it out after the presentation).
A Personal Story
If you really want to connect with your audience, you will learn the art of the Story. This is a personal story that you can some how tie back to your overall message. If you can come up with a story to tell before you start the presentation and then use the final bit of that story to close it, you will connect on a much more emotional level.
This story should not be a joke, they almost always offend some one, this is an experience that has happened to you, that can some how be woven into your message.
It needs to be real, if you are just making things up someone is going to see through it.
If you think about this you may recall some of the great talks that you have heard, and in particular the story that was told. This gives your mind something to hold on to, sometimes we can remember the story’s that were told, 20 years later. If you can become successful at the art of the story it will make your presentation real, and personal.
Death To Power Point
If you follow this basic format and only use slides to show something or change the mood you should cut down the number of slides from a deck of 102 to about 8 or 12, and you will quit the attempted “Murder by Power Point”.
Don’t wast the “Golden Minute”, that first minute of time that you have to make an impression.
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Written by Jerry Dean S on 28 June 2010
While traveling home from Denver yesterday, as I was grumbling about turning off my nook for take off, I started thinking about all of the myths we encounter at the airport.
“Is the plane going to hit the ground early because my iPod was running during landing, or perhaps we would miss the airport by 100 miles because I was reading my nook?”
Here is a list of prohibited electronics, feel free to add more in the comments.
- Cell phone
- iPad
- iPod
- MP3
- Noise canceling head phones
- Lap Top
- eReaders
If any of these things actually caused a problem I think we would have heard about it by now, because they get left on all of the time!
I am guilty, I try to stay between the lines, but my damn cell phone power button is forever getting pushed while I am in flight. So far no problems, no missed airports, no aborted landings, although the phone does get a little warm with full transmit power trying to hit a tower that is 6 miles below me.
(Ok I don’t always stay between the lines, sometimes I turn my nook back on as soon as the flight attendants sit down for take off.)
The cell phone is the one thing that should be turned off, just because it does not work well from above the antennas, and it wastes your battery power.
Not so many years ago having your PC’s WiFi turned on while in flight was a big no no, of course that was before they figured out they could charge you an extra 10 bucks for a service, now it is no problem at all.
Security
Then there is the whole security thing, are they really going to catch some thing in your shoes or bag with the x-ray.
Two weeks ago while waiting to take off on a flight overseas, I watched 5 or 6 guys load 8 huge pallets of cargo into the plane, I am talking 8 by 8 foot, and 4 ft tall all wrapped in plastic. There was no way this was x-rayed and I am betting these guys did not have an extensive back ground check either.
I think the security line is just to give them time to see who looks nervous waiting in line, I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard from fellow travelers about the restricted items that they had left in their bag by accident that ended up on the plane.
In fact years ago, granted before 9-11, I know a field service guy that opened his briefcase on a plane and saw his .38 hand gun. He slammed the case shut and then sweat profusely for the next hour and a half. Granted security was not as tight, but hi-jackings had happened, and they were looking for weapons at check-in.
It really just speaks to how hard it is to look at thousands of images and catch the one thing that matters. Perhaps it is worth the millions spent on TSA to make the masses think they are safe while flying. I really don’t worry, not because of TSA but because of the track record, flying is much safer than driving, so I don’t worry about it.
What do you think, I am sure that I have missed some of the myths you encounter on a typical day of flying?
Have you ever needed a seat belt on a flight?
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Written by Jerry Dean S on 16 June 2010
I am traveling again this week and had a few tips from the airport security line.
- Put your ID away after you get past the first screener, you will not need it again.
- Shoes go on the belt, no bin, and first into the x-ray machine. (You can put them back on while they snoop through the rest of your things.)
- PC next, yes out of the bag, in its own bin, with your liquids, in a one quart or less zip lock bag. (welcome to the 20th century) If your PC is in the middle of your things you will never forget it, (it happens all the time).
- If you have on a jacket that has buttons or a zipper, it has to come off and go in a bin.
- If your belt is a trophy from your bull ridding days, don’t try it, take it off.
- Last on the belt is your bag or back pack, with your phone, watch, etc. (You won’t forget this either)
If you travel allot you need to use a standard routine, you are much quicker and less likely to leave something behind, you would be amazed how many times I watch security chase someone down with a PC or watch. If you start and end with the same things you will know you have not left anything and it really helps reduce the stress caused by OCD.
- “do I have my wallet”
- “do I have my PC”
- “do I have my jacket”
- “do I have my wallet”
This works well for me and I can clear security faster than 95% of the other travelers. I have also gone through security over 50 times in the last year and have never been pulled out to be patted down.
Have fun traveling like a pro.
Posted in Business, People, Sales, Travel | 1 Comment »
