Oct 31 2011
Rank the Most Damaging Sales Mistakes
Do you have bad habits that might be hurting your sales?
Test yourself to see if you know which sales mistakes are the worst. Rank these common sales rep mistakes from 1-7, with 1 being the worst.
____ A) Poor product knowledge
____ B) Bad breath or body odor
____ C) Not listening
____ D) Embellishing value of a product
____ E) Poor follow-up
____ F) Not keeping promises
____ G) Being arrogant or condescending
Click here to print and share.
Answers in descending order:
7. G) Being arrogant is annoying, but it is actually pretty common in top salespeople. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t watch your attitude, but a little arrogance will probably be forgiven.
6. B) Having bad breath or body odor may cause clients to talk about you behind your back, but they will not hate you for stinking up the place. It might even make them feel sorry for you.
5. D) Please try not to embellish the value of a product. However fellow salespeople all over the world have set the bar pretty low on the concept of being trustworthy, so embellishing the truth is bad-but not the worst.
4. E) Poor follow-up is common among salespeople. Because so few are great at follow-up, not doing it is not a deal killer-but doing it will put you at the top of the heap.
3. F) The habit of not keeping promises is a bad one. Now we are getting into frustration territory because your promise to do something has set a sales timer in the mind of the buyer-so not doing it can kill your future deals, referrals, etc.
2. A) A salesperson with poor product knowledge is fairly unforgivable for today’s consumer-especially in B2B sales. They are under pressure and stretched for time, and they need you to know your stuff.
1. C) Having poor listening skills is the worst thing you can do. Talking too much and listening too little can kill current and future deals faster than any other mistake. If you want to make more sales, ask great questions and then be a lot more quiet. Really listen to the answers. The secondary benefit to developing listening skills is that it actually makes selling easier.
Oct 18 2011
If you really want respect, do this …
Most of us are leaders in many aspects of our lives. Perhaps we lead and manage a team of employees, and we may also lead our children, other family members, a board of directors or a committee. As leaders, the thing that can get us the most mileage is respect. If we are respected, things happen faster and easier, and people we lead will work harder than they might have if they did not respect us.
In your quest for respect, you may think you have to be perfect—or at least appear to be perfect. But actually, the opposite is true.
Leadership secret 101 : Be flawed!
There are two very important reasons why you should admit it when you miss the boat, forget something, miscalculate, experience an epic failure or otherwise screw up. The first reason why it is good to admit that you are flawed (a.k.a. human!) is that it makes others feel okay with being human themselves. Think about the social response to people we see as flawed in today’s pop culture—we tend to forgive flaws and harshly judge those who try to hide their mistakes (think Charlie Sheen, Alec Baldwin vs. Former Senator John Edwards and Lindsay Lohan). Covering up your mistake, hiding your humanity or trying to blame someone else is never a good idea.
The second reason why admitting to mistakes might work in your favor is because people as a whole tend to have very highly developed brains that let us know when something is not quite right. If you try to hide your mistake, although people may not consciously realize that you are covering something up, they may get a funny little feeling that creates a tiny bit of mistrust—and mistrust cannot ever lead to respect. If it’s respect you crave you will have a much better chance of getting it by copping to your flaw and moving on.
“A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” – John Burroughs
Oct 01 2011
Outsmart Your Procrastination
In the coaching world, curing procrastination is one of the top “fix me” requests.
“Why do I put things off until the last minute?” “Why can’t I just make myself do the reports/workouts/cold calls?” “Why do I have issues with this?” And any coach worth her salt will change the subject from why to how.”How” is where it’s at! Here are a few methods that can help you outsmart even the most ingrained procrastination habits:
- When you fail at something, complete a task that you would normally procrastinate. I know it’s not fashionable to talk about failure, but we all mess up occasionally—so stay with me.
Let’s say you had a particularly clunky, unsuccessful interaction with a client you were hoping to close, or perhaps you were late and missed your child’s parent/teacher conference. Channel that anger and disappointment into knocking off a few to-dos that you usually leave until the last minute. Not only will you have used your less-than-ideal emotional state wisely, you will actually feel better!
Then you can say to yourself, “Well, I blew it on that one, but I got my report handed in early for the first time in ten years.” - Be aware of what gets onto your list starting now. Sure, much of what we do is in the “have to” column, but many, many other to-dos are self-imposed based on our values, goals and the roles we choose in our lives. Is this really a good time to enroll in that on-line class? Is it really, absolutely necessary to host every gathering for your extended family?
For the next three weeks, really think through every single yes to make sure it is not something that will land on that procrastination list later. - Use task completion as a cheap thrill. Once we decide that an item is on our to-do list it gains the capacity to affect how we feel about ourselves. It would be great if this was not true, but for most of us, it is very true. But you can use this to your advantage if you begin to notice how good crossing off a to-do feels.
The longer we put something off, the worse we feel, and that feeling grows and grows far beyond the pain of actually completing the task. Knock a few items off your list today and see how you feel.
Then repeat.
“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” Don Marquis
Sep 20 2011
Is Work the Opposite of Life?
For most of us, work days filled with super-charged stress and pressure give way to fantasies about not working at all. Perhaps we imagine ourselves running a canoe shop in Hawaii or traveling around Europe—permanently. When it all seems like too much, we long to escape, slow down, be more present and feel less crazed.
We are conditioned to think that there is life, and then there is work—and one must be sacrificed for the other.
I recently had the very unfortunate experience of attending the funerals of two different friends who died unexpectedly. Both had been hardworking, admirable men who worked in competitive, results-driven industries. I mention this awful thing only because a large part of their memorial events were focused on the impact their work had on their lives and the lives of others. Their families were proud of their work and work ethic; their contribution and their commitment.
As odd as it may sound, hearing about the career accomplishments of these men inspired many others toward excellence at work-as opposed to daydreams about taking a permanent vacation to Disney World or Miraval Spa (although I highly recommend both).
What makes work bad?
Work itself might not be inherently bad. Like chocolate-a little is good, even a lot is good, but consuming a bucket of it will bring about some very unpleasant side effects. It is possible that some of our own habits around work actually bring about more stress. These habits may include allowing perfectionism to dominate our projects far beyond what is necessary; wasting time on political maneuvers at work instead of actually working; or procrastinating all day and then spending precious family time making up work that could have been completed earlier. We may not have control over many aspects of our work-but there are many, many areas we do have the power to improve. Take some time in the next week or so to think about your approach and your attitude toward work. See if there are a few tweaks you can make that might mean the difference between seeing work as drudgery vs. seeing work as an important part of your life.
“Imperfection is not our personal problem; it is a natural part of existing.” – Annie Dillard
Sep 10 2011
Does your persistence come across as desperation?
Being persistent is a basic standard in today’s business world. Going after business, expanding our network, creating a need where one does not yet exist, and making sure we “put it out there” is critical to our success. When does persistence travel into the territory of desperation? The answer depends entirely upon the recipients of your actions-the prospective buyers, clients and customers of your business.
Think about your own experiences for a moment: that sales rep who called you constantly after you visited his store, or the Realtor who put you on her mailing list and sent five emails per week (until you unsubscribed). At what point did you cross over from being mildly interested to feeling annoyed or even creeped-out by that person? Something made you feel uneasy about them or suspicious about their motives or actions. When we feel turned off but don’t quite know why, it’s because something has triggered the part of the brain (the Amygdala) which processes our emotional reactions. We might not even be conscious of it, but our brain makes decisions about who we trust and who we don’t.
As salespeople, we need to remember that when we behave in a desperate manner, it makes the object of our attention want to move away from us-not toward us. If you are concerned that you might be putting out the desperation vibe, follow these three rules:
- After you take an action, busy yourself with other tasks and resist the temptation to push. If you are circling back to prospects too soon you probably don’t have enough in your pipeline. Build your network to keep yourself from pestering people.
- Catch yourself when you really, really, really want a deal to close, and see if you need to listen more, ask better questions, or just back off-because wanting it and seeming desperate are close cousins.
- Take steps to actually feel less panic and desperation. Deep breaths, a workout, or taking time to set goals, plan and dream are all great ways to feel more in control and less at the whim of others.
“Desperation is like stealing from the Mafia: you stand a good chance of attracting the wrong attention.” – Douglas Horton
Aug 01 2011
What’s My Blind Spot?
Everyone has a blind spot.
A blind spot is a habit or way of behaving that everyone knows about you-except perhaps YOU. Identifying your blind spot will help you recognize when your behavior is being dictated by it and can help you overcome it.
Pick only ONE description from the bulleted list below and then, for the next week, follow the corresponding numbered exercise to better “see” that blind spot.
I am rarely on time. Somehow I am nearly always running late. (1)
I do not stand up for myself. I hate conflict and avoid it with regularity. (2)
I have little patience. Nothing moves fast enough for me and my impatience probably shows. (3)
I talk a lot. I notice that I interrupt people, but often I cannot help it. I have a lot to say. (4)
I have trouble making up my mind. I need to take time to ponder, but often the pondering leads to more indecisiveness. (5)
I do not like change. I may come around to it eventually, but I am always resistant initially. (6)
- When it comes to time, people either run early or they run late. You either are over-committed, or not stopping your prior activity soon enough. For the next seven days your task is to be early for everything. Bring something to read or work on, but be at least five minutes early for every single appointment and commitment. See how you feel at the end of the week.
- People are either assertive, aggressive or passive-aggressive. There is no such thing as passive-passive, so while you may think you are avoiding conflict, you are actually adding to it in an underhanded way. During the next seven days, choose at least three minor injustices that you would usually let ride and force yourself to address them. Push back verbally on the responsible party; no e-mails-just say it. See if the world comes to an end. If not, move on to bigger things.
- Impatience costs you and you know it. Take it from scientist Ernst Fehr, who said, “In experiments, animals often prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger rewards that are deferred-thus failing to maximize their total gain. Many people exhibit similar behaviour.” Throughout the next seven days, select a coping behavior and commit to it. Choose yoga, deep breathing, singing, prayer, meditation-anything that helps you relax-and do it quietly by yourself. Try it!
- Keep your mouth closed and discover a whole new world! I kid you because I love you, fellow talker! But really, concentrate on saying less for the next seven days. Listen more, talk less, emote less. Just let other people talk for seven whole days. It’s fun!
- Make decisions on the BIG stuff to help your overall decision-making. Right now you are probably overwhelmed because you are grouping ALL the decisions you are presented with into one giant, scary pile. You will feel much better, however, if you tackle a few big decisions right away. Those big “yes” or “no” decisions will likely either make the smaller ones seem irrelevant or become part of the new plan. You have seven days to go BIG or go home on at least one decision!
- You are not getting the whole story if you are resistant to change. Believe it or not, the people in your life and work are most likely altering the truth to avoid conflict with you. They are either telling you less, sugar-coating it or simply not telling you things you might actually want to know. If you want the “whole enchilada” in life then you will have to be more open to change. In the next seven days, tell four people in your life that you are trying to be more accepting of change-then follow through on that statement. See what happens.
Jul 15 2011
Managers, Do You Know Your Interviewing Style?
Most managers fall into one of two styles when interviewing potential candidates for the job: 1) The Company Enthusiast, or 2) The Company Protector. Which one are you?
1) The Company Enthusiast- This interviewer paints a rosy picture of company past, present and future for the potential candidate and tries to get a feel for the candidate based on their response to the vision-talk. Company Enthusiast Interviewers are looking for a certain level of enthusiasm in return. They do not like talking about particulars such as income, expenses, etc.-they feel it is secondary to the vision and finding the right fit for the company. The experienced interviewer probably has certain anecdotes and examples that they use regularly as they listen carefully for the response of the candidate. The inexperienced interviewer using this strategy, however, may just talk and talk and have little or no real strategy for exposing the candidate’s weak spots. Tip to improve this interviewing approach: Handle the first portion of the interview as you always do but add 3-5 concrete questions at the end and vow to remain silent while the candidate answers.
2) The Company Protector- This interviewer does the asking and lets the candidate do the talking. The idea here is, “I will give them rope and see if they hang themselves.” The Company Protector has devised a series of questions which can “qualify” the candidate for the job and can systematically eliminate candidates who do not fit. This manager likes to talk about money early and often to make certain there are no misunderstandings and is usually unwilling to provide much information about the company until certain hoops have been jumped through by the candidate. The Company Protector interviewers are somewhat suspicious of candidates, who must prove themselves to be worthy of the next step in the process. Tip to improve this interviewing approach: Take a break at the half-way point of the interview and talk about some of the most compelling aspects of the company; people need something to get excited about. Then continue with your process.
Jul 01 2011
If you do this you may want to rethink it
What if every conversation you had this week was limited to one word or one sentence responses, devoid of politeness and expressed during a flurry of other activity? What if this were true about every conversation you had this month? If you are conducting the majority of your business from your smart phone, then this pretty much describes how you are coming across to your prospects, your team and your co-workers (even your own family). The smart phone was designed to make us more responsive, and in today’s business world being responsive is key. In the process, many people have gotten into the habit of running an entire business completely via phone because carrying around a laptop or tablet is inconvenient.
Running your business via smart phone puts you in reactive mode. Here are a few examples:
- Accidentally forwarding an email without removing a sensitive conversation thread. Most of us have unintentionally shared information either because we had trouble with the cut feature on our phones or we simply did not see the whole thread. This is your cue to slow down and wait to forward sensitive stuff until we can view the entire thread on something larger than a 3.5-inch screen.
- Seeing the email on the fly and forgetting to respond, or missing it entirely. While in the flurry and hurry of everyday life, missing an email can kill a deal or cause a work relationship to sour-often without our knowledge. Taking time to manage your in-box from your laptop or desktop daily or at least weekly can help keep this from happening.
- Responding and reacting vs. leading. There is a world of difference between shooting someone a response (or command) vs. taking time to craft your message in a way that is well thought-out and articulates your thoughts in way that moves the conversation forward. Responding is important but so is teaching, informing, enlightening, leading, supporting, supposing and conversing, and none of these can be accomplished in a one-line email.
- Scheduling without seeing the whole week, month or quarter. While it is convenient to pull out your phone and quickly schedule an appointment-it is much “smarter” to do this in the context of your entire week or month or even year. The way that you schedule yourself can have a huge impact on your quality of life. Take time to schedule yourself when you can see the whole picture. It will cut down on overbooking and cancellations and will help you keep your promises.
Being able to react to the minute-by-minute happenings at work is an excellent use of a smart phone or similar device. But make sure you use all of the tools available to you so that you can literally see the big picture.
Jun 18 2011
Which one are you: overcommitted or overpromised?
Most people think that time management issues stem from being overcommitted, but that is not always true. If you are overwhelmed and becoming undone by your current pace, it might be helpful to determine if you are overcommitted or if you are instead overpromised.
Overcommitted is when you have miscalculated the amount of tasks you can complete in a given period of time or when you have scheduled two or more concurrent items which would require the laws of time and space to collapse in order for you to complete them. E.g., you are in a meeting that ends at 9:00 a.m. and you are supposed to attend another one that starts at 9:00 a.m. and is located twenty minutes away. Overpromised, on the other hand, is when you consciously say “yes” to so many things that you cannot possibly complete them all. Overpromised people are all about the word YES. Somewhere in their subconscious minds they know they cannot possibly complete all of the tasks, but they say yes anyway and then hope and wish that it will all work out somehow.
Overcommitted people have to work on being more realistic time planners and on building in buffers between appointments for things that may come along-like needing to go to the rest room, taking an unscheduled call, traffic, and the ultimate stressor for the overcommitted-the forgotten commitment. If you are feeling overcommitted right now, open your calendar, take a look at the next week and make changes to every single appointment that cannot realistically be achieved. You can always go back to your old ways-but I bet you won’t. Realistic scheduling is the best stress buster you can give yourself.
Overpromised people may actually be good at managing time and instead need to work on their use of the word YES. If you are feeling put upon on a daily basis it is probably because you are being put upon. People often take advantage of overpromisers because they always say YES!
I would not suggest that those of you who are overpromisers simply start saying “no” to people-that is too big of a leap. Instead, start by working on creating conversational buffers that can give you time to figure out if you can keep that promise BEFORE you say yes. E.g., “Let me get back to you on that one!” “Can I think about it?” “I would like to, but I am not sure I can do that yet.” Eventually you will make fewer promises overall but will be able to actually keep all of those you do make. That in turn will make you become more reliable and feel more appreciated, making it all worth it.
“Never take a solemn oath. People think you mean it.” ~Norman Douglas
May 18 2011
Getting Your Team to Produce Results
Have you ever heard that saying, “the beatings will continue until morale improves”? Sure, it is funny, but it is also reflective of a management habit that pervades our often stress-filled, numbers-focused business world. We really, really need the team to hit those targets, and when they don’t, it brings out the worst in us. We keep pushing and pushing and they push back, and well, it can become a mess. If pushing was the answer, then it would be working. If you are pushing and it is not effective, it’s time to try something different.
Teach your team to focus on fewer areas overall, but with much, much more intensity. Then help them do just that.
In business coaching I call this the “pick three” strategy. Set aside your stress and pressure for awhile and instead sit down individually with each member of your team and ask them this: If between now and the end of the year (month/quarter) you were to focus your energies on the three most productive, revenue-producing tasks you could perform, what would those three be? They might say something like, “referrals from the new account I just closed; loading my pipeline for the fall installments I’ll need in order to hit my numbers; and attacking the client list that Eli left when he got promoted.” Then ask the team member what obstacles they need help removing so that they can focus almost exclusively on these three tasks. Make a plan together and agree to meet regularly to check in. Do this with every team member, having them each come up with their own three tasks.
One of the most frustrating things about being a manager is that your success relies almost completely on the performance of others. This is where leadership comes into play. Instead of focusing on the frustration, however justified it may be, focus instead on what can be done and help your team do it. If they have obstacles or non-relevant items on their to-do list, advocate to remove those things or delegate them to someone else.
And don’t forget: do your own “pick three” while you are at it!