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Worst Salesman In The World
Posted by: | CommentsThis article is taken from my friend Gower Talley. It is exactly the story that I want to tell, it just so happened that someone else got a chance to live it.
Read this carefully. I believe you may find this hits close to home. If you find it is too close to your experience…we need to talk! Click here
The Worst Salesman in the World!
I was considering re-structuring my business liability insurance. As luck would have it – someone called asking about my business insurance the very day I started considering a change. We made an appointment to talk in my office for the very next day.
The worst sales man in the world was about 15 minutes late. He did call from the road the let me know he was going to be late. That was OK – but I had an hour for this meeting – it had now become 45 minutes. When he arrived – he made a few minutes of chit-chat about pictures in my office and he was off and running… telling me about his auto insurance. I, of course had no interest in discussing auto insurance – I am quite happy with my auto insurance. I was considering restructuring my business liability coverage. I told him as much.
Him: “Yes – but If you are as smart as I think you are you want to learn about all the ways we can save you money – right?”
This guy’s stock was rapidly going down in my book.
Me: “Look, I just need to know this…” and I asked him a simple direct question about the product I had made the appointment to learn about.
Him: “I am a professional salesman – I am not going to tell you that yet.” He smiled – as if he had just said something very clever.
This guy was now on borrowed time. He used his borrowed time to begin talking about his company’s health insurance plans. I am retired military and have medical coverage as a part of my retirement package. He was, once again, using the oxygen in my office to lecture me on something I have no use for. His time was now officially up. I stood up – extended my hand and said:
Me: “Thank you for your time – good afternoon sir.”
He was genuinely shocked.
Him: “I didn’t have a chance to get finished!”
Me: “Sir – you didn’t use your chance to get started. You have been talking AT me for the last 45 minutes and you haven’t even brushed up against anything that I am remotely interested in. I have been trying to steer the conversation toward things I might be interested in buying – and your have aggressively resisted my efforts to do so. If you are this unresponsive in an initial interview I can only imagine what doing business with you would be like. Thank you – good day.” I stood and opened the door for him.
And then – he said something. He said something that summarized exactly what he had gotten wrong during this interview. I knew at that moment that I would give him 5 more minutes and I knew at that moment that I would write this article.
He looked almost hurt. He said: “I just wanted you to see all of our benefits before we got down to specifics.”
Ah ha! Bingo! Eureka! This guy had made the classic mistake in all of sales. I could only assume that he routinely made this same mistake. He confused “features” of his product with “benefits”. He assumed that I would see value in everything he saw value in.
A “feature” is intrinsic to the product while a “benefit” is intrinsic to the customer. The fact that a car is red is a feature of the car. It is only a benefit to me if I like red. If I am ambivalent as to color then selling me on the redness of a car is – at best – a waste of time. If I hate red and love blue then selling me on the redness of the car is counterproductive. To know what color I like you have to – (wait for it, here it comes) – ask me what color I am interested in!
This guy thought he was showing me “benefits” when he had not asked a single question to determine which of his “features” might be a “benefit” to me. He was trying to throw everything he had at me in rapid fire succession – hoping that something stuck. It really didn’t occur to him to ask me what I was interested in before he tried to sell me something. He had worn out his welcome long before he got around to anything I would have bought.
ME: “Let me share something with you. Average sales people sit in their car before a sales call and diligently rehearse what they are going to say. Great sales people don’t. Great sales people sit in their car before a sales call and diligently rehearse what they are going to ask. We have been in this room for almost an hour and you have yet to ask me a substantive question as to what I need or what I am interested in. ”
I told him that although we were done for the day – if he would email me with the direct answers to my specific questions he avoided during our meeting perhaps we could continue. He thanked me for the opportunity. (However – as of this writing it is two weeks later and not a peep. His final mistake – failing to follow up as agreed upon – has closed the door.)
Here is the moral to our story. Don’t be this guy. Find out what your prospect needs and wants BEFORE you try to tell him or her what you have. You cannot possibly fill a prospect’s needs or exceed their expectations if you do not know what those needs or expectations are. Ask before you tell.
Gower has a wonderful website http://www.thenorthwestboardroom.com/ Please go there and check it out.
Commanding Your Thoughts
Posted by: | Comments“My thoughts were out of control.” “My mind was wandering.” Thoughts out of control…wandering mind…how many times does that happen to you? You begin to think about something and then something else pops into your head. Off you go. Charging after yet another thought…
Selecting Your Thoughts
It is possible to take control of your thoughts and direct them where you want them to go. That will allow you to focus on the task at hand. You’ll accomplish more. You’ll have more time in your day. Does any of that sound appealing to you?
I used to visit the Kansas City Missouri Public Library. It was a marvelous place! In the library you could find a book on all most any thing you could imagine. It is the repository of millions and millions and millions of individual thoughts. Kind of like your mind.
To take advantage of all of the stored knowledge in the library I had to choose a book. I had to select what I was going to think about for the moment. Once I made my selection I had to ignore everything else in the place.
You can do the same thing with you thoughts. Your mind is a giant library. Filled with millions of thoughts and possibilities. To take advantage of that potential you must choose one thing and ignore everything else.
The Bible says: “Whatsoever things are…think on these.” In other words, choose what you will think on.
Don’t be guilty of wandering among the stacks in the great library of your mind without choosing what you will think on. Make a choice each moment of what you will think on. When you do, you’ll take advantage of the all the wisdom available to you.
It is possible to keep your mind from wandering. You can focus your thoughts. What you chose to think about is vital to your success.
Thinking Good Thoughts
“Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life.” -James Allen
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is true in the material world, it is also true in your thought life. “What a man sows…he shall also reap”
Selecting where you’ll direct your thoughts is as important as selecting the right book from the library. For it is impossible to master good things by constantly selecting base things.
You can use a personal affirmation like this; I choose this day to think only on those things that will aid me in my pursuit of success. I will deal with reality, but I refuse to dwell on negativity. I will guard my mind so that I allow only those things that perfect my character to into my thoughts.
It began to rain last night just as I climbed into bed. It has been a while since our last rain. As I laid in bed and listened to the gentle rain I realized something very important about our thought life. It was easy to control my thoughts while I was listening to the rain.
Why do you suppose it is that rain would provide a perfect back drop for good thoughts? I listened carefully. What was different? Did I have less on my mind? Have I been applying this instruction and found it easier to control my thinking? No, while all of that may be true, it was something special about the rain.
What could make the rain quiet my heart so I could think? As I listened I realized that there is something rhythmic about the sound of rain. It is the harmony of nature.
We live in a world of chaos. Our environment is filled with clamor, confusion and conflict. Very little harmony exists. Yet harmony is essential for clear thinking. The rhythm of the rain provided the perfect backdrop for clarity of thought. Nature’s perfect harmony aligned my inner self and calmed me to place where is could think easily and clearly.
Tools For Creating Harmony in Your Thoughts
How can you recreate that? Obviously we can’t wait until it rains to think clearly. It hasn’t rained here for some time so that wouldn’t be helpful. The challenge is, how do we create an environment with the harmony essential for clear thinking?
People and Your Thoughts
Have you ever worked around someone who seemed to bring out the best in you? Of course the opposite is also possible. Some people suck all of the creativity out of you. They criticize, complain and complicate everything. The people in your environment must help you to create harmony so you can think clearly.
You’re responsible for the make up of your environment. Are you spending time with someone who constantly is disrupting your environment? They suck your creativity right out of the room. They’re negative, nagging and neurotic. If that’s who you’re hanging out with, you have to change that. You can’t spend time with someone who is like that and ever expect to achieve success in life.
Music and Your Thoughts
“For many years I have observed that I could write more effectively after having participated in a song service. Prove my statement to your own satisfaction by going to church next Sunday morning and participating in the song service with all the enthusiasm at your command.” -Napoleon Hill
Interesting! Not just listening to good music, music that calms and soothes, but actually participating in the act of singing. Singing along with good music will create an environment of harmony for you. You’ll feel refreshed, revitalized and rejuvenated.
You don’t even have to be able to carry a tune. That has nothing to do with it. It is the act of singing a melody with rhythm that creates internal harmony.
Command your thoughts and change your world. Thinking on one thought at a time. Concentrating your energy to its completion. Success is yours when you control your thoughts.
Silence is Invincible
Posted by: | CommentsSilence is …
I recently had a sinus infection that made it impossible for me to talk. It gave me time to think about the benefits of silence.
In professions that require strong verbal skills most of us have a tendency to talk too much. Rather than addressing the real questions and getting to the point we talk endlessly about things that never entered the head of the client.
In the sea of people that you will encounter in business only about 17% of the population require more information. Even for them they want to know only what they ask. The other 83% have no real desire to hear endless dumps of information. They are almost turned off by such displays. For them information is like food a little is good, but too much is not necessarily better.
Sometimes talking too much is covering up for personal fears: fear of rejection, fear of revealing a real lack of knowledge, fear of questions, fear of confrontation, and so on. None of these things advance your agenda. Operating out of fear is never a good thing.
“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and a sound mind.” -1 Timothy 2:7
Power, love and a sound mind may be demonstrate by silence, instead of talking endlessly when there is no need for it. A sound mind gives power in any situation.
We live in a world full of noise. So much so that it has become hard for us to listen. Noise and hurry consume massive amounts of mental energy. Listening restores that energy. It is impossible to listen when you spend all of your time talking. Talking. Just draining yourself of the valuable mental energy.
A sound mind is full of energy so it may think clearly. When a situation presents itself a sound mind is ready it think clearly about a solution. A sound mind is invincible.
Maybe spending some time in silence is beneficial. A day a month? Hours a week? Moments in a day? I don’t think it really matters. The key is to spend some time in silence.
Silence is Invincible
Gaining strength from silence will help you develop the power of invincibility. Talking crowds your thoughts and inhibits the development of clear thinking. Clear and accurate thinking leads to powerful thoughts. Powerful thinking will make you invincible. When you think beyond your competition you win…every time!
“Silence is golden” and “still waters run deep”…there is a reason we have those sayings. They are so true! A day of silence reminded me of just how important silence can be.
Back to Inspirational Thoughts
Silence is…
Buyer Satisfaction – More Than A Sale…
Posted by: | CommentsBuyer Satisfaction Builds Your Business
Achieving buyer satisfaction is an essential part of the sales process. Buyer satisfaction prevents buyer’s remorse, leads to repeat business and results in more referrals. You want to build a prosperous and enduring success? You must understand buyer satisfaction.
There are four levels of buyer satisfaction:
You must meet the consumer’s expectations. Ask yourself how you can do this with your product or service? Understand that it is the product or service that meets a purchaser’s needs not some added value. Nothing that you add to the product or service is going to help you meet expectations. The expectations are on the product – not on your added value. I’m not saying that the extra things aren’t important – they are the subject of the next point. What I am saying is that the product itself comes with certain expectations and those expectations must be met by the product or the potential buyer will look somewhere else. The product itself must produce satisfaction or the rest of the levels will never be achieved. Nothing that you add will make up for a sub par product.
Can you list twenty possible expectations a potential buyer might have before you have your first conversation? Can you show how your product is capable of meeting those expectations without the use of superlatives? Make a list of twenty things that will meet the buyers expectations. Then tomorrow add twenty more to the list…
Once the potential buyer understands your ability to meet his expectations you must prove your ability by exceeding his expectations. Here is where you provide the additional value. You must be constantly asking how you might be able to exceed the potential buyers expectations – by adding what… to the initial purchase product.
Think of twenty ways in which you can exceed your potential buyers expectations. Now think about those things from your new customers perspective and see if you’re on target. If not, go back and think of twenty more. Then tomorrow add twenty more to the list…
Next you must delight the buyer beyond the initial point of purchase. Sometimes referred to as”satisfaction after the sale”. You must understands the difference between satisfaction and delight. Constantly be asking yourself, “how can I delight my customer?” Then develop ways to accomplish delight in his customers.
Can you think of twenty ways to delight your customers? Will you think of twenty more tomorrow? How do you plan to implement those things today? What’s your plan for tomorrow?
Finally you must understand the power of amazement. You know that amazing the potential buyer at every step in the sales process is essential to being the best. Amazement never comes by adding superlatives to your offer. It comes when the potential buyer is adding superlatives to your offer.
Stop right now and think of twenty ways you can amaze your potential buyer from the first contact all the way through the buyer referring you to his friends. Then tomorrow think of twenty more. Schedule how you plan to implement those things.
Understanding buyer satisfaction is the best way to build your business. You’ll produce more, have happier customers, sleep better at night, feel more fulfilled in your work, and get more repeat and referral business. With buyer satisfaction comes the permanent prosperity and enduring success that you desired when you started your business.
Back to Sales Training Articles.
Buyer satisfaction better than gold…
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