"Winning strategies for today’s transparent sales environment"

Can you guess what it is?

Whenever I bring it out in front of CEO’s, business owners or sales people they shriek in horror and turn away insisting that I remove it from their presence.  I have seen senior executives tremble in fear at the very idea that I would use this hideous tool in their organization.  Virtually every group I work with insists that my particular version of this tool is broken even though I can prove it is functioning normally.

What is even stranger is that this tool has been around for thousands of years and has ALWAYS produced the same reaction.  Even stranger still is the fact that those people who use this tool properly almost always end up being the most successful people in our society.  They use it so frequently that they become comfortable with its power and help others to use it effectively as well.

So what is this tool that can produce both visceral fear and phenomenal success?

A mirror

That’s right, a mirror.  Simply put, all of us have a very difficult time seeing ourselves or our businesses as we or they really are.  The problem is that a true mirror doesn’t see all of the “stuff” about you that we feel like it should like our feelings, our opinions, our values, even our past…it simply reflects.   And what it reflects can be so completely different than what we thought it would be, that we fight it with every part of our being.

It can even be organizational.  I was visiting with the executive team of a technology business a few weeks ago and they were telling me all about the massive business they were going to be closing within the next few months.  I was elated to hear this since the last time I visited with them they did not have any real opportunities nor did they have any lead process in place to generate any leads.

So I asked the simple question about which companies they would be closing within the near term.  The subject quickly changed into some new features they would be adding to their product that would take the world by a storm.  As I probed further I found out that there were no new opportunities since I last saw them (earlier in the year) and there STILL was no lead process in place.  I don’t believe they had a company in their sites who would take their product for free!

This would be humorous if it weren’t so pervasive.  I have yet to meet a person or organization which doesn’t distort the reflection to some degree to fit their own view of how it should look…including me.  However, I learned long ago that to truly improve and grow in all areas of life means that we have to accept the reflection the way it really is so we can work on those things which will lead to the highest level of growth.

So do yourself and your company and favor and pull a mirror out of the back room where it is kept under lock and key and simply bring it out, look at the reflection as it really is and then take an inventory of what you see.  It isn’t easy but it is simple.  Don’t be afraid of what you see either.  It’s okay not to be perfect since the most successful people and companies on the planet understand this completely.

They bring the mirror out for themselves and their organizations WEEKLY and simply ask everyone…without fear of repurcusion…what they see.  They take stock of the good and bad and work on negating or eliminating the bad (you never work on improving the bad…just negating or eliminating…but that is another post) and then pour your efforts into improving the good.

You will find that over time the mirror loses its ability to terrify you and your company and you look upon it as one of the best high growth tools you can employ.

There is no such thing as a sales cycle.  Does that surprise you?  If you have a traditional sales background then the sales cycle has become part of your daily lexicon.  But the reality is that it is just a myth.  A dangerous myth to believe in, but a myth nonetheless.

I constantly hear the same statement regarding sales cycles from virtually every organization I work with; “Our sales cycle is X weeks or months or light years”, as though there is some magic time frame which determines how long it takes to sell your product or service.  Most organizations simply take the good and the bad sales efforts, average them together and then cement into every sales person’s head that this is THE sales cycle.

Those who know me know that this is one of my biggest pet peeves because it almost guarantees that you will take THAT amount of time to close a deal since you are convinced that is how much time it should take.  Before I dive into this, let me provide a perfect example from my own sales career why this is nonsense. Read More→

I’m guessing that many people still agree with this one.  As a matter of fact, I was at a conference just a few weeks ago and this was one of the pillars that was taught in a break out session by a self described “expert”.    This is not only a myth, but believing in it wastes time, lengthens the sales cycle and inevitably leaves you waiting for the customer at the altar while they”re out partying with another solution provider.

I have either closed, or help close the largest deals in my life without ever:

• Conducting any serious entertaining (other than an occasional lunch)
• Knowing the prospective customer’s wife/husband or if they had any children
• Knowing what the prospective customer’s hobbies were
• Having a prospective customer know anything personal about me of any significance

And just so we are on the same page, these were significant, seven and eight figure deals with senior executives and on occasion, a board of directors.

But there was certainly one thing I DID know.   I knew more about the prospective customers business (where my solution touched the business) than they did.  And I mean everything.   Every detail, every nuance, every possible angle where my solution might have an impact.  I could stand in front of a group of executives/decision makers and discuss intricate areas of their business with absolute confidence and authority. Read More→

“Always be Closing!” The infamous words which are uttered by virtually every CEO, Business Owner or Sales Manager in the U.S.

Before I go into the specifics of why this is a ridiculous sales myth, let’s consider another area of expertise; surgery.

Think about it.  Do you hire a surgeon who is a good “closer”?  Do you determine their value because they can close a wound well?  A great surgeon is a “healer”.  They are organizing and perfecting the entire operation, not just the last step.

You want someone who takes the necessary steps to effectively heal your problem.  They have thoroughly studied your problem, have a plan to address the problem, have assembled the right equipment and support staff to help them and they have the necessary skills to achieve the objective.  In addition, they have talked the process over with you, the patient, so you feel extremely comfortable about the steps and you have complete confidence in their ability to address your situation.

The same holds true with salespeople.  You want a “connector”, not a closer.  We obviously want more closed sales and more deals in the door but to focus on the last step is taking your eye off of the bigger ball.

Do you think your customers want a “good closer”?  We know the answer to that.  What they want is a connector.  They want you to connect your products and services with their problems and issues so that they can have them “healed” (it’s no coincidence that we try to uncover the customer’s “pain”) .  Who do you think will truly win; the connector or the closer?  In addition, who do you think will win the NEXT time you engage the customer? Read More→

I am going to spend the next 2 weeks talking smack about many of the pearls of wisdom that so many sales organizations hold sacred.  Why?  Because they simply don’t work and they interfere with  your success.  Some of these “truisms” may have worked at some point in history, but that time has long since passed.  They stay alive because they keep getting passed down from one sales “professional” to another as supposed bits of wisdom.  It wouldn’t be so bad if they were just harmless little sayings like “keep your chin up” or other conversational fodder that has no real meaning.

The problem is that these myths are a lot like STD’s; you thought you were just having some fun but look at what you are left with.  Pain, suffering and embarrassment.

Read More→