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.

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.

The largest single deal I have ever closed in my life (a major 8 figure deal with a Fortune 100 company) was done under the following circumstances.  Please make sure and check out the caveats next to each item:

• The company which I was pursuing had enacted a complete freeze on spending and hiring (which would obviously make the sales cycle much longer or impossible).  The company’s stock was spiraling down, they had massive debt to pay down and their particular market was bombing.  The CEO issued a MANDATORY freeze on spending and hiring.  An impossible selling situation, right?
• The “normal” sales cycle for the solution which I was selling was 12-18 months (Which means that it would now have to be a minimum of two years since this was an abnormal selling environment.  I was also selling a software product which was not a necessity for the purchasing organization)
• There was an admission by the executives in MY organization that this was an “impossible” situation (meaning, spend your time somewhere else since this won’t produce squat in the short term)

I then went and closed an 8 figure deal in less than 10 weeks.  And the Terms and Conditions negotiations took 2 of those weeks so the deal was actually sold in 8 weeks.   WTH?  Where is the etched in granite sales cycle?  It must have taken a vacation.  I know we can always come up with exceptions to so called rules, but this was not an exception since the the “rule” is not a rule at all.

There is a simple reason for this.  As I stated above, a sales cycle is something which has been constructed in our minds, not in the actual business of selling.  There is only one cycle you deal with when you are successful in selling:

“The Buying Cycle”

The most successful sales people and sales organizations understand this and either directly or indirectly mirror their sales cycle to the buying cycle.  They understand that moving from decision to decision is ALWAYS fixed by the buying side of the relationship.  You can heavily influence those decisions, but only by understanding how and why those decisions are made.

You are probably thinking, “duh”.  So if this is so simple and it goes without saying,  how many times have you ever seen a buying cycle  used to create a sales cycle?  Probably never.  If we all know this, why don’t we simply start with a buying cycle and then work out our sales cycle so it matches the buying cycle?

The process is pretty simple since all you have do is map out a typical customer’s buying process which will look something like:

Recognition of Need—-Consensus on Need for External Help—-Initial Budgetary Approval—Search and Evaluate Options—Select a Solution Provider—-Negotiate—Execute Project—Measure Value

A typical sales process looks like:

Discovery—Collaborative Solution Design—Develop Business Case—Propose—Finalize Agreement—Execute Project—Manage Customer Relationship

So imagine if you are in YOUR sales process at “Propose”, but the prospective customer is still at the “Consensus on Need for External Help” in their buying process.  You know what happens, right?  We all know what happens;… diddly squat.

So do yourself and your revenue stream a favor and sit down with a current customer who is very friendly towards your company and simply ask them the steps they went through to purchase your solution.  Use it as a framework to develop your sales process so you can match each step of your sales process to their buying process.

You will find that you:

• Close more deals
• Close them faster
• Have a happier client since you did not “force” them into your sales process
• A HUGE edge on your old school competition

Hopefully this will give you the courage to turn your back on any thought of a sales cycle and simply work with your prospective customers by helping them buy.

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.

So instead of  getting them to “like” me, I created an atmosphere of  credibility and trust.  And I’m sure you would agree that credibility and trust will build a much richer relationship than “liking” someone.  I don’t know about you, but I never make critical decisions about my business based on who I like, nor do I believe any rational person does either.  But this “people buy from people they like” nonsense perpetuates itself like an unwelcome in-law who just doesn’t know when to pack up and leave.

So instead of wasting your time trying to get someone to like you, why don’t you INVEST your time in understanding the prospective customer’s business.  The benefits will be tremendous:

• By understanding their business, you will come across as credible and trustworthy; two very valued traits for any decision maker
• The sales cycle will be shorter since the decision makers will have confidence  investing in you and your company primarily because you were able to uncover more value for them
• You will dramatically differentiate yourself from your competitors (they’re still trying to get the customer to like them, remember?)
• Subsequent selling situations with similar companies will have you building on your already vast knowledge. This will establish a reputation for you as someone who knows what they are talking about.  When this reputation starts to spread among prospective buyers, they will begin contacting you rather than you trying to persuade people to meet with you
• You will have more referral business than you have ever had in your life
• You will be asked to speak in front of ever expanding groups of decision makers and industry veterans
• You will stop being seen as a vendor or sales person and come to be seen as a trusted adviser

Oh, and one last benefit…you will find that because you have developed a geniune and lasting relationship with customers and prospective customers, you will be far more “liked” than you would have been trying to pursue being liked.  And I kind of like it that way….

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?

The reality is that each sale is just a series of individual decisions with the final decision being a closed deal.  To focus on only the last decision will cause you to miss opportunities to influence each individual decision since you don’t treat those decisions as important.  Oh yeah, and you will lose most of the time and alienate each prospective customer you come in contact with.

Why doesn’t this work you ask?  Well, it starts off by assuming your customer is a moron who can’t possibly match wits with your super sophisticated always-be-closing tactics.  It also assumes your customer has never been called on by another sales person who took the same, lame sales course at the community college which insisted that this was THE way to get more sales.  In addition, it suggests your customer doesn’t want the solution that you are selling, so it is imperative that you force it down their throat.

And one more, very important item I almost forgot to mention…virtually every sales person I have ever known hates this type of approach as well, but they feel pressured by their sales managers to pursue opportunities in this archaic, old school, doesn’t work even with your family, approach.

So remember, unless you are selling knock off Rolex watches to tourist in Amsterdam, the best strategy is to be a great connector rather than to “always be closing”.

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.

As a career sales executive, sales consultant, sales trainer and speaker, I have come across  just about every variation of a sales organization there is.  One common theme I find in failing sales organizations (or failing sales individuals) is an adherence to many of the myths that I will discuss over the next 2 weeks.

One thing I always do at the beginning of any speaking engagement is show a photo of an old cell phone; you know, the early stage cell phones that were as big as a loaf of garlic bread and emitted enough heat from the battery to warm a cup of coffee (if you don’t know what I am talking about ask an older friend or colleague who worked back in the early 90’s).  I then ask  if they still use this type of phone.  Everyone, of course says “no”.  I then ask them “why?”  If it was good enough for those days, then why don’t we use it today?

The answers are that it is obsolete and that better, smaller, more efficient and feature rich cell phones are available today.  I then go through a series of items which we no longer use or enjoy anymore, all of which originated out of the late 80’s or early 90’s.  Everyone categorically condemns them as archaic.

I then go through the sales myths which I will discuss in the next 2 weeks, but I don’t initially talk about them as sales myths.  I introduce them as “sales strategies” and ask  the audience if they believe in and utilize these strategies.  Those who are honest raise their hands.  I go on to point out that each of these myths had its origin in the late 80’s and early 90’s from the sales books de jour at the time.  It’s too much to go into in a blog post, but trust me when I tell you that each of these myths can be traced back to an extremely popular book or business fad at the time.

So what are these myths?  Let’s take a look at some of them we will be discussing in the coming 2 weeks:

• “Always be Closing”
• “People buy from people they like”
• “Sales is a numbers game”
• “Objections are buying signals”
• “Our sales cycle is X” (X being the number of weeks or months it supposedly takes to close a sale)

If you believe any of these are true, check back frequently over the next two weeks as I categorically prove each of them to not only be false, but also harmful to your success.

That creates a bigger problem than the vast majority of people realize.

I regularly teach a course on Effective Communication across the country, and the bulk of the course is devoted to email communication.  Why?  Because that is literally the majority of all  our communication.  If you were to create a daily log of how much time you communicate in person versus on the phone versus in writing, you would find that the writing portion of your communication is more than double the other two forms of communication combined.

Your answer to that question might be, “So what?”

The problem creeps in with the fact that we loose all sense of being the recipient of our communication when it is in  writing.  Think about it; when you are face to face with someone you can see their facial expressions and body language to determine if they got what you were saying; even in voice communication you will be able to tell with subtle changes in voice inflection and the context of their speech how effective you were at communicating your message.

However, when you send an email, a tremendous amount of communications end with a single exchange.  The reality is that we have no idea what occurred on the other end of that communication, but we expect that it was received exactly as we sent it.  Here is an important update….it is almost never received as you intended it.

Let me give you an example that I use in the course that I teach on this subject..let’s say you respond to an email from a colleague with “yeah, right”.  Did you mean that in the sarcastic form of “yeah, right” as in, “no way?”   Or did you mean that in the agreement form of “yeah, right” as in “yes, that is correct”?  In writing there is no difference.  The difference can only be judged by the context of the communication or, more commonly, can only be determined with the other two dimensions of communication (as in voice or in person).

“Big deal” you might conclude.  If that is your response, then whatever you say in a meeting or on the phone is no big deal either.  The reality is that “you” are determined by your communication and literally nothing else.  The only person who knows “you” outside of what you communicate is quite literally, you!  So what you are to the rest of the planet is what you communicate.

And since most of your communication is via email, why do we treat it so frivolously?

I just received a note from a VP of Sales today who had been through my communications course before.  He had actually forwarded a note from a person who was looking to get hired by this VP of Sales.  Without cutting and pasting the email in this post, let me summarize by saying that the person who sent the note got the name of the VP of Sales wrong; had multiple misspellings in the email; had glaring grammatical errors and had multiple sentences which had two identical words next to each other.  Bottom line; it was horrible.

Did this guy know that his email communicated to the VP of Sales that he was inept and a terrible communicator?  Nope.  Is the VP of Sales ever going to send him an email saying his communication was horrible?  Nope.   Do you think this guy will ever improve his communication skills?  Probably not.

Remember this vital point:  You are what you communicate whether you want it that way or not, or whether you intended it that way or not.  Maybe this will give everyone a reason to pause and do a quick review before they hit that Send button.