When you are giving a sales presentation, how do you feel when you notice participants looking down at their PDA devices?

How valued do you feel when you are having an important conversation, and you hear the clickety clack of the other person’s computer keyboard, when you know they have no reason to be typing related to your conversation?

What goes through your mind when you are having a face to face conversation with a friend and he reaches to his belt and pulls up his cell phone to check the source of the call causing the phone to vibrate? (or ring?)

In each of these cases the other person may be thinking she/he is multi tasking. In reality they are focusing their attention on something besides you and your needs or your information.

The proliferation of electronic devices, e-mail and Internet blogs, has led to the idea that people can do two or more things simultaneously.

This is a myth!

To illustrate: close your eyes (after you read this) and imagine a large elephant, then open your eyes. Now close your eyes and imagine a fuzzy little lion cub. What happened to the elephant? It disappeared while you were thinking of the cute little lion cub.

Your mind can only hold one thought at a time. So when you think you are “multi tasking,” you are just shifting your attention from one task or issue to another, then back, which is not only inefficient – it is unproductive.

There is such a thing as “multi processing.” That is, you can have many projects and tasks in stages of progress at one time. This is vital for sales professionals.

Here’s how:

1.) Use a “system.” To be effective at multi processing, you need to do a little planning, and you need to have a system for projects or tasks in progress. Using a system, that your mind trusts, will enable you to temporarily forget the details with confidence that they will come back for your attention at the appropriate time.

2.) Time Activate. Whether your system uses Outlook®, Act®, GoalMind®, a Google or Yahoo calendar, CalendarStar®, or a paper planner, the principles are the same. When something needs your attention in the future, “Time Activate” it. Use your system to tell you three “W’s” or pieces of information:

• What to do

•When to do it

• Where the information is to get it done.

3.) Put Papers (or computer records) in their places. The last “W” enables you to take the paper off your desk and put it away, or the e-mail from your inbox and put it in a specific e-mail folder.

Time Activating makes you an effective “Multi-Processor.” Now you can focus on the people or tasks at hand.

Building People to Build Business

J. Mark Walker

After 20 years, Barbara, an imaginary business owner, took a “buyout” from her Vice President position because of a merger. She now owns a profitable marketing services business. She is competent, talented and gets remarkable results for her clients with her exceptional creative and administrative team. However, she needs to add a sales person to continue to grow. She wants someone who can take the referrals they get, plus the responses to their own marketing efforts, and turn them into profitable clients.

Should she hire an “experienced” sales person, or promote someone now on her staff?

Some pros to hiring an experienced sales person:

• The person comes with experience, maybe even in your industry, and a contact base that should generate some new business.

• The experienced person can “hit the ground running,” because they already know how to sell.

• The experienced person can bring expertise to the organization, which will help grow business.

Some cons to hiring an experienced sales person:

• The experienced person will cost you more because of their experience.

• Their experience may cause them to avoid profitable segments of your market because of preconceived notions like “They never buy our kind of service.”

• The experienced person might not fit your organization’s culture.

An experienced sales person, particularly one changing industries, may have developed habits or attitudes that are inappropriate and unproductive. Rarely will a top producer be let go, unless their additional sales volume is not worth the cost of keeping them in the organization.

Why not offer someone in your existing team the opportunity to grow into a sales position, and ultimately into your Vice President of Sales?

This has advantages:

• The new sales person is a known producer and respected by your team.

• S/he knows and likes your culture, and works well with your team.

• This person will cost less. They can continue at their existing salary, looking forward to bonuses or commissions to increase their income as the sales come in.

• Sometimes they can help train their replacement as part of the package.

But there are some disadvantages to this approach:

• The other staff might not support the change due to jealousy or fear of additional work for them.

• The person you move into selling might not be prepared for the unique pressures of the sales profession, or

• S/he might have a negative view of the sales profession which has not been communicated to you.

• You may have some significant difficulty finding a competent replacement.

One key to success when promoting from within, is to watch your people carefully to see who really cares about understanding client needs before trying to provide services. Professional selling is about uncovering needs and, if you can help, showing how your service or product meets those needs.

Building People to Build Business

J. Mark Walker

In a previous blog post we talked about the pros and cons of offering an existing staff member a promotion into sales rather than hiring an experienced sales person.

When I left the military service, I wanted to be in sales. I went to an office park and literally “knocked on doors” to see if anyone wanted to hire a sales person. Someone did—a distributor of packaging supplies.

I became their fist “sales trainee” in their brand new one-year training program.

The first three months I was assigned to the warehouse, loading and unloading trucks and filling orders. The next nine months I went to “office manager,” which was a combination of inside sales, purchasing and supervising the receptionist. The guy in that job, Pete, was promoted to outside sales. My new job was great training for the business, but after about five weeks, I did not know how I was going to make it for nine months. I liked the business, but I hated those four walls!

Suddenly I learned that Pete was in trouble. Pete had never been trained as a sales person. He was great at helping people over the phone, but he was so nervous about going to see people, that he was throwing up every morning.

With his permission I went to the VP and said, “Put me in Coach!”

So I went outside, and Pete came back in. Pete thrived and retired from that company doing essentially the office manager job. I moved on to other industries, but have been in outside sales ever since.

What can be done with an internal promotion in a small company to insure a non-sales person promoted from within succeeds?

• Take the sales position candidate on sales calls for several days, and let him/her try to handle some calls on his/her own.

• Choose a person who understands to not take “rejection” personally; that a “no” is about the offering, not about them.

• Choose a person with an “I am here to help you” attitude. This is hard to “teach,” even to someone who is competent technically.

• Choose someone who is open to learning new things, a necessity in sales.

 Put your new sales person through a training program teaching “customer –needs focused selling,” teaching them:

1.)  That selling is doing things for and with people, not “to them.”

2.) How to interview to find out needs, before presenting a proposal.

3.) How do deal with different types of buyer behavior styles.

4.) How to get the prospect involved in the demonstration of the product at proposal or demonstration time.

5.) That pressure to buy is not exerted by the sales person.

6.) How to “ask for the order” at the correct time.

When you select a good person, proper training is the key to insuring your home-grown sales person hits home runs for your business, and for their long term growth.

Building People to Build Business

J. Mark Walker

I have a favorite question that I build into most of my initial sales interviews with prospective clients.

“What do your best people do that you wish everyone would do?”

In the last two weeks two sales executives have answered, “Build relationships.”

What are some of the ways that I and others use to build relationships?

• Develop trust with people by showing genuine interest in them.

• Responding to prospect or customer requests promptly is a relationship builder.

• Look for ways to let customers know you are thinking about the needs they revealed to you.

• Follow up promptly with commitments you have made or problems a customer has told you about.

• Avoid obviously self-serving contacts. Make contacts about them and their business.

• Be interested in their needs. Ask lots of “how, who, what, when and where” questions that can’t be answered with a word, but with information.

• Talk about your products or services only as solutions to needs they have agreed they are looking to resolve.

A colleague in Nashville, TN, Harriet Butler, is a master at relationship building. She is uses voice mail after hours to leave short messages letting a client know she is working on something in which they expressed interest.

These little messages often take less than a minute, including the dial time, and they help build trust because she is thinking about them and their business needs.

Building People to Build Business

J. Mark Walker

I look for ways that I can save the client money when they make commitments to larger purchases.

I sell training sales and customer service training programs. A few years ago I saved client thousands of dollars over a three year period by asking, “How many people do you think will be going through this program in the next 12 months?”

When they told me, the number was significantly more than needed to get them into our highest discount bracket. I simply asked for a letter of commitment stating their expectations, and my boss extended the highest discount immediately to this valued client.

You can also offer to do “leg work” for a client.

I used my schedule flexibility when working with a large client to travel all around the state giving executive and supervisory overviews. These helped the client achieve their training goals at virtually no additional cost to them, and I got to know their people all over the state.

Perhaps the best question you can ask yourself to develop trust relationships is, “What would I want me to do if I was this customer?” Then figure out a way to do it.

Whether you are selling, or serving after the sale, these ideas can be relationship builders for you!

Building People to Build Business

J. Mark Walker

When my oldest son was a teenager, he had a hard time meeting his Saturday night curfew time. Whenever I asked, “Why can’t you get home on time?” he was put on the defensive. An argument usually resulted.

When interviewing a customer or a prospect to find out what they want or need, a “why” question is used to get more information—to delve more deeply so you can learn all you can.

But it can also put another person unnecessarily on the defensive. This is especially true if the question is perceived as manipulative by the other person.

“Why are you buying from them?” or “Why do you set the spec up this way?” or “Why didn’t you call me for a quote?” are questions that might be perceived as trying to get the other person to “admit to something.”

Why questions are better for getting opinions or information about a third party or a situation. “Why do you think that is seen as a problem?” asked after your prospect has told you about a problem, can help you get information about the root cause.

“Why is xyz material specified rather than the more common abc material?” is asking for clarification.

“Why do you think that happens?” is asking for an opinion.

When “peeling back the onion” with a prospect try substituting the phrase, “Tell me…” for the word, “why.”

If the prospect says, “The engineering department thinks that material will be a problem,” you can say, “Tell me more about that,” instead of “Why do they think that?”

Rather than asking, “Why didn’t you call me for a quote,” you could say, “Please tell me what I need to do to insure that my company is always asked to submit a bid when you make a purchase.”

It is important to find out why, and to keep asking “why-type” questions until you are satisfied that the real answer is on the table. However, the word “why” does not have to be used to draw out that information.

Building People to Build Business

J. Mark Walker

This is really not about cars. It is about listening.

Let me tell you about the time my friend, Dave, saved almost 25% on a new car. This happened in the early 1970’s, when you could buy a new full sized car for about $5,000.

Dave was the kind of guy who bought a new car and drove it until it died 10 or 15 years later. His wife needed a big, safe car to haul around their two small sons, so at the end of the model year, Dave made the rounds of the dealers to find a “deal” on last year’s model.

He was disappointed at the small discounts. The best deal he could find was about $4,300 dollars.

Finally he stopped at a dealer whose salesperson said, “You are in luck. There was a new full-sized sedan on the truck that came in today, and it is last year’s model. We don’t know how it got there. The price is $3,500.”

Dave exclaimed incredulously, “$3,500?” He was surprised that the price was so much lower than other quotes he’d received.

The sales person, however, took his exclamation as a sign of displeasure with a price that was too high. So the sales person said, “Okay, okay. I’ll throw in the undercoating for free.” That was worth another $350!

So good ole’ Dave got a great deal on a brand new car.

Instead of commenting on what the sales person said, he simply repeated part of the price quote as a question. In Dave’s case this was an involuntary exclamation of surprise, but it was interpreted as a form of clarification.

Unconsciously, Dave used a form of “active listening.”

When you use active listening in your selling interviews, you give customers a chance to further explain what they mean, and help you understand whether you have a solution for them.

Sell More — Serve Better

J. Mark Walker

We teach four basic active listening skills in our programs. Here’s a quick summary:

1.) Content.

Choose a word or phrase from what the speaker said and repeat it in the form of a question, which encourages the speaker to continue.

Example: “He drove too fast and wrecked the car.” Content response: “He wrecked the car?” (In a previous blog post I told about how my friend, Dave, inadvertently used the “content response” to save money on a new car.)

2.) Feeling.

Tell the person what you think they are feeling based on the emotion you hear in their voice.

Example: “He drove too fast and wrecked the car!” Feeling response: “You must have really been scared!”

3.) Conversational.

Use a word or gesture that indicates that you are listening. Phrases like, “I see,” “My goodness,” “Wow,” “Uh huh,” and “Really?” are conversational. Example: He drove to fast and wrecked the car!” Conversation response, “Oh, no!”

Nodding your head as the speaker talks is also a form of conversational listening.

4.) Mirror.

Just repeat exactly what the speaker said, word for word, as a question.

Example: “He drove to fast and wrecked the car!” Mirror response: “He drove too fast and wrecked the car?” Of course, use this response infrequently and with care, or the speaker will get the feeling you’re mocking him or her.

Having an effective conversation is usually about listening, not offering advice. In selling this means we can often do a better job by using active listening to help people clarify their thinking. Then we will know if we have a solution that will meet their need.

One important point: These techniques must be used sincerely, with a genuine interest in helping the customer clarify their thinking, or give you needed information. If any of them are used in an attempt to manipulate people, they will see through you, and you will loose credibility.

Sell More — Serve Better

J. Mark Walker

In an earlier blog post I talked about active listening techniques, one of which was “conversational listening.”

Using body language is a form of conversational listening. Some of the ways you encourage people to talk are by:

Looking them in the eye. Literally in one eye, because you cannot look into both of their eyes at the same time.

Caution: Some cultures view such directness as an insult, so this is usually reserved for Western cultures.

Sitting up straight.

Taking notes, when appropriate. (Remember, you are not taking dictation, so every word is not important.)

Leaning forward slightly, indicating interest.

Cocking your head slightly as they talk.

Smiling, when and if appropriate.

Earlier I mentioned nodding your head, without speaking, as a way of saying, “I understand, please continue.”

One of my first sales managers, Russ, told me a way he used to draw more information out of a prospect without saying a word.

When the prospect would tell him something and he wanted a further explanation, Russ would look directly at the person with an expectant look on his face and think to himself, “Go on…” When he did that, his head moved in an almost imperceptible, positive nod, and the prospect would invariably continue talking, helping to clarify the situation.

Try it. It works.

Sell More — Serve Better

J. Mark Walker

Many years ago I worked for a small manufacturing company. As one of four regional managers, I was invited to Northern New Jersey once each quarter to meet with our Vice President of Sales for a five-day “Sales Meeting.” We really had a good time eating at our favorite restaurants in the area, but we all HATED those meetings!

We were never sure just why we were called in for a full week, four times a year. These meetings consisted of hours of boring discussions without meaningful decisions, bull sessions about sports teams or favorite cars and where we would have lunch. These hours were punctuated by moments of interesting discussions with engineering, marketing and manufacturing, which helped us feel a part of something larger than ourselves.

Here is what I observed about how not to conduct a sales meeting:

1. No advanced agenda.

We were often unable to contribute effectively to a particular discussion because we did not know the subjects in advance. Lack of preparation resulted in frustration and poor decision-making.

2. Failure to adhere to the established agenda.

The first morning of each quarterly event we were presented with the week’s agenda. We rarely stuck to those topics, and often got behind. At least two of the five days were wasted.

3. Avoiding the “elephant in the room.”

Sales were flat for four of the five years I was part of this group. While we discussed ways to increase sales (of course!), the “elephant” of our antiquated technology and poor market positioning was ignored.

4. Lack of a marketing and sales plan.

I do not remember any cohesive marketing programs or plans of action which would increase our market share or customer awareness. It was difficult to generate excitement in the field.

5. No business fun.

We had four talented, capable managers, who wanted to succeed and make money. There was no “motivational speaker” or trainer or consultant brought in to help us grow personally, to get outside our habits and look for innovative ways to grow our business.

6. No follow up from the top.

The CEO and the VP of Sales were great people. We became friends. But they had no action plans to work with us in the field to identify markets, build distribution or increase OEM sales. We may or may not see them in the field between quarterly meetings.

From these experiences I have three recommendations for effective sales meetings:

1. Identify and promote a specific and definite objective for each meeting.

2. Keep it short and stick to business. Generate excitement to make the meeting personally rewarding and business profitable.

3. Follow up with executive presence in the field to reinforce the initiatives or the plans decided in the meetings.

Field managers need to be accountable and feel supported.

Sell More — Serve Better

J. Mark Walker

My first selling job was for a jobber who stocked boxes and packing supplies and sold them to small manufacturing and distribution companies in our city. We based our value proposition on our variety of products and next day delivery.

One day an engineer named Jeff called me to ask if we could make a special container for some cylinders he was using in a project. He wanted a relatively inexpensive way to store these cylinders that was light weight and would cushion them from each other. He thought corrugated paperboard would be an excellent material. As we discussed his application he asked, “How thick is the corrugated material?” “About an eighth of an inch,” I replied. Then I went back and measured it with my office ruler, and it looked like about an eighth.

So, using one eighth inch as his gauge, he computed his container size, and gave me all the dimensions. I ordered his “egg crate” container, custom made and very expensive (for a box).

The day after this custom made container was delivered; Jeff called me on the phone, fit to be tied. “What’s the problem, Jeff?” I asked. “I thought you told me this cardboard was an eighth of an inch thick,” he said forcefully. “Well, yes,” I replied.

Jeff said, “It’s not! It’s seven sixty fourths of an inch think! And these cylinders are loose in their compartments. They are not snug like I want.” I was speechless.

That was my first introduction to something called “behavior style.”

Jeff was a “controller” personality style. He loved details and specifications. He was a design engineer, and he loved the preciseness of that work. When a guy like Jeff asks, “How thick?” he means “EXACTLY how thick is it?” He expects you to use a micrometer.

I am a “talker” personality style. Exact is not in my vocabulary. When he said, “How thick?” I heard, “About how thick.” My answer was “About one eighth of an inch.” I just guessed, and confirmed it with my ruler. When I told Jeff “about an eighth,” he heard, “Exactly an eighth.” Well we fixed the problem for Jeff, but I learned a valuable lesson. People don’t all see things the same way I do.

If you are in a profession like sales, where you must communicate effectively with others, learn about the major behavior styles and how you need to adjust to be effective at working with them.


Sell More — Serve Better

J. Mark Walker

“Leading” a sales team is more like coaching little league than it is like “managing” a department.

Top sales people crave “coaching!” They resist “management!”

Recently I met with a young sales executive. He inherited a sales organization of about 15 people, in a technical industry. They are in a rebuilding mode with new corporate initiatives. As we shared breakfast and talked, I asked him about his management style.

He made several excellent points:

• He recognizes that everyone is not a super star, but that each one has value.

• Regardless of his opinion of the person, he gives them all the same opportunity to succeed by providing the training and the infrastructure.

• He does not micro-manage. This attracts potential super stars.

• He looks at results and the activities that he knows will lead to those results to determine how a person is progressing.

• He teaches that their first job is to find out what the prospective customer needs, and then get their products specified, if possible.

I predict that this young man will soon lead a much larger organization, making more money and enjoying higher levels of personal gratification.

Here is why:

• He is a “people builder.” Rather than “beating them up,” he encourages them.

• He is customer needs focused in his philosophy, his training, and his work in the field.

• He focuses on results first, not just activity. He knows that any sales person can look busy – can learn to “play the activity game."

• He trusts people to go out and do their jobs. If they prove untrustworthy, he can decide whether training them can solve the problem, or whether they need to be doing something else.

After more than 40 years in sales, I have concluded that the most successful sales managers don’t just “manage.” They lead and coach!

Think about a person in your past who was influential in your personal and professional growth.

While the personalities will almost always be different, if we could all meet and compare notes we would see some common characteristics, such as:

• He saw more in me than I saw in myself.

• She helped me understand that I was growing to become the person I want to be.

• He would not let me goof off, but forced me to think through the situation and confront the client tactfully with the truth.

• He helped me understand how to set and achieve both personal and business goals.

• She patted me on the back when I did something right.

• He traveled with me and coached me after every call. I learned what to do right by doing it right.

Lead your sales organization by showing the way.

Sell More — Serve Better

J. Mark Walker

You are at a networking event and meet a new person. She says, “My name is Courtney Langmire. I’m in the computer software business.” You introduce yourself and talk a moment or two about mutual interests or your respective businesses.

After three minutes you are standing there, looking at this attractive person and you have no clue what her name is. Why is that?

You go to a second meeting with a prospective account. With you is your file and your summary of notes from the last meeting. No one else in the room seems to remember where the discussion left off last time. You bring the discussion around to the important issues that must be resolved today, and the meeting is a big success. Why is that?

Both of these scenarios are the result of habit, a type of unconscious behavior. Habits, however, can be changed! Some of us have learned the habit of forgetting names quickly. Some of us have developed the habit of taking notes in important meetings, and summarizing them for ourselves afterward. This enables us to make the best use of our time in any follow up activities and in preparation for the next time we meet.

Someone once said, “Habits are like cork or like lead: they either lift us up or drag us down.”

I try to develop habits that lift me up. Here’s why. Habits help me be automatically effective!

We can harness the power of habit by making processes routine. When we decide that we must learn to remember names, we first must decide it is important and worth changing to a new habit. Then we decide what the process for remembering names will be, and decide to start doing that at every opportunity.

Do not underestimate the power of establishing a process like this. It is like the power of the exponential curve: “consistency over time, leads to explosive growth.”

When you are trying to develop a new habit, it feels uncomfortable and you must stop and think about it. Often after about three or four days you give up. However, psychologists tell us that 7 to 21 days of regular practice will make a new habit displace an old one. The operative word here is regular! To gain the benefit of a new habit you must persist! Learn to take advantage of the exponential curve in forming a new habit. It will make you more effective in your work, and happier in your life.

 
Sell More — Serve Better

J. Mark Walker