Accentuate the Positive

Accentuate the Positive

If you've noticed the economy is less than ideal, you're paying attention. You may have also noticed that salespeople have responded differently to the challenge. Here's how one successful manager is doing her part to keep her staff and herself motivated to succeed with their selling challenges.

Your attitude sells. In today's bad economy it's easy to hear doom and gloom. It's also easy to keep passing it along in the conversations you have with your customers. It's also too easy to keep focusing on negatives when you sell. Another approach is to choose to look at a situation from a positive point of view.

Jill Almaguer is the District Sales Manager for Wireless Equipment Manufacturers for Agilent Technologies (http://www.agilent.com/). Her team was trying to sell to a past customer who happened to be very interested in Agilent's competition. Agilent's competition had an advantage. The customer was giving Agilent's competition more time than Agilent to be considered. Instead of approaching the customer with a negative attitude, Mrs. Almaguer coached her staff to look at the positive. Instead of complaining about the unfair advantage that their competition had, Ms. Almaguer asked her staff to think of how the customer had benefited from working in the past with Agilent. This was going to be the subject of the sales call. They would focus on the benefits Agilent brought to the customer and ask for another opportunity to work together on the new project. They would emphasize past accomplishments and look to the future to do more.

Her customer will appreciate her strategy. Who wants to hear one more example of what they've been doing wrong? It's stressful for you and your customers when you focus only on the negative outcomes of what you're doing. Instead, take advantage of the opportunities to show them what is working well.

Get rid of more negatives. It's stressful selling in a slow economy. You should not be adding to the stresses. You can eliminate time wasters that reduce your productivity. Mrs. Almaguer notices that she is more productive when she organizes certain tasks together. She says, "I try to return my calls in one block of time. I also block out time for my e-mail. I read and reply at once and I notice it saves me time rather than reading a few e-mails and going back later." Think of the activities you're doing throughout the day and see if you could save time by working them in a block of time.

Also examine what is taking up most of your free time. If it's television, ask yourself if the time investment is paying you returns. If you need to catch the news, ask yourself if you can get it in your car to and from work or from a newspaper? If you set some goals on how you want to spend your time, you may avoid getting into the traps of some of the time wasters. By making the time for what you want to do, you'll have less time to fill with empty activities like television. Goals can also serve as a source of motivation during difficult times.

This isn't the first time we've had slow times and it won't be the last. As a salesperson it's your job to keep your customer focused on their performance in the future. What better time is it than now for them to buy your products or services? When the economy quickly rebounds, as it often does, you can make sure your customers are ready to keep up the pace.

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Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling (http://www.bestatselling.com/). She works with business and sales professionals at company and trade association meetings to make selling easier and more productive. She is the author of the book Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results. She can be reached at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com.

A Push in the Right Direction

There's one type of customer that many salespeople lack on their target lists. Salespeople can work so hard at selling that they forget about creating this unique sales relationship. It's a proven method for accelerating career success. The impact to the bottom line is huge. Statistics show the investment in this relationship returns the company's investment at a ratio of 6:1. If you guessed the mentoring relationship does this, you're right. Here's how you can incorporate mentoring into your selling success.

What is mentoring today? Menttium Corp. is a nationwide mentoring company that matches mentors with mentees. The need for formalized mentoring came when the company founder, Ms. Gayle Holmes, identified the characteristics of successful people. She found they had access to continuing education, had a support system and had a mentor or mentors. Ms. Homes recognized that many companies lacked a formal process for mentoring. That's when she established her company with its mission to facilitate mentoring. Mentoring is a sustained relationship between more experienced and less experienced people. The mentoring relationship is based on reciprocal knowledge sharing. It's a mental investment rather than a financial one. Ms. Brenda Bonin, a director with Menttium, points out that with mentoring today the mentee drives the relationship.

Where are mentors? To find a mentor, the mentee first needs to do a critical self-analysis and identify specifically what skills are needed for career development. Saying you want to learn more about business is too vague. Identifying a need for more negotiation skills is more specific and on target. Other skills could be to learn how to 'manage up' and do a better job of promoting oneself while maintaining humility. Ms. Bonin points out that it is better to look for mentors who are one step away from people you know. She says, "Look for mentors in different industries and functions so you can ensure they have a different perspective from yours."

The job description. The job description for a mentor is to be a good listener, be honest, and be committed to the process. This means making time for regular meetings. Ms. Bonin adds, "Mentors need not have all the answers, they should be able to ask a lot of questions which guide the mentee." While the mentee sets the agenda and follows up, the relationship can develop into different ways of working together. Some mentors and mentees read books together and discuss points to implement. Other mentors have their mentee 'shadow' them so they show their mentee what to do rather than tell them.

It may appear that the mentee is the one who receives all the value of the relationship. Ms. Bonin reports that it truly is a benefit to both parties. Many mentors are at such a high level they lack the day-to-day contact that keeps them in touch with their true customers. Their mentees have this access and provide the information. Seeing the joy of helping someone develop new skills is especially satisfying to many mentors.

Both skills and strategies are key to drive salespeople's success. You can work on them by yourselves, but working alone makes it hard to have all the answers in the areas you need. You need customers for your sales success. If you have a mentor for a customer, you can almost guarantee your career success.

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Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling (http://www.bestatselling.com/). She works with business and sales professionals at company and trade association meetings to make selling easier and more productive. She is the author of the book Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results. She can be reached at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com.

Chili, Steak and Ale

Chili, Steak and Ale

What do chili, steak and ale have in common? When Norman Brinker takes an interest they all get much, much better. Norman Brinker, currently the Chairman of the Board of Brinker International, once was one of the highest paid food industry executives when he was President of the Pillsbury Restaurant Group. He risked it all to see if his successful management principles for large businesses applied to a small business. In 1983 he bought the small Chili's restaurant chain (28 restaurants) and turned it into a $2.3 billion international business. This included eight additional chains employing 99,000 people. His management principles were an overwhelming success at a small business. They're also great principles to apply to selling.

Surround yourself with people who know more than you do. Brinker attributed his success to knowing what he didn't know. He then chose to work with people who were knowledgeable in areas where he lacked expertise. He surrounded himself with those types of people. His comment about the staff he chose supports this principle. He says, "Sinners can repent, stupidity is forever."

In selling we've got to keep learning about business, our products and our customers. We can choose to surround ourselves with people who can add to our education or diminish our progress. We can look to salespeople and others who know more than we do and ask for their input on our selling strategies. Listen to the customers you admire who describe what worked for them and also what procedures were less successful. By looking to someone smarter, we can increase our probability of success in selling. Selling is challenging enough. Let's make it easier by surrounding ourselves with smarter people and learning from them. We can learn from their successes and failures. Groucho Marx was right when he said, "We can learn from the mistakes of others. We don't have time to make them all ourselves."

Take risks. Brinker recommends taking risks, but not wild ones. He described his business career which started at Jack in the Box. He left to start Steak and Ale in 1965 and also developed the Bennigan's restaurant concept. He then renamed his company S&A Restaurant Corp. and merged it with Pillsbury. He became an executive with Pillsbury and was one of the industry's highest paid executive. His decision to leave Pillsbury was risky. He wanted to see if his management principles would work in a smaller business. In order to buy Chili's he would have to sign a $12 million note. He did. Of course he would be able to tap into his years of experience, contacts and skills he had acquired.

In sales we can take risks by creating new ideas for our customers' businesses, trying new sales techniques or doing something different than we've always done. Some of our ideas will succeed and some will fail. With our experience and skill behind us more of our ideas will succeed than fail. Our customers will appreciate the input and we will become more valuable to them. It might even make selling better for us. When Brinker took the risk of leaving and discussed his resignation with Pillsbury's CEO after deciding to go to Chili's he heard, "Norman, how come you always get to have the fun?"

Find out what your customers think. How do you know what your customers think about your products and services? Brinker would stand outside his restaurants and talk with his customers. He might say, "What kind of joint is this?" Or he'd ask a customer, "How's the value of this restaurant? I don't have a big budget." He never had a clipboard. He talked with his customers, listened and got honest feedback. He was more successful in the smaller towns of Texas. When he was in Dallas some of his customers would say, "Well Norman, why do you want to know?"

You may think Norman Brinker has done it all. He was asked what he'd do differently in his life if he could. He responded, "I'd do more." That's another principle for selling. He made a wonderful difference in so many people's lives and knew he had so much more to do. What a great salesman.

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Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling (http://www.bestatselling.com/). She works with business and sales professionals at company and trade association meetings to make selling easier and more productive. She is the author of the book Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results. She can be reached at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com.

Choosing Customers or Money

When an entrepreneur makes a sales call to a potential investor, what results can be either the beginning of a company or sometimes the end of one. The goal for the meeting is to persuade the investor that an investment in the entrepreneur's company is worth the risk. With the amount of money at stake and the meeting's intended purpose, a successful entrepreneur has to sell with a focus and vision that gets results. Salespeople can learn to apply the entrepreneur's methods to their sales strategies.

What's your point? I've heard investors say that entrepreneurs should be able to write their concept on the back of a business card. That's how clear they have to make the idea and how concisely they have to be able to communicate it. When asked about their business, successful entrepreneurs can say in 30 seconds, 2 minutes, or 5 minutes the essence of their business idea. Depending on how much time they have, they're ready to pitch their idea. They have thoroughly thought through their product, process and business in advance. They are prepared for any presentation format. They can present their idea simply and clearly in various time frames and adapt to all of them.

When you present a new product, a complex idea or a technical product to a customer, have you clearly thought through how you are going to explain your concept to your customer? Would your customer quickly and clearly understand what you are presenting? You may talk to prospects on the telephone. You are doing well if your customers ask specific questions that relate to your product or idea after you have presented the concept. If they are asking for you to explain before they become engaged in the conversation, your message is unclear. You have more preparation to do.

Have you prepared a presentation that could be delivered in 1 minute, 5 minutes or 15 minutes? With busy and unexpected schedules your planned hour meeting can get cut short. If your selling message is part of the last 30 minutes, you've just lost your selling opportunity.

Are you using your customers? Entrepreneurs will tell you that customers are the best thing to happen for your business and money is the worst. This is because money doesn’t add value to your business. When customers use your products, they provide feedback on whether your product is as good as you think it is. As daily users of your products and services, they see things that you haven't. They will also see your product or service from a perspective that is different than yours. They can recognize the need for new and different applications. Those applications could lead you to new and different customers.

Too often when salespeople find new customers, they are quickly off to look for the next new customer. Your customers are a source of value to you when they provide feedback about how they have used your product or service; how and whether it meets their needs; and what new products they are looking for. If you are moving on to the next new customer before you learn from your existing customer, you are missing the opportunity to extract value from your existing customers.

Entrepreneurs and other sales professionals face many of the same selling challenges. Entrepreneurs' strategies help them achieve their business objectives. Selling like an entrepreneur could be the beginning of many new sources of business for you.

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Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling (http://www.bestatselling.com/). She works with business and sales professionals at company and trade association meetings to make selling easier and more productive. She is the author of the book Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results. She can be reached at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com.