Friendship Through Business

The best type of relationship in sales..........is a friendship.  Master of the obvious, I know.  But, I can't stress the impact this has.  Not only on business and success, but on the overall pleasure of your job.  In sales you meet tons of people, thats your job.  The hope is to build a repor, and ultimately trust.  But when it turns into a true, genuine friendship.........it stops being work.  Sure, you still need to work to service, honor, and live up to the trust that you've earned.  But things change as you visit, share, laugh, and care as friends do.

These friendships don't come around everyday, and should be treasured when they do.  To me, these friendships are the most gratifying part of sales.  Yes, the most gratifying.  Not every profession allows you the opportunity to meet people from all over and build friendships through business.

**  Facetime on the Iphone is one of the many technological advances that has greatly improved my life, as seeing the family face to face while traveling is priceless.

What's More Important than Sales?

There are not many days that go by that I don't think about sales, in some form or fashion, at some point during the day.  Whether it's specific to opportunties that I'm working on, what I have in the upcoming days, or what I can be doing to get better.  And, you won't find many posts on this blog that are non-sales related.

Family..........that's what's more important than sales.  And sometimes for a stubborn guy like me it takes something excessive to slap me in the face and open my eyes to this.  Earlier this week my 6-year old son was admitted into the hospital.  And for a day or so, it was fairly serious.  Wow!!  An eye opener.  Suddenly, work didn't matter, sales didn't matter, nothing mattered..........except for him.  It was a true stop-down, shut everything off, pray, and love.  There was nothing else.

Times like these bring you back to reality.  It exposes the lack of control to a control freak like me.  Helpless, with nothing but faith and doctors to rely on.  My family is so blessed to have the friends and support system to pull us through times like that, we were overwhelmed by the blessings.

Thank you to everyone for the prayers.  Jack is back to being Jack, happy, healthy and 100 miles per hour.

**  Airport celebrity spotting of the day:  Calvin Hill (again) and Joe Buck.

A Sales No-No

I witnessed an unbelievable sales blunder today.  We're talking a career killer.  An established supplier moves an existing account rep into a new territory.  The new account rep walks into the office of one of the top clients in the territory and proceeds to explain how they will and won't do business, how he is an extremely busy guy, and that he may or may not be able to respond to requests within 24 hours.

Hmmm.  This one is almost not worth writing about, but it makes me think that if this guy believes that is OK......other people may think this is OK?  Surely not.

I've written about this time and time again, but we must remember that the hardest part of our job should always be:  finding a client who has a need for our product, that can afford our product, and that is willing to spend the money for our product.........period.  Earning their trust and finding a way to help them purchase our product is the easy part.........for any salesperson. 

Nobody wants to hear how busy we are, how hard our job is, or how you need them to do business.  They only want to hear what you are able to do to make their life easier.

**  Einstein Bros free wifi is terrible.  Tried to work on it for an hour, and it kicked me off every 10 minutes.  Nice effort, and I like the food..........but going to have to do better to turn into an office spot for me.

Strength of a Team

I talk a lot about team, I know it gets redundant.  But, I feel that strongly about it.  Perhaps it's because I played team sports my entire life?  Perhaps it's because I recognized that I'm stronger with others than I am alone?  Perhaps I need the camaraderie?  I'm not real sure why exactly, but I can't imagine that this will ever change.

I do realize that not everybody values or understands the dynamics of teamwork equally.  I sometimes take for granted that everyone feels the same that I do, but I come to realization sooner or later.  We are stronger as a team.  I am stronger with you, and you with me.  We can accomplish more, touch more, satisfy more, overachieve more, deliver more, and ultimately...........sell more.  The key is to learn how to utilize each other efficiently.  Recognize how our strengths and weaknesses can be used in tandem.  Identify our roles, and never, never, never........take them for granted.

The minute that you begin working towards your own personal agenda, rather than the teams.........we lose.  The minute you forget that that I'm working for the betterment of the team.......we lose.  The minute that any team member doubts one's intention..........we lose.  When the team is put before the individuals........all of the members win in the end.  I have to take pride and root for your success, as if it's my own.  A team like this is very difficult to beat.

In sports one team will always thrive in a scenario where teammates on the opposing team begin fighting amongst themselves.  Teams that don't root for each other are at a heavy disadvantage.  I know I'm getting into an area of many cliche's.  But, a team of solid role players rooting for each other will almost always beat a team of individuals rooting for themselves.  We win, we lose, we celebrate, and we persevere together.

**  Now that the Mavs are done (CHAMPS!!) I can get back on my normal sleeping schedule.  I have been amazed at how different I've felt the past 3 weeks with losing 1-2 hours of sleep a few times a week.  Already feeling better...........

The Natural

We all know the many characteristics that make a good sales person.  You don't have to be a natural in all of these characteristics to be successful.  You can learn and improve on some weaknesses, and hide other weaknesses by overcoming with your strengths.  The key is desire.  Without desire, your natural abilities don't matter.............and I would also say that with desire, your natural weaknesses don't matter.

Obviously sales people with more natural ability and desire have a shorter path to success than the rest.  You know these people when you come across them, and I love to observe them as often as I can.  These people don't have a choice of profession, they will always be in sales because that's what they're drawn to.  People love to buy from them, and they are always selling whether they know it or not.  They don't have to sell to make a living, they sell because they enjoy it and it comes very easy.

I'm always looking at salesmanship.  What do they do that I can learn from?  What can they change that would help them significantly?  How is the client responding?  How would I be responding if I were the client?  It's fun to watch.

**  I was running through a grocery store in Council Bluffs, IA yesterday when an elderly man waved me down to ask how to use the item in his hand............an onion cooker.  What the?  I have no idea, but tried to figure it out for him .  I was laughing because out of all the people in the store to ask, he chose the guy sprinting with a laptop in his hands running late (long story, but I needed wifi).

No Love Lost

Every now and then, it's brought to my attention that an account (buyer, dealer, distributor, whatever) simply doesn't like a sales rep.  I don't mean doesn't like them like they wouldn't choose to hang out with them on the weekends.  I mean doesn't like them as in would prefer to never have contact with them again.  This type of dislike is not brought to my attention very often, but it is every now and then.  Luckily it's most often brought to my attention as a rep from a different company, but I can't say that I'm completely immune to being in the middle of it.

When it does come up, it always crosses my mind that there are two sides to every story.  What is the reps defense, and was there a misunderstanding along the way?  But, in the end, it doesn't matter.  It is a sales reps job to build enough trust and repor with clients that they will want to buy from them.  The sales rep should adjust to the client, not visa versa.  If they make a mistake, mending the broken trust should become Mission #1 in life.  Mistakes, mis-judgements, bad decisions, misunderstandings.............they all happen.  But with the right approach and care, nothing is irrepairable.

If it's a personality clash, well that's where I come in.  The initiative of this post is totally unrelated to the initiative of yesterdays post "The Square Peg"...........but the correlation is there.  If it's a personality clash that can't be overcome, then the team member is in the wrong role.

**  I think I was meant to live on California time.  Phone starts ringing at 4:30am, slows down by 3:30pm, all televised sporting events are complete by 9pm.  Perfect.

The Square Peg

When a sales team is formed, each person is tasked with a specific role.  Often times, you have a need, and you find the best person available to add to your team.  But too often, we place that person in the role in which we have a need, rather than in a role in which their person is best suited.  It's similar to the common dilemna that takes place for NFL owners on draft day.  Do you draft for position needs, or do you draft the best available.  I'm a fan of drafting the best available with the hopes of obtaining a superstar.........and often times that's the direction NFL owners go.  But, if the team needs a quarterback, and the best available is a running back...........you don't then try to fit the running back into the quarterback position.  Why do we think we can do that in sales?

If you hire the best available, and they don't fit the mold of the exact need you have, you're the one that needs to adjust..........not them.  If you try to fit the so called square peg into a round hole, you only set them up for failure.........yet you're the one that failed, not them.  I'm guilty of this, of course like anyone I don't recognize my own short-comings as quickly as I recognize it from others.  I still believe in hiring the best available, as a superstar is a superstar, and I'd rather them be a superstar on my team.  If you can't adjust the team accordingly, then you should pass on the superstar and recruit based on your needs.  Find a role player that can fit the role you're looking for, and you will put your team in a better position for success.  Easier said than done, I know. 

**  For all you mavs fans - TAKE DAT WIT CHEWWWW......................

Quick Turnaround

There are many opportunities in sales to keep momentum moving in your favor.  Many ways to increase your chances of getting the business.  Obvious ways such as best product, best price, best relationship.  Controllable factors such as presentation, appearance, and follow-up.  Luck such as good timing.

In many cases the best way to keep the momentum is quick turnaround.  This is an extension of follow-up, but contains substance that can close the business or move it on to the next step.  At the conclusion of any successful meeting, there will always be something that you owe the client to move forward.  Hopefully, it's a contract proposal.  The quicker you get this in the hands of the client, the better your chances are of moving into the drivers seat for the business.

Today I met with a client around lunch time.  He's very urgent to get moving, and asked when we could get a proposal to him.  I answered "by lunch time tomorrow" and he was surprised and excited about my eagerness to help keep his project moving.  The stars and moons aligned, and we were able to get a proposal in his hands before the end of business today.  It's too soon to know if we're going to get the business or not, but based on our response I've got to believe that we're in a good position.

We spend our time analyzing the controllable factors in sales, we strictly evaluate the intagible traits of our sales force, and we game plan for new markets in which we can develop.  But we often forget the low hanging fruit of increasing sales..............do a better job with the opportunities which lie in front of us.  We take short cuts and rush through the deliverable busy work.  I know that if we all just execute more efficiently, and a produce with higher quality...........success will follow.

**  cheap italian food + cheap glass of wine = idontfeelsogood