Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Is President Obama a Great Salesman or What?

I'd argue "no." But before I make the case, permit me to point out that this is in no way meant to be a political piece--rather a convenient way to support a few selling principles.

Okay--so we can agree that our president was the beneficiary of eight tough political years experienced by his predecessor, a disenchanted electorate and a remarkable personal ability to inspire people to believe that upon his election, "change" would be not only possible but imminent, and "hope" would be warranted and timely redeemed for better days. It was a spectacular sale! He got elected because virtually every liberal, every voting ethnic, the preponderance of independents and some conservatives, threw Obama's lack of track record and experience to the wind--He said he would change things for the better--and do it now! And America endowed him with its trust.

His "pitch" was about "us," not him or his desire to be president. He wanted to "help" us and our children. He wanted to enfranchise the disenfranchised, and engage antagonists in a spirit of diplomacy. I don't argue that he was, and probably still is, sincere in his attempts to accomplish all of that, and that he is truly other directed...so why has he "lost" so many of us? Perhaps there are less, rather than more folk who now give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's no different than the rest. Would all of his buyers renew if the schedule ended this month?

My view is that among his deficiencies in the core values that separate the everyday from the great sellers, is his ability to collapse time. Now, he's been adversely judged by others by taking on too much and promising, but not delivering ,the goods in time frames of his own declarations. That certainly has been the case with health reform. But today, a major, liberal New York newspaper, in a page 3. editorial, excoriated the president for giving his security people five days to analyze and report back of the "systemic" security failure after the attempted plane bombing in New York last week.

With nothing but business at stake, much less a military threat to U.S. citizens, our group members in a crisis wouldn't even have to be told by our top partner, "Answers in 24 hours, please." If a salesman is to be great, he must collapse time. The more he does in the shortest amount of time, the more he gets to do. The more he gets to do, the more value he is to others. The more value he is to others the more others rely upon his ability to help them. The more the rely upon him, the more they buy.

Great sellers communicate honestly and fearlessly. They don't say they will. They do. "His handshake is his bond." So old. Such a valuable perception. No Spin. No, "What I really meant was..." Just the truth as you see it. Always. We don't forgive politicians who B.S. us. But it is our expectation that they will. That's why, "they're all the same." Obama got elected, because he wasn't going to be the same. He was going to be uncommon, extraordinary. But today, more than 50% of the population isn't so sure that's true. Today, he looks more like a very, very sharp guy who made one or two great sales. Kind of like the guy in the McMansion down the block. Not like the guy you'd bet will exceed his budget next year and the year after that.

Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork

Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation, Training and Speaking
rsherman@pilotgroup.biz
212-486-4446

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Lost and Found

I haven't "lost" a sale in twenty-five years, but there are sales, too many to count, that I haven't "found." Okay, semantics play a part in this, but attitude an even bigger part. Great sellers know that sales is not about winning and losing. It's about bringing abundant expertise, ingenuity, honesty, altruism and hard work to all the "across the desk partners" they can find.

I know that many executives responsible for the hiring of sales representatives, have "competitiveness" up near the top of their check list of desirable, maybe necessary, attributes. That's because they believe that an intolerance for coming in second, or "losing," helps one be a "strong" salesman. "Competitive," "strong," "killer instincts," "winners"are all words and phrases that are commonly used by the average executive to admirably describe sellers. I suppose that's why women, not all that long ago, had a tough time breaking into the sales game (except of course, for telephone sales--back when it was thought that "sweet" personalities were the tickets to success over the wires). It's interesting that today, these same executives, if probed, will at some point express the value of the "nourishing" qualities of women in selling. To them, I think the perfect seller, expressed in animal world imagery, might be a breast feeding lioness shortly after a kill.

When I think about and metric closing ratios, I look for commonalities in the meetings that didn't result in new partnerships. What were we trying to get out of the meeting in the first place? What did we know about the customer's business and marketing landscape before we visited? What questions arose from this research? Did we spend our precious meeting time talking about our features and benefits or rather about what the customer knew, and more important, didn't know, about his problems and opportunities? Did we and the customer ultimately agree that whatever the future brought him, would depend in a material way upon doing some things differently than he is now. Remember,if he is maximizing his every opportunity now, and staying the course, for every minute he does so, 11,943 envious competitors are studying his playbook and devising plays to turn the game around.

In each "sale" that didn't happen, it isn't so much that something was lost. Rather one of two things kept one from being found. The first, and this is always the challenge, the seller never "found" the prospect and so never talked with him. Directories, phone books, newspapers, referrals, eyes and ears, etc. will all present more opportunities to find a sale that we can ever take advantage of. How we spend our time and energy locating these prospects will greatly determine how many we find, and therefore how many we help and how profound is our contribution to them, our companies and ourselves.

The second is, once the prospect was identified did we "find," through frank, provocative and honest hard work together, clues to sensible and actionable plans to grow his business? Not your business, his. The growth of your business is a by-product, not a goal of the newly "found" sale.

Great Selling, and a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve. Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork


Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation and Training
rsherman@pilotgroup.biz
212-486-4446

Friday, December 18, 2009

Check Your Watch. What Time is it?

If it is any time between let's say, 8 A.M. and, oh, 6 P.M. you are, and this doesn't make you a bad person, a typical seller (executive). Hey, please believe me. I write these blogs solely to give you some things to think about with the hope that they will inform and inspire you so that you can rise above the pack, not to insult you.


I'll bet that long restaurant lunches and movie matinee revenues have steadily declined over the past decade and a half, commensurate with the growth of time spent with emailing (outgoing or incoming). I'm not a shrink but have always been interested in, and an observer of, the qualities that separate the average from the uncommon and remarkable performers, whether they be account executives or CEO's.


Clearly, a key discerning factor is the use of time, a commodity in very short supply.


Have you ever heard anyone comment that what they like about selling is that they are not bound to a desk? I'm pretty sure that for most sellers not being bound to a desk means that they are free to roam about, most of the time surely, to generate sales, but also with the ancillary benefit of their activity not being scrutinized by management in real time. "Hey Charlie, free for lunch today? Let's grab a martini at P.J.'s." Or a quick walk with looks over the shoulder to the noon showing of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Back row, corner seat, of course. Ah, the good old days.


Today, reading and writing emails eliminates the queasy after effects of bygone long liquid lunches and the sheepish feeling associated with movie adventures. Today, you sit at your desk, look, and in fact are, busy. The only issue is whether all of the busy computer work is doing anything more than self medicating a lack of direction, work ethic or motivation? Every email you open during the day that is not URGENT, I mean really URGENT, results in under utilization of your most precious commodity...TIME! What about researching customer issues, you ask? What about customer communications? The test is easy. Can these activities be done at night? After dinner? After helping with homework? After the "How was your day" and "What's on your platter for tomorrow dear?" conversations.


You have eight to ten hours a day to initiate contact with people who can benefit from your services. The more you connect with, the more businesses grow, including yours. Most people would agree that the computer has made life much easier to organize and work much more efficient. It can, and will. But it can also be a substitute for a Manhattan or a flick.


And...it's of no consequence to me whether you read Greatsellersgotoheaven at 10 A.M. or 11 P.M. So don't worry about my feelings.


Great Selling!


Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
COLLAPSE TIME
Teamwork



Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation, Training and Speaking
Rsherman@pilotgroup.biz
212-486-4446

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Ann Arbor, MI. No Daily Newspaper. Openings for Great Sellers

After 174 years, The AnnArbor News announced its shutdown today. A skeletal staff will migrate to AnnArbor.com and attempt to migrate the paper's advertisers as well. Early on in my career, I suppose I thought of myself as a broadcast seller. And I think that if a newspaper in my market went out of business back then, it would have fired my adrenalin furnace and sent me into a victory dance. I was about as competitive as it got. It was all about winning and losing.

I hadn't learned yet what remarkable performers always know--it's actually about winning and winning! To be clear, by winning and winning I don't mean "share and share alike" with other selling competitors (in my case other media outlets). No winning and winning is about me and the client I am serving. I work hard to bring to the relationship as much experience, knowledge, creativity, courage and good will as I can muster so that I can be a meaningful factor in the client's growth and success. I've found that with that as my mission, my rewards are incidental but automatic...and it always feels like a win! And if his business does grow, he is the big winner!

So while my concerns are about the client, other media in my platform, or another, are frequently the beneficiaries of my efforts. Huh? It's real simple, if I'm representing a local cable system and I think the client will benefit from a supplemental radio schedule, I recommend it...Heck, I've suggested, when managing one radio station,that a client also use others at the same time to attain the goal we were shooting for. You see, when I sit with a client I presumptively take on the role of his marketing doctor. I'm going to see that his dreams for his business are fulfilled. AND to do that for a local merchant in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as of today, one potential arrow in my quiver is missing. No dance is called for.

Now what about those missing sellers? Okay, I confess that I learned about the AnnArbor News on NPR today. (Look, it's Thursday as I write this. So that's four days this week already, listening to Obama-bashing from Mark, Rush, Joe and Dr. Savage. A few minutes of civility in the car is no sin). A voice cut from a retailer in Ann Arbor caught my attention. He was bemoaning the folding of the newspaper and "didn't know what he was going to do to keep his customers aware of his sales." He wasn't ready to risk DOT COM advertising.

Listen folk, Ann Arbor will offer a very satisfying career to a seller who sits across from a retailer and explains how google, twitter, facebook, the local online newspaper or community events organ, local cable systems, radio stations and diner placemats can help that business grow--and depending upon what stage of development the business is in, any or all of those platforms might make sense. Our extraordinary and uncommon seller and his lust to learn client will figure it out.

How do I know the account will be an avid listener with a lust to learn? Because we've sent an eager to help, honest, well schooled, client focused seller to the meeting.

Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessy
Serve, Don't sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork


Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation, Training and Speaking
rsherman@pilotgroup.biz
212-486-4446

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Who's Got it Better than You?

If anyone, it could be my friend Jackie. I met her in 2003 when I was appointed president of AOL Worldwide Advertising Sales, and she was number two, as I recall, in the promotion department. I've probably been in her company a couple of hundred times since then and I must admit, I did see her without a smile...once. She was actually crying on that occasion. A senior manager publicly berated her, for no sensible reason, and it so took Jackie by surprise that the tears flowed. I think Jackie presumed everyone was at least as nice as she is, so how could that have happened?

My friend is a VP at an important digital agency today, and probably has more "friends" on Facebook than Steve Case, and they are really are, her friends that is. I got a new form email from her last week under the headline, "Jackie's Job Referrals." She had three opportunities listed. I called and asked her what her arrangements were with the headhunters or companies she was recruiting for. "No arrangement, Bob. A lot of folk are out of work and need help, and many are my friends. So I try to put them together with people with job listings."

If Jackie wanted to sell, I could place her in about 11 seconds, probably at one of our companies. It's impossible not to like, and impossible not to trust her. She's very smart, creative, and absolutely selfless.

This executive loves promotion and she comes up with terrific ideas all the time. Her agency clients, her colleagues at the agency and the army of sellers, her army really, love their interaction with her, seek ideas from, and bring ideas to her. Everybody wins when Jackie's involved. She loves, I mean loves her work. And so she's always working. Keeping up with her is no small trick. When on those rare occasions she calls for help (perhaps a charitable interest for which she needs some support) you wind up grateful for the opportunity to demonstrate your appreciation for her.

I'm sure that Jackie makes a good living and before she is done will have made an extraordinary living. And that will happen naturally as a result of her commitment to the success of others. She loves her work because she loves helping people and has several constituencies she can practice that love on in her line of work.

If you are where you are today, because you've sacrificed satisfaction, and measure your degree of success solely by your paycheck, regardless of its size, Jackie has it better than you, and consequently does her job, better than you do yours.

It's not too late. Take a deep breath and go find something you can love!

Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork

Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation, Training and Speaking
rsherman@pilotgroup.biz
212-486-4446

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Giants vs. Tall Midgets

2010 will separate real giants from tall midgets. Sellers and their managers quietly engaged in conspiracies of "relative performance" during 2009 (a strategy honed to perfection by fund PR agents). "Sure we were off 16% from 2008 but, my gosh, the industry was off 27%. Comparatively speaking, our performance was pretty good." That was a reasonably useful internal positioning tactic for a year that saw very few companies and their revenue producers declare or receive outsize dividends and bonuses (Wall St., of course, the exception). And more often than any time in memory, have phrases such as "that's a little like being the tallest midget in the circus" followed such self-aggrandizing comparative analyzes. The year was shocking enough to warrant a half of a high five to the favorable "comp" argument, but even in those cases distance from budgets were wide enough to issue a gentle reminder that "it's still a hit the numbers game."

2010 say most prognosticators will be a relatively flat growth year. In the broadcast world, for example, the bandied about numbers range from -2% to plus 3% revenue growth. Nothing terribly exciting on the plus or minus side, and even the most pessimistic of forecasters have trouble identifying potential events, cataclysmic enough, to bring about a repeat of 2009. There will likely be a lot fewer conversations about comparing "actuals" to 2009 comparable periods. The emphasis will more likely be on comparisons to budget.

For those exceptional performers who adapted early and strategically in viewing 2009 as a year of opportunity while their peers and "competitors" were performing arias of "woe is me," 2010 will be a year of compounded dividends. Their partnerships with their customers will have attained new levels, having actually steered these ship-mates through rough seas at the expense of their competitors and grown their brand positions so that the customers' shares of better times is all but assured. And these uncommon performers will consequently be asked to stand alongside at the helm.

Managers worthy of the responsibility will be looking for signs that last year's troubles educated their sellers in many ways; that they learned how to best serve their constituents and to serve more of them. 2010 will be a year where real growth ought to be expected. The days of fingers in the dikes are swiftly drawing to a close, and recapturing and expanding valuations will be the order of the day. The survivors survived. In 2010 more will be looked for than survival.

This is a good time to sit quietly and ask--"How far have I come? How much do I give...To and for whom?...How deeply am I committed to the success of all the people who count on me? What don't I know? Who can I call upon to teach me? I want to stand out, be different, be a giant in 2010. How?

The answers are there for those that ask.

Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork


Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation, Training and Speaking
Rsherman@pilotGroup.biz.
212-486-4446

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Note to Self...Let's Catch Up...after work!

Show me a man who complains, "I'm so busy I don't have a moment for myself," and I'll show you a man who meets a major criteria for an outstanding career in sales. I wouldn't leap to that conclusion if the quote was, "I'm so busy I don't have a moment to spare." The distinction between the two statements is more than semantics. We all know people whose every waking moment is consumed with self-centered interests. They are as busy as anyone. These people, if they are engaged in sales, have only two potential futures; the first is riches resulting from one or a few huge sales where they just plain outfoxed the buyers. The second, best case, is an average career.

Consistently remarkable and truly uncommon sellers spend all of their business time consumed with helping everyone with whom they connect be richer for the experience. They spend their brain power, time and energy in service to others. They don't sell. They serve and are consequently bought. The irrefutable truth is that service to others is the surest route to personal reward (however you prefer to measure reward--from good feelings to economic riches).

I love meeting with, training, sharing experiences and lessons learned with other executives, from sales folk to top managers. Our company has major investments in, and oversight of, a number of portfolio companies. I almost never visit one of these companies without scheduling some time with their sales organizations facilitating conversations about sales philosophies and sales strategies. There has likely never been one of these sessions when I didn't introduce one of my core values; service versus selling; helping prospects or customers figure out how to more profoundly and more quickly grow their businesses. I spend none to very little time talking about how to get to "yes." I know, I mean I know, that "yes" takes care of itself if the seller really understands his role. Often I will ask the group that I am spending time with what they believe my motivation is when I visit with them and join in these "teaching" meetings. Inevitably someone will reply, "to help us become better sellers, so that our company becomes more profitable which is good for you and your partners, right?" As rain!

And here's the best part. I promise it never crosses my mind that I am visiting with them so they can make me and our investors more money. I truly do meet with them to see if I can help. The economic value proposition just seems to take care of itself as an incidental yet automatic by-product of the fact of helping.

Have I helped you?

I'm going to have a beer at the local tavern tonight and tell me all about my day :)

Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork

Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation, Training, Speaking
rsherman@pilotgroup.biz
212-486-4446

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Competition and...or...and/or Teamwork

Clearly our whole economic system is based upon competition. The foundation of a free and open marketplace is based upon the proposition that, subject to appropriate behavior (defined by laws and regulations,) may the best product, company or man win. It's not just the business world that emphasizes competition. Many of our leisure time commitments, whether they be participatory or passive, are based upon our preoccupations with the competitive world of sports, amateur or professional. We are a society that venerates (albeit sometimes are jealous of) winners and, depending upon our upbringing, disdains or commiserates with losers.

I've worked with, and for, extraordinary leaders who pay more than a little attention to how they can best use the inclination of employees to view the business world and their place in it as a giant arena---sometimes a sporting arena and sometimes a more coliseum type (live or die competition); a zero sum game. If he wins, I lose. If he gets a raise or promotion, I don't.

Our firm's leader is a remarkable top executive and I have watched him more that once deliberately set two executives up for each to see their success as dependent upon being "the competitor" that winds up bringing the most to the table. But this chief chef also makes it clear that the entree, if you will, while the cornerstone of the meal, is only a component of all that contributes to the degree of success of the meal. The appetizer, sides, drink, salads, desserts, etc. all contribute to the diner's take-a-way: Hopefully, "Wow, that was great! Let's make sure that we come back here again."

Well now, how does the core value of "teamwork" fit in with all of this?

For this meal to win that accolade, everyone from dishwasher on up will have to perform well and with each other. And the great chief chefs, did much more than get superb educations at culinary institutes. They learned more than to memorize recipes and create new ones. They learned how to get the most out of, by giving the most to, the teams that will have to work together to create a great dining experience.

So, extraordinary executives evaluate individual sales executives based first and foremost upon their individual contributions (is he building my business by bring in new customers who retain us again and again because he effectively partners with them to grow their, and consequently, my business?). And then, in assessing how to maximize the potential contribution from the individual seller, he measures his contribution to the team, his co-workers, employees, and bosses. Does this person work and play well with others so that the sum is truly greater than all the parts because he is one of the parts?

If so, let's keep an eye on him and help get him ready for the next step. If not, let's give him everything he needs to bring the most in himself, and box him in enough so that there's no harm to the team?

Are you fighting side-by-side or to the death with your colleagues?

Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Collapse Time
Teamwork

Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation, Training and Speaking.
Rsherman1776@pilotgroup.biz
212-486-4446


Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Say it Over and Over Again...It's Not About Me!

George gets it. He probably gets it better than any one else I know. The other day George was telling me how he works to earn the trust of his accounts, and by doing so becomes more than a vendor, much more. George sees himself as a partner and a key adviser to his clients. The first step he takes is to become expert in the client's business. He told me that in the new "search world'" that goal's attainment isn't much further away than his laptop where he can learn all about his clients' industries; the market sizes, consumer demographics, competition, etc. Part of his learning regimen is to subscribe to his clients' trade organs and to receive RSS feeds and alerts. George jumps all over the alerts and communicates their contents to his clients before they've stirred the sugar in their morning coffee.

But here's what really caught my attention. George is very deliberative about who he calls with the information. He used a car dealership client to illustrate the point. He knows both the owner and the general manager of this dealership well and has entree to each. But George delivers the new information to the general manager so that the GM can look good to his boss. George understands that the measure of his success in business will be how meaningfully and fully he serves everyone with whom he interacts. It's not about him looking good, in this case, it's about helping his client look good. Who thinks like that? Remarkable. Uncommon. Way above average. George has forged a wonderfully satisfying career with service to others as the cornerstone of his credo.

Sellers whose M.O.s are service to others before self, quickly become key assets of their clients and enjoy significant benefits in trade for the trust they engender. Their calls are taken. Their ideas are heard with open minds, momentarily emptied of the cache of cynicism normally stored within as a defense against, ugh, salesmen. Their suggestions are evaluated solely on the basis of the merits of the argument. And why not? They can be trusted.

Chances are pretty good that when GM puts out a new incentive plan George's dealer/client hears about it first from George, along with a suggestion coincidentally about how the program can be successfully advertised and a commitment to have the commercial production ready to go within hours of the "okay."

George and I "one-on-one" every Monday. I'm never surprised when George beats me to "How was your weekend?"

Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork

Available for corporate and individual consultation, training and speaking
Rsherman@PilotGroup.biz
212-486-4446