ADD must be difficult to deal with although all of us have met folk who have made excellent adjustments to it and even extol its virtues. Certainly the emergence of the multi-tasking phenomenon has done much to support the virtuous status of this otherwise neurological disorder. How many meetings have you been in lately where someone wasn't nose-diving to his Blackberry and texting away? None, I'd venture. If called out, the engaged party says, "it's okay, I'm a great multi-tasker." I always want to, but usually am able to keep from responding, "actually you're pretty rude, but obviously whatever you are communicating about on that Blackberry of yours is more interesting than what we're talking about."
Social, much less business grace aside, who's kidding whom? The best work of any kind results at least in part from laser like focus on the task at hand. Not the taskS at hand. Picture this, someone in a white coat has just asked you to count to ten backwards. By the time you get to seven, you're out and Springstein is belting out Born to Run as "White Coat" begins to check his email. What the heck. He's a pro and he's multi-tasking.
I understand that the analogy may not work for some, but tell that to the guy whose business' life or death depends upon your best work. How about this for a good definition of multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is the ability to do many more tasks during a set time period than most people because the multi-tasker is incapable of being distracted and is ultra disciplined at focusing on the business at hand. He's therefore able to collapse time and accomplish more, and more effectively than the average performer, and likely a lot more that the Blackberry multi-tasker.
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
COLLAPSE TIME
Teamwork
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sales: 201
The first thing to remember, just to be a good sales executive, much less a great one, is that you must be committed to solving other people's problems. There really are only three reasons to buy anything; first to eat, unless you are a Freegan; second because your purchase will bring you some pleasure; or third, if you are in business, to solve some problem and/or grow your business. So in business-to- business selling you breathe to address number three.
Good sales people ask good questions to get the client to acknowledge what their problems are and then provide creative solutions. Great sales people recognize that clients are pretty much clueless as to what their real problems are, because if not they already would have been solved. So great sales people engage the customer in honest, sometimes brutally honest, partnering excursions to find pathways to success.
Buyers untimately come to respect, and trust, these well intentioned provocateurs. In fact, once the rough road to respect and trust has been successfully traveled, the great salesman is always the visitor of choice, and enjoys the generously offered referrals to other likely prospects.
Here's the challenging news. Just being honest and well intentioned gets you only so far. Making that case effectively is a whole other story because the deck is stacked against you as soon as you call for an appointment. Every good and not so good salesman before you has muddied the waters. The friendly "hello" when the phone line is answered, or the in-person cold caller enters the business establishment, is quickly replaced in tone by the cold, sometimes harsh follow up of "not interested" or any other number of favorite "beat its" employed by that particular prospect once your purpose is stated. Unless of course you are one of the great ones.
Sales 202: "Mr. Jones I'm calling because I believe I can considerably help you and need only fifteen minutes of your time,to confirm that? May I visit this afternoon or will tomorrow be better?" He answers "not interested!" And you say, "Mr. Jones, sometime today for one reason or another fifteen minutes of your time spent will serve no useful purpose in building upon your success. May I have that fifteen minutes? I mean well and have done some homework I'd like to share with you?"
The "Joneses" that say "no" to you with that approach, would have been short term clients anyway because they are too foolish to make a go of it.
Now you are visiting, either in person or on the phone and you have an immediate decision to make based upon whatever you've learned about the business you are calling on and the service you believe you have to offer. And here it is. If this prospect winds up saying "yes" will he have made a rational decision based upon the data and logic, or an irrational decision based up the dream you get him to buy into?
If you've prospected well, and you think about this question before the call, you will have a good feel for the answer.
Once you decide, you want to set the tone of the conversation right from the beginning in the mode that is compatible and leads to the "yes." So, assuming you believe this makes so much sense that a rational person, emotions laid aside, would have to see the benefit: Your first comment or question should be intellectual and data driven. Example: "Mr. Jones, the office of economic opportunity said in its May report that unemployment is actually dropping, but analysts are saying that that is because 18% of the unemployed have given up hope of being employed and thus are not counted. Being in the recruitment business do you agree with that."
You have now begun a non-emotional, rational based conversation. You are directing the play toward the desired result.
Or--You decide that the prevailing wisdom, fueled by all available data suggests that this a time for this recruiter to lay low and do what business may come his way by working hard and being frugal. Only a dollar and a dream (and you think your service reduces the odds way in his favor) would motivate any one in his field to invest today, so you need to foster an emotional (by definition then, irrational plane of conversation).
"Mr. Jones, I may be crazy but my impression is that the government could be doing a lot more low risk investing to drive up employment. What do you think?" We are now off to the races in 100,000 foot rhetoric and emotional talk. Exactly what you were looking for so you can sell "the dream."
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
Good sales people ask good questions to get the client to acknowledge what their problems are and then provide creative solutions. Great sales people recognize that clients are pretty much clueless as to what their real problems are, because if not they already would have been solved. So great sales people engage the customer in honest, sometimes brutally honest, partnering excursions to find pathways to success.
Buyers untimately come to respect, and trust, these well intentioned provocateurs. In fact, once the rough road to respect and trust has been successfully traveled, the great salesman is always the visitor of choice, and enjoys the generously offered referrals to other likely prospects.
Here's the challenging news. Just being honest and well intentioned gets you only so far. Making that case effectively is a whole other story because the deck is stacked against you as soon as you call for an appointment. Every good and not so good salesman before you has muddied the waters. The friendly "hello" when the phone line is answered, or the in-person cold caller enters the business establishment, is quickly replaced in tone by the cold, sometimes harsh follow up of "not interested" or any other number of favorite "beat its" employed by that particular prospect once your purpose is stated. Unless of course you are one of the great ones.
Sales 202: "Mr. Jones I'm calling because I believe I can considerably help you and need only fifteen minutes of your time,to confirm that? May I visit this afternoon or will tomorrow be better?" He answers "not interested!" And you say, "Mr. Jones, sometime today for one reason or another fifteen minutes of your time spent will serve no useful purpose in building upon your success. May I have that fifteen minutes? I mean well and have done some homework I'd like to share with you?"
The "Joneses" that say "no" to you with that approach, would have been short term clients anyway because they are too foolish to make a go of it.
Now you are visiting, either in person or on the phone and you have an immediate decision to make based upon whatever you've learned about the business you are calling on and the service you believe you have to offer. And here it is. If this prospect winds up saying "yes" will he have made a rational decision based upon the data and logic, or an irrational decision based up the dream you get him to buy into?
If you've prospected well, and you think about this question before the call, you will have a good feel for the answer.
Once you decide, you want to set the tone of the conversation right from the beginning in the mode that is compatible and leads to the "yes." So, assuming you believe this makes so much sense that a rational person, emotions laid aside, would have to see the benefit: Your first comment or question should be intellectual and data driven. Example: "Mr. Jones, the office of economic opportunity said in its May report that unemployment is actually dropping, but analysts are saying that that is because 18% of the unemployed have given up hope of being employed and thus are not counted. Being in the recruitment business do you agree with that."
You have now begun a non-emotional, rational based conversation. You are directing the play toward the desired result.
Or--You decide that the prevailing wisdom, fueled by all available data suggests that this a time for this recruiter to lay low and do what business may come his way by working hard and being frugal. Only a dollar and a dream (and you think your service reduces the odds way in his favor) would motivate any one in his field to invest today, so you need to foster an emotional (by definition then, irrational plane of conversation).
"Mr. Jones, I may be crazy but my impression is that the government could be doing a lot more low risk investing to drive up employment. What do you think?" We are now off to the races in 100,000 foot rhetoric and emotional talk. Exactly what you were looking for so you can sell "the dream."
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
You Be the Final Arbiter of the Value of Your Work
We're all subject to a greater or lesser degree to the affirmation of others as to our value. Be honest with yourself as to how strong your need is the next time you consider a job change. The nature of the product or service and its quality, ought to be the first prism through which the opportunity is evaluated. That's because your perception of the meaningfulness of the offering you will be bringing to people will heavily weigh into how you feel about yourself and the way you will be spending your time. The environment (culture) of the company you join is the next critical factor because you will either find it neutral, supportive or debilitating, at least to the degree you are other-rewarded. Finally, who will you be working for and what is their management style? Ask! If the answer is, "I am strictly a numbers guy. Bring in the orders everyday and you are my man. Don't, and I will barely be able to look at you," you may want to think about how much you will enjoy and find meaning in the work on a bad day.
And why all this emphasis on the importance of your take on a job's "meaningfulness?" Dan Ariely (Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University) in his book The Upside of Irrationality, makes a great case that the need to find meaning in our work is so powerful, that we often manufacture with the aid of irrational thinking signs of meaning or value to what we do. The tougher the company culture or the boss make that effort, the less happy and productive we tend to be.
Recently, after a few decades I caught up with an ex-colleague for whom I had great respect and affection. In bringing me up to speed about his experiences since we worked together, he told me of the time he got a broker's license and went to work for one of the major financial houses. In a sales meeting, shortly after he joined, a senior sales executive took the floor to give his view on their industry. "Look. I'm in this to get rich. And if I get rich, the company does well. If my clients get rich that's a plus, but if they don't, and I do, that's o.k. too." My friend looked over to the smiling-in-approval sales manager, and resigned right after the meeting. That wasn't a description of an industry or firm that would harness the meaning he needed from his work.
If you find a field you love and a product or service that you believe truly makes life better for those to whom you introduce it, and your mom or dad had unqualified love for you in the first year of your life, at least, you probably can thrive and find meaning in that work even if the company culture and/or manager you represent, is imperfect, because you are the final arbiter of your value.
Great Selling!
LOVE YOUR WORK AND WORK TIRELESSLY
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
And why all this emphasis on the importance of your take on a job's "meaningfulness?" Dan Ariely (Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University) in his book The Upside of Irrationality, makes a great case that the need to find meaning in our work is so powerful, that we often manufacture with the aid of irrational thinking signs of meaning or value to what we do. The tougher the company culture or the boss make that effort, the less happy and productive we tend to be.
Recently, after a few decades I caught up with an ex-colleague for whom I had great respect and affection. In bringing me up to speed about his experiences since we worked together, he told me of the time he got a broker's license and went to work for one of the major financial houses. In a sales meeting, shortly after he joined, a senior sales executive took the floor to give his view on their industry. "Look. I'm in this to get rich. And if I get rich, the company does well. If my clients get rich that's a plus, but if they don't, and I do, that's o.k. too." My friend looked over to the smiling-in-approval sales manager, and resigned right after the meeting. That wasn't a description of an industry or firm that would harness the meaning he needed from his work.
If you find a field you love and a product or service that you believe truly makes life better for those to whom you introduce it, and your mom or dad had unqualified love for you in the first year of your life, at least, you probably can thrive and find meaning in that work even if the company culture and/or manager you represent, is imperfect, because you are the final arbiter of your value.
Great Selling!
LOVE YOUR WORK AND WORK TIRELESSLY
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Today Was a Great Day Because….
If you can’t complete the sentence without much thought, think about changing what you do for a living. Look, I know that we all have responsibilities, not the least of which is providing, at least for ourselves and in most cases for others as well. But I would argue that if that fact is the sole motivator for staying where you are, you are probably performing less well than you could and sooner or later that will dawn on your employer. If we don’t enjoy what we are doing, and don’t find meaning in what we are doing, we tend to perform just well enough to keep the position at the current rate of pay. That is to say the boss probably figures, “He isn’t the best but the return on his cost to me is acceptable, even if no big deal." That being the case, when someone else becomes available with more promise in the boss’ eyes than you, your job will be in jeopardy anyway.
My message is that you can do, and be, better than that; much better. Among the differences between outstanding performers and average performers, are their respective feelings about the meaningfulness of their work. A Harvard Medical School graduate with a specialty in thoracic surgery, performing two surgeries per day over fifteen years and getting wealthy doing it, is probably no better than average in his surgical skills if each day at the operating table he wishes instead that he was spending his time in medical research and leading the charge in ending the very diseases that are now making him rich. In order to be great at what we do, it’s important that we find meaning in, and love it as well.
As Malcolm Gladwell points out in his terrific book, Outliers, The Story of Success, “…it is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five, it’s whether our work fulfills us.”
Without getting overly philosophical, and at the risk of stating the oft repeated and obvious, life's a short run. So much of it is spent at work. Wasting a moment of time, much less eight plus hours per day, five days a week, at what for you is meaningless work, squanders the gift, limits your contribution to others and your chance to be great.
Great Selling!
LOVE YOUR WORK AND WORK TIRELESSLY
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
My message is that you can do, and be, better than that; much better. Among the differences between outstanding performers and average performers, are their respective feelings about the meaningfulness of their work. A Harvard Medical School graduate with a specialty in thoracic surgery, performing two surgeries per day over fifteen years and getting wealthy doing it, is probably no better than average in his surgical skills if each day at the operating table he wishes instead that he was spending his time in medical research and leading the charge in ending the very diseases that are now making him rich. In order to be great at what we do, it’s important that we find meaning in, and love it as well.
As Malcolm Gladwell points out in his terrific book, Outliers, The Story of Success, “…it is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five, it’s whether our work fulfills us.”
Without getting overly philosophical, and at the risk of stating the oft repeated and obvious, life's a short run. So much of it is spent at work. Wasting a moment of time, much less eight plus hours per day, five days a week, at what for you is meaningless work, squanders the gift, limits your contribution to others and your chance to be great.
Great Selling!
LOVE YOUR WORK AND WORK TIRELESSLY
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Great Salesmen Don't Sell the USP, They Are the USP
Character is the key differentiator between the great majority of average sellers and the uncommon and remarkable seller. "Hotshots" are skilled openers and closers and are at the middle-upper right side of the bell shaped curve of sales proficiency. Grunts who never stop knocking on doors, picking up lunch tabs, and sending anniversary and birthday cards fall somewhere in the middle. Movie goers flitting from job to job relying on their dancin' shoes to keep a shuffle ahead of their next dismissal, are located bottom left.
Way at the right upper end are the one in ten, maybe twenty who really are the "goods."
These great sellers live to serve. They come to each client and prospect bearing gifts of self-abnegating work to solve problems and grasp opportunities for their "partners." They bring their creativity, knowledge, open mind, indefatigability and sincere concern for their constituent's well being on every call. When they ask, "how can I help you?" they mean just that. When they say, "I need a half hour of your time because I am sure that I can help you," they mean that too.
These remarkable sellers represent products and services of value (or they wouldn't be representing them) but they don't visit to sell their wares. They come to improve the business of those they visit. These sellers invest their time as if it was the capital set aside for their kids' educations. The intensity and energy they expend on behalf of their clients is selfless in nature, and meaningful in outcome. They are the ones the clients want, even need to deal with. They are the most valuable commodity the client spends their cash on.
They are their companys' unique selling proposition.
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
SERVE, DON'T SELL
Collapse Time
Teamwork
Way at the right upper end are the one in ten, maybe twenty who really are the "goods."
These great sellers live to serve. They come to each client and prospect bearing gifts of self-abnegating work to solve problems and grasp opportunities for their "partners." They bring their creativity, knowledge, open mind, indefatigability and sincere concern for their constituent's well being on every call. When they ask, "how can I help you?" they mean just that. When they say, "I need a half hour of your time because I am sure that I can help you," they mean that too.
These remarkable sellers represent products and services of value (or they wouldn't be representing them) but they don't visit to sell their wares. They come to improve the business of those they visit. These sellers invest their time as if it was the capital set aside for their kids' educations. The intensity and energy they expend on behalf of their clients is selfless in nature, and meaningful in outcome. They are the ones the clients want, even need to deal with. They are the most valuable commodity the client spends their cash on.
They are their companys' unique selling proposition.
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
SERVE, DON'T SELL
Collapse Time
Teamwork
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Many Politicians Can Sell, Few Salesmen Can Politic
To be a great salesman, you need to have only ONE agenda: How can I help this client, and then that client and then the next? The only "which way is the wind blowing" agonizing you need to suffer is the competitive field, brand position and product value of your current and next customer. If you become really good at that suffering, the process will morph to pure joy and your clients' businesses will grow and you will become rich and famous. OK, maybe just rich.
I was reminded of the waste of time and potentially destructive results of politicking today by a very smart partner who pointed out that a recent "strategic" communication of mine ("politically" motivated) was likely a "misfire." He was right, but more importantly it surprised me that I needed to be reminded of who I am and what I do. And what I do not, is run for, or occupy, public office. I am not a politician and have never learned the art either academically or experiencially. The good news is to accomplish what I am charged with, has nothing to do with politics. And that's probably true for you as well.
So--don't buy the sales manager a strawberry donut with sprinkles on it unless you would if he were a school crossing guard and not your boss. Likewise, the potential customer. "Oh wow, a donut. Thanks so much. Here's a $50,000 order." Put all your energy and creativity to work solving as many people's problems as you can. Make as many lives better for their contact with you as you possibly can. That's the only agenda that will make you what I hope you want to be. Special.
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
I was reminded of the waste of time and potentially destructive results of politicking today by a very smart partner who pointed out that a recent "strategic" communication of mine ("politically" motivated) was likely a "misfire." He was right, but more importantly it surprised me that I needed to be reminded of who I am and what I do. And what I do not, is run for, or occupy, public office. I am not a politician and have never learned the art either academically or experiencially. The good news is to accomplish what I am charged with, has nothing to do with politics. And that's probably true for you as well.
So--don't buy the sales manager a strawberry donut with sprinkles on it unless you would if he were a school crossing guard and not your boss. Likewise, the potential customer. "Oh wow, a donut. Thanks so much. Here's a $50,000 order." Put all your energy and creativity to work solving as many people's problems as you can. Make as many lives better for their contact with you as you possibly can. That's the only agenda that will make you what I hope you want to be. Special.
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Honest and Fearless Communication...always
In 1990, 73 of 148 passengers died aboard an Avianca Columbian Airline Flight on an approach to John F. Kennedy Airport, in New York. They died, as documented by Malcolm Gladwell in his remarkable new book, "The Outliers," because of the culturally inherited reticence on the part of the co-Pilot to fearlessly and honestly communicate to his superior, the Pilot/Captain. According to Gladwell, a lower social or professional status in Columbian society calls for subservient carriage including what linguists call "mitigated communication." A practioner of mitigated communication, in effect offers sugar coated pronouncements, even in time of peril, to another of a higher status. It's as if the co-pilot might say within seconds of a potentially calamitous crash landing, "excuse me, sorry to disturb Captain, but if you've a mind to, you may want to consider pulling up, and starting our approach over." There's more to this particular story and it's a fascinating book, well worth pushing up near the top of your "to read" list, but suffice to repeat that many people died for lack of a fearless and honest communication from the first officer to the captain of that flight.
At the risk of appearing to trivialize this horrific event, most businesses, careers and sellers fail to maximize the opportunities before them for the same reason. Absolute honesty and the average seller are perfect strangers. The average sales executive is highly focused on closing the sale, every sale of everything he represents to anyone that can pay for it. Ergo, the necessity for the dictum, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. And he is!
Because the number of average sellers by definition is multitudinous most buyers walk around "caveating" all the time. They are trained to smell polished, slick closers, and if the odor is strong enough, they are going to "pass" much more often than not.
Among the key attributes however, of the extraordinary seller, manager, COO and CEO is a core value of "the truth as I see it come H--- or high water". The uncommon and remarkable seller labors to connect his product or service to the suspected needs of well researched, targeted customers. In his early meeting(s) with the customer he seeks to affirm to himself, well before he attempts to make the case to the customer that his need-assumption was correct. When that is found to be the case he uses every artful technique he's developed to lower the buyer-seller barrier and to serve that new customer well. The cornerstone of the relationship becomes the trust, based upon his commitment and honesty, accorded to him by his new partner.
The crown jewel of the fearless and honest communicator is bestowed by customers, colleagues and employers, and in business, there's no more valuable a jewel.
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
COMMUNICATE HONESTLY AND FEARLESSLY
Collapse Time
Serve, Don't Sell
Teamwork
At the risk of appearing to trivialize this horrific event, most businesses, careers and sellers fail to maximize the opportunities before them for the same reason. Absolute honesty and the average seller are perfect strangers. The average sales executive is highly focused on closing the sale, every sale of everything he represents to anyone that can pay for it. Ergo, the necessity for the dictum, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. And he is!
Because the number of average sellers by definition is multitudinous most buyers walk around "caveating" all the time. They are trained to smell polished, slick closers, and if the odor is strong enough, they are going to "pass" much more often than not.
Among the key attributes however, of the extraordinary seller, manager, COO and CEO is a core value of "the truth as I see it come H--- or high water". The uncommon and remarkable seller labors to connect his product or service to the suspected needs of well researched, targeted customers. In his early meeting(s) with the customer he seeks to affirm to himself, well before he attempts to make the case to the customer that his need-assumption was correct. When that is found to be the case he uses every artful technique he's developed to lower the buyer-seller barrier and to serve that new customer well. The cornerstone of the relationship becomes the trust, based upon his commitment and honesty, accorded to him by his new partner.
The crown jewel of the fearless and honest communicator is bestowed by customers, colleagues and employers, and in business, there's no more valuable a jewel.
Great Selling!
Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
COMMUNICATE HONESTLY AND FEARLESSLY
Collapse Time
Serve, Don't Sell
Teamwork
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