The guy pictured on the right is Eddie from Noodle Boy in Maroubra. It’s no surprise he’s smiling in the photo because Eddie doesn’t stop smiling.
I’ve been sipping his chicken and sweet corn soup and chewing on his rice noodles for the past 12 years.
Every time you go to Noodle Boy, Eddie’s in there smiling away with his little chef’s hat on.
He seems to love what he does. It must be the perfect job for him. He always remembers my name (quick thought: “Am I his only customer”?) and asks after my wife and three children.
Another person I know who is perfectly suited to their job is a friend of mine, Darryl. He’s a chiropractor. You should see his posture!
You just need to watch him walk to tell he’s in the right role. Darryl loves what he does for a living. He doesn’t have to tell you he’s passionate about health and posture. You just watch him and you can tell.
He won’t preach to you about diet and exercise, however if you do ask him for his advice he’ll happily help you understand why so many people are confused about how to stay in shape.
Darryl wants to make a difference and allow his patients to lead more fulfilling lives.
In a strange way Eddie and Darryl are quite similar.
They have found something that they really care about. Or did their occupations find them? They want to do it well. Every time.
They don’t make excuses about GFCs or MSGs.
They get on with it. With a smile on their dial and in Darryl’s case, excellent posture. In Eddie’s case, a nice little hat.
Are you in the right job? Why do you do what you do? What are you going to do when you grow up?
I’d be willing to bet that you know a few people who seem to have luckily found a role that really suits them. I don’t know if it is luck.
Perhaps they have spent some time processing what they like to do, what they have some talent at and have worked out how to turn that in to making a living.
I often want to reach for a bucket when people tell me how passionate they are about their role when you can almost smell it on them that their not.
If you want to find real NRG at work, I think you need to find the right type of work for you. What’s really holding you back? The best time for you to start to find the right career was probably 10 years ago. The second best time might just be today.
Are your sales people selling to the right people?
Have you ever noticed that it is easy for your sales people to get meetings with the wrong people?
Yes, they did their 6 calls today. Who did they meet with? Would they have been better off doing 3 meetings with better prospects?
What every great sales person needs in their kit bag is a great SADAR. A sales radar.
Your SADAR allows you to quickly work out if the person you are selling to is actually interested in what you are selling and has the power to purchase it. The key word in that previous sentence is quickly.
A lot of prospects indicate they like what you are selling. The reality is they may like you and enjoy meeting with you. Unfortunately they may never purchase from you. This is hard to appreciate when you are new to selling. Everyone seems interested in what you are offering. They keep saying things like:
“This sounds interesting, please send me some more information”.
“We’d like to look at that in more detail”.
The tough part of sales success
One of the toughest things in selling is actually getting in front of the people who make the decision to buy what you are selling.
Companies are full of gatekeepers, blockers, rottweilers with lipstick, HR assistants etc.
These people all have very important jobs to do. Part of their role can involve not letting sales people actually get to the people they need to get to.
If your SADAR is working well you should be able to see these positive actions in the first 5 minutes of meeting a new customer.
. They laugh with you, not at you
. They have done some homework on you or your company before you arrive
. They “get you” and the value you bring
. They don’t want to spend too much time with you as they have other priorities
. Their non-verbals indicate they are comfortable about doing business with you
Here are my top 8 ways of identifying if you are selling to the wrong person:
1. It’s easy to get a meeting with them
2. When you are meeting with them they are happy to spend a lot of time with you
3. They tell you they are going through a restructure at the moment
4. They ask you to send them lots of information after the meeting
5. They don’t reveal much about how they will pay for what you are selling in the meeting
6. There are no agreed actions coming out of the meeting from them, only from you
7. They don’t respond promptly to you trying to communicate with them post the initial meeting
8. They ask you to stay in touch, but provide you with no real time lines about when or why
What can your sales people do to get in front of more of the right type of people?
1. Work from the top down. Aim to get meetings with the most senior people you can. These people are harder to get meetings with. There’s a reason for this. They are busy. Most of their days are spent making decisions about the growth of their business. Shoot for the stars and you might hit the moon.
2. Ask better questions earlier in the sales process.
3. Ask for referrals from decision makers.
4. Use your meetings with the people who are easy to meet with to get permission to get to decision makers. Make them feel good about recommending you. Don’t cut them out of the loop. Make them feel part of the process.
5. Have the people you want to be meeting with reading about you or hearing about you or your company from sources of influence.
Most sales people I have worked with over the years are comfortable about selling at a certain level. It seems they get intimidated by selling to more senior people.
Keep reminding your sales people how valuable their time is. Show them ways of getting to the right people.
Ask them about how they use their SADAR.
Remember it takes time.
Coach them properly on how to ask better questions, earlier in the sales process.
If it was easy, everyone else would do it.
Last month I found myself at McDonalds on Collins Street in Melbourne pointing to my thick shake and telling Emma, the 14 year old girl behind the counter;
“There’s something wrong with my thick shake.”
I wanted to see how the staff would react if I purchased a burger and thick shake, ate half the burger and drank half the shake, then shoved the remaining half of the burger into my thick shake.
Despite feeling like an idiot, I followed through with the activity.
The reaction of Emma at McDonalds was as you would have probably already predicted.
She stared in disbelief at the shake (with half a burger in it) and then called her manager, Bill.
“Bill, come and have a look at this!”
Bill came over and looked at the shake. Then he looked at me. I pointed to my thick shake and said again:
“There’s something wrong with my thick shake.”
He took a closer look, threw it in the bin and casually moved over to the thick shake machine and poured me another one. He then placed the new shake on the counter, looked at me and said;
“It seems to be pouring OK now.”
4 things I took away from this experiment:
1. I’m an idiot and need to get out more
2. McDonalds have a great system for dealing with customer complaints
3. If I did the same thing again, I’d probably get the same response from McDonalds
4. Don’t try and train your sales people to respond in this way. They are not robots
As a leader of sales people you know the importance of empowering your staff.
Every day your road warriors are faced with any number of issues that will require them to use their judgement and think on their feet.
McDonalds knows a lot about training people properly to follow a system.
I don’t think you can treat your best sales people like McDonalds staff. Business to Business sales isn’t as simple as working at the big M. Your people need to be equipped with the tools and the skills to weigh up every situation and use their experience to make the right call under pressure. That’s what great sales people do, every day.
If you train them to work like 12 year olds, what type of sales people will you attract?
Yes, of course you need rules, policies and procedures for sales people. I’ve just noticed that if you pull the reigns in to tight they either check out mentally or physically move out.
If someone came into my café and said to one of my staff there was something wrong with his thick shake and he had half a burger stuffed into it I’d expect my staff to say something like:
“Yes dickhead, there is something wrong with it. There’s also something wrong with you. You’ve shoved half a burger into it, so you can tell your story walking!’
Possibly not great customer service, but would I really want customers like that in my café?
Thanks to Seth Godin, who gave me the idea for this experiment when reading his book Linchpin last year.
I rarely provide my kids with much career advice. They are only 9, 7 and 3. By the time they are ready to start their careers, I wouldn’t have a clue what type of employment will be in demand. Also, why would they listen to me?
However, if they never wanted to run out of clients, they could consider becoming tattoo removalists. I’m sure in 20 years’ time they’ll be plenty of work for them.
I spent last week on the beach on holiday on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Tattoos are certainly fashionable in that neck of the woods. Have they always been this popular? Do you just notice them more the older you become?
If you have a few tatts, you’re probably very proud of them. Perhaps you associate them with special times and special people in your life. If I understand tattoos properly, a tattoo is generally permanent.
Over time your thoughts and ideas change. Consider how you now think about risk and responsibility. Compare that to your thoughts on these as a 19 year old.
When you make a statement on your skin in the form of a tattoo, are you not in some small way saying that you don’t wish to consider changing that point of view for the small matter of time, called forever?
I’m a big fan of persistence, focus and commitment. However, on the flip side, as a leader if you become too attached to any idea can than not be dangerous?
How do you know your ideas are so good? Why do you become so attached to them? Sometimes, over a period of time your ideas, and opinions will change.
I love working with people who have the ability to let go, remain flexible and be open to fresh ideas. It’s refreshing when I hear someone say, “I think we should change the way we look at this, there might just be a better way of doing it”.
There seems to be such a fine balance between becoming too attached to an idea and being successful.
I’m sure you regularly update your wardrobe, including your underpants. Your clothes and underpants get old, tired and saggy. They can be associated with the past. If you didn’t update them regularly consider how people may perceive you?
You upgrade your IT regularly. New Iphone, Ipad, Windows 7. What about your internal software?
If my kids can become great tattoo removalists I’m confident they’ll never be out of work. No matter how much your ideas of today may seem right, I’m willing to bet that in 20 years you’ll see things in a slightly different light.
Please rank yourself on the following:
Assess your own networking skills by answering Yes or No for the following questions then use the table below to get your score.
Table for scoring
0 – 5 Yes’s - The best time to start to build your network is today.
6 – 10 Yes’s - You are a pretty good networker. Keep going.
11 or more Yes’s - You know what networking is about. Inspire others to do the same.
Questions
Yes or No
- I’m interested in people and make an effort to find out what makes them tic
- I don’t like talking about myself, but can do, confidently, if need be
- I have developed a system for recording all the contacts I meet and refer back to it regularly
- Every working day I make phone calls to existing and new contact
- I am excellent at remembering names and little details about people
- I have a system for staying in touch with people
- I make an effort to link others and provide referrals
- I’m an excellent listener
- I’ve formed my own networking group and we meet regularly
- I turn up to a lot of events and functions (applying the Woody Allen rule – 80% of life is just turning up)
- I have referred work to people in my network in the past 3 months
- I read widely and get involved with different associations and groups
- I look for opportunities to speak at events
- People who know me would consider me more of a giver than a taker
- I embrace social networking tools, focusing on giving ideas and value to my network
Your score
Last night I removed a few dead plants from my front garden. They’d been dead for a month, but for some reason (too lazy) I kept putting off pulling them out. It took me 10 minutes to do this. Immediately the garden looks better and I have one less annoying thing in my life to worry about.
I still have plenty of annoying things in my life, however I’ve found when I remove one thing from my list I get an amazing NRG boost.
As a sales leader I’m sure you know that your sales team have lots of things that are annoying them. These things, often little by themselves might not seem to you to have such a big impact on their sales results. Over time I think they do. You see these little annoying things become NRG drainers.
It’s almost like by having these issues bubbling along on the inside of their head, there is less NRG to devote to spending time with the right prospects and key customers.
Sales professionals need boundless amounts of NRG every day.
I have noticed over the years that any success I have is closely linked to how fit and fresh I feel. I’m sure you feel freshest when you are removing the NRG drainers from your life.
Here is a list of 12 of my favourite NRG drainers for sales reps:
1. Technology issues - “My lap top keeps crashing”
2. Stuck in traffic
3. Vehicle issues
4. Back office issues
5. Lack of ownership – “I’m waiting to hear if we can get that approved”
6. Time wasting customers and prospects – “I’m waiting to hear back from them”
7. Unfinished tasks
8. Expense claims / reimbursements
9. Broken promises from head office
10. Reading junk emails or spending too much time on Facebook / Twitter
11. Spending time with idiots
12. Unresolved personal issues
Could you work with your better reps to help them remove 1 of these NRG drainers each month?
Those of you that know me are probably clear on my views about working with your best performers and potential stars. Limit your time with the rest or get rid of them.
Great sales managers keep the balance right between relationships and results. By creating an environment where there are fewer obstacles in your reps way you’ll be creating wonderful opportunities for sales growth.
Take a minute to think about all the little things that annoy you in your personal life. If need be write down 7 now. I know I’ve got plenty. (Old unmatching socks, crap in the boot of my car, the kids untidy study area, bills on the kitchen bench). I’m well aware that if these are swiftly dealt with I’ll have more NRG. I’ll also develop a new list of annoying things quite quickly! Don’t let perfection get in the way of doing it better.
What do you do about your NRG drainers?
Do you allow them to fester like an untreated wound or do you deal with them? My bet is, because you are a strong leader, you are comfortable about making lots of decisions every day. These enable you to feel fresh and focussed. Your reps may not have the confidence, experience or skill to do this yet.
I suggest help them. Try this.
Ask them to send you a list of the 5 most annoying things they have to deal with at work. Give them a 3 day deadline. Thank those that send it in. Those that don’t are already showing you through their actions how much they don’t want to improve. Actions speak louder than words.
Then make the time to speak with your reps about which things on that list could be removed, quickly.
Can you use your skills and experience to make things happen quickly for them? Little things can make a big difference. You will find their NRG lifts the moment you remove one of their NRG drainers.
Wealthy people spend money to save time. Poorer people spend time to save money. Think of the person sitting in traffic for 25 minutes to save $3 on petrol.
This morning when I walked through my front garden I felt an immediate NRG boost. OK, it wasn’t huge, but it was a good feeling. It came from something as simple as 10 minutes of gardening to pull out a few dead plants.
Are your reps leaving their dead plants in their garden?
As a 12 year old boy I had a part time job selling door to door stickers for letter boxes. The stickers said “No Junk Mail”. Unfortunately as soon as they got wet they fell off the letter box. That’s not the point. The point is even though we have spam filters set up on our pcs an enormous amount of junk still makes it through. This junk then distracts you from getting on with what you really need to be getting on with.
I’m currently reading one of the best books I’ve read this year called Hamlets BlackBerry by William Powers. It’s a great read on how the digital age it impacting the way we interact, think and prioritise. Power’s challenges you to think about the point in spending so much “screen time” every day. Could it be an addiction? Is it a distraction from focussing on what is really important to you and your business?
You might want to buy the book for your partner. When they are too busy updating their facebook status to read it you can always borrow it.
The best leaders I work with always have clarity on their focus. They have developed strategies for dealing with distractions. They know what they want to do and when they want to do it.
There are a million opportunities to become distracted every day. Both in your professional life and in your personal life.
How you plan and prioritise your time says a lot about how effective you will be as a leader. Spontaneity and going with the flow is important, but how often and at what price? I like an 80 - 20 rule for most of my working weeks. 80% is planned and helps me to achieve what I need to do for the growth of NRG Solutions. 20% of the time I need to be nimble and able to make decisions quickly, reacting to the things that come way. Poor leaders have their percentages around the other way.
Do you have a technology plan for 2011?
Do you think you need one? Are you happy to go with the flow and just see what appears in your inbox each day?
How you manage your technology and “screen time” could just be the key to making 2011 a career best year for you.
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| In every workshop I run, the following characters appear in the room. Are you one of these?
Norman know it all
Norman shouldn’t be on the course. Someone has made him attend. He knows far more about the topic than the trainer and will ensure everyone is aware of his knowledge. Norman challenges every comment you make and says “That wouldn’t be applicable in my industry as my industry is unique”.
Murray the mint eater
Murray unwraps his first mint before the program commences. He then starts to build his little pile of wrappers during the first hour. Avoid asking Murray any questions as his mouth will be full of mints. He sometimes fills up his pockets at the end of the day with extra mints to sustain him on the way home. Murray always mentions that he only eats a lot of mints when he is on a training course. The positive about Murray is at least his breath is fresh, even if all his teeth have fallen out.
Wendy the weather girl
Wendy the weather girl is easy to spot as she arrives. She wears an outfit that covers all temperatures. Wendy will have a poncho, sarong, scarf, cardigan, jacket and umbrella with her, even though it’s the middle of summer. She’ll carefully scan the room before she takes her seat. Wendy the weather girl is looking closely for air conditioning vents or air flow patterns within the room. Wendy always asks you this question. “Is it possible to change the temperature settings in the room”?
Big Ben - The clock watcher
Big Ben greets you with the following question. “What time do you think we will be finishing today”? Big Ben’s whole day revolves around ensuring he can leave early to (select from any of these): Pick up one of his children, catch an early flight, attend a personal appointment with his therapist. Ask Big Ben if he would like a shorter lunch break so he can leave a little earlier and just watch his face light up.
Late Lenny
Lenny normally arrives 15 minutes after the scheduled start. She has been caught in terrible traffic. It’s funny how everyone else managed to avoid the traffic because they left earlier. Lenny will always be late back from her breaks. Not sure why, that’s just how Lenny operates. She is also always about 3 pages behind the group in the folder.
Facebook Fran
I’m seeing more of Facebook Fran these days in the room. Fran wanders in with her IPhone, Ipad, laptop and her hard drive tucked under her arm. Fran boots up her lap top, hacks into a local wireless network and starts updating her Facebook status, tweeting and emailing as the program commences and continues to do so throughout the day. Fran thinks she is so important it would be a national disaster if she disconnected from her 9461 friends for the day. Fran often comes back late from breaks, with late Lenny.
Con the caterer
Con’s main focus of the day is the menu. He enters the room clutching his bottle of Fiji water. Con greets you with the following question, “Are there any vegetarian and gluten free options for lunch?”. Con is allergic to nuts, eggs, air, wheat, tap water, coffee and is lactose intolerant. Con is far more concerned with the catering than with the learning. On the feedback form Con always comments that the catering was a little disappointing as there were not enough options that catered for his dietary needs.
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In December I spent some time on the road doing some research for a project with Heather and Sandra. They are great sales professionals. They sell hair products to hairdressers. Capturing a hairdressers attention when they are working is no easy task. Hairdressers are busy people and seem more concerned with their clients and staff than seeing suppliers.
Heather and Sandra know to succeed today in selling you need to be in the right place at the right time. Like a great comedian, it’s all about timing.
The 2 biggest challenges facing your customers today are:
1. They have more choices available when buying
2. They have less time
Getting great sales results in the economy of 2011 is very different to the past. The internet has changed everything.
What are the best sales reps in Australia doing in 2011?
The best sales reps I see at the moment are doing 3 things significantly differently to the average performers.
1. They use their SADAR (sales radar) very well. They spend more time with the customers and prospects that are most likely to give them most business. They limit their time very well with poor collaborators. They spend their time with people who “get them” and the value they provide. They are in front of these customers at the right time in their buying cycles.
2. They are solving problems for their customers. They do this by asking the right questions and listening actively. They want their customers to have problems and ideally big problems with their current suppliers. This then allows them to demonstrate their skills to make things happen.
3. Their planning is world class. Because your prospects are becoming more and more time poor and have so many choices, your reps need to be better prepared when in front of them. What value are your reps bringing to their sales calls? Just turning up, smiling and being a talking brochure is no longer enough.
The days of the order takers and shelf fillers are gone.
The successful sales professional in 2011 is:
• In front of the right prospects every day at the right time
• Looking to solve problems
• Prepared for each call
You may have read the press coverage over the new year about the challenge for traditional retailers in the face of the growth of on line business. If all your reps are able to do is take orders, then they are of no real value to your customers anymore. The customers can place their own orders on line and they know it will be cheaper for them to do so. To survive in retail you must offer more than a better price. I’d say B2B selling success is the same.
The champions in B2B selling in 2011 solve problems. They know that their customers are busy people with a huge range of choices and not enough time in their day.
They help their customers to make the right choices by understanding their needs and future challenges. An on line shopping experience can’t help you to do this.
3 questions for your sales reps
1. Which accounts do you plan on spending more time with this year? Why? When is the best time to be selling to them? Give me 5 accounts you can grow and 5 accounts you’d love to be selling to.
2. How do you assess the chances of a customer doing business with you?
3. What is the skill you are working on this year to help you improve?
(If you’d like another 21 questions to ask your reps click here)
Heather and Sandra will be very successful in 2011. I’m confident of that. They limit their time with poor collaborators, want to get better and never go into a sales call without clarity on what they are seeking.
They have a habit of being in the right place at the right time.
Have you seen the movie up in the air?
George Clooney is great as the character Ryan Bingham. As a side to his main role as a corporate terminator he’s a motivational speaker. His talk is titled what’s in your back pack?
I’ve always thought that sales professionals need a tool kit or a back pack with them every day.
Your team are road warriors. Out in the field day after day. Great warriors needs a kit bag full of goodies to ensure they not only survive, but prosper.
Have you had a good look recently at what they are taking in with them each day to every call? It might be time for a refresh.
Here’s my list of the top 11 things sales professional should be carrying in their back packs.
1. Ear wax remover. Most sales people should actively listen more. This might help to remind them.
2. Attitude spray. Spray this on the top of your head before you go in to a call. This makes you feel assertive, positive and confident.
3. Ideas box. Always take in at least one fresh idea from the box in to each call. This is very important for existing customers.
4. Bullshit detector. Strap this on to your head. When the customer starts talking switch it on. It helps immensely if you know the people you are trying to do business with are telling the truth. Just make sure the customer doesn’t ask you if they can borrow it when you’re talking.
5. Note book and pen. Last time I checked it helped to write things down when you are with a prospect.
6. Deodorant and mints. If you stink your prospects think your products stink
7. A map of the country of Hungary. It might just help to remind them that they need to be hungry to be successful.
8. A radar. I talk about great sales people having a sadar. A sales radar. Right place at the right time. Turn your sadar on. Should you really be calling on this customer now?
9. A stopwatch. How much time should I allocate to this call?
10. A diary. Write down the next steps with dates confirmed at the end of the call, in front of the prospect. Avoid ambiguity. Get it in writing. People have a habit of forgetting things.
11. A picture of one of their personal goals. What do they want to achieve this year? New car. New house? New wife? Now stay focussed, get the sale and your one step closer.
