Coffee’s For Closers!

I received a lead from the company that I work for to a lot of see two sisters,

each sister lives in a different house.  Both sisters are married, and all four people are retired.  On my lead slip it said that if I was to give a good price to one sister that I would be able to do work for the other sister at her house.  When I arrived at the house to see the two sisters both sisters were very leery of me and what I was going to do, I am a salesman don’t  you know.  I explained my products and services answered all their questions, and did not put too much buying pressure on them.  When asked about my competitors, I answered honestly, however I said nothing demeaning or negative about any of them.

Today I had a follow-up meeting with each sister at their individual homes.  The first sister that I met with Eleanor has a small project that she would like to do to her house.  There is also another project at her sister’s house that she would like to have done and pay for.  When I arrive to see Eleanor and her husband she immediately confronted me with the information she found out from the Better Business Bureau.  She found that in the last 36 months the company I work for has had three complaints.  One of the complaints that she mentioned was about a salesperson, she inquired if that salesperson was me, honestly I answered no.  The other complaint that concern her was about quality of material.  I told her that I was unaware of the complaint and did not have all of the information about it.  I could not tell her why the complaint was made or what was done to resolve it but I knew it had been resolved.

As I sat and spoke with Eleanor and her husband about their project I found out much information from them about the research they had already done.  They had numerous other companies out to their home to talk to them about this project.  She had one other price that was lower than mine, however when asked the same question as she asked me in regards to the salesperson’s competitors he responded with many negative comments and lies.  Today as I sat filling out the contract and receiving a down payment for half of the contract amount for Eleanor’s project she told me the story.  Eleanor informed me that no matter what the other guy’s price would have been because of the way he handled the question about his competitors there would be no way that she would ever do business with him or the company he worked for. Eleanor felt comfortable with me and the things that I had said not only about my company but about other companies.

I take that experience with me and know that I have not learned the lesson but I have only reinforced an old lesson.  Most of us have heard the saying if you don’t have anything nice to say say nothing at all.  I believe that when people run out of nice things to say about themselves or have no nice things to say about themselves they start to say bad things, negative things, or lies about other people.  In a sales presentation most of us would like to keep a positive atmosphere, saying negative, demeaning, or lies only kills that positive atmosphere.  Once that is gone is near impossible to get it to come back.

By saying nothing at all or focusing on myself rather than my competitor I was able to close the deal today and write three contracts.  These three contracts in the big scheme of things are puddles.  However they are puddles I am grateful to jump in because although these three puddles will not soak me from head to toe they will keep my feet wet in my mind sharp.

I expected to a good job on both Eleanor and her sisters home.  Once done with the quality of work that we offer I believe that I should be able to write at least two maybe three more contracts for more work on Eleanor sisters home and Eleanor owns three rental properties that also need work.  My little puddles when it’s all said and done will add up to a pond.

I hope this story helps to reinforce something that I believe most of us know.  Keep in mind as someone asked you about a competitor or about yourself keep a positive atmosphere and if you have nothing nice to say say nothing at all.

T. K.

Remeber as a child when it would rain and you would go outside after and run through the puddles. It didn’t matter if we were allowed to do it or not we did. By the time you were done you would be soaked from head to toe.

If you wanted to there would have been another way to get completely soaked. You could go jump in a lake. It wouldn’t take as long to soak yourself, however it may take longer to get to the lake, while the puddles are right out front of your home.

Keep this in mind as you are out and you are gathering leads and you are working them. Although we want to get to the “lake” and make that big sale, the “puddles” will do the same thing for us we just need a few more of them. So take your time don’t rush to the “lake” enjoy the trip and jump in all the “puddles” that you can on your way.

TK

Get Emotional…

Years ago I was told many great and useful things by my first sales manager (Jeff). He is part of the reason I was able to start Coffee’s For Closers. I would like to discuss a couple things that he told me that I have used everyday in my career.

Jeff told me that we as sales people need to be persistent. Something that I am sure we all know. He told me to model myself after my children and their sales abilities. Now with the cd’s and tapes I have listened to and the books I have read many trainers will tell you that children are the best sales people cause they are very persistent and don’t give up till they get what they want. Jeff put a bit of a different twist on it for me. Jeff pointed out that not only are they persistent but they also put a whole bunch of emotion into their presentation.

When a child asks for something and we tell them no they continue to ask in different ways all the while turning on the emotions. They will start to beg and plead they will cry and they will really get genuinely upset if we continue to tell them no. Now we all know that we don’t need to and shouldn’t cry or stomp our feet in a sales call but why not give it the emotion it deserves. When we get emotional about what we are doing and what we have to offer so will our prospect. Our prospect won’t know why they are so excited about whatever it is that we are showing them but they will be excited about it.

The next time you are out at a public place take a few minutes to sit down somewhere and watch the kids and how they are. Go to the mall and sit next to the ice cream or the toy store. Watch as these parents and children battle it out. Now the children will not always be victorious, but I bet you will see them win a great percentage of the time.

When a child asks for something they ask get rejected, ask again a different way, get rejected again, and this will continue on and on. Do the same thing, ask for what you want if you are rejected ask again for the same thing but in a different way.

So stay persistent, ask the same thing in different ways and remember to use your emotions.

T.K.

One of the hardest things for us as salespeople to do is to stay on track and do our job everyday. After repeated attempts and countless number of “NO’s” we can sometime stray from our job. The weather gets nice and we golf, fish, play tennis, or just sit out in the sun. Although doing these things is why we work as hard as we do, we have to be able to do these things “off the clock”.

A friend of mine once told me a great statistic. Less than 2% of the population can work without direct supervision. As salespeople that puts us in a pretty elite category. We work each day, or each night, or maybe for some of us both. We put in a lot more hours than most of working America, and everything after 40 hours is still the same as all those before 40.

Alaskan crab fishing may be the deadliest job in the world, but sales has to be the most stressful. So when you combine the hours, the stress, and the NO’s sometimes it is hard to stay on track with what we are doing.

We as sales people need to do something everyday to keep ourselves on track. Something that will remind us of what we are doing and where we are going. It is different for each person, and what works for me may not work for the next person. Find something that works for you and get in the habit of doing it everyday.  It does not have to be a hard task or one that creates income. Just doing it and keeping your mind on focused will then in turn create that income that you desire.

Here are some examples of things that help some people, now remember you need to find yours and yours may not work for you best friend and vice versa.

1. Reading is one of the biggest that most of the sales trainers will encourage you to do. But not just their sales books will help. Other reading will do you a world of good too. Such things as trade magazines, newspapers, and self help books. See what other companies are advertising and selling.
2. Listening to books on tape/cd. This is another great way to spend sometime and clear your mind. Plus there is such a wide variety of audio books out there. 
3. Helping other sales people. This is a great way of getting good feedback. Find and help another sales person in your organization succeed. You may find that when you promote an attitude and helpful skills with someone else they become your attitude and skills also. Lead by example and you will do things the right way so that the person you are teaching will learn to do it correctly.

 These are just a couple of things that may help you keep your mind on what you are doing and staying focused on your sales career.

Coffee’s for Closers’ is the product and brain child of two guys that have been in the sales field for a combined 15 years. Two salesmen, who believe that we are in one of the greatest professions, see ourselves as professionals and like to help others as they grow in the sales profession.

We have stories, we have advice, and we have ways of dealing with the everyday stress and negativity that comes with our “chosen profession”. We wish to share some of these with you in hopes to inspire you, make you laugh, make you mad, and maybe help you along your path down the ever changing sales highway.

The team: Tim K and Dave M. : Friends, professionals, peers, and business partners. There are many others in the background that will help and provide many things to help us.

Everyone counts on the support that comes from the many minds in the background. With the information that we are able to provide we can become that support for you.

We have many other goals that we have set. We share some of these as mutual goals and some that each of us will tackle on our own.

This was designed with you in mind and we hope that you are able to use.We will be adding a forum soon so that we can get more interaction with all of you.

Thanks-

T.K. & D.M.

If you don’t know the quote, watch the video first.