Bill Guertin | 800 Pound Gorilla Blog on SalesGravy.com

You’ve been in a couple of interviews with us now. We like you, and you seem to like us. We have an opening, and we need it filled. But there are some questions I’d like to ask you that my attorney doesn’t like.

He doesn’t like them because candidates like you may think they’re too forward. But in the position I’m in today, they’re important for me to know if I’m going to hire you.
We’re what’s considered a small business. Even though there are nearly 70 million of us in America, most people don’t understand how difficult it is to run a small business and keep the doors open.

You can help us. In fact, we’re anxious for you to help us. But the latest studies by the Society for Human Resource Management tells us that it costs about $3,500 to replace just one entry-level employee, and up to four times an annual salary for managers and other high-level team members. With numbers like that, we can’t afford to make a mistake very often.

Within a small business, the chemistry among employees is extremely important. So here’s what I really want to ask you before I take a risk on you:

• Our company makes a difference in the lives of the people we serve. We go over and above to do whatever it takes to satisfy our customers. What we do is hard work. Some days are more challenging than others. But we all realize that if we aren’t all pulling in the same direction, just one of us can destroy the hard work that all of us have put in.

Are you willing to accept responsibility for others, including our customers, suppliers, and co-workers, to help us grow… or are you just in it for yourself and a paycheck?

• We’ve worked hard to keep our community image strong. People buy from others they trust, and what we’ve found is that people see our team members as representatives of us, even when they’re not at work. Our employees understand this, and they conduct themselves appropriately in other places.

Are you the kind of person we’d be proud to call one of our own, or do you do things on your personal time that would hurt our image as a company?

• Over the years, we’ve developed systems and practices that work well. We’re prepared to train you and bring you up to speed. Some people have come through our doors, however, and thought that they could do it “differently,” and they thought it was OK. We may be open to new ideas, but when you first come aboard, we have a system we’d like for you to follow.

Are you willing to be trained, or will you insist on “doing your own thing”?

• A generation ago, people regularly put in 25 years or more with a company, and expected that the company would “take care of them” with retirement benefits in their later years. That’s not how the world works today. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C., the average employee in America today will change jobs every 5 years, and economically, there are no guarantees.

We’re going to care about you as a human being, but please understand that as your employer, we can’t guarantee you a job forever. Even though we’re optimistic about the future, we can’t promise that demand for what we do will continue to allow the need for your position.

Are you OK with that?

If any of these questions make you uneasy, please tell me now. My hope is that after reading this, you’ll take a good look at yourself as an employer sees you, and decide to make the changes that will ultimately make you more valuable to others.

That’s what business is all about. Not entitlement and jobs and paychecks, but rendering service, creating value, and ultimately earning the reward for your efforts.
So… do you still want to come to work for us?

Bill Guertin is Chief Enthusiasm Officer of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a training and business development firm in Bourbonnais specializing in sales performance, customer service, and marketing. He can be reached at bill@The800PoundGorilla.com, or at (815) 932-5878.

Do you feel like you’re running faster than ever, but staying in place?

The reason is that the Four Thieves are stealing your time and efficiency.

TIME Magazine reports that office workers are interrupted about 7 times an hour, or 56 interruptions a day. According to the time management experts quoted in the article, 80% of these interruptions are considered to be trivial.

The average office worker is now distracted for a total of 2.1 hours per day, according to Basex, a New York research firm. A study out of the University of California at Irvine found that once a worker is interrupted from a task, it takes him or her an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task, if they return at all.

The Four Thieves are: Idle Conversations, Unfinished Business, Crisis Identification and Intervention, and Stress and Worry. These Four Thieves are responsible for the majority of ineffective time management in most business and personal situations.

How can you keep the Four Thieves at bay? Let’s look at each of them individually:

Idle Conversations

How can you limit mind-numbing idle chatter to a minimum?
• Hang out less with idle conversationalists. You know who they are.
• Limit chat times, or set a time limit before a conversation starts.
• Use legitimate excuses to move someone along. Things like “I’ve got another meeting” can work.
• Move your office somewhere that’s NOT so inviting to chatter.

Unfinished Business

We flit from project to project without batting an eyelash, but leave a hundred threads dangling. This leads to other challenges like clutter, lack of focus, and increased time to “ramp back up” to the train of thought you left before.

How can we reduce or eliminate the unfinished business in our work lives?
• Shut out interruptions and distractions for a set period of time each day; no phone calls, E-mails, or drop-ins.
• Focus on your most important task, or a pre-set portion of it, until it is completed.
• Get others around you to help you.
• Reward yourself with five minutes of something you enjoy with every completed task.
• Decide that not every project needs to be finished. Is the book you’re reading boring? Can it! Are you doing a project that ought to be killed? Don’t be afraid to kill it.

Crisis Identification and Intervention

If your job involves putting out fires, it can seem as if that’s all you do. It can drain you of the ability to move any of your projects forward.

How can you better handle the fires?
• Ask yourself: Is it really a fire? Ask questions and find out instead of jumping in right away.
• Ask: Do I have to do it myself? Who can help me?
• Consider the big picture, your goals, and/or the bottom line. Is this really a fire in light of those?
• Ask: What’s the worst thing that can happen if I don’t take care of this right now?
• Eliminate recurring fires from your life by assigning task forces to reduce or eliminate them.

Stress and Worry

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now say that 80% of our medical expenditures are directly related to stress. Things we worry about rob us of the energy and focus we need to work on our most productive level. We make mistakes, and have to re-do things. We sit and contemplate all sorts of negative things, which rob us of the positive concentration we need.

Although we’ll never stop worrying altogether, here are some things we can do to worry less:
• Acknowledge and honor your feelings.
• Understand that stress and worry are your psychological responses to what life is dishing out.
• Address things right away.

Gay Hendricks, a national business consultant, asks his executive clients what he calls the “$10,000 Question.” What he finds is that most people who worry a lot are facing something, and spending a lot of time worrying about it. Here’s the question he asks:

What have you been avoiding facing? What is the thing you’ve been avoiding that would give you a quantum leap in energy and creativity if you faced it directly?

Make it a goal in the next two weeks to eliminate at least one of the Four Thieves from your work life. You may not totally get rid of them, but you’ll be making an important positive step in your career… and sending a loud-and-clear message to the Thieves to get lost.

Bill Guertin is Chief Enthusiasm Officer of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a training and business development firm in Bourbonnais specializing in sales performance, customer service, and marketing. He can be reached at bill@The800PoundGorilla.com, or at (815) 932-5878.

Benny speaks a little slower than he used to. The stroke has taken a little bit of quickness from him, but he’s still got it upstairs. It just doesn’t come out as fast as it used to.

The “it” is the wit and personality of a sales professional 79 years young, an entrepreneur enjoying his retirement years traveling and seeing the world.
I met Benny on a recent flight from Chicago to San Diego. I was going on business. Benny was going for fun.

“So what do you do in Chicago?” Benny asked, smiling. He’s always the first to start a conversation. He’s never met a stranger.

“I work in market development for a major hospital health system in Kankakee.” I said. “I’m on my way to a big conference.”
“Oh, that’s great!” he said with genuine enthusiasm. “Those conferences are fantastic. There’s so much to learn. I went to plenty of them myself.”
And then I began to ask about Benny.

For 30 years Benny Rae was the floor covering king of Rochester, NY. His single store did incredible volumes from 1965 until he gave the business to his son in 1995.
He began in business by going door-to-door selling commercial accounts during the day, and selling carpeting to families in their homes in the evenings. He worked tirelessly to get the business started, and eventually had many people working for him.

“That’s fascinating,” I said. “I do some sales training myself. From all your experience, what would be your best advice to a new salesperson today?”

He stared right at me, and I could almost hear his mind whirring, looking for exactly the right words. Slowly and deliberately, one word at a time, he said, “Ask for the order.”

“Salespeople need to learn to always ask for the order. From the day you begin, you’re closing every minute.”  You could see him light up as he talked about the subject. “By closing, I don’t mean to be pushy. Some people learn all these fancy, pushy lines and think that’s closing.”

”When I was selling, people told me over and over again that one of the reasons they bought from me was because I didn’t pressure them. The thing is, I actually did use pressure, but they just didn’t know it. The words I chose and the way I said them helped to persuade them to say yes. I was just persistent in a nice way.”
One of the things Benny learned early on was the importance of listening.
“My partner in the business was the best salesman I ever knew. He taught me everything I needed to know to get started. I was willing to listen to him. And while I was listening, I wasn’t talking.”
Many times Benny would hear the word “No.” It didn’t stop him from continuing on.  “When a customer said no, I took it as a sign that said, ‘Tell me more.’ I gave people more reasons why they should buy my product.”
Throughout his career, he taught the fundamentals of selling to dozens of his employees. He found that not everyone was willing to work as hard as he did.
“Lots of salespeople today are lazy. They don’t take the time to learn what people want, or how much they’re willing to spend. They’re order takers.”
“True salespeople help people to figure out what it is they have, and what it is they need. To do that, you have to ask questions and be willing to listen. That takes time and effort, and many people today don’t seem to want to put in the effort.”

He also talked about the importance of a spotless reputation.  “My reputation was everything,” he said. “When I bought flooring directly from the mills, my word was all they needed. I never once let anyone down. My word was my bond, and it was golden to everyone I dealt with. If a salesperson today can build a reputation like that—to always do what you say—it’s better than money in the bank.”
He should know. Benny and his family had plenty in the bank, as well as a lavish home in the city and a summer home with several boats, jet skis, and other toys.
“Everybody accused me of being lucky in life,” Benny says, a smile crossing his expressive Italian face. “The truth is I was always going, going, going. I never stopped trying, even when the chips were down. When you stop trying, you’re out of business.”
New salespeople, take note: Benny wasn’t expecting to give a sales lesson on the plane. For the very best in any profession, however, if it’s what you love, it just comes naturally.

Steve Jobs brought himself to the microphone for the press conference this morning.  It was not something he was looking forward to.

The CEO of Apple has been on a roll lately.  The iPad has sold exceedingly well, the iPod and iPhone have become synonymous with cool, users rave about their products, and nothing seemed wrong with the world. 

But a little antenna problem in the new version of the iPhone forced Apple to have to ‘fess up to some bad news. 

It appeared that a design flaw has created a problem with the signal strength of the new hand-held cell phone.  If a user puts their hand on the upper left-hand corner of the iPhone device, the hand position blocks the cell signal considerably, or may fade out altogether.

Jobs began his conference with these words:  “Ladies and gentlemen… we’re not perfect.” 

One of the signs of true 800-Pound Gorillas – the dominant players in any market who have a large share of the business – is the fact that of you’re good and well-liked, lots of people will try to knock you off your perch at the top.  800-Pound Gorillas also have an uncanny ability to be secretive when they have to be, and transparent when they need to be. 

To admit your mistakes is never easy, but for those who succeed and thrive in business today, being honest and admitting when you’re wrong is considered a very strong positive attribute.  Consider the “reputation” of BP, and whether or not they’ll continue to be as dominant a company after all that’s been said about the Gulf oil spill.

The announcement by Apple was made today that those who own an iPhone 4 will receive a protective case that will solve the antenna-roaming problem at no charge.  Previous buyers and those who buy a new phone thru Sept. 30th will receive the case for free.  

When you’re wrong, admit it.  Then go make it right.   While the move may cost you in the short run, people will respect you for it, and reward you with positive word-of-mouth about how you handled the issue.     

“Now batting… number 7… center fielder… Mickey Mantle… number 7.”

Bob Sheppard started his PA announcing career with the New York Yankees on April 17th, 1951, the very same day that Mickey Mantle started for the legendary New York baseball club.   Sheppard died over the weekend at age 99, but will long be remembered as the “voice of God” at Yankee Stadium, announcing each word and each batter’s name with measured precision. 

Some would describe Sheppard’s style as slow, lethargic, and plain.  For those who know better, Sheppard was a cut above who literally invented a style all his own, derived from his roots as a speech teacher and lover of classic poetry.

“Today’s PA announcer is a screamer, a shouter, and very flamboyant,” Sheppard said in a 1998 interview.  “That is totally different from my philosophy, which is: Be clear, be concise, and be correct.”

As the gently powerful, unmistakable 800-Pound Gorilla of stadium voices, Sheppard’s philosophy is one that today’s salespeople should perhaps study and ponder in their own careers.  

Be clear.  Be concise.  Be correct. 

A true formula for success in any endeavor.

In the last post, I went over 50 of the 100 pieces of advice for Sales Reps.  Here’s Part Two of that list:

51. Get a mentor that isn’t afraid to tell you what you need to hear, rather than what you want to hear.

52. If you need a reason to get out of bed, make it for someone else other than you: the child that will benefit by their parents owning your product because of your sales call, the business that will find a way to keep their best client because of a suggestion you made, etc.

53. If you’re not prepared with at least five solid answers to the “It’s not in the budget” objection, you’ll sell less than you’re capable of selling.

54. Best open-ended answer: “Does that mean you wouldn’t be open to a new idea?”

55. Second-best answer: “Which budget do you mean? Most companies have several.”

56. Thought-provoking answer: “Put the budget aside for a moment. If my product were free, how would you choose to use it?”

57. Smart answer: “Most companies I work with are re-evaluating all their expenses, and figuring out what kind of REAL return they’re getting. What do you do for things like (chalenges that your product solves) right now?”

58. Best reason to keep going: People make snap judgments, and sometimes all it takes is to keep them learning about you and your benefits a little bit longer.

59. If a company just laid off people, they’re still a candidate for your product. Don’t give up too soon!

60. Always acknowledge their painful choice to lay off people before you get into the reasons why it may be the perfect time to get involved in a cost-effective product like yours.

61. Most companies still need to operate and do business, even if they’ve had layoffs recently. Ask if they plan on keeping the doors open, and if so, what their plans are going forward.

62. Get wishy-washy people to tell you Yes or No sooner rather than later!

63. Suggest that phone tag is hard to play, and politely suggest that you’d rather have a Yes or No now, for the benefit of both of you.

64. It’s OK to get a No, because then you can move on – and so can your prospect!

65. Don’t criticize someone’s choice of a competitor.

66. Learn what makes each competitor’s product appealing, and ask questions that revolve around what others like about it — and how it might come up short compared to your solution.

67. If someone asks, ‘Are you trying to sell me something?’, they’re playing with you, and they probably expect you to play back if you’re to sell them anything.

68. Have at least 2-3 good responses to this objection. #1 suggestion: “Only if you’re buying!”

69. #2 suggestion: “Only if it makes sense for you.”

70. Warm and fuzzy response: “If you have a good reason to buy, then yes, I can set you up… but I promise not to sell you something you won’t absolutely love. Fair enough?”

71. Quick response: “Yes. Are you in sales too?”

72. Fun suggestion: “Only if you’re buying!”

73. Honest suggestion: “Selling you something is the LAST thing I’ll want to do in our conversation!”

74. If you have a less-than-leading-edge product, get to know the benefits of your company beyond the technology.

75. Ask the prospect, “Besides the technology, what’s the most important thing to you when you consider something like this?” Make 2-3 suggestions as to what it might be, and engage in THAT conversation.

76. Best short response to the ‘Low-Tech’ objection: “Not every user needs the latest and the greatest.  Sometimes the lowest-tech solution is the best solution!”

77. Regardless of the prospect, remind yourself that every sales call is an unwritten script. No one can predict the outcome!

78. If someone already has a different solution to what your product provides that’s NOT one of your competitors, be sure to compliment them on what they’re doing, whatever it is.

79. Remember that your value of money should be left at the door when you’re selling your product or service. You may not ever be in the market for what you sell personally, but the decision to buy is not yours! Lay it out for the customer, and allow him or her to make that decision for themselves.

80. #1 answer to ‘You’re Too Expensive’: “Too expensive as compared to what?”

81. Thinking man’s response: “It’s only expensive if it’s not considered an investment. I have clients that say that if advertising works, it’s an investment. If it doesn’t, it’s very expensive. Wouldn’t you agree?”

82. Once they have agreement to that statement, help them to see how you as their Account Executive can help them realize all the benefits of buying from you.

83. If someone says they need to talk it over with someone, ask if you can talk to them on a 3-way call right then and there.

84. If you hear, ‘I’m not interested’ right away, have 2-3 immediate questions ready to go in an attempt to continue the conversation. Most people are just making snap decisions, and really don’t know enough about what you have to offer to be ‘not interested’ yet!

85. Immediate Question Option #1 for ‘I’m Not Interested’: “I’m not sure if you were aware of this, but…” – and then fill in with something that’s positive that many people wouldn’t know about the product you’re selling.

86. Immediate Question Option #2: “If you don’t mind me asking…” – and then ask something that gets them talking, like “Are you worried about what it might cost?” or “Is there something about our product that you don’t like?”

87. Option #3: “Before you go, can I ask you one more thing?”

88. If you’re lucky enough to get onto the rotation for incoming calls, understand that these are leads the company has spent a great deal of marketing dollars to attract. You must be at your BEST when answering these calls!

89. Look to gain some sort of commitment from your prospect on every call you make. Examples: a firm date and time to talk again, an agreement to do certain things in a period of time, the names and phone numbers of the other persons in the party, etc.

90. Remember that for outbound sales, most salespeople give up after the first two attempts to sell someone. If you stick with it after the second attempt and go on to a third, fourth, and so on, you’ve outlasted almost 75% of your competitors.

91. All top salespeople have goals beyond their current job that allows them to be their very best at the job they’re in today. Have a good number of your goals written out, and have them where you can refer to them often and measure your progress.

92. The best time to sell is between 8am and noon. Decide that you’ll devote as much time as possible to selling in the morning hours; your odds are far greater at that time of day.

93. Stay away from words and phrases like “Honestly”, “To tell you the truth”, “To be honest with you,” and others; it may leave the subconscious impression with your prospect that you’ve been dishonest with them up until that point.

94. In a challenging economy, Return On Investment (ROI) is king. Don’t present any proposal of yours until you find out what ROI means to your prospect, and how it’s being measured.

95. Get a few back issues of a trade publication of your best prospects’ industry; you’ll learn the language of their industry quickly, what their current concerns are, and the potential solutions that are being talked about among their peers.

96. Understand that people will be judging you, but you don’t have the right to judge them. This is the challenge of serving others greatly. Accept it with reverence, and do your best to be AT your best, regardless of what your opinion of your customer might be.

97. People will be judging you in many ways; by your physical appearance, your personal hygiene, your eye contact, the way you carry yourself, your tone of voice, and a dozen other measures. Do your best to represent your organization by paying close attention to the “basics”.

98. In today’s selling, there is no substitute for doing that needs to be done in order to succeed. Your good looks, your Ivy League Phi Beta Kappa, your charming wit, even your blue-chip Rolodex won’t bail you out. Do The Work.

99. Continually ask yourself this question throughout the day: “What’s the best use of my time right now to put myself in a position to succeed?”

100. When you get to the management level – and you WILL if you follow the 99 pieces of advice above — sales training experts from the outside can help your sales team accomplish more than you could ever do on your own. I consider it a privilege to help those in professional selling to succeed, and you’re welcome to call or E-mail me anytime and ask about how I can help you… at (815) 932-5878 or bill@The800PoundGorilla.com.

– Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a dynamic sales training and consulting company whose list of clients includes the ticket sales departments of professional sports teams in the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, and Major League Soccer. He is the author of the Gold Medal-award-winning book Reality Sells, and his second book, The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales, is due this fall from John Wiley & Sons. Find more articles and valuable information at www.The800PoundGorilla.com, or follow Bill on Twitter at www.twitter.com/800poundgorilla.