Bill Guertin | 800 Pound Gorilla Blog on SalesGravy.com

I used to think that every argument had a simple solution. One side is right, the other is obviously misguided and unreasonably wrong. All that’s needed is a little bit of applied reasoning, and the other side will come around.

So how do you explain the current national budget challenge here in the US, and how could we have avoided this big mess?

“As long as we have some Republican lawmakers who feel more enthralled with a pledge they took to a Republican lobbyist than they do to a pledge to the country to solve the problems, this is going to be hard to do,” said Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington), co-chair of the special Congressional budget deficit committee, on CNN’s “State of the Union” program on 11/20/11.

“Unfortunately, what we haven’t seen in these talks from the other side is any Democrats willing to put a proposal on the table that actually solves the problem,” countered the other co-chair, Republican Jeb Hensarling of Texas.

The White House is trying to taze somebody to get them to move, but each side is apparently unwilling to give. “Avoiding accountability and kicking the can down the road is how Washington got into this deficit problem in the first place,” said Amy Brundage, a White House spokesperson. “So Congress needs to do its job here and make the kind of tough choices to live within its means that American families make every day.”

When we in our daily lives put off tough decisions — ignoring an overdue bill, putting off a trip to the doctor, waiting to start that retirement savings account — the pain of those decisions is rarely felt right away. To blame others’ inactions for a current problem doesn’t make the current problem any better.

One of the rules for becoming an 800-Pound Gorilla – a company or an individual that achieves dominance in their category and becomes next to impossible to compete against – is that they’re not afraid to do what others won’t. It’s easy to pawn off a tough problem to someone else; it’s smarter to address the problems early on and suffer the short-term pain than to sweep them under the rug until they grow to momumental proportions.

By admitting mistakes early on (i.e., Netflix), apologizing for things that go wrong and fixing them (i.e., Toyota), and taking the high road early vs. staying quiet and hoping it never comes up (vs. the Penn State football tragedy), 800-Pound Gorillas avoid B-I-G problems by making sure they never get to the B-I-G stage in the firs place. The pain is suffered in a controllable way. You take your own lumps, you let people know how you’re going to fix it, and the damage is minimized.

What “small” problem are you wrestling with right now that will most certainly rear its ugly head at some point in the future if it goes unaddressed? Is it financing? Cash flow? Declining consumer interest? Marketing trends? Is it your career growth or direction? Retirement options? Personal issues?

As witnessed by the federal government, the NBA, and many other entities embroiled in last-gasp negotiations, waiting for a resolution to happen by itself only makes the pain of resolution worse.

What is it you may need to address today in order to be more dominant and in control of your own destiny tomorrow?

Let me know what you decide to do.  The first step in moving forward is sometimes telling someone else that you’re going to do it.

– Bill Guertin is a speaker, author, and CEO of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a unique company that helps others improve their sales and service skills through dynamic learning programs.  Check out his book, The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales, or say hello to him on Twitter. 

Gatorade’s innovative “G Series” of beverages for athletes was introduced with great fanfare in the spring of 2010. Each stage of an athlete’s performance cycle was taken into consideration, with the intent of maximizing what the body needs at each point of competition.

According to Gatorade’s marketing materials, Stage 1 is called “Prime”, a pouch-like container with a concentrated blend of carbohydrates and B vitamins to prepare an athlete for the boost of energy he or she will need in a competition or event. Stage 2, “Perform”, is designed to hydrate and deliver immediate vitamins and minerals during competition without slowing down their performance, while Stage 3, “Recover”, replaces the body’s lost essential fluids just after a peak performance, repairing the body to its pre-competition state.

Gatorade claims that each stage of athletic competition requires a specialized formula of hydration and nutrition, and that you’ll perform at your best if your body has what it needs to be its best at each stage.

What if we looked at the sales preparation cycle in the same way?

I believe there’s a parallel to how we should be preparing for the race that is a sales day with the same attention to these three stages:

Stage 1 – Prime
Just before a sales call is made, the best-prepared sports sales “athletes” prime themselves for success by:

- Checking their company’s records for the prospect’s past history
- Googling the prospect to learn more about them or their company
- Making sure that all distractions are put aside
- Having all the current company pricing and literature in front of them
- Having their voice mail prepared and ready for the client they’re calling
- And most importantly, having a reasonable, easy-to-determine outcome for the call before you dial, so you can verify its success or failure afterward.

Those who don’t prepare for success like this often find themselves without the proper “conditioning” for when an actual prospect is on the phone. They’ve succeeded in rushing into their tasks and contacting them, but just like a poorly conditioned athlete, they flame out and fall short of what’s needed when the game’s on.

Stage 2 – Perform
When they’re in the heat of battle, on the phone or in person, the best don’t wing it or rely on their wits alone to carry the sale along. They’re successful on the field by:

- Having a rock-solid opening statement
- Preparing and using excellent, needs-based questions
- Recognizing key elements of their prospects’ answers that relate to the benefits of their product’s potential solutions
- Suggesting the right solutions based on prospect needs
- Closing the sale, perhaps several different times, and
- Thanking the prospect for their time, regardless of the outcome.

Unprepared sales athletes may have higher call volumes, but their success in converting those contacts to sales is much lower. This is where the hours of prep work behind the scenes pays off. Others may look at this and say they’re born with it, or they’re just lucky, but those who work the hardest off the sales “field” are the ones who make their excellence seem almost effortless.

Stage 3 – Recover
Once a successful sales day is over, the true sales athlete is making sure they’re ready for the next day’s competition by:

- Entering all pertinent information into their CRM system, for use in the future with that same client
- Completing all the necessary paperwork
- Performing the things they told the prospect they’d do (i.e., send a one-sheet, get them additional info via E-mail, etc.)
- Planning their next day before they leave each night, and
- Getting a sensible amount of rest each night.

These post-game steps are just as vital as the others, because it determines the long term success of the team as well as that of the sales rep.

What pieces do you need to add to YOUR game become a fully Primed, fully Performing and fully Recovered sales athlete?

There’s never better time to get it together than right now.

– Bill Guertin is known to many as “The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales Performance.” An author, speaker, and sports nut, many of his clients are actually sales departments of professional sports teams. Get to know Bill at  www.The800PoundGorilla.com, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/800PoundGorilla, or reach him one-on-one at bill@the800poundgorilla.com.

The announcement came suddenly, as if out of the blue. AXA Equitable, the company that since 2006 has been using a large animatronic gorilla to symbolize a giant problem in the room that people tried to avoid (namely, retirement planning) has chosen to retire its ape.

I’m not sure anyone will notice, much less miss the big, hairy guy. I hope he enjoys his retirement, wherever he chooses to go. (Any ideas on where he should hang his hat for his golden [banana] years?)

But here’s a question for the marketers in the room: Did anyone connect AXA Equitable to the 800-Pound Gorilla anyway?

Even after five years and several million dollars in advertising later, people still connect the thought of a gorilla with the American Tourister ads of the 1970′s way more than they do the AXA ape.

And here’s the reason why: They connected the animal to the company in a way that was memorable.

Just look at the 30-second commercial from 1970 that featured the now-iconic gorilla in the cage with the suitcase, and you’ll remember why this ad worked so well: http://youtu.be/B2ZeIoLz8FE   There’s an connection between what the gorilla does in the cage — throw the suitcase around — and why the product works so well.

Now take a look at the AXA commercial: http://youtu.be/PETkHFxL-ks   It’s fun, it’s cute, it’s interesting to watch. But it misses the mark in connecting the product with the reason to have the animal there in the first place.

The biggest problem is that meaning of “800-Pound Gorilla” is being mixed up with the phrase “the elephant in the room”.  The definition of the elephant is a big problem that no one wants to deal with.  An “800-pound gorilla in the room” is used by the news media to describe two separate things; a problem that no one addresses and won’t go away (i.e., ObamaCare) OR the more common meaning, which is a company that’s so big and dominant, it’s next to impossible to compete against (i.e., Google, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, P&G).

Confusing?  You bet.  Which is why the poor fella’s retiring to do bit parts in Adam Sandler movies.

American Tourister’s campaign was brilliant in its simplicity.  AXA made us think too much.

And in the world of marketing, if you’re not crystal clear in your messaging, you’ll be history too.

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- Bill Guertin is known to many as “The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales Performance”; his company, named The 800-Pound Gorilla, helps boost the performance, productivity, and effort of sales and customer service reps. Learn more at www.The800PoundGorilla.com, or follow Bill on Twitter at www.twitter.com/800poundgorilla.

Pets make me happy.

We have a one-year-old chocolate lab named Burley (after White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle), an ageless orange cat named Louie (after the St. Louis Rams, one of our son’s favorite teams), and a brand-new black-and-white furball of a kitten that was just rescued from the parking lot of my wife’s place of employment. (She doesn’t have a name, but we’re probably going with D.J., because our youngest son is a Derek Jeter fan, and he hasn’t named an animal in our house yet.)

Oh, and we have a one-year-old goldfish that should have died the day we brought him home from the local carnival. He’s still around, fat and happy, after a whole year. (Swimmy. That’s his very inventive name. Hey, we didn’t think he’d be around for very long!)

My wife, Sherri, is the one who really got us hooked on having animals in the house. She’s a former world champion in showing quarter horses, and most every horse owner you’ll ever meet has at least two dogs. We don’t have the horses any more, but the dog thing stuck.

Those who don’t like pets would probably look at us and think, “Geez, what’s the deal? Do you really need all these animals to take care of around the house?”

The answer is yes, we do.

They’re a minimum of work to take care of, they get along well with each other, and they’re a part of the family. We love having them around, and it’s great to get a big lick in the face from Burley after I’ve been on the road for several days in a row.

What makes YOU happy?

Whatever it is, don’t let anyone take it away. It’s your moment to recharge, to escape the pressures of what you do for a living and just LIVE.

You’ll be a better salesperson if you have things in your life that just make you happy.

Even if not everyone around you understands why.

- Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales training and revenue improvement company with a single, sparsely furnished home office in Bourbonnais, IL. (Look it up.) Enjoy more of Bill’s stuff at www.The800PoundGorilla.com.

Las Vegas is easily one of the most interesting places in the world to people-watch. And when you pay attention, some fascinating things can surface.

I’m poolside right now at Treasure Island Resort & Casino, watching the mosh pit that is the daylife pool scene. The DJ is keeping the place hopping, and there are dozens of people in the pool, wall-to-wall in the water holding various neon drink containers and aluminum beer bottles. It’s a study of see-and-be-seen, and some are taking full advantage of the opportunity.

One skinny chain-smoking guy in his mid-forties, who I’ve named “String Bean”, is playing a constant air guitar and gyrating near the DJ booth, as if to say, “Come and get me, ladies.” He’s had no takers.

A few gorgeous young girls who’ve taken great pains to look their best take their time as they strut their way into the slightly cool water, to a host of onlookers. That scene has been repeated a few times every minute. The large group of single guys notices every pool entry, and sizes them up for possible conversation.

Since I’m more of a shade guy, I’m off under a palm tree typing this while my wife, who loves the sun, is in the middle of it all, and loving every minute of it.

She’s a “watcher”, preferring to enjoy others’ activities. She’s in the majority.

It’s the “action-takers”, those who choose to bask in the spotlight and be seen, that are having the most fun.

How many missed opportunities are going on when we decide to sit on the sidelines as a spectator vs. jumping in and making something happen?

Guys that are content to be their studly selves with their buddies are going to miss their chance to meet someone special. No risk, gentlemen, no reward! This is VEGAS, for crying out loud! Girls are looking their best out here, and you don’t have the guts to approach them?

If you’re in sales, it doesn’t matter if you’re in the pool in Vegas or on the phones at work; if you don’t stick your neck out and risk being rejected, you won’t realize the rewards that come from doing the thing that others won’t do.

Everybody follows the herd. Be different! Stand out and be unique, because you’re either the one who’s making things happen, or the one standing around wondering what happened.

- Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales improvement company specializing in speaking and training for groups of all sizes. Contact him thru his Website, www.The800PoundGorilla.com.

Victoria Labalme (www.victorialabalme.com) was one of several amazing speakers that rocked the house at the National Speakers’ Assocation conference in Anaheim, CA. In her time on the platform in front of thousands of professional speakers, she quoted Bob Dylan, who said “The purpose of art is to stop time.”

I had never heard that quote before, and so I stopped to mentally take that in.

Victoria’s message was about the crazy busy treadmill we all seem to be on in life. We try to pack so much into a day, because it’s expected of us, and the victory seems to come from simply surviving a day by being able to pack everything in the box in a 24-hour period.

At what point does that become counterproductive to quality of life?

If you sell a product or service that could be construed as an “entertainment” or “leisure” item (such as sports tickets, concerts, or vacations), your budgets are under enormous scrutiny. People find it easy to cut you out of their crazy busy plan, and pack things in their daily “box” that have more purpose, more meaning, more ROI.

Let me suggest that you can sell the benefits of stopping time by investing in your product or service.

What happens at the ballpark, for instance? Most people who lead crazy busy lives can sit at the ballgame and unwind for a few hours, forget about what’s waiting for them, recharge, and get back to what needs to be done with a new spirit of refreshment.

The purpose of a ballgame is to stop time.

How valuable does that become in a crazy busy world?

- Bill Guertin is CEO of The 800-Pound Gorilla (www.The800PoundGorilla.com), a sales improvement company dedicated to changing the lives of others through helping them develop their natural sales talents and abilities. He’s an exceptional speaker, an average fisherman, and a below-average golfer, and enjoys them all. Learn more at www.The800PoundGorilla.com.

One of my favorite movies is “The Shawshank Redemption”, a story about Andy Dufrain, an accountant who is wrongly convicted of a crime and does 20 years of hard time in Shawshank Prison. Andy is forced to run a money-laundering scheme of the warden’s, and then finds a way to escape his torturers, expose them, and begin the life he dreamed of outside of the prison walls.

Morgan Freeman plays Red, the main character’s best friend in prison. As he and Andy discuss life inside the prison’s four walls one day, he begins to talk and act strangely. It’s as if something had changed within him. He shares a philosophy with his friend Red that day that becomes the defining statement of the movie.

“Red, you’ve got to get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.”

It has become the best-known line in the movie, and has since been used in many places and in many ways. It’s also relevant to your job, your business, or your career.

Are you just marking time, as if you were in prison? Or are you feeling alive, excited to get up in the morning, anxious to discover what’s ahead for you? Have you grown complacent with the status quo, or are you striving for something that’s the next big thing in your life?

May I share something with you?

I sit here thinking that very thing right now as I prepare to attend the annual National Speakers’ Association convention in Anaheim, CA. I’m more excited than I can remember being in my entire career. I’ve enjoyed several key successes in the past few years, but at times I’ve asked myself, “What’s next?”

I never want to feel as though I’m Andy Dufrain, trapped inside the four walls of a job, a career, or a situation. And that’s why I’m here today, this weekend, at this place. To meet with colleagues and discuss their strategies, and discover the next big thing for me.

Often it’s easier to do nothing.

The difficult part is deciding to get busy, and then doing it.

What will you “get busy” doing today?

(I’ll let you know what I discover myself. I’ve got an exciting day of sessions to attend.)

-  Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla (www.The800PoundGorilla.com), a sales training and development company whose list of top clients includes many professional sports teams from the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, MLS, and NASCAR.  His book, “The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales”. is a bestseller in his hometown of Bourbonnais, IL.

In a time where jobs are scarce and cutbacks are the rule, one organization has taken steps to create jobs and opportunities for success.

The Major League Soccer National Sales Center is located in Blaine, MN, on the campus of the National Sports Center, the epicenter of many major youth and college-level sports tournaments throughout the year. Launched in mid-2010, its intent was to take 10 to 12 brand-new sales rep candidates at a time and turn them into road-ready salespeople over a 9-week period of intense, specific education in ticket sales for MLS teams.

“So far we’ve had three separate groups through the NSC, and all 31 candidates have found employment with an MLS team,” beams Bryant Pfeiffer, MLS’ Team Liaison and VP, Club Services, and the driver behind the National Sales Center. “We’re creating fully-trained salespeople for our member soccer clubs to hire.”

The NSC is a brand new concept within professional sports. “There have been sales training programs within individual teams, and some companies who do outside sales training, but from our research there’s never been a league-wide effort to organically grow their own sales talent for all its teams to benefit from,” says Pfeiffer. “So far, the candidates have been outstanding, and the teams that have hired NSC candidates have been thrilled with the results.”

Pfeiffer works closely with NSC Director Brett Zalaski, who conducts the 9 weeks of training for each class. As a part of the curriculum, candidates place live sales calls on behalf of several current MLS teams, so they’ve already had a realistic taste of what’s to come when they’re hired in a team selling environment with clubs like the Houston Dynamo, San Jose Earthquakes, Los Angeles Galaxy, or any of the 18 teams in the league.

The program is free to participants that are selected, and each student is conveniently housed in the dormitories on the National Sports Center campus, which gives the program a college-like feel. “We believe that students that grow close to each other in this 9-week class will stay connected, even when they’re hired by teams in another part of the country,” says Pfeiffer. “Those connections will help them succeed even more quickly.”

Pfeiffer has brought several unique ideas into the Sales Center, including working with a local improv comedy company in Minneapolis called the Brave New Workshop to help train their candidates in selling. “There’s a huge overlap in the principles of sales and improv comedy,” explains Pfeiffer. “We’re teaching skills that successful improv comedians use to help our reps be more successful in dealing with unfamiliar situations, accepting rejection, and thinking on their feet.”

As difficult as it has been to grow ticket sales in all major sports, Pfeiffer believes the National Sales Center gives Major League Soccer’s teams a leg up in improving their sales results. “We’ll know for sure several months from now, when the sales results from our first class can be compared to other sales reps hired from other sources, but so far the results have been great.”

Thinking of investing in sales training? Those who are thinking ahead certainly are.
Find out more about the National Sales Center at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgXjHuSD5kE .

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.