Bill Guertin | 800 Pound Gorilla Blog on SalesGravy.com

High achievers that ever find themselves content, comfortable, and safe rarely seem to become 800-Pound Gorillas – dominant players in the market they serve.

In fact, if you’re a business owner or leader, recognizing that a change is necessary to allow for stretching and growing is one of the keys to continual success.

Instagram, the photo-sharing company that was just purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, started its corporate life as a virtual “check-in” site, much like a Foursquare with pictures.

Originally called Burbn Inc., Kevin Systrom and his staff started evolving the idea of a mobile app that would let people take photos, customize them, and share them. Had they stuck with their original idea, Instagram wouldn’t exist.

The new buzzword in quick thinking is to pivot. Entrepreneurs are being described as being able to quickly pivot from one idea or concept to another as the opportunity presents itself.

The Wall Street Journal’s recent article on the pivoting concept reveals that investors want to know a company founder’s background — whether they’ve experienced a sudden change of business focus to take advantage of an idea or concept that is borne from their current activity. As they choose to become partners, that kind of resume gets noticed more often — to the tune of 2 1/2 times the capital vs. founders who didn’t change at all.

It’s not good to change too often — the study, done by Startup Genome Compass out of San Francisco, found that if you as a founder changed direction four or more times, you weren’t taken as seriously.

Pivoting is an important option for many. If something isn’t working, it’s really OK in these times to consider abandoning or leveraging what you’ve learned into where the market is headed… and abandon what was.

Those who are average aren’t the ones that are climbing quickly to the top; they’re the ones who are bold enough to analyze the data, make an intelligent decision, and sometimes be brazen enough to act decisively in a new direction.

If the thought scares you to death, you’re not alone. But being open to change should be a prerequisite for anyone in business today.

– Bill Guertin is CEO of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales training and consulting shop that works with many teams in the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball and more to improve ticket sales and service. Check out www.The800PoundGorilla.com for more dirt.

I’ve got a complaint, and I need to know if anyone’s with me on this.

Lately there have been a number of books and special reports written for those who are interested in landing a job in the business end of the sports world. Many of them promise to reveal “insider tips” and how to influence the decisions of those who are interviewing for the positions in sports, as if the process is able to be ‘tricked’ into liking you enough to give you the job.

If you’re after a job in sports, can I do you a favor?

As a person that helps teams interview and choose the best candidates for sports sales jobs, let me save you the cost of these “cure-all” books.  The three things sports sales departments need today are:

-  Candidates who will work hard;

-  who are coachable;

-  and can demonstrate some degree of sales talent.

If you can prove those to whomever you’re looking to work for, you won’t need a special trick from a book; you’re already 90% ahead of the majority of people who are applying.

But here’s the most important part of this: You had better BE a hard worker, BE coachable, and HAVE some degree of sales talent. Professional interviewers are a dime a dozen. What sports teams are really in need of today are people in the sales department who flap their jaws less and actually DO their job more.

If the only reason you want to work in sports is because it’s cool, or because it’s been your lifelong ambition to work for a particular team, do yourself a favor and apply elsewhere.

Start paying attention to the books that will help you succeed in selling, and when you’re ready, you’ll learn how to best sell  yourself in the interview.

Hmm. Now there’s a concept.

– Bill Guertin is CEO of Stadium Gorilla, the sports sales skills development division of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales & marketing improvement company based near Chicago. He’s worked with over 50 professional sports teams to help them improve their ticket sales results, and welcomes your questions anytime at bill@The800PoundGorilla.com.

In 2007, the governing body of NASCAR introduced a newly-designed car body for each of the competing vehicles that would be safer, cheaper, and aerodynamically more likely to allow for more competitive racing. They called it the “Car of Tomorrow”, or COT for short.

Fast-forward (no pun intended) to 2012. After several tweaks to the COT style, an entirely new series of car bodies are set to debut in 2013, with different aero designs and body shapes that more closely represent the manufacturers’ street vehicle designs.  So, what are we to call this new 2013 model… the “Car of the Day After Tomorrow”?

NASCAR, being the 800-Pound Gorilla of auto racing, is a savvy organization, and undoubedly already have a name for the new style that will be more time-enduring than the ill-chosen Car of Tomorrow.

Which makes Apple’s announcement of their newest iteration of the iPad even more puzzling.

It’s called the “New iPad”? Not the iPad 2.5? 2s? Mega? No other way to differentiate it?

Really??

What will people call them when they’re selling them on eBay two years from now? “The One That Was New In 2012″?

Apple is the ultimate 800-Pound Gorilla… formidable in size, in a category by themselves, and nearly impossible to compete with.   By many standards, they are the most valuable company on the planet. They’re just plain brilliant, and certainly they didn’t get there by being careless with their product names. So there HAS to be an explanation for this goofiness.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior VP of worldwide marketing, was asked that very question. His answer? “We don’t want to be predictable.”

Hmm. Well, Apple, you got me there. New iPad is certainly unpredictable. But it has the foresight that a 5-year-old might have. “Hey, Mikey! We’ve got this new iPad we’re introducing next month. What do you think we should call it?”

And then, of course, underneath it all could be the real reason for the blah-sounding name: to get more people to write and talk about it, therefore generating even more press and chatter about Apple and its products.

(Oh no!  I can’t believe I’ve fallen into their sinister trap!)

– Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales improvement consultancy who inspires others to become the dominant players in the markets they serve. Reach out at bill@the800poundgorilla, or learn more at www.the800poundgorilla.com.

Are Radio stations addicted to Rush?

One of the essences of 800-Pound Gorillas – those who command the lion’s share of the available business in a category — is to be truly quotable. Apple’s “magical” pre-release description of the iPad. Donald Trump’s well-known (and well-repeated) slogan, “You’re Fired”.

And then there’s Rush Limbaugh’s not-so-subtle use of the words “slut” and “prostitute” to describe a young law student named Susan Fluke, who testified on behalf of President Obama’s plan to cover birth control on healthcare plans.

With an estimated 15 million listeners, Rush Limbaugh is easily the 800-Pound Gorilla of conservative talk radio. His daily broadcasts are syndicated to nearly 600 radio stations around the U.S., all of whom enjoy a “protected” broadcast bubble. If you’re a Rush affiliate, other stations within a protected range of your signal are typically prohibited from running the same program at the same time, so your listeners and advertisers are protected from an over-diluting of affiliates in a market. (The exception is when a station will run a “re-broadcast”, or a replay of the day’s live program at a later time in the day, in a market with a competitor’s signal.)

The big problem for a radio station manager with carrying Rush Limbaugh is the same problem that makes him such an attractive property to a radio station in the first place: He draws listeners. Good or bad, controversial or not, Rush has a loyal following, and if you carry his show, no one else in your market can.

If a radio station GM or program director considers dropping the program because of a single incident, there’s at least two other stations in the market who are salivating to pick him up on their signals. The protected territory that the station has enjoyed would now become that of their competitor… and for many who carry Rush, it’s their #1 most listened-to slot during the broadcast day.

So… what to do?

Many national advertisers like ProFlowers.com, AccuQuote, Netflix, and Capital One have pulled their ads from Rush’s show. These are the ads that run in every market that the program airs, and those defections don’t hurt the local affiliate. Where it really begins to hurt is when a station’s local advertisers begin to leave — the local hospitals, the area car dealerships, furniture stores, and the like.

With satellite radio gaining ground, online streaming becoming more prevalent, and electronic media gaining in their share of ad revenue, a local broadcaster has few options. Rush is the crack that many stations have come to rely on for their fix of listeners — and there aren’t many alternatives that can pack the kind of listener punch that Rush does.

Two stations — one in Hawaii and another in Pittsfield, Massachusetts — have made the decision to drop Rush based on his insensitive comments.

I commend those general managers for their actions. Sadly, there are a half-dozen other GM’s in their markets who are dancing in their hallways right now… ready to pick up the Rush habit, insensitive comments or not, on behalf of their bottom lines.

– Bill Guertin is a 25-year broadcast radio veteran, and CEO of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales consultantcy based in Bourbonnias, IL. His book, “The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales: How to Dominate Your Market” is available here.

Of all that I receive E-mails, blogs, and occasional rants from online, I look forward to the Monday Morning Memo the most.

It comes from a friend of mine that I met many years ago. We don’t keep in touch regularly, but his influence continues to inspire and guide me.

Roy H. Williams (not the basketball coach in North Carolina, but the ad guy in Texas) has created a quiet, anti-800-Pound Gorilla kind of company that consistently cranks out amazing advertising, life-changing conferences, and salient wisdom. He’s known to many as the Wizard of Ads; Wizard Academy and its related parts are his creation. He’s quick to deflect his accomplishments to the others around him, but it all starts with his wit, demeanor, and gallantry.

He’s the consummate host; step onto the Wizard Academy grounds at any time, and you’re likely to be welcomed with open arms and an open bottle of merlot. Roy’s not your typical man-in-charge; he’s a quiet, pensive type who would rather be nestled in a back room somewhere with a laptop or an engrossing book. But listen to the thousands of people who have been influenced by his work, and you’d hear of a genius whose alchemy of people and ideas is — well, magical.

One of Roy’s fascinations is with the story of Don Quixote, the fabled character from Cervantes’ Man of La Mancha. Not only has Roy become a collector of Cervantes memorabilia, he has run his operation in a very Quixotic way.

His most recent Monday Morning Memo (www.mondaymorningmemo.com) revealed why Don Quixote’s character has resonated with him throughout his career and his business model. Roy said this:

“I love Don Quixote because:

1. he saw beauty where others did not.
(In the eyes of others, his Lady Dulcinea was a common village girl.)

2. he saw adventure where others did not.
(“What giants?” said Sancho Panza…)

3. he was utterly committed to his quest.
(Quixote never gave up, never backed down. He was willing to suffer hardship for what he believed.)”

Can you answer those three questions today?

Are you able to see beauty where others might not?

Do you approach each day as an adventure, even when the mundane tasks of the day may not give the appearance of a mighty quest?

Have you committed completely to what you stand for and believe?

My friend Roy helps others find their quest in life. He helped me find mine many years ago, and I’m grateful for it.

If you’re in a leadership position, how are you helping others find their quest?

And if you’re in need of a quest, where will you turn to find yours?

P.S. You can check out Roy’s work at www.wizardofads.com.

– Bill Guertin is a Quixotic CEO of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a company who tilts at the windmills of sales organizations each day to help them overcome their enemies of negative cash flow, poor sales performance, and anemic attitudes. Learn more at www.The800PoundGorilla.com.

Way to go, Sparky... you got the first appointment. Don't leave without securing the NEXT appointment!

Jeffrey was on a roll.

The meeting was going well. He had lots of great notes, asked the right questions, and Janet, his prospect, seemed genuinely interested in the process of discovery. After 20 minutes of Q&A, it seemed like there was a fit between Jeffrey’s product and Janet’s company’s needs.

“Well, I think I have everything I need, Janet. I’ll be coming back with a few suggestions for you to consider. Thank you for your time, and I’ll give you a call when I have everything together to set up our next meeting.”

Here’s the problem: As challenging as making contact with people is today, Jeffrey could have saved himself a ton of time and phone-tag by simply setting the date and time of the follow-up meeting with Janet right then and there in her office!

It seems so obvious, but many salespeople fail to deliver on this one simple element of successful salesmanship. Setting the next appointment does several things:

- The prospect can mentally compartmentalize specifically when you’ll be back, and can adjust their thinking about the opportunity to when they’ll be picking up the conversation

- They know exactly how much time they have to confer with others about the opportunity before the sales rep will be back

- They can make decisions about other meetings around the time you’ve scheduled, so that your time slot is protected

- They have more confidence in you as a sales professional that’s not going to waste their time

- You’ve put yourself on a deadline, and now will work to meet that deadline vs. allowing other things to get in the way and potentially postpone the deal.

When possible, always take a moment at the end of a positive meeting to set the next date/time that you’ll be getting together. The dominant players in your business — the 800-pound gorillas — do it every single day. It’s not only polite and professional… it’s good business.

– Bill Guertin is Chief Enthusiasm Officer of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales skills development company whose mission is to “inspire great companies to become dominant companies”. Learn more at www.The800PoundGorilla.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.

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.