Bill Guertin | 800 Pound Gorilla Blog on SalesGravy.com

Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens is a presence. More media coverage was lavished over him in this year’s Super Bowl than any other player, and with Lewis at linebacker, the Ravens were able to defeat the San Francisco 49ers in a very memorable game.

But what is it about Lewis that people are drawn to? He’s a hulk of a man; not super tall, but at 6’1″ and 240 pounds, with arms like tree trunks, he would certainly stand out in a crowd. His 17 seasons in the NFL is a testament to his toughness and conditioning, especially after coming back this season from a debilitating injury of a torn right triceps muscle.

Lewis’ style is brash but not obnoxious; he has a swagger but not at the expense of the other team. He’s a big talker, but not to make the other team angry as much as to inspire those around him. He earns what he talks about through mental and physical conditioning; he doesn’t give lip service without being able to back it up through preparation. He’s a giver through volunteering and donating his time and resources to several charities. He takes his role model status seriously, and minds his P’s and Q’s in his own personal life as best he can, despite being drawn into challenging situations on occasion.

Take another look at that list. Could the same be said about you and the way you’re perceived by those around you?

Whether you like Ray Lewis or not, his career is one that any of us in business would be proud of. He’s certainly not perfect, and none of us are, but if we’re to have a lasting legacy for those around us, Lewis is a pretty good model to follow.

Congratulations, Ray, on your second Super Bowl ring. May you continue to be a positive influence on those around you in your retirement.

– Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales training and consulting firm whose clients include the ticket sales departments of dozens of professional sports teams, including those in the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and NASCAR. He is the author of two books, including The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales: How to Dominate Your Market, and speaks regularly to corporate and conference audiences on how dominant thinking can improve sales performance. Reach him at bill@The800PoundGorilla.com, or learn more at www.The800PoundGorilla.com.

The “real” NFL referees are back to work. Whether it was because of the botched call at the end of the September 24th Monday Night game or not, the fact remains that order and credibility has been restored to America’s favorite spectator sport.

For the first seven weeks of the season (4 pre-season and 3 regular-season weeks), coaches and players had to endure second-tier expertise on the field. Whether they got the calls right or not, the job of professional football refereeing had never undergone such scrutiny. We thought the refs were bad before? We hadn’t seen anything like this. It seemed OK at first, but as the weeks went on, more and more cracks were showing in these replacements’ knowledge of the game, their ability to make quick decisions, and to maintain control.

Could your current sales team be confused for a bunch of “replacements”?

• Do your salespeople know the rules of good salesmanship, or are they learning on the job, making egregious mistakes with your customers along the way?

• Are they taking care of your customers as if they’re going to be in their positions for a long time, or are they doing what they need to do to get by today?

• Do they look the part of a professional — neatly dressed, pressed, and presentable to a key client?

• Are their presentations crisp, their grammar concise and professional, and their mannerisms in keeping with the image you want to portray to others?

• Are they studying past buying habits of clients, looking for opportunities to grow their involvement with your company and help them succeed more deeply with you?

Or could your sales staff be mistaken for a group that could be replaced at any time by people who are better trained, more experienced, and sharper at your business?

Professional training is not just a luxury.  In a competitive business setting, it’s essential to maintaining a healthy edge, fostering growth, and helping your customers to become better at using your product or service. When you cut corners on that kind of growth, it may not be obvious at first… but over time, customers begin to notice.

Make sure your team is loaded with pros. Train them well, and monitor their progress. Keep them sharp, and you won’t be apologizing for their lack of performance later.

– Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales training and consulting firm whose clients include the ticket sales departments of dozens of professional sports teams, including those in the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and NASCAR. He is the author of two books, including The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales: How to Dominate Your Market, and speaks regularly to corporate and conference audiences on how dominant thinking can improve sales performance. Reach him at bill@The800PoundGorilla.com, or learn more at www.The800PoundGorilla.com.

Bill Guertin

The current generation has embraced the act of texting far more quickly than any other single medium of communication in human history. But at what cost?

I had a simple question I had for my 21-year-old son, Kyle. Was he coming home from college for Saturday night dinner?

I called his cell phone. No answer.

Hmm. Maybe he’s in class, or on a project at the TV station, or maybe studying. (A father of a college student can only hope.) Hey, here’s an interesting idea: I’ll text him!

So I did.

I got an immediate response back.

I texted him back: “Why didn’t you answer the phone when I called?”

The reply: “Nbdy tlks on the phone any mor Dad.”

Apparently texts don’t need a spell-checker. Nobody cares to spell a text correctly anyway!

Our language is going to hell in a hands-free device. The current generation has decided that they’d like to exist in a bubble of protection from anyone in the outside world, except whatever they can read and control themselves via their texting devices. They, however, want the ability to reach out and annoy whomever they want whenever they want, AND get an immediate response back.

And spell it any way they want!

I’m tempted to rant on about this techno-tragedy, but we as sales management professionals need to understand this phenomenon of communication when hiring, training, and coaching our young sales talent. If we want to be able to help them to succeed, we have to remember their preferred means of communication, what appeals to them, and how they’ll best absorb the information they need.

So… here’s what I’m contemplating lately: Should we be texting them more often? Using technology in a better way to connect with them? Feeding them bite-sized training nuggets instead of day-long lectures and old-school workbooks? Or is texting another way of copping out, and a return to the ‘good old days’ in order?

What do YOU think?  Have you adopted texting as a sales leader in a unique way?  Enter your comments below. Perhaps it’s time we entered into some meaningful dialogue. Face-to-face. Without our devices in hand.

– Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales training and consulting firm whose clients include the ticket sales departments of dozens of professional sports teams, including those in the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and NASCAR. He is the author of two books, including The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales: How to Dominate Your Market, and speaks regularly to corporate and conference audiences on how dominant thinking can improve sales performance. Reach him at bill@The800PoundGorilla.com, or learn more at www.The800PoundGorilla.com.

800-Pound Gorillas are do-ers. They get up in the morning eager to seize the day, make things happen, take a few licks, get back up, try a different direction, and succeed.

As 800-Pound Gorilla sales professionals-in-training, all of us need to be aware of when we get into the habit of using “kinda just”y language in our conversations with prospects.

“Hi, Jim, this is Bill Guertin with ABC. I kinda just wanted to reach out…”

Kinda-just is NOT self-assured.

Every one of us slides into language modes that give others the impression that we’re unsure, apologetic, or tentative in our approach. Other words that we sometimes get into the habit of using might be:

“Were you thinking about…?”

“Have you checked out…?”

“Is that something you’d be interested in?”

“Um… y’know… I mean… “

As a general rule, people want to do business with others who are self-assured in a way that they themselves would like to emulate. As Jeb Blount so eloquently put it in the title of his book, People Buy You in addition to the product or service you represent… and the language you choose to use is part of the “you” package.

This is not pushy, intimidating, or slick. It’s being comfortable with the language of forward motion, rather than of indecision.

“Here’s the reason I’m calling…”

“What have you done along the lines of…?

“Has ___ been a concern of yours?”

“Let’s each do this…”

“I’d like to schedule a follow-up so that…”

These are the word choices of the dominant players in the market you serve. Adopt them, and more like them, and you’ll be on your way to becoming the 800-Pound Gorilla of your industry.

– Bill Guertin is Chief Enthusiasm Officer (CEO) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales/marketing consultant group that works with companies and individuals to help them become the dominant players in the markets they serve. Clients include many of the ticket sales departments of professional sports teams in the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, and more. Reach out at bill@The800PoundGorilla.com with your comments and suggestions.

O Brett!

Ah, Brett!

O wherefore wouldst thy level of drama have appeared without ye in the N F of L in 2009?

Would it have been in Philly, with the Vicar of Violations toward Domestic Beasts? Perhaps in Buffalo, or Cincinnati, or Dallas? We need not speculate any longer, for thy soap opera is indeed tops in the major leagues!

Forsooth! Could it be possible that a breeze of family disturbance mightest disrupt thy decision once more? Perhaps a fit of guilt for avoiding thy pursuit of punt, pass and catch with thy local Mississippi high school team? Perchance a new advertising deal for a major retailer over your perceived ability to make a Decision?

How thrilling it will be for your huddle compatriates in purple to hear you call a play, and then reconsider your decision for fifteen seconds or more!

O, Brett!!  Thou fans dost love to speculate over thy insecurities, thy quirkiness, and thine inability to shave at peculiar times of the year!  Like fruit files on the rotten core of a once-sweet fruit, thou hast singlehandedly blurred the covers of Sports Illustrated, People Magazine, and Psychology Today!

How Boring!  Yea, Boring our sporting lives were! before you came in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out of our world.  Like Kirstie Alley with a doughnut, we knew not what ye wanted to be. But now, we do.

Do we not?

We do. Until, of course, the pre-season games begin, and ye feel the crushing blow of a Mario Williams sack, and remember once again how warm and cushy your body pillow of retirement felt.

And ye, Brett Favre, O 800-Pound Gorilla of the Gridiron, will once again ride into the sunset, weeping into the TV cameras, thinking we care as much as you do.

P.S.  To all my friends at the Vikings — I’m thrilled that you finally got your quarterback.  Really, I am.  But there’s got to be a better way to make a re-entrance!  Good luck to the Vikes and Brett Favre; it should be interesting, to say the least. 

– 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.

You all know Brett Favre, the former — no, wait, maybe current — NFL quarterback. His media stalls and perceived indecisiveness on whether or not he’ll be playing in any given season have earned him more mentions in the media than his heroics on the field.

That reputation is actually starting to pay off for him.

Sears has tabbed Favre as a spokesperson for their home electronics department. According to the Wall Street Journal, Favre has shot a commercial for Sears spoofing his indecision by going back and forth over which flat-screen TV to buy.

Favre, one of the 800-Pound Gorillas of current (or maybe former) NFL quarterbacks, has way more talent than most of the current starters in the NFL. By using the tactic of stalling, Favre has actually created more interest and more demand for his services, and his value has actually gone up. He’s using his “decision” as a way to become a more dominant player in the NFL.

What unique qualities do you have that drive others crazy, yet actually work to enhance your value as a salesperson, a company, or an industry? Yes, Brett Favre is driving some people up a wall… but he’s going to be laughing all the way to the bank if he chooses to suit up for another year.

And he’s creating a new verb to describe someone who can’t quite make up their mind about something.

– 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.