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What’s the reason beyond BLAME? Maybe it’s YOU!

I overheard sales dialog on the airplane this morning. “He (the customer) has never responded to one of my emails, and never calls me back. The ONLY time he calls me is when he needs something.” Then back to devouring this week’s edition of US Weekly magazine.

Sound familiar?

Why do salespeople blame other people and/or other things for their own ineptitude? Why didn’t this salesperson say, “I gotta work on my voicemails and emails. They’re not getting any traction, and they’re costing me major money. I’m going on an all-out effort to improve my writing skills, my voicemail skills, and my creativity to generate better response!”

I’ll tell you why: It’s easier to blame others for your shortcomings than it is to take responsibility for them. It’s easier to blame than admit you’re not that good. It’s easier to blame than it is to improve. It’s easier to blame than face your own reality.

And I’m certain this message applies to you.

You blame the customer when something goes wrong, something didn’t happen as planned, someone didn’t respond, or you lost a sale to a competitor – especially at a lower price. Wrong. Very wrong.

I have been helping salespeople sell more and sell better since 1976, and during the time no one has ever come to me and said, “Jeffrey, I didn’t make the sale, and it was all my fault!” Interesting statistic.

Rather than blame, I have some answers that will help you. Actually, I have some questions. Questions you MUST ask yourself BEFORE you blame. These questions will give you a brand new perspective, and they automatically shift blame to responsibility. They will bring you a new sense of reality. And they will make you a better salesperson.

Ask yourself “WHY” to get to the truth.

  • Why was my call not returned?
  • Why did they cancel my appointment?
  • Why did they delete my email?
  • Why did they not respond to my email?
  • Why did they say, “Not interested”?
  • Why did they say, “We’re happy with our present supplier”?
  • Why can’t I set an appointment?
  • Why can’t I get through to the decision maker?
  • Why are they meeting with other vendors or suppliers?
  • Why did they take the lowest bid?
  • Why did they buy from the competition?
  • Why did they tell me that my price is too high?

Why are you blaming others (especially customers) for your inability to attract, engage, connect, and create value that leads to a sale?

One of the weakest and least exposed shortcomings of salespeople is how they use time. If you’re allocating too much time to watching TV, or other nonsense activities, you’re wasting valuable career-building opportunities.

Whatever you’re doing with your non-business, non-family time, ask yourself these reality questions:

  • Will this help me double my sales?
  • Will this help me build better relationships?
  • Will this help me become better known?
  • Will this make me be perceived as a person of value?
  • Will this help me build my reputation?
  • Will this help me build my sales and personal development skills?

Work on these elements of your sales and business life:

  • Message leaving. Are your messages in any way impacting your standing and status with the customer? Is there an ounce of value or creativity, or are you just begging for some news about the proposal you sent (and calling that a follow-up)?
  • Be available. Your prospect will call you when they are free. This may be before or after business hours.
  • Be easy to do business with. Customers want everything NOW!
  • Leave value messages. Something short and sweet that they can use.
  • Study creativity. Your competitive advantage is to be perceived as different. Read a book on creativity as a starting point.
  • Be more friendly than professional. Sales is a profession, but salespeople (you) must be perceived as friendly.
  • Build your business social media presence. Are you tweeting value messages? Interacting with customers one-on-one on your business Facebook page? Looking to make new connections on LinkedIn? Creating a YouTube channel with customer testimonial videos? Or are you watching the 6 o’clock news
  • Use meals to build relationships. You’ll be amazed how much more available customers become once you get to know them personally. Breakfast or lunch prospects and customers at least three times a week.

SIMPLE SELF-EVIDENT FACT: If you want customer response, you have to EARN it.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.


About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Measuring the ROI of social media? There’s a laugh, and a joke.

I got an (unsolicited) email offering a webinar to teach me about how to measure, and the importance of measuring, the ROI of social media.

TOTAL JOKE. And a bad one at that.

Social media, business social media, is running wild – with or without you. Your customers and prospective customers are posting on Facebook whether you have the balls to have presence there or not.

And I am not just talking to companies – I am talking to YOU – the individual.

CONSIDER THIS: Of all the grassroots revolutions that have occurred on social media, none of them were started by companies or a governments. They were all started by people – people who were excited, people who were afraid, people who were pissed, and people who wanted change and spoke up. They spoke over CEOs, media, newspapers, government, lobbyists, and politicians.

HERE’S WHAT THEY SHOULD MEASURE: LRI otherwise known as Lost Revenue (and goodwill and customer loyalty) of Idiots.

While Macy’s and most other department stores are/were measuring ROI, Zappos is cleaning their clock, delivering value, connectingwith and responding to customers one on one, and building a billion dollar empire in less time than it took Macy’s to expand to a second store 100 years ago.

Webinars on the subject of ROI of social media are likely run by the same people who thought Amazon.com wouldn’t make it. If Bezos measured the ROI at Amazon in the first five years, he would have quit. He accomplished domination while Barnes & Noble was measuring ROI, and Borders was going broke.

Amazon now has total market dominance based on leadership, vision, and technological excellence. Same with Apple. Microsoft used to laugh at them, now their employees all have iPads and iPods at home.

Measure? No, INVEST RESOURCES IN SOCIAL MEDIA WITHOUT MEASURING. NOW!

It’s way too soon to measure.

MAJOR POINT OF UNDERSTANDING: If they had measured the ROI of TV, or the computer, or the automobile, or the telephone, or the Internet after 5 years, NOBODY would have gotten involved, and we’d be in a technological bog – sinking.

Wake up and smell the opportunity!

People guarding nickels have no idea of the power or the value of business social media, much less social media. They have no idea of the lost opportunity, or the lost revenue. They have no idea of the perception and participation of customers.

My bet is people who measure the ROI of social media HAVE NEVER TWEETED. Wanna take that bet?

I define these people as the ones who still have a small rubber circle in the middle of their keyboard – completely out of touch with what’s new, and trying to prevent the unstoppable force of progress, and customers.

Wanna know who else ‘measured’ financial return?

  • Blockbuster measured online movie services.
  • Blackberry measured smartphones.
  • Microsoft measured music players.

Billion-dollar MIS-MEASUREMENT: Bank of America DIDN’T measure or understand the power of Facebook. They were greedily measuring increased revenue from debit card customers. Their billion dollar loss paled in comparison to their complete loss of goodwill. I doubt they will recover in a decade.

All of those companies are/were foolish.

There’s one company you want to take their time, measure nickels, rely on lawyers, and stick their big toe in the water before getting involved – that one company is your biggest competitor.

Here’s an easy plan to get rolling in a week or two:

1. Gather the email addresses of EVERYONE in your world.
2. Create a first-class, well tagged with key words, business page on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
3. Start a YouTube channel by inviting your customers to film WHY they bought from you.
4. Map out a strategy, and goals for engagement, for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
5. Assign someone to monitor, post, and RESPOND to all who engage.
6. Create six value-based messages, two each for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
7. Shoot 2-3 value-based (something your customers could use) videos and post them on YouTube.
8. Invite all of your customers to join you by sending examples of your value messages. I recommend one campaign per media for four weeks – but have links to all in each email.
9. Post something every day on Facebook. Tweet something every day. Link with 2-5 people every day. Post one video a week.
10. If you really want to create some buzz, convert your contacts to Ace of Sales (www.aceofsales.com) – and send emails that differentiate yourself from the competition.
10.5 Only listen to your lawyer if they tell you what you CAN do.

Start there.
Start now.
Start.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.


About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Training is out. Education is in. Are you in or out?

There are no two companies that train alike. Some go all out. Some do little or none. From my personal observation over the past five years, training (especially sales training) is in decline. Training budgets follow the economy and corporate profits.

I wince at the word training, because I have always associated it with lions and elephants. The word education seems more appropriate.

Training teaches you, ‘how.’
Education teaches you, ‘why.’

The person who knows HOW will always have a job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss. (Although many people claim to be the author of this quote, it was originally written by Ralph Waldo Emerson around 1870. Emerson used ‘man’ rather than the PC version ‘person.’)

REALITY: Most companies provide salespeople initial (minimal) training of essential product knowledge and basic sales skills. Big deal. Then the real world kicks in and the salesperson is expected to produce without the real skills he or she needs to ‘make plan’ or ‘achieve quota’ before they ‘get fired.’

Pile on the facts that customers have situations, barriers, problems, and objections not covered in training, while the boss is demanding ‘cold calls’ and all kinds of accountability. If you combine those elements with zero attitude training, low belief sysyem, and constant rejection, it’s no wonder early turnover in some companies (maybe yours) EXCEEDS 25%.

What to do?

Here is list of the major categories that need to be included in the training/education of your sales force in order to retain good people and achieve your sales objectives:

CAUTION: This list will require your company to make a serious investment in the education of people and salespeople – but take heart, whatever the money involved, it pales in comparison to the cost of employee turnover.

  • Personal development skills. Attitude comes before sales success. Positive attitude, followed by the five parts of belief, and classes on achievement and listening. Educate employees to make them better people BEFORE you throw them into the market.
  • Communication skills. How to speak and how to write are at the fulcrum of sales success. Poor communication skills OR poor writing skills will lead to failure faster than anything other than poor attitude.
  • Buying motives. Why people buy is almost never taught, yet it’s THE most powerful concept a salesperson can possess. Teach it at your best customer’s place of business.
  • Product knowledge. It’s not an option to make your salespeople experts before they hit the road or the phone. Teach it at your best customer’s place of business.
  • Personal presentation skills. Getting your compelling message transferred and “bought” is an essential aspect of salesmanship.
  • Laptop and tablet (iPad) presentation skills. If you have the tool, and you’re not the master of it, you will miss the marginal sale. If you don’t have the tool, you’ll miss a ton of sales.
  • Selling skills. Asking engaging questions and establishing relationships – the basic science of selling. BUT the elements above need to be understood BEFORE selling skills can be learned, let alone applied.
  • Smart phone skills. This is the communication device of the present and the near future. It must be mastered.
  • Voicemail skills. How are you at creating one, and leaving one? Two of the biggest enigmas of the modern sales era.
  • Value messaging skills. Weekly emails, blog posts, and tweets to existing customers and prospects to stay “top-of-mind.”
  • Pipeline building. How to build the number of qualified and expected sales. At the end of the month, a full pipelne ensures you’ll exceed plan.
  • Customer service skills. How to be memorable enough to create word-of-mouth advertising and unsolicited referrals.
  • Loyalty actions. Going the extra mile. Being WOW! By your actions, creating positive word of mouth advertising.
  • Customer uses of product and services skills. How the customer uses what you sell in order to produce and profit.
  • Customer perspective skills. How the customer views things and how the customer wants to be treated.
  • Business social media. No longer an option. No longer possible to ignore its power. Not just for the company, also for the individual.
  • Networking and relationship building. Getting face-to-face with customers and prospects on a regular basis. Network for sales AND relationship building.
  • Earning referrals and testimonials. THERE IS NO BETTER WAY TO MAKE A SALE THAN A REFERRAL AND A TESTIMONIAL.
  • Personal promotional skills. How to market yourself so that others will call you first. This is a combination of corporate support and personal (online) branding.
  • Past history of company and product (even if it’s a service). Knowing the history of your company and product or service will help put much of the prospet’s fear and unspoken risk to rest.
  • Continuing education. Once you start, you must make a commitment to continue as long as you exist.
     
    StrategyDriven Contributors find online schools, like Indiana Wesleyan, make it easy for business professionals to schedule continuing education classes around their busy schedules.

This list is the MINIMUM requirement for salespeople to be prepared to succeed. But my best guess is that you are not educating or being educated in most of these critical elements. WHY?

There are no good reasons other than cost of training. And cost is a weak argument at best as the competition heats up their recruiting and training efforts.

And of course you’re going to want to measure the returns on your investment. Luckily in sales, ROI is the easiest part. Here’s an ROI reality: subtract last month’s sales from this month’s sales, and this month last year from this month’s sales and compare the results. You might also want to measure employee retention.

In sales all you have to do is measure reality. How’s yours?

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.


About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Elements from the past twenty years you can use for the next twenty!

I’m celebrating my twentieth year of writing about sales, networking, loyalty, trust, attitude, leadership, business social media, and personal development.

My core of information transformed into a body of work that includes 11 books – all bestsellers. I did it while you were watching TV. I chose to write instead of watch.

Last week was the second part of the celebration talking about the evolution of the selling process and how it will affect you and your sales for the next twenty. This is the third and final part. If you missed the first two, you can get all three parts at Gitomer.com, by entering the word ‘twenty’ in the GitBit box.

Here’s the conclusion of what’s now and what’s next:

19. UNDERSTAND CREATIVITY. Most people say they’re creative, but they have never read a book on the science of it. That might be a good intention for the remainder of 2012. Start with anything by Michael Michalko.

20. CONVERT LEADS TO SALES. This is as challenging as any sales activity in the cycle. Sales have been dangling in the wind for years. Decisions are finally picking up speed. Now is the time to stay in consistent, ‘value-based’ follow-up mode. Stay on track and sales will follow.

21. YOUR ATTITUDE. You have COMPLETE control and choice as to the way you dedicate yourself to the way you think. As you emerge from the economic depression of the past four years, it is IMPERATIVE that your attitude (both at home and at work) is set on YES! This one element will enhance everyone’s communication, morale, service, and sales.

22. EARN TRUST. You don’t ask for trust. You can’t force trust. You EARN trust. How are you earning it?

23. EARN SALES. You don’t ask for sales. You can’t force sales. You EARN sales. Still asking? Still trying to “close?”

24. EARN LOYALTY. You don’t ask for loyalty. You can’t force loyalty. You EARN loyalty. Loyalty comes from service and value received. Where’s your value?

25. EARN REFERRALS. You don’t ask for referrals. You can’t force referrals. You EARN referrals. Referrals are not just leads, they’re report cards.

26. EARN TESTIMONIALS. You don’t ask for testimonials. You don’t force testimonials. You EARN testimonials. Testimonials are your ONLY valid proof.

27. DIFFERENTIATE IN THE MIND OF THE CUSTOMER. Differentiating is the key to winning on value over price. Your branded emails can differentiate you from the others. Go to www.aceofsales.com, subscribe, and you will immediately begin to genuinely differentiate.

28. TAKE ACTION. Put away the remote. I know you take action during the workday – it’s before and after the workday that I’m talking about. Allocate 30 minutes in the morning and one hour in the evening to improving one of these imperatives each day.

29. CONSISTENCY OF ACTIONS. Get up earlier every day, and do something for YOU. Exercise. Read. Think. Write. Every day. That’s been one of my ‘obvious’ 20-year secrets.

30. NEXT-LEVEL ACHIEVEMENT. Study your business, your market, your competition, your customers, and yourself. When you do, what’s next for you will become obvious.

31. FAMILY SUPPORT. Nothing and no one is more important. You need their support. They need yours. Best advice: Give genuine support, and yours will follow.

32. WRITE EVERY DAY. Writing leads to wealth. Not money, wealth. Every penny I have earned since March 23, 1992, I can trace back to something I wrote. But MUCH MORE than money, I have gained reputation, recognition, and rewards that have enhanced my success all the way to fulfillment. And I promise that writing every day will do the same for you.

32.5 CELEBRATE. OFTEN. Please do not wait to celebrate. Life’s short. Celebrate every thing, every sale, every victory, every day. And don’t be cheap about it.

TAKE ACTION NOW, NOT TOMORROW: Go back over the entire list of 32.5 imperatives and rate yourself 1-10 on how well you stack up against each element that I have presented. That will give you the most realistic picture of where you are vs. where you need to be. And it will give you a clearer vision or where you’re going. All you need to do is make a plan of ‘how.’

Dedicate an hour a day to you. In 20 years, you’ll be an instant success. I’m proof.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.


About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].