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What are you ready for? What are you waiting for?

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I’m all Apple all the time. Since 1984.

So far, Apple and Steve Jobs have changed the way computers run, revolutionized the mobile phone, and revolutionized the way music is distributed to a point that all retailers, distributors, manufacturers, producers, music groups, and recording artists are totally dependent on Apple for a sizeable share of their revenue.

The iPod, and all versions of their music players, phones, laptops, and anything that plays music uses iTunes as a playing medium AND a purchasing medium. WOW.

Oh, there are still DVDs and other forms of distribution, but Apple rules. And Apple makes the rules. They have completely changed the game and the process. The world, accepted it, bought it by the billions, and LOVES it.

Their iPod competition has utterly failed. Got Zune? Not only was it a billion dollar failure, it was a joke. The iPhone started another revolution. And that’s a story for another day.

Today is iPad day. Or should I say ‘book replacement’ day. The iPad is so revolutionary that no one even saw it coming. They didn’t know what to do with it – or could have predicted the changes it would inspire.

Capitalizing on the growing demand for e-books, the exploding app market, e-reader popularity, and the global appetite for cool products,Apple went to market having no idea what an explosion of creativity they were unleashing.

Remember this ditty? No more homework, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks!

Well, some of it is about to come true. The homework will still be there, the teachers will still be there, their dirty looks will (unfortunately) still be there, but the books are fading fast.

Remember your first day of school every year? ‘Issuing books’ was a major part of the day. Signing for them, writing your name and grade in them, putting them in your book bag, and then dragging them back and forth to class, to home, and back to school all year. (Not to mention losing them and dropping them in a puddle of water.)

Well, those days aren’t completely over yet, but the iPad is beginning to idle printing presses globally. And soon, like the Yellow Pages, newspapers, and magazines, the majority of printed media will only be available online as a download or from some ASP.

REALITY: Everyone on the planet is looking for ways to improve education. The iPad will lead the revolution. It will provide 21st century learning and make it FUN (and might even eliminate some of the teacher’s dirty looks).

What kid wants eight textbooks when they could have an iPad? NOBODY ON THE PLANET. Less money, no hassle, completely searchable, underline-able, note-take-able, and FUN.

Our three-year old daughter Gabrielle dominates one of our iPads. She reads, plays, watches, listens, chooses, and swipes to her heart’s content. And any time I tell her, “That’s not on this iPad,” she instantly says, “Download it, Papa.”

So far, this is a nice story. Many of you already know it, and are reading this on some Apple device. That’s great for Apple. They deserve it.

BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU? What major change or shift is about to come into your world? Your business? Your life? And are you ready for it?

What’s about to change about the way you sell? Serve? Communicate? Respond? Take products to market? Develop new products? Do business? Get customers? Keep customers? Manufacture? Deliver? Account for? Get paid for? Make profit?

Or are you too busy focused on yesterday, today, competition, pricing, bidding, eking out a profit?

THINK ABOUT THIS: What’s going to happen to car salespeople when all the auto manufacturers put the ‘buy now’ button on their websites? They will go the same way that mediocre stockbrokers went when online trading was introduced. Gone.

Amazon killed Borders. And Amazon is killing a lot of other businesses – businesses which were NOT READY for the changes that are swooping down on the sales, promotion, social media, advertising, and business world at G-4 speed.

The businesses that have lost it were and are the businesses that were and are not ready to compete. And most of them, like newspapers and other print publications, took too long to recognize and change their strategies. Google ads and ad words swooped in and cleaned their clock, their customers, and their cash reserves.

Not many are ready for the evolution.

I talked about the Apple story because they saw what was next and led the way. They innovated, took risks, made it easy to do business, and created products that consumers wanted.

And on a smaller scale, in your market, to your customers, you must do the same.

Are you looking at EVERY element of how you’re doing business? Can you see what’s new and what’s next? Are you willing to take the step forward? Or will you try to hang on to what has worked for the past twenty years, and not see let alone seize the opportunity.

Got iPad?

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].

It’s not being best, it’s setting the standard.

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When I say the words, ‘set the standard,’ what comes to your mind?

Is it personal standards of yours?
Is it standards that your business sets?
Is it standards you have in your mind about other people?
Is it standards you have in your mind about other products?

When you go to a restaurant and order your favorite steak, you’ll always recall the one restaurant (especially if it’s the one you’re in) that had the best steak (or whatever your favorite food was). That restaurant set the standard. All other steaks you will ever eat will be compared to the standard bearer, until one day you may get a better steak, and then that restaurant will become the new standard bearer.

You know and recognize dozens of standard setters in your life – especially if these products or people are amazing and have your undying loyalty and especially if you proactively refer them. It could be as simple as the best ice cream or the best apple pie. It could be the best dentist or the best chiropractor. It could be the best financial planner.

And it could also be your own brand loyalty. The best car. The best clothing. The best computer. The best phone. Things that you would never consider doing without.

Whatever those products are, whoever those people are, they set the standard. Your standard.

There are third party standards…

  • Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single basketball game. He didn’t just set a record. He set the standard.
  • Abe Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. It wasn’t just a speech. He set the standard.
  • At the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech to 500,000 people. It wasn’t just a speech. He set the standard.

The Beatles. Elvis Presley. They set the standard and paved the way for others.

When Wilt Chamberlain set the standard for scoring, it was on March 2, 1962. That standard has endured more than 50 years. Kobe Bryant’s 81 points were good, but not as good as Wilt’s 100 points – the standard.

Accomplishments are always compared to standard. Quality is always compared to standard. Products are always compared to standard. You know what the best products in your industry are. If you work for that company, you love it and vice versa.

MAJOR CLUE: Now that you get the idea of what I’m talking about, let’s talk about your business and your career.

What standards are you setting and who are the people involved in setting those standard – not just in your company, but also in the mind of your customer and in the reputation of your business in your community and in your industry?

If you’re not setting the standard, you’re fighting price. Reputation trumps price.

Your reputation stems from what others think about you and say about you. In today’s world, it’s what others post online about you. Reputation comes from setting standards in service, quality of product, consistency, and availability.

You may think of it as ‘best.’ But there’s a big difference between bragging about the fact you are the ‘best’ and ‘we set the standard.’

There are many products in which you can argue ‘who is best.’ There’s often an obvious winner. German automobile engineering has set the standard. Many computer products are best. Microsoft set the old standard and Apple set the new standard. There are many social media sites that can be argued as better than others, but Facebook set the standard.

As a salesperson, I’d like you to take a moment and evaluate (or should I say self-evaluate) where you are on the standard-setting scale. Are you just a rep? Are you one of the top 25% of reps? Or have you achieved the status of trusted advisor, who is setting standards not just in sales numbers, but also in customer loyalty, profitability, and relationships.

What about your company? What standards are they setting? What high ethical ground have they achieved?

If you look at the example of Bank of America, you see a century-old company who had set many standards and achieved global greatness. All that was destroyed by indiscriminate greed and a total lack of understanding of social media in general. Standard bearers can fall quickly. Just ask Tiger Woods.

I’ll admit this is pretty high-level thinking and for many of you reading this. You may believe that setting the standard is out of your personal control – especially standards that your company sets. But in the new world of transparency, thanks to the internet, mothered by Google and social media, you now have the opportunity to build your personal brand, create your personal reputation, and set your own personal standards – standards that will remain yours even if you change companies or careers.

I challenge you that the key word in standard setting is endure. Set standards that will last. Many have come and gone quickly. Don’t be one of them.

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].

What keeps me up at night? None of your business!

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Salespeople (not you, of course) are known for asking poor questions – questions that are not only embarrassing, questions that are also rude. And I would be remiss if I didn’t add: questions that make them appear desperate and pressing for a sale.

The dumbest question in sales is “What will it take to get your business?” It’s by far the worst question you can ask a customer. It makes you a price seller rather than a value provider, and it makes you look like you ‘need’ the sale rather than want to earn and grow a relationship.

REALITY: There is a close second to the dumbest question, and it’s the subject of this article. “What keeps you up at night?” Are you kidding me? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, that’s what!

You’re at the beginning of a sales call, trying to build positive rapport and earn some level of ‘like’ and ‘trust,’ and you’re asking me that kind of question? It’s almost as dumb as trying to ‘find the pain.’ Please don’t get me started on 1972 sales manipulation and insincerity.

Why not ask the prospect a question that relates to their real life, and their present situation, that’s potentially more revealing than a Miss America question?

MAJOR AHA! QUESTION: What wakes you up in the morning?

It’s a positive-based question that, when asked with a smile, will get you real answers, real facts, and reveal real truths. It’s light hearted, but powerful, and when followed up with ‘what else’ or ‘then what’ will create a dialog that is totally customer focused – thereby achieving the purpose of the interaction.

Below are possible answers. Here’s what to do: Think of all these answers IN TERMS OF YOURSELF, FIRST. What wakes YOU up? It reveals your top-of-mind thoughts, issues, concerns, goals, problems, and attitude toward them. Got it? Now direct them at the customer or prospect and listen to the eye-popping, ear de-waxing, and self-qualifying answers.

You ask, “What wakes you up in the morning?” They answer:

  • Light of day. Easy answer. Leads to, ‘Then what?’
  • Alarm clock. Another easy answer. Still leads to, “Then what?”
  • Kids. Great answer! Leads to all kinds of mutual discussion points and common interests if you also have them
  • Relationships. A bit touchy. Let the prospect lead.
  • Coffee – shower – exercise – the news. These subjects will provide more superficial answers that might reveal things in common.
  • The day and things to be done. People will make their day more important than your day. And you’ll feel it when they chatter and complain about ‘having so much to do.’

Now let’s take it deeper. Asking the ‘then what?’ question will get them to the next phase of their reality. It started out light, now it gets to some real issues. You might ask, “What else wakes you up?” or the more powerful, “Then what?” They might say:

  • Money, or the lack of it. Think of this one in terms of yourself. Go lightly, but it’s very revealing.
  • Health issues. If they have a physical ailment or some medical condition, it may impact their attention span or decision-making capability.
  • Pain. If they’re in pain, then the pain will affect concentration and span of attention.
  • Energy/positive anticipation. This is GREAT. An enthusiastic person can connect with your compelling presentation and catch your positive feelings.
  • All the stuff he or she is excited about. These are golden issues that need to be embellished and compared to what it will be like when your stuff gets its chance.
  • Big issues. IRS, business failure, damaged reputation, lawsuits. A pending merger or pending big order could be a positive light.
  • Business issues. The day-to-day often gets in the way of the month-to-month and the year-to-year. Stay away from the mundane, and be aware of the complainer.
  • Personal issues. Family and relationship issues can have a real impact (either way) on your meeting outcome – pending marriage or pending divorce?
  • Career issues. Work, boss, sales, people, and events can have huge implications on your need to do something today.
  • Nagging issues (worries). These are elements that slow down the actions a business is willing to take. If you know what they are, you’ll be less likely to be impatient, and more likely to create a winning plan to make the sale.
  • Unfinished issues. Stuff undone. ‘Wait until after…’ are defeating words to the ears of salespeople. But if you know what they are, you can get a better sense of ‘when?’
  • Projects underway. Most people are limited in the amount of work and projects they can take on. When your customer dwells on ‘present situation’ and ‘major project’ you can expect postponement. Make sure you nail down expected completion date.
  • Deadlines. If it’s close, you’re toast. And the best thing you can do is offer assistance.
  • If the prospect or customer answers: The reality of: get my ass in gear. This doesn’t address any issues, and is really skirting the question. You might ask ‘for what?’

MAJOR CLUE: Don’t overdo the process. Ask a few questions, gain a few answers, and then move on.

As a result, you have some new information, maybe some common interests, a few smiles, and certainly a thinking prospect.

I made you think, didn’t I? You can do the same with your prospect. Stay away from the defensive-based questions, and your responses will lead you down the right path – the business relationship and mutual respect path.

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].

Salespeople have questions, Jeffrey has answers.

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I get a ton of emails from people seeking insight or asking me to solve sales dilemmas. Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life and, most important, your sales thought process right now:

Jeffrey, I’m interested in your insight and guidance. I think selling is the best job in the world, but there’s one aspect I’m struggle with. It’s the feeling of being out of control, and being the master of my own destiny. I tend to work on more complex deals that have large decision making groups, and therefore can be quite a long cycle. I used to sell smaller deals where I could track progress more meaningfully, but now I find myself doing 1 x $1M deals rather than 10 x $100k deals where the risk was spread. Any tips on how to stay sane while waiting for big decisions? How do I regain and maintain a feeling that I’m in control of my results? Best regards, Paul

Paul, Managing your time is not the answer. Prioritizing your accounts in the order that they are likely to close is a better way to view the process. But there are several elements involved, and several decisions you have to make:

1. Why would you give up your bread and butter and just shoot for the moon?
Instead, allocate half your time to sure money and half your time to the big prize. This will leave you in control of your short-term destiny, and allow you to mark a clearer path toward the bigger deal.

2. All committees have a daddy. The person that leads the committee, or even the person that he or she reports to, are the two people that you should be establishing relationships with because they control the outcome. If you simply go in and make a presentation to a committee, they’ll be forever lost in the shuffle of indecision, proposals, and fighting price with competitors (three of the worst, if not dumbest, elements in making a large sale).

3. Direct contact is not an option. Stop emailing people and waiting for replies. Phone numbers, cell phone numbers, early morning coffee, late afternoon casual conversations, gathering personal data, and sending important business information will help establish you as a resource, rather than being looked at as a vendor.

3.5 Your level of frustration is only a symptom. Your problem is you haven’t identified the real decision maker, how the decision will be made, and what the real motive is to purchase. Until you know those three things, your frustration will most likely fall into poverty. Not good. Best regards, Jeffrey

Jeffrey, My name is John and I am a house call veterinarian in Syracuse, NY. I have read several of your books and I love your iPhone app! I am having some difficulty growing my business and I KNOW you are the perfect person to help me!

I have been in business for just over four years. Things are steady and stable, but we are not growing the way I know we could and should be. In fact, SOMEHOW, it seems that regardless of our marketing efforts, referrals, etc. we ALWAYS come out JUST AHEAD of being behind in the financial department. It drives me crazy as everybody we meet tells us how great we are and what an unusual and helpful service we provide, yet we are STILL booking no more than one week ahead at a time. I have tried practically EVERY type of advertising (newspaper, TV, radio, billboards, handouts/fliers) with no great outcome. We are a luxury service (and prefer it that way). We have run out of great ideas to try that won’t cost a ton of money. Please help! John

John, Before you let your business go to the dogs, you might want to try less advertising and more promotion.

Begin with your Facebook business page. Post stories and videos of your existing customers and their experiences with you. Tag the customer and tag the photo. Your customer will begin to send that story to all of their friends. Also start a YouTube channel. Make sure all the videos are posted there as well – with all the appropriate tags. Without taking advantage of business social media, especially Facebook, your doomed to waiting for response.

The second thing you have to do is contact every existing customer and talk to them about why they use you. Capture all of those reasons and begin to use them in all of your messaging and promotions.

Third, start a weekly email magazine that features one of your customers every week.
Fourth, subscribe to Ace of Sales. Every time you have a customer, take a photo of their pet and using the Ace of Sales email program, include a photo of their pet along when you send them a thank you note for their business.

With all the promotion that you do, you will begin to have positive word-of-mouth messages and positive internet messages sent out about you and ultimately sent back to you. Advertising alone will not get you the response that you need in today’s world. You have to dedicate the time and the resources to social media promotion and other forms of proactive outreach. You have all the assets you need to succeed in your business, you just haven’t utilized them in the proper way. Best regards, Jeffrey

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].

Who or what is the cause of aggravation? Not you, of course!

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It’s Saturday night around 6pm. Early dinner for Jessica, Gabrielle, and me.

We’re sitting in Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Charlotte. We’ve been customers at this location for as long as it has been there. Seen several managers come and go, seen hundreds of servers come and go.

This particular visit was pivotal because it may have been our last. Their 10-year consistency has been compromised at least three ways: 1. New bread – lower quality. 2. New croutons – lower quality. 3. New espresso – lower quality. They used to serve the best espresso in the city (Illy). But it seems corporate decided to remove all the machines and substitute with a lesser (cheaper) brand.

Same price. Lower quality. More profit. Not good for anyone but them.

And they’re not bragging about their new low quality. I guess they figured no one would notice. I was disappointed. Not angry or anything, I just had an expectation when we entered the restaurant that wasn’t met when we were served.

The manager happened by. I asked him about the sudden reduction in quality. He smiled, hemmed, hawed, and looked embarrassed that we “caught” them. He, of course, blamed it on ‘corporate.’ I asked him for an email address to voice my concern. He promised he would return with it. Never did.

As the manager walked by our table a second time, we heard him say, “Another aggravated customer.” He was referring to some people waiting to be seated. Did nothing about it. Sad.

REALITY: When a customer is aggravated, complaining, or angry, there’s a REASON. If you’re smart enough, empathetic enough, and willing enough, you can discover the reason, help the customer, resolve the issue, and prevent the same thing from happening again.

STOP READING AND START THINKING: I’m not just writing about Carrabba’s. I’m writing about YOU. You have customers that complain, don’t you? How do you receive the concern or the complaint? How is a complaint handled? What do you do about it? How do you turn it into a WOW?

Here’s what it is – and what it isn’t:

  • It’s an opportunity, NOT an aggravation.
  • It’s an opportunity, NOT a problem.
  • It’s an opportunity, NOT a complaint.
  • It’s a chance for WOW, NOT an angry customer.
  • It’s a chance for management to convert to leadership.
  • It’s a chance to get a positive post on Facebook.
  • It’s a chance for the customer to ‘tweet’ their pleasure.
  • It’s a chance to create a loyal customer.
  • It’s a chance to generate positive word-of-mouth advertising.
  • It’s an opportunity to prevent this situation from reoccurring.

GRIPE REALITY: Defensive response is the normal first reaction…

  • Blaming others.
  • Blaming circumstances.
  • Telling the customer how to talk. (“I’d appreciate if you’d calm down” rather than try to find the reason they’re angry.) Condescending comments by “customer service” people makes a mad customer more mad.
  • Don’t defend it. No one cares about the reason or the excuse.

If you really want aggravation, complaints, and anger to diminish, here are the elements you must possess and execute:

  • Attitude of acceptance.
  • Attitude of reception.
  • Attitude that’s willing to listen with the intent to understand.
  • Attitude of taking responsibility.
  • Resilience of manager or leader.
  • Ability to respond in a friendly, pleasant manner.
  • Challenge yourself not to make an excuse, blame someone, blame something, or make some snide remark.
  • Challenge yourself to promote positive internal communication.
  • Genuine gratefulness to help and serve.

LOYALTY REALITY: Every aggravation, complaint, concern, discussion, or question posed by a customer is a huge, FREE, opportunity to improve your business by a factor of WOW – and for little or no money.

And a bit more reality: when managers and employees turn over at a high rate, it’s not the ‘nature of the business,’ it’s the cheapness and policies of the home office. When you try to milk a nickel to save a penny,when you sacrifice quality just to increase profits, you lose employees, customers, goodwill and reputation.

Me? I’ll go away with a little bit of noise – others will just go away.
You? Document the issue, the resolve, the response, and the outcome.

These are the steps: Listen. Process. Think. Take responsibility. Question. Respond. Say something positive. Do something positive. WOW.

Train that.

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].