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I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. Could you repeat that?

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“I didn’t hear you.”
No, you weren’t listening.

“Our people need to listen better.”
No, your people need to understand WHY they don’t listen.

REALITY: You quit paying attention for one reason or another, AND blame it on the person talking to you. Two rudes don’t make a right.

How do you listen? That’s both a question and an enigma. Listening is one of the BIG THREE in selling, the other two are asking (engaging), and being friendly.

If you ask most salespeople, they would admit that listening is their weakest quality. In part due to impatience, but mostly because they don’t know how. Or even deeper, they don’t know the components or factors that make up the ‘why’ of listening.

To complicate the listening process even further, there are manners in which people listen – no, not “please pass the salt” manners – attitude and mood manners. These manners can affect the listening competence level by more than half.

There are 3.5 opposite sets of manners of listening:
1. Active or passive.
2. Positive or negative.
3. Open or closed.
3.5 Distracted by other business or personal matters, or not distracted.

You can almost get the feeling and meaning of these manners without me explaining them.

Listening is also broken down into elements. Each representing a ‘why.’ I have added some additional description to clarify each element. And defined a few.

The good elements of listening are:
Listen with the intent to understand. A sermon. A movie. In a classroom.
Listen with the intent to take action. Someone giving instructions.
Listen with the intent to learn. A teacher. A trainer. A seminar leader.
Listen with the intent to enjoy. Music. Sounds of nature. Waterfalls. A crackling fire.
Listen with the intent to remember. Driving directions. A website address. A phone number.

WHO you’re listening to can have a huge impact on the quality of your listening. Your mother, your boss, your spouse, your kids, your best friend, your favorite celebrity, someone you like, or someone you dislike, can affect the outcome of your listening ability. It’s their words, your mood, and your level of respect, that make up the listening effectiveness model.

The bad elements of listening are:
Listen with the intent to respond. This is where interruptions occur. You have something to say, or think you already know the answer. You start responding BEFORE the other person has finished talking. The first ‘listen’ should be: listen with the intent to understand. THEN you can respond with the full knowledge of what has been communicated. CURE: Just ask the person if they have finished their thought BEFORE you respond.
Listen with the intent to figure out an angle (manipulate). Interacting with a customer during a selling situation.
Listen because you have to obey (or try to worm out of it). Parents, teachers, and bosses top the list.
Listen because you are forced to. Your boss, teacher, or parents yelling or disciplining you.
Listen with the intent not to pay attention. Tuned off because of your unhappiness or ill feeling towards the person speaking.
Listen with the intent to argue. Whenever you’re in an argument or fight, listening is overpowered by anger and negativity.

There is also the ever popular, pretending to listen, but in another world. You have other things on your mind that are more powerful than what is being said, so you tune out whoever is speaking.

Telltale signs of not listening? Asking people to repeat. Getting instructions wrong. Making mistakes on the job. Getting rejected.

Have you ever heard someone say, “Now everybody listen-up, this is important.” What does that mean? It means that without that preface to whatever is being said next, the odds are that very few, if any, are paying attention to the person speaking.

Think about it, does Bill Gates walk into the room and say, “OK everybody listen-up?” Billy Graham? Steven Jobs? Madonna? Michael Jordan? Ted Turner? No, they walk into a room and everyone says, “SShhhhhhhh, it’s…” A hush falls over the room like a magic spell, and everyone in the room is “all ears.”

The three best states to be in when listening are: the state of calm, the state of happy, and the state of willing. These are “ear opening” states. (The worst listening states are the state of New Jersey and the state of New York. Many people there already know everything.)

FINAL SECRET: I know all of you are looking for the silver bullet that will make you an instant better listener. I’ve got it for you. Two words, and they’re not ‘shut-up.’ The secret words and action of listening are: ‘take notes.’ When you take notes, you show respect, always ‘hear,’ and have a reference to help you remember what was said or promised.

I have a list of things that negatively affect the listening stream. A self-awareness list to help you understand WHY you’re a poor listener. Go to www.gitomer.com – register if you’re a first time visitor – and enter the word WHAT? in the GitBit box.

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

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey 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].

This is not a resolution, it’s an ALL OUT resolve!

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Whatever your age, you’ve made resolutions, you’ve made goals, and often fall short of the stated objective, desire and/or objective.

Drop resolutions, they’re always painful.
Drop goals, they’re often unmet.

Refer to whatever it is that you want as: “my intended and expected achievement” and add a few lines about your intentions and desires. Your outcome.

Not just what the expected achievement is, but how you intend to make it happen.

Not just focus, but genuine drive and the allocation of time to make it happen.

Whether it’s lose 10 (or 20) pounds, make 10 sales a month, or be a better dad, there has to be something specific that tells WHAT you want. HOW you plan to make it your reality. And WHEN you believe it will become reality.

There are fundamentals to follow. But the secret to achievement of what you call goals and resolutions, are the unspoken aspects of your process and your present situation BEFORE you begin the achievement process:

  • Happy about yourself.
  • Happy about your life.
  • Happy about your relationships.
  • Proud of what you’re doing.
  • Love of what you’re doing.
  • Love who you’re doing it with.
  • Desire to be the BEST at what you’re doing.
  • Purpose behind what you’re doing (your REAL WHY).

Here are a few things to consider as you look to “put” HAPPINESS, and “be” HAPPY in the new year.

IDEA: Maybe if I tell you SOME of the things I plan to do, it will inspire you to do more than you were thinking, and in a different way. Here are my objectives for the first 100 days of 2016. Not all will be completed in that timeframe, but all will be implemented and in full motion.

  • All out sales campaign. Contact every customer we have ever done business with – offer them help, ask them where the most help is needed, and ask them for more business. I have a year long series of webinars planned (jeffreygitomer.com/gold)
  • All out improvement of customer service. Faster shipping, faster turnaround of training modules, faster response to needs and questions, and memorable recovery for the rare mistakes we make. More proactive customer communications – thank you’s and confirmations for your order. Every day.
  • All out branding. My writing, column, my ezine, my website, my podcasts, and all my promotions will reflect the value that my customer relates to, and wants more of. New ideas and names like “Gitomer Gold” and “The Year of The Sale.”
  • All out relationship building. “Value first” is the key. I have been successful with that philosophy for 25 years. Consistent communication is the secret. Increase the value of my website, gitomer.com, and my 14 year old weekly ezine, Sales Caffeine.
  • All out internal education with a focus on attitude and trust. This shoemaker’s daughter will wear shoes FIRST. In order to offer the best of everything, my team (actually my family) will have to be their best. I have hundreds of hours of sales, customer loyalty, attitude, trust, and personal development training available, (GitomerLearningAcademy.com) and my inside team will be the first to take advantage of it.
  • All out better student. Read more. Study the history of sales and personal development more. Write more philosophical discoveries and understandings.
  • All out work my hardest. I will complete three books this year. I will give less presentations (they only last a day) and devote more time to writing and recording (it lasts a lifetime). I will make certain all my content, whether online, in books or in seminars, is the most relevant, real-world, and transferable as I am physically and mentally able.
  • All out work my best. Own my time. Invest my time. Be more organized and more productive in my early hours of the day.
  • All out be my best. Increase focus on personal health and excellence, both physical and mental, both at work, and at home. Be the best dad, the best granddad, the best friend, the best boss, the best person I can be.

The key words are “all out.”

This is not a time for waiting. This is a time for DOING.

What are you going to be DOING all out?

What are you going “all out” to achieve this year?

And what does “all out” mean to you?

IS THIS YOU?: Most people at this time of year write down a few namby-pamby resolutions or goals. Lose ten pounds, read more books, exercise more, join a health club, keep a clean desk, and other dead-end wishes that will fade in less than a month. Don’t let this be you – especially this year.

Why not add “all out” to whatever you write down so that you are determined to take some real action, and commit to an all out effort to achieve for yourself? Seems pretty simple – challenge yourself to become better, and in some cases, become best.

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

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey 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].

Out of touch or out of their minds? Maybe both!

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In a survey conducted by a BIG benefits management company (a management and human resource consulting firm), they asked 365 CEO’s and sales management executives, “What are the three key factors that separate high performing sales professionals from moderate to low performing sales professionals?”

Both CEO’s and C-level sales executives (all people who don’t sell, but rely on their salespeople to produce sales so that they can get paid), ranked “self discipline/motivation” as the most important.

Next in line were, “customer knowledge,” “innate talent/personality,” “product knowledge,” and further down the list were “experience” and “teamwork skills.”

Totally bogus.

These are qualities of corporate greed. Value, service, and help are the REAL three things that customers require to give their business and maintain their loyalty.

MAJOR DUH: When “survey” companies ask questions of people, why don’t they ask the people actually doing the work?

I’m a writer, but I’m also a salesman. I make sales calls and sales every day. If you’re interested in the most important factors of a high performing salesperson, let me give you a realistic list of success characteristics.

1. Perpetual, consistent, positive attitude and enthusiasm. This is the first rule of facing the customer, facing the obstacles, facing the competition, facing the economy, and facing yourself. Especially the people that answer the phone.

2. Quadruple self-belief. Unwavering belief in your company; unwavering belief in your product; AND Unwavering belief in yourself are the first three rules. But fourth is the most critical of the self-beliefs. You MUST believe that the customer is better off having purchased from you.

3. Use of creativity. Creativity to present ideas in favor of the customer, and creativity to differentiate you from the competition.

4. Ability to give and prove value. To prove the value of your product or service, and your ability to give value beyond the sale to the PROSPECT so you can earn the order, the reorder, and the loyalty.

5. Ability to promote and position. Personal use of the internet to blog, demonstrate credibility on the web, offer a weekly ezine, utilize social media, and achieve google top ranking, so your customers and prospects will perceive you as a value provider and a leader in your field.

6. Exciting, compelling presentation skills. Not just solid communication skills, but superior questioning skills, listening skills, and a sense of humor. The innate ability to engage and capture the imagination (and the wallet) of customers and prospects.

7. The ability to “click” face-to-face. Finding common ground in order to relax the conversation and use rapport to get to truth.

8. Ability to prove your value and claims through the testimony of others. Testimonials sell where salespeople can’t. The BEST salespeople use video testimonials on YouTube to support, affirm, and prove their claims. BUT, the reality is – you don’t get testimonials, you EARN them. (Same with referrals.)

NOTE WELL: If you’re looking for proof that you are “top-performing,” testimonials and referrals are a report card.

9. Ability to create an atmosphere where people want to BUY (because they hate being SOLD). This is done by engaging, and asking. Not presenting and telling.

10. Ability to build a relationship, not hunt or farm. I wonder if the “executives” talking about the factors of great salespeople are the same morons dividing their salespeople into “hunters” and “farmers.” PLEASE HELP ME. Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win. These are the same head-in-the-sand executives that can’t open their laptops, and forbid Facebook at work, individual websites, and blogs from their people. ADVICE: If this is your situation, find your way to the competition.

11. A PERSONAL social media platform that promotes your social selling and builds your reputation. The minimums are: 1,000 business Facebook likes, 501 LinkedIn connections, 500 Twitter followers, 25 YouTube videos, and a blog where you post weekly.

12. Unyielding personal values and ethics. Great people have great values and great ethics. Interesting that 365 CEO’s and executives don’t deem them in the top ten.

12.5 The personal desire to excel and be their best. This is a desired quality of every salesperson, BUT the best salespeople have mastered the other ten elements. They must be mastered in order for this quality to manifest itself.

There is no prize in sales for second place. It’s win or nothing. The masters know this, and strive for, fight for, that slight edge.

And as for the next poll taken, here’s a great idea for CEO’s and sales executives. There’s an easy way to find out the most important factors and qualities of great salespeople: make some sales calls yourself.

And if you really want to have some fun, bring your marketing people along.

If you want to build great salespeople, go to www.jeffreygitomer.com/gold, and subscribe to Gitomer Gold – The Year of the Sale.

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

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey 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 that time of year: “Call me back after the holidays.”

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Humbug. Salespeople hate holidays.

Holidays are an excuse for decision makers to put buying decisions on hold. But the worst of them are the Christmas to New Year. “Call me back after the holidays,” and “Call me after the first of the year,” are two of the most hated phrases in sales. (They still rank behind “We’ve decided to buy from someone else,” “Your price is too high,” and “I want to think about it.”)

Call me after the holidays is not an objection. It’s worse. It’s a stall. Stalls are twice as bad as objections. When you get a stall, you have to somehow dance around it, and then you still must find the real objection or barrier before you can proceed.

Here are 11.5 clever lines and winning tactics to use that will help overcome the stall:

1. Close on the stall line. “What day after the first of the year would you want to take (would be most convenient to take) delivery?”
2. Firm it up, whenever it is. Ask, “When after the first of the year? Can I buy you the first breakfast of the new year?” Make a firm appointment.
3. If it’s just a call back, make the prospect put it on his calendar. Call backs must be appointed, or the other guy is never there when you call. Putting it in a calendar makes it a firm commitment.
4. Tell them about your resolutions. “I’ve made a New Year’s resolution that I’m not going to let great prospects like you, who really need our product/service, delay until after the first of the year. You know you need it.”
5. Offer incentives and alternatives. Create reasons not to delay. Buy now, invoice after the holiday. Order now, deliver after the holiday.
6. Question them about differences – and close them when they get there. “What will be different after the holidays? Will anything change over the holidays that will cause you not to buy?” (Prospect’s answer – “Oh no, no, no.”) “Great!” you say, “Let’s get you order in production (service scheduled) now, and we’ll deliver it after the holiday. When were you thinking of taking delivery (beginning).”
7. Agree. Then disagree. I know what you mean… lots of people want to wait. Most don’t realize that the money wasted/saved between now and the first of the year, will equate to a xx% savings if they buy now. Are you sure you want to waste the money?
8. Get a testimonial video. Ask someone who bought before the holidays and was glad they did to do a one-minute video about the value they received and how they originally wanted to wait and how happy they are that they didn’t. Videos with similar situations are a thousand times more powerful than your sales pitch.
9. Drop-in with holiday cheer. Use a small holiday plant or gift to get in the door. (No one says no to Santa – unless you live in Philadelphia. There they boo Santa.)
10. Create urgency. “The price will rise after the first,” or “There’s a product or delivery back-up after the first – schedule now.”
11. Be funny. Say, “So many people have said call me after the first that I’m booked until April. I do however, have a few openings before the first. How about it?” Making the other person laugh (smile) will go a long way towards getting past the stall. An alternative smile is “What holiday?”
11.5 Beg. Pleeeeaaase, I’ll be your best friend.

Reality check. The success with which this stall is able to handled is directly related to the quality of the relationship that’s been built with your prospect or customer. A good relationship allows more liberty to press for immediate action. A weak relationship will mean you wait until after the holiday. Or longer.

Prevention – the best cure. If you know this objection is coming, do something BEFORE it happens. Prevention of objections and stalls is the most obvious, most powerful, and least used sales technique. Here are a few prevention methods.

  • Start in early November to create urgency.
  • Set price raises in September to take effect January 1. Announce them right away and communicate them weekly into the holiday season.
  • Create a holiday special. Have a five day sale in December.
  • Offer December price incentives or special bonus incentives.
  • Throw a holiday party. Invite prospects and customers, and offer them a “Tonight only deal.”
  • Hold a series of seminars that are about important issues to your prospects and customers. Have the best one just before the holidays. Serve great food.
  • Create an internal sales contest with a great prizes.
  • Build relationships all year long.

The bottom line is – as sure as you’ll spend lots of money this holiday season, someone will ask you to call them after it’s over. When they do, don’t get mad, get creative. Don’t get frustrated, get a relationship.

Happy holidays. If you need more information on this subject, call me – after the first of the year. Ho, ho, ho.

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

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey 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 drives you into the sale? And drives you out with the order?

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Got a company mission statement? “Yes, Jeffrey. We do.”
Really? Can you recite two words of it? “Uh, no.”

How come? Dude, it’s your MISSION. It’s what is supposed to drive you into the sale — and, create an atmosphere of success. It’s your mission.

The reason you’re not following your company’s mission statement, is because you had nothing to do with its preparation. It’s some bull about being the number one company, global positioning to be the best, exceeding customer’s expectations, and building shareholder value. Barf.

It’s a mission statement you’ve seen five-hundred times — but you can’t recite one line of it. Pretty pathetic huh? The reason you can’t relate to it – is that you don’t relate to it. And it has jack to do with making a sale. (‘jack’ if you’re not from Philadelphia, is half of a word)

So here’s my challenge – my sales challenge – to you, my sales friend: MAKE YOUR OWN MISSION STATEMENT. A sales mission statement.

A sales mission statement is your affirmation, philosophy, and purpose rolled into one. It’s your personal challenge to yourself, and what you seek to do each time you try for a sale. It’s an opportunity to bring your goals into focus and transfer your ideals into the real world. It is your success plan. And you have a built-in outcome: make the sale!

Here are the ground rules, and the format to write your sales mission:

  • Say who and what you’re dedicated to. Are you dedicated to your profession, your customers, your success, your business?
  • Define yourself. What kind of a person are you, what do you do, what is your character?
  • Define your service to others. Where do you specialize, where is your expertise, who do you serve, how do you help them?
  • Affirm that you will strive to get better, do new things, and help others. What do you want your customers to achieve? What do you want to achieve?
  • Tell how it will get done. How will you employ your enthusiasm, your attitude, your best efforts?
  • State the outcome as though it has already taken place. Affirm what will happen, and how it will lead to other positive actions. ?

Use your goals and visions to define your mission…

  • The examples you seek to set.
  • The ideals by which you live or seek to live by.
  • The goals you set out to accomplish at each sales opportunity.
  • The affirmations that you can use every day to make you a better person.

Here are some words that will help you define your mission… will, dedication, persist, honest, ethical, positive, enthusiastic, fun, learn new things, listen, help, provide, encourage, memorable, value, loyal.

MAJOR CLUE: IT’S THE MISSION. YOUR SALES MISSION. Get the sale, and all the trimmings.

It’s your purpose for walking in the prospective customer’s door. It’s your purpose while you’re in the sales presentation. And it’s your purpose when you’re walking out the door with the order. It should be your objective, and your philosophy, all rolled into one. Your mission.

Looking for what to say in your sales mission state? Do you think it’s about making lots of money? Or do you believe it’s about the value you provide?

Here’s the mission statement that I use: Make an ethical sale that’s so value -packed and memorable that the customer is compelled to buy again, give a testimonial, and tell everyone else how great I am.

  • The process takes time. Write a first draft. Let it sit for a few days. Reread it slowly and make changes that you feel better express your true feelings. Describe the things you think you are, and the things you seek to accomplish or become.
  • Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to flatter yourself. You’re writing this for yourself, not others. Affirm everything you think you are or think you want to become. Do it with a sense of pride and a spirit of adventure.
  • Ask your mentor(s) and associates for help. If they offer constructive criticism, thank them. If they tell you, “You’re crazy,” you’re on the right path. Stay on it.

As salespeople and business leaders we each have a responsibility to do our best. I know I do. By writing a mission statement you have affirmed that responsibility. And carry it with you mentally wherever you go. It is your mission.

I urge you to write yours. It builds your character at the same time it lays it bare. It serves as a beacon of light in the fog of life. It is a path to take that you build on every day. It is your mission.

If your sales mission statement is deep, and honest, then your sales results will be incredible based on your integrity, not based on your sales skills.

Not to say that sales skills aren’t a necessary part of the equation — but I would rather have a sales mission statement than a closing technique when I am battling a competitor, or trying to capture an order.

Post yours on the wall where you can see it every day. Sign it in big bold Sharpie pen.
Live it. Live it every day. You’re certain to make more sales as a result. It is your mission.

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

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey 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].