Bee-haviors of Successful Sales Professionals

What do you think about sales people who always appear to be doing great regardless of how things are going? When things don’t go their way, they seem to have the ability to just shake it off and move forward. When things do go their way, they almost always act as if they expected it to turn out that way all along.

If you look at the way those people handle their sales careers, you might notice that they handle their accounts with that same kind of attitude and consistency too. They dress their best for every meeting and exude the confidence that goes along with it. They take their client’s calls, and take action to resolve issues, treating each situation they encounter as an opportunity rather than a problem.

They put their time and energy into their accounts just like other sales professionals do, they just do it with enthusiasm rather than complaints. The funny part is that they seem to look forward to handling whatever comes their way—both the good and the bad.

Back when you were starting your sales career, one of your goals was to make a good impression with every account. Chances are good that you went the extra mile when you could too. Granted, the accounts you’re handling now are probably bigger. You might even describe your current list of accounts as “comfortable.” But don’t let complacency and a poor attitude become an excuse for letting things slide with any of your key accounts.

As a sales professional, your livelihood will be heavily influenced by the quality of both your attitude and your process, and that means following the same protocols with each of your key accounts.

Making the commitment to being a great sales person is what sets the stage for long-term growth in sales revenue, and it’s a great disservice to your clients to assume that they can’t tell the difference between the sales rep who’s committed to doing what’s best for the them and the rep who’s just putting in enough face time to keep the account alive. They can. So, if you want your revenues to keep growing (because maintaining without growth isn’t an option these days) put aside some time to revisit your sales process, and your attitude.

What are you doing that works? What are you doing that hasn’t been working lately? How consistent are you with your sales process and protocols? Are there times when your assumptions (rather than your research) directly interfere with your process and/or attitude to your detriment?

I could go through the long list of things there are to look at, but you should be able to look at your process, and your attitude, and figure it out. If you’re having trouble deciphering or remembering what your personal sales process is, or you’re realizing that you’ve gotten off track and aren’t sure of how to get back on, or you’re struggling to reclaim your positive attitude, it’s time to schedule a consultation with me so we can figure it out, because:

There’s never a better time than the present to reignite the fire in your gut!

Alan Luoma: I am a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new

product development, sales and product training. I work with a great national sustainable packaging company and their exceptional distributors to increase sales. My success has been and is in utilizing the Pareto 80/20 principal in business and life. I have become an expert in seeking out and eliminating behaviors that prevent business people from being successful. I am a member of The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view my profile on LinkedIn, or contact me at Luoma@snet.net 

The Three Elements Of Sunk Costs You Need To Review For Better Business Decisions.

We’ve all done it, invested so deeply into something that we didn’t walk away even when all the signs were there. Instead, we dwelled on everything we sank into that business, job, relationship, home, health, finances, etc. and kept on truckin’ as if everything was fine. The problem with sunk costs is that once we’ve accepted them in one aspect of our life, they can easily slip into others. And the really annoying part is that when we’re finally able to view those situations in hindsight, we almost always wish we’d taken action sooner.
Sunk costs can often be divided into 3 general categories:

Time:  We’ve sunk an enormous amount of our time into something—time we’re never going to get back.

Energy:  It’s very hard to walk away from people, things, and situations we’ve sunk our honest and sincere energy and effort into.

Money:  Too many people cross over financial boundaries by sinking money that should have never been used as capital into their ventures.

The reality is that anytime we invest our time, energy, and/or money into one or more aspects of our life, failure is a risk. If you find yourself in a situation where you’ve been investing your time, energy, and/or money, but there aren’t any signs of your investment paying off in the near future, maybe it’s time to take a serious look at why you’re still plugging away at it.
You have proof it’s going to get better. If this is the case, it’s time to sit down and make sure you’re not trying to avoid reality. Believing in what you’re doing is important, but you still need to do a reality check every now and again to make sure you’re focusing your efforts and resources appropriately. Dale Carnegie has a few good thoughts about this:

·       What is the worst that can possibly happen?

·       Prepare to accept the worst.

·       Try to improve on the worst.

Planning for the worst may sound negative, but it’s a reminder that having a cut-off point, or an exit strategy, is always a good idea. Knowing how and when to get out can definitely reduce the stress of getting in.
Hoping things are going to get better.  Hope can be a funny emotion. We use it to stay positive, but it’s also evidence of doubts or fears, or that we’re struggling with clarity. If hope is keeping you from acknowledging the extent of your sunk costs, find someone you respect and have a conversation. Having an objective set of eyes on the situation can definitely be eye opening.
We’d rather fail than be found out. Sometimes we don’t walk away when we should because we don’t want our failures to be exposed. Here’s the thing: Everybody fails, and that means you’re going to fail sometimes too. Suck it up. Give yourself an appropriate amount of time to feel like crap, and then get over it. When you do, there will come a morning when you’ll wake up feeling refreshed and ready to move on.

Here’s the best tip of all for avoiding sunk costs. Before you enter into a sale, investment, job, or some other business arrangement, think hard about what you’re about to invest in. Put some time and effort into examining the true ramifications of your decision. Do your due diligence. It’s your best friend because every business situation comes with some degree of risk. The better job you do up front of proactively identifying and addressing those risks, the less likely you are to find yourself sinking under their weight.

Alan Luoma: I am a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new

product development, sales and product training. I work with a great national sustainable packaging company and their exceptional distributors to increase sales. My success has been and is in utilizing the Pareto 80/20 principal in business and life. I have become an expert in seeking out and eliminating behaviors that prevent business people from being successful. I am a member of The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view my profile on LinkedIn, or contact me at Luoma@snet.net 

How to Avoid a Knife in the Back

Acquiring, building, and maintaining solid relationships with clients and customers is arguably the first priority of a sales professional’s job. After all, without those relationships, there is no job. So we go into the office and set our minds to the task of keeping those relationships in tip-top shape. We might hear a coworker who always seems so pleasant and agreeable say something that sounds a bit strange, but don’t think twice about it.
We witness little things with our other coworkers too—like a look, a roll of the eyes, a gesture behind someone’s back, or one coworker whispering to another coworker—but don’t think much about it until we find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a workplace drama we did not see coming.
Building relationships with coworkers is not like building a relationship with a client or customer. To varying degrees, we have a choice about who we want our sales clients to be. We rarely have a choice about our coworkers. And while it might not be fair to say that we should always be aware of what our coworkers are up to, it would be naive to believe that their actions in the workplace are designed to build anyone’s career other than their own.
If you don’t want to inadvertently get caught up in office drama—or worse, be the source of it—use some of the same strategies you’d use when you’re getting to know a client better. In the workplace, that means paying attention to the clues your coworkers are giving you.

For example:

Gossip - A coworker might ask you a question about yourself, or someone else in the office, that seems innocent enough to answer. BUT, what will they do with your answer? Will it come back to bite you on the #%&? Stick to the facts, and take care with the jokes or information you might be tempted to share about others.

Superficial Sincerity - People in the workplace can become very good at hiding their insecurities behind a facade of sincerity. It would be nice if all of our coworkers felt confident, comfortable and secure in their jobs. BUT they don’t. Don’t expect a coworker to jump on the sword perched in the middle of the room even if it does have their name on it.

Trust – This is one of the most important aspects of any relationship, BUT it’s hard to build trust in an environment of casual “work” relationships. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t trust the people you work with. It just means that if you witness a coworker doing or saying something behind someone else’s back, chances are extremely good they’ll do the same behind your back too.

None of this is a suggestion to look for trouble where there isn’t any. It’s just a reminder that the same ability you use to build relationships with your clients can be used to help you safely navigate through office politics with your coworkers. All either situation requires is your attention.

Alan Luoma: I am a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new

product development, sales and product training. I work part time with a great national sustainable packaging company and their exceptional distributors to increase sales. My success has been and is in utilizing the Pareto 80/20 principal in business and life. I have become an expert in seeking out and eliminating behaviors that prevent business people from being successful. I am a member of The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view my profile on LinkedIn, or contact me at Luoma@snet.net 

What is Your Communication LifeStyle?

By Carolyn Finch

As I waited at the stop sign for the children to
get off the bus, I noticed a mother with a stroller and a sleeping baby waiting at the bus stop. I was only about 15 feet from the front of the bus and could see parents standing around. This mother was holding her smart phone with her head bent downward and at times would stop and then text  or enter a number and then the phone went back up to her ear. I never saw her check on the baby in the stroller nor did she look up. Soon a cute little light skinned boy with curly brown hair about 5 or 6 years old jumped off the bus and waved a paper with a painting at his mother. Mom paid no attention to the boy so he grabbed her leg and shouted "look mom look mom"
She looked down at him and shouted "I told you not to talk to me when I'm on the phone."

My heart sank and I wanted to cry as I'm sure that the little boy wanted to do. What an ideal time for communication. This amazing transition time when a child is enthusiastic about something he has created and at the same time happy to be getting home from school. Was this a dysfunctional communication moment?  It certainly appeared that way. Would this be the base to poor communication for the next few minutes, hours and maybe even days?

The  one major aspect of being a human being is that we are able to communicate orally. Have we forgotten to be thankful for this gift of true conversation? With the advent of smart phones we have a new addiction. Research shows that the average person with a smartphone texts an average of 100 time a day wow! This type of communication determines our lifestyle and our lifestyle determines our communication.

If we have an addiction of any kind such as shopping, drinking, drugs, sickness, foods whatever,
our typical conversation will include words, phrases and stories related to our addiction. Doesn't sound like a learning listener and quality conversation to me. Therefore my challenge to you as a Blog reader is to look at everyone you speak with, eye to eye and belly to belly. This way you will be listening to the other person and as a reward you will learn something from what they say. So add to your communication lifestyle the ability to listen with your eyes.

You can improve your communication by helping yourself become more enlightened after hearing me speak at your next conference. Call now for more information or for  a one on one Speech Coaching session.203 405 3972.

Carolyn Finch Body Language and Communication LifeStyle Expert TM
Professional Speaker who will put a SPARK in your next meeting!       carolyn@carolynfinch.com

No Value,Low Price,Welcome To Wimp Road

If you were in a room with 99 other sales professionals, and you were about to be ranked based on your skill and professionalism as a sales person, where would you land? Would you be in the top 20%? Or somewhere in the midst of the 80%?

If you were a client or customer trying to decide which sales professional you were going to do business with, would your first choice be to work with someone outside of the top 20%? Would you be willing to go outside of the top 20% if the price was right?

Unfortunately, all sales professionals—both the good and the bad—have to answer the one question a prospective client or customer is trying to answer without asking it. “Which do you care more about – my money or my business?”

The reality is that most sales people should not be in the selling profession. That may sound harsh, but being likable, and having the ability to strike up a friendly conversation with a stranger while simultaneously shaving a few dollars off your competition’s price isn’t selling. It’s the wimp’s version of selling – peddling prices instead of value. For the wimp, it’s all about the money.

Ask the wimp what their value position is, and they’ll stick to talking about price because they don't understand value, and aren’t inspired to put any effort into understanding it. To them, price is enough to get the job done. They believe that’s their potential client’s chief concern too.

A professional sales person understands the competitive advantages of their product or service above and beyond price, and can confidently explain the value proposition their product or service will bring to the business relationship.

The wimp is content to trek down Wimp Road looking to peddle their prices to clients and customers willing to base their decisions on price. For the wimp, success is measured by the next sale that falls their way.

Professional sales people can make informed decisions about when it’s time to walk away from low or no margin business propositions. They want to build business relationships with clients and customers who care about their business, at least as much as they care about the price of the product or service they are thinking about purchasing.

Wimps who are content to focus on price as their main strategy don’t make an effort to improve or grow their sales skills. They don’t read books about sales, or attend training seminars. They believe they know everything they need to know.

A professional sales person knows that building long-term business relationships with clients and customers who say, “We just love doing business with them,” happens when they continue to educate themselves and stay current with innovations, ideas, and best practices that might have an impact on their client’s or customer’s business.

So now, I’ll ask the same question from a slightly different perspective. Are you in the top 20% of your immediate competition? Or are you moving dangerously close to detouring down Wimp Road?

Alan Luoma: I am a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new

product development, sales and product training. I work with a great national sustainable packaging company and their exceptional distributors to increase sales. My success has been and is in utilizing the Pareto 80/20 principal in business and life. I have become an expert in seeking out and eliminating behaviors that prevent business people from being successful. I am a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network, The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view my profile on LinkedIn, or contact me at Luoma@snet.net