Seriously inside, how would I do this? 11 miles on a treadmill did not seem like an option. After I dealt with my minor breakdown I decided that I was going to do this and responded to my partner with let’s still meet up at 8am to hold ourselves accountable. That Saturday morning I completed my 11 miles – I decided I was going to do it and I did.

Would I have finished without her? I can honestly say I doubt it! With her there though I did not want to wimp out and quit – that would have made me look weak. It also helped that she was there encouraging me along the way.

It is interesting how this also translates into my professional selling life.  I have an accountability partner in my business that holds me accountable to many things including  but not limited to how many cold calls I make and if I am asking the tough questions to prospects and clients. He challenges me when I am not and encourages me to do my behaviors regardless of how much I don’t want to do them! I believe it is important to find someone that you trust and that is as passionate about their success and yours as you are and set up an accountability plan.

Do whatever it takes to not wimp out and believe you can do anything you put your mind to – even the uncomfortable stuff like writing blogs for example. I have to admit my next challenge is to continue writing these – let’s just say I need an accountability partner for writing blogs? Any takers?

Karen Casey

Salespeople’s jobs are to sell a product or service. Being outgoing only ensures that if you become a salesperson, you can easily initiate contact and/or that you would be willing to speak with people. This is a good first step, but doesn’t ensure any success in sales. People who are good with people are often more interested in being liked by the people they engage with than they are concerned about closing deals. This is where being a people person can become a disaster in sales. The result is that these salespeople have a lot of “friends” who have many kind words to say about the salesperson, but no deals are being finalized. This can be a big waste of time to both the client and the salesperson. The salesperson meets with prospects and clients and wants to be liked, but there is no initiative to get the client to actually do business.

In the sales industry, don’t strive to be a people person. Instead, strive to be a good salesperson. There are times when a good salesperson has to be tough, which can lead to being perceived as not likable. Don’t assume that being outgoing will net you success. Many introverted people with the right skills will be more successful than a person who is only outgoing. Being a people person can lend itself well to many professions: customer service, management, marketing, sales, etc., but that doesn’t mean that any of us are capable of doing any of them naturally, especially not sales. If you are a people person, use that skill as your first step toward a successful sales career. Then work hard to develop the other qualities that can help you evolve into becoming successful in sales.

Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Salespeople need to first focus on the prospect. Here are five elements to pay close attention to.

MOTIVE – Prospects buy for their reasons … not necessarily the salesperson’s reasons. This is the “Golden Rule” of sales. Salespeople must determine not only what aspects of their product or service prospects are interested in, but why they are interested. What are their motives for wanting, needing, or desiring the product or service?

The salesperson must determine exactly what the prospects are trying to accomplish. What problems are they trying to solve or avoid. Is their concern short-term or long-term? Is it an immediate need or a future need? If, for instance, the prospect is concerned with the increased productivity aspects of a product or service and the salesperson is emphasizing the cost saving aspects, the salesperson may as well be speaking a different language.

MONEY - Regardless of how technically advanced, innovative, or revolutionary the salesperson’s product or service — regardless of the responsiveness, reliability or reputation of the company — if the prospect is not willing or able to make the necessary investment to obtain the product or service, the end result is the same: No Sale – wasted time, effort, and energy, and the sales person’s disappointment and frustration.

Salespeople must learn to deal with money issues early in the selling process. Without this information, it is unlikely that the salesperson can present a best-fit solution. More likely, stalls and objections that revolve around price issues will develop during or after a presentation. At that point, the salesperson has two options: walk away (which may be the appropriate decision, but is emotionally difficult to do after investing all the time) or arm wrestle over price (which usually means cutting the price). Dealing with money issues early in the process will help salespeople avoid these unpleasant scenarios.

PROCESS – Prospects have a process by which they make buying decisions. It is important that salespeople uncover this process before scheduling a presentation. Most salespeople make an effort to ensure they are talking to a decision maker. But, they don’t always find out who else plays a part in the decision process, what exactly the approach is, how the decision is ultimately made, and the time frame for making it, until after they’ve made their presentation or submitted their proposal. Without this knowledge in advance, the salesperson risks making a presentation of the wrong information to the wrong person, at the wrong time, and/or in a manner inconsistent with the prospect’s decision making process.

COMMITMENT - Even if the salesperson is aware of the prospect’s decision process, there is no guarantee that he or she will obtain a decision after making the presentation unless there is an agreement with the prospect that a decision will be made. Unfortunately, too few salespeople have this agreement (or perhaps, know how to develop this agreement) with prospects prior to a presentation. The result, more times than not — the salesperson finds himself or herself in chase mode, chasing the prospect for a decision after being told, “I’ll get back to you,” or “We need to think this over.”

PRESENTATION - There should be one objective for a formal presentation – secure a buying decision. If the salesperson effectively qualified the opportunity – discovered what the prospect wants, why he or she wants it, the budget issues, and the decision process – the only thing left to do is close the sale. How? By demonstrating to the prospect how specific features of the product or service address the specific issues (and only those issues) uncovered earlier in the selling process.

The presentation is not the place to introduce other features or benefits of the product or service that were not previously discussed or don’t specifically address the needs and wants of the prospect. Unfortunately, too many salespeople do just that – bring up additional features and benefits – perhaps in an attempt to demonstrate “added value.” What they actually do is introduce “added confusion” which leads to a think-it-over, no decision and no sale! Salespeople must learn to sell today! After the prospect becomes a client or customer, the salesperson can educate him or her on other aspects of the product or service.

By focusing on these five elements, the salesperson has criteria with which to more quickly qualify or disqualify an opportunity. The salesperson will be able to determine exactly what it will take to close the sale and increase the chances of doing so.

© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

As I have aged, I look back at all the situations where I have exhausted all my personal options and how my ingenuity, creativity and dogged perseverance create the wisdom package I carry today.  Maybe that is what all my gray hair is a testament to—the level of my personal wisdom!  And maybe each gray hair is a follicle trophy of a situation that I lived through and increased my personal wisdom.   I also admit, though, that each gray hair has come with a cost, and that some have even been quit painful.

Most of our life experiences are not from physical traumas like broken bones but rather from broken hearts and hurt feelings.  A broken heart or hurt feelings are all legitimate pains that we have.  After having been emotionally wounded, it is easy for our internal defenses to say, “This was done to me,” or “Why did they do that to me?”  Being a victim is the path of least resistance.   It is easy to be the victim, but it also gets in the way of becoming wise.  Consider this the next time something happens to you; don’t get stuck being a victim and thinking it was “done to me.”  Instead, shift your thinking to it was “done for me.”  Shifting your mindset in such a subtle way allows you to open yourself up to creating a greater breadth of personal wisdom.  People like being around the wise and not the victim.

How do you show up when you are around others?

Paul Lushin

Do any of these sound familiar?

• Do you hire salespeople with high expectations, but don’t feel you got what you paid for?
• Did the new sales star promise to bring his/her previous customers to you, get you set up with new contracts,  and then fail to deliver?
• Was the best sales call your new rep made the one where he dazzled you in the interview to get the job, but its been downhill ever since?
• Did you promote your sales manager from your sales team, or hire a sales star from outside your company, and then find that s/he couldn’t effectively manage or motivate the sales team?

Unfortunately, these are common problems when hiring salespeople and sales managers.  They can be costly, however, it doesn’t have to be this way.

attend Lushin & Associates

Hiring a Sales Superstar

Prevent hiring mistakes, bring a process and a set of tools that allows you to “look under the hood” of the sales candidate before you shell out big dollars to bring them on.  We will provide guidance on how to best screen the candidate, where that screening should fit in the overall search-and-hiring process, and how to conduct the best interview.

When: March 10th 8-10am

Where: Lushin & Associates Headquarters

Who Should Attend: CEOs, presidents and business owners

How Much: $29.99 per person

Register Here

Such a thing happened to me 3 years ago. In the days leading up to a night I will never forget, friends, family and colleagues had been telling that I work too much and that I should “stop and smell the roses.”  As you may not know the saying derives from, “Stop and smell the flowers” – which is a quote of advice from the golfer Walter Hagen that appeared in the 1956 book “The Walter Hagen Story”: “You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way. “In my case, this story is of a rose bush and not flowers.

In late November, I was required to attend a business meeting at Eddie Merlot’s on East 96th Street.  Since my son was a valet during his college days, I have since adapted the custom of having someone else park my car.  As he approached from the front of the car, I walked behind.  As I did, my right middle finger was maliciously grabbed by an aggressive man-eating rose bush.  Here I was, minding my own business and a rose bush decided to go on the offensive and bite an unsuspecting human.

Once bitten, I stopped, removed the thorn from my finger and carried on my business affairs by shaking hands, engaging in conversation and then listened to an investment presentation that I ultimately committed to.  Later in the evening or should I say early in the morning around 2AM, I awoke to a throbbing pain in my middle finger.  No matter what I did, ibuprofen or soaking it, the pain would not subside.  Mr. manly man finally had to admit his defeat to pain and drove to the hospital.  Once arrived at St. Vincent Carmel, the attending physician doped me up on pain med and sent to an awaiting hand surgeon to perform emergency surgery to relieve the pressure of poison building up in my finger.

Bottom line, I spent three days in the hospital in one of the most painful experiences of my life.  It seems that the thorn of the rose had nothing to do with my subsequent pain.  It appears that once the rose thorn had punctured my skin, I had shaken hands with someone who had strep throat, coughed in their right hand that I would ultimately shake.  Soon thereafter, the strep would permeate through my entire body and cause a three day male version of child birth.  I remember the doctor telling me, “Strep won’t kill you; you will just wish you were dead!”  Those words rang true!

Since that encounter I have lived my life differently.  I can’t say that I literally smell every rose that I pass but I will admit that I have planted more that 30+ roses around my house to serve as a constant reminder to appreciate the “nows” in my life as opposed to what might be in the future.  As the saying goes, “Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery… but Today is a Gift that’s why it’s called the Present.”  Therefore don’t let a rose bite you to remind you about the importance of your “now”.

As a post-script, I would like to thank Eddie Merlot Restaurant for taking full responsibility and paying my entire hospital bill.

Paul Lushin

So, what is selling? It can be broadly defined as a structured process of interaction between a prospective buyer and a seller. If we exclude sales generated through catalogs, infomercials, websites, and the like, which are more appropriately characterized as merchandizing, then selling is really a process of communication – an exchange of information and ideas – between people.

For this communication to be effective and efficient, it must be a two-way process – an open and honest give-and-take of information between the prospective buyer and the salesperson. If either party attempts to dominate or manipulate the conversation, the process breaks down. For instance, inundating the prospective buyer with features and benefits without first determining if those features and benefits actually address the prospect’s needs and concerns is counterproductive. The “information dump” is just as likely to provide the prospect with as many reasons “not to buy” as reasons to make the purchase. Similarly, if the prospective buyer begins by dictating the terms of the potential sale or making other demands before determining if the salesperson’s product is the best fit, time and energy are wasted.

It is the salesperson’s responsibility to keep the communication two-way, on point, and moving the selling process forward. The salesperson must ask appropriate questions to elicit enough information to determine if he or she has the appropriate product or service to address the prospect’s needs, wants, challenges, or goals. If the salesperson’s offering is not a good fit for the prospect, it’s time to end the process. On the other hand, if the salesperson can provide a best-fit for the prospect, he or she must ask appropriate questions to help the prospect discover the fit. Educating with questions in the early phase of the selling process is just as important, maybe more so, than making a polished, professional presentation at the conclusion of the process.

A prospect may be enthusiastic about a product or service and a salesperson might be excited about the expectation of making a sale. However, if the prospect doesn’t have (or is not willing to invest) the required resources to complete the transaction, the selling process will eventually grind to a halt. So, the salesperson must also ask appropriate questions to determine if the necessary resources – typically money and time – are available and if the prospect is willing to make the investment. Having a two-way conversation about such issues prior to a presentation will eliminate the investment-related roadblocks that routinely occur at the conclusion of a presentation. However, discussing money with a prospect can be particularly precarious. Prospects are typically suspicious of the salesperson’s motives. Keeping the conversation open, honest, and two-way will do much to alleviate those suspicions.

How a prospect will make a buying decision is also critical information a salesperson must obtain early in the selling process. The salesperson must know the criteria the prospect will ultimately use before he or she can develop an appropriate presentation. To obtain this information, the salesperson must use the same interviewing skills as a newspaper reporter – uncovering the specifics about the who, what, when, where, how, and why of the prospect’s decision process.

If the salesperson’s communication efforts have been successful, he or she will know the most appropriate product or service to present, the price at which to present it, and the manner in which to present it in order to obtain a buying decision. More importantly, the prospect will also know what the salesperson proposes to present, at what price, and the manner of presentation. Last-minute surprises and unfulfilled expectations on either part are unlikely.

So, what is selling? It is a structured communication process to identify and qualify selling opportunities. If you want to improve your selling experience – and results – improve your communication skills.

© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Let me give you an example in my life.  Several  years ago while serving as an Indianapolis Police Officer I encountered a situation one night when I began to hear what I thought was a cat screaming, either it was in pain, in heat or protecting its territory from another cat.  I was with another officer and we had just completed a run and as we sat outside our cars talking, we heard this odd noise coming from our east.  We dismissed the sound but it became more frequent, and more human as time passed.  I along with the other officer aimlessly tried to find the original of these morbid screams.  Finally as we neared where they came from, it was clear, they were human.  We encountered an 80 years woman frantically calling for help as she had just been raped.  It seems that a man had entered her home as she slept and then forcible sexually assaulted her.

Here is where my guilt finds its genesis in this case.  As I am talking with her from her second story window, I had trouble completely understanding what she was saying not because she was not being clear but because I had already formed a judgment and opinion that she was “not all there.” There is one thing to hear another, but it is another thing to listen.  I was not listening.  Instead of being a police officer to help others feel safe, I insisted upon this elderly female to walk downstairs to let me in.  She was terrified that maybe the perpetrator was still inside and yet I insisted he had left so once again I insisted on her letting me in.  You see, I thought she was not of full mental capacity and therefore non lucid and possible a mental patient.   My judgment was that no sexual assault had occurred and she was probably having hallucinations.   The “victim” as I will now call her, not because she was sexually assaulted but because I victimized her by not believing her story because my self-righteous judgments.

Later it was determined that a crime had been committed and she had been through a horrific 2 hour ordeal.  And to make matters worse, her  could-be hero, an Indianapolis Police Officer refused to make a gallant rescue, instead made her walk a walk of fear through a house not knowing if her assailant was still inside.  She was transported to Wishard Hospital and as time passed I tried to forget my callous insensitive lack of professionalism but most importantly my lack of being a caring human being.

After two weeks had passed, my guilt got the best of me so I decided to reach out to her son and beg his forgiveness.  As I began to tell the story of how I encountered his mother and how I had not believed her and therefore asked her to make her way downstairs, he interrupted me mid-sentence and said that she had passed away.  Wow, my guilt spiraled to depths that I never realized could be possilbe.  I didn’t know what to say.  I had betrayed this woman’s trust and I so desperately wanted to undo that fateful night.  The son forgave me but it would be months before I would forgive myself.  To be perfectly honest, 25 years later, I still struggle and wish I could re-live that night all over.

My guilt rather temporary, fleeting, permanent or intermittent has at times overshadowed my purpose of experiencing joy.  Many times soon after that night, I found myself being a victim to a mistake of being self-righteous and opinionated.  Many times I felt that it was all done to me.  But as I have matured, I reflect on what this woman has done for me and my career.  I have become a better listener and more purposeful ever since.  So thank you Mrs. Speak, I will never forget you and I hope you have forgiven me.

Paul Lushin

This myth is so prevalent because it is so tempting to believe. If we think people just need some time to decide, then we don’t have to force ourselves to ask the tough questions in order to get them to make a decision. This enables us to fool ourselves into believing that the deal is right around the corner. Prospects rarely need time to make a decision after we have made our presentations; they usually know what their answer is. As the salesperson, our job is to persuade them to tell us the decision and their reason for it — even if the answer is no.

Sure, there are instances where prospects need some time to make a decision. If you feel you’ve run into one of those instances, be sure that you know all the reasons they have for needing more time. People often do need more time because they have other quotes coming in, they have to speak with another decision maker, or they have to finalize the budget, etc. Almost every valid reason for a “think it over” can be negated if a salesperson deals with these reasons before attempting to get a final decision from the prospect.

If someone needs more time, you need to know specifically why they do, and when you can expect a final decision. A belief that a prospect needs time to decide often evolves from when a prospect says, “This looks good. I need a few days to review this information and then get back to you. I think it might be a good fit.” The salesperson then leaves, feeling comfortable in the knowledge that the deal is a few days away. But what the prospect is more likely saying is: “The answer is no, but if I tell you no, you will continue to badger me with questions and presentations. If I tell you I need some time, you will leave and I can hide from you.”

Don’t allow yourself (or your prospect) to believe in the “think it over.” The only one of the two who will usually think it over is you, the salesperson! Ask some follow-up questions to the “think it over”. Nurture the person. (As a general rule, if you are nurturing and the prospect becomes upset, most likely he is not telling you the whole truth.) If you handle the situation correctly, both you and your prospect can get to the heart of the matter and come to some concrete decisions. Even if the answer is a “no” for good reasons, at least you know that and don’t have to waste your time following up. Don’t believe that prospects always need time to decide – usually they just need a little help from you to tell the complete truth.

Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

During a race, Bennett was in a heated battle for first place when coming out of the first turn and into second, he locked wheels with his rival.  Before I could realize what was happening, I was bearing witness to my son flipping end-over-end and being struck by multiple cars that were being collected into the accident. My hear t dropped and I found myself temporary frozen in a state of shock and disbelief.  I didn’t know what to do except run onto the track and aid my son.

Panic raced inside my head as I saw my son’s car come to rest upside down and against the retaining wall.  As I ran to my 8 year old, I felt like I was running in slow motion but my thoughts were traveling at the speed of light.  I pictured my son crying and gasping for air, I pictured something broken or worse yet, him being unconscious.  The track EMT’s arrived first holding his neck as others uprighted the car.

As Bennett’s car was rubber side down once more, he and I made eye contact as he asked a question only a true competitor would ask, “Dad how’s my car?”Even though I was still shaking, I was relieved and eager to survey his car and give him his answer. After his violent crash, the only damage he sustained was some bent sheet metal, 2 flat tires and 1 bent rim.  After repairs to the car, Bennett re-started the race from last place and finished 4^th.

Once the race had finished, B-man (Bennett’s nickname) exited his car and wanted to see the damage.  What I didn’t know, that as Bennett was violently flipping, his helmet came in contact with the concrete track.  To a father’s already shaken paternal instinct, my heart once more took a deep dive into my stomach as I saw deep gouges in my son’s helmet.

Never have I seen my son as proud as he was when he saw his blemished helmet.  He looked at me and said, “Dad, I am now a racer!”  To my son, his marred helmet was a testament to his experience and what he had lived through.  It was a battle scar, a personal victory for all to see.

The lesson I learned that day was not to let recent adversity affect the now—jump back in and run the race. Also, wear your experience for all to see as though they are badges of honor.  When people buy from me, they buy my experience not my knowledge; they buy my failures, not my successes.  They buy my scars not an untarnished image that I want to portray.  So thank you Bennett for teaching your father a lesson in humility and fortitude.

Paul Lushin