Sales Mercenaries

During the Meet Your Ultimate Sales Force Event last fall I recited Rudyard Kipling’s uber-powerful poem, “IF.” So many people are still contacting me and asking what that was, so here it is in it’s entirety. This is what I call “Dwell Literature,” meaning that it get’s stronger the more you read it, think/meditate on it, apply it and live it. Let it change your life…

IF
By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!

What other Dwell Literature can you recommend?

According to Napolean Hill, a mastermind group is essential to success. Word of mouth advertising is the undisputed champion of the most effective methods of getting good business. Many organizations don’t have the old weekly sales meetings, and many reps are not being held accountable and or encouraged enough every week. Solopreneurs can suffer from isolation that robs them of their motivation.

A Business Networking Group can be the cure for all those ailments. Some benefits to a functional, effective Networking Group can be referrals passed to you, business skills that you can pick up from presentations and discussions held, camaraderie and encouragement on a regular basis, and a chance to build yourself a sales force by having 5 - 25 other people from your group out remembering you in conversations and passing out your business cards. Promoting one another’s services and products, and becoming customers of each other can take your business to the next level.

To date, there really are just 2 main courses of action if you want to be in a business networking group; Find one that exists and join it, or start your own. For many industries, starting your own is the way to go because your industry seat may already be taken. Even if there were an organization that had groups in your area, chances are something would not work for you: the dues they demand might be too expensive, they might have a philosophy that does not jibe with yours. Maybe the group has dilapidated to a social meeting. Maybe the group is too punitive, or militant. Maybe it is just plain corny. Here’s a couple of things that you might consider if you want to get into a structured weekly networking environment.

The first option is to locate all the groups in your area and see if there is a spot you can fill. I recommend that you do this because you will make a lot of contacts and you just might hit it it off with some people that can really inspire and equip you to do great things. Also, you might just find the perfect match for you; a meeting at the right time, the right distance from your home or place of business, that meshes with your business philosophy and a method that you will enjoy being a part of.

The second course of action is to start one of your own. Benefits: You name the time and place, you direct and lead or at least choose the person that you want to lead the group the way you would like to have it go. You will make more contacts by starting it yourself and you will have a higher visibility (read, more referrals). The con: How to go about it? There is a lot to a networking group, especially starting one, and a lot of it is counter-intuitive. That is, things that would seem to make sense end up destroying a group, and some things you think don’t matter do, and the things a group needs to have just aren’t apparent. So what you need is help.

The answer? Over the last 5 years, the folks at BizBuilders Networking Groups (yes, one of my companies) have developed the 1st Do-It-Yourself Networking Group Start-up and Maintenance Curriculum that gives you all the information and tools that you need - all the forms, the methodology and structure, including web-presence - that you need to get a group started, all at about 10% of the cost to the members to join as joining one of the big dues-collecting organizations.

Here’s how it works: You buy the curriculum, which comes in various sets, and you do the work to get the group together. It is all laid out for you. Each member just purchases their own supplies, or the group can share, whatever, and they each sign up to be listed as a member on the local chapter web-page, which is supplied with the Chapter Start Up Kit. If your chapter, or you, want to collect some dues (which is a good idea because there should be a financial commitment on the part of the members), that’s okay. It stays with you or your chapter. You can use it for whatever you or your chapter feels is most important. If you want to have a group that has no dues, then that’s fine, too.

Here’s why it makes sense: In reality the person that starts the group and leads the group does all the work anyway. Why not spend just a couple hundred dollars and have a whole chapter up and running with each member spending a little bit to be listed on the website and buying their own supplies for a few dollars instead of sending THOUSANDS as a group off to the “National HQ” for “support” that they rarely really deliver?

Why this is the time: I just rolled out the website and the opportunity to get the curriculum this morning. Right now, I am offering the Chapter page set up as part of the package price, and the members listing is only 7 bucks a month. More importantly, it takes time to build a real network, so every week that goes by is vitally important. Getting started is sometimes the hardest part, but it is the part that truly successful people do to differentiate themselves from the herd. Your future is determined by how soon you start and how well you do on everything. Getting started on your networking group and meeting like-minded professionals and passing referrals back and forth is best done immediately.

So let me know all your questions. This really makes sense for every sales and business pro in the world. I would love to have you comments and questions so I can refine and improve on what we have to offer. Whadya think?

Here is a list of Headlines that I want to eventually write about in the coming months. I think that these things will help you in your business , especially when you are with your customers. As I was walking my dog this morning, I thought about some of the things that I could write about, but instead of just making a list elsewhere, I thought it would be prudent to post the list and take recommendations from the readers (if there are any) about which topic they would like to know about first. And then next.

So here is a partial list. I will come back and add more as they come to mind or come to bear in relevance.

The Difference between Sales and Marketing

The Sales Mercenary Attitude

5 of the 1000 Secrets of the Sales Mercenary

My Book List, Your Sales Training Course, and how an off-hand comment can change the course of a life.

Corporate Training that Works. How and Why.

Learners Are Earners

Comment on what you would like to see first and then next. Of course comment on the rest of the articles here, as well. If you have questions, this is a good place to get answers.

Sales is about the money, right? How else do we measure whether we are succeeding or not? Isn’t it the ultimate level playing field here in the US of A and in capitalist countries around this big, blue marble? Yes, it is… but there is more. There is living and making a living. Doing well, and doing good. All this is important to the complete professional, the complete person.

This last week from a sales perspective, it could be argued that we had less than desirable sales results. We actually produced about 50% of what I was expecting we would produce. I knew it would be a hard situation going in, but it was harder than I imagined or prepared for. The biggest disappointment is something that I could not control: People just didn’t show up for their appointments. Beyond that, there were people that should never have had appointments with us. So the days drug wearily on, presentation after presentation. The sales merc team was unable get above the average production line. Staying under, even, by a fairly large measure, a rookie sales professional would have foundered and gone under mentally, and thereafter the physical manifestation of that dismay and confidence loss would have resulted in even less sales. As it was, we didn’t miss any sales that were possible, and giving up and losing sales would have tanked the whole week. So what did we do?

We hit the beach and went swimming at midnight! We put aside work after the second day, and went out to a great restaurant, told stories, met new people and laughed our heads off together. Our spirits soared as we jumped the waves of the warm Florida coast Atlantic. We reviewed the horror stories of the previous days and got it out of us and off of us. We stayed out late, but not too late and created memories that make the whole thing worth it, regardless of the financial outcome.

Sales professionals, take notice: It is about the money, but you can get more money by renewing your mind and your body and living the lifestyle today that you are hoping to achieve later. By shelving business for a few hours, we made the trip worth it personally, no matter the sales volume. By doing so, we actually ensured that we would NOT lose sales, and that we would capture every opportunity and turn it into revenues because we were sharp, of good cheer, satisfied with life and not desperate, depressed or despondent.

I am dedicated to be the best salesman I can be, but also to Enjoy the Adventure. They both feed the other, don’t they? Of course they do.

Share with the Sales Pro world your de-stress and amp-up activities here. Just hit comment and let me know what you do to get and stay fired up. Because in the words of Jim Rohn, “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. ”
Jim Rohn
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Here are some of my fav’s that I was thinking about today:

1) Glenngary Glen Ross

2) Used Cars

3) Boiler Room

4) Cadillac Man

5) Tin Men

6) Jerry MacGuire

I know that there should be a caveat by every single one of them, and this isn’t necessarily the best to worst order  would put them in, but I’m sure you could help me on that. Also, what did I leave off?

What’s the difference between 1st and 2nd place in racing? In horses, it could be just a nose. In NASCAR, and we just saw it in the Winter Olympics, the difference is often thousandths of a second. Isn’t that amazing? What does this mean to us as sales professionals?

It could mean that we need to be  only slightly better than the next guy. Or the previous guy. Maybe we have to wake up a little earlier, stay a little longer. Maybe make that one more call. Maybe we get a little more uncomfortable than the next guy. Or gal. You can get a great book called The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson from www.Bizmigo.com and read about being just a little better, learning a little more every day. Improving and achieving slightly more every try. That is a good idea. I have read that book twice, but it is time to put it in the bathroom again.

One thing is for sure: we need to train. Train each other. Train ourselves. Investigate, inquire, try try again. Get your team together and go over something, even it is just to keep yourself sharp and accountable.

And then? And then APPLY the knowledge and the skills. Get in the mix. Pick up the phone, set that appointment. Show up and show up prepared, looking good and thinking straight. A crystal gaze and clear conscience, ready to serve and ready to close.

Train. Tune up your racing machine every few laps. Attain that slight edge. Let it compound over time and see massive results!

PASS Publishing of Denham Springs, LA released the First Edition of Your Ultimate Sales Force – 159 Strategies to Generate Referral and Be Worthy of Them! The new book is authored by a writing team of Northwest business people and authors. Pre- order books were shipped beginning just last week, and the authors couldn’t be happier. “It was critically important to get this powerful of a message out to people, especially during these times when people need it most,” said Mike Davidson, who headed up the team of writers.

“Getting 12 authors all going the same way would be one thing,” said Davidson. “But these are entrepreneurs and salespeople. They do things their way, in their time. They are very busy and hard-working, but they are usually going in all different directions.” He said it was no easy task, but “we were proud to still get the book completed with such high quality and still only be 18 months in the works.” The average book takes 2 years start to finish. “And that’s with only one writer, so I think that shows what a team can do. Each team member wrote 2 chapters and also wrote commentary on the other’s chapters. Coordinating all that was a challenge. But there are a lot of unique perspectives and techniques here. For some it was their first writing endeavor and others have some published material and still others have been published authors for years. All of them have their own message. The book is very powerful because of the diversity in the author’s experience. Bringing that all together was worth it because of the need and the relevance of the end-product.” said Davidson. Your Ultimate Sales Force is 24 chapters, in 2 sections and 478 pages. A substantial read, indeed. According to Mr. Davidson, “It is everything that people need to know to launch or survive or thrive in any economy, but especially now.”

Michael Norton, president of Ziglar Inc., of Zig Ziglar sales training and motivational hero fame, said that “Everyone needs to read this book… [it] will take a person’s career and company to the next level again and again.” Videos of each author are soon to appear on CanDoGo.com, Norton’s current sales troubleshooting project. Audio production is underway already; each author reading their own material in the studio over the coming months. “We’re all very excited and motivated to get this message out,” said Shannon Evans, Contributing Editor, of Bainbridge Island.

These 12 Northwest professionals include 5 female professionals and 7 males, with careers spanning virtually every industry. They all live in Western Washington, except Michael Norton who wrote the Foreword and lives in Colorado. Profiles and contact information of each author, more about the book and ordering is available at www.YourUltimateSalesForce.com

It’s okay if you have a product or a service that you are really good at providing, but you just can’t (or just plain-old don’t want to) go out and “sell like hell.” As a sales trainer, I believe that knowledge replaces fear, and that sales can be enjoyable for a real pro. But I also understand that it can be intimidating, and for some personalities, sales can be downright repulsive.  Which is fine. I can relate. Some people are into do-it-yourself plumbing, but not me. I let the experts handle the real dirty work.

But the problem is that in business, Sales is the Lifeblood! Business cannot exist without sales, making that fear or disdain a business killer. Disdain and fear will keep many businesses from even starting, and will be the cause of death for some businesses in your town in the next 30 days alone.

My advice: Hire it out until you can learn to do it yourself, or hire people to do it for your business. Is there any other choices?

I was talking to an expert national sales trainer about the value of  “Sharpening the Sword” and he said flat out that those that stop learning more, stop earning more, and in this economy, may stop earning altogether. We can’t just be as good as we were last year, this year. The competition is steep and the customers are not taking risks with their money.  We must have the best attitude, the best skills, the best products at the best value. We need to be able to express confidently the value of our product or service, and get a commitment ASAP. We have to know how to sell, for the days of the lay-down buyer are history. Integrity, Honesty, Commitment, Sincerity, and Value; that’s what sells. How is your attitude? Confident or fearful?

There is satisfaction in growing. The thrill of the fight and the victory is sweet. And the victory is when the customer wins! Embrace your role as a business person: You are the sales force!

Sales: The transfer of  ideas accompanied by actions.

Force: A powerful effect or influence.

Embrace it.

Sales is sales. The sales process is the same. We can learn  and earn, or we can starve out. The end. Sales knowledge is king, Inventory knowledge is queen, and product knowledge is the jack. Business is sales and sales is business.  Contract sales professionals have a higher price, but a lower cost or no cost. Or more directly, what does it cost to not make the next sale?