Why am I posting this on a sales blog?

Because there’s a lesson to be learned here. Figuratively, it’s better to wake up at your funeral than in your coffin. Maybe it’s a sales call gone wrong. Maybe it’s your sales job on the line. Recognizing a downhill situation before you bottom out is an important skill.

If a sales call is heading south, there’s still time to turn things around. If you realize things were failing only after you’ve hung up the phone, it’s too late to save that call.

If your sales are faltering, there’s still time to save your job. If you’re packing up a box of your belongings, it’s almost definitely too late.

Learn to recognize your failures while there’s still time to turn them around.

There’s no rule saying you have to like the people you sell to, but it helps a lot if they think you do. This sales story from the front line illustrates the point.

Click through the source to read the story.

On Monday we talked about the importance of honesty when it comes to the product you’re selling. And, while honesty is important, being tactful in how you interact with clients is also important. Odds are, you will encounter a client who, personally, you do not like. Perhaps he always yells on the phone, maybe she tells off color jokes, maybe it’s nothing tangible, just an overall feeling.

Whatever the reason, it is not okay to express your personal dislike of the client to the client. I know this seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated.

Your clients don’t need to know if you don’t personally like them. No good will come from it. So, grin and bear those uncomfortable sales calls, and put on your best sales face to convince all your clients that you like them as people.

And if it’s really not possible for you to pull off, pass that client off to another sales person, for the good of your company.

“Give me the number one sales tip you’d give a new sales person. GO!”

I like the element of surprise. It makes people prioritize.

These are some of the responses I was given.

We’re in the business of being positive all the time.

This is important to remember, because being a sales person can be demoralizing if you let it. Not everyone can hear “no” dozens of times a day and still keep a positive attitude.

Be relentless.

Meek and subservient does not a good salesperson make.

Pound the phone. Be agressive. Get so many “no”s that you get hung up on.

When people call to complain, they’re really calling to buy more records [what we sell], they just don’t know it yet.

Take this one with a grain of salt. Some clients need to have their problems solved without trying to sell them anything else, at that time. Don’t give up on clients who complain, but feel it out.

Mention the word salesmen and honesty and those who believe in authentic sales leadership are already swimming upstream. There has been so much bad press (Bernie Madoff), negatively shared experiences about dishonest sales people (used car salespeople) admitting you are in a sales leadership role is for some a courageous action.

In the business, especially in sales leadership roles, consistently displaying an attitude toward honesty is a must choice behavior. This attitude is truly the capacity to examine one’s own view toward honesty and how that fits into the structure and order in society. Additionally, it encompasses the level of self esteem relative to accepting the consequences of our actions or inactions including the reporting of the dishonesty of others.

To read the rest of the article, go to the source.

To me, lies are only needed if something isn’t right. If a sales person is lying about a product, the product must be faulty in some way. A good product or service needs no lies. This doesn’t mean it will, as the phrase goes, “sell itself.” A good sales person will always be able to sell a product better than no sales person. But, a sales person with a good product does not need to exaggerate what his product can do.

If you catch a sales person in a lie, ask yourself, why does this product need lies to be sold?

There are two key questions that virtually every salesperson should ask themselves first thing in the morning to maximize their probability of success. I’m sure some readers who are as impatient as I am at times will scroll down until they see “Question #1:” to cut to the chase, but I’d actually like to try to explain the origin of these two question first, if possible.

I’ve managed salespeople to one degree or another all of my professional life. Over time, as I started my own companies, and those companies grew, I found myself in less of a hands on role with actual salespeople. As layers of management formed I went from working directly with salespeople on a daily basis, to working mostly with Sales Management and only occasionally communicating directly with our sales team. I enjoy sales, and miss working directly with our team, but I also understand the importance of delegation and specialization; I cannot oversee every element of business on a day-to-day basis.

Remembering back to when I was able to work with salespeople on a daily basis, there were certain questions that I would always ask my reps, and in particular, there were two questions that I would always ask each rep when I first saw them in the morning. As I realized that my role in the company was evolving, and I would not always be there to quiz each rep each morning, I initially thought it would make sense to hand this task of daily inquiry off to my Sales Manager, but then I had a thought: What if, instead of having management ask each rep these questions each morning, we trained the reps to ask themselves these questions? In other words, what if we asked our reps to see the bigger picture, to understand not just the questions they would need to answer daily, but why these questions and the answers to them were important? It was at that moment that I decided that these two key questions would become an integral part of our sales doctrine, and that all reps must have them ingrained in their minds to ensure success.

So, what are these two questions? It might seem logical to list question #1, then explain its importance, then move on to question #2, but actually the two questions don’t make nearly as much sense separately, and in fact they will probably seem trivial until I explain the concept behind them and the way in which we work to ingrain this concept in the mind’s of every member of our sales team.

To read the two questions, and the conclusion of this excellent article, go to the source.

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that employers are under no obligation to ensure that workers take legally mandated lunch breaks in a case that affects thousands of businesses and millions of workers.

The unanimous opinion came after workers’ attorneys argued that abuses are routine and widespread when companies aren’t required to issue direct orders to take the breaks. They claimed employers take advantage of workers who don’t want to leave colleagues during busy times.
The case was initially filed nine years ago against Dallas-based Brinker International, the parent company of Chili’s and other eateries, by restaurant workers complaining of missed breaks in violation of California labor law.

But the high court sided with businesses when it ruled that requiring companies to order breaks is unmanageable and that those decisions should be left to workers. The decision provided clarity that businesses had sought regarding the law.

The opinion written by Associate Justice Kathryn Werdegar explained that state law does not compel an employer to ensure employees cease all work during meal periods. It stated that while employers are required to free workers of job duties for a 30-minute meal break, the employee is at liberty to use the time as they choose even if it’s to work, she wrote.

“The employer is not obligated to police meal breaks and ensure no work thereafter is performed,” Werdegar wrote.

Anyone in HR in California has struggled with ensuring that employees took their breaks, and did not work through them. Before this ruling, the risk of lawsuit was a good motivator. But, for employees who consistently pushed the limits of the break laws, it sometimes felt more like being a parent than being a boss.

How do you feel about this ruling? Have you had trouble enforcing breaks with your employees?

Ernie has always struck us as more of the dreamer in this twosome — he does sings songs to a rubber duck. Bert, on the other hand, has always been the more practical one, making sure their shared place of cohabitation is cleanly and their twin beds are neatly made each morning.

See additional fictional leaders and followers at the source.

What is your favorite example of leader in tv or the movies today?

The real entrepreneurs I know are good at overcoming both people problems and business obstacles, and get satisfaction from the challenge. Some people think this is a talent that you must be born with, but experts disagree. You can definitely train yourself to be a problem solver, if you haven’t already. It’s a key skill for success in every business role, from accountant to customer support. Here are some basics rules:

1. Practice active listening. Whether it’s a frustrated employee, or a dissatisfied customer, what you first hear is usually someone yelling with emotion or talking so fast the you don’t know what they are talking about. The first thing to do is resist the urge to vocally jump into the fray, and listen attentively without interruption. Often the person will solve their own problem as they are unloading.

2. Promise action but manage expectations. Calmly commit to resolve the problem, but don’t immediately promise any given solution. Let the person know that the situation is not simple, and you need some time to investigate the circumstances and alternatives. Then give an expected time frame for an answer, and move to the next stage.

To read the rest of these awesome tips, go to the source.

Often times, if a problem is solved well, the “problem client” can become an excellent repeat customer. If he or she is handled poorly, though, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose that client at the least. Occasionally, an unhappy client who is handled poorly can make waves. Happy clients will calmly tell other people about your company. Unhappy clients will scream it from the rooftops. And, the old adage is wrong; not all press is good press. An unhappy client who was handled poorly can drive future business away from you.

Aberdeen Group recently released a research brief entitled “Bloggers Paradise-Best Practices For Business Blogging” that shows how best-in-class companies are out-blogging and out-performing their industry average and laggard competitors. Here are just a few of their key findings.

Best in Class Blog More Often

Best in Class 85% blog
Industry Average 73% blog
Laggard 57% blog

Best in Class Blog Better Study Weighted Average Unique Blog Visitors Per Month

Best in Class 2485 visitors per month
Industry Average 1713 visitors per month
Laggard 1100 visitors per month

Best in Class Out Perform the Competition

Average annual revenue growth of 20% compared to -3% for laggards
10% YOY increase in marketing produced leads that result in closed business compared to a 1% decline for laggards
44% of sales forecasted pipeline generated by marketing versus 5% for laggard firms
73% customer retention rate compared to 7% for laggard companies

That data seems to suggest that more top companies blog than bottom companies. Now, correlation does not equal causation. It is most likely that companies who have their pulse on the internet (blogging, using social media) are also companies who are concerned about growth, and who are looking to the future, which are the companies most likely to succeed.

How important do you think blogging is to a company?

Google continues to talk up Google+ and its march forward to become whatever it is that it is supposed to become (Leading social network? Connecting hub for Google services? Both? Neither?). Experian has released some data about the number of US visits to the search giant’s social play. This data, combined with information provided last week by Google CEO Larry Page is interesting as well as confusing.

CNET reports on Page’s claims:

Google CEO Larry Page, by the way, claimed yesterday that Google+ has well over 100 million “active” users, though he didn’t define what “active” is supposed to mean in this context. ComScore recently reported that Google+ users spent just 3.3 minutes a month on the site in January.

and Experian’s numbers:

Google+ may be a ways off — a long ways off — from unseating Facebook, but it’s not exactly a ghost town, either. U.S. visits to Google’s still fledgling social network exceeded 61 million in March, up 27 percent from February.

To read the rest, go to the source.

Do you use Facebook and Google+ the same way?