Mike Brady sent me the invitation. I showed up at 5. I was greeted by Barbara Blankenship, the Event Sales Manager at Jillian’s in Worcester. First, let me tell you about being greeted by Barbara. Her smile starts perfectly at her mouth, spreads to her eyes and I immediately felt like I was the only person in the room and that I had 100% of her attention. Even though Mark Paskell and Jimmie Ames were yelling from the bar that she shouldn’t let me in and should send me down the street. She let me in anyway. I met her friends Chelsea and Carolyn. (Quick aside about Carolyn: She left work at 3 AM and answered the phone when I called at 9:30 AM the next morning.) OK, back to the event. Barbara wanted the world to taste Jillian’s new party menu. IT WAS AWESOME! Something for everybody. Salmon, pulled pork, cut veggies, wings, I forget what else. I didn’t need dinner when I got home. Incidentally, about getting home. I don’t know how many people left at 7 PM when the event was supposed to end. I left a little after 9 and there were still two groups going. Great event, Barbara. I think that we should talk about getting it to happen regularly, here. Maybe Ray could help.

So, if you’re planning a holiday party, contact Barbara. If you’re not, forward her info to someone who is and you may want to ask someone to get you on the list for next August.

So, when my mother read this post, she felt compelled to comment correct me, so she sent me an email. Notice how nurturing she is.

Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 9:48 PM

No..No..Rick—-You don’t get away with using “technique” with your mother…… I did not say they were nice …. I said they were great kids…..        but not perfect…..”Nice” is such a wimpy word in regard to my  grandchildren …it’s like saying  “nice doggie” …..They are all super great kids and I am very proud and love them all dearly….. It’s an imperfect world …how can any one be perfect in it ????  Not even me…. luv  Mom ….

If you have any comments for her that you don’t want the world to see, you can email her directly.

I usually call my mother on the way home from work. Sometimes it’s 2 PM. Sometimes it’s 8:30 PM. If I don’t call she assumes that I didn’t go to work and she’s usually right. So, tonight I called as usual. She tells me about her day. Then says, “I have to ask you a question.”

I say, “OK.”

She asks, “Do you really think that your sons are perfect?” (She’s referring to this post.)

I asked, “They’re not?” (Notice the technique?)

She says, “Well they’re very nice, but I wouldn’t say that they’re perfect.”

Me (feigning alarm): “They’re your grandsons!”

She says, “I raised four children. They’re all smart, good looking, well-mannered, successful, but they’re not perfect.”

I added, “Except one!”

She rebutted, “Your brother’s not perfect.” (Sometimes I wonder why I call her.)

Then she says, “I married a wonderful man, a special man, but he wasn’t perfect.”

Me: “What?”

Then she says, “Now if you were talking about me….”

I interrupted her with, “This is gonna be a great blog post!” and said, “Good night”.

Can you tell she’s my mother?

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Do you have the “Caller ID” weakness? Here are the symptoms.

Your phone rings. You check the caller ID. You recognize the number. You hit ignore…or you answer.

Why do you look? Seriously, WHY? What difference does it make who it is? So what if you don’t want to talk to them? Why not pick up the phone and put them out of their misery? Why waste their time and your energy anticipating the next call that you have to avoid? Why feel like you have to hide? Is your need for approval so bad that you care what they think if you tell them that you don’t want to talk to them again or answer the phone and say, “Oh! If I had known it was you, I’d have let the call go to voice mail.”?

If it is someone that you want to talk to, why do you need to know who it is before you answer? Are you afraid that they’ll have an unfair advantage because they’ll know who they’re calling, but you won’t know who you’re going to be talking with? Don’t you have any ability to roll with a conversation?

I do use caller ID occasionally. If I expect that an important call will come in during a meeting, I’ll check caller ID and take that call and ignore the rest. However, prior to sitting down, I’ll always explain to the person that I’m meeting with, apologize, but say that it’s really important and I’ll ask if it’s OK if I interrupt our meeting and take the call if/when it comes, or if they’d like to reschedule the meeting. They’ll ALWAYS allow me to take the call and as long as it’s not a pattern (and it isn’t) they’ll never be upset with me.

I dunno, I guess I just figure that the telephone company is allowing weak people to get weaker rather than forcing them to deal with life head on.

There are so many sales lessons around us….if we would just pay attention. Today’s lesson is taken from the Prayer of St. Francis. We sang it in church this week. Here’s an excerpt.


“…grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,…”

Think about it. It’s not about you. It’s about them. How about if I translate this into the Prayer of the Salesperson?


“…please help me to remember
to forget how I feel and make my prospect comfortable;
to stop telling and start listening;
to elevate and promote others works;
then my prospect will see my wisdom and believe,…”

As you may remember, Rod Lee wrote an article about me for his newspaper. Frankly, when he asked, I was a little surprised and a little hesitant, but went along with the idea. I know that the way that I work and live my life won’t work for everybody. It works for me. Occasionally, someone comes along and likes something that I do and I’m typically willing to share. Sometimes, sharing is not the thing to do. Let’s face it. Just because Elaine and I have been married for 34 years doesn’t mean that I should give everyone advice on marriage. Just because my sons, Mark and Matt, are perfect, doesn’t mean that I should give everyone advice on child rearing. My father was a carpenter and taught me many of those skills. My mother made sure that I knew how to cook, do laundry, sew, and other stuff so I wouldn’t be a burden on my wife. (Well, not everything worked.) Anyway, the point is, that my life has worked for me and when someone tries to “copy” one part of it, like the way I network, they really need to remember that what they’re trying to imitate is part of a bigger picture and they may need to change more than one piece of themselves.

Sorry! Back to the topic…

As a result of Rod Lee’s article, I was asked to speak to a couple of small groups. Jacki Rose was in one of the groups. She gave me very nice feedback and coming from her, I took it to heart. Someone else told me that another person in the audience said that I was “like a god”. That I didn’t pay attention to, but I’m glad that he got something out of it. Generally, I got very positive feedback and I’m satisfied that I delivered something of value. One person told me that they got some negative feedback. “…approach….wasn’t genuine and authentic….didn’t have…prospect’s best interests at heart…people have so many hangups and personal biases about sales….make the way they sell…some reflection of their ‘inner being’. On the other hand, I am really glad you came. There were some people in the room that needed to hear what you shared.”

I also appreciate the “negative” feedback. It was the most positive stroke of all. 30 years ago, Bob Jiguere told me that 1 out of 10 would buy anything from anybody. One out of 10 wouldn’t buy anything from anybody and the 8 in between, it depends how good you are. Based on the feedback, it sounds like I “sold” the ones that will buy from anybody and all of the ones in between, so the only ones left are the ones that won’t buy from anybody. I’m OK with that. Thank you, Bob!

Think about it.

Don’t leave your customer worse off than when you met!

Ask yourself the question, “Am I part of the problem?”

If your customer is making a mistake, shouldn’t you tell them.

 

Dharmesh Shah makes a few great points in his post asking whether or not you are a Trusted Adviser.

He also gets some interesting comments about the conflicts that arise when faced with the decision.

If a customer wants you to take a shortcut (regardless of the reason), and it’s not the right solution, why do you want to be part of it? Why would you want your name attached to a probable failure?

If you want to be known as the expert; if you want to be known for un-comprising quality; if you want to be known for unparalleled results; why would you let someone else decide on your offering.

Just a few random thoughts about trying to do business with propects that you should just walk by.