What is commitment? Why is it important? Dave Kurlan writes about it often. OMG evaluates for it. We look for it in our clients.

Why? Here’s an example.

We are in Day 2 of our Recession Busting Boot Camp. Yesterday, one of the attendees left at 1:30 (it was pre-arranged and OK with his manager and CEO) to attend a concert in Manhattan. The concert tickets were a gift from his girl friend and were purchased before he was enrolled in the Boot Camp. He promised to be back for all of Day 2.

Here’s the whole story. He left the Westboro training facility, drove to Albany area to pick up his girl friend, drove to Manhattan to see the concert, drove his girl friend back to Albany after the concert and hit his pillow at 2:45 AM. Got up at 5 AM to be the first one to arrive at the Westboro training facility, ready to go at 8:30 AM.

850 miles…………….2 hours sleep.

How’s his commitment?

Will he do whatever it takes?

Will he get it done?

Would you hire him?

Would you marry him?

It’s February 2009, Barack Obama is the president, the stock market is in the tank and you are worried about the economy.

Please join us for 5 Steps Your Sales Force Needs to Take to Survive in the Recession a critical idea stimulating web session with Dave Kurlan as your guide. The program is sponsored by Landslide who produces state of the art sales software that combines sales process consistency, on demand performance technology and access to personal sales assistants.

This one hour web session on Wednesday February 18th, 2009, from 1pm – 2pm ET will address the following:
    • Having the right people in the right sales/sales management roles;
    • Gaining your sales team’s commitment and buy-in to work harder, be tougher and do what it
      takes in these more difficult times;
    • Performing a pipeline analysis and working the pipeline;
    • Creating the necessary infrastructure. This includes an appropriate sales process, recruiting
      process, sales management systems, and software;
    • Developing the salespeople on process, skills and overcoming their weaknesses.

You can register here. Don’t miss this session, it will make 2009 easier.

Feel free to forward to a friend.

OK. So, here’s the deal. Someone went to their search engine during the first week in January and typed


i hate rick roberge
into the search box. Then they went to my blog.

It happened eleven (11) times.

OK……Who was it?

I have some very loyal readers. Thank you! I’ve also had some visitors that didn’t hang around long. There’s a whole other group that subscribed for a while, but unsubscribed when they got their nose out of joint about something that I wrote. When a new visitor includes their url on a comment, I always check them out. If I think they might be fun, informative, or beneficial in some way, I subscribe to their feed for a while.

The most relevant recent example of this is Elliot Ross. Elliot is a different kind of IT guy up in Canada. When he made this comment, I thought, “Well OK”. I read his bio and few of his posts. When I read this post, he reminded me of my post from July 2007, but gave me a different twist to explore. So, here we go.

His line that got me was, “You don’t need to be a chartered accountant to run your business. That is why you hire or use one.” Then he drew an analogy to IT services. Great analogy and applicable to many of us.

Would you try to build a car yourself?
Would you try to sew your own suit?
Do you have a cow in your backyard so that you don’t have to buy milk?
You don’t need to be a lawyer, but you need to know one.
You don’t need to be a doctor, but you need to know one.
Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Here’s the twist!

Some of you might know what a megabyte is, but do you really know enough to fix your computer when you open Outlook and your data isn’t there? Do you really know the questions to ask when you’re standing in the big box store or on line at Dell talking to the high school kid that’s about to ‘sell’ you the computer that’s gonna be responsible for keeping you going for the next year (or decade if you’re that kind of person)?

Some of you know what a blog is. a website. a key word. Google rank. Yada yada yada, but do you really think that you can do it better than Pete Caputa and Hubspot?

If you are an expert at what you do, you may feel the same way about people that Do-It-Themselves” rather than engage you.

Here’s my questions for DIY-ers in my world?

Have you tried to determine whether you have any compelling reasons to hire me/us?

Do you have enough opportunities in your pipeline to stay in business this year? Does your selling process tell you which one next? What next? When to quit? How many opportunities passed by your nose last year and you didn’t have what it took to get the business? How many of your former customers, prospects, or ‘should-be suspects’ are doing business with a customer even though you could have done it better, more efficiently, cheaper, or with a higher ROI?

Do you know what the consequences are for not using me/us?

Do you know what referrals from me/us might be worth? What’s it cost you to have me/us not remember you?

Who holds you accountable? Who questions you? Who debriefs you when you don’t close a sale? Who strategizes with you when you’ve got a ‘big one’ coming up? Remember this guy? Does he remind you of you?

Enough already. We have a Boot Camp that’s not quite full. We can evaluate you or your people as salespeople or sales managers. We can train. Coach. Mentor. Create metrics. Help accountability. Yada. Yada. Yada…..But, my guess is that you know all that. You’re just satisfied with DIY Mediocrity.

Thank you Elliot!

What blogs do you read?

Do you like reading blogs written by salespeople?

Do you like reading blogs written by marketers?

Do you like reading blogs written by webbies?

Social/personal blogs?

Have you ever searched Google for the most popular blogs?

or for the most popular sales blogs?

If this is the only blog that you read, check out the other blogs that I read.

Then give us a thought on the comment page.

I was watching the Secret the other day and am borrowing one of its analogies.

Think about driving from Maine to California at night. Your headlights will illuminate the 200′ in front of your car. It’s thousands of miles from Maine to California, You can’t see thousands of miles ahead, but you’ll drive it 200′ at a time and you’ll get there just fine.

A sales call works the same way. You can’t see your destination, you can only see what’s been illuminated for you, but if you focus on listening to your prospect and moving through the illuminated area, you’ll get through it.

All you have to do is start it the right way.

Remember the way Nomar Garciaparra used to start his at bats?

Who starts their speeches with My Fellow Americans…?

How about this way to start a day?

OK – What’s the First Thing? How do you start a sales call?

Henry Ford said, “People can have the Model T in any color – so long as it’s black.” One choice. That’s it.

How many color choices do car buyers have in 2009?

When I was growing up, we had a television antenna on the roof. It had a VHF component and a UHF component. Two choices.

There were three networks. NBC (National Broadcasting Company), CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) and ABC (American Broadcasting Company). Seemingly three choices, but the reception for ABC was terrible, so we usually only had two choices.

Let’s see….How many cable channels are there? Satellite? Dish? How many viewing choices do viewers have in 2009?

What’s the point? Think of your prospect as a couch potato with their finger on the “surf” button on the remote.

Click…Click…Click…Click…Click…Click…Click…Click…YOU!

Can you get their attention in that split second to keep them from clicking again? Can you get them engaged so they’ll relax their grip on the remote? Can you figure out what they want and give it to them so they’ll stay for the whole show? Will they tune in again next week?

No answers here. Just questions.

I found this an interesting twist. Enjoy.

http://adrianmiller.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/are-you-frozen/

I started working with a new client last month. Honestly, it wasn’t the easiest sale that I’ve ever made, but once we engaged, he committed 100%. Last Friday, I sent the following email to him, “This question was posted to one of my groups. Is it something for you?” and I included the details of the request. I received the following response. “Rick, Good lead …we appreciate it very much!!” It was unexpected and he verbally added that our relationship was already showing a return. Well, Duh! Isn’t that what it’s about? Actually, I never tell prospects that they should expect referrals from me, but give me a break! I practice what I preach.

Contrast that with this email that I received yesterday. “Hi Rick, Do you know these guys? I noticed they came up on the the (prospect list) for February. We do a lot of work helping companies (yada yada yada). Would you be able to introduce me to someone? Thanks” I’ve never referred him. He’s never referred me. I don’t buy from him. He’s not a client. As a matter of fact, he’s a client of a competitor. I know a guzzillion people in his industry and I have an expert that would be my first call. Why would I introduce him?

So. I sent the following email to my expert. “Expert, I know the guys that (he) wants to talk to except I don’t want to refer him. Who should I introduce them to? Somebody like you that does (that stuff). Straight shooter. No bullshit. I don’t like (him), but if he’s the only choice, and the my client wants to help, I’ll hold my nose, grit my teeth and make the introduction.“

My guy’s handling it.

If you’re not getting it, you should read How I Refer. I’m pretty black and white. I like clients and I do almost anything for them and if their business fails, it’s not because of me.

Remember Mr. Awesome? His real name is Matt Webster. He calls himself The Supreme Chancellor. This is his company.

OK. So, now it’s your turn. He’s out there. He’s real. He’s not perfect, but he’s trying. Here’s his blog. Give him some feedback.

Comment here. Comment on his blog. Tell him what you think. Tell him what you like and don’t like.