Elaine and I arrived in Portsmouth, NH about and hour before our dinner reservations on Saturday, so we poked around in few of the shops on Market Street. One of them had knick knack kinda things with quotes written on them. One of the quotes struck me as ‘interesting’, so I took a picture of it to remind me to think about it. It’s credited to Ambrose Gwinett Bierce an American Journalist who lived from 1842 to 1914. Here’s the quote.


“An egotist is a person of low taste – more interested in himself than in me.”
Think about all the applications. Think about the entrepreneur who’s idea is so awesome, that he believes that all he has to do is tell his prospect how great it is.

Think about the salesperson that asks one “pain” question then starts his 55 minute presentation of features and benefits.

Think about all the salespeople that you know that think it’s their job to tell their prospects what the compelling reasons are.

Funny, what you think about while you’re waiting to eat.

OK. Pretend you’re a hot shot sales coach and this happens to you. What would you do?

A salesperson that you’re coaching is in a regular training session and asks the trainer for help with a problem that he’s having closing deals. Well, the session is on general process and addressing a specific closing situation isn’t really appropriate, so the trainee is directed to talk to his personal coach immediately after class.

He does and they arange to talk later that afternoon.

So, the trainee calls his coach at the appointed hour and says, “I was having a problem closing, but I think I’m over it.” Coach asks, “What makes you think that you’re over it?” Trainee says, “Because 15 minutes ago, I closed a $91,500 deal.” Coach says, “Congratulations! Was that the only closing problem you were calling about?” Trainee says, “No, actually, this was one of my Monday demos. My other Monday demo, my Tuesday demo and my Wednesday demo didn’t close even though they all agreed that it was decision day when I did the demo.”

Frankly, some of you reading probably have prospects in your pipeline that have been “thinking about it” for six months.  This trainee’s upset that he’s got one 1 day old, 1 two days old and one 3 days old. (Don’t forget that he closed one of them for over $90K.)

OK, so you’re the hot shot coach. What do you do/say?

Have you seen this commercial?

Are you going to this seminar?

How about winning one of FIVE DRAWINGS for ROUND TRIP AIRLINE TICKETS?

That’s All Folks! See you there!

Recently, I was talking with the founder of a computer forensics company. I was familiar with the term ‘forensics‘ as it’s used by police and lawyers to describe the process used to determine the facts of the crime. I had also heard it used in accounting to describe the process that special auditors use to determine if the ‘numbers’ reflect ‘reality’. The founder explained that their company looked for instances where their clients’ computers were being used for other than the intended uses.

So, as I pondered this idea, I thought about the medical examiner asking, “I wonder how this person died?” or the auditor that asks, “I wonder where that $3 million is?” That brought me back to our world.

Are you losing market share? Why?

Are your margins shrinking? Why?

Do you have turnover in your sales force? Why?

Does your top salesperson sell 2-3 times what the bottom one sells? Why?

Did you double your income this year? Did you want to?

What did you want to do? Did you?

Is it time for some Sales Forensics? or do you want to wait for the autopsy?

I was lucky enough to be invited to Sandy Condon’s ribbon cutting tonight. For those of you that don’t know, she and her husband, John, opened New Life Health & Wellness last July. Sandy asked me how her place compares to the factory that I belong to. I’m not gonna talk about the equipment, the special areas, the racquetball court. I will talk about the locker room. The locker room had perfectly folded towels on a contemorary style shelf unit. The sink area was neatly appointed with hand towels, soaps, shaving kits, and the mirrors didn’t have a spot on them. There wasn’t a towel or piece of lint on the floor. It was almost like it was just for show, but interestingly, she had patrons using the facilities. Of course, she has a water cooler, but I didn’t expect a selection of green teas conveniently set up next to the water cooler. Add water and enjoy! She has some free passes so call her or email her and schedule a visit and a workout. She’s conveniently located at the junction of 495 and Route 20 inside the Marriott with easy parking in the Marriott lot.

I had an interesting conversation with her husband, John, about medical sales and we decided that I should invite his company to our luncheon and introduce him to Jerry Shapiro.

I had another interesting conversation with Linda Sevier about her new blog idea.

Kate Hyland Mercer asked me about my ‘Kinder & Gentler” phase. Funny how not too many people got that.

I also spent some time with a young hustler named Mark Shea. Why do I think he’s a hustler? He was at an Ambassador’s Committee meeting in Worcester at 7:45 this morning and closed the ribbon cutting after 7 this evening. That’s hustling.

Do you have a favorite customer? Have they been your favorite from the day that you met? Is it because they’re your biggest customer? Your best referral source? Your first customer? Your brother-in-law? How long have they been your favorite? Don’t share names or recognizable specifics, but we’re wondering….Does everybody have one?

Have you looked at the calendar? Did you notice that next Wednesday is the first day of the 4th quarter of 2008? Is your year in?

I was talking to one of our clients tonight. He started working with us on May 8th. He told me that he’s got $240K in from May through August. He’s over $100K so far for September and has $136K scheduled to close next week. Not only is September his best month so far, but it’ll probably be bigger than the total of the previous four months. Half a million dollars in five months!

Has the economy affected you in the same way that it’s affected him?

I have another client that we evaluated last November. We started working together. She has twice as many customers as she did last year. Unfortunately, her customers’ business is off, so her dollar volume is flat, but she has twice as many customers and her customers will eventually come out of their funk and her dollars will double.

Did you double anything this year?

Can you do anything to make 2008 your best year ever? Are you sure?

Experts say it takes 90 days to make a habit. If you need to change your habits, why wait until January? If you start making your habit NOW, you’ll be rolling from 1/1.

Are you gonna double anything in 2009? Have we talked? Do you know what you need to do? Do you know what will hold you back? Who’s gonna hold you accountable?

Can you save 2008? Will 2009 be more of the same? Should we talk?

I have such a great life!

I was talking with Jim Sasena today about yesterday’s post. He told me that all the cool kids were saying that when we’re asked, “What’s new?”, we’re supposed to answer, “C over Lambda”.

During my search, I found


Is Jim cool or what?

So, what does it mean and how does it apply to sales?

Here’s the formula. Frequency (ν) = C / wavelength (λ)

Here’s the application. The frequency of your sales calls is inversely proportional to the length of your sales calls. So, the longer you talk, the fewer people you can talk to.

I got this email from a client tonight.

Every night I have to coax my 2 kids into brushing their teeth before bed. They have lots of objections, and I am usually not in the mood for them. Last night I wanted to try something different.

Instead of telling them what to do, I asked them a question: “Who wants to brush their teeth FIRST?”

They fought over first, but both brushed their teeth without dispute. What’s the lesson here?

Yesterday, I ‘did what I do’ to a prospect that wasn’t telling me the truth and I got an appropriate response. I’ll let you know how it turns out, but the process got me thinking about my education and the similarities between the stuff I had to learn to be an engineer (No, not the kind that drives a train. The kind that builds roads, bridges and buildings.) and the stuff that I had to learn to be a salesman.

Example: What are the similarities between a sales call and a chemical reaction?

Example: Can you apply any of Newton’s Laws to the sales process?

Let’s have a new fall series of blog posts that relates your favorite scientific hypothesis, theory or law to the science of sales. Get your geek smart technical friends involved. Send them a link to this post and have them explain the science then apply it to sales.

Let me get this started. Ever meet a salesperson who was full of hot air? Here’s my example.


PV=nRT
Where, P=the pressure of the gas (hot air), V=volume occupied by the gas (office, living room, phone call), n=units of gas, R is a constant, and T is the Temperature. Think about what this means. An aware salesperson can control the pressure that a prospect feels.

If you increase the volume from an office to the golf course, you decrease the pressure.

If you lower the temperature (stop the hot air and have a conversation), you decrease the pressure.

If you reduce the number of units of hot air (n), you decrease the pressure.

If you decrease the volume (by getting in a prospect’s face) and you keep the temperature the same, the pressure MUST go up and your prospect may blow up!

So, whadayathink? Fun? Sick? Wanna play? Wanna comment?

If you want to post about applying your favorite science, write it and send it to me by email. You may uncover the next sales breakthrough! Incidentally, if you know a scientist, engineer, or other-titled, smart, technical person, send this to them. Maybe they’ll be the next guru!