Read this email exchange and when you figure out what neither I nor my loyal reader have, make a comment.

From: A Loyal Reader
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 8:24 AM
To: ‘Rick Roberge’

Rick, read your post  this morning. Interesting as always!! Just as an fyi, we offer a service that …….. It is called the…….. I have attached a short presentation in case you are interested in learning more. Wanted to post a comment that talks about the service but figured it would be rude to pitch my services on your blog. I may be aggressive but not rude. Anyway, hope all is well.
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From: Rick Roberge
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 8:39 AM
To: A Loyal Reader

Is it ever not about you?
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From: A Loyal Reader
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 8:53 AM
To: ‘Rick Roberge’

What are you my husband??
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If you need a clue, look here .

One of the great things about having a wide network is that sometimes lessons come from far away.

Scenario: $120K opportunity to a repeat customer. Compelling Reasons identified. Urgency established. SOB proven. Excellent! Second base. CEO, EVP and CFO agree that the timing’s right, the money’s right, and that it’s a go. Great! Third base. Only thing necessary: Do a $20K pilot. Pilot works? Do it all.

I don’t know how you set up pilots, but the way I do is to review all possible outcomes with the prospect and determine what my prospect will do in each case. In this scenario, the salesperson assumed that because this was a repeat customer, it was a slam dunk. As you might imagine, the pilot did not go perfectly and although the outcome could have been anticipated and handled on the front side, it was a surprise to the customer because it had never happened to them before (It had to the provider.). It wasn’t explained as a possibility before the pilot, so the prospect could decide how to handle it before it happened. Nobody knew what ‘works’ meant.

Bottom line: The salesperson really screwed up. He didn’t set up the pilot properly. He not only blew a $120K deal, but he ended the relationship with a repeat customer.

The rest of the story: When the salesperson was debriefed, his supervisor decided to try to save the day. The supervisor, top sales guy and the original culprit spent several hours strategizing internally, trying to explain to the customer what went wrong, how they screwed up. what they should’ve done, and how the ‘failure’ was no big deal.

Bottom-Bottom line: They saved half the deal, $60,000 and they have a second chance to have a satisfied customer again. The cost: 40 high level man-hours at $500/hour trying to save the deal.

Done right – this is $120,000 at normal margin. In reality, it’s a $40,000 ($60K – 40 x $500) low margin project with a customer that’s gonna scrutinize everything he does, not trust and be very (if not impossible) to please.

Now, my friend didn’t tell me if the culprit was a million dollar producer or this $120K was his whole year. He also didn’t tell me if the culprit worked for a $100 million company or if this incident will severely impact the bottom line.

OK, so forget my friend’s client and his $120K opportunity. What about you?

How many people do you start into your sales process every year? How many of them buy? Of the ones that don’t buy, how many of them should have? How much time do you spend with non-buyers? Why didn’t they buy? How much should they have bought? What would you have done with that extra income? How long have you been doing this? How much….never mind. You know where this is going. How much do your mistakes cost you? How about the mistakes that you don’t know you’re making?

As you know, I heard Scott Latham speak last week.

This is an excerpt from one of his slides.

• Creative Destruction is the Flushing Process




• Joseph Schympeter, Harvard Economist


• Recessions Separate The Wheat From The Chaff

So, I poked around. I found this article where I read:

“…recession are painful: unemployment, lower wages and profits, and bankruptcy.”

I also read: “…recessions are a process of creative destruction in which inefficient firms are weeded out. Only by allowing the “winds of creative destruction” to blow freely could capital be released from dying firms to new industries.”

And: “Another “benefit” of a recession is that it purges the excesses of the previous boom, leaving the economy in a healthier state. “

I also found ‘Seventeen Reasons That America Needs A Recession‘

And Time and CNN ask the question, “Is the American economy in need of a good cold shower?“

Elaine and I can add that we bought our first house in 1981 when many were suffering due to high oil prices caused by the Iranian Revolution and a tight monetary policy. We bought our vacation home in Maine during the recession in 1991. So, we say, “Bring it on! Let’s have a recession! I want a condo down south!”

My questions for you.

Are you the wheat or the chaff?

Are you efficient or inefficient?

Is your capital about to be released for someone else to use?

Will you do what it takes to sell your way through what’s coming?

Can you do what it takes to sell your way through what’s coming?

Yesterday, Thursday, I had the pleasure of listening to Scott Latham from Bentley address almost 200 business people at the Corridor Nine Chamber of Commerce Monthly Breakfast. The title of his talk was “Recession Proof Your Business”. He asked the crowd to put up their hands if they were Harry Potter fans. Then he drew his first analogy…….Remember how they talked about the villain in Harry Potter?

                                    “He who shall not be named“

The villain was so powerful and so feared that it was dangerous even to say his name.

Then Scott talked about the “R” word and how all the politicians, economists, and talking heads believe that it’s dangerous to say the word “recession” as if not saying it means that it doesn’t exist.

I see this every day. Salespeople, sales managers, entrepreneurs, and business owners don’t evaluate because to evaluate might mean that they’ll identify what’s holding them back and what’s holding them back is so powerful and so feared that it’s dangerous to even say it’s name. If they don’t name the weakness that’s holding them back, then it doesn’t exist.

As my mother would say, “Yeah, right!”

Thanks, Scott!

As you may know, I talk to my mother during most of my evening commutes. Tonight she asked when I was going to post a picture of my new grandson like I did when Kai was born. Meet Zane!

                    

And this is Zane under Kai’s watchful eye!

                    

Dave Kurlan asked several very good questions which you can read here.

If you have a comment, feel free to post it here. Dave will see it.

If it’s private, send him an email.

If you are a business owner that sells, or an active salesperson, you probably talk to several thousand people a year. If you are a human being with ears, eyes and a brain, you are bombarded with hundreds (or thousands) of incoming messages EVERY DAY…..some of which are ‘feelers’ from business owners or salespeople because you’re on their list today.

Elaine l-o-v-e-s to shop. Everything from flea markets, salvage stores and outlets to malls, Newbury Street or anywhere in Manhattan. She’s looking for new furniture for our family room, so a couple of weeks ago we visited a furniture store. As we walked in, I noticed two ‘vultures’ waiting about 30 feet away. One of them broke away from their conversation and angled over to greet us with, “How are you kids, today?” Elaine responded with, “Just looking.” (I love watching this.) He adeptly asked, “Anything in particular?”. Elaine replied, “Sofas and recliners.” He gestured and said, “All along in here and my name is Rich if you have any questions.” Elaine thanked him and I nodded. (I’m good at my part, too. Huh?) He stayed with us, pointing out features of the next few things that Elaine touched. After a minute or so, Rich asked, “Have you kids been looking long?” I turned and said, “You know, Rich, I might be older than you.” To which he replied, “I doubt that.” (All right. I started it..I have to finish it.) “Rich, us ‘kids’ will call you when we need you or you can send another salesperson over to check on us if you don’t want to deal with me any more.” Rich was pissed. He walked away talking to himself and never spoke to us again. (We did talk with another salesperson, but the store wasn’t a fit.)

Here’s the point.
I could have given Rich my business card.
I could have told him that I could fix his Need for Approval.
I could have told him that I could teach him how not to get Emotionally Involved.
I could have given him a more engaging way to greet prospects walking into his store.
I could have offered a lot.

Do you think he cared? Do you think that he wants anyone to point out that he’s not perfect?

Do you think that he wants to know?

Now, truthfully, I didn’t try to engage Rich as a prospect, but how many of you have ever noticed someone with a problem that you could fix and said something like, “I can show you how to do that better.” and they replied with something like, “No, thanks.”

Click here.

Can you think of a question that you could ask that might begin to determine whether or not they want to know? If so, share it as a comment.

Incidentally, Pete Caputa has a very relevant post here.

Dave Kurlan’s post reminds us that WHAT WE THINK AS SALESPEOPLE DOES NOT MATTER!

The feature that we like the best might not matter.

Our biggest differentiator might not matter.

Being the lowest price might not matter.

Being the highest price might not matter.

An impending event might not matter.

The color might not matter.

Delivery time might not matter.

Your relationship with the boss might not matter.

The prospect gets to decide what their compelling reason to buy is and if you can do it, you’re on your way.

This could be fun!

I’ve been thinking recently that one of the reasons that technical people struggle with sales is that they believe that salesmanship is an art. However, truly professional salespeople know that there is a science of selling and that there are many similarities between more traditional sciences like chemistry, physics, geology and the science of selling.

So, let’s do it.

Is there a sales lesson that we can learn from the behavior of inert gases?

How about from Newton’s Laws?

Are there any useful analogies between sales and the way the physical earth is put together?

Not a lot of answers here, but there’s a lot of smart people out there.

Any thoughts? What’s your interest, mechanics, fluids, IT, math, can you apply it to sales?

Occasionally, we get an inquiry that goes something like, “We’re looking for ‘Negotiation Training’.”.

Isn’t that a terrible place to start?

First, Dictionary.com says that one of the roots is “lack of leisure,” from neg- “not” + otium “ease, leisure.”

Excuse me! Lack of leisure? No wonder I never thought that negotiation was a good thing. Who wants a lack of leisure?

Some of the synonyms listed on Thesaurus.com are arbitration, compromise, debate, intervention, and mediation.

Arbitration? Mediation? We need a third party to decide?

Intervention? Huh? You mean like one of us is an addict and our friends have to get us in a room to get us clean? Who needs the intervention, the negotiator or the negotiatee? (Is that even a word?)

Debate? If anyone starts a debate in the sales process, it’s over!

Best for last….Compromise? I’m totally willing to compromise as long as I we do it 100% my way! No, seriously, if I’m willing to compromise, doesn’t that mean that my first solution wasn’t an expert recommendation and therefore a bad recommendation? I’m the expert. I don’t make bad recommendations.

In summary, to me, negotiation implies confrontation and two sides and if you are truly seen as an expert, there will be no negotiation because your prospect will believe that you are on their side. If you ever feel like you’re in a negotiation, maybe you should look to see how you got to second base.