I had an interesting conversation today with John Kervorkian. We talked about a wide range of topics and I found out that he’s done some pretty high powered things. We were talking about managing salespeople, and he commented, “I used to just start with the “No’s.”” Simple? Obvious? Genius! If your salesman had 12 sales calls last week and 10 of them bought, ask about the ones that didn’t.

I’m hoping that he comments to add further insight.

Today is February 11th. I was driving to work this morning and I was third in line stopped for a school bus that was coming at me. A young boy runs across the street carrying his knapsack and a gigantic plastic bag. He gets on the bus. The flashing lights stop and we start to move. There’s mom, mittens, hat, winter coat waving like a banshee!

Mom, it’s 8 degrees (F). Go home. Have coffee. He’s probably got it!

Mom, it February 8th. You’ve probably been doing this since September. Go home. Have coffee. He’s probably got it!

Mom, maybe you could just send him an email or leave him a note.  Stay home. Have coffee. He’s probably got it!

Truth is…….Mom doesn’t care. It’s important. She’s gonna reinforce the lesson every day…No matter what the conditions…It’s her job…She’s responsible to get him through it

So, how many of you sales managers manage all day every day until they get it? How many of you think that once a week (or month) is enough?

I’d be willing to bet that not only does mom send him off in the morning, but that she meets him in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, what do you think the chances are that there’s a note in his lunch box?

We’re surrounded by lessons. Enjoy!

You may find this hard to believe, but some people don’t like me.

Are you done laughing yet? I’ll wait. OK, seriously, it wasn’t THAT funny. All right. Catch your breath. Wipe the tears from your eyes. Ready? Let’s go on.

This is the type of person who doesn’t like me.

He makes excuses. The only reason that he wants any ‘training’ is to learn tricks. He doesn’t really want to make better matches between his company and it’s customers. He just wants more business. If the trick doesn’t work, he’ll blame the prospect, the trick, or me. Anybody but himself.

I coach away the excuse-making by asking him how he screwed up. I blame everything on him. Until he’s willing to accept full responsibility for everything, he cannot be fixed. Consequently, he might ask me why I’m always giving him a hard time. Why I’m always picking on him. I’ll stop when he’s fixed or he fires me. I won’t give in and be part of the problem.

He gets emotionally involved. He can’t control himself. He talks louder and faster, smiles defensively, and feels his pulse rate quicken. It upsets him even more that I can get him emotional at will. If I can do it at will, so can a prospect. Once a prospect gets him emotionally involved, the prospect is in control. Either the salesperson buckles and give the prospect what they want or cut and run.

He believes that he doesn’t have a need for approval or a self-limiting record collection, but they’re both on the cusp. I won’t talk about these two weaknesses except to say that I will always indicate behavior that is a result of the weakness even when my client would prefer to be ‘coddled’.

Weaknesses are different from skills. A salesperson that has been through years of training may actually be able to show skills in a typical interview or in the classroom, but in front of a prospect, a switch flips and although they may know what to do, the weakness won’t let them do it or makes them do it wrong.

So, what’s my point? Read this. If you’re good, do you want to prove it and know how to get closer to perfect?

If you’re not as good as you want to be, are you happy about it? If ‘yes’, thank you for reading. If ‘no’, click here to get evaluated.

This is an excerpt from a real coaching session this week. Enjoy!

You should practice asking two questions for every statement that you make.

Practice in real life.

At John’s house, Jane asks, “John, how about steak for dinner?”

John replies, “Sounds great. I’ll have two.” Let’s have mashed potatos and peas, too.

At Rick’s house, Elaine asks, “Rick, how about steak for dinner?”

Rick replies, “Potatos?”

Elaine says, “Sure, how about mashed?”

Rick, sounds great. Veggies?”

Elaine says, “We have peas and corn.”

Rick asks, “How do you feel about peas?”

Elaine says, “Fine.”

Rick asks, “Fine, you’d rather have corn? or Fine, peas is what you would have picked?”

Elaine, “We’ll have peas.”

Rick asks, “Elaine, one more thing. Do we have a lot of steak?”

Elaine asks, “Why?”

Rick asks, “Do we have enough for me to have two?”

Essentially, both of these fictional couples are gonna have the same thing for dinner, but….

Who’s wife felt like they were in control? and which one felt controlled?

Who was in control?

What’s the ratio of question marks to periods?

Which couple spent more time interacting? (Communicating.)

Practice when it doesn’t matter. I do.

As you know, I have the privilege of working with Mike Eagan. I’ve suggested that he guest post several times over the past two years. I was finally able to close the deal. Herewith his first thoughts. Enjoy!

I believe we folk come to each day’s table with three basic tools working for us:

• What’s in our head . . . knowledge and wisdom;


• Who we are . . . our character/self worth;


• Time. The first two are pretty well set and change slowly over time.

Time, on the other hand, is like putty. We can mold it into whatever shape we choose at any given time in the day, e.g. I’m playing golf today from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM (I wish).

So what’s the point? The point is that most people I talk to complain that there aren’t enough hours in the day. And those that complain the loudest predictably don’t have a daily plan driven by an overriding goal with supporting objectives and a strategy to achieve each objective. God forbid they should run their life and business in an organized fashion to the beat of a strategic plan. Strategic plan . . . what’s that/what’s a good one look like?

So now what? Following is a simple recipe to add taste to our daily productivity stew:

• What activities do you enjoy most . . . business and personal?


• What are your needs . . . business and personal?


• What activities most meet your needs . . . business and personal?

Based upon your answers to the above three questions:

• What new activities should you begin?


• What activities should you stop?


• What should you do more of?


• What should you do less of?

Your time should ideally be dedicated to having fun and meeting your needs in order of importance on a daily basis.

And it’s none of anybody else’s business what works for you.

Super Bowl Sunday Morning. Elaine sent me to the market to pick up a few things to get us through the game. I’m driving leisurely through town and notice a father with three little children poking a hole in the ice so they could ice fish. It got me thinking, my sons both fish, one avidly, I fished once in my life. They both spent several years in youth soccer, baseball and basketball. I never played any of them. Extended families make children more well rounded. My sons got their love of sports from one of their grandfathers. No one is good at everything…not even me! So, if I were the only influence on my sons, imagine how much they would have missed. I did teach them some stuff and some of it was pretty useful, but I could only do so much.

So, my point is?

I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with several pretty good salespeople, Bob Jiguere, Vito Brancato, Joe Quintal, David Sandler and Dave Kurlan to name a few. I’ve had the opportunity to read great books, hear great salespeople speak, attend much sales training, many seminars and workshops. I also interact with peers, clients, students, prospects, and salespeople at large. I am a sales junkie, am always up for a story and learn from everybody.

The world is my extended family for sales. The world has made me what I am and I’m different today than I was yesterday. Contrast that with the salesperson that goes to company training and never reads a book, attends a seminar, or learns anything from anybody outside his company.

Isn’t that salesperson kinda one dimensional like a child would be if they only learned what their father could teach them?

Since I started this blog, I’ve posted 253 entries with a total word count of 69,044 words.

That’s less than 273 words per entry…..That’s 2.58 entries per week.

So, what? Who would have figured? Who would’ve figured that I could’ve found that many things to post about that might actually be considered relevant? (I have a lot of random thoughts that go in and outta my head that I keep to myself….Thank God!) Furthermore, who could’ve figured that not only would people read it, but that respectable people would actually post a comment, send me an email, or call me to share their thoughts about the ‘topic of the day’. Some readers vote in the survey and when they do, 89% say they like it, 7% say they don’t and 4% have no opinion.

I think that 273 words per entry is considered to be on the short side. That’s intentional. We don’t have much time so my attitude is ‘get in and get out’. I subscribe to some blogs where the typical post is so long that by the time I get half way through, I’m looking at the clock. I expect to keep average word count the same.

I also expect to keep frequency about the same. Bloggers that post just to post run the risk of being ignored when they actually say something important.

OK, here’s the real point. I’ve expanded readership the way I expand my client base……Through referrals. March 16th will be the second anniversary of my inaugural post. I’m asking you to help me double readership. If you’d like to help, forward this page via email to a few people that you think might benefit the way you have or enjoy the way you have and add a few words like, “I’ve been reading this blog for a while and thought that you might appreciate an introduction. If you put your email address in the subscribe box, check blog and click subscribe, you’ll get new posts in your inbox every 3rd day or so.”

Thank you, in advance for your help.

Dave Kurlan told me that he was tempted to make a one word comment to my last post………..”Subtle!” Frankly, subtlety is often missed because people don’t always like to face the truth, especially about themselves. I meet a lot of people. Most of them are in sales or own a small company and are trying to sell their stuff and the fact is that most of them can’t picture themselves earning a lot more money than they already do. They don’t believe that any of the ‘prospects that got away’ could actually have been sold if they were better at sales. They also won’t admit that they ARE the problem.

Fact is, most businesses fail.

Fact is, people file bankruptcy.

Fact is, many divorces are due to financial problems.

Fact is, less than 6% of the people in the United States earn over $100,000.

Fact is, I like some of those people in the 94% regardless of income level. My lack of subtlety doesn’t work on them because they believe what they believe. I’m only talking to the people that want to be in the 6% and those people will recognize that if they commit, I’ll do what it takes to get them there.

If my last post hit a nerve because you are already behind your sales goal for 2008, this post could end your struggle once and for all….One way or another. Either you’ll get help or you’ll resign yourself that this is the way it is and the way it always will be.

First, the lesson. Dave Kurlan talks about his Rule of Ratios in Baseline Selling. Simply stated, ‘the cost of the consequences of doing nothing must be at least twice the cost of your solution’. (I apologize for the original typo and thank Rob Jewett for bringing it to my attention.)

OK, back to you, your missed goals, your struggle and your future.

If I asked you to pay me $1,000 every month for the rest of 2008 and as a result you earned $100,000 more than you did last year, would you do it?

What if you only earned an additional $50,000?

What if you paid me that same $11,000 and only earned $25,000 more than you did in 2007?

Would you do it?

Would you change?

Would you do what it takes?

Call me or email me if you want to talk about what’s involved. We’ll talk for 20-30 minutes. At the end of the call you’ll say, “Thanks.” and go away or you’ll give me your credit card number to get started.

I had a great group in my “Applications” session yesterday.

One of the topics was, “How many people made a New Year’s resolution on January 1st and have already broken it, remade it and broken it again?”

Seriously, today is January 26th. We have already ‘used up’ 19 of the 263 weekdays that we started the year with. That’s 7% of the days. Have you done 7% of what you resolved to do?

If you resolved to make 2,000 sales calls this year, have you made 144 of them already?

If you resolved to work out 3 times a week, have you worked out 11 times since 1/1?

If you resolved to lose 20 pounds this year, have you said, “No.” to 5,000 calories, so far? (or done 7% of the behavior that you need to do?)

What will it take to get and keep you on track?

Do you really want another year to go by?

Do you really want another month or even day to go by?

It is not a sin to be human.

It is not a sin to need help.

Get a coach!

If it’s weight, join one of those you-know-whats.

If it’s exercise, get a personal trainer.

If it’s sales, hire a sales coach.

Know anyone?