Author Archives: Rick Roberge

Mediocrity – Acceptable or Not?

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My mother disagreed with Dave Kurlan and myself here. I started writing my reply, but realized that your responses might mean more than mine. So, please, take a minute to remind yourself of the posts, then read her comment and speak (or write) your mind.

In response to her last question, my guess is that Dave and I will deal with a higher level of mediocrity.

Thank you for reading and for your anticipated comment!

Numbers, Baseball and My Kind of Selling

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Let’s get right to it without missing a beat.

If you haven’t already read Dave Kurlan’s post about the ARod, Lowell, and Schilling signings, you should click here. Don’t forget to read the comments. I have a comment which I will post here, but one quick point to set it up.

It shouldn’t be surprising to those that know me well, that NUMB3RS is one of my favorite TV shows. I personally think that if people understood math and physics, they’d understand the world better. Last Friday, Charlie’s dad said, “Charlie thinks math is beautiful and he wants everybody to love it like he does.” That made me think about the way I sell. I think that a perfect sale (the perfect fit) is beautiful and I want everybody to love it like I do. But, I like Charlie, recognize that not everybody gets it, and I have learned to accept that most salespeople aren’t motivated by perfection and/or love of what they do.

Dave gives credit to the ballplayers for going against their agents’ wishes. How about the GM’s? They were the one’s that sold value. They were the ones that said, “Hey, it’s worth millions less in salary to play in Boston or New York. You want to be a winner? This is the price!”

I’m not so sure that this is a sign of the demise of Walmart though because many average American shoppers put ZERO value on their shopping time. They go to a higher end store, get educated by the unwitting, un-trained salesperson, then go buy what they think is the same thing (sometimes it is) from a big box store.
Whose fault is that? Of course, it’s the salesperson’s. If he can’t qualify his prospect, he deserves to have his knowledge stolen. Don’t misunderstand, self service gas stations, big box stores, coupons and one day sales are here and not going anywhere soon. Marketers have tried to make American shoppers price shoppers and the more commodotized your offering, the more vulnerable you’re gonna be to those shoppers.

So, here’s my wrap-up. If you’re a manager or CEO and your salespeople can’t identify or develop compelling reasons, urgency or SOB quality in their prospects, or if your salespeople hear objections like “That’s a lot of money.”, “I need to think about it.”, “I need to check the competition.” or “I need to check with somebody else.” fix them or replace them!

If you’re a salesperson and you don’t love it, go do something else. If you don’t think that the way you sell is beautiful, get yourself fixed. If you’re happy the way you are, don’t expect me to lower my standards.

Old School or Leading Edge?

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If you haven’t read Dave’s post already, you should. Don’t forget to read the comments and don’t be afraid to add your own. http://www.omghub.com/salesdevelopmentblog/tabid/5809/bid/2690/default.aspx

Inquisix

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Please enjoy this brief hiatus from my hiatus.

Please do three things.

1.) Read Mike’s account of Networking vs Not Working.

2.) Register, log in and comment. Bloggers live for comments and you’re gonna want to keep track of Inquisix.

3.) Go read Debra’s recent post and leave her a comment explaining what’s wrong with her thinking.

Back to my hiatus.

 

Thanks for reading!

Hiatus

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Hiatus: A break or interruption in the continuity of a work…

I’m about to take a hiatus from posting to this blog.

I have several clients that I want to pay close attention to.

I’ll be delivering our new offering, RainMaker Clinics.

I’ll be very involved with our Executive Luncheon. If you know a CEO or top executive that should be invited, please let me know. Please don’t have them try to register without being invited, first.

I’ll be preparing for my Networking vs. Not Working Seminar at the New England Business Expo in addition to halping to man the booth and work the show that day.

I’ll be taking a vacation in North Carolina with Elaine.

I’ll be attending the Boston Business Expo, OEM New England, and Build Boston in addition to the normal compliment of after hours, committee meetings, etc.

In addition to that, I’m concerned that I’m becoming addicted. I find myself saying, “That’s bloggable.” several times a day. I wake up in the middle of the night remembering that I forgot to write about something. So, cold turkey, until Thanksgiving. (Get it…Cold turkey…Hot Turkey Day?)

I will, however, continue to read the blogs that I read and comment there. I’ll also be monitoring comments that are made here and emails that are sent. As a matter of fact, if you write something that’s sales related and either send it to me via email or post it as a comment, I’ll promote it. So don’t go far! I’ll be watching.

More on Competition

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I received the following email. As you read it, ask yourself the question, “Why is this important to me? What does it say about factcheck.org? How can I use this in my own sales posturing?”…..Thanks, Rob. Feel free to comment.

—–Original Message—–
From: Rob Jewett
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 3:08 PM
To: Rick Roberge
Subject: FW: Announcement: Maybe it’s a Trend

Rick – I don’t know for sure if you’ll even care, but I’m sending it anyway (like you don’t already have enough to read). This made me think of you because it is effectively a referral to a competitor, AND it relates to the type of political commentary I enjoy so much. I’ve been subscribing to FactCheck.org for several years. I believe they are about as unbiased as one can hope for a media outlet to be. I’ve been impressed with their recent announcements introducing their “competitors.”

Rob Jewett
——————————————————————————–
From: FactCheck.org
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 1:51 PM
To: Rob Jewett
Subject: Announcement:Maybe it’s a Trend

Maybe It’s a Trend
September 19, 2007

The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” feature debuts. Last month we were happy to note the launch of PolitiFact.com, a joint project of the St. Petersburg Times of Florida and Congressional Quarterly of Washington, D.C. Today we welcome The Washington Post’s new feature, “The Fact Checker,” written by veteran journalist Michael Dobbs with the assistance of chief researcher Alice Crites. The first four Fact Checker articles find fault with statements by Republican presidential candidates Fred Thompson and Sam Brownback, Democratic presidential contender Mike Gravel, and Osama bin Laden. False or misleading statements get one to four “Pinocchios,” with four representing a “whopper” and one standing for: “Some shading of the facts. Selective telling of the truth. Some omissions and exaggerations, but no outright falsehoods.” Wholly true statements will receive a “Geppetto checkmark.” The Post says it “will strive to be dispassionate and non-partisan, drawing attention to inaccurate statements on both left and right.” We welcome the Post’s new feature and invite FactCheck.org subscribers and visitors to give it a try. We don’t necessarily endorse everything The Fact Checker says or might say in the future, and we may even see things differently from time to time. But we believe citizens need and deserve as much help as they can get to sort through political spin and misinformation. We hope more news organizations undertake similar efforts and turn these positive steps into a real trend. – Brooks Jackson

Copyright © 2003 – 2007, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania FactCheck.org’s staff, not the Annenberg Center, is responsible for this material.

18 Months Later

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Today, I can say that I’ve been blogging for 18 months.

I’ve written 223 entries and used a total of 62,664 words.

You have treated me to 342 comments.

Some of you weren’t around at the beginning.

These are a few posts that you may have missed.

One Month In

The First Step

Prize Corn

Why is the sky blue?

Inside the Magic Kingdom

Sales Lesson or Life Lesson

Six Months and Counting

Incidentally, to date, 223 people have voted. 195 liked. 17 disliked. 11 had no opinion.

If you want more of something, tell me. If you want something that you’re not getting, tell me that.

Selling Your Blog

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I was talking with Pete a few days ago. We were discussing blogs, marketing, sales and me. We kind of agreed that many bloggers are trying to grow readership so that Google (or some other biggie) notice them and pay them a guzillion dollars for their blog. There are things that you can do that help Google rank and increase your odds from 1:1,000,000,000 to 2:1,000,000,000. I do some of them, but frankly, that stuff is boring (to me).

What’s not boring is when someone that I see around says, “Hey, Rick! I was reading your post about….” and we have a conversation. Marketers deal in numbers. They’re trying to affect the masses. Marketers don’t care about what you care about….they care about what MOST of you care about. Get the difference? I sell one client at a time. I care about each and every client (not most of them) or they don’t become clients. Selling is one at a time. Marketing hopes for most. If you’re not in the most, you don’t matter.

OK, now the point of the post. (This is hard without asking questions.) I assume that you read my blog because you get something out of it. I also assume that you know a few people like yourself (business owners, professional service providers and sales people) that you’d like to help if you could. The link below will open an email that is already addressed to me. Put your friend(s) email address(es) in the CC: field and add a few words of your own if you wish. I’ll let you know how we do.

CLICK HERE TO INVITE YOUR FRIEND(S)

Competition & Education

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Do you know your competition?………I do! I not only know them, I know them well. Why? I need to know what they’re good at, what I’m better at and what I need to get better at. When I worked in the furniture industry, it was part of my job to shop the competition every week. EVERY WEEK! I appreciated the lesson and applied a similar rule when I worked in energy services and later in collections. As Dan V. said recently, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” So, today, when a prospect is trying to decide between me and a competitor, I not only know who they should do business with, I also know why.

Do you learn from your competition?………I do! I assure you that I read more books on my craft than most of you. I read books in the 70’s and still use some of the things that I learned then today. I learned something from a competitor this week. I learned something from a client this week. Now, if I can learn something about sales, prospecting, closing, etc. Do you really think that you should miss an opportunity?

Open your mind. Check out this Workshop offered by Corridor Nine. If you go, you might learn something.


Tonight in Webstah!

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Tonight, I attended the Webster/Dudley/Oxford Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at the Colonial Restaurant. I arrived early, so I went to the bar where the first person I saw was Annie Ide. Then it went downhill. Does anybody else not know Eleanor Houbre? She claimed to work at the Worcester Chamber, but she didn’t know me and I didn’t know her. Anyway, Annie vouched for her, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Supposedly, we’re gonna see her at VIA next Thursday. We’ll see.

Anyway, after Eleanor took my admission fee and business card, I entered the main room where I didn’t know anybody, except the afore-mentioned Annie Ide, Mike Brady, Prudence Bean, Tom Maloney, Mark Forkey and Trav Harmon. Don’t these people have lives?

Cheri Mackinney gave me a good lesson by saying that something didn’t need to be wrong for her to want her salespeople to improve. The first time I asked her if she wanted to trade cards, she said that she didn’t know.

I’d like to be a fly on the wall when Dave Doray and Halina Jachimczyk recap tonight’s festivities.

I met several other interesting people, but their websites aren’t on their cards, so I can’t link to them.

All in all it was a pretty good evening.