Author Archives: Rick Roberge

Sales Caller ID Weakness

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Do you have the “Caller ID” weakness? Here are the symptoms.

Your phone rings. You check the caller ID. You recognize the number. You hit ignore…or you answer.

Why do you look? Seriously, WHY? What difference does it make who it is? So what if you don’t want to talk to them? Why not pick up the phone and put them out of their misery? Why waste their time and your energy anticipating the next call that you have to avoid? Why feel like you have to hide? Is your need for approval so bad that you care what they think if you tell them that you don’t want to talk to them again or answer the phone and say, “Oh! If I had known it was you, I’d have let the call go to voice mail.”?

If it is someone that you want to talk to, why do you need to know who it is before you answer? Are you afraid that they’ll have an unfair advantage because they’ll know who they’re calling, but you won’t know who you’re going to be talking with? Don’t you have any ability to roll with a conversation?

I do use caller ID occasionally. If I expect that an important call will come in during a meeting, I’ll check caller ID and take that call and ignore the rest. However, prior to sitting down, I’ll always explain to the person that I’m meeting with, apologize, but say that it’s really important and I’ll ask if it’s OK if I interrupt our meeting and take the call if/when it comes, or if they’d like to reschedule the meeting. They’ll ALWAYS allow me to take the call and as long as it’s not a pattern (and it isn’t) they’ll never be upset with me.

I dunno, I guess I just figure that the telephone company is allowing weak people to get weaker rather than forcing them to deal with life head on.

Sales à la St. Francis

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There are so many sales lessons around us….if we would just pay attention. Today’s lesson is taken from the Prayer of St. Francis. We sang it in church this week. Here’s an excerpt.


“…grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,…”

Think about it. It’s not about you. It’s about them. How about if I translate this into the Prayer of the Salesperson?


“…please help me to remember
to forget how I feel and make my prospect comfortable;
to stop telling and start listening;
to elevate and promote others works;
then my prospect will see my wisdom and believe,…”

Public Speaking Feedback

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As you may remember, Rod Lee wrote an article about me for his newspaper. Frankly, when he asked, I was a little surprised and a little hesitant, but went along with the idea. I know that the way that I work and live my life won’t work for everybody. It works for me. Occasionally, someone comes along and likes something that I do and I’m typically willing to share. Sometimes, sharing is not the thing to do. Let’s face it. Just because Elaine and I have been married for 34 years doesn’t mean that I should give everyone advice on marriage. Just because my sons, Mark and Matt, are perfect, doesn’t mean that I should give everyone advice on child rearing. My father was a carpenter and taught me many of those skills. My mother made sure that I knew how to cook, do laundry, sew, and other stuff so I wouldn’t be a burden on my wife. (Well, not everything worked.) Anyway, the point is, that my life has worked for me and when someone tries to “copy” one part of it, like the way I network, they really need to remember that what they’re trying to imitate is part of a bigger picture and they may need to change more than one piece of themselves.

Sorry! Back to the topic…

As a result of Rod Lee’s article, I was asked to speak to a couple of small groups. Jacki Rose was in one of the groups. She gave me very nice feedback and coming from her, I took it to heart. Someone else told me that another person in the audience said that I was “like a god”. That I didn’t pay attention to, but I’m glad that he got something out of it. Generally, I got very positive feedback and I’m satisfied that I delivered something of value. One person told me that they got some negative feedback. “…approach….wasn’t genuine and authentic….didn’t have…prospect’s best interests at heart…people have so many hangups and personal biases about sales….make the way they sell…some reflection of their ‘inner being’. On the other hand, I am really glad you came. There were some people in the room that needed to hear what you shared.”

I also appreciate the “negative” feedback. It was the most positive stroke of all. 30 years ago, Bob Jiguere told me that 1 out of 10 would buy anything from anybody. One out of 10 wouldn’t buy anything from anybody and the 8 in between, it depends how good you are. Based on the feedback, it sounds like I “sold” the ones that will buy from anybody and all of the ones in between, so the only ones left are the ones that won’t buy from anybody. I’m OK with that. Thank you, Bob!

Lousy Cold Calls

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Here’s an email that Pete Caputa sent me today.

This was a real call I received. No joke. I thought you might want to blog it.

Her: Hi, I need to speak to Peter Caputa.

Me: This is him.

Her: Hi Peter. I am ______________ from Stamps.com. I am calling to see whether we could save you some money on your postal expenses. Can I ask you a few questions? (Disclaimer: This is very close to what she said, but not verbatim.)

Me: Yes.

Her: How many times do you send a message through the postal service in a week?

Me: Maybe once.

Her: How many times do you go to the post office in a month?

Me: Maybe once.

Her: How many times do you send first class mail?

Me: Maybe once per month.

Her: Do you have a postal meter in your office?

Me: No.

Her: Ok. Would you like to learn how you could save time and money on your postal expenses?

Me: How the h*** are you going to save me time and money if I don’t really mail anything?

Her: Ok. Well. What I’d like to do is send you an email introducing stamps.com.

Me: Click.

Was she not listening? If you know anybody at stamps.com, send them a link to this post and tell them that I’m easy to talk to if they want to fix their problem.

Jim Carrey on Communication

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“Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating.”

Jim Carrey said this in his role as Joel Barish in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”.

Just because you’re saying it doesn’t mean anybody’s hearing it. Sometimes you just need to shut up and listen. If you get good at it, your prospect will tell you how to sell them.

Mahatma Gandhi on the Importance of a Pipeline

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“The future depends on what we do in the present.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948)
Indian political and spiritual leader

Now will you stop worrying about closing and concentrate on prospecting?

First…Do No Harm!

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Think about it.

Don’t leave your customer worse off than when you met!

Ask yourself the question, “Am I part of the problem?”

If your customer is making a mistake, shouldn’t you tell them.

 

Dharmesh Shah makes a few great points in his post asking whether or not you are a Trusted Adviser.

He also gets some interesting comments about the conflicts that arise when faced with the decision.

If a customer wants you to take a shortcut (regardless of the reason), and it’s not the right solution, why do you want to be part of it? Why would you want your name attached to a probable failure?

If you want to be known as the expert; if you want to be known for un-comprising quality; if you want to be known for unparalleled results; why would you let someone else decide on your offering.

Just a few random thoughts about trying to do business with propects that you should just walk by.

Sell like a BLANK

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This should be fun!

Pete Caputa asked Jeanne Worrick “Should you sell differently based on your gender?“. An innocent enough question considering Jeanne is the self-proclaimed expert on the topic and the owner of the new blog named “sell like a girl“. Jeanne’s response was that “there were nuances to sales that I don’t know if you would understand at your tender age”. I almost fell off my chair laughing. Jeanne and I have both “been around the block” and she couldn’t have baited him better, but it got me to thinking.

Do old people sell different than young people? How about a blog called, “How to sell like an old person”?

How about, “How to sell like a geek”? “How to sell like an Italian” Do Protestants sell different than Catholics?

Does Jeetu sell different than Pete? Is it hereditary? Does college have anything to do with it?

 

OK, seriously. Jeanne, answer his question. What does it mean to sell like a girl? I know what it means to throw like a girl….and run like a girl, but even when I could run, I got passed by a few girls. Sell like a girl is a little tongue in cheek, but can’t women actually do some “sales related” stuff better than men naturally?

 

What’s the secret?

Closers Wanted

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I got a joke in my inbox the other day that I’ll paraphrase and use here.

The joke: Guy’s sitting in his car in McDonald’s parking lot watching two kids. As usual, McDonald’s has a sign out front reading, “Closers wanted.” So, as he’s watching these two kids, they walk up to the sign, take the “C” and run away. Leaving “losers wanted”. Come on. That’s really funny.

It got me to thinking, same thing happens every day in the business world. What company wouldn’t want to hire a hot shot salesperson that has a big time reputation as a closer? So how many times does a company runs an ad, go through the interview process and hire what they believe to be a Closer? How many times do they wind up with a LOSER that costs them business, hurts their reputation, demoralizes the existing personnel, in addition to wasting valuable company resources?

Let’s try something new. I know that Dave, Chris and Mike have dealt with this and can offer insight into the cause and potential solution, so let’s see how they comment when they read it.

Referrals à la Rick

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A week ago, I promised a post that would explain how I choose to refer. I’ve decided that this post should be accomplished over more than one sitting, so subscribe to this entry because it will be updated a few times. Here’s the first few ideas. Please feel free to comment if you approve, disapprove, or have a different approach or thought.

If you’re a client, you’ve got a “leg up”.

If I’ve bought from you and you’ve over serviced me, you’ve got a “leg up”.

If you’ve referred clients to me, you’ve got a “leg up”.

If you’re all three, you’re at the top of my mind.

If I think you’re a crappy salesperson or you’re dishonest, I probably won’t refer you.

If I know you’re a crappy salesperson or you’re dishonest, I will un-refer you. It might sound something like this, “Yes. I know them, but I’m gonna follow my mother’s advice. You know, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all’. If you need somebody who does what they do, I know lots of people. Do you?”

Occasionally, I’ll be at an event and be forced to make an introduction because one person that I don’t refer and one person that I care about are in front of me at the same time. ASAP, I contact the person that I care about and tell them that I made the introduction to be polite, but that they shouldn’t take the introduction as an endorsement of the person. Then I add, “If you need somebody who does what they do, I know lots of people. Do you?”

I know dozens of CPA’s. Several are excellent. If a person is looking for a CPA, I may refer several. Each will get a personal plug. The same could be said for lawyers, financial advisors, IT people, web designers, advertising/marketing people, contractors and many others. For example, my son, Mark, was looking for a contractor recently. I referred him to three clients. I also told him the order to call them with the ‘why’. (I think he got the work done and never called any of them. Guess what happens the next time he asks me for something.)

Enough for now. Please feel free to comment and subscribe so you get the updates.