Responses

Sometimes it is like pulling teeth. You email the confirmation over to your client and you write 'Please reply with "I AGREE TO YOUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS" and that is all I need to secure your position.'
What comes back more often than not?
"OK"
"GO AHEAD"
"YES WE WOULD LIKE TO"
"PLEASE TAKE THIS AS A GO AHEAD"
and the best one of all...
"WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM ME TO BOOK THIS?"

Christ on a bike!!!!! What do you have to do to get through to some people?????

Sales Epidemic

There seems to be a hell of a lot of people off work at the moment. Flu, Cold, one of my people is off with Pig Flu (well, he is a bit of a swine!) and it seems like they are dropping like flies...at both ends of the phone.
The weather is bad; so it cant be sunbathing. The TV is rubbish; so it cant be that. What could it be? Not the truth!!??? Surely not!!! In a SALES ROOM?????

Motivation

I recommend that you print this and put it where you can see it. In those down times when you get 'no,no,no' from your prospects, read it and then pick up the phone or knock on another door...


"I had it in my heart. I believed in myself,
and I had confidence. I knew how to do it,
had natural talent and pursued it."
Muhammad Ali

Puck It!!!

When asked about his outstanding performance on the ice, Wayne Gretzky replied, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

Where is your business focusing? I've found that one of the most powerful practices as an entrepreneur is to spend a day away from the office, dream a little, and envision my company 1, 3, 5 years into the future.

When I occasionally "fly into the future" it makes it easier to come back to the present, push through obstacles, and chart my course to the future I have envisioned.

Spend some time in the future and you'll be able to "skate to where the puck is going to be!"

Glengarry Glen Ross

Blake: You're talking about what.You're talking about... Bitching about that sale you shot, some sonofabitch who don't wanna buy land, some broad you're trying to screw, so forth. Let's talk about something important. They all here?
Williamson: All but one.
Blake: I'm going anyway. Let's talk about something important. Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only. You think I'm fucking with you? I am not fucking with you. I'm here from downtown. I'm here from Mitch and Murray. And I'm here on a mission of mercy. Your name's Levine? You call yourself a salesman you son of a bitch?
Dave Moss: I don't gotta sit here and listen to this shit.
Blake: You certainly don't pal, 'cause the good news is - you're fired. The bad news is - you've got, all of you've got just one week to regain your jobs starting with tonight. Starting with tonight's sit. Oh? Have I got your attention now? Good. "Cause we're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. Get the picture? You laughing now? You got leads. Mitch and Murray paid good money, get their names to sell them. you can't close the leads youre given you can't close shit. You ARE shit. Hit the bricks pal, and beat it 'cause you are going OUT.
Shelley Levene: The leads are weak.
Blake: The leads are weak? Fucking leads are weak. You're weak. I've been in this business 15 years...
Dave Moss: What's your name?
Blake: Fuck you. That's my name. You know why, mister? You drove a Hyundai to get here. I drove an eighty-thousand dollar BMW. THAT'S my name. And your name is you're wanting. You can't play in the man's game, you can't close them - go home and tell your wife your troubles. Because only one thing counts in this life: Get them to sign on the line which is dotted. You hear me you fucking faggots? A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing. ALWAYS BE CLOSING. A-I-D-A. Attention, Interest, Decision, Action. Attention - Do I have you attention? Interest - Are you interested? I know you are, because it's fuck or walk. You close or you hit the bricks. Decision - Have you made your decision, for Christ? And Action. A-I-D-A. Get out there - you got the prospects coming in. You think they came in to get out of the rain? A guy don't walk on the lot lest he wants to buy. They're sitting out there waiting to give you their money. Are you gonna take it? Are you man enough to take it? What's the problem, pal?
Dave Moss: You - Moss. You're such a hero, you're so rich, how come you're coming down here wasting your time with such a bunch of bums?
Blake: You see this watch? You see this watch?
Dave Moss: Yeah.
Blake: That watch costs more than you car. I made $970,000 last year. How much'd you make? You see pal, that's who I am, and you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids. You wanna work here - close! You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you cocksucker? You can't take this, how can you take the abuse you get on a sit? You don't like it, leave. _I_ can go out there tonight with the materials you've got and make myself $15,000. Tonight! In two hours! Can you? Can YOU? Go and do likewise. A-I-D-A. Get mad you son of a bitches. get mad. You want to know what it takes to sell real estate? It takes BRASS BALLS to sell real estate. Go and do likewise gents. Money's out there. You pick it up, it's yours. You don't, I got no sympathy for you. You wanna go out on those sits tonight and close, CLOSE. It's yours. If not you're gonna be shining my shoes. And you know what you'll be saying - a bunch of losers sittin' around in a bar. 'Oh yeah. I used to be a salesman. It's a tough racket.' These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. They're for closers. I'd wish you good luck but you wouldn't know what to do with it if you got it. And to answer you question, pal, why am I here? I came here because Mitch and Murray asked me to. They asked me for a favor. I said the real favor, follow my advice and fire your fucking ass because a loser is a loser.

Voicemail

STILL hate voicemail. I just do not see the point in leaving a message informing the client who it is they need to avoid. I have tried it, left a lot of info, left a little info, left NO info and the results are alwys the same. 1% of voicemails are responded to. The biggest responder I have had is ?Hi this is Dave Moore. My number is XXXXXXXXXX. Would you please call me when you can because I need to speak to you about?? hang up. I got a call back a few times from people wondering what happened and I said I had no idea and that I left them a message explaining what I wanted, ?well, let me explain again?. Unethical, possibly but I am not convinced that voicemail works. I use my voicemail as a screener.

Computers and Software

Isn't it amazing how when you help someone with a problem on their PC, be it hardware or software, word goes around the office like wildfire and SUDDENLY...you are the IT guy!!!

Eyes Wide open or Eyes Wide Shut?

The exact meaning of Eyes Wide Shut is debated. In the context of this blog post, I'm going to use the expression as a way of representing our perspective on counterfeit customers.

Counterfeit customers are customers that really aren't...well...customers.

The Reality
We've all done it. We've been assigned a new customer quota for the month/quarter/year. We immediately begin to think how we can manipulate the system to hit our quota. Our real goal is to silence sales management and we know we can do this by hitting our new account number.
Does this really help anyone? Eyes wide shut. In many cases, sales management has lost sight of the challenges of adding new accounts. They think all we need is a phonebook and a phone. End of story. Dinosaurs. Eyes wide shut.
Oh sure, the new account activity blossoms for a few months. But check back a year later. Everything is back where it was before the new business development machinations. Maybe even worse. Eyes wide shut.
This is a dysfunctional prospecting environment for both the sales professional and sales management. It produces smoke and mirror customers. It creates a lot of activity, but not any long-term gains. Eyes wide shut.
Counterfeit Customers
In our enthusiasm to hit our new account quota we kill anything that moves and call it dinner. Unfortunately, our kills don't come close to satisfying our appetite and there are never any leftovers. Are the following really new customers we want or need?
Cherry Pickers.
Customers that buy from us because we're the only company that has what they are looking for. No cross-selling opportunities exist here and loyalty is zero.
Convenience Buyers.
These customers view us as nothing more than a convenience store. In their world, our prices are out of sight, but they'll buy the minimum from us because we're handy, for now. They?ll always be small; they?ll always complain about price.
Give-Me-Credit Buyers.
This, of course, is a big problem during a recession. We're nothing but a bank to these customers. They want us to help them finance their business. Our credit department will be calling us for collection assistance.
High Maintenance, Low Volume Buyers.
These customers embody every aspect of Paretos 80/20 rule when it comes to investing too much time on small customers.
Accounts That Matter
We can differentiate between counterfeit customers and accounts that matter with the five-point test below. Checking all five of these boxes allows us to claim a customer as an account that matters.
1. The customer has made at least three purchases. One order does not a customer make.
2. They pay their bills according to the credit terms we've given them.
3. They purchase a broad spectrum of our products and services.
4. Not only does our employer make a decent ROI (i.e. net margin) on the customers purchases, but the commission income makes it worth the sales professionals time.
5. We are viewed as the incumbent supplier by the customer and are connected to the right decision makers.

Conclusion
It's important to evaluate our accounts. How many of them meet the five criteria above? This will give us a feel for both our number of accounts that matter and how much legitimate business development might be needed to fill the gaps.
We all sleep better with our eyes restfully shut when we have accounts that matter instead of counterfeit customers.

Rude Customers

For all Who Work With Rude Customers, shame you can't actually do this!

An award should go to the Virgin Airlines desk attendant in Sydney
some Months ago for being smart and funny, while making her point,
when Confronted with a passenger who probably deserved to fly as cargo.

A crowded Virgin flight was canceled after Virgin's 767s had been Withdrawn from service. A single attendant was rebooking a long line of Inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped His ticket down on the counter and said, 'I HAVE to be on this flight and It HAS to be FIRST CLASS'...
The attendant replied, 'I'm sorry, sir. I'll be happy to try to help You, but I've got to help these people first, and I'm sure we'll be Able to work something out.'
The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers Behind him could hear,

'DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?'
Without hesitating, the attendant smiled and grabbed her public Address microphone: 'may I have your Attention please,' she began - her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal.
'We have a passenger here at Desk 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Desk 14.'

With the people behind him in line laughing hysterically, The man glared at the Virgin attendant, gritted his teeth and said, 'Fuck You!' Without flinching, she smiled and said, 'I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to get in line for that too.

Ultimate Guide to Sales Closing

More information soon but I am soon to launch the e-book for download. This is the book I give my sales staff. Its a list of counters and closes and is broken up into individual objection headers. Its known in the industry as a rebuttal book and is dynamite. It will be available to download immediately for only £100.00.
Full details soon...

Advertising - does it work? Yes, if done right!

I am amazed at how advertisers, when they get no response from an ad they have placed, always blame the magazine. this is wrong.
The fault lies with the advertiser. plain and simple.
The reason? their advert was rubbish.
Tottenham Court Road is the biggest collection of electrical shops outside of Hong Kong. They all do business.
Lets imagine you open up an electrical shop in that road but nobody comes in, nobody buys. Are you gonna call Camden council and say "Tottenham Court Road is rubbish for selling electrical goods. i wanna move!" No. I think your first thought would be "What the hell have I got in my shop window?"
The advert in a magazine is the shop window. Make sure your customers realise that if they get it right it will work. If they get it wrong, its not your fault. You delivered to them. They didn't deliver to themselves.

11/11 update

Just had someone in the office not take part in the 2 minutes silence. They are now having a career change. They just do not understand the cost many people made to allow them to live the life they have right now.

11/11 Rememberence

I have just told my team to be off the phone at 11 o'clock to honour the 2 minutes silence. Its amazing how some of them, under 21, have no idea why. Scandalous!!! Lets make sure that we remember the brave service men and women that gave their lives to protect us.

Credit crunch

AS the recession continues to bite, fans of bargain bakers Greggs are going dough-nuts for the High Street chain.
The credit crunch-busting business aims to open 600 more shops in the coming years after selling a staggering 130MILLION sausage rolls last year.
Rising to the top ... Greggs favourites. While other High Street firms have suffered, the Geordie-based bakers have recorded a 3.8 per cent rise in sales over 12 months. Greggs' Meal Deals - any bloomer sandwich, a cookie or doughnut and a drink for £2.99 - have undoubtedly helped in these tough times. But it is their "iconic" 57p sausage roll which has led the way. There is now even a Greggs Sausage Roll Appreciation Society on social networking site Facebook. It is, according to its founders: "A group for all those people who find it difficult to walk past a Greggs without nipping in for a sausage roll when you can smell the aroma of the freshly baked sausage meat in pastry". One member, Travis Grant, boasted: "4-a-day. Love it!" And David Bradford rated them: "Best edible item in the world!" Greggs dates back to the late 1930s, when John Gregg started a business delivering yeast and eggs in the north east of England. He was called up to the Army with the outbreak of war in 1939, but his wife Elsie kept the business going. In 1951 they opened their first shop on Gosforth High Street - and it is still there today. Over the next 30 years the firm grew steadily, numbering 261 shops by 1984. Now their "Ready when you are" slogan and reasonably priced butties and pies have proved a winner in troubled economic times. Not everyone is happy with them, however. David Barling, senior lecturer in food policy at London's City University, is one food expert who has criticised their products. He said: "Sausage rolls wouldn't be ideal in any nutritional diet. "In the case of industrially produced bread, a lot of the nutrients are removed from the grain and then reinserted later as added-value extras. It is less healthy for us." Others have hit out at the levels of saturated fats, salt and sugar in Greggs' products. But the firm's marketing director, Scott Jefferson, has hit back. He said last night: "We sell 2.5million sausage rolls a week - at 57p they're one of life's pleasures. "As with all the food we make, our sausage rolls are free from hydrogenated fat, added trans fats and artificial colours. "We will be providing nutritional information for all our nationally available savouries and sandwiches in January so customers can make an informed choice." Clearly Mr Jefferson has plenty of satisfied customers in his corner to help him win his bun-fight with the nutritionists. One fan, builder Ryan Payne, 21, from Bampton, Devon, said last night: "Greggs is comfort food. When you've been out working hard on site all morning in the cold it's just the job. And it's cheap." Here are a few food facts about just how many Greggs goodies we munch through in a year:

Enough steak bakes to place 329 on every seat at Wembley Stadium.
Enough sausage rolls laid end to end to reach from Newcastle upon Tyne to Sydney, Australia.
Enough jam doughnuts to give seven to every person who went on the London Eye in 2008.

I don't know what you think but, although Greggs is not part of a staple diet of mine, this is very impressive.
Have you ever worked out figures like this for your business? Have you worked out a metaphor for your company? Greggs could say that they sold a shedload of food and made a lot of profit but by using the metaphoe of Wembley Stadium, Newcastle to Sydney and the London Eye you really appreciate the size of the turnover rather than just facts and figures. Can you do the same with your company and make the point of how successful you are really hit home to your customers? Think about it!