Beware!

How apt... ;-)

Queue Jumping

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.
They rub it and a Genie comes out.
The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.'
'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.'
Puff! She's gone.
'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii , relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.'
Puff! He's gone.
'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager.
The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.'

Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.

Power - Some have it, others haven't

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.
A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?'
The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.'
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.
All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Un-Pro Pro-Brook

Pro-Brook are a publishing company who were working out of serviced offices in Borough High Street but have now moved to a small room in Woodbridge having trimmed down the work force to one person working from home. They publish a few magazines, twice a year-published annually (??) and I worked for them for a couple of years at their London Bridge office. They class themselves as a next generation publisher. Their website is under construction....

But now, here's an interesting story...

A company gives you a contract, you read it, you sign it. Nowhere in that contract does it say that if your client decides not to pay, we will clawback your commission.
OK? Well, hang on, because you are in for a bumpy ride.
You are a salesperson selling advertising space over the telephone. Your job is to convince your prospect that advertising in one of the magazines and journals your company produces is a great idea and you use your skills to liaise with all of the relevant people to ensure that you get a faxed booking form back with a signature on it. That is success. That is your job, end of story. You have made an agreed percentage of the total amount of the deal as commission and that is paid to you at the end of the sales month which is the month you sold it in. In other words: sell in June, up to the 25th and the money is in the bank at the end of June.
What you do not do is worry about anything else, like chasing copy, chasing payment or even the printing process. Or so you would think...
You sell a half page advertisement to a company in Barbados and the deal is that they get a free half page. The deal is £2,950 for one half page. When the copy arrives for the two half pages there is so much information on the two half pages that someone, other than you, decides to give your customer a FULL page in the magazine. Not only that, they give them an additional full page free of charge. The cost of the two full pages is actually £9,900. Your customer has only paid £2,950. Someone other than you, the Directors themselves, made that decision.
You go to print and the customer is very, very happy. A couple of months later, in October 2006, you contact the customer and say that you want to secure the space again in the next issue. You explain that you know, and they know, they got a fantastic deal last time. The rate card for a full page is no longer £4,950 but now £5,450. Last time they only paid 29% of the value of what they got. To sweeten the pill you allow them to not only have a free full page but you will only charge them the old rate card of £4,950. They are happy, and they fax back a booking form for the amount, SIGNED! Your job is over. Two weeks later you are paid on that deal (along with some others).
The company have fixed terms of: "payment is due within 14 days of invoice".
2006 rolls into 2007 and you, and the rest of the sales team, continue to sell. As the time of publication approaches you hear that "a couple of the advertisers have still not paid". You pay no attention because you believe, like everyone else would, that there is an accountant/ legal team dealing with this.
Then the accountant disappears off the face of the earth (on holiday) and one of the Directors starts to call lots of people asking for money. To all of you it sounds like he is calling everyone that has advertised. That can't be true?
It transpires that, rather than only a couple of people not paying, only a couple of people have paid and the Director is chasing them for payment. He even states that the accountant 'wasn't doing his job properly'.
You, and the others, carry on selling.
We are told that the Bank Manager is making a visit to the company. Can we all look busy and dress in a businesslike fashion? A massive clean up takes place. he arrives, they take him to lunch.
Quote: "Have you got half a sec?"
That is the Directors way of telling you that he wants an important word with you, and he only has 'half a sec' as he is running out the door at 3:30pm to have an acupuncture session. Instead of telling you during the day when he had more than adequate time to sit down and discuss the matter in a professional way he opts for the cowards way of, "look, I am very busy and I am off to have some acupuncture, but..."
"Patterson haven't paid and we will have to take your commission back."
Let's look at the comments made and then the facts.
"They are not returning our calls and we cannot get them to pay" True, but then they have signed a contract and that is binding.
"We cannot sue them, it's too costly." No it isn't. What's more, they have signed a contract and you have them over a barrel. Furthermore, they are members of the tax organisation which you are publishing the book for so they will not want to jeopardise that, especially as the President of the organisation, who you publish the magazine they were advertising in, is the person paying you to publish it.
"They work in a far flung island offshore and they are financial experts." So what pal, that's your problem. It was ok to call them and sell them. If they are financial experts then they shouldn't have signed the fucking contract in the first place if they didn't want to go ahead.
"They won't tell each other that we don't pursue. They don't talk to each other." The organisation is a membership which holds three meetings a year for networking purposes. The directory we publish gives names and contact details of the members so they can call each other up. The organisation actively promote networking!
"You'll find that we can clawback the commission because it is in your contract." No it isn't. Nowhere in the contract of employment does it state that commission can or will be clawedback.
The killer points are these:
The deal was done at the beginning of October 2006. They want to clawback the commission almost 9 months later!
It's a legal/ credit control issue: nothing to do with the salesperson.
This 'Director' has given the salesperson no warning as he told him at the time his salary was due to be paid. In fact, he said he 'may have to clawback the commission' a day after he already had decided to claw it back. The salary was worked out and sent to the system on Tuesday to hit the bank account on the friday. In other words: Gutless!!
It contravenes the contract of employment as this issue is not covered in the terms.
If you do not pursue them you will send out a message that clearly states: Sign the contracts, you don't have to pay, don't worry about it. They are too scared to sue you.
In the end, it's a joke. A financial joke that will have massive and painful repercussions. If you think I am making all of this up, I am not. This is really happening. In the 21st century!
Who lives in a publishing house like this?


Oh, by the way. These are the two owners of the company mentioned above.

Tim Probart (Lifesize)

Trevor Brooker (Getting pissed on a salesmans clawedback commission)

A get together in Essex

Me with Bernard O'Mahoney, author of the Essex Boys Books.

As a West Ham Supporter...

...I laughed!

I'd Pay To See This Band!!!

Loose Ends

How many people do you know say, 'Let's just sign the paperwork and we will get all the other stuff sorted out at a later date!'?
Here is something I find really strange. Why on earth would anyone, if they are in their right mind, allow you to lock them into a contract that at a later date may change?
Would you want to be signing a piece of paper that would be either worthless, or worse, turn out to be even more costly to you and have deep implications into your business or wealth at a later date?
No, is the answer, so...

Never leave loose ends.

My mentor, Ari Onassis, would always tie up all the loose ends of a contract at the very start.
It is like my lesson 'kill the monster early'.
If you do all the finer details at the start then there can be no questions later, and no problems either. Nor can there be any costly surprises.
I have a phrase that I have used on many occasions in training and in my own life and it serves me in good stead.
Every time I have negotiated a contract I have thought of it and I have worked by it,and it is this:
"If you tie up all the loose ends at the start they will never become undone. If you leave the loose ends undone at the start, they will remain undone and you will never, ever, be able to tie them. What's more, they will become very expensive!"

"Referrals" Are a Waste – Introductions are Gold.

"Referrals" Are a Waste – Introductions are Gold. Referrals get your calls answered and open otherwise closed doors, right? Not really, explains Paul McCord, a leading authority on referral selling.

Rick's client was somewhat uncomfortable with his request. The sale had gone well enough--everything considered. But this last question about referrals was a little uncomfortable. His client was completely caught off guard. He wasn't the least prepared to give a referral and wasn't comfortable giving one. But Rick asked and stood his ground until his client coughed up the name and phone number of one of his vendors that might be able to use Rick's services.
Rick was excited; as the referral he received was to a company he had wanted to get into for quite a while. Better yet, it was a referral to Nadia, the company's COO, the exact person he had been wanting to reach. He quickly thanked his client and headed to his office to call his new prospect.
As soon as he was in his office, he picked up the phone, called Nadia, and got her assistant who, despite Rick's insistence that one of the Nadia's clients had asked him to call her, refused to put him through. Instead, the assistant insisted that Rick leave his name and number, and she would pass the information along to Nadia who would call if she were interested.Rick tried several more times to reach Nadia. He called and left messages. He took the liberty of emailing her. He sent two letters. Finally, after months of trying, he gave up.
Unfortunately, this scenario is played out thousands of times a day. Salespeople get "referrals," thank their client, rush off to call the prospect, and never have the opportunity to make contact.

Why is this such a prevalent result of "referrals?
"Because Rick didn't get a referral. He simply got a name and phone number. For Rick, and most other salespeople, a name and phone number and the permission from the client to use the client's name as the referring party are considered a referral. In reality, it is nothing but a name and phone number.
By simply getting the name and phone number and running off to make the phone call, Rick committed the most common error salespeople make when they get a referral. He failed to capitalize on the power of the referral and instead turned it into a warm call.
The power of a referral is its potential to open doors, generate interest, and get an appointment. Seldom can a referral sell for you. That's not the goal of a referral. The goal is to open a door and, hopefully, begin the relationship from a position of strength and trust.
When you receive a referral, you are hoping to build a relationship with the referred prospect based on his trust and respect of your client. If the prospect trusts and respects your client, a portion of the trust and respect he has for your client is imbued to you because someone he trusts referred you. However, that trust is useless if you fail to set an appointment with the prospect. In many cases, the fact someone he trusts gave you the prospect's name and phone number is not enough by itself to convince him to meet with you. You need something stronger than just your client's name to open the door.

That extra push is a direct introduction from your client to the prospect.

A direct introduction is powerful for several reasons:
• It is unusual. It isn't often that someone is personally asked by someone he trusts to meet a salesperson. The act itself places you in a different category than other salespeople.
• It demonstrates trust. A direct introduction demonstrates a high level of trust. Most people will not go to the trouble of taking the time and effort to give a direct introduction unless they have a high degree of trust and respect for the person they are introducing.
• It makes it difficult for the prospect to decline a meeting. There is implied pressure on the prospect to meet with you since he doesn't want to offend the client.
A call using the client's name doesn't have the power of an introduction and gives the prospect an easy out––he simply doesn't accept your call or declines a meeting. After all, the client wasn't really involved––you simply used the client's name.

On the other hand, a properly executed introduction virtually guarantees a meeting.

In most instances, you have three introduction methods at your disposal:

A letter of introduction written by you for your client's signature
A letter from the client to the prospect is the most basic form of introduction. Rather than asking the client to write the letter, write it for him on his letterhead for his signature. Let the prospect know what you accomplished for the client; let him know why the client referred you; give a specific time and date to expect your call; and have the client ask the prospect to let him know his impression of you and your company after you have met.
Mail the letter and then a day or two after the prospect should have received it, give him a call. Don't introduce yourself first. Rather, introduce the letter and client first, then move to asking for the appointment.

A phone call from your client to the prospect
A phone call is stronger than a letter and almost guarantees an appointment as it is very difficult for the prospect to say no to your appointment request while the client is on the line. The call gives the opportunity for the prospect to ask specific questions of your client and to get detailed information. Do not have your client call unless you are present––you want to know exactly what was said.

A lunch meeting with your client, the prospect, and yourself
A stronger method than either a letter or a call, a lunch meeting allows you to get to know the prospect as a friend before you get to know him as a salesperson. Like a phone call, it virtually guarantees a private meeting. Also, in a lunch meeting, your client becomes your salesperson and you're there as the consultant. Although a very powerful introduction format, most clients will only agree to do one, maybe two at the most, so use judiciously.

If you want to turn your "referrals" into real referrals, don't settle for just getting names and phone numbers. Learn how to turn those names and phone numbers into real referrals through a direct introduction to the prospect. Not only will the number of appointments you set go up-your sales will increase, your income will increase, and you'll find selling to be a lot easier.

What Football Managers Know and We Don't

For many of us, amateur commentary and critique of 'professional' football is a national pastime. It's a shame we don't pay such close attention to our business. Take a moment to ponder this……
* How would you feel about investing £millions in a new player for your team without having seen him play beforehand?
* Once the player joined your team, how regularly would you want to see him play in order to assess his ability, strengths and weaknesses?
* How personalised would his ongoing coaching be to ensure his fitness and skills continue to improve?

I can take a fairly accurate educated guess on your answers. So I'm wondering why we don't apply the same principal to our sales professionals?
* Why is it that companies continue to invest millions in a sales team in order to grow their business without ever really seeing the sales people in action?
* Why are salespeople are rarely assessed and coached in the field to improve their performance and thus maximise the organisation's return on investment?
* Why is it that there is little emphasis on improving the skill and knowledge levels of salespeople other than, perhaps, a little 'product' training?

I saw an advertisement last week, which read 'Sales Director wanted £28 million'. Although this appeared to be the salary, it was of course, the estimated cost to the company were they to make the wrong selection.
* Why are many senior management teams so cavalier about measuring the real return on investment achieved by their sales team other than tracking revenue?
* Why don't they understand where, and what added-value help is necessary to increase sales performance?
What do you know about the standards of performance of your salespeople and will this be enough to achieve your corporate goals? Surely it is sheer madness to ignore the part of your business that is potentially capable of generating such massive growth and profit both now and in the future?

And so back to football

Before purchasing a player you would study his track record. You would assess both his fitness and his skills (such as passing, shooting, heading the ball and his ability to accurately position and read the game). Scouts and management would observe the person playing prior to making such a huge investment. Judgements in relation to their ability to blend into the team would be considered seriously, a thorough medical would take place and a contract negotiated.

Now let’s see what often happens in many UK organisations when it comes to selecting, managing and growing a successful sales team…

New salespeople are often recruited from a steady stream of (often irrelevant) c.v's from selected organisations which have a vested interest in placing their candidate. The interview process is often informal and based on 'gut feel' because the sales managers performing interviews are unprepared, under time pressure and inadequately experienced in selecting top sales performers.

A manager often interviews a candidate without the ability (or recognition that it's necessary) to match the Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills and Habits of the candidate with the requirements of the job. In addition, the candidate is rarely evaluated in a real life situation - we don't get to see the 'player' on the 'pitch'. Joint interviews of candidates are decreasing due to time pressures. Proof of previous sales performance, P60 supporting evidence of past earnings and, perhaps most surprising, references, are seldom requested.

Very often, the end result is the selection of the wrong candidate which then takes many months to become apparent. By which time of course, you're stuck with the problem of reversing your expensive decision with employment law and numerous other ramifications to consider.

The Lynch-Pin Point

In this age of the Internet isn't it more cost effective to invest less cash on finding the candidate while investing more in the correct selection process?
Recruiting the wrong salespeople is extremely expensive, time consuming and unproductive so why do we not insist on a professional selection process in the same way that football managers do?

Your new salesperson joins the team…
Once on board, our football manager would insist on continued meticulous screening in training and during match play whilst an on-gong personal programme of coaching and improvement was agreed.

But our Managing Director…
Gives the new sales person a territory and a sales target based on the organisation's requirements (i.e. top down quota). The person may be given an induction programme and perhaps even some product training if he's lucky. However, he seldom receives ongoing job assessment and coaching and 6 months later has, in all likelihood, still not benefited from a visit with his manager. The company management adds to this folly by implicitly supporting the lack of standards of performance, systems and methodologies required to measure the necessary quality and quantity of sales effort.

The board of directors usually ignore these issues when markets are buoyant and business is going well. The reality is that in fact, they are missing £millions in lost opportunities. They then react in 'panic mode' when sales are decreasing which often results in new management appointments to allow the same problems to occur once more - only dressed in a different wrapper.
This is not the way to plan for success and it is certainly not the way you would run a football team!
We call this 'management by hope'.

So why isn’t the sales function producing the return on the investment required?

Listed below are some snapshots of what we have seen over recent years
* The detail of the sales function is seldom understood at board level. The belief that if you simply 'do more' you'll get the result is frighteningly common. No attention is paid to the 'doing more' of 'what', or to 'whom'.
* The direct sales plan is not integrated into the marketing and business plan and the disconnect is apparent.
* The sales management team is usually rewarded for achieving short-term revenue and profit goals with little measurement of the qualitative and quantitive parts of the job.
* Structured up-skilling and 'leader & coaching' programmes seldom exist.
* Apathy and low work rate within the sales organisation. (The drumbeat is too slow.) "If Bill hits his targets and only works 4 days per week, why do I care if he plays golf every Friday?" No thought is given to how much more Bill could achieve, how this would effect his motivation and indeed, how his targets were set!
* Lack of a 'sales culture' and excitement
* Lack of recognition of true professional selling
* The introduction of the Internet and e-mail has given salespeople another excuse not to make contact with customers and cultivate their network

We are in danger of seeing standards of sales performance reduce year by year unless we take action now.

So what are our choices?
It's very simple really…Organisations can continue in the same vein and leave sales results to chance, just hoping things improve…or they can take action.

How to change?
It is not possible to cover the whole spectrum of sales issues regularly facing Managing Directors but here are a few checklist items that you could take action on now.
*Ensure your sales propositions are articulated and clearly understood by the salespeople and your customers. Your customers must really understand the business deliverables of your products and services and the implications of choosing an alternative.
*Ensure you have a leader of sales who really understands the sales function and allocates time to managing it properly. Forbid them to be in the office for more than a small portion of the working week.
*Prepare open questions that establish the needs and wants of your customer and then relate their needs and wants back to your products and services.
*Prepare a 'person specification' template to ensure the standards for existing and new people are met.
*Be sure you know how you want the salespeople to spend their time.
Introduce a professional selection and retention programme for all new and existing salespeople.
*Use outside expert resources where appropriate to plug the skill, knowledge and experience gaps within your own organisation.
*Plan, manage and measure the quality and quantity of sales effort taking place and compare this with the pre-agreed required activity to achieve the result.
*Immediately introduce 'bottom up / top down' planning to check the credibility of your revenue plan
*Link forecasting systems to the quantity, direction and quality of activity required rather than just to historical sales results
*Know and understand how your sales team stacks up against the competition

So where do you start?
* Start with a thorough review of your sales organisation. The people, procedures, processes and current performance and highlight the areas for immediate, medium and long-term improvement. This can be done very quickly and at a quite low cost
* Build a programme to manage change and improvement by introducing standards and key performance indicators and ensure salespeople and management 'walk the talk'
* Where necessary, for fast, expert advice, appoint an external organisation that has a proven track record of implementing change and improving sales performance.

Do not think you can fix these issues by sending your people on a training course. You'd be better off taking your team for a 'fun day' and you'll change no more. Remember the football manager who works with his team, shares his experience and improves their skills at the coaching ground? While training might be helpful in the short term, there is no substitute for getting 'on the pitch' to play and being observed in real live situations.

It takes a brave executive, especially a Sales Director to admit they need outside help -- but all sportspeople have a coach who is continually improving performance so why should it be different for your sales professionals?

Conclusion
A 10% improvement in sales performance will make a vast improvement to the profitability of a company and in most companies, this is very achievable. However, it does require an investment of time, and some money. It requires people to stop some of the unproductive things they are doing now, and instead, to spend their time focused on what is truly effective and productive.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
--Benjamin Franklin

At some point, whether you're ready or not - things must change.

Do You Need to Fire Your Employer?

If you're involved in sales for your company, think about all the things your employer does for you. Your employer pays for virtually 100% of your training, your marketing, your gas and cell phone expenses, as well as client lunches and entertainment. Your employer invests hundreds of dollars per month in your career, yet knowingly allows you to:
- waste time or blow off work.
- go home early or come in late.
- stand around and complain with other salespeople.
- pad your call reports.
- perform at a level far below your potential.

Whoa! Why would an employer pay for all this, then allow you to waste that investment? Do you really want to work for someone who says they want you to succeed, then knowingly allows you to do those things that lead to failure? What kind of employer does that?
Unfortunately, the one for which the majority of sellers work. And if you work for that person, you have no one to blame except yourself - because you're the boss.

You are your own mini company with a single client - the one that you sell for today. You're leasing yourself, your knowledge, and your skills to this firm. If you have strong relationships with your prospects and clients, you're also leasing them to your client. When you revoke your lease to the company you currently sell for and take on a new client, you take all your training, skills and abilities with you - as well as your clients. That means that one hundred percent of the time, money and energy you invest in your sales business is for your benefit - not the company for whom you sell. No matter your product or service, you're the boss. As such, you must hold yourself accountable for your actions and investments in you - your company.Do you demand the best from yourself, or do you allow yourself to go through the motions of selling? Do you seek to get the most from the time and money you invest, or are you satisfied to just get by?
As an employee, are you happy with your employer? Do think your boss demands enough from you and helps you achieve your full potential?

Just because you receive a paycheck doesn't mean that you aren't self-employed. In reality, you sign your own commission check. The company you're leasing yourself to simply verify your earnings and then signs them back over to you.Don't be fooled into believing that you work for IBM, GE, Microsoft or any other “employer” other than yourself. You're your own CEO and, like any other CEO, you must demand the best. If your company isn't capable or willing to hold you accountable, maybe it's time to fire your employer!

Open mouth - change feet

Wow! I understand stage fright, but I don't understand this... Odds are, if you're much of an internet surfer, you've seen this clip already:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII

It's a clip of Laura Caitlin Upton, the Miss Teen America contestant from South Carolina, giving her answer to a question about education and geography: "Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?"

Seeing it written out word for word is almost scarier:
"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps. And I believe that our education, like, such as in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere, like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children."

Maybe she got left behind, if you know what I mean.
This story is a few weeks old, but I just thought the clip with the subtitles was hilarious and when I saw it, it made me (of course) want to relate it back to persuasion and sales. This comes under the title of "Why talking too much loses the sale".

We're not all on stage in front of thousands or hundreds of people and so, in all fairness, don't understand the pressure the girl was under. On the other hand, there are fifty states (I think, I'll have to send Laura an e-mail to verify this) and I don't see video clips all over the internet and television of the other forty-nine contestants blathering on nonsensically.

When we persuade, (as Ms. Upton was trying to do with the judges - persuade them to choose her above the others), it is not about filling the air with words. It is about aiming our messages straight at what the client or prospect needs.

Regardless of whether or not her physicality was pleasing enough to win is really the issue in this case and the fact that she came in third is truly an indication that this was not a brains contest, but a beauty contest. She appeared poised, at least. I'll say that for her. Also, she's not hard to look at, just hard to listen to.

Without proper training, you may be perceived as a bumbling idiot. If we take a lesson from Ms. Upton's "answer" to the question, it should be this:
Sometimes less is better. If we don't have answers, we need to keep our traps shut unless we are blessed with the gift of gab and can fake it until we come up with something passable, at the very, very least.

Procrastination. Never taking NOW for an answer!

Here's a situation I heard several times while reviewing recorded calls from salespeople.
Prospect: "We're not ready yet. Give me a call back later in the quarter."
Sales Rep: "Umm, how about the beginning of November?"
Prospect: "Sure."

Here's another.
Prospect: "We're still giving it some consideration. Just not ready yet."
Sales Rep: "OK, how about if I call you back in a couple of months?"
Prospect: That's fine.

One more:
Prospect: "Not a good time for it now. Maybe later."
Sales Rep: "Well, how about I check back with you at the end of the year?"
Prospect: "OK."

Notice the trend? What's happening here?

In each case, the salesperson is in no better of a position after the call than he was before it. Actually, he is worse off, since he has now scheduled a follow-up call to a person who may never buy anything. This is why some salespeople are always busy, but never show any real results. And it compounds over time.In each situation, the prospect validated the delay by suggesting a call back time, instead of focusing on the reason for any interest, and the delay.

TWO RULES
I urge you to follow two basic premises:
1. If you're ultimately going to get a "no," it's much better to hear it today than six weeks, six months, or six calls from now.
2. If you're placing a follow-up call, know why.Consider that if you allow someone to put you off, and you ultimately hear a "no" on the very next call (if you're lucky), you likely didn't just waste that one additional call. Think of how many attempts it might have taken to finally reach them. To illustrate the magnitude of this problem over time, multiply that number by the number of times you let some people put you off. Then multiply that by the number of times this happens to you per week. Mind boggling!

RECOMMENDATIONS OK, so what should you do? Again, let's find out why they say what they do. Don't dwell on the "when" of a call back; instead focus on WHY they feel a call back would even be necessary.
Let's take each of the examples and provide better responses.
Prospect: "We're not ready yet. Give me a call back later in the quarter."
Sales Rep: "I'll be happy to give you a call back. What will make that a better time for you? What will have to happen for you to move on it?"

Prospect: "We're still giving it some consideration. Just not there yet."
Sales Rep: "I see. What is it that you are considering?"

One more:
Prospect: "Not a good time for it now. Maybe later."
Sales Rep: "Hmm, what would make later a better time?"

Notice, again, that we're trying to understand the reason for the delay. And we're using their terms whenever possible.
And don't think that this approach is pushy; it's simply direct. If there is a future event that would make later a better time for them, so be it. Let's just find out what it is.

Feel free to pass this on and that goes for the Gobshites that copy and paste from this blog in Nottingham.

You know you are living in 2007 because...

You know you are living in 2007 because...
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards for years.
3. You have a list of 15 numbers to reach a family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and relatives is because they don't have an e-mail address.
6. Every commercial on TV has a website at the bottom.
7. Leaving the house without your mobile phone, which you didn't have for the first 10-40 years of your life, is now a major cause for panic and you turn round and go back and get it.
8. You get up in the morning and go online before you get a coffee.
10. You start tilting your head to one side and smile. :)
11. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
12. Even worse, you know exactly who you can forward or e-mail this message to.
13. You are too busy to notice that there's no number 9 on this list.
14. You actually looked and checked to see that there was no number 9 on this list.

AND NOW YOU ARE LAUGHING AT YOURSELF

Go on, cut and paste or forward this to your friends. You know you want to.

Check it out

The Prince of Darkness Diaries at

http://theprinceofdarknessdiaries.blogspot.com

Introduction to 'Get Connected'

In the late eighties I took delivery of a Sky satellite system. At the time I was selling Timeshare Ownership’s to unsuspecting customers in Leicester Square and I was taking home around two thousand pounds a week in commission. It was a phenomenal amount of money to earn in those days but the SKY system was a phenomenal amount of money to buy so, in my head, it balanced out.

My then girlfriend, Wanda, came over and we sat down that first night on the sofa and we ate pizza and drank wine while we surfed the channels in wide-eyed amazement. Before that night we only had four channels. Now we had at least 40 channels to choose from. The world was our lobster and life would never be the same again. Eventually we pitched up at the WWF. Wrestlers like Randy Savage, The Bushwackers, Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior were battling it out nightly. It was a lot different from when I was a kid and World of Sport was showing Mick McManus, Jacky Pallo and Catweazle. “Have a good week, till next week”.

We switched to the movie channel and watched films that were only just out on video (DVD’s hadn’t arrived yet). The sports channels were amazing. Not only live Football and golf but obscure stuff from around the world like Ladies Beach Volleyball (my favourite) and synchronised drowning. I could get up in the middle of the night and watch as Mike Tyson pulverised someone live. I saw Spinks go crashing through the ropes. Marvellous. It didn’t get much better than that.
As we watched TV it occurred to me that this was all just too good to last. It was too perfect. I wondered how long it would be before there was competition to SKY or if they would start charging for the things that were included at the moment, like movies and sports. Would someone have a monopoly on all this or would it be a fight, a war waged between predators in a ‘my company is bigger than yours’ kind of punch up that had corporations slamming their dicks on the table.

Where would the competition come from? Another satellite company? Surely it would take a long while before anyone could offer an alternative to this? I looked at my mobile phone. It was called a portable phone in those days but it was like carrying around one of those big plastic petrol tanks that people keep in the boot of their car. It looked like the sort of thing you would use on army manoeuvres when you were trying to radio in to HQ to give them your bearings. I had another mobile phone, which was light grey and looked like a housebrick with an aerial. It weighed a ton but Gordon Gekko had one in Wall Street so that was good enough for me.

As I looked at the phones I can remember thinking to myself that those were the future. Being contactable anywhere or making a call while on the move was what people would want. I had no idea then that within twenty years people would have panic attacks if a small object that played music, took pictures, surfed the internet, woke you up in the morning, recorded messages, sent texts and made phone calls was not in their hand, pocket or bag or clamped to their ear 24/7. The telephone side of things tends to be overlooked now but that was its original premise. Now they do everything but make a cup of tea and the phone call is an afterthought. It’s all text and pictures, web and MP3. Technology was going through another change.

Things were a lot different in the nineteen-fifties. It was a polite, respectful society, so I am told. People were grateful for what they had and many didn’t have much. It was all national service and manners. A trip to the coast and wearing a tie for dinner. That all changed. The world rolled into the sixties and, boom. Flower power, the summer of love, man went into space, Sean Connery changed cinema forever by putting a dinner jacket on and the Beatles were bigger than...well, they were big. And then, man landed on the moon. Somehow, technology had received a kick up the arse. We had gone from one channel of TV to three, colour footage from the moon and Hendrix played his guitar behind his head and then set light to it.

Things remained steady until the mid seventies when suddenly there was a space station, more and more people had telephones, they had credit cards and cash machines had arrived. Groups like Yes and Pink Floyd got bigger and toured with so much equipment they could invade a small country. Cassette tape decks allowed you to record your records. The world had received another technological kick up the arse. Where had that come from?

The eighties arrived. Punk was over, people were going back and forth into space again on the Shuttle and men were dressing like women and wearing make-up. The bands got smaller but shoulders got bigger and colours got brighter. Nearly every TV was a colour set too. The yuppie arrived with ‘loadsamoney’ and cash was king. Then we had Walkmans, Microwaves and mini cassette recorders. CD’s began replacing vinyl, Portable Phones were introduced and Satellite TV had arrived in my lounge. We had received another kick up the arse on the technology front. By the late eighties, I was sitting watching TV wondering where it would all end. It didn’t and it hasn’t. Technology has been kicked up the arse on a more regular basis.

I had no idea that the competition to satellite would come out of the ground. I had no idea that 200 channels would be commonplace. Nor did I think that BT would have competition for its phone lines. I had no idea I would be a part of all that.

This is what happened...

How about this for a Job Spec??

How about this for a Job Spec??

Superb Ad for a Sales Manager. It doesn't mention 'one hand tied behind the back' but...

Duties:
Manages the promotion and direction of the sales or service activities among customers or prospects in a region.
Reviews market analyses to determine customer needs, volume potential, price schedules, and discount rates, and develops sales campaigns.
A combination of over four years of directly related training and/or experience is typically required for carrying out the responsibilities for this job.
Typically reports to a National Sales Manager and has supervisors and/or subordinate sales staff who call on existing or potential customers reporting to this position.
Ensures that representatives keep informed of changes in territories that might affect product sales.
Holds sales meetings.
Makes forecasts on anticipated market sales.
Analyzes sales statistics to formulate policy and assist in promoting sales. Studies schedules and estimates time, cost, and labor estimates for completion of job assignments.
Develops and implements methods and procedures for monitoring work activities, such as preparation of records of expenditures, progress reports, etc., in order to inform management of current status or sales activities.
Represents company at industry association meetings and trade shows to promote product.
Acts as liaison between sales and other departments.
Participates in budget preparation.
Assists other departments within establishment to prepare manuals and technical publications.
Prepares periodic sales reports showing sales volumes and potential sales.
Interprets company policy to ensure company objectives are met.
Directs product simplification and standardization to eliminate unprofitable items from sales line.
Promotes satisfactory customer relations.
Works closely with company personnel to ensure prompt service to customers. Keeps informed on company contract procedures and product pricing.
May direct staffing and training to develop sales program.

£22,000 per annum!!! Wow. C'mon you graduates...I bet your pleased you took all those exams now!!

Commission Impossible - In AdSpace, no one can hear you scream!

Now here is one for the archives.

Please remember this point before reading on: A company (let's call it RoboKrop) gives you a contract, you read it, you sign it. Nowhere in that contract does it say that if your client decides not to pay, we will clawback your commission.

OK? Well, hang on, because you are in for a bumpy ride.

You are a salesperson selling advertising space over the telephone. Your job is to convince your prospect that advertising in one of the magazines and journals your company produces is a great idea and you use your skills to liaise with all of the relevant people to ensure that you get a faxed booking form back with a signature on it. That is success. That is your job, end of story. You have made an agreed percentage of the total amount of the deal as commission and that is paid to you at the end of the sales month which is the month you sold it in. In other words: sell in June, up to the 25th and the money is in the bank at the end of June.

What you do not do is worry about anything else, like chasing copy, chasing payment or even the printing process. Or so you would think...

You sell a half page advertisement to a company in Barbados and the deal is that they get a free half page. The deal is £2,950 for one half page. When the copy arrives for the two half pages there is so much information on the two half pages that someone, other than you, decides to give your customer a FULL page in the magazine. Not only that, they give them an additional full page free of charge. The cost of the two full pages is actually £9,900. Your customer has only paid £2,950. Someone other than you, the Directors themselves, made that decision.

You go to print and the customer is very, very happy. A couple of months later, in October 2006, you contact the customer and say that you want to secure the space again in the next issue. You explain that you know, and they know, they got a fantastic deal last time. The rate card for a full page is no longer £4,950 but now £5,450. Last time they only paid 29% of the value of what they got. To sweeten the pill you allow them to not only have a free full page but you will only charge them the old rate card of £4,950. They are happy, and they fax back a booking form for the amount, SIGNED! Your job is over. Two weeks later you are paid on that deal (along with some others).

The company have fixed terms of: "payment is due within 14 days of invoice".

2006 rolls into 2007 and you, and the rest of the sales team, continue to sell. As the time of publication approaches you hear that "a couple of the advertisers have still not paid". You pay no attention because you believe, like everyone else would, that there is an accountant/ legal team dealing with this.

Then the accountant disappears off the face of the earth (on holiday) and one of the Directors starts to call lots of people asking for money. To all of you it sounds like he is calling everyone that has advertised. That can't be true?

It transpires that, rather than only a couple of people not paying, only a couple of people have paid and the Director is chasing them for payment. He even states that the accountant 'wasn't doing his job properly'.

You, and the others, carry on selling.

We are told that the Bank Manager is making a visit to the company. Can we all look busy and dress in a businesslike fashion? A massive clean up takes place. he arrives, they take him to lunch.

Quote: "Have you got half a sec?"

That is the Directors way of telling you that he wants an important word with you, and he only has 'half a sec' as he is running out the door at 3:30pm to have an acupuncture session. Instead of telling you during the day when he had more than adequate time to sit down and discuss the matter in a professional way he opts for the cowards way of, "look, I am very busy and I am off to have some acupuncture, but..."

"Patterson haven't paid and we will have to take your commission back."

Let's look at the comments made and then the facts.

"They are not returning our calls and we cannot get them to pay" True, but then they have signed a contract and that is binding.

"We cannot sue them, it's too costly." No it isn't. What's more, they have signed a contract and you have them over a barrel. Furthermore, they are members of the tax organisation which you are publishing the book for so they will not want to jeopardise that, especially as the President of the organisation, who you publish the magazine they were advertising in, is the person paying you to publish it.

"They work in a far flung island offshore and they are financial experts." So what pal, that's your problem. It was ok to call them and sell them. If they are financial experts then they shouldn't have signed the fucking contract in the first place if they didn't want to go ahead.

"They won't tell each other that we don't pursue. They don't talk to each other." The organisation is a membership which holds three meetings a year for networking purposes. The directory we publish gives names and contact details of the members so they can call each other up. The organisation actively promote networking!

"You'll find that we can clawback the commission because it is in your contract." No it isn't. Nowhere in the contract of employment does it state that commission can or will be clawedback.

The killer points are these:

The deal was done at the beginning of October 2006. They want to clawback the commission almost 9 months later!

It's a legal/ credit control issue: nothing to do with the salesperson.

This 'Director' has given the salesperson no warning as he told him at the time his salary was due to be paid.

It contravenes the contract of employment as this issue is not covered in the terms.

If you do not pursue them you will send out a message that clearly states: Sign the contracts, you don't have to pay, don't worry about it. They are too scared to sue you.

In the end, it's a joke. A financial joke that will have massive and painful repercussions. If you think I am making all of this up, I am not. This is really happening. In the 21st century!

Who lives in a publishing house like this?

The New Law of the Jungle

It’s the new law of the jungle we are breaking.

Every time I use a ball-point pen I am reminded of my dishonesty. It has an ex-employer's name written on it. I borrowed it, permanently. Does it keep me awake at night? No. I am a member of a new criminal class who have helped themselves to something at work. We are middle-class master criminals. Some laws we consider unbreakable - but only some.

Almost one in five of us steals paperclips and stationery from the office. One-third of us pay tradesmen in cash to avoid paying VAT. Fraud and white-collar crime are now so widespread they will soon cost the nation more than offences such as burglary, according to an academic study by Keele University called Law Abiding Majority?.

Oh, the irony of it. The middle classes who rail against those evils of modern society - the hoodie, the mugger and the vandal - are criminals, too.
It all seems such small fry when seen from behind the privet hedge. Why shouldn't the middle classes dodge VAT on the plumber's bill when private equity billionaires pay less tax than their cleaners? I know which one I think is the crime. If Gordon Brown is happy to let them pay 10p in the pound on their billion-pound fortunes, I have no conscience about getting a washer changed minus VAT.

I'm more honest than many of the new criminal class. One-third of those questioned said they wouldn't hand back change if they were given too much in a shop (I wouldn't and haven't). I have worked in shops and I know how the shop assistant feels if their take doesn't tally at the end of the day but I subscribe to 'concentrate on what you are doing'. They can face an accusation of theft or ineptitude. The same goes for the 6% who admitted to asking a friend working in a bureaucracy to bend the rules for them. That's corruption in my private rule book. Then again, that book is called: 'The only rule is, there are no rules!'

This moral weighing and balancing is what it is all about. The pen from my employer doesn't prick my conscience because I don't have a working relationship which is measured in such minutiae. Like many people, I worked unpaid overtime and sometimes incurred expenses I didn't reclaim. It blurs the boundaries. As far as I am concerned, a stray pen or notebook is neither here nor there in the equation. It's just a perk of the job, like the odd personal phone call or using the photocopy machine for party invitations.

In fact, what the Keele academics called criminality is really nothing more than a measure of the difference between legality and middle-class morality.
If you don't think you're in this report, if you're congratulating yourself as set apart from all criminality, cast your eye over your book shelves. I bet you'll find a library book or one loaned by a friend many years ago which you didn't return. Isn't that a form of theft?

Then walk to the window and see where the car is parked. It's probably in a legal slot because the risk of fine or being towed away is too great. But is it always parked legally or do you, like me, busk the parking meters when you have no change or won't be a minute or simply resent being ripped off every time you go to the shops? Now imagine this: you are driving on a wide, straight, empty road on a clear day. Does the speedometer read 60 or 65? If it reads 65, you are breaking the law. Do you rationalise this to yourself that what matters is to drive safely and that driving at 65 on a straight road is perfectly safe?

A relative had an interesting experience when she lost a valuable ring. She claimed its value from the insurance company. Months later the ring turned up and, honourably, she returned the cheque (no, I wouldn't have either!). The official who dealt with her wrote to say that, in his experience, she was the first person to return a cheque. To have kept the money would have been fraud yet people justify it to themselves. According to the academics, 6% of those surveyed actually admitted to padding out insurance claims. No doubt they count up the premiums they have paid and tell themselves it is victimless crime.

According to the report, it isn't poverty but a dip in wealth that triggers this criminal behaviour. The worst offenders are highly-paid people who hit hard times temporarily. No doubt their situation no longer seems "fair". They will pocket £500 on an exaggerated claim against an insurance company but would, hopefully, be scandalised by a £50 theft from a door-to-door insurance salesman.

If a bank that has regularly charged us extortionate amounts in overdraft penalties then accidentally credits our account, how many of us would feel a moral obligation to draw its attention to the mistake? Or might we recall the billion-pound annual profit and multi-million-pound bonuses paid to banks' executives and ask ourselves who are the real robbers? I know someone who had an amount paid into his account by his bank accidently and he immediately transerred it to another account. The bank didn't realise but he was taking no chances.

We live in a world where people are increasingly valued according to their bank balance. Wealth is the new religion; the glitterati bedeck the top of the social tree and it doesn't seem to matter how they acquired their money.
Virtue has always been its own reward but never more so than now. We see politicians disgraced then read about their lifelong pensions. We see business executives who ruin companies and destroy employees' pensions, but walk away with golden handshakes and secure futures.

Money talks. In the past decade the new super-rich have quadrupled their wealth. In the past year alone they have seen it rise by one-fifth. There have always been people of vast wealth but until recently they were so rare we could name them. There was Onassis, Getty, the Kennedy clan. Now there are more than 1000 super-rich families in London alone. Their spending power is fuelling the house-price rise and thanks to legal tax avoidance those who are "non-dom" pay no stamp duty.

On paper, the middle classes, too, are worth more than ever since all houses have raced up in value. But, relatively, they feel worse off.
Job security is poor, pensions prospects are low and uncertain, and they find they cannot give their children the financial leg-up they need to become property owners themselves.

Some conclude that to be squeaky clean and scrupulously honest in such a society is to be a mug. I contend that once that becomes acceptable, the law of the jungle takes over.

There is very little wrong with forgetting to return a book or dodging a traffic warden or asking an official to bend the rules for you. There is everything right with being clever enough to make multi-millions on the financial markets and paying only 10% tax on it. It's legal, but utterly immoral. But after a while you could live with it and sleep easy.

Lesson #7: Never leave loose ends.

How many people do you know say, 'Let's just sign the paperwork and we will get all the other stuff sorted out at a later date!'?

Here is something I find really strange. Why on earth would anyone, if they are in their right mind, allow you to lock them into a contract that at a later date may change?

Would you want to be signing a piece of paper that would be either worthless, or worse, turn out to be even more costly to you and have deep implications into your business or wealth at a later date?

No, is the answer, so...

Lesson #7: Never leave loose ends.

My mentor, Ari Onassis, would always tie up all the loose ends of a contract at the very start. It is like my lesson 'kill the monster early'. If you do all the finer details at the start then there can be no questions later, and no problems either. Nor can there be any costly surprises.

I have a phrase that I have used on many occasions in training and in my own life and it serves me in good stead. Every time I have negotiated a contract I have thought of it and I have worked by it, and it is this:

"If you tie up all the loose ends at the start they will never become undone. If you leave the loose ends undone at the start, they will remain undone and you will never, ever, be able to tie them. What's more, they will become very expensive!"

Coming soon... Lesson #8: You only need one golden apple!