The Sales Buddha

Innovative Leadership

To members of the San Antonio Professional Coaches Association:

Innovative Leadership is not a new coaching program that someone has put together for coaches to utilize with their clients. It is a philosophy and activity that has been taking place within the San Antonio Professional Coaches Association for quite some time now. A brief definition might help one understand what the heck I’m talking about. To innovate is to “create something new”. Leadership, when used as a verb is “the act of leading” and when used as a noun refers to “those in a leadership role”. Your Board of Directors is providing just such Innovative Leadership, not only within SAPCA, but also within the ICF and the entire coaching community.

As your Chapter President, I have access to a Chapter Leaders Resource page that is part of the ICF website. It is a tool that all Chapter Presidents can use to distribute information amongst ICF Chapters. The best tools, projects, processes and helpful ideas are posted to assist chapters in the operations and growth. It is chocked full of ideas that have come from our Leadership over the years. Every time I view those pages I am reminded of all of the hard work and efforts our Leadership provides. I am truly blessed to follow in some pretty big footprints left by previous SAPCA Board members. That’s Innovative Leadership and it is not something new to SAPCA.

At last week’s ICF International Conference in St. Louis I was proud to attend a session with our new President-Elect Angela Woodrow. The session was titled “If You Can’t Make a Living, How Can You Make a Difference?” C.J. Hayden, author of Get Clients Now!, was the speaker for this session. The session and subsequent discussions were about how we, as coaches, could grow our businesses. We also talked about ways to promote the awareness of coaching in our local communities.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read in C.J.’s handouts about how SAPCA sponsors a Borders Books event every other month, She spoke about how it was a great collaboration that helped Borders Books sell books and helped SAPCA increase the awareness of coaching in San Antonio. I’ll tell you for sure, I sat up just a little bit taller in my seat after that! She then went on to talk about how “some ICF Chapters” have even hosted Regional Coaching events to promote education and networking within our coaching community. By now I was sitting tall and had a big grin on my face. I was very proud to be a SAPCA member! It only got better when Angela stood up and addressed the three hundred plus participants, explaining an idea that she would like to implement in our local San Antonio chapter. Now I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag, but there were lots of people taking notes on what she planned. That’s Innovative Leadership!

Friday night our innovative leadership was recognized at the ICF Leadership Dinner. Over a hundred Chapter and ICF leaders were present when awards of excellence were handed out. SAPCA had submitted an application for “Finding Our Voice”, an award that recognizes Chapter efforts to increase awareness of coaching based on the following criteria: Demonstration of Excellence; Contribution; Creativity; Chapter Participation; Developmental Stage of Chapter; and Completion of the Application Form. I am very pleased to say that Michele Henkle-Irelan, our incoming SAPCA President, graciously accepted this award on behalf of all members of the San Antonio Professional Coaches Association. Michele told me later that, “many Chapter leaders stood in line to ask her how we did “this and that” in San Antonio.” That’s innovative Leadership!

We have a new Board of Directors that will lead our chapter next year. I feel quite confident that we’ll continue to witness Innovative Leadership from them. We are always looking for innovative leaders to join this great team. I know there are many of you that can fill the role of innovative leader. I hear about the things you are doing in your business, your communities, in your schools and in your churches. Now is the time fir you to get involved in SAPCA leadership, step up and provide your own style of Innovative Leadership for all of us. We’ll all be better off for what you have to give us.

WHAT IS A BUDDHA?

"Enlightenment, for a wave in the ocean,
is the moment the wave realises it is water."
Thich Nhat Hanh

A Buddha is a person who has developed all positive qualities and eliminated all negative qualities. A Buddha was an "ordinary" human like you and me before he/she became enlightened. Enlightenment is compared to awakening, as a person suddenly expereinces a complete transformation of body and mind from sleeping to waking up.

A Buddha is different from "God" in the Christian-Judeo-Islamic sense in that he/she is not the creator of the universe, is not omnipotent (all-powerful), and the state of Buddhahood can be reached by every living being (although it may take many lives).

His Holiness the Dalai Lama from 'The Buddhism of Tibet'

The Birth Of A Coach

Yesterday I spoke with a colleague whose son is a very successful sales manager. He shared with me that they were talking about ways that his son could increase the productivity of his team. The son thought that he should be tougher on his people, that they did not fear him enough and didn’t perform to team expectations and goals. He was wondering how he could be tougher and more aggressive so that they could hit forecasted sales for the next quarter. The only real obstacle to doing all this was that it was not really in his nature to be the whip-cracking sales manager he thought he needed to be. As I listened to Dad tell about this conversation, I thought, “Oh my God, this guy is living my story!”

Years ago in a sales galaxy far, far away, I was that sales manager the son was striving to become. At six foot two inches and two hundred and eighty pounds I managed with my size and voice, intimidating all but the toughest and most confident members on my team. My team hit their numbers or they hit the road. I used to tell that that I would help them all I could, that I’d help them be successful or help them pack a box and leave. After all it was their choice. I was just there to help! My team hit record sales numbers month after month and I was promoted up the sales management food chain about every six months. My career path was taking off like a rocket. Senior management only focused on the results. They didn’t see the three hundred percent turnover, the resources wasted on recruiting and training new sales staff, the stress and increased sick days on the sales floor. They never looked at the stress it put on me or the sleepless nights I had tossing and turning trying to tell myself I wasn’t really a jerk, I was just doing my job! It didn’t work. I was a record-breaking jerk.

One day I stopped by the cubicle of my top producer, a million dollar President’s Club salesman. I was telling him he needed to “pick it up a bit” and I realized that he wasn’t listening to me. I “informed” him that he needed to listen to me when he told me I could either go away or go get him a box and help him pack. At that moment I made the best decision I have probably ever made. I shut up and walked back to my cube and hid. I had almost run off the best salesperson on my team. I left early to avoid him and spent most of the night hoping he would show up for work the next day. I went to work and waited for him to show up. I prayed that he did not come in carrying a box! Talk about stress, I’m lucky I didn’t have stroke. Then I realized what I was doing. How stupid could I be? Answer: Pretty darn stupid!

That morning was a turning point in my life and career. I had been “motivating by fear” to get my team to produce. My motto was, “The beatings will continue until morale improves!” That day I started looking for a better way to accomplish the same results, but through inspiration instead of intimidation. I found coaching to be the answer to my prayers, my sanity, my self-respect, my needs and my desire to not be a jerk. I owe much of my success from that day forward to that salesman who told me to go away. Thanks Barry.

What Does A Business Coach Do?

My number one priority as a Business Coach is coaching business owners and managers to focus on what is really important to improving their professional and personal lives. Driving Success. Balancing Life. How I do that, as a “Business Coach” is not well understood by many. Like all professional athletes, they use a coach to improve their performance for game day. In the business world, every day is game day. So here is a little information about coaching and how I work to assist those business owners and managers in preparing for “game day”.

Coaching is: inspiring an individual or team to produce a desired result through personalized teaching, expanding awareness and designing environments.

The definition above is concise and yet much broader and stronger than what has come before. Here is a brief explanation of the key elements of Coaching. Coaching is inspiring: Often coaches have been thought of as motivators, but understand that motivating and inspiring are distinctly different and that inspiring more accurately describes what great coaches do. Produce a desired result: People hire coaches for a lot of different reasons, almost all of which can be put into a category called "produce a desired result".  It is more compelling than accomplishing an outcome or reaching a goal. Personalized Teaching: Coaching has always had a fundamental teaching component and most people hire a coach because they believe the coach has knowledge and experience to share. Expanding awareness: Most coaches acknowledge that expanding awareness is an essential component of the work but they rarely state it concisely.  The truth is that awareness leads to power (not force) in almost any situation. Designing Environments: The major innovation for modern coaching is in environmental design. Inner work is not enough to change ones life in a sustainable way.  Designing environments to support and inspire is absolutely critical to creating success for my clients.

This is what coaching is to me. These are the items that I work with in helping my clients produce the desired results that assist them in Driving Success and Balancing Life. I look forward to helping many of you achieve your success and your balance in whatever ways you may define them.

Thanks for your reading today, good luck and great Coaching!

TWENTY-ONE RULES FOR A GREAT LIFE

I must admit right up front that I did not create this list. A friend who keeps my name on a mass-distribution e-mail list sent it to me. I usually have these messages go directly to my trash box, but this one slipped by my filters. I figured there must have been a reason! After reading it, the rules sounded like much better advice than I could offer today. So, here it is, read and enjoy!

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

2.  Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.   

3.  Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

4.  When you say, "I love you," mean it.   

5.  When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.   

6.  Be engaged at least six months before you get married.   

7.  Believe in love at first sight.   

8.  Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't have much.   

9.  Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.   

10.  In disagreements, fight fairly. No name-calling.   

11.  Don't judge people by their relatives.   

12.  Talk slowly but think quickly.   

13.  When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?" 

14.  Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.   

15.  Say, "Bless you" when you hear someone sneeze. 

16.  When you lose, don't lose the lesson.   

17.  Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.   

18.  Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

19.  When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.   

20.  Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.   

21.  Spend some time alone.

Get Motivated, but caveat emptor!

I recently attended an outstanding day getting pumped up at the Get Motivated seminar in San Antonio. I expected it to be an event that shouldn’t be missed and took four other business associates with me. The speakers were an exceptional group that roused the stirrings of many past motivational events, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and Phil Town gave super speeches on the possibilities that lay ahead for all of us. Rudy Guilliani and Steve Forbes gave a couple of crowd-pleasing, wave the flag, pre-campaign speeches on economics and leadership. Jerry Lewis proved once again, why he is called the King of Comedy. All in all it was an inspirational event for all in attendance, especially for the Sales Buddha. I always enjoy hearing speakers remind me of the blessings of abundance that God bestows on us here in the good ‘ol USA.

There were however, a couple of things that happened in the weeks past that took a lot of the “shine” off that wonderful day. During the event, several promotional offers were made, a couple that we in our group took advantage off. Both required you to secure the deal with a credit card, “that wouldn’t be charged in advance.”  Well, after that line, you can guess what happened. A couple of us signed up for a seminar sponsored by Success Magazine’s Investor’s Toolbox. One of my guest’s cards was run prior to the seminar as a “pre-authorization”, which put a hold on funds available in her account. Not expecting the card to be run, as we were all told, she charged a couple of other things that put her account overdrawn. She spent a lot of time on the phone sorting this all out, I’m not sure she’s gotten it straightened out yet! Needless to say, she decided not to attend the seminar.

My wife and I attended the seminar a couple of weeks ago and were tremendously disappointed. We were expecting to learn about the Five-Step Investing process, but instead sat through an all day sales seminar on buying additional training to turn us into millionaires like our presenter. I knew we were in trouble when I walked in the seminar and there were no computers set up to teach us how to use their software we were being trained to use! The only straight answer I got during the day was when I asked him at lunch, “You’ve done a great job selling the sizzle, what’s the steak going to cost me?” A quick response of “five thousand to twenty three thousand dollars for your education” was at least an honest answer. I actually made a point to find him and thank him for the honesty before the afternoon session began. I know education cost money, but it didn’t cost twenty-three grand to figure this one out. So, I turned in my material, said “No thanks” and headed for the door.

The week following the workshop, I received a call informing me “they were having some problems running my credit card.” Go figure! Even after attending the workshop and turning my materials back in as required, they still tried to charge my credit card. The corker to the whole event, when I told my guest, whose card they had “pre-authorized”, about what happened to us, she informed me that they had also charged her card for a real-estate workshop she’d signed up for! That’s a double-whammy that was never expected. So, that’s why I added the caveat emptor to the title. It usually means, “buyer beware”, but in this case it means keep your wallet in your pocket and don’t believe what you’re told.

I really hope this was a rare occurrence and not a regular part of the way this group does business. I have much respect for all of the presenters, but little for what happened to my friends and myself. Credibility and integrity are crucial to success in life, as well as in business. It’s not an option to me. We were told our cards would not be charged and they were, plain and simple. If I tell you that, “A rooster can pull a freight train, you better hitch him up”. That’s credibility. With these guys all I got was “cock-a-doodle-do!”

High Tech vs. Low Tech Tools

I recently attended the American Society for Training & Development International Convention. It was a fabulous learning opportunity, with an incredible amount of high tech training tools on display in the Tradeshow Hall. As I walked the floor, I was amazed at the developments that have taken place in the training arena in recent years. With every booth that I passed, there was someone wanting to sit down with me and engage me in a conversation about his or her products and services.

As I wondered how I could use some of these tools in my coaching practice, a thought smacked me on my forehead. I already possess the three most important tools available to any coach today; a caring nature, a set of ears that work quite well and the ability to quickly establish a relationship!

The most common trait that I see in successful coaches today is a caring heart. Mine was developed over many years by watching how my Mom cared for my brothers and sister and me. She was a full time chauffer and fan who never missed one of my baseball or football games, church choir practice, school plays, parent-teacher meetings, scouting events, graduation ceremonies or anything else that was important to me. I don’t remember ever getting a lector about caring for others, but learned from her example.

The ears I got from my Dad, something that my wife noticed the other day looking at an old photo album of my Dad’s. Yep, I got his ears, eyes, chin and other features. But, the trait that I am most pleased to have received was his ability to listen. He put that trait to good use as an attorney, a State Representative and Senator and numerous other roles. Speaking to folks after his passing years ago, I realized his greatest role was that of friend to many people. The one common thing I’ve heard over and over was that Dad was “always there” when they needed someone to just listen to their problems and concerns. He always seemed able to do something to help them out. So, thanks for the ears Dad, I’ll try to continue to put them to good use.

Genetics again plays an important role in my ability to establish relationships. I got that trait from Mom’s dad, Ira Southard. He was a rice farmer who could sit down and talk with anyone from bank president to bank janitor, about anything from history to politics, anywhere he was. I believe that he did this because he saw himself as a part of the family of man. No one was better or worse than he was, all were equals in the same boat of life. I don’t think he ever met a stranger in his life.

A caring nature, a set of ears that work quite well and the ability to quickly establish a relationship are a blessing to me. The first two traits are essential to the success of the third. Building personal relationships is what coaching is all about to me. The more comfortable and stronger the relationship grows, the more effective are the results we can achieve together. This one-on-one equal relationship is fundamental to a successful coaching practice.

Aligning with your Ignitors

I was the middle child of five children and always did my own thing. My Mom swears if I’d been the first born, I’d have been an only child. For some unknown reason, I was always motivated to do some of the nuttiest stuff a kid could think of. When I’d head out the door, off on some crazy adventure I’d just told her about, she’d say, “Whatever lights your fuse, but be careful, you could be playing with dynamite.” Little did I know at the time that she was just demonstrating the God-given intuition that Moms have for identifying what we today call Ignitors. Ignitors are the things that “light your fuse” or “spin your fan” or cause you respond or react in some pre-programmed sort of way. It’s easy to understand that we’re all kind of hard-wired to respond to certain Ignitors. But, knowing exactly what they are is a little more challenging.

A blasting cap is an igniter for dynamite that can unleash the incredible power that lies within each stick. You can burn dynamite, soak it in water or bang it on the ground without releasing its power. To do that, it takes an igniter, a blasting cap, to activate its energy. But be careful, igniting that power can do extremely good things or really, really bad things.

I identified leadership as one of my Ignitors when I was about five years old. About ten of us kids would grab our Schwinn bikes, put on our yellow rain coats and become the Yellow Jackets. We’d stretch a rope across our street and stop people to make buy Kool-aid from us. Brilliant marketing if I don’t say so myself. It was my idea, I was boss and these were my boys. It felt great, until the policeman that day explained what extortion meant. It was my mom who first realigned my Ignitors with her own passionate beliefs! The fuse she lit that day did some serious damage at first, but eventually, did a lot of good for me.

As I grew up, without full awareness of what they were, I aligned my Ignitors with my own personal beliefs. I joined the Boy Scout and became an Eagle Scout. You know, trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Those kinds of things, which I still value today.  I joined FFA and raised the grand champion steer. Lettered in football. Trained in Soo Bahk Do and today I’m a black belt in Karate. All of these were activities where my Ignitors fell into alignment with my personal beliefs.

The personal Ignitors that I identify with today still revolve around leadership, service, honesty, ethical behavior and being authentic. I try to involve myself with people, activities and organizations that are in alignment with my igniters. When I do, the time I spend in these pursuits are incredibly rewarding and empowering. When I do not, it is a recipe for disaster! Ask me to work with a two-faced, unethical leader and I rather fall on my sword and at least die with honor than have to deny my own personal values!

I believe that being in alignment with my Ignitors is what has caused me to serve on non-profit Boards as Finance Chair of the local Boy Scouts of America and on the Board of the Christian Women’s Job Corp and to serve as President of our local ICF Chapter. Now, I didn’t seek any of these roles out. They just kind of naturally came my way. Must have been my Ignitors kicking in. My Ignitors are why I do, and do not, associate with certain people. And, I refuse to change who I am, just to fit in with any special group or clique. The activities that I involve myself in must be in alignment with my Igniters. If they’re not, hey, it’s time for a change. But more than anything else, identifying my own personal igniters has helped me to understand why I am so happy and fulfilled by being a Coach.

I have several clients that are just sick of what they’re doing and don’t seem to know why. I think asking them to understand and identify some of their Ignitors can bring about some real eye-opening conversations. By simply realigning what they do with who they are, as identified by their Ignitors, they have the chance for some life changing transformations. There’s just no telling where our conversations might take them. But one things for sure, “whatever lights their fuse”, that’s good enough for me! Pssst…Anybody got a match?

Prioritize By Values

So you have way too much to do. You just can’t seem to keep up with everything that you’re asked to do. Your schedule is slam-full every day of the week and there are still things that need to get done. What can you do? Are people, like bosses, friends and family just asking way too much of your time? Or, do you just not know how to say No? Well, take heart, as a Coach, I hear this same scenario described to me on a fairly consistent basis. Welcome to the 21^st Century, where technology has outpaced our ability to add four or five more hours to each day. Something’s got to give!

That “something” should be “someone” and that someone should be you. You should give yourself a break from the rat race and allow yourself to take a deep breath…now exhale…relax… and realize that if there is going to be any change of pace in your race, it’s has to come from you. There are day planners, day runners, time planners and software that are all designed to help you manage your time, but you’re usually too darn busy to fill them out! So here is a simple three-step process that might help you out. You can do it over a couple of evenings when you can make a few minutes of “quite time” for yourself. If you can’t seem to do that, call me, and we’ll talk about that issue.

The first step is to sit down and put pen to paper. Make a list of your own personal values. The things that are really important to you. Let it flow and put down as many as you can think of. Think about things like health, family, spirit, integrity, honesty, and truth. Don’t go into detail; just get as many on paper as you can. After that is done, go to bed and do no more on this project. If you’re like most of my clients, you’ll wake up in the morning and add a few more values to your list. When that list is completed, look it over and pick your top three or four values. No more than that, four at the most. These four values will become very important to you as you move forward in life.

The second step is to sit down again with pen and paper, stay away from the word processor, and make a list of everything that you need to do, are asked to do, have to do, want to do; you catch my drift here? Make sure that you capture it all. Everything. Leave nothing out, no matter how small or trivial it may seem. When the list is complete, go to bed again and sleep on it. Once again who’ll probably wake up and add a few things you’ve left off the list. Two things come to thought at this point. Isn’t the sub-conscious mind incredibly powerful? And, isn’t that one heck of a monster To-Do list you’ve got there!

Here’s step three is the fun part. Use your list of top three or four values as a “litmus test” to judge everything else on your To-Do list. If an activity fills all of your values, do it! If an activity fills none of your values, don’t do it. Prioritize everything else in between. When you are engaging in activities that are in alignment with your core values, you will experience a remarkable fulfillment in doing those things. One of these keys to happiness is living a life of abundant fulfillment, not just one of satisfactory contentment. God wants that for all of us.

You deserve “more” of your time on this planet than just being content. People and jobs that make requests of your time in activities that do not bring you this level of fulfillment should be very closely scrutinized. It’s committing to doing all of those non-fulfilling activities that wears down our spirit, mind and body. When we are engaged in activities that fulfill our core values, a wonderful thing called INSPIRATION comes to visit our lives.

When YOU are living an inspired, fulfilled, values driven life, I’ll bet your To-Do list will look much different that the one you have today. I’ll bet your life will also look much different than it does today!

Sales Efforts Equals Sales Results

If you are ever concerned about what you are getting out of something, just look at what you’re putting into it. This is true in just about everything we do, like relationships, school and sports, but it really seems to apply to sales with most of my clients. It’s the same old story I keep hearing. “I’m really working hard, but don’t seem to be getting the results that I expected.” Well, the results you expected are a pretty good starting place for this discussion.

If you have a specific sales result you want to achieve, it is pretty easy to plot the actions and efforts necessary to achieve it. It is sort of like the “reverse engineering” that Compact did to create the IBM clone years ago. To do this, we need to define and list the steps in your sales process. You have to start with marketing to locate prospects, schedule appointments to determine needs, develop a solution, present your solution, ask for the sale, deliver promised goods and services and maintain a healthy relationship for future sales and referrals. If you define your expectations or results, then it is pretty easy to look at your effort metrics to indicate where the problems might be.

Years ago, I worked in outbound telesales. We cold-called prospects, thank goodness those days are gone, and offered a free trial of our product. There was a set of metrics that I called “the rule of halves” that proved pretty accurate as far as effort was concerned. If a sales person made fifty calls a day, they would talk to about five people who would accept the free offer. About half of them would show up for the offer and about half would express a need. About half of those folks would buy, so it looked like this. One hundred calls made yielded ten “suspects”, which gave us five prospects, giving us two and one-half proposals and hopefully, one sale. One sale out of one hundred calls is why I don’t cold call anymore, but it sure works out nice to make this point. Increase your effort at each step in the process and you’ll probably increase your results. Remember, sales efforts equal sales results!

So, if you’re not happy with what you are getting out of something, look at what your putting into it. Whether it’s sales or sports, Michael Jordan said it correctly, “I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don't do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results."

Word of Mouth Marketing

For many years now people have said that “word of mouth” was the best advertising there was. Having other people talking about your product or service and how great it is still is the path to real success. Those one-on-one mini testimonials make all the difference in the world in the success of your business. It still works today. The only problem is, not many business owners can explain how to develop and implement a strategy to make word of mouth work for them.

Word of mouth is not hard to create. It’s simply having people talk about you, hopefully in a positive way. Now is a good time to point out that word of mouth can be a killer when it comes to stories about bad experiences with your business. Man, people do love to talk about the bad stuff! But there’s more to word of mouth market than having two consumers exchange information about your products or services. You need to have a strategy and plan to make it work for you. This strategy is what word of mouth marketing is really all about. But, how do you do it? How do you make it easier for your clients and customers to spread the news? We’ll start at the beginning and will follow up in later columns.

The first and most important is to realize the differences between sales and marketing and their related activities. Marketing related activities are all of the things we do to create a prospect, someone who has a need for our products or services. Sales related activities are the things we do that turn that prospect into a customer. So when we talk about networking as it applies to marketing, we are not looking for sales, but for people who might become future prospects or advocates for us. Since we are not selling at this time, we are simply looking to establish relationships that one-day may grow into mutually beneficial relationships

So when I talk about expanding and diversifying your network, I’m talking about the number of people you know. If asked to make a list of their business network, they would make a list of everyone who might buy what they are selling. This is a prospect list to be used for sales related activities. Once again, you must recognize the differences between sales and marketing when expanding your network. Since people buy from people they know and trust, so go out there and create as many trusting relationships as you can. The more people that know who you are and what you do, the greater the chance of them becoming a client and /or referral source in the future.

Go out this week with a clear goal of adding a certain number of new people to your network. Increase the number of healthy relationships you have and don’t forget to maintain your existing relationships. Look in places you normally might not try. Get creative. Increase the number and diversity of people in your network. Next we’ll talk about what to do with them once you have them.

People Buy Emotionally and Justify Intellectually

People buy on emotion and justify their decisions intellectually. You might be thinking, “So what!” Well, this just might be important if you care about why people buy. Which might be important if you want to improve your sales skills and increase your sales. This fact is why some sales gurus talk about “finding their pain”. Moving away from pain, or towards pleasure, are both strong emotional motivators that can help you close a sale.

Here’s a quick example of what I’m talking about. A few years ago I was just looking around a sporting goods store and saw an Ambassador 5000 bait casting reel on sale. I really wanted it, so I bought it. That sale was based on pure emotion. I didn’t need it, I had two just like it already, but I wanted it. Need was not a factor. There are better reels out today that cost less, but I didn’t want them, I wanted this one and I bought it. Cost was not a factor. So I bought it and spent the thirty-minute drive back to the house trying to figure out how to justify the purchase to my wife. You see, people buy emotionally and justify it intellectually!

What was I going to tell her? I didn’t think, “I wanted it”, was really going to work. I could tell her what a great deal I got on it, but I already had two just like it. I could tell her that “my old reel won’t last much longer”, although at nearly thirty years old it worked like new. Maybe I could tell her, “I’ll be able to use the old one for parts”, but she had seen me fish with it two weeks earlier. Darn, I guess I’d just have to fess up and tell her I bought it because I wanted it.

I wanted it because it was just like the one my father had given me over three decades earlier. He let me have it after a fishing trip that just the two of us went on. When you’re one of five kids, time alone with your dad can be very special. And having that reel is an attachment to my dad, that trip and memories that are irreplaceable and priceless. That’s why I bought it. No justification needed, I just wanted it. I’d probably paid twice as much as they were asking. It was a sale made on pure emotion.

So next time you’re helping someone make a purchase, remember that people buy emotionally and justify it intellectually. If you ask them the right questions, you can find the emotion behind their action and maybe even help them figure out what to tell their spouse to explain their purchase!

Wants and Needs. I have them both.

In sales, as in much of life, what we do is greatly impacted by our wants and needs. If you want to be more successful, you should learn the difference between the two. They’re not really the same thing, but both work hand in hand in helping us make decisions. There’s a real simple definition for the two that works for me. Adults have needs and teenagers have wants. Simple. Adults need to make mortgage payments, pay for healthcare, car notes and necessities like food. Teenagers want to go to beach for spring break, want new shoes and clothes, want an I-Pod and things like that. They don’t have a real need, but want can be a strong emotion impacting their decisions. Not exactly accurate, but it’s pretty easy to remember.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is discussed in philosophy books and research as the levels of needs by all mankind in ascending order needed. It starts with physiological needs and moves up through security, social belonging, self-esteem and finally self-actualization. In most situations it is meeting these basic needs that makes someone a prospect in the sales process. They may walk into your business one-day looking to fill a need they have. If they have no needs, you’ll probably not make a sale. It always cracks me up when shoppers tell me they don’t need anything, they’re “just looking”. That’s baloney, if they didn’t need something, they wouldn’t be looking!

Finding out what they want is the surest way to advance to a sale. You determine the wants by peeling the onion, a term for peeling through outside layers to get to the heart of what’s really important. As an example, someone may come into your business needing a watch. Well, it’s obvious they need to know what time it is. But do they want a Timex or a Rolex. Both meet the need to know what time it is. But one will come much closer to the other than meeting what they want. They need to tell time, but they might want to show a little “bling-bling”’ or want a watch that they really feel good about wearing. Any watch will meet the need, but the right watch will meet their wants. Identifying and meeting both wants and needs is one sure way to keep your customers coming back.

If you want to know more about how to determine someone’s wants, I’ll bet you have a need to learn more about improving your sales. That need, makes you a prospect for me! That’s the best news I’ve heard all day!

My Pleasure

My wife and I just got back from a seven day Caribbean cruise, which was our first cruising experience. I had always heard that cruises were for “newlyweds and nearly deads”, and had avoided the watery adventure until last week. My friend, Steve Rice, the Cruise Butler had taken care of everything and all I had to do was to climb aboard and set sail. As we cleared security and prepared to board, I had a very strange thing happen. After I had thanked the officer inspecting my documents, he looked me right in the eye and said, “my pleasure”.

It was his pleasure to be courteous, professional, friendly and prompt. It was his pleasure to make sure that my experience was the best it could possibly be. It was his pleasure to put his own personal wants and needs on hold, right behind mine. It was his pleasure to see what he could do to make an unbelievable memory out of my cruise. I had to stop and think about it a while. I knew I had experienced this before, somewhere, sometime before. It had been awhile. And then it came back to me, oh yeah, that’s customer service!

Customer service is what some people do when they want you to come back and do business with them again. It all must have started somewhere in the South. It’s really nothing special, just being friendly and courteous. But the staff of the Rhapsody of the Sea has taken it to a new level for me. It seemed nearly every time I asked for anything, I was met with a “my pleasure”. It’s a mindset that had permeated the entire ship. It was their pleasure to make sure I felt like a King. And they treated every passenger that way. It was great; I loved every minute of it. We both loved it so much that we booked another cruise while we were still on-board the ship.

Could you just imagine what it would be like to shop in a store in town where your treatment and experience was their pleasure? Holy mackerel! That would surely float my boat!

Letting Go Of The Side Of The Pool

If you’re ever going to learn how to swim, you have to let go of the side of the pool. It’s true in just about every thing you learn to do. At some point for all of us the training wheels have to come off, the little “swim floats” have to be deflated and we have to face our fear of letting go. I know I probably crashed a few times when I was no longer on a “balance assisted” bicycle. But I made my way through it and became a neighborhood- traveling fool. I could go anywhere that pedaling could take me. But I had to let go of the fear and just pedal.

I can’t imagine that I ever wore those silly looking floats that parents put on their kid’s arms. I mean, if one of them deflates, does it save only half of the child? I took swimming lessons as a kid. Mom took us to the pool at the Shamrock Hilton Hotel in Houston. It’s gone now, but to a kid, their “Olympic” swimming pool looked like the Gulf of Mexico. It was huge. It must have had about thirty swimming lanes painted on the bottom. No way you could swim across it, simply too big!

It had about six diving boards, the long skinny ones that bounced you into the air. A couple was about like jumping off your couch. The next two were like jumping off of your roof. The final two about like jumping off the top of the school gym. As if that wasn’t enough, there were the diving platforms. They were concrete monsters that surely were as tall as the hotel itself. You needed air traffic control clearance before you could jump. You could hardly even see the people preparing to jump! Thanks Mom, it was a great place to take a little kid to learn to swim.

But I got into the pool anyway. So I could learn how to swim. And I did. Apparently, at some point, I let go of the side of the pool and let it happen. I learned to swim like a fish and still love to swim fifty years later. But what is it that keeps most of us with a locked death-grip on the side of our pool. We all have some task that we need to get done, but something prevents us from doing it. Usually it’s fear and the more we think about it, the worse it gets. That’s because “anticipation is worse than confrontation”, something I learned in the Karate Do Jang.

Thinking about what might happen is almost always worse than what actually happens. That’s why; “wait till your father gets home” is so devastatingly effective on kids. Their minds create scenarios, which never happen once Dad gets home. There is no one that can punish us like we punish ourselves. That’s what we’re doing when we hang on to the side of the pool. We hang there playing “What if...?” with ourselves. What if I sink? What if I look foolish? What if I can’t do it? Well, what if you never try? What if you let go and take off like a fish? What if you’re a “natural”! What if you love it?

For most of us the main obstacle to our accomplishing something great lies between our ears. Our thoughts and fears lock us up. So, start focusing on what success will feel like. Think about how great it will be. Stop anticipating failure and start anticipating success. When you’re sure you can succeed, just let go and see what happens. Who’ll probably laugh about how easy it was to do!

And, wait till your Dad gets home, he’ll be amazed at what you accomplished!

Networking…Are You A Hunter Or Farmer?

A Network is an extended group of people with similar interests or concerns who interact and remain in informal contact for mutual assistance or support. So, Networking would be the activities that you engage in that allow you to expand the number of people in your network. The more the merrier! The time between now and New Years is a great time to engage in those activities. It seems that there is some kind of gathering or party to attend almost every night. Anywhere that there is a gathering of people is a great opportunity to expand the number of people you know. That next connection you make might just be the source of business you need to kick off your 2006.

Now some of you might wince at the thought of doing business during the Holidays, meaning Christmas, which is still a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ for my politically correct friends, and New Years. If you wince real hard, you’re probably a hunter. Now, not wanting to offend most of the population in one column, let me define a hunter in the sales world as a person who goes out with the intention of making a sale, or kill. They will study where their game lives, stalk them, get them in their sites and pull the “close” and make that kill. It’s not that this is a bad thing; you just need to hunt at the right time and place. Networking events are not a good place to hunt. Unless, you’re hunting for relationships and then leave the “sales gun” at home in it’s case.

You can expand your Network in a more positive way by working like a farmer. You work very hard for quite a while before you see a payoff. Networking is all about growing relationships with new people you meet. It is not about making a sale. It’s all about building, growing and nurturing healthy relationships. These relationships are the source of future friendships, support, ideas, opportunities and even the holy grail of all business, referrals! Fact: People buy from and do business with people they like and trust. These two components; like and trust, are both necessary parts of a healthy relationship, just like rain and sunshine are for a crop. This holiday season is great time to be tilling the soil and planting the seeds of mutually beneficial relationships that will bear fruit later in the year or in years to come.

So put up the “gotta get a sale” mentality and open your mind to the possibility of doing a little farming. You might just find there’s a little bit of farmer hidden deep in your soul that enjoys the smell of fresh plowed ground as much as you do eggnog. One that enjoys watching your relationships, and your crops, begin to germinate and grow. One that becomes excited with the upcoming harvest, watching your crops ripen and start to yield an incredible harvest. One that relishes the exhaustion and slumber that overcomes you at the end of a good days work. Because, that’s the life of a farmer.

So get out there and farm for relationships and new friends every chance you can over the next couple of weeks. Then go home after a good days, or nights, work and sleep peacefully. Because, even little kids know that’s when Santa Claus comes!

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”

And The Winner Is…Integrity!

This past week, the people at Merriam-Webster OnLine dictionary announced that the most looked up word this year was integrity. It received nearly a quarter million hits. I guess there is both good and bad in this reality. It’s good that there are that many people who wonder what integrity is, where it comes from and how to demonstrate integrity in their lives. It’s bad, and sad, that there is such a lack of integrity in our society that you have to look it up in a dictionary to know what it is when you hear it mentioned. 

I can remember looking up many words in the dictionary. Last week my wife was working on a crossword puzzle and gave me clue, “ovine fellow”, which I found to be a clue for ram, after looking up “ovine” in the dictionary. I have never had to look up the word integrity to know when I’ve seen a lack of it, or to understand what it is, or to wonder where it comes from or how to demonstrate it in my life.

Merriam-Webster OnLine dictionary defines integrity as “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values”. So that’s what it means, to have some kind of Code that you decide to live by. A Code that requires that you do the right things in life, that guides you in your decisions, your actions and may one day define who you were.

My father had such a Code. We never talked about, but I know it was there. I saw it in the way he carried himself and in the way he treated others and in the way he did business. As a kid, I thought it was something he brought back from the “war”. I’m sure now, that it probably went overseas with him and was honed there, as it is with many of our men and women in service today. I knew it back then when I saw integrity in action. It looks the same today as it did when I was young.

I know where integrity comes from. I have had numerous lessons during my life. They began with my Mom telling me “how to act” many times every single day! In church I learned about the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, “do unto others, as you would have them do unto you”. In the Boy Scouts of America, I learned the Scout Oath and the Scout Law of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. These have had a tremendous impact on my Code. In the martial art I study, Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan, I learned the Eight Key Concepts and 10 Articles Of Faith In Training that help to guide me toward becoming a “man of virtue”.  As a Coaching professional, I am guided by the Code of Ethics of the International Coach Federation. My personal Code has been, and continues to be, developing my entire life.

And so we come to a final point for those quarter million inquisitive minds looking up integrity in the dictionary. How do you demonstrate integrity once you know what it is? Well, you’ll be fine if you just do what Mark Twain said you should do, “Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest!”

Building Healthy Relationships

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article for my newspaper column about Small-town Customer Service and the importance that building relationships with your prospects and customers could have on your business. The easiest way to build relationships is to be totally focused on the other party. Find out what is important to them. Look for ways that you can help them out, not just what you can sell them, but how you can help them out. If you focus on this aspect of the relationship, you’ll usually find reciprocity coming back your way. The unconditional love I have for my grandson, Toryn, is a pretty good foundation and example of the steps to take when building healthy relationship. Just look at what occurs in just a day’s time

Toryn and I spent the day together, just hanging out at G.G.’s and Papaw’s place. We started the morning with scrambled eggs that G.G. and Toryn had gathered from the hen house the day before. Then we played some nerf-football, worked in the shop oiling and polishing G.G.’s silverware case, played with the dogs, went swimming in the inflatable pool and had the mother of all water gun battles. I was soaked and Toryn declared the victor! Had some beanie-weenies and macaroni and cheese for lunch and then prepared for the afternoons events. We pretty much repeated the morning schedule and ended up at dusk watering the blackberry canes, which quickly progressed into a day ending “let’s spray Papaw with the hose”! We both slept very well last night.

The lesson that I learned was that in nurturing our relationship, it was all about him. What could I do to help him, entertain him, teach him and generally demonstrate how much I love him? I never had a thought of what was in it for me. I never wondered what I would get in return. I never wondered when the payoff would come through. The time we spent together was it’s own reward. Now I know that Papaws give unconditional love to their grand kids and customers aren’t even in the same game. But if we focus on how can we help them, the rewards will be long lasting, with grand kids as well as prospects and customers!

“Small Town” Customer Service

When I moved to this beautiful Hill Country small-town over twenty years ago, it was generally a joy to deal with the local merchants. Everybody seemed to greet you with a smile and a “come on in” as you came through the front door. I used to enjoy the banter and chitchat that took place before we got down to business. At some point I’d hear a “how may I help you” or a “what can I do for you”? We’d talk about what I wanted and nine times out of ten, I’d get what I needed. I was usually “thanked” for my business and left feeling pretty good, got what I needed and got it at a pretty good deal.

Why in the heck isn’t customer service more like that today? As a shopper with cash in my pocket, I certainly think I should be treated better! If you are a business owner, here are a few things you might want to think about. Do you actually display “small town” customer service? Or, is that just a concept that’s nice to talk about in your marketing materials? So read on, and if you are doing all of these things right, you’ll propably see me back in your place again!

Do you stop and acknowledge customers as soon as they walk in your place of business? When I was in the restaurant business, research then indicated that customers begin to feel alienated within three-to-four seconds of entering a restaurant. Why set yourself up to have to overcome that alienation? Greet ‘em like they’re walking in the front door of your house and they’ll remember that, even if the meal wasn’t fabulous. It was a rule in my restaurant that our customers were to be greeted before the hydraulic door closer shut the door behind them. When your customers feel welcome, they’ll keep coming back. When your customers keep coming back, you’ll remember that.

Do you spend time “visiting” with your customers? Most would probably say they don’t have the time. How can you not take the time to get to know your customer better? I’m not talking about sitting around gossiping, that’s an absolute waste of everyone’s time. I’m talking about building relationships with your customers. People buy from people they know and like. Word-of-mouth marketing is implemented when someone who knows you and likes you recommends you to others. Referrals rule, but you’re not going to get them without taking the time to nurture and cultivate relationships with your customers. When a new prospect walks in and tells you that “so and so told me to come see you”, you’ll remember that.

“How may I help you?” or “What can I do for you?” still goes a long way with me these days. I want to be helped. I want someone to wait on me and answer my questions. I want someone to give me the information I ask for. Is it too much to ask your staff to provide some service with a smile on their face? Do your sales people help your customers find what they need or do they point them in the right direction? Once I’ve found something, please don’t make me look for someone to take my money. All employees need to be focused on providing excellent customer service all of the time. If a new customer tells you one day “your people are just so friendly and helpful”, you’ll remember that.

If you do the simple things that make your customers feel like they were helped by a friendly and knowledgeable staff that treated them politely and thanked them for their business, those folks will remember. They’ll tell their friends, who will tell more friends about how great your business is and how good you treat people.

If you don’t do the right things and people feel cheated and are unhappy with your poor customer service, they’ll remember. They’ll tell their friends, who will tell more friends about how poorly they were treated and what a lousy business you have. That’s a “word of mouth’ advertising you never want to deal with. You might get away with it for a while in a big city, but it will kill you in a small town. A friend of mine has a small plaque in her office that says, “I live in a small town, there’s not much to look at, but there sure is lots to talk about!” What are people saying about your business?

It’s a sad state of affairs, but customers today generally do business with those stores that treat them the “least poorly”. With even a small amount of attention paid to outstanding customer service, you can make your business stand above the others!

Ready For A Challenge?

If you will accept a challenge to take an item you've been procrastinating on and begin acting on it; then you are starting this next week with a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes, it's the thought of starting that holds us back, and not the actual act itself. Usually, once we get started, we tend to keep going. A little push can bring you the momentum you need.

We are wrapping up on  2005, and how you spend the remaining time is up to you. On New Year's Eve, it would be great to look back and think of what you have accomplished on your goal list for 2005, and then be able to build on those goals for 2006. It’s more motivating than looking at the upcoming year and rehashing the same resolutions you keep talking about!

If one of your goals for this year was to improve your sales, what could you realistically do, starting now, to achieve that goal? There are different areas and skill sets that you could work on and enact immediately, which would begin to bring you the results you crave. Beyond saying "Achieve more sales", you need to become more specific.

What, actually, brings a sale?

· Networking - where do your prospects spend their time?

· Referrals from clients with whom you are currently working.

· Setting quality appointments.

· A professional sales presentation.

· Effective objection handling.

· Product/service knowledge.

These are some ideas that will hopefully spark further ideas for you. Even seasoned sales people can forget the different avenues available for mining gold.

Let's take a look at the first one, networking. It has been said that it's not what you know; it’s who you know. Who do you know? Specifically, are you connecting with people who work in industries compatible with yours? For example, if you sell high-end furniture, have you made time to get to know movers, general contractors and home improvement specialists, and real estate agents in your area?

Now, think of industries that work hand-in-hand with yours, and develop a list of people to contact. As a sales person, you can't be everywhere at once. Most sales people wish that they could clone themselves. The next best thing is to create your own sales force, by having these natural contacts feed you with the leads you need to be successful. And it doesn't hurt to set up some sort of incentive program to keep the good will coming - it is well worth the investment - and watch your sales grow.

Listening Is A Gift!

There is not much more that we can give someone than the gift of listening to them. Every now and then we all need someone to just listen to us, to let us talk, and to be heard. I am more aware of that need after the recent disasters around the world. Hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, fires and earthquakes have all taken their toll on us this year. They have destroyed towns and villages, shattered families and communities and decimated man-made and God- made environments with equal savagery.

Except for lives lost, most can be replaced or rebuilt. Food, water, shelter, monies, material and time can bring these task to fruition. But, the one thing that I see over and over as the greatest gift we can give right now is the gift of listening. Just letting someone tell us their story, to talk about what happened to them. This sharing with someone is the basis of communication, and the healing that can come from communication can be a true gift. By listening, you can demonstrate that you care at a time when many may feel that “nobody cares”.

You don’t have to be trained to listen to someone as they share with you. Just close your mouth and open your ears and your heart. By simply listening, you can share with them your time and concern. So, if you run across someone who needs someone to just listen to him or her, take the time and do so. It might just be the greatest gift you give, to them, and to yourself.

Sales Buddha’s No. 1 Rule Of E-Mail

“If you question the tone, pick up the phone!”

I love E-Mail. I hate E-Mail. I guess that’s the problem. I’m conflicted. I love the ease and convenience of E-Mail. But, I hate what it turns us into, non-communicators. E-mail IS NOT a communication tool. It is a messaging tool, in fact, a very slow non- IM tool. It allows us to send out messages without the threat of having to communicate with someone else.

We really like it when we have bad news to deliver and we don’t want to deal with the response. I noticed this week that a State department in Texas was “laying off’ a couple of thousand workers in reorganization, via E-MAIL! “Dear friend, don’t come to work Monday, you no longer have a job.” How’d you like to get that message over the weekend? Well, it actually happened last week. The reason given; it was more economical to utilize E-Mail. BALONEY! They used it so that managers wouldn’t have to see the negative responses and impacts on former employees lives. Now that’s communication at it’s best!

Ever received an E-Mail and not been sure what it was all about. Did I just get slammed? What was that all about? Is the sender mad at me? Well, it’s hard to tell. I’ve seen statistics that 80% of communication is non-verbal, you know, body language. If the other 20% is based on your tone, volume, diction, pace, etc., then what do you get with E-Mail? Non-emotional pabulum that leaves us thinking, “what is this all about?”

So next time you get a message that you really don’t understand where the sender is coming from, remember the Sales Buddha’s No. 1 Rule of E-Mail, “If you question the tone, pick up the phone!” That way, you can actually communicate with someone.

Hey, that was a pretty good micro-rant. But, I bet you didn’t question the tone!

The Sales Buddha Receives Recognition As Certified Networker

Gene Hildabrand, The Master Networker, recognized Michael Baker, The Sales Buddha, for completing the Certified Networker Program offered through The Referral Institute. Michael is the first Sales Coach in South Texas to receive such recognition. The presentation was made on the set of The Master Networker television show, where Gene and Michael filmed a segment talking about the importance of building relationship in marketing and in sales.

The Master Networker with Gene Hildabrand, now airing in San Antonio Saturdays at 5:00PM on Time Warner Cable Channel 20, the program introduces you to business and community leaders, acquaints you with networking groups, organizations, and associations, and provides insightful and helpful training to equip master Networkers. The Sales Buddha additionally taped a training segment on Creating Visions That Drive Goal Setting that will be airing in upcoming weeks.

"Utilizing books and materials developed by Dr. Ivan Misner, the Certified Network Program was developed as a joint effort between BNI and the Referral Institute. Between the efforts of the 2 organizations, the actual CNP material was developed."

Dr. Ivan Misner is the Founder & CEO of BNI or Business Network Int'l. BNI was founded in 1985. The organization has over 2,500 chapters throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Africa. Last year alone, BNI generated over 2.1 million referrals resulting in over $727 million dollars worth of business for its members.

Never Judge A Book By Its Coveralls

My father was very successful in business, though you’d never know it by the old coveralls he liked to wear. They were a faded-out baby blue with the belt cut off, sort of what you’d wear if you were retired and driving around the country in an RV with Momma and the dog. They had that special “just came from the Bingo Hall” look about them. They were definitely not his standard Board Room attire.

So, one day he drives into the Mercedes Benz dealership looking for a new car. Mom and Dad walk in, look around at cars and find one they like. They look around for a salesman to help them and none come out to greet the man in the old faded coveralls. Dad asks for some help and finally one well dressed arrogant peckerwood strolls over to ask, “How may I help you, Sir?” “How much is this car,” Dad asks and the snooty salesman looks Dad up and down and replies, “Sir, all Mercedes Benzes are all VERY EXPENSIVE automobiles”. My Dad just nods and says, “Yep, I figured that would be the case, can you go fetch me a real SALESMAN?”

Well, The next guy comes along and dives right into his Mercedes Benz caliber sales presentation like Mom and Dad were the King and Queen! As we sometimes say in Texas, he really “put on the dog!” Meaning, he treated then with the respect and attention that any prospect looking at a $75,000.00 car deserves, regardless of those darn “ol coveralls dad loved. Dad looks over at Mom and she gives him a smile and a nod and Dad hands the salesman his American Express card and says “We’ll take it, and would you fill it up with gas, we’re going next door to James Coney Island to get some hot dogs.”

My Mom still laughs when she tells this story about how Salesman number one’s mouth fell open when he realized how stupid he’d been and just blew a nice commission check! So, remember that you should qualify your prospects based on their wants and needs. And whatever you do, don’t qualify a successful Texas Senator, Attorney, Banker, Rancher and Oilman based on the coveralls he wears.

Because, you can’t judge a book by its coveralls!