Yesterday, I ran into an old high school buddy of mine.  He and I had faced each other across a wrestling mat twice in junior high, before I decided that wrestling wasn’t my thing (I won two matches – both against him), and so when we were assigned to be partners in Weightlifting class in high school, we were initially less than excited.  As it turned out, we became great friends and weightlifting partners all through high school, because we pushed each other hard.

When we began, in my sophomore year (Freshmen were in junior high in my district), I weighed 160 pounds and could bench press 120 pounds.  Weak.  But, Charles and I worked hard, pushed each other hard, and by graduation, I weighed 170 pounds – and could bench press 240 pounds.  In my weightlifting experience, there are several lessons that apply to selling.

First of all, when we started lifting, we focused on milestones.  I’ll be honest.  We focused on milestones that LOOKED good.  For instance, when we started lifting, we put the “small” weights (25 pounds and down) on the bar because that’s all we could lift.  The bar weighed 45 pounds by itself; the biggest weights were 45 pounds.  Hence, to LOOK really good, we worked our way up to lifting at least 135 pounds.  I remember how good it felt the first time I put those ‘big’ 45 pounders on the bar and got it all the way up off my chest.

As we continued forward, we focused on other milestones – for instance, adding the 10 pound weights to the 45s, then the 25 pounders, etc.  Again, every milestone was based on how it looked, but it WORKED for us.  Charles and I both built strength (not just on bench press – but this is the one that I remember well) based on those milestones.  The last semester of high school, we pushed each other hard to be able to lift 225 pounds.  Why?  Because that meant that we could put TWO 45 pounders on each side.  Yep, a visual milestone.  As I recall, it was in the last month of school that we each managed to hit that mark.

LESSON NUMBER ONE: To improve, you need milestones to get where you want to go.

Another lesson that I remember is how, over the summer, our strength would atrophy because we weren’t lifting every day.  That should seem obvious – but that first lift of junior year it was quite a revelation to put my previous spring’s maximum on the bar and find out that I couldn’t budge it.  And that was with doing pretty physical work over the summer.  In fact, between junior year and senior year, I made it a point to lift every week at a minimum.

LESSON NUMBER TWO: If you’re not going forward, you’re going backward.  I couldn’t simply maintain a level of strength – I was either building strength or losing it.

As it turned out, I did actually gain strength over that summer.  Not much, but a little.  Then, after high school, I stopped weightlifting.  The results were, well, predictable.  That 240 pound bench press is but a distant memory, and even though I’ve started lifting again, I’m still firmly stuck at junior year levels.  That’s a blow to the ego – but I do believe that, at some point, I’ll pop those four 45-pounders off my chest again.  It’ll just take awhile.  In fact, I think it’s going to take longer to get BACK there than it did to GET there.

LESSON NUMBER THREE:  It’s easier to STAY in shape than it is to GET in shape.

One challenge I see in my chosen profession is that too many salespeople get complacent.  They don’t continue to develop their skills, find new customers, and seek out new challenges that make them better.  They stop reading books, they don’t train or retrain, they don’t even conduct meaningful business reviews.

And, like my strength when I stopped lifting, their customer base shrinks – and they can’t understand why.

Today’s customer is more demanding than the customers of 10, 15, 20, or 30 years ago.  They are better informed, better educated, and more savvy in terms of how they deal with salespeople.  In dealing with them, you have several options:

1. You can take the low road and try to win on low price.  That’s never a permanent solution.
2. You can keep doing the same things you did in the past, and watch the customers move past you and on to other salespeople.
3. You can update and improve your skills to meet and exceed today’s customer’s expectations.

Today’s salesperson must be able to have a higher level of customer dialogue than salespeople of the past.  You must be able to get to the need behind the need.  You must be able to diagnose and prescribe the EXACT solution to the customer’s problem.  And then you must use advanced persuasion techniques to win the business.  The old stuff won’t get it done.

And, as my example above shows, if you’re not in constant development, you won’t be able to keep up with the marketplace.  So, of the three examples above, which salesperson are you going to be?

I’ve always said that it’s possible to learn from sales fails as it is from sales successes.  If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly doing postmortems on past sales calls, both winners and losers.  What salesperson hasn’t sat in his office, shaking his head, saying, “Good grief, why in the world did THAT come out of my mouth?”

As you can imagine, I’ve become a collector of sales stories.  People are always coming up to me and starting stories with, “Hey, you’re a sales guy, let me tell you about THIS salesperson that called on me!”  It’s fun and funny at the same time.  Today was no exception; in talking with a friend of mine in the marketing business, I heard a story that can teach us all a few things – especially with the surprise plot twist at the end.

My friend opened with, “Let me tell you about THIS sales call!”  Immediately, my ears perked up.  I knew I was about to hear something good.

“I was cold called,” she said, “by a guy who represented a company offering a service to marketers like me.  This was a couple of weeks ago, and it happened to be an absolutely horrible day.  I was slammed at work, some things had gone wrong, and my stress level was about a 12 on a scale of one to ten.  Still, what he had was of interest, and I told him that I wanted to know more.  Could he call back after 5 PM, or on Monday (this was on a Friday morning)?”

She continued, “The prospector responded that, if I was interested, he’d have Brian call me back.  Apparently Brian was the guy who really knew the program and he could handle my questions.  The caller was just a prospector.”

I’ll admit to having mixed feelings on this issue.  I’m usually not a big fan of ‘prospectors’ in selling; however, this one was at least effective enough to generate the lead.  The story continued.

“Brian called me back in about an hour.  He said that his prospector told him that I had reached out to them regarding their program, and wanted to know more.”

My note:  Why would the prospector not take credit for the lead generated by the cold call?  Especially when doing so forced Brian into a false statement?  This hurt their company’s credibility, which is one of the hardest things to establish.

She continued, “I explained to Brian that I hadn’t reached out; his caller had.  And then, I told Brian that I’d told his prospector that this was a very bad time, and that after 5 PM or Monday would be a better time.”

Brian apologized for the mix-up, and then asked, “So, what would be the best time to talk?”

My note:  She’s already told him that.  Why not instead agree to call back after 5 PM, or set a time on Monday?  Brian didn’t listen.  I don’t have to tell you what a mistake this is.

My friend responded, “Honestly?  Saturday morning would be the best.”

Brian:  “I don’t work on Saturdays.”

“OK,” my friend said.  She could have reminded him about Monday, but at that point, she was rapidly losing interest.  Can you blame her?

Brian offered, “How about I send you a written workup with costs and ROI numbers?  That way you’d have more information.”  Personally, I think that Brian’s offer to ‘send info’ was a big mistake.  ‘Send info,’ when it comes from a customer, is usually a stall or a put-off.  Why Brian would choose to offer to be put off is beyond me.  But, of course, he still hasn’t cottoned to her offer to talk on Monday.  My friend agreed to receive his information, and the call ended there.

In fact, so did the sales process. Brian never sent the info.  Offering to be put off by sending information is bad; not actually sending it is far worse.

PLOT TWIST:  The previous events happened nearly three weeks ago.  I wrote the above article yesterday afternoon.  Just as I was preparing to send it, my friend called me and said, “You’re not going to believe it.  Brian called just now.  He wanted to ‘follow up on my interest,’ he said.  My interest has GONE by now.”

This, to me, is a case where a good sale went to die.  After the first phone call, my friend was a motivated prospect – and those are like gold.  How did the sale get killed?  Let me count the ways.

1. The nature of the first call was misrepresented, thus damaging Brian’s credibility.
2. Brian was offered two choices of call back days, didn’t listen, and missed them entirely.
3. Brian refused to call on Saturday (I can’t ding him too badly for this – I try to keep weekends free – but the Saturday issue was the result of #2).
4. Brian then offered to be put off by offering to send info.
5. Brian then failed to send the info that he volunteered to send.
6. Finally, Brian called back with no recollection of anything that had gone before.

Now, look in the mirror and be honest.  Have you committed any of those errors?  This year?  Last year?  Note that none of the unforced errors above was huge – but they all add up to a customer that likely won’t buy at any price.  Sales is about the conversation; make sure yours are meaningful for you and for the customer.

One of the topics I’m frequently asked about revolves around the topic of name dropping.  This happened last week with a fairly new salesperson who happens to be a good friend.  She had, she said, received several “referrals,” and wanted to know if it was appropriate to use the person’s name who referred them.

The reason that this is a common question revolves around the issue of sales credibility.  Without exception, when someone is dropping someone else’s name into the conversation, they are attempting to establish their own credibility by borrowing some of the person whose name they are using.  This is a technique that can, depending on the situation, range from entirely appropriate to downright annoying.  Let’s dissect the issue and figure out which is which.

In the particular case of my friend, what I learned after some questioning was that these “referrals” really weren’t referrals at all.  They were cold leads.

A referral occurs when someone not only points you to a new potential client; they get in the middle of the conversation, make an introduction, and assist in making the connection.

A lead is when someone suggests that you make a sales call on a potential customer but doesn’t get involved in the conversation or help make the introduction.  My friend had leads; the other person had simply suggested that ‘she ought to call on’ a certain group of businesses without being able to facilitate the meeting happen.  Her not knowing the difference wasn’t her fault – her company termed these ‘referrals,’ as would many networking groups.

In this case, once we’d clarified what she was working with, I gave her these simple guidelines.  In the case of a lead, the name shouldn’t be dropped, since it’s entirely possible that the person giving the lead doesn’t even know a key contact at the target company.  Since name dropping is all about borrowing credibility, you might be borrowing from an empty bank.

In the case of a true referral, however, the name should be used; i.e., “John Smith suggested that I call you, as he thinks that what I do could help you.”  In this case, the borrowed credibility is real, and the name (along with whatever the other person might have done) should assist you in getting an appointment.

The same rule goes for testimonials, as well.  A testimonial should always be used in conjunction with the name of the person who gave it.  Again, borrowed (and real) credibility is at play here.

Now, let’s talk about a different situation.  This is one I see all the time in the speaking community – let’s call it, “The Name Drop Apropos of Nothing.”  If there’s anything speakers like to do when they congregate, it’s drop the names of other speakers they may have seen, might know, or whose articles they might have read.

“Have you seen Jack Smith speak?”

“Have you read Ellen Suchandsuch’s book?”

Or, they’ll pepper their speeches with references to others’ work and material.  “As Guy Kawasaki says,” etc.  I also see this happening in too many sales presentations.

Here’s the rub with this kind of name dropping.  It can work against you and be annoying to your audience (or customer).  There are a few reasons for this.

First of all, if your audience or customer hasn’t read the books or heard the speakers, then they can feel that you’re trying to diminish them or put yourself above them – or that there’s a ‘club’ and you’re not a member.

Second, remember that name dropping is borrowing credibility.  It’s one thing to borrow the credibility of someone you know.  It’s entirely another to borrow the credibility of someone you don’t know.

Finally, if you use this technique too much, it greatly diminishes your own credibility.  At some point, you cease to be an expert and become someone who read an expert’s book.  There’s no way that this can work in your favor.

Here’s my advice.  If you like to use expert quotes or examples in your sales presentations, keep them to a minimum.  You’re much better off using one great quote or study than five mediocre ones.

Remember this:  Others’ credibility might get you in the door, and it might help move a presentation along – but at the end of the day, if YOU don’t have credibility of your own, you won’t get the sale.  My advice is to build as much of your own credibility as possible.