- Can Your Salespeople Respect Someone Who Earns A Fraction of What They Do?
Some years ago I was doing a customer service training program for a very successful financial services company in the Northwest. - Sales Management: 5 Signs You Hired A Loser
Most sales managers got to where they are because they were effective salespeople, first.
And they became effective in sales because they were optimistic. - The Art of Selling: 3 Tips to Make People Make Decisions
One of my early sales trainers said, “Gary, people hate to make decisions and that’s why we have to make them for them.” - Top Speaker Says You Aren't Bored: You're Just Not Challenged!
There is that famous quip that says knowing you’ll be hanged in the morning has a way of clarifying your mind. - Top Consultant Says: In Sales & Service Training, 4 Stages of Development Are Needed
To be successful in teaching people to be better at their jobs, in selling or in customer service, we have to get their FULL ATTENTION. And just talking to them training or seminar rooms, is insufficient. To prove the point, watch Candid Camera urges Dr. Gary S. Goodman, Fortune 1000 consultant, top speaker, and best-selling author. - Developing Sales Discipline: Here's What It Means To You!
In an earlier article I asked whether selling is more of a skill or a discipline.
My take on it: It comes down to about 80% discipline, and 20% skill.
Some people took umbrage with my view, probably because they want to glorify this fine occupation of ours, making it seem difficult, and therefore somehow more professional. - Management’s Mixed Messages: We’re High Achievers, But I Love Average Producers!
I was conferring with a reasonably successful manager in the Banker's Life system.Within the space of a few minutes, he disclosed two things to me:(1) He is doing everything possible to create a high-achievement culture; and(2) He loves his moderate producers because they are steady and reliable.Of course, as you might detect, these statements are contradictory.As a sales manager or a business owner, you don't want to send mixed signals to your people.Are you overtly asking for (1) but secretly hoping for (2)? - Sales Managers: DO YOU CARE About How Well Your People Handle Inbound Leads?
I’ve been doing a cold calling campaign to increase my consulting business and to refine my training materials, and it’s nothing less than exhilarating.
You might wonder why someone like me, a best selling author of classic titles such as YOU CAN SELL ANYTHING BY TELEPHONE! and REACH OUT & SELL SOMEONE would bother making his own calls. - Sales Managers: The Goal of Every Encounter Is Open-Field Selling
I could spend a lifetime correcting the mistakes other consultants offer as prized selling tips.In the class I conduct at UCLA Extension, "Building Your Consulting & Coaching Business," I do some of that, but there are so many errors and so little time.But a few misperceptions I just cannot let pass without comment.I happened upon one today as I was reading a self-appointed sales guru’s article.He said that at the first meeting with a prospect your goal SHOULDN’T be to get an order, to make a sale. That first chat is merely, “exploratory.”This gent would be the kind of surgeon who doesn’t want to cure disease, he just wants to do exploratory surgeries to see what’s wrong and then to make recommendations.Great, leave the healing to another doctor, for a later date, if the patient survives that long! - Tough-Love Sales Management
Like transforming coal into diamonds, salespeople require pressure to become wealth producing.Either salespeople pressure themselves, or managers pressure them, or both.But left alone, like most things in nature, salespeople die on the vine, wither, and shrink from view. - The Value of a Glengarry Sales Manager
In the movie, "Glengarry Glenross," the sales manager is a jerk, an acerbic cynic, a malevolent force, a take-no-prisoners, I-don’t-hear-your-excuses, kind of guy.And, though it’s contrarian to say this, there’s something important this type of individual teaches salespeople and other managers.It can be summed-up in a single word. - Sales Managers: When Should You Fire Your Best Salesperson?
There are just some topics that you shouldn’t bring up in polite company.I could name them, but I’d be out of line.Yet I can’t resist speaking about this one topic of special relevance to sales managers everywhere.When should you fire your BEST salesperson?This is a question that comes up more than you might think, though it is as taboo to openly ask as “When is the boss going to croak?” - Five Crucial Things You Forgot About Selling
The best salespeople have forgotten more valuable strategies than mere amateurs will ever know.Here are five crucial things you forgot, if you're in sales, sales management, or sales training. - No Web Site, No Voice Mail, No Problem!
Can you imagine wiping out your web site and your voice mail system on purpose?One well-known publisher has done this, and you'll find it hard to argue with his success, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, top speaker, best-selling author, and Fortune 1000 consultant. - Sales Managers: Should You Prove Yourself By Selling In Front of Your Team?
As a sales manager your primary job is selling your salespeople on selling more.But the longer you stay away from selling the more you, and those who report to you, doubt your ability to sell.Should you prove yourself by selling in front of your team?Dr. Gary S. Goodman, top speaker, best-selling author, and Fortune 1000 consultant shares his insights and experience in this article. - Top Sales Speaker Says "On-Base-Percentage" Beats "Batting Average" Time and Again
Sales literature can be so quaint, resembling some of those old cars like the Packard, the once elegant nameplate that stopped being minted in the 1960's.The advice from most selling gurus sounds as if it has been chewed over far too many times; much like the rubber chicken at a chamber of commerce mixer from that era.For example, in sales books and articles, there is still an inordinate emphasis being placed on "closing" deals.Just this week I got a call from a commercial realtor who feels he isn't closing well enough; that this art of pinning down commitments from prospects is his weakness.But I have a different take on the challenge.There aren't that many buyers that are slipping away from him or from most other pitchmen.He's not APPROACHING enough to have a good number of them slip away.Instead of obsessing about closing deals, he should pay more attention to OPENING them, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, Fortune 1000 consultant, top speaker, and best-selling author of 12 books, including HOW TO SELL LIKE A NATURAL BORN SALESPERSON and REACH OUT & SELL SOMEONE. - Top Speaker Says: There Are 5 Reasons Selling Comes First & Customer Service Second!
Why there is a nearly unlimited budget available for pampering salespeople, while the customer service department suffers budget cuts and downsizing at the first signs of a business slowdown or recession?There is a simple, brutal and realistic answer to this question.Salespeople are more valuable to their companies than customer service personnel.As President of Customersatisfaction.com, a company that provides service and sales training, aren’t I foolish to say this?Perhaps, but I’m right.Sellers are valued more, for five reasons, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, top speaker, best-selling author of 12 books including, SELLING SKILLS FOR THE NON-SALESPERSON and MONITORING, MEASURING & MANAGING CUSTOMER SERVICE, and Fortune 1000 consultant. - Sales Managers: Beware of The Latest Generation of Quack Sales Gurus
Quack ales gurus should be taken to court for malpractice, especially when their advice is blatant bullt. - Sales Managers: Boost Your Credibility & Sales by Updating Your Database
I’ve been driving a Porsche Cayenne for more than two years, yet my leasing company keeps sending me letters imploring me to trade in my Mercedes SUV.They should know the Mercedes is long gone because they bought it from me!Getting these mailers not only tells me that my leasing company is sloppy, but that their special, supposedly customized offers are anything, but. I’m just one of many contented sheep grazing in their fields, and when they want to clip me again, they can more or less do so, at will.Don't make the same mistake advises Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, top speaker, best-selling author, and international sales and customer service consultant. - Simple Pay Plans Can Make Sales Explode!
Last week, I conducted a new seminar in Sao Paulo, Brazil. My audience consisted of about one hundred sales managers, directors, and business owners, and we covered in depth the topic of motivating and compensating sellers.I unveiled a pay plan that in my experience is the very best one of all. It keeps top sellers’s noses happily to the grindstone and it produces overall equity.Someone who sells three times more will earn triple what his peer earns. But this isn’t a harsh commission-only plan.Anyway, it is very simple.I asked everyone in the room if THEY would like to be paid this way. Nearly all would, and would their salespeople like it and perform well under it?Yes, again, was the answer.But how many of them felt they could recommend it and have it be adopted?Very few hands went up.Why?The plan seems “too rich” one of them pointed out. It’s “too good” another one said. I think what they were really saying is it’s too obvious and too simple, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, top speaker, international consultant, and popular commentator on radio and TV. - Hey, Sales Guru: Don't Try To Teach Me Anything!
"I could be in front of buyers right now, earning a commission. Instead, I'm stuck here, listening to a sales guru who probably earns half of what I earn!""Who does this guy think he is? I don't care how many degrees or phony speaking certifications he has after his name. He's never sold MY PRODUCT to MY CUSTOMERS, so all of these clever formulas are just a lot of theoretical garbage.""I'll tell you this. Nobody ever bought anything from anybody he hated. If they like you, they'll follow you to the ends of the earth. If they don't, I don't care how sharp your selling skills are.""If we didn’t get a chance to play golf and to throw back a few, these yearly sales meetings would be a total waste!"This is what your trainees and audiences are really thinking, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, top speaker, international consultant, and popular radio and TV commentator.Are you equipped to handle it, sales guru? - People Don’t Buy Relationships, They Buy Specific Proposals
There has been a lot of ink spilt over the topic of customer relationships.But people don’t agree to developing relationships, as a general rule.They buy specific proposals, says top speaker, international consultant, and popular commentator on radio and TV. - Selling Them Again Tests a Customer's Loyalty
What right-thinking consumer really says: "Gee, I've always bought my life insurance from Ted and even if his rates are nearly double that of another source, I must keep doing business with him. I'm a loyal client and I owe it to him and to his family!" - Let’s Just Make It Friday
Every seller has been afflicted by the buyer who neither says yes nor offers an objection.He is the fence-sitter, the person who seems almost biologically unable to arrive at a decision, no matter how much prompting you do.So, how can you get a sale if he won’t at least give you an affirmative grunt?It’s tough, unless you come to the situation armed with a very special type of close, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, top speaker, international consultant, and popular commentator on radio and TV. - Secrets of Self-Defeating Salesmen
"I'll show him; I won't call him back!""I don't need his business. There are plenty more where he came from.""Maybe he can thin other people's margins, but not mine!""I'm going to quote just one price and he can take it or leave it."These are just a few of the lines self-defeating salesmen use to rationalize their often bizarre behavior, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, best-selling author, convention speaker, and popular commentator on radio and TV. - 3 Steps to Appealing to Customer Values
Would I continue to patronize an airline that is consistently fifteen minutes late, but which treats me like a prince? Or, would I defect, giving my loyalty to a no-frills, cattle-call carrier that ignores me but gets me to where I need to go on time? - Small Businesses Need Sales Scripts, Too!
Scripting has been employed in selling for at least 80 years, and perhaps a lot longer.It is the use of patterned sales talks, predictable and reliable conversational strategies that garner consistently high sales, and beat "winging-it," using whatever pops into mind.There is a basic misunderstanding about where scripts apply. Some believe they’re only useful in high-volume tele-selling and customer service applications.But in reality, they are used by small businesses every day, sometimes very successfully and at other times very poorly, as top speaker, sales and negotiation trainer, and best-selling author explains. - Global Warming's Gift to Sales Managers
You think you've covered every imaginable topic in your sales meetings. You've praised, criticized and humored your troops, sometimes in the same run-on sentence. You've heard a litany of excuses from underachievers and from the "undead," the perennially under-quota zombies."It’s tough out there!" they lament."Yeah, you should try getting back into the field and you'll see!""The competition is eating our lunch!""Our prices are too high!"And then the ultimate challenge:"This new product (or service) simply can't be sold!" - Sell to Your STRENGTHS!
When selling, each person should highlight his strengths. But most don't so this, for 5 significant reasons, according to top speaker and seminar provider, and best selling author of 12 books including HOW TO SELL LIKE A NATURAL BORN SALESPERSON. - Don't Just Interview Sales Candidates- Interview Past Managers- Too!
Why don't we spend more time and invest more effort in interviewing past managers of our candidates? Don't their styles also have a lot to do with the overall success of their "players?" If I'm a salesperson, for instance, and it's your job to recruit me, wouldn't it be useful to know that my last manager elicited my best achievements by utterly leaving me alone and staying out of my way? That may or may not be your style. Wouldn't it be a good thing to know BEFORE you hire someone? - 30 Ways To Not Come Across Like A Salesperson
One of my clients has fallen under the spell of a cult.Specifically, it is a sales training cult that has taught him to repudiate everything he thought he knew about selling, including some of the ideas I gave him."Customers hate salespeople!" his new gurus assert, so no matter what he should never, ever come across like one.If that is his goal, here's my advice, 30 ways to not seem like a salesperson, says the best-selling author of 12 books including SELLING SKILLS FOR THE NON-SALESPERSON. - 5 Reasons to Not Divulge Client References Up-Front
I just got this email inquiry from a prestigious, international hotel chain:Hello:I am interested in getting information regarding your seminars, speeches and training programs. Could you please forward me details of some of your recent corporate engagements with names and phone numbers of the contact person there for reference purposes.Thank you.Not bad, right?It has all of the earmarks of a serious inquiry, one that is ready to award a contract providing the references check out.But wait a second.Before I divulge references, I have found it is essential to know several things, especially whether there is a viable deal in the offing.Here are 5 reasons to NOT divulge references too soon, says a top speaker, and best-selling author of 12 books, including SIX-FIGURE CONSULTING and HOW TO SELL LIKE A NATURAL BORN SALESPERSON. - How to Create SIZZLING Value Propositions
You know those dramatic commercials on late night TV for slicers and dicers and steak knives and juicers and rotisseries, don’t you?What do all of them, the successful ones, those that stick around and actually tempt you to buy; what do they have in common?They’re crackerjacks at creating VALUE. Literally, theirs sizzle.
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