Rare Journal

One of the top brewing companies in America is a consulting client of mine. However, during a seminar for a brewery management team, we were jolted by a “communication wake-up call.” We discovered that even though co-workers speak the same words, they don’t attach the same meanings. Here’s what happened. I asked people to write a list of simple words, such as often, sometimes, never, and usually. Then I asked them to put a percentage value next to each. For example, if I say, “He is often late for meetings,” what does often mean? 10% of the time? 50%? 75%? Etc.

The range of answers was amazing. Often went from 5 to 97%. Sometimes was 20 to 80%. Even never was 0 to 100%, with a fourth of the people saying it was somewhere in-between! We were amazed because we assumed everyone in the room put about the same meaning on those simple, everyday words. After all, this was the management team and they worked closely together. I’ve lead this exercise with over 200 groups working in offices, factories, hospitals, education, sales situations, even government. Incredibly, the results are wide-ranging, even among well-educated people who communicate regularly with each other.

What does this mean to you? It’s helpful to keep this communication phenomenon in mind when you speak with customers, make presentations, compose e-mails, memos, reports, instructions, or ask for assistance. Make your communication clearer by using numbers in place of words, illustrating with specific examples, and asking clarifying questions. Define critical terms and spell out expectations. It’s smart to recognize that we may speak the same words but not say the same things.

Doug Smart is the coauthor of “Sell Smarter.” He is a sales consultant, professional speaker, and host of the daily motivational radio show, “Smarter by the Minute.” For more information, email Doug@GrowYourSales.org.
Copyright 2005 by Doug Smart

Every one of us in the selling profession is constantly looking for some way to better their salesmanship. We’re always open to suggestions, probably more than other professions, because our sales determine our income.

Although these tips seem simple, they are a combination of values that, properly planned and properly applied, will give you an advantage over your competition.

These are usually not taught to the new salesman and are often over-looked by a veteran salesman. Many people do them naturally, while others need to be reminded. Properly applied, they’ll make you more successful. Without action, they’re just words on paper…or your monitor.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, if you want to rise above the noise, if you want to be thought of as extraordinary, here are 10 simple tips that will take you to the top.

#1 – Do The Usual Things In An Unusual Way.

Any salesman can deliver a quote or sample. Make sure you do it differently than your competition. If they mail it, you need to have it delivered by a courier. When you lose an order, do it with “style and a smile “. When I lose one, I ask for the next one in advance.

My customers know by now I’m going to do this and sometimes have one waiting for me. It might be smaller than the one I wanted, but it’s sure better than nothing. And losing with class is one sure way to grow your stock in their eyes.

You don’t have or want to be extreme or offensive, just memorable, in a good way. The quality of being different is a sought after trait of successful salesmen and will pay enormous dividends.

#2 – Constantly Think About Ways To Help Your Customer.

A successful salesman never sells on intrinsic value alone. He adds a personal touch that is unique to him. He makes his product into a service, with his ideas being the extra feature that only comes from him and his company. Find new avenues for them to explore. Send them business. Talk them up at trade shows. Show them ways to make more money and spend less.

#3 – Keep In Constant Contact With The Customer.

Constant contact is essence of salesmanship. If the only time you contact your customer is when you ask for an order, you may as well not contact them. You won’t be welcome there for long. I call my customers with tips, leads, technical findings and suggestions on a regular basis and do so without asking for or referring to an order. Often, this leads to an order that I never saw coming. Don’t be a pest, be a member of their team.

#4 – Have An Uncommon Spirit Of Service.

Willingness to go above and beyond was instilled into me in the US Army. My years as a salesman have reinforced that ten-fold. Going to another town, 120 miles away, at night, on my time, to pick up a box of parts we left on a dock and delivering them to a jobsite a 2AM won me more orders than I could have ever gotten any other way. Whatever it is that you have to do, in your industry, to make your services more valuable than your competition, you need to do it.

#5 – Have Consideration For Coworkers.

You’re only as good as your team is. They’ll determine how far you go. The customer will only listen and forgive you so many times. Blaming it on your truck drivers, the shipping department, billing or manufacturing will only buy you a few buckets of forgiveness. After that, it’s all on you. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can treat them poorly and get away with it. They have long memories and nothing is secret for long.

#6 – Treat Your Customers Employees With Respect.

Never treat your customer’s employees with less respect than you do them. You never know when they’ll have the ear of the person with purchasing power. Whether it’s a truck driver who comes to your dock, the receptionist, the accounts payable department, it doesn’t matter, they deserve your respect. I always imagine they know my grandmother and that they’ll tell her if I’m not as nice as I should be. In the past, I’ve gotten orders from having been nice to a customer’s truck driver, who broke down in our parking lot, as he pulled away from the dock. I let him use my cellphone to call his boss and his wife. I went to my house and got him some sandwiches and a drink and brought them back to him and then waited there for the tow truck to come get him.

#7 – Never Be Satisfied With Your Accomplishments.

No salesman who’s looking toward the future is ever satisfied with what he did today. He knows he’s one week of being a slacker away from being so far behind that he’ll never get back to the top. There are more people out there that you didn’t sell today than there are those that you did. I don’t even like for my boss to show me my sales numbers from month to month. I’m afraid it will cause me to ease off. Set realistic, attainable goals and if you reach them, reset them a tad higher and forget you already exceeded them.

#8 – Have a Large Capacity For Friendship.

The ability to make friends – and keep them – is one of the greatest assets a salesman can have. The majority of business sales come from friendships. Invariably, he with the most friends is the man with the most business. The greater your capacity for making friends, the greater your capacity for making money. The two are inseparable. If you think of your customers as your friends, you’ll never try to deceive them or treat them unfairly. Many who purchase will wait for their favorite salesman to visit, even when they’re offered a better deal from one of those who treat their customers coldly and say, ” Hey, it’s just business “

#9 – You Need A Keen Understanding Of Human Nature.

If you set out to study human nature, you’ll never have to worry about having learned it all. The field is ever changing, but always stays the same. The more contacts you make, the more you’ll learn. The more you learn, the more you earn. As you begin to understand your customer’s inner workings, you’ll see avenues for injecting your ideas and wooing him over to your way of thinking. You cannot treat all your customers the same way. If you do, you’ll only attain a miniscule portion of your potential. Every person you meet has their own way, it’s up to you to find their buttons, and it’s not up to them to change their ways to help you.

#10 – You Must Be A Tireless Worker.

It goes without saying that most of the better than average salesmen are hard workers. Nothing worthwhile is easily attained and sales are no exception. Properly directed effort is more valuable than education will ever be. Properly educated and directed effort is the stuff that makes dreams come true. If you will work smart and hard, in sales, the sky is the limit. Action, effort, hard work ….whatever you call it, is what it takes to succeed. Educated and directed effort will never, ever let you down.

I have encountered so many rude customer service people over the phone. Those rude and impatient people shouldn’t have been hired to be there in the first place. I learned over the years to only hire high quality people to run your company and business.

If you hire the wrong kind of people to do the wrong kind of job, that’s when your business and company will suffer the consequences sooner or later. If you hire the right kind of people to work for you, your company will flourish and your customers and clients will want to do more business with you in the future.

These are 5 qualities that you want the most from your employees:

#1 HIRE ONLY HAPPY & POSITIVE PEOPLE!

Happy people creates happy atmosphere at your work place and they will treat your customers will friendly, happy and kind attitude. Happy people tend not complain too much! They are happy to do their job! Negative attitude is very infectious, it’s like virus, it will spread very fast! One person with negative and ungrateful attitude can make other people’s life miserable in your company. Make sure when they look happy, they are not on drugs or drunk.

#2 HIRE SMART & GO-GETTER PEOPLE!
Smart & go-getter people can find a way to solve problems even if they don’t even know the answer. If they are only smart, but they are not a go-getter, sometimes, when they get stuck with a problem, the smart people won’t even try to solve the problem, but if they are both smart and go-getter, they will try hard to find a solution for every problem you give them to solve.

#3 HIRE PEOPLE WHO CAN CONTROL THEIR MOUTH!

There are so many potty mouth people out there and it seems like swearing and cursing habit is becoming an acceptable behavior. Swearing and cursing habit is not an acceptable behavior! Can you imagine having your office or business being run by bunch of potty mouth people and they run around your office or business? Your customers will judge your business by the quality of your employees’ vocabulary. It makes costumers and other employees feel uncomfortable to have someone who keep swearing and cursing in your office and business. What comes out of their mouth really tells you how smart they are and their level of their intelligent.

#4 HIRE PEOPLE WHO ARE MATURE!

If you hire kid mentality people or people who are not mature, they tend not to do their job unless you watch them while they are doing their job and tell them that you will punish them if they don’t do their job. It’s like telling a 3 year old child to clean up after his/her toys, “Mommy or daddy will spank you if you don’t clean up your toys.” If your case, you will tell them “I will fire you if you don’t do your job!”

People who are mature also know how to control their temper and volcanoes! You really don’t want to have bad temper people running around your business or office. You don’t even want impatient and bad temper people to deal with your customers either, they will scare your customers away!

People who are mature have the gift of discretion; they don’t go around gossiping and backstabbing other people by talking bad about other people in the office and business. They will create distrust in the people within your company and organization. They must know how to control their tongue!

#5 HIRE PEOPLE WITH GOOD LISTENING AND COMMUNICATION SKILL!

Have you ever been frustrated by someone because he/she is not doing the job you tell him/her to do? You tell this and they do totally the opposite of what you told them to do!
The worst part is, you tell them something today and three weeks later the job is not done and they will start making excuses on why the job is not done. It will drive you crazy!

I learn over the years that sometimes it’s best to have your employees write down the things you want them to do, so they know exactly what you want them to do on the paper, so there will be no more misunderstanding or miscommunication. It is all written down.

I personally make the habit of writing 6 things that I want to accomplish every day. I learn to prioritize the 6 things that I’d like to do daily. You can teach your people how to do this, write down 6 things that they want to work on that day on a piece of paper, go through the list and make sure the 6 things are done that day.

Make sure your employees understand what you want them to do! Never ever assume that your employees understand and exactly know what you want them to do, it is best to make them repeat the instructions you give them couple times and write them down!

People will good communication and listening skills will automatically write your instructions you give them down and they will listen to your instruction will with full attention! They will even ask you if they are not clear with the instruction. When they ask you, please don’t do the drill sergeants style management like “DIDN’T YOU GET IT THE FIRST TIME?” If you’re like a drill sergeant manager who loves to scare your employees by threatening and intimidating them, I can assure you that your business and company will go down the drain in no time.

Make sure the people you hire to do a specific job are qualified with the skills and the experience that is needed to do get the job done!

I hope these tips will help you to grow a better and bigger business. We wish you the best and remember what Dale Carnegie says “People have signs on their forehead that says treat me as I am important.”

© Copyright 2005 , Author: Entjik Jeffrie, All Rights Reserved.