Dallas Business and Marketing Blog

Last fall my partner and I (Neil Franklin) embarked on the process of coauthoring what has become the first published book for both of us. The book is entitled “Your Inner Salesman - Finding the Natural Salesman Within“. Recently I gave a key note address at the 2008 Phoenix Construction Expo where the topic was “Finding Your Inner Salesman” and it was very well received. We actually have a web site set up (as you might imagine) for the book at www.innersalesman.com and a free audio download of my presentation is available at the site.

Neil and I are hoping the book sells well. Between the two of us we pushed a combined 80 years of learning into just under 130 pages. This book is not just another book on how to sell, indeed it really examines the sales process at a deep level and explains how we are all born knowing how to sell, how we loose this skill and how to reconnect with it. We even examined the roots of why many people dislike sales and where they go wrong in the way they perceive the concept. If fact if you read our book you will learn how sales people were actually the people that laid the entire foundations of modern society.

If you would like to order a copy of our book you can do that at this link. If you are local to the Dallas Market and would like it signed by Neil and I just let me know we are pretty active in local activities and I am sure we can arrange to do that for you.

Honestly this was a major learning experience for us both. As people who have sold and grown companies all our lives it was quite interesting as we wrote the book to realize how much we had come to take for granted. We have begun teaching the philosophy to our sales people in all of our companies and the results have been exceptional.

When Neil first approached me with the idea of a book on selling I wasn’t totally on board at first. There are so many books that talk about formulas, methods, closing tactics, etc. My question was why another one? Neil’s response was, “well let’s simply not do another one like that, let’s write about the inner sense, the way we are able to close deals with out actually “selling to a person” the way others teach, just by being natural, being human and being in touch with the psychology of why people buy.”

We used a print on demand service called LuLu to publish this book. While not as simple of a process as it sounded in the beginning I have to say LuLu.com is doing wonderful things for new authors. The cost of production really amounted to the cover graphics, an editor and paying someone to properly format the manuscript. We also got an ISBN number and the book will also soon be available at most book stores (special order) and on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I will be working to set up some local speaking opportunities to present the book. If you have a need for a speaker on the subject of selling check our my audio on selling to get a feel for what we have to offer and get in touch with us and we are happy to discuss speaking at your event. In “closing” I wouldn’t be much of a salesman if I didn’t mention one more time that we would like your business. Pick up your copy of our new book The Inner Salesman and I can promise you it will change they way you look at selling.

Popularity: 11% [?]

What do you think of when you hear the words “chamber of commerce”?

Ribbon cuttings in front of a new building or at a ground breaking? Welcome kits delivered to new tenants at a business park?

Think again.

Your local chamber of commerce is a gold mine of leads.

If you live in a remote location, you’ll may have a small chamber, and if you live in a larger metropolitan area, you may have multiple chambers to choose from and join. Some of those chambers will be young and fresh as they’re involved in a growing community. Or they’ll be older and more stable, with corporate members that are bigger and established. Make sure you join a younger chamber as you’ll have more opportunities to meet and work with companies that are growing, or new companies that move into that city. And look at your mature chambers: you can still build relationships with established companies which can turn into business down the road.

A good example of this mix of chambers is the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. The Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce was established in 1874 while the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce was organized in the 1880s. Although more mature, these chambers still have groups and activities encouraging members to work together to build their cities stronger and more profitable. Then on the southwest side of the Metroplex, you have Mansfield….a town that was once just a blip on the map south of Arlington (yes! soon to be home of the Dallas Cowboys!) is now one of the fastest growing towns not only in the Metroplex, or Texas, but in the nation. As the Mansfield Chamber of Commerce president says, he’s a firm believer in the chamber members working together so they grow and are prosperous, which only makes Mansfield stronger and more prosperous. Then on the Northeast side of the Metroplex, is Frisco. Again, a young chamber that attracts almost 300 attendees to its weekly morning breakfast meeting: not only are these members eager to meet each other, but to work together and help their businesses, and Frisco, be successful!

Okay, so now you think you get to go to breakfast meetings. Yes, and other groups too that are focused on business women working together, community events, and more. But again, think past that. Your fellow chamber members can be reached in other ways too:

Podcasts - produce a podcast that focuses on a topic that is fresh, “hot” and one that will help the member companies grow their business…while “soft promoting” the services you offer to help them get there (like producing their own podcast promoting their product or services!)

Webcasts - get together with a few other member companies and broadcast over the Internet via a webcast on a topic that all of you have some expertise in and provide a solution (product or services) to help other chamber members of businesses within the community be profitable

Community blogs - post to the Chamber blog, and other community blogs, building your presence and reputation not only with local businesses, but the community’s residents

Community events - don’t just send a foursome to play at a community golf tournament, but make sure you have a larger presence as a sponsor: that will get you publicity in the chamber’s publications, on their web site, in the local papers and sometimes, even on TV and radio through advertisements and interviews

So, what to do?

1 Research the chambers in your area, talk to their membership directors and visit one of their meetings

2 Join the Chamber(s) that you believe its member companies will benefit from your services, (which in turn, you will benefit from their business) and where you can have an impact on the community growth

3 Get involved in speaking at their networking meetings, sponsoring community events and getting involved in chamber groups

You have the choice to help shape the way business is done in your community/communities, and how it impacts your company’s growth.

Even if your company has a small targeted client base or is in a niche marketplace, still join your Chamber(s) join and get involved. You never know “who knows who” at a company you have been trying to get your foot in the door at….you may meet and recruit your company’s next CEO who will lead the company on to bigger and better financial growth!….and being involved in your community will build your company’s reputation as a company that cares about the city’s future growth and success which impacts all of the residents living there.

Chamber of Commerce. Now what do you think of? Increased business. Potential leaders. Improved reputation.

Now you’ve got it!

~ Deb Decker

Popularity: 12% [?]

At one time I was a Regional V.P. of Sales for a large global corporation. I managed a team of more then 30 multi million dollar producers and if you had asked me who was in sales at that company I would have told you I, my counter parts and their teams.

At this company we had a “Global Sales Manager” (who I will not mention by name to protect the guilty), I was no fan of this individual, he rarely spoke to the team (which was a good thing) and when he did come to the field you never put him in front of your best clients or distributors because he had a knack for ruining relationships and messing up deals on the verge of closing.

One year the other VP’s and I went to corporate for a National Meeting and guess who decided to get up and speak to the entire company! I looked at my fellow Sales Managers and just thought, “oh boy here it comes”.

I was then hit with something I have many refer to as “a flash of brilliance amid a sea of idiocy”. This fellow asked a simple question…

“Will all the sales people please raise your hands”?

There was about 300 people gathered for a dinner that night and of them about 20 hands went up. The field sales people were not invited to go to HQ so we had the Regional VP’s and our inside sales team, executive managers and a few channel managers who worked in corporate.

It was then that I was blown away by his next statement! He said and I do quote,

“I should have every person in this room who does not have their hand in the air fired. Sales is everyone’s responsibility, each of you should be telling your neighbors, friends, family and anyone you talk to ever; where you work, who you are and what your company does. You don’t have to close deals, be slick or do the hard work that our actual sales team does every day but if you are not telling everyone you know about your company, you are not doing your jobs”.

This hit me! Not only was that right at the full company level, I also wondered how many of my exceptional sales people had friends, family or contacts that did not know what they did. I had a conversation with my team as soon as I got back to my region about this. I was clear that nothing is more irritating then a “pushy sales person” yet simply being in the habit of telling every person you met what you did, who you did it for and what type of people you worked with over the life of your career could easily add millions to your net worth.

Further my sales people we not my employees, they ran their own sales firms, my company employed these firms and as you might imagine these firms had people working in them, “not in sales”. I had the presidents of my rep firms then have this same talk with their people.

Did everyone do it? Of course not, yet those who did found it remarkably effective. So my advice to any company president, manager, director, entrepreneur pretty much anyone trying to build a company is make sure everyone working with you is at least a little bit, part of your sales team.

~ Jack Spirko

Technorati Tags: sales, sales management, entrepreneur, business, business management, team building, marketing

Popularity: 16% [?]

I spent the first part of my career as a sales person and it always amazed me how people outside of the sales industry would react when we discussed our careers. Many seemed to feel that sales was a difficult way to earn a living. People would explain to me how they knew there was a lot of money to be made by a good sales person but they just felt it was beyond their personal ability to sell effectively and live with a quota over their heads.

As for the quota, that does take getting used to for some people. The truth is every employee in every business has a “quota” of sorts. In other words if they don’t perform well enough they don’t keep their job. For the sales person this is much more personal though, you see the numbers every day, you monitor a sales funnel so you know what is or is not coming down the road and you also know that other people might loose their jobs if you fail in yours.

Sales people get a bad wrap at times for being “slick” or “aggressive” and even at times “cut throat”. A lot of people think of Uncle Mike the Insurance Agent or a slick used car salesmen when they hear the term sales and this is why I believe the fallacy exists that selling is difficult when the reality is that true selling is one of the most natural and easiest things you could ever do.

There are only really four things you need to be able to sell

1. You must know your product/service and believe fully in it

2. You must know your client and be willing to put their best interest before your own

3. You must be speaking to a client with the financial ability to make the purchase

4. You must then transfer your belief and knowledge to your client

When you follow that simple process selling isn’t even selling, it becomes nothing more then training your customer to do business with you. I have seen spectacular results from a new sales person, watched them close deal after deal and then something happens. A competitor takes away one account or they loose a deal on price or any one of a million bumps in the road.

The next thing you know they are under quota, unmotivated and sometimes looking for a new job. Now what changed? The customers are still the same, the product is still the same and the company is also still the same. The only thing that changed was the sales person’s belief system.

So that is why I say selling is nothing more then a transfer of belief. When you believe in your company and you honestly believe your client is better off doing business with you then with your competition you never really “sell” you just transfer that belief to them and they then logically choose to buy from you.

So if you or your sales team are ever struggling my advice to you is don’t do what everyone else does. Don’t blame the leads, the market or your pricing. Don’t work on “the fundamentals” of a presentation you can all probably do in your sleep. Just as an athlete works first on the core of their body regardless of their sport you need to work on the core of your sales ability.

Take a step back and remind yourself why you personally are bringing value to your your position, remind yourself why your company is the best in your industry. In short give yourself and your team a “belief booster shot” and you will see the difference in short order.

~ Jack Spirko

Technorati Tags: sales, sales training, marketing, sales advice, sales techniques

Popularity: 14% [?]