Most of us are not trying to convince pedestrians to give us money or attend parties but the lessons learned about engagement are directly transferable to our typical sales process.<< MORE >>

A friend of mine who works as a sales manager for an internet advertising firm tells me the story of two women sellers in his office. At about 9:00 every morning the two of them can be found in the break area eating instant oatmeal and catching up on personal matters.<< MORE >>

I am looking in the rear view mirror while stopped at a light trying to get Matthew's attention.  He knows that I am looking at him and he is looking out the window to avoid my eyes...<< MORE >>

When confronted with the cold, hard numbers that tell the story of their fading fortunes, sellers offer alternative stories.<< MORE >>

I've been observing sales calls for a long time and, lately, I've become more and more dissatisfied with the dialog coming from our side of the table. Our words sound rehearsed and they lack passion. But, something else is missing and its taken awhile for me to figure it out.<< MORE >>

I am at Fort Clinch with the family and imagining what it would like to be under attack. << MORE >>

The New Normal requires extraordinary courage,  focus and determination.  These are the traits that are going to get you from zero to hero in the toughest of selling environments. 

What about charisma or empathy or other "people-relating" skills?  Important, for sure, but not as much as the three I've identified as the most important characteristics of successful sellers in the New Normal.

The New Normal is tough.  The New Normal challenges your tenacity.  The New Normal seeks to shake out the pretenders. 

I'm reminded of a quote from Sandy Tatum, a USGA official, when he was asked if the purpose of the set-up of the 1974 U.S. Open course at Winged Foot was "to embarrass the best golfers in the world."

He answered, "No, we are trying to identify them."

The best sellers in the world will be identified by the New Normal as the ones with extraordinary courage, focus and determination.  In what way will these talents be used? 

Courage

The New Normal will demand that sellers call on and meet with key decision makers at a level that is uncomfortable to most.  Mid-level management has been displaced and higher-level executives are now forced to be engaged throughout the entire process.  These key executives will be more pressed for time than ever before and will perform a brutal form of sales triage that will decimate the unprepared seller.

The best sellers will welcome the opportunity to call on the ultimate decision makers because the process will speed up.  Instead of three to five sales calls followed by a presentation and two follow-ups, there might be one call before the presentation and a single opportunity to follow up after the only meeting.  Sellers who are more comfortable spending time getting to know all the players involved in a decision and then having the mid-level executive steer them through and be their advocate will have a tough time.   Clients may be buying less in the New Normal but when they choose fewer suppliers the accounts will become that much more important to the sellers who survive the cut.  Count on the ones that win to be among the most courageous.

Focus

When I first started selling radio advertising, part of my prospecting strategy was to get in the car and drive around the city looking for new retail establishments.  This process resulted in lots of stops at the convenience store to get a Diet Coke.  Despite this relatively haphazard approach, believe it or not, I was one of the most prolific new business developers in my company.  Haphazard and random are just not going to get it done in the New Normal.  Today's environment rewards only those sellers with extraordinary focus.  These sellers take meetings with their customers for the purpose of supporting that which has already been sold or to sell them more.  They don't "visit" or "drop by" or "pop in".  The sellers with focus aren't normal.  They tune out the idle chit chat that is taking place three feet from their cubicle in favor of making lists of that which is working best right now.

Focus means what it sounds like:  setting goals, determining the path and then getting on with it at the expense of everything not associated with the goals.

Determination

Courage and Focus get you to the plate but Determination makes you a batting champion.  Determination means you never give up but not only that you never give up, you never even consider giving-up an option. 

Successful sellers already possess these three talents and many more.  Now is the time to bring them to the fore and succeed in the very challenging New Normal.

 

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I recently introduced you to the notion that the ways things are is the way things are going to be.  The New Normal is what we've got and there is no reason to believe or evidence to support the idea that we're ever going back to the ways things used to be. ...<< MORE >>

What do you say when your wife tells you that your son's soccer league needs coaches and experience doesn't matter?  If your son is four years old you tell your wife that you're allergic to grass.  If that doesn't work, try explaining that coaching would interfere with your new interest in knitting sweaters for seeing-eye dogs.

I know that's what you should do because I didn't do that.

...<< MORE >>

The economic challenges we are facing today have caused me to reflect on lessons learned in my youth. I'll leave the interpretation of the parallels to you.
My father was unemployed.  Mostly, this was unremarkable.   That is to say, he didn't seem to be too upset about it.  He would wake up at about the same time as he did when he was going to work.  But, instead of going to work he would head down to the marina with his fishing gear and head out on the boat.  With the benefit of hindsight, I realize that these fishing expeditions were ...<< MORE >>