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Greetings! Here is...
Skip Anderson's
Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter
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BALDNESS AND SALES COACHING
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I've always heard that baldness runs in your family. And consequently, healthy non-balding hair runs in your family, too. All my older
relatives, male and female, have had a full head of hair. I've
always had a certain delight in the fact that my healthy-hair genes
will bless me with a full head of hair right up to the time I pass
from mortal life! Yippee!
So maybe you can understand the shock -- no, the horror -- I felt when I
looked in the mirror a few weeks ago and found that I had a small bald spot on
the top of my head (you know, right in that spot where you see all those other
guys going bald?). I do not know what possessed me to do this, but I took a
handheld mirror and held it up to the top and back of my noggin while facing the
mirror so I could see the top of my head. It was that fateful day when I learned
I was balding (healthy-hair genes or not).
I've looked at the back of my head before, you know. My hair stylist Kim
always shows me the back of my head after every haircut to see if I approve of
her work. I always approve of her work. But with what I know now, I
definitely don't approve of the fact that Kim has never held the mirror up
higher so that I could see the top rear of my head - the bald area - after her
haircuts. Isn't this a public service that hair stylists should provide for
balding middle-aged guys like me? Shouldn't beauty schools teach budding hair
stylists the importance of this public service?
When my wife got home, I shouted the news to her: "I JUST REALIZED THAT I
HAVE A BALD SPOT ON THE TOP OF MY HEAD!!!"
"You've had that for years, love," she said. "You just realized that fact
now?"
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" I inquired.
"I thought you knew about it," she announced.
Not only had my wife not told me about my bald spot, but my friends
and other family members didn't either. How could this happen? How could I, with
my full-head-of-hair older relatives, end up with a bald spot on the top of my
head? And worse yet, nobody bothered to tell me about it? Argh...
So, what does baldness have to do with sales coaching?
continue...
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Selling to Consumers 651.681.8568
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THE GIFT (OR CURSE) OF GAB
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When I was growing up, there was a guy in my small town that was a
career salesman. Everyone in town knew him, and many described him
having been born with the "gift of gab." I guess that meant that he
liked to talk to people and did a lot of it (today, "Gift of Gab" is
the stage name of a rapper in the hip-hop duo Blackalicious).
I suspect having a "gift of gab" is a big plus for a rapper. But
now, having worked with many salespeople over the years both as a sales
trainer and as a consumer, I understand that the "gift of gab" is often
the "curse of gab" for people who earn a living selling products or
services to customers.
Many salespeople simply talk too much, and consumers hate that. And
when they talk, they talk about themselves, their company, and the
product or service that they sell.
They have it all wrong. Top performing salespeople, whether they
have had quality B2C sales training or have simply learned it through
trial and error, have learned how to put the brakes on their personal
desire to dominate a conversation.
It's a new year and time for those pesky resolutions. Were you born
with the gift (or curse) of gab? Why not resolve to tame it in 2008?
Learn to focus your attention externally toward your customers and your
prospects, and away from the internal "it's all about me" focus that
feels so natural to those with the gift of gab. This year, you can
actually sell more by talking less. Really.
Have a wonderful and prosperous 2008.
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QUESTION AUTHORITY
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Questions from Readers
"I sell in my customer's home. Our appointment setter at the office schedules my appointment for me, but I've been having a lot of customers who don't have enough time for my full presentation, so I have to leave and reschedule. What should we be doing differently?"
-Ron Patterson
Tampa, FL
Ron, we have three suggestions:
1. Your appointment-setter should be telling your prospect how long your in-home appointment will last. If he/she isn't, suggest that change immediately. You may want to consider having the appointment-setter send a confirmation email with the date, time, and length of your appointment.
2. Do you confirm your appointments? We always recommend confirming appointments TWO DAYS ahead of time. That way, if the prospect cancels (which sometimes happens when we confirm appointments), you at least have a couple days to refill your time slot with another appointment. When you confirm, you can either remind the prospect how long you expect the appointment to take, or better yet, ask the prospect how much time he/she will have for your appointment. This will put the responsibility on your prospect for committing time to you. If the prospect announces he has less time than you'll need, then you can inform him that you'll need more time and if necessary, you can reschedule your appointment before you even get in your car and drive to the prospect's home.
3. At the beginning of your appointment (after you hand out your business card and exchange a few pleasantries), tell the prospect how much time your appointment will take. If there's a problem, your prospect can let you know right away. If necessary, you can reschedule your appointment for a time when the prospect will be available for the full amount of time necessary. At least this is a better alternative than your prospect interrupting your appointment thirty minute into it to announce that she has to go to the dentist.
-Selling to Consumers
If you have suggestions for Ron, or if you have a sales question you'd like us to answer in a future edition of this newsletter, please submit it to
www.SellingToConsumers.com/contact
Please include your first and last name and city. Please let us know if we have your permission to use your name if we publish your question.
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| BOOK IT |
What We're Reading
Meatball Sundae: Is your Marketing Out of Sync?
by Seth Godin
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THE QUOTE CRIB
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"Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know."
Charles Kingsley
British Clergyman, Teacher, and Writer
"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
French Pilot and Author of "The Little Prince"
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