You’ve Got Limited Free Space
Written by Brandon Hull on January 31, 2007
The right tools at your disposal can make all the difference, and help you avoid information overload. The fact is, as bright as you are, you’ve got limited free space in that brain. 
I’ve personally chosen to limit my brain’s free space for crucial information, locking-out important information that I can reference with something in-hand.
Salespeople need systems for managing the information in their lives. We are all bombarded with facts and figures we’re expected to remember or cite with little delay.
If you fail to maintain a system, you will drop the ball at some point in time. And dropping the ball results in lost credibility. But memorizing and having-immediate-access-to are different things.
Must-Read List of Bad Workplace Habits
Written by Brandon Hull on January 30, 2007
What an important post/link/reference from David Maister regarding Marshall Goldsmith’s new book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
My choice for worst habit on the list: not listening. I don’t just mean not listening in the typical sales context, I mean not listening
in the context of receiving feedback, coaching and guidance as well.
When we’re poor listeners, it usually indicates we’re not open to suggestions, not open to alternative ways of approaching tasks, not open to new ideas or ways to improve our performance in life.
If you look at the list, not listening often results in the other bad habits. Feel free to comment here or there with your thoughts…
Vuja-De
Written by Brandon Hull on January 24, 2007
Do you sometimes sense what George Carlin termed vuja-de: the feeling that none of this has ever happened to you before?
Solid sales training, whether company-provided or self-serve, should prepare you for scenarios so that this never happens. (Evidently there’s a more precise French term…jamais vu.)
That doesn’t mean your training helps you overcome any objection while you cram your product or service down everyone’s throat. It means you know how your product or service applies to an industry so well, that nearly every question or comment offered up by a prospect has a familiar ring to it.
And that familiar ring results in credible, meaningful dialogue between you and the client.
“Ah,” you should be able to say to yourself, “I’ve heard this before.” You’re approaching true professionalism when nothing astounds you or results in you asking ridiculous, overly simple clarification questions.
It’s good to periodically reflect on the most common scenarios you run across with your existing clients and prospects and form sound thoughts and comments of your own for how to interact accordingly with prospects to build credibility and rapport.
The Only Day
Written by Brandon Hull on January 21, 2007
How would you know if today was the day for you?
The day in which you uncover the one sales opportunity that will make your 2007 a sure success. The day in which you conquer a bad habit, once and for all, to spur yourself on to greatness. The day in which things finally start to click for you in your career because of some small action you took. The day in which you meet the person who ultimately changes your life for the better.
There’s a poignant scene in the 1986 film, “Field of Dreams.” In it, Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) is trying to track down Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, a former ballplayer (played by the late Burt Lancaster). Ray discovers during the day that Dr. Graham passed away years earlier, but as he walks out of a present-day motel room, he steps magically back into 1972.
Ray then miraculously stumbles across Dr. Graham.
Great Sales Articles You Need to Read
Written by Brandon Hull on January 21, 2007
Have recently found a series of great, new sales articles from a variety of contributors over the last couple of months. Check these out…
- How to Achieve Your Sales Objectives by Rob Reed.
- Get More Sales Meetings (Appointments) by Colleen Francis.
- Top 10 Things Not to Say in a Client Meeting by Steve Waterhouse.
- The “Numbers Game” Myth by Frank Rumbauskas.
- You Can Sell Anything (It’s All About the Story) by Dan Tudor.
- The First Call of the Day by Dan Tudor.
- What Does Hope Have to do with Sales by Jerry Hocutt.
Those articles above are good. These below are great…
- Can We Be Manipulated? by David Maister.
- Give Your Speech to Change the World by Tim Sanders.
- Here’s My Sales Philosophy by Scott Ginsberg.
- Playing to Win by Karen Lynch.
And a big thank you to our site subscribers and those who stop by periodically to read our thoughts on professional selling. We appreciate your participation!
Intentions Bleed Through
Written by Brandon Hull on January 19, 2007
Jill Konrath has shared great advice on overcoming the self-sabotaging effect of our true intentions.
Keep your real-world filter on at all times — run through your approach, your presentation, and your closing style, in your head in terms of how a client would want to be approached and would want to be presented to. Living solely in your wanna-get-this-sale frame of mind is not going to win sales for you.
I’ve said before that who you are matters more than your technique, so follow Jill’s advice on how to prevent yourself from self-destructing in front of clients and prospects.
The…Yawn…Company History
Written by Brandon Hull on January 17, 2007
I’ve never heard a company story that stirs my soul.
I’ve never heard a sales professional share with me how their company got started, or how long it’s been in business, or how global it is, or how many individual locations it has, or what its annual sales are, or how many divisions it has, in such a way that I’ve gotten excited. This is boring drivel.
Yet, many, many sales professionals are still kicking off sales presentations with this info for prospects. Is someone able to tell me why? And if you work in a company where your leadership team is cramming this down your throat, do you have the guts to speak up and put an end to it?!
Your presentation should focus right up front on the most common “ailment” you cure, and then tell the story of how. I believe you’ve got to be quicker to draw someone in with what you offer — what benefits you provide, what results you’ve gotten others, before you even consider monologuing about your company’s background.
Big Contacts, Another Online Act-Killer
Written by Brandon Hull on January 15, 2007
We’ve already pointed you to one potential Act-killer in Oprius Software’s Foundations product. How about another: Big Contacts.
Oprius’ Foundations product appears to be more of a contact “hub” for running your own small business with many features planned that will make their product a full marketing system. Big Contacts, at first glance, is a true Act database online. It comes with a free service level and then tiered levels offering up to 25,000 contacts.
I haven’t had a chance to click around to form a complete opinion of the service, but a few features include quickly adding or importing contacts; generating and assigning notes, logging calls, sending greeting cards, scheduling meetings, adding files and photos, logging tasks and to-to items to any contact.
Looks like you can customize a sales pipeline as well, add products that are used to organize that pipeline, change contact “types” (i.e., Friend, Family, Prospect, Client, etc.), and add custom fields, among other things.
It was only a matter of time before Act (Goldmine/Maximizer/name your CRM software) was in someone’s crosshairs. You can now find multiple, lightweight competitors to Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint online. What I personally love about Pipelinedeals.com, Oprius Foundations, and Big Contacts, is that they’re best served on a platter to small teams and individuals. The most important features are there and tweaks and subtle improvements are often made, but the core idea is to offer a simple, streamlined alternative.
More power to these innovative companies.
Sales Book Review: Purple Cow
Written by Brandon Hull on January 14, 2007
Purple Cow is an important book for sales and service professionals.
Seth Godin points out in this 2003 book that it’s become imperative that companies “build remarkable right into their products and services.”
For professionals in our line of work, that sounds like the responsibility then lies elsewhere. That senior sales and marketing executives carry the burden to craft a strategy that separates companies from the competition. But does it?
What happens when you can’t or won’t deliver remarkable sales or service experiences for your clients? What happens when you can’t or won’t tell the story of how you ease or eliminate an individual’s or company’s frustrations, pains, and inefficiencies? What happens when your clients can’t remember your full name? As Godin says, “Today, the one sure way to fail is to be boring.”
New Sales Resource Site
Written by Brandon Hull on January 11, 2007
A reader has pointed us to Salesopedia.com, a new sales “encyclopedia” online.
I suppose you could say it serves as a companion or competitor to Eyesonsales.com, Justsell.com and Salesresources.com, offering articles, a forum, a glossary (in case you don’t know what a “sale” is).
Check it out if you’re really wanting another resource to turn to…
