Barrett Sales Blog

Each week we meet and speak with a variety of prospective and/or existing clients who have problems they need solving in our area of expertise.  It is more than likely we will deal with a mix of clients: some with little or no understanding about what we really do and those with previous experience, knowledge and opinions in our area of expertise.  And then there are those clients who are in between.  Whatever their level of sophistication, how well we understand and identify our clients’ key priorities and problems, and what they value about working with a credible business partner is crucial to developing, attracting and retaining healthy client relationships and growing sales.

However, most businesses tend to view the world from their own perspective and not from their clients’.  This means:

• They often produce marketing and sales materials that talks about themselves and their products using company jargon rather than talking about their clients’ priorities and problems in language the clients can understand.
• Their sales people tend to still drift toward product discussions, not solution discussions.
• And when a sales person is put on the spot to validate their credentials with a new prospect they usually get lost in a sea of product information and company spin, not client centric information and clear Value Propositions.

I learnt a long time ago that it doesn’t matter what I say, it is what others do with what I say that is the most important thing.  Therefore I learnt that whenever I communicate with a prospect or client I need to speak to them in language they can understand, about things they can relate to.

Here is an example of what I mean.  And it works every time.

Whenever a prospect asks me “What do you do?” I answer them by initially saying “We are best known for our work in building high performing sales and service teams”.  And then I go on and hand them a checklist titled:

‘People and business problems we help you solve’

which has the following headings and their corresponding problems:

• Sales & Service
• Self, Values, Culture & Communication
• Selection, Training& Performance
• Management, Coaching & Leadership

and then say “What we really do is help people fix things like this..”

For instance under the heading Sales & Service I have these items listed

o    Sales people making more excuses than sales
o    Losing clients to competitors
o    No sales plan/ strategy, too reactive
o    Discounting prices to win business
o    Adhoc or reactive sales approach
o    Lots of client visits – few sales
o    No prospecting for new business in new or existing accounts
o    Not meeting sales budgets/targets
o    Unaware of value & potential of clients – hitting wrong targets
o    Plateau in sales production
o    Team of Professional “Visitors”
o    Talking too much & missing needs
o    Too busy having a ‘chat’
o    Poor interviewing & problem solving skills & no follow up
o    Relying on CRM – team of sales clerks instead of sales people
o    Too product focused not solution
o    No understanding of financial impact of their decisions
o    Too ‘nice’ or too ‘rude’
o    No proactive sales & service culture
o    New sales recruits taking too long to get productive

Now when most business people read this checklist they say they can immediately relate to the statements mentioned.

When our prospects read the checklist they begin to nod their heads and start to tick those items which are most important to them.  This helps direct the conversation where the client wants to take it and establishes their priorities.

In approaching the question “What do you do?” in this fashion I have answered the question legitimately and succinctly.  I have also validated myself without a product or benefit being mentioned.  That will come later after I have properly understood how my client sees the world and what they deem to be important.  It works every time.

However, this approach has not been well received by several, so-called, advertising and marketing experts who say that I’m nuts doing this. ‘It’s so negative” they say.  And all I say is “This is my client’s reality and this how they see their world.  They are looking for someone to help them fix their issues and prevent them from happening again, so I will keep telling it like it is.”

What I have found is that we all need to understand that our products and services sell because they solve problems for our clients. A ‘problem’ can be interpreted as an issue, opportunity or priority a client wants to address.  By understanding this, you can deliver value to your client rather that just selling to them based on price and product.  So to ensure that you do not miss valuable business opportunities, always think about your business in terms of problems you solve for your clients.

If you have a little bit of spare time over the next few weeks you may like to take stock of your marketing and sales materials and ask yourself:

“Who’s your brochure written for?  You? OR Your clients?”

And then make adjustments if necessary.  It might just help you make more sales.

Final note for 2008.

Thank you for reading my blogs over the year, it has been a pleasure writing them for you.

New topics: If there are any topics you specifically want me to cover in 2009 please drop me a line at http://www.barrett.com.au/AboutUs/ContactUs.html?ONEPAGE=TRUE#void.

I wish you all the very best for the New Year and look forward to contributing to your ‘sales fitness regime’ in 2009 and beyond.

Keep sales active. Keep prospecting.  Keep positive.  Be persistent.
Happy Selling

In the sporting world it is expected that athletes make the time to practice, practice, practice and then go and compete or play the game.  Through regular practice they hone their skills, behaviours and attitudes to ensure they are ‘match fit’ and ready to compete at the highest standards.

A sports team needs to make sure that when they are in the thick of the game they can draw upon those skill drills and practice sessions to perform well as a team and perform well under pressure.

When an individual athlete is neck and neck with a competitor racing for the finish line they need to know how to dig deep and draw upon their experiences, skills, and mental and physical reserves to cross the finish line first.  This cannot happen without lots of conscious, purposeful  practice.

I know this to be true.  As a former competitive swimmer we constantly practiced our starts, turns and finishes as well as doing lots of race practice and skills drills to prepare us for competition.  This was in addition to doing the km’s of laps to build up our fitness and stamina.

Sadly, today in the business world, and especially in sales, all we seem to do is play, play, play the game and rarely put in the time to regularly review, practice and refine our skills.

What we are left with are salespeople who are given little time to reflect on how they went and what they need to do to build their sales capability.  They often lurch from one customer sales meeting to the next.

While they will know whether they won or lost a sale, very few will know ‘why’ or ‘how’ they won or lost sales to how to get fitter and be more effective.

In our experience fewer still take the time out to work on their sales businesses to create viable ‘Go-to-Market’ action plans which keep them focused and on track.

For instance we are in the process of training over 300 sales people in sales planning, prospecting, selling and sales communication process.  Many of them have said that this is the first time they have had to really work on themselves and their business.

For instance, as part of the program we run a sales simulation exercise which tests the robustness (or not) of people’s sales skills, behaviours and attitudes. It gives sales people real insight into how they actually perform as sales people.   For many people this is the first time they have ever had the chance to reflect on how their skills measure up to what is consider effective sales performance.

Simon Madden, former VFL/AFL Essendon player, qualified teacher, experienced sales person and one of BARRETT’s sales facilitators lamented that businesses are very poor at letting our salespeople take time out to practice and apply the skills, behaviours and attitudes they need to use in the real world.  All they do, he says, is play, play, play.

I have to agree.  The number of times we meet sales people attending our sales programs who have never had any formal sales training is staggering. And even those who have been on sales training programs before, comment on previously attending ‘training events’ which either did not reflect real life situations and were more ‘rah’rah’ in spirit and as it turns out a waste of time, or had no follow up back in the field which meant much of the training content was lost and not applied.   If they have had any form of regular training it was usually product based which is not the same as proper sales training.

Given Selling is such a critical function in any business, even more so now, we cannot leave our sales people’s fitness to chance.  If you are going to invest in anything this coming year invest in your sales people’s development.

Please do yourselves and your sales people a favour, and take the time to give your sales people some time to practice their sales skills in proper learning environments.  It doesn’t take much time or money to give them the proper processes and training around the essentials such as sales planning, prospecting, selling and sales communication process.

Any sales training you choose should be logical, easy to follow, feel natural and easy to apply for your people and uses a behavioural competency based approach.  It should be spaced out over a minimum period of 3 months to allow for behaviour change and growth.

If you are looking for effective sales training I recommend it follows these guiding principles:

• Interval Training: When training is implemented over a period of time is facilitates behavioural change and skill development that become habitual and the new ‘ way of life’.   This approach progresses in incremental stages and helps to maintain a focus on manageable tasks, ensuring earlier stages are successful before the latter stages are attempted.
• Discovery Learning: Results from an interactive environment where information is given, principles are practiced, questions are asked and real-life situations are created to enable people to learn for themselves.
• Evidence Based Competency / Behavioural Learning Outcome Approach
• Responsibility and ownership for embedding a sales culture is given to the management team:  Sales managers should be trained in in-field sales coaching methods and be taught how to run mini sales skill drill sessions they can implement over time to keep their sales people fit and focused.
• Relevant content: make sure the program is relevant to your sales team and your customer markets.
• Documentation of requirements: sign-offs and quality controls that define objective measures for assessing quality throughout the development process.

Investing in the right sales training can give you much greater returns very quickly:

Sales Manager of a division of a Financial institution comments after targeted 3 month sales fitness training program:

• My team sold $55m in the half I arrived as Sales Manager. This half we are on target to sell $150m.
• My 2 lowest performers when I arrived finished last half 3rd and 7th in Australia out almost 200.
• 80% of my Sales People made budget last half when traditionally less than 20% achieved target.
• The combined ages of my best 3 performers is 154.

Many people can learn how to lead successful sales careers.  Just give them the chance to learn and some time to practice.  And while not everyone can be the ‘’Ian Thorpe of Selling’ many can learn to apply successful sales processes, skills and strategies which will keep them sales fit and producing sales results.

For many industries, other than retail, the next few months are a little quieter on the sales front and are the perfect time to do some sales training and practice, practice, practice.
Happy selling.

I can honestly say I did not enjoy the early years of my sales career. I initially found it hard, relentless and sometimes really distressing. I was asked to do things I didn’t always understand that significance of. I often felt overly scrutinised by the constant monitoring of activity and performance by my managers. I worked in tough markets in tough times and sometimes wondered if it was worth it. I felt under pressure and sometimes wished I didn’t have to sell at all, however I came to realise that this tough introduction to selling was what I really needed to prepare me for the future. In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson “Everyone lives by selling something’.

Over the years as my sales career evolved, I began to learn a lot more about myself and came to really appreciate the lessons I had learned in how to lead an honourable, successful career in sales.

Would I trade my experiences and tough lessons for something easier, more enjoyable? No not at all. I am glad I stuck with it because now I have a range of life skills that are serving me very well under many situations especially right now.

Make no bones about it Selling as a profession is a tough job because it requires self discipline, quick thinking, creativity, persistence, resilience and regular self reflection. As I have often said ‘Selling is not for the faint hearted’.

In pursuing a professional sales career, there is a lot to consider and integrate over time. You cannot learn how to do it well in 5 minutes. That is why I resonated with the article “Properties of the ideal global citizen” by Bernard Salt, which featured in The Australian 20 November 2008. In particular the final paragraphs of the article focused on what I would describe as a test of character.

As Bernard states in his article, an HR Director of a Paris-based financial institution was lamenting the flightiness of Generation Y wishing they would sometimes trust the organisation. This HR director went on to say that “sometimes professional and personal development is best advanced not by doing what individuals want but by doing what the organization wants them to do.”

He continued, “Personal growth isn’t always about doing what you want, or doing what is easy. It’s sometimes about doing what is hard, by enduring, by overcoming, and by persisting. This is how true expertise is gained.”

Like Bernard, I agree completely.

Over the next few years we need ourselves and our people to sell consistently and competently. This may not go down well with everyone in your business, but it is the reality – they all need to help with the sales initiative. Selling is one of the fundamental business functions we need to ensure is not left to chance

Making ‘selling’ a part of your business skill set is critical regardless of your job title in today’s busy and competitive world. I truly believe ethical, trust based selling skills are life skills you can use and apply anywhere in any role – personally or professionally.

While you cannot acquire someone else’s sales experience and use it as your own, you can learn a sales process to accumulate your own experiences. To learn it well requires you to stick at it and persist. The current market conditions present a real opportunity to hone your selling skills and acquire this experience and you can only acquire the experience for yourself and it may be a test of character.

Enjoy it. Happy selling.

As markets tighten I thought we could reflect on some lessons learnt in the past by highly experienced, successful sales people. The following lessons are from some of the participants of my ‘Sell like a woman’ research project and make for interesting reading in ‘what not to do’ in sales. Here is the 3rd part of a 3 part series on common sales mistakes.

1. Thinking small

My worst mistake early in sales was to think small about what we can achieve. If I had realised three years ago what sales we could achieve, we would have grown much faster. Realising that we are always barely scratching the surface of what is possible means we stay hungry for achieving the next level of success. [Sharon]

2. Taking on too much

Getting overtired and taking situations personally. This has been a constant battle to keep ego out of both my successes and failures. [Debbie]

My worst mistakes would be trying to take on too much - this compromises my energy and focus and little mistakes would happen like forgetting an appointment, etc. [Deanne]

Taking on too much work, not being able to say ‘no’, and building a business around me. [Kelly]

3. Lacking confidence

Over promising in the early days. Not being 100% sure of the product or company service limitations and this affected my credibility. When I was still “bluffing” it while learning the ropes, one of the Managers pointed out that I did not seem authentic. I thought I was portraying confidence. I learnt better to be humble and to be open about not knowing certain aspects of what you are selling. [Stephanie]

Not calling high enough. There is always that feeling that at a certain level someone will not want to talk to you. That’s usually incorrect, and always needs to be tested. [Kate]

“Lack of belief- in yourself, the product or company. If you don’t believe, why should your client?” Trudy

4. Not prospecting

Expecting my network to build without actively networking! Stupid huh! [Melissa]

Thinking our brand and advertising would sell us in and people would call us everyday. I just sat there for the 1st 4 months of my sales job wondering what I was supposed to do. No one was calling. It was a rude awaking to being in sales. [Lisa]

5. Complacency

Not converting a sale when I had the chance. After a great meeting, there were times when I became slightly complacent and left getting a signed contract until the deadline, rather than following up fairly quickly for a decision. It certainly adds a greater level of stress when it’s all done at the last minute! Now I diarise follow-up immediately. [Kirsten]

Happy selling

As markets tighten I thought we could reflect on some lessons learnt in the past by highly experienced, successful sales people. The following lessons are from some of the participants of my ‘Sell like a woman’ research project and make for interesting reading in ‘what not to do’ in sales. Here is the 2nd part of a 3 part series on common sales mistakes.

1. Not listening

Going in too fast! Jumping ahead before clarifying the whole picture. I had to learn more about people. Recognising that not everyone moves and thinks as fast as I do at times. [Tia]

I have not listened to people enough or rushed through. [Danielle]

Missing vital information, because I was so excited about our new offering I talked too much and completely missed the mark with the client, whose needs were entirely in another area. [Fay]

2. Making Assumptions relying on someone without checking

Assumption! I have been caught out assuming certain things about customers that were completely incorrect and had almost lost me a sale. Customers perception is also very different to my own - never try to guess what they are thinking!! [KarenC]

Believing I had a sale before it was closed. Initially, I believed what I was told. Learned early on that you don’t have a sale until the contract is signed, money is exchanged or order is given. [Debra]

3. No sales process

Not knowing that there is a logical process to selling. Spending too many years ‘flying by the seat of my pants’ feeling my way through selling and losing sales in the process. If only I, and others like me, had known that there is a process to learn and follow, we could have made so many more sales in those early years. Lucky I learned about it before it was too late. [Lucy]

Believing the hype about ‘tricks and secrets’ to selling when all it is a proactive communication process. I would have not wasted so much time and money on self-help books trying to prop me up emotionally and so much energy on stress and uncertainty. [Mia]

I entered the sales world quite young and I recall being completely thrown when a customer would give me an objection. 1:1 sales coaching helped me overcome this and changed my perception that objections were not a negative and in fact were buying signals! [MelissaS]

4. Lack of planning

Not having the right systems and databases to make communication with our clients an easy process. In the early years of the business, we grew so fast that our systems didn’t keep up! It meant that I was doubling up on paperwork when communicating with our clients, which was such a waste of my valuable time! Not using technology to generate reports and keep detailed notes. [Kirsten]

Not having a plan in place. I made calls for the sake of making calls and spent most of my early sales career running around like a chook with its head cut off calling on the wrong kind of people because I didn’t know what a good customer looked like. [Sue]

5. Too focused on self and not the customer

Focusing on the outcome for myself not the client. Early on in my career, I was brash and aggressive and wanted the sale now, sometimes at the expense of the longer term relationship. My clients now are some of my best referral sources as they know I am about their needs before my own. [Nicky]

The worst mistake I made as a sales person was when I became focused on ME and what I wanted rather than focusing on others and what they wanted and how I could help them. I found I would be consumed with my goals and what I wanted to achieve, that I would ignore how this affected my relationships with my customers and ultimately my sales and sales career. [Sally]

Happy selling.

As markets tighten I thought we could reflect on some lessons learnt in the past by highly experienced, successful sales people. The following lessons are from some of the participants of my ‘Sell like a woman’ research project and make for interesting reading in ‘what not to do’ in sales. Here is the 1st part of a 3 part series on common sales mistakes.

1. Arrogance and hubris

Sometimes when you are on a roll with a product or brand (or even with your own success as a sales person), it’s way too easy to lose sight of the client’s real needs. You can easily get caught up in your own mythology. Especially when first starting out as a young rep I made some disastrous blunders - stopped treating clients as individuals, broke a few core promises because “our brand is so successful now that clients have to understand that we need to do this to keep growing” - and I look back now with shame. The big changes I made was to go back to basics, remember that I am only as good as last month’s results and be very, very grateful to both my Company AND my client base for paying my wages. [Trudy]

2. Putting all your eggs in one basket

Probably the biggest mistake I made, was to win a contract, and spend the next year developing and growing it, and then over next 2.5 years perfecting it. This then made this customer dominate our business. It consumed quite a lot of focus and resource. Since then, I have ensured that I balance new sales with additional business. I have to keep myself in check, as I tend to give away far too much of myself, in terms of time and company investment, with no guarantee of return. It’s a new process of self discipline, matching output to need without sacrificing value add. Helen

Restricting your contact to one or two in the organisation- the broader the contact, the better understanding you will have of their business. [Libby]

3. Under-rating your competitors (or believing your own sales story)

Believing everything you read publically about your competitors and what customer tells you. They do not always match up to what is real and actually happens in the market place. [Stacy]

Selling a service that was not backed up by excellent customer service as I believed it would be. I had to tell the customer that I would do everything to change the internal culture of the organisation but I couldn’t. I learned that I need to influence much more than the sales function and since then I have chosen companies that I work for and positions within those companies more wisely. [Hilary]

Bagging the competitors. Oh my did I have to eat humble pie when I did this early in my career. One of my biggest customers was related to one of my competitors and I nearly lost the whole deal because I shot off my mouth about that competitor company and the person concerned being dodgy. I had no real evidence they were dodgy at all. I just was going on hearsay from the gossip in the field. BIG BIG mistake. [Sally]

4. Not understanding your customer’s real needs (business and personal)

Not having a broad enough product knowledge and trying to fit my square product into the client round hole. Not understanding the business problem - e.g. when selling training services and the HR person says they need a certain skill and I didn’t know what the business context was. As a result the service I delivered was a waste of time and money. I learned to trust my gut instinct, if I didn’t understand why the client wanted to buy I wouldn’t sell anything until I did understand. [Jill]

5. Selling the client the ‘Rolls Royce’ solution they can’t afford

The client insisted they required the ‘big’ solution, then I discovered the competitor’s ‘Holden’ was all they could have afforded. Always a trap for young players, especially with government customers. It is always depressing to be told by a client that you were the one they wanted but… [Kate]

Not asking the money questions or doing credit checks to see if your clients can afford it. Then wasting so much time on ‘no sales’ when I could have asked more specific questions to determine the real situation. [Sue]

As mentioned before, Sales and Service roles are not for the faint hearted and can often take their toll on your good nature, your energy and your ability to deal effectively with frustrating issues, especially when you put in the effort to do the ‘right thing’ by your customers and it is not appreciated, acknowledged or actioned.

At the end of a long day or week dealing with lots of people, pulling together various deals, solving problems and keeping your energy levels up and being on your best behaviour, you could be forgiven for being a bit ‘short’ if things don’t go according to plan and something falls short of your expectations.

To manage our frustrations, sales and service people can resort to all sorts of remedies:

• Some go and have a quiet drink after work (hopefully not too many)
• Others talk to their colleagues or friends about it (watch out though for electronic conversations i.e. Virgin Atlantic staff who were sacked recently for this very thing)
• Some get some physical exercise to burn off the stress
• Others further develop their communication skills and behaviours to help them deal with challenging customer situations
• While others simply let is run off them like water off a duck’s back (reciting OM).

However taking out your frustrations directly on a prospective customer is a big NO NO. No matter how irritating they may be.

I understand that not all customers are ‘good’ customers, in that the ‘not so good customers’ can cost your business too much to service, or abuse the privilege of your offering, or just don’t fit what you do. Letting these customers down gently but firmly and ensuring they can be referred to something more appropriate for their needs would be the ideal outcome.

However ‘letting fly’ at someone regardless of their viability to your business is not in anyone’s best interests, especially in a networked world where news can travel fast and you never know who your customers or prospects know.

Recently I wrote about my inconsistent service experience in “Be consistent and keep your customers happy” talking about this very issue. And more recently I received an email from a young, smart, sassy, educated friend of mine (read gen Y) who sent me a string of emails about her customer experience at the hands of frustrated service provider. NB: I have kept it anonymous. Needless to say the emails speak for themselves.

Initial Email (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote for your blog
Hi Sue,
From the top down is how the emails went regarding Monica’s and my experience with a travel agent who was helping us plan our 2009 holiday- it is all very self explanatory. Lastly, I have included my email that was sent back to her. FYI I never met the Travel Agent , but Monica told me that she was laughing at how unorganised we were, rolling her eyes, and making comments such as “about time” when we agreed to something over the phone.

Hope it’s useful reading!!
Steph

Email 1 (Thursday 23 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Hi Steph,

Here is the quote from XXX (Travel agent). Have made an appointment with her Saturday 25 Oct at 12 so see you about 11:45. Go through it, try to get a chance to look at hotels so you know what standard we are staying in.

See you Saturday

Love Monica.

Email 2 (Thursday 23 Oct 2008); Subject: Cancel Saturday appointment

Hi XXX (travel agent)
My name is Stephanie. Monica and I had an appointment with you on Saturday 25th October at 12pm regarding our trip to Bali in May 2009.

Thank you for your quote and assistance so far but as we are a bit unorganised, we have decided to change a few things around and would like to be sure of what we want before bothering you so please cancel our appointment for Saturday and take the hold off the discussed flights.

Apologies about the inconvenience and thanks again for your assistance.

Kind regards,
Stephanie.

Email 3 (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Hi Monica,
I received an email from Stephanie saying that the both of you will be canceling your appointment on Saturday. As I have put in a lot of work into quoting you numerous placing in Bali and held off the $100 deposit until Saturday as a gesture of good faith, I am very disappointed that you would cancel this. I understand that you both have to sort out what you both want to do and where you want to stay however delaying the booking may cost you a price increase.
I hope when you both make up your minds I will be able to help you with your bookings.
Sincerely,
XXX (Travel Agent)

Email 4 (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Dear XXX (travel agent),
Of course we were appreciative of your time and did realize that wanting to book a $5400 holiday would be hard work. Unfortunately your email proves it is obviously too hard.

However, may we firstly point out that you wrote ‘FIJI’ in the quote rather than Bali, which suggests you did not care about what you were preparing anyway.

Secondly, we came to you as a travel agent to pay you to research and recommend places for people to go and to prepare quotes, so apologies about the ‘disappointment’ but we never committed to anything with you at the time. You also knew that we were still making decisions and negotiating things with each other and we were planning to come back to you with final decisions within a few weeks. We were appreciative and courteous the whole time in dealing with you and did nothing to deserve your email.

Thirdly, in regards to your good nature of putting off the $100 deposit until Saturday we have it under good instruction that we have 7 days post holding to place the deposit and confirmation on this flight.

Finally, when we both make up our minds we can guarantee that we will not (nor will anyone we speak to who is planning a holiday) be bothering you or XXX Travel Agent Business again with our bookings and perhaps you should reconsider sending out an email such as this to potential customers in the future.

Regards,
Stephanie and Monica.

In dealing with frustrations, especially trying to keep sales coming in, it is often more courageous to remain calm and collected and try again. Here is a little saying I find most helpful in these and other frustrating situations.

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
—Mary Anne Radmacher

Take deep breaths and I wish you happy and prosperous selling

Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior.

As part of my own development and in an attempt to keep my mind as open and fresh as possible, I take to reading all sorts of things. On my current reading list is a very interesting book called “Punished by Rewards” by Alfie Kohn, author, speaker and educator. He writes about the trouble with “gold stars, incentive plans, As, praise and other bribes”.

In light of current discussions and debates about the issues surrounding CEO performance bonuses and incentives, and incentives paid to sales people and other employees, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the possible impact of incentive and rewards systems on the quality of our decision making, the effect on workplace performance and sustainable business practices. I warn you this may not sit well with some of you.

The following is excerpt is taken from the Gurteen Knowledge Website, which reviews the book I speak of.

Our basic strategy for raising children, teaching students, and managing workers can be summarized in six words: Do this and you’ll get that.

We dangle goodies (from candy bars to sales commissions) in front of people in much the same way that we train the family pet.

In this book, Kohn shows that while manipulating people with incentives seems to work in the short run, it is a strategy that ultimately fails and even does lasting harm. Our workplaces and classrooms will continue to decline, he argues, until we begin to question our reliance on a theory of motivation derived from laboratory animals.

Drawing from hundreds of studies, Kohn demonstrates that people actually do inferior work when they are enticed with money, grades or other incentives. Programs that use rewards to change people’s behaviour are similarly ineffective over the long run.

Promising goodies to children for good behaviour can never produce anything more than temporary obedience. In fact, the more we use artificial inducements to motivate people, the more they lose interest in what we’re bribing them to do. Rewards turn play into work, and work into drudgery.

Step by step, Kohn marshals research and logic to prove that pay-for-performance plans cannot work; the more an organisation relies on incentives, the worse things get. Parents and teachers who care about helping students to learn, meanwhile, should be doing everything possible to help them forget that grades exist. Even praise can become a verbal bribe that gets kids hooked on our approval.

Rewards and punishments are just two sides of the same coin – and the coin doesn’t buy very much. What is needed, Kohn explains, is an alternative to both ways of controlling people.

The final chapters offer a practical set of strategies for parents, teachers, and managers that move beyond the use of carrots or sticks. Seasoned with humour and familiar examples, “Punished by Rewards” presents an argument that is unsettling to hear but impossible to dismiss. See here for an interview with Alfie Kohn.

When I read this book I cannot help but look at the current financial markets debacle and the consequences excessive greed and unethical rewards systems.

The impact being that it is left up to the rest of us to mop up the mess. Further food for thought…

Just one idea can positively transform your life, career, income and wealth.
As I have written before, in uncertain times, we can let the negativity of current events and others consume us or we can continue to look for opportunity. Excessive worry, however, can often cause us to lose sight of our goals and can limit our creativity and problems solving capabilities just when we really need them.

These tough times call for us to be even more innovative, inventive, creative and persistent. Some of the most successful sales people are the most adaptive and creative people you can meet, especially when it comes to finding new markets and new ways to solve customers’ problems with their products and services.

As the saying goes “Necessity is the mother of invention’. And in these tougher times it is not only necessary to keep our sales activities going and ensure that have enough people to speak who can work with us but to think creatively about how we going to do that.

Does your thinking or sales approach need a refresher?

If you are feeling in a bit of sales slump here are some questions to consider that may help you keep your ideas fresh, check for any blind spots and help you create opportunities so you can keep your prospecting and sales efforts on track:

• What are the current boundaries or rules in your business, team or area of expertise?
• What are the rules that can increase the likelihood of success in your business, your team’s field of expertise? Rules can be formal (written down) or informal (spoken or implied). How do these rules help you solve problems?
• List 3 times when you didn’t listen to an opportunity and it hurt you, your team / business. What can you learn from this?
• What were the rules you followed that kept you from seeing or taking advantage of those opportunities?
• What changes can you make to your thinking to increase your imagination and flexibility and create more sales opportunities?
• What is impossible to do right now, but if it could be done, would fundamentally change you, your team and your business for the better?

Often times our customers can have the answers to these question also. So if nothing get out there and ask them for feedback about how you can all work together more effectively and creatively get through these challenging times in good shape.

Did you know:

• Over 50% of sales people give up at 1st contact if they get a ‘NO’ from the prospect never to go back to that prospect again .
• At the 5th contact 7% of sales people are left to speak with the prospect to see if they can do business together.
• At the 8th contact there is only one sales person left to work with the prospect. Hopefully it is you.

Many sales people, especially those new to sales, often take it personally when a prospect says ‘NO’. Many fail to persist and often fail to favourably position themselves to ‘leave the door open’ for future contact thus limiting their sales opportunities even further.

Now I understand there can be a fine line drawn between persistence and harassment, however in order to have a steady stream of sales coming in the door we need to ensure that we have a regular mix of prospecting activities happening on a daily basis.

Sometimes we will strike viable and interested prospects and other times we come across viable but not interested prospects. Don’t burn those viable and not interested prospects as they may become viable and interested in the future. But you will never know if you don’t go back.

Here are some handy hints to make sure you can go back to these prospects in the future and give yourself a chance of working with them.

Don’t take it personally
If a prospect doesn’t commit to seeing you it could be due to one of the following reasons:

• They do not have a need right now
• They do not fit your target market
• They do not perceive having a need right now
• They have other associations or relationships
• They are not convinced they need to see you

Honourable retreat
Don’t give up. Whenever you make contact with someone make sure you always leave a favourable impression. Make sure they felt it was worthwhile to speak to you even if they don’t fit your target market – you never know who they might know.

Allow for the honourable retreat if they cannot meet with you now:

• Seek permission to send some information for their review
• Seek permission to follow up in the future
• Seek permission to keep in touch in case their current suppliers cannot support them in the future
• Ask for a referral

Follow up with persistent daily effort
Choosing your state of mind, your attitude, is critical in when prospecting and selling too. Successful salespeople know that prospecting doesn’t happen by chance it is requires a consistent and persistent effort.

Successful sales people:

• Diarise follow up calls
• Use a CRM to track activity
• Keep a number of activities on the go
• Prioritise
• Persist

Happy and prosperous selling