Pushy, aggressive, obnoxious, assertive, or professional. Which are you?

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Sales reps get a bad rap for trying to sell too hard.

You’ve heard the term “pushy salesman” or “aggressive salesperson” or even “obnoxious salesman.” How do those phrases make you feel?

And salespeople go to great lengths NOT to be perceived as pushy, or aggressive, or obnoxious – so they (maybe you) go to the opposite end of the spectrum and try to be or be known as professional.

BEWARE and BE AWARE: A professional sales call is okay, but boring. Professional meetings typically have no outcome. Or worse, they result in never-ending follow-up, void of sales. Not good. Here’s a good way to think about professionalism: your customer must perceive you as a professional person. It’s more of a look on your part, and a perception on the part of the customer. In today’s world of selling, professionalism is a given. Your words, actions, and deeds take over from there.

Professionalism is not bad, but professionalism alone will not net sales.

MAJOR AHA! Between pushy, aggressive, obnoxious, and professional lies a middle ground – a ground where sales are made. It’s known as assertive.

CAUTION: Assertiveness is not a word – it’s a strategy and a style. It’s not just “a way in which you conduct yourself.” Rather, it’s a full-blown strategy that has elements to master way before assertiveness can begin and be accepted as a style of selling.

BEWARE and BE AWARE: Assertiveness is a GOOD style of selling as long as you understand, and have mastered, the elements that make “assertive” acceptable on the part of the customer.
WHERE DOES ASSERTIVENESS COME FROM?

  • The root of assertiveness is belief. Your belief in what you do, your belief in who you represent, your belief in the products and services that you sell, your belief in yourself, your belief that you can differentiate yourself from your competitor (not compare yourself to), and your firm belief that the customer is better off having purchased from you. These are not things you believe in your head. Rather, these are things you must believe in your heart. Deep belief is the first step in creating an assertive process. Until you believe, mediocrity is the norm. Once you believe in your heart, all else is possible.
  • An Attitude of Positive Anticipation. In order to be assertive, positive attitude or YES! Attitude is not enough. You must possess an “Attitude of Positive Anticipation.” This means walking into any sales call with a degree of certainty that the outcome will be in your favor. It means having a spirit about you that is easily contagious – a spirit that your customer can catch, and buy.
  • Total preparation is the secret sauce of assertiveness. This must include customer-focused, pre-call planning as well as creating the objective, the proposed outcome, for a sales call. Most salespeople make the fatal mistake of preparing in terms of themselves (product knowledge, literature,business cards, blah, blah). The reality of total preparation means preparing in terms of the customer FIRST. Their needs, their desires, and their anticipated positive outcomes – their win. If these elements are not an integral part of your preparation, you will lose to someone who has them.
  • The assertive equation must also contain undeniable value in favor of the customer. This is not just part of preparation, this is also part of the relationships you have built with other customers who are willing to testify on your behalf, and other proof that you have (hopefully in video format) that a prospective customer can relate to, believe in, and purchase as a result of.

REALITY: It’s not about changing your beliefs, it’s about strengthening your beliefs. It’s not about changing your attitude, it’s about building your attitude. It’s not about changing your preparation, it’s about intensifying your preparation. It’s not about adding value, it’s about delivering perceived value.

BIGGER REALITY: When you have mastered belief, attitude, preparation, and value as I have just defined them, then and only then, can assertiveness and assertive selling begin to take place.

BIGGEST REALITY: Incremental growth in belief, attitude, preparation, and value offered will lead to assertive sales calls and an increase in sales.

YOUR STATURE IS THE GLUE: Your professional look, your quiet self-confidence, your surety of knowledge andinformation that can help your customer, your past history of success, your possession of undeniable proof, and your assertive ability to ask your customers to beresponsible to their customers and their employees. (Responsibility is an acceptable (and assertive) form of accountability). No customer wants to be accountable to a sales rep – but EVERY customer has a MISSION to be responsible to his or her customers and co-workers.

When you combine your belief, your attitude, your preparation, your value, and your assertiveness, the outcome is predictable: It’s more sales.

Next week is all about the assertive sales call. Get ready.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Leadership Inspirations – Prior Preparation

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“It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”

Howard Ruff (1930 – present)
American financial advisor

Recommended Resources – The Leader’s Pocket Guide

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The Leader’s Pocket Guide: 101 Indispensable Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Any Situation
by John Baldoni

About the Book

The Leader’s Pocket Guide by John Baldoni is a well organized collection of leadership principles focused on one’s self, colleagues, and organization. In his book, John provides readers with insights on a wide array of topics including:

  • Demonstrating character
  • Developing confidence
  • Inspiring others
  • Resolving conflict
  • Coaching and rewarding others
  • Aligning the organization to shared goals

Benefits of Using this Book

StrategyDriven Contributors like The Leader’s Pocket Guide for its immediately implementable advice relevant to leaders at all levels within an organization. Specifically, we liked the action tips, self-assessments, and ‘Think About…’ sections of John’s book, all of which challenge the reader to reflect on his or her leadership acumen to identify and improve on areas of weakness.

We found the layout of The Leader’s Pocket Guide to be advantageous for use in developing one’s subordinates. The individualized leadership lessons enable managers to conduct training and/or group discussion sessions focused on a particular principle. Additionally, this segmentation allows the book to be used in daily reflection to help one hone his or her own leadership skills.

The insightful, actionable leadership principles presented in this well organized book makes The Leader’s Pocket Guide a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Nathan Ives Named StrategyDriven Enterprises Chief Executive Officer

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Senior industry leader adds hands-on management and operational experience to StrategyDriven’s Power & Utilities focused advisory services.
 
 
Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven PrincipalIncreasing demand for clean, affordable electricity combined with an aging infrastructure, retiring workers, growing regulations, rising capital costs, and intensifying budget pressures challenge utility executives and managers now more than ever before. To help utility leaders meet these challenges while improving operational safety and reliability, StrategyDriven Enterprises, LLC announces the election of Nathan Ives as the firm’s new Chief Executive Officer.

StrategyDriven advisors work with executives and managers to define their organization’s needs and develop and manage the complex, mission critical projects needed to improve operational effectiveness and lower costs in response to today’s most pressing challenges.

“I’m excited to be joining StrategyDriven during this time of unprecedented change and uncertainty within the energy sector,” says Nathan. “The modernization and expansion of our industry’s infrastructure, induction of a new workforce, and assimilation of an expanding regulatory regime will define how our industry operates for decades to come. At StrategyDriven, we’re proud to be working with industry leaders to address these challenges and adapt their organizations so they continue to operate safely, reliably, and efficiently.”

Prior to joining StrategyDriven, Nathan was a senior manager in Ernst & Young and Deloitte Consulting’s Power & Utility practices; advising industry leaders on the design and implementation of integrated fleet asset management programs.

Before becoming a professional consultant, he held several influential nuclear industry positions at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO); leading teams of operations professionals in the performance evaluation of dozens of domestic and international power plants and guiding the industry’s effort to redefine performance standards in the areas of organizational alignment, managerial decision-making, plant operations, and risk management.

Nathan joined INPO from PSEG’s Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station where he stood watch as a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed Senior Reactor Operator.

In 1992, Nathan graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; earning a bachelor of science degree in physics followed by distinguished service as the Assistant Chief Nuclear Engineer and Quality Assurance Officer onboard USS GROTON SSN 694. He received a Master of Business Administration degree from Kennesaw State University in 2004.

Nathan can be contacted by phone at (678) 313-0150 or email at [email protected]. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.
 
 
Learn more about how StrategyDriven can help you improve your organization’s operational effectiveness and lower costs.

What’s the sincerity level of your message?

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When someone tells me to “Have a nice day,” I don’t think they mean it. I think they’re just saying it as a kind of mundane, almost impolite, form of politeness. Forced nicety. Said out of habit, not sincerity. To me, it’s not just thoughtless, it’s also meaningless. Heck, half the time people don’t even look at you when they say it.

Oh, they don’t mean it as an insult. People say, “Have a nice day,” because they don’t know what else to say. Or don’t care what they say. Or they are trained to say it.

But think about it. Do they only mean THAT day? Do they want me to have a crappy tomorrow? Or they will go so far as to say, “Have a good rest of the week.” What does that mean, I’m going to have a horrible weekend? Or month? Or year? Or life?

If you are going to say something to me, or your customer, make it sincere, make it meaningful, and make it relevant. Otherwise, I mentally check you off – the same way you check people off. And the question here is, are you being checked off?

Consistency of message and expression is important – but NOT ROBOTIC.
Give people leeway to be human.

Boring and insincere typically has a way of permeating everything else in a company. The color of your logo.

  • The politically correctness of your slide show.
  • The stuffiness of your business card.
  • The boringness of your job title.

Who cares? ONLY YOU! (Your marketing people, your ad agency, yada, yada) Anyone preparing “boring” marketing tools in this day and age should be forced to take that crap out on a sales call and see how CUSTOMERS perceive it or care ten cents about it.

The key word is SINCERITY.
The secondary word is DIFFERENTIATION.

Here are some GOLDEN opportunities to be creatively sincere:

  • At the fast food window
  • When customers walk in your store
  • When customers pay for something
  • When customers board the plane
  • When customers are about to order in a restaurant
  • When customers are sent an invoice

These are all opportunities to prove differentiation, be sincere, and even WOW the customer.

  • Marketing and HR people: Get off your corporate hobby horse and saddle up your creative brain!
  • Employees: You’re an individual, not some kind of automated answering device. (Don’t get me started. Reality, if my call is so darn important, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, don’t tell me about it.) Use your friendliness and creativity to craft a message that the customer perceives as real.

FORCED CORPORATE POLITENESS: I love it when service reps or managers candidly you’re your piece, the other person is clearly wrong, won’t admit it, but are under corporate edict to be polite, but you know they hate you, and their life when they tersely ask, “Will there be anything else?” Makes me smile and feel sad all at once.

Southwest Airlines is anything but politically correct. Their people are happy, their customers are happy, their message is clear, and they make a TON of money. Jeez, I wonder if there’s a correlation!

What about you? How sincere are you?

Here are 4 things you can do tomorrow without anyone’s permission:

  • Look me in the eye. Make sure there’s a locked-in moment
  • Say something slightly different. “You’re all set.” vs. “Thanks for your business.”
  • Shake my hand like you mean it. Firm, with eye contact.
  • Smile. When you smile, it makes others smile.

IDEA: Make a goal to create 12 smiles a day through your words, actions or deeds. Creativity and sincerity will automatically materialize.

Have a nice day!

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].