What keeps me up at night? None of your business!

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Salespeople (not you, of course) are known for asking poor questions – questions that are not only embarrassing, questions that are also rude. And I would be remiss if I didn’t add: questions that make them appear desperate and pressing for a sale.

The dumbest question in sales is “What will it take to get your business?” It’s by far the worst question you can ask a customer. It makes you a price seller rather than a value provider, and it makes you look like you ‘need’ the sale rather than want to earn and grow a relationship.

REALITY: There is a close second to the dumbest question, and it’s the subject of this article. “What keeps you up at night?” Are you kidding me? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, that’s what!

You’re at the beginning of a sales call, trying to build positive rapport and earn some level of ‘like’ and ‘trust,’ and you’re asking me that kind of question? It’s almost as dumb as trying to ‘find the pain.’ Please don’t get me started on 1972 sales manipulation and insincerity.

Why not ask the prospect a question that relates to their real life, and their present situation, that’s potentially more revealing than a Miss America question?

MAJOR AHA! QUESTION: What wakes you up in the morning?

It’s a positive-based question that, when asked with a smile, will get you real answers, real facts, and reveal real truths. It’s light hearted, but powerful, and when followed up with ‘what else’ or ‘then what’ will create a dialog that is totally customer focused – thereby achieving the purpose of the interaction.

Below are possible answers. Here’s what to do: Think of all these answers IN TERMS OF YOURSELF, FIRST. What wakes YOU up? It reveals your top-of-mind thoughts, issues, concerns, goals, problems, and attitude toward them. Got it? Now direct them at the customer or prospect and listen to the eye-popping, ear de-waxing, and self-qualifying answers.

You ask, “What wakes you up in the morning?” They answer:

  • Light of day. Easy answer. Leads to, ‘Then what?’
  • Alarm clock. Another easy answer. Still leads to, “Then what?”
  • Kids. Great answer! Leads to all kinds of mutual discussion points and common interests if you also have them
  • Relationships. A bit touchy. Let the prospect lead.
  • Coffee – shower – exercise – the news. These subjects will provide more superficial answers that might reveal things in common.
  • The day and things to be done. People will make their day more important than your day. And you’ll feel it when they chatter and complain about ‘having so much to do.’

Now let’s take it deeper. Asking the ‘then what?’ question will get them to the next phase of their reality. It started out light, now it gets to some real issues. You might ask, “What else wakes you up?” or the more powerful, “Then what?” They might say:

  • Money, or the lack of it. Think of this one in terms of yourself. Go lightly, but it’s very revealing.
  • Health issues. If they have a physical ailment or some medical condition, it may impact their attention span or decision-making capability.
  • Pain. If they’re in pain, then the pain will affect concentration and span of attention.
  • Energy/positive anticipation. This is GREAT. An enthusiastic person can connect with your compelling presentation and catch your positive feelings.
  • All the stuff he or she is excited about. These are golden issues that need to be embellished and compared to what it will be like when your stuff gets its chance.
  • Big issues. IRS, business failure, damaged reputation, lawsuits. A pending merger or pending big order could be a positive light.
  • Business issues. The day-to-day often gets in the way of the month-to-month and the year-to-year. Stay away from the mundane, and be aware of the complainer.
  • Personal issues. Family and relationship issues can have a real impact (either way) on your meeting outcome – pending marriage or pending divorce?
  • Career issues. Work, boss, sales, people, and events can have huge implications on your need to do something today.
  • Nagging issues (worries). These are elements that slow down the actions a business is willing to take. If you know what they are, you’ll be less likely to be impatient, and more likely to create a winning plan to make the sale.
  • Unfinished issues. Stuff undone. ‘Wait until after…’ are defeating words to the ears of salespeople. But if you know what they are, you can get a better sense of ‘when?’
  • Projects underway. Most people are limited in the amount of work and projects they can take on. When your customer dwells on ‘present situation’ and ‘major project’ you can expect postponement. Make sure you nail down expected completion date.
  • Deadlines. If it’s close, you’re toast. And the best thing you can do is offer assistance.
  • If the prospect or customer answers: The reality of: get my ass in gear. This doesn’t address any issues, and is really skirting the question. You might ask ‘for what?’

MAJOR CLUE: Don’t overdo the process. Ask a few questions, gain a few answers, and then move on.

As a result, you have some new information, maybe some common interests, a few smiles, and certainly a thinking prospect.

I made you think, didn’t I? You can do the same with your prospect. Stay away from the defensive-based questions, and your responses will lead you down the right path – the business relationship and mutual respect path.

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].

Salespeople have questions, Jeffrey has answers.

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I get a ton of emails from people seeking insight or asking me to solve sales dilemmas. Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life and, most important, your sales thought process right now:

Jeffrey, I’m interested in your insight and guidance. I think selling is the best job in the world, but there’s one aspect I’m struggle with. It’s the feeling of being out of control, and being the master of my own destiny. I tend to work on more complex deals that have large decision making groups, and therefore can be quite a long cycle. I used to sell smaller deals where I could track progress more meaningfully, but now I find myself doing 1 x $1M deals rather than 10 x $100k deals where the risk was spread. Any tips on how to stay sane while waiting for big decisions? How do I regain and maintain a feeling that I’m in control of my results? Best regards, Paul

Paul, Managing your time is not the answer. Prioritizing your accounts in the order that they are likely to close is a better way to view the process. But there are several elements involved, and several decisions you have to make:

1. Why would you give up your bread and butter and just shoot for the moon?
Instead, allocate half your time to sure money and half your time to the big prize. This will leave you in control of your short-term destiny, and allow you to mark a clearer path toward the bigger deal.

2. All committees have a daddy. The person that leads the committee, or even the person that he or she reports to, are the two people that you should be establishing relationships with because they control the outcome. If you simply go in and make a presentation to a committee, they’ll be forever lost in the shuffle of indecision, proposals, and fighting price with competitors (three of the worst, if not dumbest, elements in making a large sale).

3. Direct contact is not an option. Stop emailing people and waiting for replies. Phone numbers, cell phone numbers, early morning coffee, late afternoon casual conversations, gathering personal data, and sending important business information will help establish you as a resource, rather than being looked at as a vendor.

3.5 Your level of frustration is only a symptom. Your problem is you haven’t identified the real decision maker, how the decision will be made, and what the real motive is to purchase. Until you know those three things, your frustration will most likely fall into poverty. Not good. Best regards, Jeffrey

Jeffrey, My name is John and I am a house call veterinarian in Syracuse, NY. I have read several of your books and I love your iPhone app! I am having some difficulty growing my business and I KNOW you are the perfect person to help me!

I have been in business for just over four years. Things are steady and stable, but we are not growing the way I know we could and should be. In fact, SOMEHOW, it seems that regardless of our marketing efforts, referrals, etc. we ALWAYS come out JUST AHEAD of being behind in the financial department. It drives me crazy as everybody we meet tells us how great we are and what an unusual and helpful service we provide, yet we are STILL booking no more than one week ahead at a time. I have tried practically EVERY type of advertising (newspaper, TV, radio, billboards, handouts/fliers) with no great outcome. We are a luxury service (and prefer it that way). We have run out of great ideas to try that won’t cost a ton of money. Please help! John

John, Before you let your business go to the dogs, you might want to try less advertising and more promotion.

Begin with your Facebook business page. Post stories and videos of your existing customers and their experiences with you. Tag the customer and tag the photo. Your customer will begin to send that story to all of their friends. Also start a YouTube channel. Make sure all the videos are posted there as well – with all the appropriate tags. Without taking advantage of business social media, especially Facebook, your doomed to waiting for response.

The second thing you have to do is contact every existing customer and talk to them about why they use you. Capture all of those reasons and begin to use them in all of your messaging and promotions.

Third, start a weekly email magazine that features one of your customers every week.
Fourth, subscribe to Ace of Sales. Every time you have a customer, take a photo of their pet and using the Ace of Sales email program, include a photo of their pet along when you send them a thank you note for their business.

With all the promotion that you do, you will begin to have positive word-of-mouth messages and positive internet messages sent out about you and ultimately sent back to you. Advertising alone will not get you the response that you need in today’s world. You have to dedicate the time and the resources to social media promotion and other forms of proactive outreach. You have all the assets you need to succeed in your business, you just haven’t utilized them in the proper way. Best regards, Jeffrey

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].

Replacing the cold call with: ANYTHING!

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I am sick of the argument that cold calling still has a valuable place in selling. Someone PLEASE show me the value.

Let’s look at the stats…

  • 98% or more rejection rate
  • 100% interruption of the prospect
  • 100% they already know what you’re selling
  • 100% they already have what you’re selling
  • 100% manipulation to get through to the decision maker
  • 100% lack of personal preparation about the customer
  • Most sales managers could NOT do what they ask their salespeople to do
  • Rejection is the biggest cause of sales personnel turnover
  • Ask any salesperson if they’d rather have 100 cold calls or ONE referral
  • Cold calls suck.

QUESTION: With these horrid stats, why do sales managers insist on, even measure, cold call activity and numbers?

ANSWER: I have no earthly idea.

Here are 12.5 real world connection strategies to eliminate cold calling. These are not “no brainers.” They’re “brainers!” They’re ideas and strategies that require smart, hard-working people to turn the strategies into money:

1. Build relationships and earn referrals. Visit existing customers. Offer ideas and help.
2. Use LinkedIn to make new connections. Use the ‘keyword’ search feature to uncover prospects you never knew existed. Then connect without using the standard LinkedIn wording. Be original.
3. Ask your informal network of connections to recommend customers. Building and maintaining local and industry specific relationships are critical to building your success. Pinpoint people who respect and admire your ability, the same way you respect and admire theirs.
4. Network face-to-face at the highest level possible. Not an ‘after hours’ cocktail party. Join high-level executive groups and get involved.
5. Join a business association – not a leads club. Someplace where owners gather.
6. Speak in public. All civic groups are eager to get a speaker for their weekly meeting. Be the speaker. If you give a value talk, a memorable talk, EVERY member of the audience will want to connect. You’ll have the potential to gain fifty ‘cold call’ connections each time you speak.
7. Speak at trade shows. Why not get praise for the great speech you gave at the conference every time someone walks by your booth, instead of trying to get them to putt a ball into a plastic cup.
8. Write an article. Nothing breeds attraction like the written word. I am a living example of what writing can do to change a career. Get in front of people who can say yes to you and become known as an expert.
9. Write an industry white paper. CEOs want to create great reputations, keep customers loyal, keep employees loyal, have no problems, maintain safety, and make a profit. Write about how your industry does that and EVERYONE will want to read it (and meet with you). White paper, or brochure? You tell me… Which one gets you invited in the door? Which one earns you respect? Which one builds your reputation? And the ouch question: Which one are you using?
10. Give referrals. Yes, GIVE referrals. What better way to gain respect, cosmic debt, word-of-mouth advertising, and reputation? WARNING: This requires hard work.
11. Send a once a week, value-based message to existing and prospective customers. For the past decade, my weekly email magazine, Sales Caffeine, has been a major source of value to my customers and revenue to me. Where’s yours?
12. Contact current customers who aren’t using 100% of your product line. You have gold in your own back yard. No cold call needed. Call existing customers and get more of their business.
12.5 Reconnect with lost customers. This little used strategy will net you more results than any cold call campaign on the planet. It takes courage to connect, but once you discover ‘why’ you lost them, you can create strategies to recover the account – often more than 50% of the time.

COLD CALL TIME CHALLENGE: What is your REAL use of time making futile cold calls? That’s a number you do not want to see. And how much of your use of time is a waste of time. You don’t wanna see this number either.

Gotta make cold calls? Boss making you cold call? Here’s the strategy for making a transition: ALLOCATE YOUR TIME. If you have to make 50 cold calls a week, allocate enough time to connect with 50 existing or lost customers in the same week. And ask your boss to do both WITH YOU. Let him or her see the futility of making cold calls. Ask them to make 50 cold calls. My bet is they can’t or won’t.

REALITY: Double your quota, double your sales numbers using the strategies above, and your boss won’t care ONE LICK if you ever make another cold call. In fact, they’ll be asking you HOW YOU DID IT.

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].

How have you progressed since the third grade?

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“What I did on my summer vacation.”

Every one of you have given a speech, or written a paragraph or essay about what you did on your summer vacation while you were in grade school.

You wrote about the lake, the mountains, or the week at the beach. Or you gave a speech and your opening line was, “What I did on my summer vacation.” And you held your own hands and nervously performed in front of your peers.

You were worried about what they would think and you were nervous about performing in front of your classmates, but somehow you muddled through it.

Your essay was returned with all kinds of red marks for punctuation, grammar, and misspellings.

For those of you who are pack rats, or have parents who are pack rats, you may still have the document.

PERSONAL NOTE: I have many of my daughters’ early writings. All gems.

I’m giving you this reminder, this bit of nostalgic instant memory, so I can issue you the following challenges: How have you progressed since then?

How much better are your writing skills? How much better are your presentation skills? And how important are those skills to your sales success, your business success, your social media success, and your career success?

I’ve been a professional writer and professional speaker for 20 years. But like you, I’ve been an amateur since the third grade when I talked about what I did on my summer vacation, and in the fourth grade when I wrote about Hurricane Hazel which rocked Atlantic City where my family was living at the time. (If you Google it, you can figure out how old I am!)

What most people don’t understand is their initial training forms the foundation of their present skills. Your grammar, your ability to spell, your self-confidence to be able to speak, and your overall character are formulated by your ability to communicate both orally and in writing.

Every one of you reading this is now thinking, maybe I should have paid more attention when my high school English teacher was drilling the difference of there, their, and they’re or the difference of your and you’re.

Think about the emails you receive with the subject line that says: “You’re in Luck!”

The person who wrote it is immediately perceived as an idiot and the email is discarded as both disingenuous and poorly prepared.

Maybe I’m prejudice, but I don’t want to do business with someone who can’t correct his or her own work in the simplest subject line of an email.

The reason I’m harping on speaking and writing is because they are the foundation of the two most important elements of your success: image and reputation.

Everyone wants to have a great image.
Everyone wants to have a great reputation.

GOOD NEWS IS: You can influence both your image and your reputation with your CONSISTENT PERFORMANCE.

I’ll ask my audiences, “How many of you would be nervous speaking in front of a group of 300 people?” Almost everyone raises his or her hand. The real answer is, they are not nervous, they are not uncomfortable – those are symptoms. The real issue is they are UNPREPARED. They lack the experience, the subject matter expertise, or suffer from limited self-image or low self-esteem – or perhaps all four.

This is further complicated by the fact that most of you reading this know what show is on television on Wednesday night at 9 o’clock, and you’re glued to the set to see witness the next episode of “other people’s drama.” You make a conscience choice to watch something rather than to learn something or do something.

Perhaps if you took a Dale Carnegie course on public speaking, or joined a Toastmasters group, you would be able to become a confident presenter.

Perhaps if you started your own blog, and at the age of 30 or 40, you write about what you did on your summer vacation, you might be able to attract people with similar likes and values as they search the internet, same as you.

Please do not confuse this column as a call to action.
Rather it is a call to reality.

REALITY: Your writing skills and your speaking skills need to be at a higher level of competence if you are looking to elevate your income to a higher level.

REALITY: Your reputation is the sum total of your words and deeds – a large portion of which can come from writing and speaking.

REALITY: Your customer is more likely to buy your message if they buy into your passion.

REALITY: You can gain an amazing business social media presence if you combine your ability to write and your ability to convey a value message to your customers.

Here’s my recommendation to you…

1. Write a 500-word blog post once a week. Write about something you love. Write about something that may impact your customers. Write about something you have an expertise in.

2. Speak in public once a week. A civil organization will be happy to have you as their breakfast or lunch presenter. Speak on something you love, speak on something others will value, speak on something in which you are an expert.

2.5 You will not reap immediate rewards. But slowly over time your image and reputation will emerge. That’s a reward that has nothing to do with commissions or earnings, but it has everything to do with the feeling of fulfillment. That’s a feeling I hope you get to experience.

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].

What’s the reason beyond BLAME? Maybe it’s YOU!

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I overheard sales dialog on the airplane this morning. “He (the customer) has never responded to one of my emails, and never calls me back. The ONLY time he calls me is when he needs something.” Then back to devouring this week’s edition of US Weekly magazine.

Sound familiar?

Why do salespeople blame other people and/or other things for their own ineptitude? Why didn’t this salesperson say, “I gotta work on my voicemails and emails. They’re not getting any traction, and they’re costing me major money. I’m going on an all-out effort to improve my writing skills, my voicemail skills, and my creativity to generate better response!”

I’ll tell you why: It’s easier to blame others for your shortcomings than it is to take responsibility for them. It’s easier to blame than admit you’re not that good. It’s easier to blame than it is to improve. It’s easier to blame than face your own reality.

And I’m certain this message applies to you.

You blame the customer when something goes wrong, something didn’t happen as planned, someone didn’t respond, or you lost a sale to a competitor – especially at a lower price. Wrong. Very wrong.

I have been helping salespeople sell more and sell better since 1976, and during the time no one has ever come to me and said, “Jeffrey, I didn’t make the sale, and it was all my fault!” Interesting statistic.

Rather than blame, I have some answers that will help you. Actually, I have some questions. Questions you MUST ask yourself BEFORE you blame. These questions will give you a brand new perspective, and they automatically shift blame to responsibility. They will bring you a new sense of reality. And they will make you a better salesperson.

Ask yourself “WHY” to get to the truth.

  • Why was my call not returned?
  • Why did they cancel my appointment?
  • Why did they delete my email?
  • Why did they not respond to my email?
  • Why did they say, “Not interested”?
  • Why did they say, “We’re happy with our present supplier”?
  • Why can’t I set an appointment?
  • Why can’t I get through to the decision maker?
  • Why are they meeting with other vendors or suppliers?
  • Why did they take the lowest bid?
  • Why did they buy from the competition?
  • Why did they tell me that my price is too high?

Why are you blaming others (especially customers) for your inability to attract, engage, connect, and create value that leads to a sale?

One of the weakest and least exposed shortcomings of salespeople is how they use time. If you’re allocating too much time to watching TV, or other nonsense activities, you’re wasting valuable career-building opportunities.

Whatever you’re doing with your non-business, non-family time, ask yourself these reality questions:

  • Will this help me double my sales?
  • Will this help me build better relationships?
  • Will this help me become better known?
  • Will this make me be perceived as a person of value?
  • Will this help me build my reputation?
  • Will this help me build my sales and personal development skills?

Work on these elements of your sales and business life:

  • Message leaving. Are your messages in any way impacting your standing and status with the customer? Is there an ounce of value or creativity, or are you just begging for some news about the proposal you sent (and calling that a follow-up)?
  • Be available. Your prospect will call you when they are free. This may be before or after business hours.
  • Be easy to do business with. Customers want everything NOW!
  • Leave value messages. Something short and sweet that they can use.
  • Study creativity. Your competitive advantage is to be perceived as different. Read a book on creativity as a starting point.
  • Be more friendly than professional. Sales is a profession, but salespeople (you) must be perceived as friendly.
  • Build your business social media presence. Are you tweeting value messages? Interacting with customers one-on-one on your business Facebook page? Looking to make new connections on LinkedIn? Creating a YouTube channel with customer testimonial videos? Or are you watching the 6 o’clock news
  • Use meals to build relationships. You’ll be amazed how much more available customers become once you get to know them personally. Breakfast or lunch prospects and customers at least three times a week.

SIMPLE SELF-EVIDENT FACT: If you want customer response, you have to EARN it.

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].