Championship aftermath. The first breeds the second.

The Miami Heat just won the NBA title, and LeBron James, aka ‘King James,’ won the most valuable player award.

He completed a nine-year mission.

A reporter asked him what his first thoughts were. He instantly replied with a HUGE smile, “It’s about damn time.”

As most know, the game of basketball is a team effort and a team victory, but LeBron James’ individual performance ranks as one of the all time greats.

For the next week or two, there will be euphoric celebrations by players and fans alike. Parades, interviews, t-shirts, hats – you name it.

Then it’s time for the reality of ‘next year.’

Think about LeBron’s first eight years. Season after season, no championship. He made the finals twice, but got beat.

Fan discouragement pales in comparison to LeBron’s personal discouragement and frustration from not winning a championship. Pile on the media. Until finally last night… VICTORY!

It seems as though the entire sports world was relieved. Sure, there are plenty of people who don’t have LeBron James on their “like” list, but that’s predominately the result of petty jealously or envy.

In his postgame interview, LeBron talked about his trying to prove others wrong mentality during the finals loss last year, versus his mentality that lead to the win this year. He said, “I just got back to being who I am, just got back to enjoying the game I fell in love with and why I fell in love with it.”

QUESTION: How do you think LeBron is going to play next year?
ANSWER: With the quiet confidence of a champion.

MAJOR CLUE: The first championship is the hardest. (Just like earning the first million is the hardest, and just like winning the first sale is the hardest.)

It’s important for you to understand the confidence that’s instilled in your soul after you make that first big sale. It’s easy to see in others, it’s difficult to see in yourself. The only way you can gain it is to take the responsibility to make it happen – for you.

The Heat won as a team, but I guarantee you LeBron James is sitting there with a personal feeling of accomplishment that can never be explained, only felt.

There’s an old adage that says “there’s no ‘I’ in ‘Team.’” WRONG THINKING! A winning team is made up of superior individuals. Jack Ramsay, one of the greatest coaches of all time, says, “You coach the game and you coach the player.” He left out the word team and won championships because of it.

I have watched Jack Ramsay coach since 1963. From the time he was a coach at St. Joseph’s College, I have never seen a coach get more out of individual players. When the Portland Trailblazers won the 1977 championship, they had two great players, Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas, coupled with a bunch of mediocre players. They beat the Philadelphia 76ers (one of the greatest teams of all time), and beat them handily. Jack Ramsay was the primary reason. He coached those players to victory and as a result the team won.

Have you reached ‘championship mentality and qualification?’ Ask yourself these questions…

  • What is your confidence level?
  • What is your skill level?
  • How strong is your love of the sales game?
  • How intense is your desire to win? (Or are you still taking the first ‘no?’)
  • What is your anger and or frustration level?
  • How good is your coach?

HERE’S A CLUE: Win one. Win a BIG ONE. Win a big sale, and your confidence level to win the next one cannot be measured. It’s off the chart.

Champions do not start out that way.
First they work their ass off.
Then they win.
You?

(LeBron’s postgame interview – an interview I believe every salesperson on the planet should download and put on their playlist once a day, can be found here http://bit.ly/L48nq7.)

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 salesman@gitomer.com.

The hard side of training, and the soft side of learning.

When a new sales representative is hired, a company provides what is known as orientation and ramp up. Once those elements are complete, the company believes the salesperson can go out and begin earning money.

First, it’s a heavy dose of product training. The company and their trainers will spend days, sometimes weeks, on ‘what it is,’ ‘how it works,’ ‘how it’s used,’ and a myriad of other semi-useful facts.

Overlooked of course is how the customer profits from it, and what the customer’s motive to buy it is. Hello!

I’m about to give you a major AHA! for all product training. Forever. Trainers and training departments will scoff at this because it will mean a huge reduction in what they do and how they do it.

MAJOR CLUE: All product training should be given at a customer’s place of business. This is where your product is actually used. This is where a salesperson can gain real-world information about practical application, about flaws and service needs, and about merits and features that are most valuable to the actual user.

If enough time is spent at the customer’s place, salespeople will also uncover why the product was purchased, how the product was purchased, and the value the product has. It’s also likely, salespeople will dispel the single most erroneous aspect of sales: ‘the customer only buys price.’

REALITY: ‘The customer only buys price’ is an excuse propagated by weak and lazy salespeople.

BIGGER REALITY: If companies like Halliburton are able to sell hammers to the government for $6,000, somehow you should be able to get your price if you are within a few points or dollars of your competition.

BIGGEST REALITY: The reason salespeople deal with price is because they have no idea about the buying motives and actual product use. Reason? Product training took place in the corporate classroom, where I maintain it is just south of useless.

So much for hard (product) skills.
Now it’s time for the harder part – the soft skills – the selling skills.

Soft skills can be taught one of three ways:

  1. In-house training. Company trainers that may also include best salespeople, and outside courseware trained in-house.
  2. Outside training. Should be presented by someone who can sell an off-the-shelf solution with the intention that the salesperson will learn general sales, or a system of selling, or a customized sales process where specific aspects of the product and customer are taught.
  3. Voice of customer training. Voice of the customer training is when an existing customer tells their story of use of product (what their history is), why they bought it, what their experience has been, how they felt about it after purchase, and why they would recommend it.

PERSONAL NOTE: For the past 20 years, I have built my reputation on utilizing my expertise combined with voice of customer. I consider the training department vitally important, because they are the glue and history of the company’s success. These elements, if combined correctly, can make any salesperson or sales team THE dominant player(s) in their market – without respect to price.

The reason that soft skills, or selling skills, are the most important, yet most perplexing, aspect of sales success is because they must be accepted by the salesperson as valid, believable, and transferable before they can be successfully deployed. The salesperson must say to his or herself, ‘I agree with this. I think I can do this. I’m willing to put this into practice.’

Most important, the salesperson must do it his or her way, in his or her style, using his or her personality. That way the entire execution of the selling process is transferred to the customer as both authentic and believable.

If you’re a salesperson, and you are hungry for greater success, it’s important that you improve your soft skills to a point where they are equal to or greater than your product knowledge.

Please understand I’m not talking about learning some old-world, find-the pain, manipulative sales process. In today’s selling, ‘making a sales pitch’ and ‘closing the sale’ are pretty much over.

The biggest soft skill challenges in today’s sales process are finding the decision maker, creating harmony, engaging, proving value, transferring an emotional message, and earning the sale.

SALES REALITY: The hard skills (product) can be pounded in by a training department, but the soft skills have to be accepted as valid by the salesperson.

I’ve just given you a thirty thousand foot perspective on the new science of selling. It’s what I know to be true because I have executed it myself and created my own success with it. Some of you will accept it. Some of you will not.

JEFFREY REALITY: I’m sitting in a Starbucks at the Marriot Marquis in New York City. New York City is where most of my selling skills were acquired and polished.

I’m smiling, reminiscing, and calling to mind not just the soft skill sales success, but also the immortal words sung by Frank Sinatra, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”

So can you. Come to New York City, make a few sales, and find out for yourself.

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 salesman@gitomer.com.

It’s not being best, it’s setting the standard.

When I say the words, ‘set the standard,’ what comes to your mind?

Is it personal standards of yours?
Is it standards that your business sets?
Is it standards you have in your mind about other people?
Is it standards you have in your mind about other products?

When you go to a restaurant and order your favorite steak, you’ll always recall the one restaurant (especially if it’s the one you’re in) that had the best steak (or whatever your favorite food was). That restaurant set the standard. All other steaks you will ever eat will be compared to the standard bearer, until one day you may get a better steak, and then that restaurant will become the new standard bearer.

You know and recognize dozens of standard setters in your life – especially if these products or people are amazing and have your undying loyalty and especially if you proactively refer them. It could be as simple as the best ice cream or the best apple pie. It could be the best dentist or the best chiropractor. It could be the best financial planner.

And it could also be your own brand loyalty. The best car. The best clothing. The best computer. The best phone. Things that you would never consider doing without.

Whatever those products are, whoever those people are, they set the standard. Your standard.

There are third party standards…

  • Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single basketball game. He didn’t just set a record. He set the standard.
  • Abe Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. It wasn’t just a speech. He set the standard.
  • At the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech to 500,000 people. It wasn’t just a speech. He set the standard.

The Beatles. Elvis Presley. They set the standard and paved the way for others.

When Wilt Chamberlain set the standard for scoring, it was on March 2, 1962. That standard has endured more than 50 years. Kobe Bryant’s 81 points were good, but not as good as Wilt’s 100 points – the standard.

Accomplishments are always compared to standard. Quality is always compared to standard. Products are always compared to standard. You know what the best products in your industry are. If you work for that company, you love it and vice versa.

MAJOR CLUE: Now that you get the idea of what I’m talking about, let’s talk about your business and your career.

What standards are you setting and who are the people involved in setting those standard – not just in your company, but also in the mind of your customer and in the reputation of your business in your community and in your industry?

If you’re not setting the standard, you’re fighting price. Reputation trumps price.

Your reputation stems from what others think about you and say about you. In today’s world, it’s what others post online about you. Reputation comes from setting standards in service, quality of product, consistency, and availability.

You may think of it as ‘best.’ But there’s a big difference between bragging about the fact you are the ‘best’ and ‘we set the standard.’

There are many products in which you can argue ‘who is best.’ There’s often an obvious winner. German automobile engineering has set the standard. Many computer products are best. Microsoft set the old standard and Apple set the new standard. There are many social media sites that can be argued as better than others, but Facebook set the standard.

As a salesperson, I’d like you to take a moment and evaluate (or should I say self-evaluate) where you are on the standard-setting scale. Are you just a rep? Are you one of the top 25% of reps? Or have you achieved the status of trusted advisor, who is setting standards not just in sales numbers, but also in customer loyalty, profitability, and relationships.

What about your company? What standards are they setting? What high ethical ground have they achieved?

If you look at the example of Bank of America, you see a century-old company who had set many standards and achieved global greatness. All that was destroyed by indiscriminate greed and a total lack of understanding of social media in general. Standard bearers can fall quickly. Just ask Tiger Woods.

I’ll admit this is pretty high-level thinking and for many of you reading this. You may believe that setting the standard is out of your personal control – especially standards that your company sets. But in the new world of transparency, thanks to the internet, mothered by Google and social media, you now have the opportunity to build your personal brand, create your personal reputation, and set your own personal standards – standards that will remain yours even if you change companies or careers.

I challenge you that the key word in standard setting is endure. Set standards that will last. Many have come and gone quickly. Don’t be one of them.

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 salesman@gitomer.com.

Practices for Professionals – Make Your Electronic Calendar Visible

"Individuals should be ready and willing, at all times, to have their work observed by their manager."


Hi there! This article is available to StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Remote Access and Dedicated Advisor clients and those who subscribe to one of the article's related categories.

If you're already a Remote Access or Dedicated Advisor client or a related category subscriber, please log in to read this article.

Not a client? We'd love to have you on board. Check out our StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor service options.

Practices for Professionals – Maintain Updated Electronic Calendars

How often have you tried to schedule a meeting during a time that was seemingly available to one or more participants only to have invitees decline the invitation or not show-up because of a previous commitment? All to often, professionals fail to maintain their calendars fully up-to-date such that these tools accurately represent their time commitments and availability.


Hi there! This article is available to StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Remote Access and Dedicated Advisor clients and those who subscribe to one of the article's related categories.

If you're already a Remote Access or Dedicated Advisor client or a related category subscriber, please log in to read this article.

Not a client? We'd love to have you on board. Check out our StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor service options.