Thursday, February 7, 2008

Tony Robbins could crack a coconut with that lowel mandibel

Neither myself or the people I affiliate myself with would ever want to be called Sales Gurus. In fact, I might want to throw down if you called me that. Unless you are significantly larger than I. A calm, reasonable exchange of ideas would then suffice.

I think 90+ percent of that How to be a Super-Duper-Can Do Storm Trooper in sales is utter horse feces. 10-15 years ago I would have said all of it should be lining bird cages. The teachers and the messaging, however are getting better. That's a good thing. A discernable drop in the amount of sales automatons attempting to sell you should register soon.

Nothing of worth or value comes easy. Didn't your Grandpappy tell ya that? After he sobered up a little? No? He'd disappear for days, huh?

Let’s go the full-disclosure route, here . I’ve been fired from corporate sales jobs before for not selling enough, not selling fast enough, not selling aggressively enough, not watching and then emulating the ultra high testosterone-laden films like Boiler Room enough. Ho-hum.

Sell, damnit! Close them!! Find new customers…NOW. Close em’ out. You sell anything today, maggott?? That’s pretty much the message (after all these years) in the VAST majority of corporate sales groups. Especially when the numbers get a little light. Good times, huh? I wonder why salespeople are so universally loathed.

Flip side: I’ve approached hundreds of complete strangers in my career who didn’t know me from Batman, what I was representing or the company behind it. They ended up buying my stuff. And then, later, they bought more.

Oh, sure, I like to think it's in part because I’m a pretty clever guy, I learn fairly quickly, I present well and I know I can consistently make people laugh. All in all, fun guy to have a beer with. But that's a relatively small part of.

You know that old sales training line, People are not buying your product...they're buying you!! Unless what you sell is a pure commodity, that line is dog poop.

All joking aside-but only for a moment-I understand and employ some of the methodologies out there that are critical to get in front of the right companies, the right people, at the right time while maintaining and nurturing those relationship. Not exactly Sales 101 but not splitting the atom either.

But the people who buy or have bought my stuff did so because they either wanted it or, more importantly, they needed it. And when they were ready, THEY CONTACTED ME.

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