Because of what I do, I get ‘bad salesperson’ horror stories from a number of friends. Some are just average – salespeople who don’t listen, salespeople who are too pushy, salespeople with bad manners, that kind of thing. Some inspire posts and some are so routine as not to be worthy.
However, every now and then I get one that is SO bad that it makes for a lesson that all of my readers should have, and this is one such story. It’s about stolen credibility. What’s that, you ask? Well, I define “Credibility” as “The characteristic that makes people believe what you say because it is you that says it.” If you have to prove your words, you don’t have credibility. But, did you know you could STEAL credibility (or try to)? Well, you can, and this is how.
Last week I had a great conversation with (college), as well as (other college) about partnering together to improve student health on university campuses. I wanted to see if you’d have availability this Friday or sometime next week for a quick introductory phone call.
Please let me know what time works for your schedule.
Apparently this vendor is using (college) and (other college) as a hook to reach out to all. Frankly I dislike this kind of sales maneuver.
Now, the problem becomes obvious. The salesman started a sales process with two colleges, likely was unable to move the sales process past the initial conversation, so decided to name-drop the two colleges he’d spoken to in order to attempt to gain credibility for more sales calls. He probably figured that what he was doing wouldn’t get back to the contacts that he was trying to leverage – wrong – and used their names without permission. Bad move.
That’s what we call “stolen credibility.” When is it proper to use the name of a customer or prospect?
When they give you permission to do so. Period, end of story. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll use the names of clients if we’ve had a successful experience AND they’ve given me permission to use their names. The only time I’d use the name of someone who wasn’t a client yet would be if they gave me a specific referral during the conversation – and if I have doubts, I’ll confirm it with a question, making sure it’s okay.
This guy didn’t do that, and let’s look at the result. First of all, the message got broadcast out and forwarded. He won’t get the appointment with the prospect who received the email, and if the sales process with the prospect he did see and named wasn’t dead before, it is now. His ethics, credibility, and integrity are now damaged. And since his target market is a fairly highly networked world, he’s damaged his reputation with prospects he’s likely not approached yet.
The person who forwarded this email to me wasn’t even personally connected to the salesperson, the intended recipient, or the prospect who dislikes this sales tactic – it made it all over the world.
My guess is that the salesman knew that he was doing something shady, but figured he wouldn’t get caught. You can’t think that way in today’s world. Hitting “reply all” or “Forward” is entirely too easy these days. Not only did he steal credibility, the theft got known all through his target market and ruined whatever credibility he had.
The new rule: Whatever you send by email, assume that it will get forwarded around beyond your recipient.
I’ve said for years that the most important skill in selling is the ability to ask great questions that get great answers. In fact, I’ve gone further and said that 80% of your chance to win or lose the sale is determined by the time you ask the last question.
I think I may have been wrong.
At this moment, those of you who have been trained by me are saying, “Wait, WHAT? When do I get my updated training? And what is the most important skill – prospecting, presenting, closing?” Relax. Your training is still intact.
All three companies had a salesperson call her without emailing.
Despite being mildly annoyed by the phone calls – she prefers to deal with people through email – she spoke to each salesperson. The conversations were virtually the same. None of the salespeople had looked at her company’s website, and two hadn’t even read any of the details that she provided in the contact form.
All three made assumptions about her company that were wildly incorrect; she was looking for a fully-featured version of their software for a small amount of users. They assumed that, because she had a small company, that she was looking for a less-featured product. Wrongo. And in assuming that, two of the three managed to make (hopefully inadvertent) disparaging comments about her organization.
The worst part is that she knows my sales philosophy, and she even said emphatically that all three salespeople asked quite a few questions and pretty good ones – they just didn’t listen to the answer.
You’re probably guessing how the conversations ended. Abruptly, and with some bad feelings on my friend’s part. And a need for software remains unfulfilled, just because salespeople don’t listen, and didn’t prepare for the calls.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.” It refers to a moment of almost complete success that turns into a moment of complete loss. I have, of course, seen it in sales and service, but rarely have I experienced it to the degree that I did last week.
A week ago, I was in Las Vegas for a conference on video marketing (for a change, I was attending and not speaking). It was a great conference, and I learned a lot about marketing with YouTube. I had planned to check out of my hotel and fly home on Monday, but some changes to my schedule led to me rebooking my flight (no problem there, thank you, Southwest). I needed to extend my hotel stay by a night, and I figured I’d just wait and do it on-site. That’s where the trouble started.
I was staying at a popular casino on the Strip. Let’s call it Harrah’s, because that’s what it was. I’ve stayed at numerous Harrah’s properties in Vegas and elsewhere and always had great experiences, but this was different. Harrah’s now offers an ‘expedited check-in’ process whereby you fill out an online form and then you can just use a kiosk to get your room assignment and key. So far so good, I’ve used these at other Harrah’s properties.
I arrived at about 2 PM, used the kiosk, and found out that my room wasn’t ready, but that they would send me an email when it was and I could return to the kiosk. Great. Except by 3:30 (check in time is 3), I hadn’t received an email. I went back and used the kiosk again, and again got the same message. I considered getting in line for check in at the desk, but the line was long and they only had two people working at the desk. I waited for the email that never came. Finally, at 5:15, I returned to the kiosk (the line was still long at the desk), and the kiosk gave me my keys. I was annoyed at the late check in and the fact that the email didn’t come as it was supposed to, but it was no big deal. I still planned on visiting the front desk to extend my stay at some point when the line was short.
The problem was that the line was never short at any point. Nor did they ever man more than three of the ten stations for check-in, at least when I was walking by. There seemed to be no urgency toward getting guests checked in.
On Sunday night – my last scheduled night to stay there – I returned from the conference to find a letter on my bed inviting me to extend my stay by one night for free. All I had to do was call the number on the letter, use the promotional code, and they’d extend my stay. Great! This way I could get the extra night I’d planned on, get it for free, and not have to mess with the desk.
So I called the number, used the code, and the person put me on hold. After five minutes on hold, my call was disconnected. I called back, explained to the NEXT person that I had been disconnected, and was again put on hold. This time, after seven minutes on hold, I was informed that they could not extend my stay via the phone (so why have me call?), and that I should take the letter to the front desk and perhaps they could help me.
I got in, yes, another long line with only two people working the desk. In twenty minutes, the line barely moved. By now, I was checking rates at other hotels on the Strip, and discovered that for the Monday night that I needed, rates were very cheap. Specifically, the night at Treasure Island (one of my favorite places on the Strip), the room would be $49. It would be, at the current rate, at least another 45 minutes, if not an hour, to get to the desk, and I figured my time was worth more than that. I reserved the room at TI, got out of line, and went back to my room.
In the elevator, I saw another man with the same letter. I asked him about his experience, and he said that they had told him that they couldn’t keep him in the same room – thus, to get his free night, he’d have to check out at 11 A.M., wait, then check back in at 3 P.M. He’d had a similar experience to me at checking in, and had no faith that he’d actually even be able to get his room at 3. We agreed that it wasn’t worth it, and in fact, we both said we’d never be returning to that hotel. We were actually more disgusted with how badly the ‘free night’ offer had been handled than if we’d simply tried to pay for another night.
I realize this has been a long story, but there are some lessons to be learned in it. Harrah’s screwed up, big time, and made a negative impression while trying to make a positive. I’m serious when I say that I will never stay there again, and I’m a frequent visitor to Las Vegas. Multiply that by the hundreds of other people who likely got that letter and tried to take them up on their offer, and they’ve put a lot of bad impressions in the marketplace. So, how did they mess up so badly?
They relied too much on technology. The first bad impression was at check-in, with the fiasco with the emails that weren’t sent and the late room assignment. They were clearly pushing as many people as possible to the check-in kiosk and understaffing the front desk as a result in order to save money on personnel. The problem is that the kiosk wasn’t working correctly, and a kiosk can’t answer questions.
They made an offer they weren’t prepared to fulfill. This is crucial. When a hotel offers an extra night for free, the logical assumption is that the guest doesn’t have to pack back up, check in and out, or do any of the other silliness involved with redeeming the offer. For whatever reason, they weren’t prepared to back this offer up. The offer actually made their impression worse. If I’d had to go to the front desk to extend my stay a night (paying for it as normal), I likely wouldn’t have stuck it out in the long line and would have gone to another hotel – but I wouldn’t have been nearly as disgusted and might have considered returning.
They don’t care about the customer. Anyone in Harrah’s management could have seen that they needed to plug in more people at the front desk. People were angry and disgusted by waiting in the line, and I’m sure that they were giving the employees an earful when they finally got to the front of the line. Logic would dictate that a hotel manager, seeing that, would have found another couple of people to expedite check-in. Not doing so was basically an upraised middle finger to the guests.
The story has a happy ending – for me, at least. I packed the next morning, went right up the Strip to TI, and within three minutes of walking up to check-in (no line to wait in), I had my room keys and had a pleasant night’s stay. I highly recommend that hotel.
I’ve always said that in a society like ours, our profession – selling – is the tip of the economic spear. We are economic drivers, not passengers, and our profession produces real good and real growth. Particularly in instances where new ideas, concepts, and products need to be brought to market, someone has to persuade someone else to write a check.
This effect, of course, has been somewhat diluted during the age of Internet vendors and product introductions – but it’s still valid. I had a very vivid illustration of this concept presented to me last month in Las Vegas.
For those who don’t go to Vegas, for time immemorial, the huge Strip casinos used to have free parking. Valet parking, self parking, didn’t matter – it was free. That changed about a year ago; now parking on the Strip is paid-for parking. The only casino that I know of that still has free self parking is Treasure Island – but I digress. I’m sure there were a lot of customer complaints. Who, after all, wants to spend their time driving around a parking garage looking for a spot after paying for the privilege?
Thus, when I entered the garage at Mandalay Bay last month, I saw something very surprising and very cool. They now have a system which senses, highlights, and counts the available parking spots in the parking garage. When you drive in, there’s a little display above each turnout that tells you exactly how many spaces are available in that direction. When you go down a row, there’s a row of lights overhead from each parking spot – they are red if the spot is occupied, green if it’s open. You find the green lights and there’s your spot. Easy-peasy.
I marveled over this innovation – and as I went to other Strip casinos, I saw that nearly every one had implemented one such system. It was like a quick wave. Doing what I do for a living, I immediately thought of the salesperson who made the first sale.
You see, someone had to invent this system – but then someone (inventor, company owner, salesperson, makes no difference) had to sell a casino operator on buying and installing it – it couldn’t have been cheap. I bet they had to ask some very tough questions, and make an amazing presentation to make what was easily a seven-figure sale and maybe eight figures.
They extolled the customer friendliness of the system, explaining that they’d likely get fewer complaints.
Then – I’m betting that their trump card was some sort of set of statistics showing the cost of each minute a person spent driving around the parking garage instead of gambling, shopping, or eating in their hotels. ROI figures were presented, a proposal was shown, and then they closed.
And then, after the first one was installed, they probably went up and down the Strip, explaining to other operators how their resort would be left behind if they didn’t install this.
Somebody made a LOT of money. And, more importantly, somebody solved some headaches for their customer – and did so with a product that didn’t even exist a year ago (or at least didn’t exist in Vegas).
Somebody probably had a lot of people telling them why this wouldn’t work, why the casinos would never buy, why it didn’t make sense, etc. But they persevered.
Whenever you get a bit discouraged, or your boss rolls out a new product and you’re skeptical, think of those red and green lights and understand that there’s a business case for everything, that there’s a buyer for everything, and that it’s our job to make it happen.
SIDE NOTE: Is your company going to make its numbers? Why or why not? If you are the owner of a company and you’d like some input, I’d like to make you an offer – I’d like to offer you a complementary Sales Strategy Review session. You can access my input on how to grow your company, completely without obligation, for the next two weeks. We’ll spend about 45 minutes to an hour on the phone (unless you’re in Kansas City; then we can meet in person), we’ll go over your sales approach, staffing, process, compensation, and other issues affecting your sales success. You’ll get at least 2-3 good take-aways that you can implement completely on your own, even if you never spend a dime with me. It’s my way of helping my friends, and if you’re reading this, you’re my friend.
I’m writing this from San Antonio, Texas. A lovely city, if you’re wondering. My hotel is about one block from the Alamo. Yes, of “remember the Alamo” fame. And no, I didn’t do anything that Ozzy Osbourne did at the Alamo (kids, look that up if you don’t get the reference). The Alamo is a truly inspiring place – where about 300 Texans chose to stand off a Mexican army numbering over 6,000. A fool’s errand? Perhaps, in our modern world – but in their world, it was a matter of honor.
For those Texans, the Alamo was their last retreat. One thing that strikes you as you walk around the original footprint is how small it was, and how little fortification there really was for those people. But, mentally, they had left themselves no alternative – it was to defend the Alamo or nothing. As you might expect, this brings me to a question that I often wonder – what’s our Alamo, in our careers? What’s our ‘defend or nothing’ point?
I started my business nearly 14 years ago. My official first day in business was September 1, 2004. On that day, I made up my mind that I was never going to work for someone else ever again. In doing so, I’d set up my own personal Alamo. When it came to the question of success or failure (and I’ll be honest, there have been a couple of moments of potential failure), my only option was to succeed. After all, if I’m not going to work for someone else, what am I going to do?
One issue I see in today’s world is that salespeople, confronted with failure, simply plan on moving on to another job. “There’s always going to be another gig,” says the logic, “so if I fail here, it’s no big deal.” And it’s not until that person has stacked up enough different failures to make themselves basically unhireable. And at that point, it’s too late for them.
That’s bad. What’s worse is seeing business owners who are at their own Alamo, but are willing to fail rather than move out of their comfort zone.
Knowing that you’re at your own personal Alamo means that you have to have a willingness to do whatever it takes to defend your ground. If that means swallowing your pride, so be it. If it means learning a new skill, or changing your business model, or refreshing your sales model, so be it. When you’re at your own Alamo, beyond the point of any retreat, you’re willing to do whatever it takes.
Here’s what I’ve learned, though, in nearly 30 years of sales and 14 years of owning my own business. It’s almost always better to make a stand, decide that you’re going to do whatever it takes to be successful RIGHT NOW, and make it work, than it is to retreat and find success at some vague point down the road.
If you’re struggling, if you’re not getting the results you want, or even if the boss has you with one foot out the door, allow me to give you the advice that generations of Texans have taken to heart.
One of the most common ways for a sale to end up in the Graveyard of Lost Sales is for the salesperson to assume things as fact that aren’t fact at all in the mind of the customer; or, worse, they begin with ‘knowledge’ that isn’t correct. Ironically, this can come from doing one of the right things before a sale; more on this later.
Since sales is a game that’s played inside the head of your buyer, it’s important that you work through the process in concert with your buyer – assumptions can be a sale killer. To deal with this, I teach salespeople a concept that I learned in debate – the concept of Tabula Rasa. That’s a Latin phrase meaning “blank slate,” and knowing it – and living by it – can be key to your success.
As the concept is applied in debate, it means that the judge has no presumed positions or opinions on the topic, and the entire result is determined by what is said or proven with evidence during the debate. This concept also applies in legal proceedings; nothing is assumed to be factual unless it is testified to or shown in open court.
In this case (a real live scenario from a month ago), the salesperson assumed that because he explained the specs vs. price, that the customer knew that his machine was the best value – even though the customer didn’t say so. He assumed wrong and lost the sale.
When we go into a sale, the fewer assumptions we carry, and the fewer assumptions we make during the sale, the better off we are. As I noted above, sometimes we can work against ourselves. Pre-call research is a great practice, but sometimes it can lead us down the wrong road. For instance, the salesperson finds a statement on the customer’s website that the customer plans to open four new locations in the next year, which makes them a better candidate for the salesperson’s services.
What the salesperson didn’t find was a statement that the company has scrapped this approach, instead deciding to bolster their online presence. See the train wreck that’s about to happen? Sometimes the research you find – even on the customer’s own website – is obsolete or otherwise irrelevant. If the salesperson builds an approach around that “fact,” the salesperson will be firing at a target that isn’t there. So how can we deal with that, using Tabula Rasa thinking? Simple. Ask a confirming question.
In this case, there’s no harm and no foul. The salesperson was able to check and confirm, BEFORE building a presentation around false knowledge, because the salesperson remembered the Tabula Rasa mindset – it’s not a fact until the customer says it’s a fact. In this case, it wasn’t.
Assumptions cause lost sales, missed opportunities, and bad customer relationships. Don’t assume. Instead, in every new call, think Tabula Rasa. If a piece of information will affect your sale, make sure you get that information confirmed or stated verbally during the call. It’ll keep you visiting the Graveyard of Lost Sales quite so often.
Are You Playing on the Right Field?
Recently, I’ve been looking back through some of my old articles and posting #throwbackthursday posts on my LinkedIn and Facebook pages. ( As a side note, if you’d like to link with me, here’s my profile.) It’s interesting – I’ve written over 500 articles, and sometimes I’ve found some really strong material that I’d forgotten about.
One example is this sentence: Sales is a sport that’s played inside the customer’s head. It’s one of the truisms of sales, now and forever. Sometimes, we think that sales is like a pro/con comparison on a legal pad, and if we end up with more ‘pro’ entries than ‘con’ entries, we win. And then we’re surprised when it doesn’t work that way, and we lose the sale.
The problem is that we’re playing on the wrong field. If you’re playing football and you’re on a baseball field, you’re probably not going to do very well. Same with selling. Unless you know the rules of the field, where and how the goals are located, and what’s in and out of bounds, you’re probably not going to win the game.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the rules of the field don’t have to be a mystery. You can discover them – all you have to do is have the patience and willingness to ask.
In the sales process, in fact, the customer has the entire control. The customer’s head is the playing field, and the customer is judge and jury. This being the case, shouldn’t you understand the rules first?
How will you define a successful purchase?
What’s your criteria for selecting a vendor?
Assuming this purchase is successful, who benefits the most? Who gets rewarded? How will they be rewarded?
Why don’t salespeople ask these questions? Because they ASSume that they know the answers – and we all know how the word “assume” breaks down. It’s not enough, in fact, to just ask these questions in an initial sales process. Things change, and the framework for a sale can change from sales process to sales process – make sure to refresh your knowledge often.
If you always remember what the playing field is when you start a sale, you’re going to be much farther toward the sale than salespeople who don’t.
More than two decades ago, I learned a lesson that has stuck with me since, and that I’ve taught countless salespeople – all of whom have used it to good effect. It’s about the most valuable information you can possess. Of course, I tell everyone that the most valuable information is information about their CUSTOMERS – but some pieces of information are more valuable than others.
In the situation I’m recalling, I was dealing with a repeat customer on a fairly large purchase of electric motors. This customer and I had done business a few times, and I knew that anytime he was buying more than about $5,000 of stuff, he liked to let it percolate for a couple of days, and then he’d buy. The problem was that my sales manager was trying to cram numbers to finish the month, and if I let the customer wait, the month would end.
I responded, “Look, I know him. He’s gonna buy but if we try to pressure him, it’ll irritate him. I’d rather not upset a good customer.” My SM snorted in disgust – and then, unbeknownst to me, called my customer and offered him a “buy now” discount. My customer called me and wanted to know who the ‘jerk’ was that was pressuring him. I was caught unawares, and long story short, my customer ended up buying from my competitor, and it took me a few months to get back into his good graces. When I did, he bought the same exact way as before.
The most important thing you can know about a customer is how that customer prefers to buy.
Once you know that, the most important thing you can do is to respect how that customer prefers to buy.
This goes against all the old tropes of selling – “Persistence pays off,” “closed mouths don’t get fed,” etc. But there’s a reason those are old tropes. Respecting your customer and how they want to do things is key to an arrangement.
My up-to-date response is this: Ultimately, the buyer buys from who they want to. If they’re just stalling me to get a better deal elsewhere, then I haven’t sold my value well enough.
My response is that, yes, normally I do. Over the years, I’ve won far more deals than I’ve lost by respecting the customer’s buying process. The truth is that it’s a lot harder to sit and wait than it is to push, push, push – I’m not an overly patient person. But it’s a lot harder to lose a potentially good deal because you pushed a customer away.
So my advice to you is, with every customer: Find out how they want to buy and then align your sales process to it. Your customers will thank you – and sooner or later, your Sales Manager will too when you show him/her the numbers.