Same day

Some one asked me why I use such a large font.The answer is simpler than you probably thought. Its so I can read it!

I try, really do this, to learn something from someone every day. Some times it is easier than others, and some times I have a hard time in thinking through the day and coming up with a lesson.

Today I was asked a question about the webinar that I did today, and why I liked it so much. This is not a learned question, nor will this be a great answer. I am not sure if it is a question to learn from.

I was thinking that I really feel that what I am supposed to do is to help people. I have felt this forever, and although I don't think that I do it at all, I guess that there are people who would say the opposite. So I learned today that I had fun helping others, which I would think is not a bad lesson after all.

Sales Tip for the moment: always write a thank you note to everyone you meet, and always, always have business cards with you. You never know who you are going to meet.

Good Selling,

Steve

Do you think this was too self serving. I might!
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Thursday

I am getting ready for another webinar in about 30 minutes from now. If you have never joined me for one of these you should. We have another scheduled for later this month, and you can sign up by contacting Scott at Sforman@dei-sales.com.

He will be happy to help you. These webinars are the best things that I do, and I try to create a real learning experience for those that attend.

Try to join me.

Good selling,

Steve

Organization

Have you ever thought how important being organized is for the sales person?
I was working on a new article yesterday, and thought about some questions that you might want to think about:

1. What's in your desk?
2. Whats in that over sized brief case that you carry?
3. What's in your pockets for purse (for those of you that carry a purse)?
4. How are you managing your time?
5. Do you prioritize properly each day?

More about this later.

BTW: it was Jeffery!

Good Selling,

Steve

Good morning

Good morning you sales people. How are you today. I see that more of you are reading this, so I will have to pick up the pace of writing. People have told me that when there are comments, it means that their are that many more people reading the blog.

Do any of you have your own blog. If you tell me I will check it out. Maybe even give you my opinion on what you are writing about.

This holiday has been a good one for me. I am up at my place, alone, this time, writing and thinking about sales, and the people that I have worked with over the years. I had the opportunity to view a DVD of a speech that I did a number of weeks ago. It is always interesting to be my own critic. I also learn from them, since there are things that I say that sound so great!????

Who know how great they are.

I had a problem last week, I get this call from anothertrainer telling me that the new book that I am to release, Stephan Schiffman's Sales Bible is a violation of this guys book the Sales Bible, so I had to change the title of the book...at least my publisher did! the guy wasn't very nice about it, and yelled at the from the very first moment, when I just had answered the phone.

You know, after 30 years of books and talks, I don't like to be spoken to that way, but what the hell! I hope that he feels better now. I would have had the publisher change the title anyway, with out the noise.

This week will be quite for the average sales person, and we ARE going into the Holiday season. It funny to me the number of people who tell me that they have all these parties to go to, so they cannot sell. I think that is bull. How many parties to you have schedule from now until the end of they year. I think that I have 2!

Watched some TV last night and read. I am in the process of reading 3 books, i tend to do that, but nothing about sales. I am writing the newest book about the Experienced (read "old")Sales Person. Today I have to complete another chapter, and then write an article for the website.

OK, that's it.

Good Selling,

Steve

BTW: about the comment on Thanksgiving, I did not mean to be PC. Nevertheless, there are poeople who do not celebrate and I wanted to include them!

Happy Holiday!

For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, have a happy holiday.

Good selling, Steve

Monday

Perhaps this week, before Thanksgiving and then at Christmas are the hardest weeks for a salesperson. After all, what person will see you now?

Ofcourse, I have an answer to that. And that is ANYONE will see you if you called two weeks ago, and not today.

The problem that most sales people started this week this week. In other words, it's as if they did not think that Thanksgiving week was coming, so they did not plan for it. They let the week happen two weeks ago without setting an appointment for this week. They are right, it is hard to get people to pay attention to you now, they are busy with their own thoughts. However, if you had reached them two or three weeks ago you would have appointments now.

So what is a person to do. NOW is the time to prospect for Christmas week. You can call people next Monday with the sole purpose of setting meetings between Christmas and New Year's day. Of course, there will be those that tell you that everyone is off then, not true. There will be those that will tell you that people will have nothing to do, so that is the best week to see them. Not true. This is selling myths, which are full of #$%@!&*
and not true at all. You can all anyone at any time of the year. You can see anyone at any time of the year.

OK, so start calling, and forget the myths.

Good Selling,

Steve

Spice

I wanted to add some spice to this blog, they tell me it brings more people to it. The problem is I have no idea what I can write about that is spicy. Anyone have a suggestion?

I can give you a usual list of sales suggestions, but not today. I am going to think spice...you do too.

Good Selling,

Steve

IT WORKS!

Today the spell check and the various fonts came up on the machine! Great news for you an for me, the spellling willll beee betttter!

Speaking of spelling, and writing, I as wondering how many people still write thank you notes after their sales meetings. It seems to me that the email has taken over from the so called "snail mail", and no one is writing any more.

If that is true, then it is a shame. The well written, by hand, note always made me feel like the person actually cared enough to take the time to sincerely, or make believe , that they cared. Now with email, I sometimes get a thank you, and most times not.

I too, have fallen into the email cringe, by sending everything instantly. As a society we may have lost the personal touch that was so important years ago.

We all talk about establishing a relationship with the prospect and the client, yet we send emails...really personal. The fact that everything is done by phone, email, blackberry, text, video, etc., has driven us further apart than ever before.

Now is the time to rethink your priorities and come to the conclusion that a handshake, or a handwritten note, may be the real difference.

Good selling,

Steve

Good Morning

My spell check on this blog has failed to show up, so this really sucks. Excuse the typos that you see, but it is driving me nuts.

Sales is one of those things that is highly risky. I flew last week to two different cities, big trips, to see if I can get two deals closed. And while I thought the meetings went well, the only way you really know that if it happens the way that you think it will is by geting thew deal closed. In the mean time, it is a waiting game.

What should a sales person do while waiting for some action?
1. create more prospects
2. Call on exisiting accounts
3. have some coffee
4. stay home

The answer is obvious...but I wonder what answer that you would put in. Good selling,

Steve

BTW: what answer do you think that I would say?

I HATE the phone

Here I am sitting, waiting for the phone to ring. My prospect and I had set a time for 3pm to have a conference call. But he had to put it off for another hour. And as usual it is the sales guy that is sitting waiting for the phone to ring. Doesn't that just drive you nuts! I do not understand why that happens, it would not happen if we were meeting in person, but the phone is an easy way to get blown off for the day.

Maybe there is something we could do to stop this practice. First, send an email to the person reminding them of the call. NAH, that doesn't work any better.

OK, lets try a letter or Fedex mail to them. NAH, that doesn't seem to work.

Let's call the assistant to make sure that everyone knows the time of the call. That really doen't work any better.

OK: here is it. Don't use the phone! Go see the person if possible.

Short of that, WAIT. That for me is a crappy plan!

Good Selling,Steve

THANKS

Thanks for your kind notes and emails. The trip to Saudi was really great. I was able to meet with several new clients with the franchisees in the Mideast. I also gave three different presentations. As always I learned allot about myself and then about selling. I have this process of thinking about sales and the way that we sell.Here are some of the things that I brought up in Saudi:

We all want to be the "trusted advisor" in the sales pyramid. The only issue is how we get to the top. I was speaking and realized that there are three skills needed to be the "THE" sales person; the one that is sought out. First we need to have a god handle on our product.
This means that product knowledge is essential.

The second is that we need to have a clear understanding of our client. This truly means that we understand what they DO not simply what they buy from us.

And finally, we need to be able to communicate effortlessly with the client about them and us! Communication without the other two is meaningless.


I told people in the Kingdom that we have a great job, being in sales. At the same time, we need to hone our skills.

Let me know your thoughts.

Good selling,

Steve