Paper Pushers Not Managers

The state of sales management today is getting worse than I have ever seen it. I believe this is because sales managers have been trained so inadequately that they have basically given up on the coaching aspect of their profession. They have turned into glorified paper pushers and have gotten away completely from the essence of managing which is to change strategy and behavior that is not working and replace them with functional ones that do.

They haven’t got the faintest idea how to correct the poor performance of their sales force in real time before major damage has occurred like a REAL manager would do. They are much like  watching a football team that runs the ball every time. They run the same play over and over and so the defense stops them in their tracks. In the sales world, it is your buyer that can see you repeat the same mistake again and again.

No Expectations, No Improvement

Furthermore, they set no expectations, plan no activities, blame others for their lack of results and bury themselves in distractions like reviewing expense reports to hide from the truth. They also don’t feel very good about themselves, much less their jobs. They suffer from “toxic energy” because they don’t believe the work they do as sales managers is meaningful. What should sales managers of today be doing to increase the performance of their teams? I thought you’d never ask. Here is the palate of the successful manager:

1. Hiring — Always looking for replacements of the “bottom third.”
2. Commitment — Evaluating the “buy in” of the individual performers.
3. Training — Provide and teach the system they operate with.
4. Coaching — Adjusting and tweaking individuals to get back on track.
5. Accountability — Hold their team accountable to follow their commitment.

Why not recommit to becoming a better manager today? Should a manager spend any time running the reports? I say leave the paperwork and statistical data gathering for a clerk or secretarial type employee to do. The above “managing” activities will take up your time and then some.

Numbers are important, but should be easy to get and should not consume your most valuable resource which is your time. Stop pushing paper and get off you’re a** and change your teams performance now. The successful manager doesn’t wait for change to happen, they make it happen.

Do I Have To Be Perfect?

One of the things I like bet about baseball is the possibility of a pitcher throwing a perfect game.  No other sport offers such a finite example of doing the job right.  Is it possible is sales to be perfect?  Selling your services to possible clients is another matter. Although one can draw parallels between sports and sales there are some differences.  Do you have to be perfect to be able to execute a sale? Thank goodness that you in fact don’t have to be perfect to get someone to purchase from you.  With that in mind, let’s go over what it takes to perform at the highest level in a quest to attain perfection.

Mind Like Water

How many times have you seen sales people “over-celebrate” both success and failure? You and your sales team could learn a lesson from any pitcher who is on the brink of throwing a perfect game. Observe his “mind-like-water” state of mind. Just like throwing a perfect game in baseball, striving for perfection in sales takes concentration and the ability to eliminate distraction. Giving your success or failure too much credence is the sign of a loser. A real pro knows that if you just closed a deal, you are thinking, “What’s next?” If you lost a deal, that same high performer asks, “What did I miss?” Either way in the life of a perfect performer, opportunity is waiting around the corner.

Ability to Concentrate Is Key

Watch a video replay of a perfect game and look at how the fans, announcers and teammates are going crazy in anticipation while the pitcher remains calm like the eye of the storm. Watch them in the dugout and you’ll see someone who has chosen to isolate themselves from any distractions. Even separating himself from his own teammates. Think about the sales calls where you become distracted by tough buyers who are bent on out negotiating your sales person. Do you people “lose it” when faced with pressure? Or do you calmly respond with a question that moves them closer to getting a deal?

Having a Short Memory Helps

I remember in 2009 when Mark Buerhle from the Chicago White Sox threw a perfect game. The funny thing about Buerhle is that his last start against the Minnesota Twins resulted in him getting shellacked. Obviously he has the ability to remain “in the moment” and deal with the task at hand and not think about the past or the future. As sales professionals we could learn a lot from this performance indeed. Your sales team should know by now that thoughts of failure or success from the past have nothing to do with the situation you currently face. You must forget the past other than the lessons leaned and stay in the moment as well.

Can We Really Be Perfect?

I am really not sure if there is something like a perfect game in selling. Any pitcher in baseball who throws a perfect game always includes some hairy moments. You may even say that they were lucky in many ways.  I think that top performers always look lucky, They always seem to get the “good calls.” They make what others think is impossible look easy. Think about it this way. If you strive for perfection and fall just short of perfect but still win the game by getting the sale, you are still doing great.

Yes, in sales you don’t have to be perfect to get the results you want, But you do have to stay poised, concentrate, stay in the moment and have the ability to respond in tough situations. Get your team to do those things and maybe your sales results will go down as legendary in your sales team.

Did I Make a Good Presentation?

This is the question that many in the service contracting trades ask themselves after each opportunity.  There are many who don’t even make a presentaion a particular event in the service business.  Most simply mumble out all the facts during the course of their diagnosis and drizzle out the features and benefits early in the call as they “talk out loud” to their potential customers and then stick a price at the end of this segment.

The customer is left bewildered and befuddled and are forced to tell the provider that they will “think-it-over” and call them back.  The service provider knowing full well that they indeed DID confuse people compliantly agrees with the prospect and walks away blaming the consumer for their lack of action.

What is a good presentation?

For one thing a presentation is an event that can be defined very clearly.  It has impact and is performed for the right clients (desicion makers) at the right time. (when they are ready to purchase)  Making an effective presentation begins AFTER you have diagnosed the issues and possiblle improvements not BEFORE or DURING your search for all the facts about the system and your clients.

What Should Your Presentation Do?

The presentation of solutions to your customers should serve a purpose in the sales process. Is your presentation hurting or helping you sell your service? The following should help you evaluate whether you are making a “good” presentation.

Here is the role your presentation must play:

-  Create solutions that no one else has thought of

-  Demonstrates that you know your clients intimately

-  Differentiates you from the pack of other contractors

-  Creates packages and bundles to make it easier to decide

-  Gives customers options for the way THEY want to purchase

-  Your unique solutions should prove your quality & expertise

-  Make your prices seem fair and worth the investment

-  Persuade your customers to take action after seeing it

-  Using the options as a negotiation point of reference

-  Eliminate the desire for having to shop around with others

-  Creates status, quality and integrity in you and your company

Well, does your presentation cut the mustard? If not, then take a deep breath and go back to the drawing board. Your results don’t lie. There is no more fun and exciting time for someone who has a passion for the service business than the time that they are walking their clients through all the problems and “faults” in their hvac, plumbing or electrical system and then also providing that client with solutions that they can choose from.  Put the joy back into your service opportunities and make each presetation a fun, interactive and exciting event for everyone.

The Turn-Around

One of my favorite techniques is called the “Turn-Around.” In short, this is a term that I use that means to get your prospect to reveal the logical and emotional reason they are wanting to buy your solution. In effect “turning around” the sales situation so that the buyer sells YOU on wanting to get the work done instead of you selling THEM. Many times buyers provide a false reason so they don’t reveal too much about their situation thinking that you may use it against them to close the deal.

The Turn-Around helps your buyers “think-it-over” before you start making prices and solutions so they are certain that the service or product they are requesting information, about is something they definitely will purchase.  It increases your confidence as a service provider going into your presentation because now you know they are buying something. The only thing in question is what will they buy and from who?

So to bring prospects through this technique will reveal not just the surface reason and the logical reason but also the raw emotional reason why they are wanting to purchase your solutions.  At the end the buyer is more emotional and passionate about wanting to get this work done.

EXAMPLE:

CUST: “Do you have any information on a new water heater?”

YOU: “A water heater! John, why do you think you need information on that?”

CUST: “Oh I may be in the market for a new one.”

YOU: “Why not just keep the one you have?”

CUST: “Oh it’s getting pretty old.”

YOU: “Yeah John I know but my Dad is getting older too and we don’t replace him, why take on this expense if your old one works fine?”

CUST: “That’s the problem, it’s not fine, I had to relight it twice this past month.”

YOU: “Yeah but now it’s fixed, why not try to get a few more months out of it?

CUST: “Listen, I was late to work twice this month and my boss said this is the last time I can be late.”

YOU: “Oh my goodness, what would happen if you came in late again?”

THEM: “That’s just it. It took me 4 months to get this job and I can’t afford to lose it. I need my water heater working!”

YOU: “WOW! I had no idea! So what should I do at this point?”

CUST: “Show me what you have so we can get moving on this right now!”

As you can see by the above sequence, the buyer shifted from just looking to insisting on moving forward now. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that this method of reverse selling gets the buyer to sell YOU instead of you trying to sell THEM.

As you can tell it reveals the true emotional reason why people buy AND creates a very strong commitment to take action to remove the core pain. In this case, it was losing a wife over the water heater.

Oh by the way, this method goes back thousands of years. It was actually acknowledged as technique popularized by Socrates. In fact this type of questioning is actually defined scholastically as the “Socratic Method” in academia.

Do You Have a Policy Too?

How many times have you heard your prospect tell you that they have a “rule” or “policy” when they purchase? You know something like, “We have a rule, we never make a purchase on the first visit from a sales person.” Sometimes the rules that buyers have are dysfunctional and make little sense for you or them.

Also, the rules are often broken when they meet the right sales person with the right solution. So then the rules are only often enforced when they either don’t like the sales person or their solution.

As a professional sales person, you must have rules and policies as well. This is particularly true when you sell face-to-face and have to travel to your buyer’s location or home. The amount of time spent with buyers and the time needed to travel to and from where they are makes having policies even more important.

Here are a few of my personal rules and policies that I hold myself to when engaging potential customers in my sales process:

My Personal Sale Constitution

• I refuse to sell my services to people who don’t want them or need them.

• I find out how others failed because I won’t make the same mistake they did.

• I never stand in the way of the best solutions or the worst solutions.

• I don’t sell products; I sell service. All products are free with my service.

• I never expect buyers to pay more for the same solution at a higher price.

• I always present solutions that are different and better than competitors.

• I present my solutions only once – to the right people at the right time.

• I will not allow third parties to present my solutions. Only I will do this.

• I provide choices to my buyer, not ultimatums.

• I will never fax or email my proprietary solutions to a customer.

• I am committed to only four possible outcomes of my presentation.
  • Yes
  • No
  • Disqualify Myself – If my solutions are the same as others.
  • Set a future date to get my final answer with a return visit.

• I always find out what I did to get or lose the sale.

• I return in person to get the final answer, not make follow up phone calls.

• I always let customers know that I need their help getting more customers.

Can anyone add to this list? Please share some of your own personal “rules” or “policies” that you use in selling your solutions. PLEASE COMMENT BELOW

HVAC Sales Winners Cup Series

INVESTMENT: $47 for entire 4-part course and archive access

DURATION: – Each webinar starts at 1 p.m. EST and lasts for 60 minutes EACH

WHEN: Begins Thursday, March 29 and continues for 3 consecutive Thursdays after that

WHO: Although this is sponsored by an HVAC magazine the info applies to all SERVICE contractors

BONUS: Access to video replays & mp3 audio downloads of all 4 webinars for one year following the event

First Time Ever Offered

The HVAC Sales Winners Cup event is more than “just” a webinar – It’s a SERIES of FOUR powerful webinars from the Nation’s TOP trainers. You’ll “get the checkered flag of sales” with these easy to use strategies for your company including:

• March 29 – Course #1 Triple Your Sales In 30 Days: Joe Crisara will increase your sales by using blistering selling strategies created by the urgent need to maintain and increase revenue and profit in the ‘new economy’. (See more detail on Course #1 below.)

• April 5 – Course #2 Differentiation, Desire & Credibility: See how Drew Cameron turns the traditional selling model on it’s ear by getting buyers to beg you for your custom solutions. Stop comparing “apples to apples” and find your “blue ocean.”

• April 12 – Course #3 The 10 Lies Of Bad Sales People: “World Class” $6 Million Dollar HVAC Salesman Rick Picard uncovers the “SCAMMS” that techs & sales people use to justify mediocre or terrible results. He also shows you what a winner looks like too.

• April 19 – Course #4 Equipment Lead Turnover Avalanche: Joe Crisara will help you remove the division between hvac techs and sales people. Get your team on the same page and inspire customers to say the magic words… “I want to replace this junky unit.

Day four includes a summary roadmap to take you to the WINNERS CIRCLE. You won’t wonder what to do next! Tools, downloads, and follow up training included!

Register ONE TIME for access to all 4 webinars. Includes all Workbooks, Downloads, Follow Up training.

Course #1: Triple Your Sales In 30 Days – Joe Crisara
LIVE PRESENTATION: March 29th – Full details in your inbox upon registration.

Sales expert Joe Crisara will show you the MASSIVE OVERHAUL that is needed for your sales machine that have happened as a result of the new economy. If you’re still selling your services like you did in 2007, no wonder you are losing the hvac race to competitors. In this sprint cup session, you’ll see – -

• The “captain-obvious” reason why your team struggles
• Selling Made Simple – 3 simple concepts to WIN more sales
• The most powerful word in selling that convert 86% of sales if used correctly
• Options Not Ultimatums – Giving your client the freedom to choose solutions in service or sale
• Close The Deal – Four simple words that will triple your close rate and handle all objections

Plus you’ll get a FREE workbook, downloadable content, follow up training emails, PLUS a sneak peak at the next webinar in the series.

NOTE: ONLY 550 lines available (Joe’s private coaching cost ten times this amount and routinely sellout on the first day)
PLEASE REGISTER TODAY. When this event closes, that’s it. Do not delay.

THIS HAS NEVER BEEN OFFERED BEFORE. Four webinars that will not only change your sales but also change your life

ClICK HERE to join us for this special event

Contracting Heaven Or Hell?

“The mind is it’s own place and can make Heaven out Hell or Hell out of Heaven.” – John Milton

Get a Grip On It

Opposite George

The above video clip always makes me burst out in laughter. Do you remember when the TV show “Seinfeld” was a huge hit on NBC’s “Must-See TV” every Thursday? I have probably watched every episode at least 2 or 3 times. The one episode that really stands out for me more than all the others is the episode where George Costanza decides he’s going to do the opposite of what he would normally do. The episode was called “Opposite George.”

Looking At the Truth Straight On

Basically, instead of always lying to himself about how good things were going in his life, he decided that he gotten to the miserable place he was now, by the actions that he had taken. He finally owned up to his failures.

The Decision To Make a Change

Upon this discovery he decided that from now on, in order to make his life change for the better, he would do EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what he had always done his entire life. Up to this point, his life was typified by economic and personal struggles. He was a man that couldn’t keep a decent job and was also dismissed by every woman he approached as a schmuck.

He decided to break from the past by doing the EXACT opposite of what he normally would do to see if it would make a difference in his career and lifestyle. He began his “opposite” theory as he was sitting in the diner with the gang. That’s when he sees a gorgeous women sitting at the counter having lunch who just happened to glance at him for a moment. Normally he would never approach a woman like this because of the obvious rejection he would suffer.

Instead he does the opposite and walks up to her and states the truth emphatically.  “Excuse me, I just happened to notice you just looked at me.” he began chatting with her. He went on to simply state that he’s a short, bald, out-of-work guy who still lives with his mom and dad. What do you think the result was? She immediately introduces herself to him and decides that she wants to go out with him. Finally he has success!

Later, George uses this same technique of “do the opposite” to land himself a sweet job with the New York Yankees. During the interview, instead of kissing up to Owner, George Steinbrenner’s rear, the way everybody else probably does, he instead tells his potential new boss how much the team stinks, and why Steinbrenner’s every decision has been flat-out dumb. “Hire this man immediately!” Steinbrenner screams. “That’s the kind of attitude we need around here!”

So here’s my point. Every time George did the opposite of what he would normally do, what logic and common sense would dictate, and what everybody else would probably do, he experienced “quantum leap, life changing, success.”

Change What Isn’t Working

You know what? In many ways this thinking is the same key to being a successful plumbing, electrical or HVAC service contractor.  It just makes sense that the best decision to make in order to increase your sales, cash flow and profit, plus get new, happy clients to call and refer you, is the EXACT opposite of what your competitors are doing now that brought you to this point.

For instance, let’s say that you see your buyer could really use an extended service plan that you offer. You know they currently neglect their system and you want to see if they would have any interested in hearing about it. Let’s look at the different ways you could approach the buyer with this.

The Way Everybody Does It – Ask if they WOULD be interested

YOU: Hey Bob, would you like to hear some information about our extended service plan? It offers some really great benefits that would be perfect for you.

THEM: No, I appreciate your offer, but not right now because money is tight.

The Way “Opposite George” Would Do It – Ask if they WOULD NOT be interested

YOU: Hey Bob, I noticed that you chose not to purchase the extended service plan even though it would have saved 15% over the past year. I just want to confIrm that even though it would have paid for itself last year, you have no interest in this?

THEM: What are you talking about? I never even heard of this. Could you fill me in on what this program is all about? (Success at last -You have created interest by doing the opposite!)

The Paradigm Has Shifted

As you can see by this small exchange above, George was actually genius in his approach. Doing the opposite can make a big difference. How can this approach apply to lowball competitors? Can it really apply to buyers who want cheap prices? Will it change your thinking about your marketing, managing and presentations? In short, you bet it will. This principle applies to every part of our business.

Can you really argue with the simple truth that if you follow along and simply do what others who struggle are doing, you will get exactly what they are getting? Why not pull a “Costanza,” do something different and join us along with the most successful contractors in the country?

There are contractors who are actually MORE profitable in this down economy as they pick through the bones of contractors who have failed. That’s right, after the dust has settled they now attract the ex-customer and ex-employees of those companies who are bleeding or who have fallen.

Ultimately where there are problems there are opportunities. Isn’t that why you started a business in the first place? I hope to see all of you this spring who are bold enough to take action and walk the road toward success.