Contractor Selling

A Non-Litigious Holiday Party

By Elizabeth R. Ison, Esq.

With another holiday season approaching, companies nationwide are busy planning parties. Holiday socials are longstanding company traditions to thank employees and celebrate annual accomplishments. They can also be a breeding ground for employer liability — especially when alcohol is served.

A 2000 survey conducted by Vault.com found that 44% of employers had to reprimand an employee for behavior at a company holiday party. A 2010 poll by HR firm Adecco corroborate these findings: 40% of people surveyed saw or suffered a major indiscretion at a work-sponsored holiday event and 14% knew someone who was fired for bad behavior at a company holiday party.

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Co-Founder Joins Group

(Templeton, Calif.) — Leading HVACR sales trainer, entrepreneur and co-founder of contractorselling.com, Julie Crisara has joined Women in HVACR.Women in HVACR was established to improve the lives of members by providing professional avenues to connect with other women growing their careers in the HVACR industry. The organization strives to empower women to succeed through networking opportunities, mentoring and education.

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Don’t Be Stopped By Sales Terrorists

I received a call from a service contracting sales person named Fred about a situation he found himself in that really took his confidence down a notch. Fred is the top performer at his company and has achieved a 73% closing rate with a 55% gross margin on his jobs. By all measure of success he was a doing a great job.

Then he had a call where after presenting his customized solutions, his buyer lit the fuse on a sales-bomb and completely devastated Fred. The buyer listened to Fred’s presentation and

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Do You Make This Olympic Sized Mistake?

As the 2010 Winter Olympic games came to a close I am haunted by a certain story which involves snowboarder Lindsay Jacobellis and her failed attempt at redemption. Jacobellis suffered a disastrous crash four years ago at the Turin, Italy winter Olympic games when she celebrated too soon just moments from the finish line. She basically had the race won but could not resist the temptation at showing a little flash at the wrong moment and instead lost the race.

The reason this failure stuck with me far more than all the Olympic victories i witnessed is probably because as a sales coach I see this phenomena far more than I would like when trying to help sales people attain better results. The pain of losing is vivid to me whenever I hear the sales person tell me that they have a sale that is “pretty much already sold” and then they start talking about it like they actually have closed it. But here is the twist. After I question further I find that they aren’t even close to getting the sale.

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