I was just talking to my good friend Rick Picard about a sales call he was on today. He went through the entire system and made his presentation. He presented the homeowner with 6 options from most premium to most economical as we prescribe in our Total Immersion sales system.

After reviewing the options the customer asked Rick, "Why so many options?" Before Rick could answer he was interrupted by the man's daughter who asked him if she could watch television since she finished her home work.

The man said sure and got up and turned on the TV and asked his young daughter, "What channel do want to watch, Daddy will turn it on for you?"

What the little girl said next was priceless. She asked, "I don't know. What are my options?" The man turned and looked at Rick as if to say, I guess I know why you offer options now. After sitting down back at the table he said to Rick, "Such wisdom, out of the mouth of babes." He then chose the second option for $12,267.

Why options indeed. Even a child could tell you that we all love options. That's why.

At many colleges tickets for the final four are allotted to the participating universities. Of course, as you can imagine they are like striking oil. So many people want seats that the universities hold a lottery for the "opportunity" to purchase them.

In the end, there are winners and losers. The losers envy what the winners want. The question I pose today is this. Is there a difference in perception over the value of the tickets between those who now own them and those who want them?

Researchers Ziv Carmon and Dan Ariely performed a study in 2000 (Carmon & Ariely, 2000). Posing as ticket scalpers they interviewed the winning and losing lottery participants to see if the could find any difference in the perception of the value of the tickets.

Their findings were incredible. There was a LARGE difference in the value between those who owned the tickets and those who wanted them. The study proved contrary to what many of you might think. I thought that the people who did NOT have tickets would deem them more valuable. I was wrong in a big way.

The average price that people without tickets were prepared to pay for a single basketball game was only $166.

The average price that ticket owners who won the lottery wanted if they chose to sell the seats was $2,411!

I guess the study shows us is that if we own something, we think it is a higher value than people who want what we own. This is probably the basis for which all negotiation starts with people. Once again proving that price is only in the mind and is not based on reality.

We have received many kind comments about the recent LIVE show we just did last Thursday night. We combined the star power of Julie Crisara who hosts our "Office Works" show on Wednesday's mid-day, with Rick Picard who hosts the "Hour of Sales Power" on Thursday night. The result of the show was very powerful as we revealed how to pre-qualify sales leads both from the perspective of the office staff as well as from the field sales person's point of view.

Julie and Rick both shared their views on how to best "tee up" the sales call for the sales person and how this can influence their success or failure depending on how this is done. They covered WHEN and HOW to schedule the call closer to the decision date. Also, they talked about how you can get your potential buyer pre-qualified for financing BEFORE you even go on the call. Wouldn't it be great to know your buyer has $15,000 available on credit BEFORE you made a presentation?

All in all, the power of the "Six Million Dollar Man" and the "Queen of Daytime TV" was evident during this show. If you want to watch this powerful program click here to login a view it: http://www.contractorselling.com/members/893.cfm

Los Angeles, CA -- March 18, 2008 (Sales Gravy Press) - Sales Gravy Press announced today that they will be publishing Joe Crisara's new book, If the Dog Whisperer Was Your Sales Manager. . .  In it, he shows sales managers and salespeople how they can benefit from using some of the same principles used by famed "Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan, whose show is broadcast weekly on the National Geographic Channel.  

Crisara, who resides in Los Angeles, says he admires how Millan helps families and pets learn to live productive lives together. "What Cesar Millan does so well is to retrain the owners, which, ultimately, rehabilitates the dogs. After watching several shows it occurred to me that there might be leadership lessons in Cesar's methodology. I asked myself the question, "When a sales manager, faced with underperforming sales reps, simply changed their leadership style would more salespeople succeed?" For me clearly the answer was 'yes'.

In the book Crisara starts with the premise that behind every struggling salesperson there is an ineffective manager. Then taking tools from The Dog Whisperer's leadership tool box he demonstrates step-by-step how sales leaders and salespeople can bring control to what seems like an out of control process and achieve success. 

"We feel very fortunate to have Joe join our outstanding team of sales and leadership authors. Joe has been training Sales Professionals, leaders, and companies to succeed in sales for more than 25 years. He has built a successful business and a large following and we expect this project to be a great success." Said Jeb Blount, CEO of popular sales portal and community www.SalesGravy.com and founder of Sales Gravy Press.

When Crisara is not writing he runs his highly successful sales education firm and website ContractorSelling.Com which help thousands of managers and frontline service and salespeople in construction related industries, understand and utilize the principles of persuasion, selling, presentation, and closing to grow their businesses and earn more.

If the Dog Whisperer Was Your Sales Manager is the first book in a series that will explore and relate techniques and philosophies from well known leaders to sales management. It will be releases in June of 2008.

Based on the requests I have been receiving recently I am finding out that Electricians need help in a big way. I never thought about how isolated that electricians probably feel when trying to get access to "best practice" information that is designed specifically for them. In that respect, I have decide to dedicate the near future to releasing and producing more information to help them succeed.

I think that no trade has more possibilities to improve than the electrical service contractor. I think they tend to under-value their impact on consumers and have the biggest opportunity to change from where things are now, to where they will be in the future.

Why do I think their opportunity is so big for electricians? Because over the past 10 to 20 years, the ways that we consumers use electricity has changed where as the way that we have used plumbing and HVAC at the core is still the same. Why don't electricians see this opportunity? I believe they are a product of the limited world they were trained in. Brainwashed to do as little service as possible and just get to the problem WITHOUT evaluating the whole system.

Electricians, I feel for you and I am stating right here and now that it will be a priority for me to assist you in making an impact and changing the way we all view your work so that it can have the importance that it truly deserves. I pledge allegiance to you here and now to help you succeed. If you need my help, call me - 877-764-6304 

How cow, I have to hang this light fixture right now, it's almost lunch time.

Every couple of weeks, my wife Julie and I, talk with our 7 year-old nephew Jacob who resides across the country near Tampa, Florida. Each time, we are totally amazed at how much he implements and uses the principles of our sales system in his daily life.

You probably read the recent article here at ContractorSelling.com on his masterful use of the "money warning" when asking his Aunt Julie for what he wanted as his birthday gift last month. As amazed as we were, we both decided to listen more intently to decipher the wisdom that a child can bring to the sales process. We tuned our concentration in just a bit more when he talks and we discovered that the hits just keep on coming.

Little Jacob's latest lesson that sales people could learn, stems from his unique ability, unfettered by the brainwashing that adults have been subjected to through the years, to dream and unabashedly ask for anything he wants in the universe.

Last week, Aunt Julie had another conversation with the little fella' and as usual tried to entice him to come out and visit us in California for a couple weeks. First she asked, "Hey Jacob, do you want to come out and visit Uncle Joe and I this summer?" He responded very enthusiastically, "Yeah, Aunt Julie that would be cool!"

"Great Jake, I'll ask you Mommy and Daddy if we can schedule a couple weeks for you to visit us." said Julie. "When you visit us Jacob we could go to Sea World, or Knott's Berry Farm or Universal Studios where they make the movies." she continued trying to whip him into an excited frenzy to visit us.

And this is where the amazing part starts. Julie ended by asking him, "Jacob, is there anything you want to see when you come out to visit us?" He answered with deadpan seriousness that only a child could muster, "Yeah, Aunt Julie I wanna see Egypt!"

Julie, with the "AFLAC Duck" look on her face, was at a loss to respond. "Egypt, Jake? That's not IN California." He responded very simply, "I know Aunt Julie, but you asked me what I wanted to see, not what I wanted to see in California!" She closed her conversation with the little guy soon after that.

To read the complete article click here and login to the website

I love the use of analogies. One of the prime examples I use is a owner of a contracting company as being the captain of a ship. As the leader you may find yourself heading towards "stormy business weather." This storm is approaching as your sales revenue is lower than your overhead can substantiate and you start to take on water. Soon the whole ship is in danger of sinking.

When you finally wind up in the worst part of the storm the telltale signs are all around you as the captain. The rain of phone calls from vendors looking to collect on what you owe or the lightning of your having to consider a loan, line of credit or even take money out of your own pocket, just to make payroll this week are just a few of the signs that your ship is indeed in trouble.

As the captain it is your duty to get your ship and the crew out of here and into clear waters and blue skies. "All hands on deck!" you scream. As you look around your "ship" you see that some of the crew members are not pulling their weight while others are doing all they can to help. And that is the problem in a nutshell.

Take a walk around your company and look at each employee. Sure when the weather was great, you hardly noticed some of the crew taking a break on the sun deck while other rowed away. Now, when it is slow, there is no room for slackers. EVERYONE must pull the oar and get us out of the storm. Ask yourself while examining each person in your company, "Is this employee a propeller or an anchor?"

The answer to your problems is to release all anchors now and activate all propellers on your ship and then steer to beautiful sunny and clear weather.

In the recent weeks I have heard from hundreds of service contractors in trouble. Yet, even though these hard working men and women are failing, they steadfastly cling to the many myths they have been fed by the industry experts and many others in the business. Why? Because it is too much of a blow to the ego to admit that maybe they just have not have had the best information available to overcome some of the challenges they face.

Ultimately, as a contractor it is your responsibilty to seek out the methods, techniques and best practices to make yourself successsful. And that can mean admitting that whatever approach you are using now, is NOT working. And that exposure can be painful. (Just check your bank account.)

In service contracting, myths are told to deceive contractors, salespeople and techs all the time. The average service contracting frontline sales employee's mind is filled with these sales myths. And that is why they achieve mediocre or below average results. Let's take a list of some of the most popular sales and revenue generating myths in the contracting industry.

• The best sales training is supplied to me by my manufacturer of equipment.
• I can't afford to invest in improving my results right now.
• I don't have time to read or view material that could positively change my life. 
• If I don't sell a customer today, I have lost them forever.
• If I lower my price, I will start to sell more.
• Waiting for the customer to call me back is an effective follow up system.
• They were just shopping for a price and not buyers.
• They don't look or sound like they can afford our prices for our service.
• You can believe a customer when they tell you they have bad credit.
• Presentations and demonstrations are effective when they are not deciding.
• Waiting around for the phone to ring is more effective than prospecting.
• Selling amounts to nothing more than who has the lowest price.

Now let's take a look at some of the excuses an average contractor, salesperson or tech comes up with to justify their lack of success. Here are some of the most popular ones.

• It's slow this time of year because of the weather.
• People can't afford things around the holidays.
• My managers just won't lower the price so I can get this job.
• We don't advertise enough for people to call us.
• The economy is killing our business.
• People only want to buy the basics and don't want to be upsold.
• The market is terrible right now and everyone is slow.

If you are an average contractor or salesperson then I'm sure you know all the myths and excuses there is to know. But with these myths and excuses you only achieve average or below average results. So what then can you do to overcome these myths?

1. Join us at ContractorSelling.com right now and learn from others who are successful
2. Attend a "Total Immersion" Sales Summit within the next few months 
3. Read the special report called the "Lost Contractor". This free report is a must read for all service contractors!

Click on the image below to download the free e-Book

Last night's Hour of Sales Power was a spirited session that showed how many contractors, techs and sales people seem to succeed and fail based on the reality of the way they either create curiosity and desire in a customer or repel the customer. After thinking about it, I have come up with a "why salespeople fail" in the contracting industry list. See if you know anyone in the business that suffers from any of the things listed below:

Salespeople may fail because they:

·                    Blame everything except themselves for their inability to execute

·                    Cave in at the first sign of buyer's resistance

·                    Are sold that they are the same as the competition only more money

·                    Have no interest in learning information that would help them

·                    Won't listen to others who are successful at the same thing they do

·                    Don't understand how to create curiosity and desire

·                    Allow their ego to get in the way of changing what does not work

·                    Value their comfort zone over getting results

·                    Are not fully committed to reaching their dreams

·                    Create presentations that are exactly the same as their competitor

·                    Only care about their problems and how much money they can make

·                    Lack patience to wait until the customer is ready to buy before presenting

·                    Choose failure as an option and just give up on improving

·                    Do not create the expectation that the customer should decide

·                    Invest little or no time in their own training, coaching, and development

·                    Are driven by fear rather than honor their integrity

Mind you, I am not saying that everyone in the contracting business has these issues, but

if any of the above sounds familiar, please pass our information along to those who need

our help. The only regret is if you call too late or not at all. My phone number to give you

instant coaching is 323-939-2344.

Join us at Total Immersion in Los Angeles in March CLICK HERE

When it comes to shopping, researchers at the University of Iowa have found that sometimes ignorance really is bliss. This goes along with what I have been saying for years, against the conventional tide of the contracting industry, about providing too much jargon or technical data like BTU's, SEER and other non-sensical trade terms when selling to your customer.

In what they call the "Blissful Ignorance Effect," researchers at the university's Tippie College of Business found that people who have only a little information about a product are happier with that product than people who have more information.

This completely goes against the grain of what manufacturers and othe sales gurus have been saying in their effort to force this jargon down the throats of contractors, their sales people and techs for decades.

"We found that once people commit to buying or consuming something, there's a kind of wishful thinking that happens and they want to like what they've bought," said assistant professor of marketing Dhananjay Nayakankuppam. "The less you know about a product, the easier it is to engage in wishful thinking. But the more information you have, the harder it is to kid yourself. This can be contrasted with what happens before taking any action when people are trying to be accurate and would prefer getting more information to less."

In two of the three experiments that helped them to arrive at their conclusion, subjects were asked for their opinion of chocolate in one and hand lotion in the other. In each experiment, one group of subjects was given lots of information about the product, the other group much less. In each instance, the subjects who had little information were more optimistic about the chocolate or hand lotion than those who had more information.

Prior research has shown that before people make a buying decision, they generally like to take an objective, clear-headed view of the products they're considering. During this phase, so-called accuracy goals play a larger part of a person's thinking because they want to buy the product that best meets their needs at a reasonable cost. His research, however, shows that once a decision has been made, the Blissful Ignorance Effect takes hold and the buyer makes that emotional commitment to a decision.

He said the data suggests a shift in peoples' motivations. While they have a need to be accurate before taking some action, post-action it is the directional need to justify a conclusion that is more important, he said.

"Once we've committed to something, we want to be happy about the decision and that drives our perceptions about it," he said. "It's your decision, it's a part of you, and that creates an emotional attachment. It's sort of like your kid and you want to like it no matter what."

In that way, he said the less we know about something, the easier it is to create our own conceptions about it. For instance, he said that if we don't know the chocolate we're eating has hundreds of calories, we can convince ourselves that it isn't expanding our waistline.

Think again before you load up your proposal or presentation trade jargon and technical info that has little effect on whether the customer will purchase or if they'll be happy. Indeed, I have not included an SEER or an efficiency rating on any presentation I have made since 2001.

Why is the conventional thinking in the industry so gung ho on providing this information? Easy, without the fancy forms and presentations that they have generated in an effort to trick contractors into thinking that a piece of paper will sell a job, they would be out of business. The answer to becoming a high performance sales person is and always will be in you ability to get your customer to have respect, honor and trust in you as a person. Essentially if YOU say it's the best and they trust you, that is all you need.

RESEARCH: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/537323/?sc=dwtr

Last week was my nephew Jacob's birthday.  He would be turning 7 on Wednesday and is in the first grade.  Like usual I was shopping for a last minute birthday gift for him and had no idea what to get him.  After spending hours racking my brain about the whole thing I decided to just give him a call and ask him what he wanted directly. You know the age old question, "What do you want for your birthday?"

I called my brother's house and to my surprise my nephew Jacob answered the phone. I barely recognized his voice.  He said excitedly, "Hi Aunt Julie! I got an "A" on my spelling test!" 

"Awesome!" I replied, "Did you get them all right?"  "No." he said, "I missed Giraffe.  I knew I got it wrong right away.  I spelled it G-R-I-A-F-F-E instead of G-I-R-A-F-F-E."  I told him how proud I was of him and what a good job he is doing in school and that I would be willing to test him if he emailed me his spelling words each week.  I asked him what else was new. He told me about his Nana and Papa coming to visit him for his birthday next week and that he really missed them and was looking forward to seeing them since it had been a while.

"Hey!" I said.  "Speaking of your birthday, I'm not sure what you would like this year.  Was there anything particular you wanted?"  Jacob then masterfully gave me a textbook "Money Warning" as we teach it in our "Total Immersion" Sales Summit's.

Jacob did it so good I swear he must have attended the training. Here is what he said: "Well, I do want this new Lego set& but I'll never get it because it's ve-e-e-ry expensive Aunt Julie," he said in a disappointing tone, drawing out the word very. (Great Money Warning -- I am fully price conditioned using the law of contrast!)

I replied, "Expensive! How expensive could it be? It's only a Lego set."  (I'm selling HIM that I can afford it!)

"Well, I'm not sure you can afford it," he said.  I started to defend my finances, "Jacob, your uncle Joe and I make a lot of money.  I think we can afford a Lego set. (I sold myself now)

How much is it?"  He said slowly, "Well Aunt Julie, its $99."  (His presentation)

"That's all, $99?" I asked.

To read the rest of this article click here

I am getting a lot of calls recently from contractors who are struggling and looking for some advice on what to do during the current slow season. This year is particularly tough due to everybody and their brother screaming out the word "recession."

A friend of mine put it in perspective. He said, "A recession is when your neighbor or family member loses their house due to foreclosure. A Depression happens when you do."

What's my advice? I will quote another contracting friend of mine, John Ward from Applewood Plumbing in Denver, Colorado. He probably doesn't even know the impact that his words have had on me when he uttered them a few years back. I overheard him giving this advice to a service contractor who was feeling pretty down after losing a couple of employees and on top of that, his company was losing money,

He said, "Pull your self up, stop whining, and stop worrying about something that hasn't happened yet. Dig in starting NOW and make each opportunity profitable. Go forward with what you DO have to work with."

Overly simple and a bit harsh? Could be. But sometimes we all need a splash of cold water thrown on our pity party. John had it right. Stop worrying about what you can't control and start ACTING on what you can.

One more thing... You had better know how to outsell your competitor during slow times or you will be in a world of hurt. There is ZERO-TOLERANCE for losing any opportunities,

This is NO time to go into a shell and hope it blows over, NOW is the time to act on improving your results with the best selling skills available. See you Thursday nights.

"The natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment, no matter what the score."

- Nick Hornby

I love the above quote pulled from Hornby's book, "Fever Pitch." which dissects the true obsession of the sports fan. I love it because it also speaks to the true nature of competition both in sports and in the selling profession. After watching the Super Bowl I think that statement rings true in both locker rooms as well as it does at your office trying to be an effective sales person.

What does that statement mean? I think it speaks to the true condition of life as a human being. We spend so much time struggling, thinking, strategizing, practicing and worrying. So little time in the pure joy of the moment.

Think about it. Most of the time we spend competing, whether we win or lose, is used up worrying about what the opponent will do next, or our next situation or practicing for the worst thing that could happen. This is true both in the sales profession as well as in football. When you or your team is winning, can you really ever enjoy it as much as you would like? When you finally win, is it more joy? Or would relief really describe the feeling more?

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A sales person I know wrote me about a recent sales call he had trouble with. He was wondering about what he could have done to not lose a job that went south when he got to the stage of the call when he had to secure payment.

One thing he mentioned about the call was that the customer, a woman who was in real estate and her husband, who ran an irrigation business get mentioning repeatedly about how they run their own business. He said that the customer must have repeated this 7 or 8 times during various segments of the call. He left the call wondering what the customer was trying to accomplish by saying this to him.

My advice to him was simple and it bears repeating for all of you out there. Never leave your call if you are still asking yourself, or wondering WHY someone is saying or doing something. If someone is trying to give you a "signal" of some sort, but you are unable to "de-code" the message, stop mind reading or guessing and just ask what they mean when they say that.

Always ASK if you are not sure,

"Jane you must have mentioned to me at least 5 times about you and your husbands business experience. Why is that important for me to know that information?"

"How will that impact your decision?"

"What are you trying to get across to me when you say that?"

"Is there something about your business interests that is related to this purchasing experience?"

"Really, what is it?"

Keep asking until you feel completely crystal clear about what is going on here. =

One of the most powerful things you can do is to use a "take away" technique I call "confirming you DON'T want this."  This technique can be a real slump-buster as I found out with a client on the east coast this week who agreed to use this strategy on every call he went on.

Basically, this involves the tech or sales person "confirming" that the buyer DOES NOT want to purchase today. When used correctly, the buyer vehemently tries to convince the sales person that indeed, they DO want to buy. This redirects the buyer on to their hope you can do the work and away from the price of the service. Was it powerful and did it work?

I'll let you judge for yourself. On 8 calls he went on, he had ZERO turndowns. Previously he was having trouble closing. He sold big options and some small ones too. Most importantly he did not get skunked! Want to remove the stench of the turndown? Use this technique and you will see the difference.

How many sales meetings have you had with your guys that just seemed to run flat? Especially this time of year after the holiday and with talk of a recession. Good sales skills do not make you recession proof but they sure as heck can help. Here is a story to give you hope.

I talked with a "Virtual Coaching" client today about the results of a sales meeting they had last week with their sales people. The manager, who I am coaching and I set a lesson for a sales meeting where the guys would only work on the "closing funnel." A technique that get's buyers to make a decision in a subconscious way.

The results he reported back to me were great. After role playing this technique in his meeting, the very next day, his sales team closed over $100,000 in just one day!

Each of the guys came back with story after story of their success. It goes to show that practicing is good, but practicing on the RIGHT thing is even better.

Tune into the "Hour Of Sales Power" this week on Thursday night at 8pm eastern where we will cover this very subject. Who Knows, maybe your guys can do $100,000 the day after our meeting too!

In an article in the January 2008 Economist magazine, a study was cited that was done by Dr. Antonio Rangel of the California Institute of Technology. Rangel found that if people are told a wine that they are tasting is expensive, the perception in their brain evolves to increase the quality of the wine they had consumed based on nothing other than higher price meaning a higher quality.

In the Economist article, it stated that Dr. Rangel gave his volunteers sips of what he said were five different wines made from cabernet sauvignon grapes, priced at between $5 and $90 a bottle. He told each of them the price of the wine in question as he did so. Except, of course, that he was fibbing. He actually used only three wines. He served up two of them twice at different prices.

When asked which glass tasted better, they chose the higher priced one as tasting better than the cheaper one. But this is only opinion. How do they really know if the brain has perceived a higher quality? One might ask.

The article went on to say that... (To read the rest of this article, click here)

I received an email from a client who wondered how they could have avoided a customer complaint on a recent repair call they went on.

The description the tech wrote on the ticket was

"Replaced Stack Damper for 1st & 2nd Stage Boiler" for a price of $3,773.16

I am sure you who have been in the contracting business for awhile are not shocked that the customer was beside themselves over the cost of these "stack dampers." Especially after a quick internet search by yours truly showed that a "thermal stack damper" cost only $125.

Now I know this is probably not even the correct part, which I found on e-Bay, but in the customers mind perception is reality. What is the solution to reducing customer complaints over the pricing issues that can continually plague you and your profit? The answer is to verbally package your solutions when presenting them and when writing them on a ticket.

Here are the basics of verbal packaging your solutions.

1. Never use the names of the parts. You sell service not parts.
2. Use the word "system" When talking about what you are doing.
3. Make services sound more valuable. Consider saying "restored" not "clean."
4. Emphasize your commitment to service in term of maintenance.
5. Make your warranty come to life. They have to feel like they are covered.