If you think about it, the MOST important thing to humans seems to be looking good! Our currency is adoration, looking like a good guy, and being right. And, we will do ALMOST ANYTHING to achieve those key qualities.
Here’s how this helps YOU as a salesperson (or, frankly, any business person).
When someone is buying from you, MAKE SURE they look like a ROCK STAR.
If a man has to defend his purchase of his car to his wife, MAKE SURE he looks like a GENIUS about the decision he made.
If an employee is buying a service, MAKE SURE that his boss is thrilled with his business acumen.
If a … well, you get the picture.
People want to feel smart about the decisions they make. If you understand why someone is buying, what need it fills for THEM and for their INFLUENCERS — you have got it made!
This is SUCH a common occurrence, I must address it.
This article applies to pipeline salespeople and solopreneurs, mostly. Here is how the story goes:
I AM DOING MY MARKETING…GOING FOR IT
My focus is on marketing. I get 2 responses for every 100 messages I deliver (print media, emails, etc).
Then, I land a big deal (contract)
So, I start doing the work on that contract. I ignore my marketing.
Then, I have closed that big deal (finished the contract)
Now what?
I am back to the drawing board. Income is uncertain.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
I have fallen into this trap…
I have gotten a BIG FISH on the line, and devoted all my time to that. Then, when it’s landed, I am left with no pipeline.
I have learned…
Whle I am DELIVERING, I am sharing with my prospects WHAT I am delivering, WHILE I am delivering it…this is UNBELIEVEABLE marketing. I am DOING IT NOW for someone else, wouldn’t YOU like to be a part of it?
NEVER NEVER NEVER stop marketing … and your BEST marketing comes WHILE you are working
Because you are confident. You are producing. You can leverage your current success into future success.
It takes discipline…and it is fun
When you are winning, it is easy and fun to talk about helping people win. When you are out of work, it is scary and desperate.
True professionals work their pipeline NOT MATTER WHAT.
Work yours. If you are willing to set aside time for marketing. Every week, no matter what. There is no need for famine, or desperation, or worry. They will be lining up! Because THEY see you are working and THEY have to get in line for your services.
I think about cold calls a lot, the more I talk with solopreneurs and budding salespeople.
Here’s what I realized.
There is a lot of mythology about cold-calling.
There are two visions that people conjure up when they think about cold-calling:
Either they imagine the frustrated cold-caller: locking his jaw, picking up the phone with a clenched fist, hoping that someone won’t actually answer the phone, “Please GOD Please, let it go to voice mail”. Then (when they answer) “Please GOD Please, let them be nice”.
OR
They imagine the Monster Cold-Caller: fangs dripping with the blood she anticipates from her victim.Going for it. Driving and driving and driving – like a machine mowing down everything in her path.
(Genders made up).
It’s not like that for me, and it doesn’t have to be that way
I am not going to pretend that calling on someone I do not know is ever easy. We have a natural resistance to being a pest and feeling like we are wasting someone’s time! THANK GOD for that resistance! It is not something to overcome. It is a reminder that you are an AWESOME human being.
Which brings me to the next mythology:
If you want to be a great cold-caller, you must have a thick skin
People imagine that the great cold-caller can take a “rejection – kick-in-the-teeth” call and move on. Not true.
It doesn’t work to have a thin skin, either, but perhaps the thickness of your skin has nothing to do with it.
A new paradigm
Imagine this. If you were a person who was passionate about your product. You had done as much research as possible about who you are calling to make a conversation about THEM (this takes about 2 minutes, tops!) and you are willilng to consider that there is another person on the other end of the line who has priorities in their day and their lives. And you KNEW that 3 out of every 10 people were going to respond to you favorably.
NOW, how does cold-calling look?
It starts to look like an interesting conversation. An opportunity to connect. A thought about how YOU can make a difference in someone else’s day.
Here’s the rub
There are four muscles YOU MUST develop as a ‘cold-caller’.
1) Creativity – get creative about how to reach the people who will care
2) Emotional Radar – learn to get in “someone else’s world” FAST
3) Vulnerability with Confidence – the ‘hardest’ of all, but the most rewarding
4) A system that you stick to – you’ve gotta do the work. Every week. Sorry!
If you can do those, the world is your oyster
And they are simple skills to build. And trainable. I have trained my sales staff to LOVE outreach. I have a hard time calling my cold-calling “cold”, ‘cuz it rarely is.
Let’s keep the conversation going. Just know that there are ways that you will be LIT UP by your cold calling. AND YOU WILL RULE!
I noticed something today. We are headed to the end of the year and I started reviewing the goals I had set for myself at the beginning of the year.
I set Minimum, Target, and Optimal goals for each area of my life. Health, Home, Finances, Work, you know the drill.
Minimum, Target, Optimal
Minimum…the absolute minimum that I want to achieve.
Target … the “good” goal
Optimal…the very best I could imagine in that area
(This is something I learned from Jack Canfield in “Efffortless Success”)
Here’s what I noticed. There is one Optimal goal in particular…that I NAILED months ago. It happens to be the one that I have THE MOST EMOTION around.
When I got my puppy two years ago, we found out (at a very young age) that he has elbow dysplasia. A situation that can be crippling. Not years from now, crippling NOW. He was limping. I made my OPTIMAL goal that he would be healed (something the vets say is impossible). We haven’t done the x-rays yet – coming in December, but my puppy is HEALED, no limping, no pain, no signs.
When I found out about his situation, I was a WILD WOMAN. I was going to prove the authorities wrong. I have done EVERYTHING there is to do to make him better. And it has WORKED.
So, WHY not the other goals?
When I look at my other goals…I see that they looked like “nice to haves”. The ones that I had EMOTION around (even fear, sadness, worry), they got DONE. The ones that are less infused with emotion, not-so-much.
INTERESTING.
I’m actually a little disturbed. Some of the goals I set for myself…I really meant them. How do I conjure up FEELINGS … true FEELINGS for them? Am I so comfortable that I can only be driven by fear and worry for someone else? Am I only about the status quo until something bad is looming?
I was speaking with a good friend of mine today. She was a successful partner in a successful law firm and just retired (at the old age of 44)!
She was bemoaning the things she REALLY wants to do in life. Things she has always imagined.
She wants to walk into a prestigious nonprofit – dressed to the nines – and offer them her service – if even to only bring coffee to the people who run the show. She feels dorky doing it.
She wants to call her childhood friend who is now pursuing HIS (and her) LIFETIME PASSION for acting and musicals. She feels dorky doing it.
Even though she “knows” that if she doesn’t approach these people the answer is as “NO” now as if it would be if they told her “NO”. She still doesn’t want to put herself at that risk.
It made me wonder. This is a person who has been a HIGHLY PAID professional, a leader in her community, a bad-ass-mamba-jamba. Yet, she is AFRAID to pursue her passion.
Where are we looking for permission to pursue our passion? Do we feel better about holding our passion as a possibilty than finding out that we can’t have it? Possibly so. Maybe the “wondering” feels better than the “no” that we fear we would find.
So, here we are, my lovelies. Passionate beings who want to pursue our passions (and feel the hole inside that we are not), but happier to have it as a “possibility” than a clear “no”.
I GET IT!
Tonight, I BEG OF YOU, to think of ONE THING you could do to pursue your passion. Get ahold of someone who will hold you to account. Let THEM give you permission to pursue your passion.
Then, GO FOR IT!
You probably won’t. We seem DESIGNED to hold back, but maybe, just maybe ONE OF YOU WILL.
Tell me your story. Tell me the passion you are resisting. Let ME be your accountability partner. I mean it. YOU have access to The Irreverent Sales Girl and I will work with you to give yourself permission, BUT, I will also ask you to help me get the same permission I seek.
Alright, I admit it … I have become a bit of an Erika Napoletano stalker of late. (www.redheadwriting.com)
There’s a good reason!
A break in the storm
And, no, I am not talking about Sandy here – although I am sending all my love for you who are dealing with her tonight.
I am talking about the Business storm. You may be familiar with it.
My entire life (since age 12), I have been hoping and studying and praying that one day…please, God…one day I would be a GREAT business person.
I ran an (unsuccessful) lemonade stand, have attended undergrad and graduate B-school. I have co-owned and sold a business. I have failed at starting a couple of businesses. I have been a top salesperson.
Still, the BRASS RING seemed so far away.
Business seemed like a minefield to me. One where you PROTECT your butt against people who will steal your idea. One where MOST BUSINESSES FAIL in the first three years. One where you had just better get used to the idea that it is a DOG-EAT-DOG world out there.
Erika was my break in the storm.
From zero to FUCK YEAH
Now, all of you know that I refrain from swearing whenever possible. Yet, you can hardly get to know and love Erika unless you understand this very raw premise.
Erika Napoletano is ONLY about getting your business and your life from zero to FUCK YEAH. And she means it. She does the work to filter out all of the stuff that will distract you from your goals. She serves as a MIGHTY resource. AND she backs it up by being on your side!
Someone who knows NOTHING about me wants me to win? Will teach me to be vulnerable? Will take time to understand my pain and EXALT in my successes? IS there such a thing in business?
Well, yes, THERE IS. And she is no small potatoes. She is a celebrated columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. She is a sought-after consultant for tech firms. She is an author of a real live book. (The Power of UN-Popular) And….wait for it…
She is a Tedx Talker
I can prove it:
Now for the game
Erika is being LOVED UP for this Tedx Talk. She should be. It is amazing.
It is all about the Power of Being UnPopular (did you ever want to be one of the popular crowd? did you ever imagine there would be an advantage to being UN-popular? you will love this).
OK, my lovelies. If you have been following me for over one MINUTE, you KNOW that I am about YOU winning. That is why I post every single work day. For your success.
Now, I am asking YOU to help ME make someone ELSE successful. Let us show that The Irreverent Sales Girls (and guys who love The Irreverent Sales Girls) can make a BIG FAT SPLASH in the world.
Why I’m Showing This to You
When you find something that moves you, sharing it is key. So today, I’m sharing this with you in the hopes that it might move you, too.
If you like Erika’s talk, LIKE it on YouTube.
If it moved you, TELL HER in a comment on YouTube (she’s responding to everyone who leaves a comment — and there are over 100 so far!).
If you love the message, SHARE IT. On Facebook, via email, tie it to the leg of a carrier pigeon — whatever moves you.
The upside to all of this is that, on occasion, sometimes TED (the mothership) features TEDx talks (talks from smaller, independent events) on their main site. It’s kind of like winning a TED-flavored Oscar. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could be a part of letting TED know that we think Erika’s talk is an idea worth spreading? And if you’re not familiar with TED, that’s exactly what it is: Ideas Worth Spreading. People from all over the world give talks that are 18 minutes or less on ideas that move them, and in turn, TED.com moves people across the world by sharing, or as TED says, spreading them.
The Irreverent Sales Girl does not win a car if you do this!
The real power of what we are doing here is the power to CONNECT each other with amazing resources and opportunities.
Your “watch” and “like” and “comment” is something YOU can do for someone who is AMAZING and playing life BOLD.
I get nothing from it. YOU get my true and raw thanks.
I invite you to meet someone exceptional
You will laugh, you will be moved, and you will remember something stirring deep inside of you that is ready to be GREATER THAN YOU EVER IMAGINED.
Please watch the video, like it (if you do), and send a comment. Let’s get Erika to Ted.com!
Now, what can I do for YOU?
Post a comment about what you think of this game, and tell me something I can do for you.
One of the most amazing women on the planet today allowed ME to be a guest blogger on her site. Erika Napoletano is REDHEAD WRITING. She is a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, she is a Tedx Talker. She is, in short, the real deal.
AND, she is SO human.
I am humbled by her interest in the message of Bringing a Dash of Dignity to the Art of Sellling. So, today I share the Guest Blog that she allowed me to contribute.
One of the most amazing women on the planet today allowed ME to be a guest blogger on her site. Erika Napoletano is REDHEAD WRITING. She is a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, she is a Tedx Talker. She is, in short, the real deal.