The quote to sum it all up for the week:
“Watch your thoughts for they become words.
Watch your words for they become actions.
Watch your actions for they become habits.
Watch your habits for they become your character.
And watch your character for it becomes your destiny.
What we think, we become.”
~Margaret Thatcher
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
Ever had that one client, that one boss, that one family member that EVERYTHING you do with them doesn’t work? No matter what they need, you screw it up?
I had a presentation with THAT customer today!
Today I had a presentation in the last stages of a competitive bid for an important contract.
EVERYBODY was on the phone.
The Executives, the decision-makers, the business unit people, the purchasers. EVERYBODY.
This presentation went the way all of my other interactions have gone with this customer. Wild technical difficulties to start. Fumbling my words. Stilted maneuvering through the product I was demonstrating. It’s been like this since the beginning…
A fun history
It’s been a train wreck the whole way through.
My first meeting with them I had to cancel because I was driving to see them mid-winter and I couldn’t get out of my neighborhood, the roads were so bad.
In my first presentation with them, they were ALL ice cold. I could not get meaningful eye contact with any of them.
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
Submitting my proposal – well, that went OK.
The technical call with my Senior Vice President of Product Development and their whole team – I was a FULL eleven minutes late to the call (unprecedented).
This last presentation – just BARELY ran at all and BARELY got it done in the time allotted.
OY!
I was disenheartened after this call. It was my last opportunity to make a good impression. But, here’s the thing. We really do have a GREAT solution for what this customer needs.
What’s a girl to do?
My first inclination was to let it ride
I had done what I had done. It was over. RIGHT?
Then, the scary move
I wrote to the icy-est (is that a word?) business analyst. I wrote (paraphrase):
“Have you ever had that ONE client, that ONE boss, that ONE family member that you could never get it quite right with?
“For some odd reason your company seems to be that for me. I apologize for the technical difficulties I put you through. My presentation was stilted and I hope I didn’t put everyone to sleep. In nine years, I have never had this experience of everything going wrong. I hope that people can let the great products and services shine through, in spite of my bumbling. Is there anything else you need from me?”
I HATED looking this ridiculous, but you know what happened?
This Icy person sent me a warm email. She said “The technical difficulties didn’t bother any of us – it was a simple thing to manage. I have passed your email to the head of purchasing.”
Two birds with one stone!
Pretty cool! Not only had I been a “human” with the business analyst, but she gave me the opportunity to be a “human” with the purchasing person, too.
We might just win this thing!
We might not. But at least I can rest knowing that I have put the best possible foot forward for my company with products and services that deserve to win the contract.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Do not be afraid to let people know that YOU know that you could have done better and that you care that you didn’t do your best. People are amazing.
Love your vulnerability UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
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!
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
Make sense? Start finding out what EVERYONE who is impacted wants. Then arm your buyer with everything THEY need to look REALLY REALLY GOOD!
Your job is to create ROCK STARS!
Love your peeps UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
“Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second.” ~ Bobby Unser
OK my lovelies…the end of the year is coming at a rapid pace. You have just had a L-O-N-G weekend – even a long week off.
How are YOU going to get back to it today and make a solid finish?
This is where champions are born. At the end. When everyone else is checking out.
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
I want to hear from you!
Love your year UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
This one is just for fun today. A little poke at the traditional blog styling. I was just musing…
These are the SEVEN topics I would write about if my life looked like a blog post:
7 innovative ways to make coffee in the morning…included would be quippy tricks about keeping coffee from being bitter, maybe things to make my coffee taste like Christmas morning (hint: cinnamon in the grounds – nod to Berta from Two and a Half Men).
Then, I would move on to…
6 creative ways to get my dogs to walk themselves … here I would likely find fantastical and magical tips from Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer – one trick would include teaching the pups to walk on a treadmill – perhaps an advanced note on training them to turn the machine on by themselves.
5 important events that must happen before I start my day…these would likely be a bit more mundane – geared to entertain the new brand of remote employees and solopreneurs – things like clever ways to remember to brush my teeth and check to see if I need a shower. Of course, the fifth idea would be something cute and comical, just to add a kick of fun! (At what point in the laundry cycle you MUST mute your phone when on important conference calls! Something like that.)
4 items that are better put off until tomorrow … this would provide insights on the stuff to stop that TRULY sucks life out of my day. Like getting caught in a Minesweeper marathon, mindlessly trying to beat my best score from 10 years ago. (The entertaining “new” look at the power of procrastination!)
3 fun facts about work habits…this section would fascinate my reader with off-the-wall statistics about the things people do every day and do not even realize it. Something like…72% of office workers are thinking about hedgehogs while at the coffee machine (hello, Erika!). Ya know. Things you wouldn’t expect, but make you go hmmmmmmm….
2 reasons to avoid the grocery store on your way home from work…this paragraph would outline how much more susceptible I am to buying advertised items that are over-priced and high in calories at this precarious time of day. Something of critical importance!
THE ONE THING TO NEVER FORGET AT THE END OF THE DAY … my blog post would end with something mushy and inspiring, of course. It would probably be something like … make sure to give everyone in my house a big hug with slurpy kisses (yes, the dogs are pretty slurpy!)
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
Love your Thanksgiving UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
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.
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
Love your marketing UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
Today I was doing my cold calls.
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!
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
Love your work UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
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.
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
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.
Any takers?
Love our lives UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
Every one of us needs someone to watch our back!
For those of you who are A-Drive achievers….this is not for you! You guys ALREADY rock and I love to know you! Move on…
For the others, we NEED Front-Stabbers. People who will call us on our “stuff”.
If you want to be WILDLY successful, I recommend you get an ACCOUNTABILITY partner. Someone you check in with from time-to-time.
Here’s how it works. Salespeople and solo-preteneurs RARELy get conversations with people who will HOLD THEM TO ACCOUNT!
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
So, find some people in your life who are UP TO BIG THINGS!
On a weekly basis, make promises to each other…then, RECORD YOUR RESULTS.
Don’t let each other off the hook! Record your results over time. How is the “group” doing? Make THAT important. No excuses!
For more information on how to create a POWER PACK… email me at salesgirl@irreverentsalesgirl.com. It will transform your life!
Love your life UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
In college, my girlfriends and I loved the mantra…If you marry for money, you earn every penny!
Same goes for selling something you do not believe in…just to earn a check.
Do you KNOW you are doing the best for your clients? Can you speak passionately about your products and services and be the poster child for your wares?
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
If not, the check you are earning is far too low … and the price you are paying is FAR TOO HIGH to continue.
I’m just sayin’
Love your life UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl