How to perform – reliably
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.”
~ Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
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I’ve always been known for a scandal or two! Those who know me will agree! It may not be pretty, but it makes for a great story!
Go create YOUR great story…
Love your life UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
When you take yourself away, you hurt yourself
Sitting in a sales meeting with a VIP at a company I would love to have as a client.
You know the one. The pretty big deal who would make a great addition to your core set of clients? A nice and pretty feather in your cap?
I was INVESTED in this deal
I had been working this deal like a good job.
I had traveled for hours to meet in person.
I looked my best, and I was prepared.
Things looked good
As we started to talk about how we could work together, this lovely VIP laid out the landscape. She shared with me how her systems weren’t working – how she wasn’t meeting her goals. (A-ha! I could help!)
THEN…Two really bad things happened.
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Things took a turn for the worst
First, she said to me: “We don’t have budget for another solution AND I don’t have buy-in from my senior management to make any changes. It’s just not important to them.” (In other words, I CAN’T BUY ANYTHING FROM YOU)
The second thing she said was even worse. Next she said, “OK. Pitch me.”
(HUH?)
For a moment I could barely see straight
I was SO annoyed.
When she said “PITCH ME” – I was just floored. Here she was, completely wasting my time AND forcing me to be some small person who was going to give her a spiel. UGH!
Somehow, I regained POISE and PROFESSIONALISM
I remembered what a very successful friend of mine once told me, “Sometimes you will have to take the OFFER off of the table, but NEVER take yourself away.”
So, I paused and put myself on HER side of the table. She was in pain and wanted some help. I had nothing to offer. Not her fault.
I told her. “I have nothing to sell you. If you don’t have the budget and your managers won’t agree, then we don’t really have anything to talk about just yet.”
Then I laid out the plan
“I would love to have another conversation when you have more support from your execs and they see the value in putting money behind your efforts. Is there anything I can do to help you get that?”
She agreed that there wasn’t.
I stayed with her
When all of me wanted to storm out of her office and make her realize what a waste of time our meeting was and how badly she had insulted me, instead… we talked about other things.
We spent the next 15 minutes talking about personal stuff. The sales conversation was closed, but our relationship wasn’t.
Now, I’ve never sold to this company
And neither have any of my competition, but she speaks well of me in our circles and we are friendly, and – who knows – Well, you just never know.
The moral of the story
Bring dignity to the sale.
Stand up for yourself. You are not a trained monkey with a canned approach. It would have been ridiculous and demeaning if I had given my well-prepared presentation.
Yet, love that other person UP! This VIP would NEVER have wasted her time with me if she didn’t need some help. I couldn’t help, but I could be her friend.
Take your offer away, but never take YOU away!
Love ’em UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
Hello my lovelies,
I am delighted to announce, that after three years of blogging, I am FINALLY writing my Manifesto (not the perfume shown here). I have named it:
The Irreverent Sales Girls Guide To Wild Success
I am thrilled to be doing this and it is flowing like water today.
Jeanine Wicker has dibs on the FIRST copy of the book. The first nine people who post “ME” on this article will get free copies, too, when it is complete! (Be patient).
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
What is this book I speak of?
The book is, well, Irreverent. It is designed to break up all of the myths that hold me back and to STOP WASTING MY TIME. It might just do the same for you. It is short and fun and Irreverent (we said that already).
A sneak peek
Here is the Introduction:
“I hate introductions. I just want to get into it. Yet, I see the value for setting the context.
Here is the book that I wish someone had written for me.
I hope you love it.
The Irreverent Sales Girl”
Who wants in?
Love ’em UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
I got this note today:
“Dear Irreverent Sales Girl,
I am selling to a BIG fish in a SMALL pond. They are asking for the world – pushing our every limit.
I’d really like to sell this deal, but I’m getting exhausted and starting to worry about every call and every email they send. They just want MORE and MORE and MORE, but are unwilling to commit to the sale and seem ungrateful for the concessions we have made on their behalf.
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
How should I continue with them?
~ Tired of fishing”
Dear Tired of Fishing,
Congratulations for reaching out and getting help! That’s an excellent step to ensuring that many great deals will come your way, possibly even this one.
BUT, beware the pitfall of three important things:
1) When chasing a big fish, we tend to obsess and forget all else (remember Moby Dick?) – keep working ALL of your activity. This is only one deal.
2) If you compromise the way you do business for this one fish – you will set the tone for your entire relationship – and it will always be this way. Remember that YOU have something that THEY want, too. Go only as far now as you’re willing to go forever.
3) Keep giving love to the deals that are closing who LOVE what you offer NOW. If you focus on the one that is difficult, you are compromising your mental attitude and confidence. Keep working your plan and have this deal be one of many. This one will cut itself loose if it’s not a good fit. Close the ones who will LOVE you forever.
Love your sales UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
P.S. I WELCOME questions like this. If you have a question about your sales or building your business, stop suffering. Email me at salesgirl@irreverentsalesgirl.com. You might even appear here and on our popular Facebook page!
Sadly, as much as we’d like to believe it….there is no such thing as STATUS QUO.
You are either improving, or you are not keeping up!
Make getting better a fun game, play it like a kid on the playground. It’s a game, but play it like your life depends on it! That’s where the miracles open up.
If you think you’ve made it, you’re cooked!
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 growth UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
Because it does!
The story of how a broken vacuum cleaner single-handedly wrecked my garage
Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? But it’s the solid gold truth.
I worked for days, slaved really to get my garage in pristine order – so that we could park both cars within the warm caverns during the bracing cold and ice of the winter-time.
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
There was a place for everything and everything in it’s place
The system
Every single-dingle time I took something from the garage, I replaced it EXACTLY where it belonged. Every single-dingle time I put something new into the garage, I found a new place for it to go that was orderly and obvious.
IT WAS WORKING. Both cars hummed smoothly and efficiently into the garage. We could find anything we wanted at a moment’s notice.
Then, the Vacuum!
In a hurry one day, I was cleaning out a closet and found our vacuum cleaner that hadn’t worked in years. I wasn’t sure if I was going to toss it, donate it, or get it fixed. So, what did I do?
You may have guessed. I put it in the garage! Just set it there, right in the middle.
POOF!
The garage suddenly became the old and cluttered place it had become. Seemed like it happened overnight.
One car squeezes into our garage now and it is a monumental effort to find anything. The vacuum is gone, but the legacy it left behind remains.
A System is Powerful, but it is also FRAGILE
The vacuum cleaner debacle is EXACTLY how our lives work.
If you are Stephen King, you keep your system. You sit down and write your appropriated words every single-dingle day. It is the difference between being someone whose tomes occupy an entire section of my book shelf and being, well, whatever else he would have been.
It is the difference between an Olympic Athlete and a Weekend Warrior.
Wanna be great? Wanna meet your goals? Put a system in place and guard it like everything depends on it. It does. One slip and it can be a monumental effort to restore the discipline and the results. No slip equals monumental results.
Love your systems UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
“I never let a rhinestone go unturned.”
~ Dolly Parton
Love your opportunities UP!
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
Don’t miss a one…
The Irreverent Sales Girl
Goals are a curious thi
ng
Where do they come from? Who said they were the right goals? Why do I see meeting my quota as a goal and running a marathon as not a goal? How did that get wired?
Why “goals” anyway?
Seems like we’re supposed to have goals, right? But, have we even examined why we have the goals we do? Have you? How do they serve you? DO they serve you?
The ATTAINABLE goals…the goals with the glory!
Somehow, the goals that I have achieved in my life – yes, even EXCEEDED – with wild and flying colors – seem to have PICKED ME!
It’s like a secret, strong, and silent voice urged me to GO FOR that one thing. And it was EASY to commit, even felt natural. It does NOT MEAN they were easy to achieve, but I had the heart – the gusto – the “over-my-dead-body” about them.
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
I’m wondering…
Am I setting the goals I think I “should” set?
Am I setting goals because setting goals is the right thing to do?
Or, am I paying attention to that inner pull? Maybe “my purpose”?
So, I’ve learned to trust the goals that HAVE ME!
They wake me up early in the morning. They drive me. They take me to the places that I want to go.
Can we take a moment and give ourselves over to the things that HAVE US?
Instead of the things that we “think” we should have?
Just a thought!
Love your goals UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
You today have 31 days to meet your first quarter goal. Are you confident you will get there? If yes, go read something else,
If you are a “maybe” or completely “not confident” keep reading:
Maybe
If you are maybe, take the time and map it out. What needs to happen in the next 31 days? How much looks like it’s going to happen? Make sure you have at least 2x Business committed to closing this month. What activity to you need to generate? Put the admin stuff aside…KEEP TALKING TO THE PEOPLE YOU EXPECT TO CLOSE … get people on the “closinig” track. Play to close it ALL – it will allow deals to fall out!
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
Not Confident
Call your sales manager FIRST THING tomorrow and let them know you are worried about meeting your first quarter goal and start to brainstorm together (if your sales manager doesn’t LOVE you for this, find a new job). Create a plan and WORK IT.
Confident
Go for it! Make sure you are looking at reality and not fantasy.
Love your SUCCESS UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
I had a GREAT BIG call today with one of the Elephants I am tracking.
We seem to be getting so close, yet we are HEAD-TO-HEAD with a fierce and competent competitor.
It’s all I’ve been able to think about lately.
I’ve been getting ATTACHED.
I realized this during my workout today. Here I am enjoying a nice peaceful morning on the Elliptical and all I can think about is this PANIC I am having about landing this elephant.
Ridiculous.
And then, I thought, “What Would the Irreverent Sales Girl Do?”
And, it came to me. She would
1) Relax – all the prep is done, the meeting is prepared, all the right people are attending
2) Realize that I am offering the best solution (I really am)
3) Trust that they are smart and capable of getting what they need and not being bamboozled by me or others
4) Remember to focus not only on the elephant, but also on all the great business that is trying to close
5) Remember that if I do not close this deal, it doesn’t mean I can’t reach my highest goals – it is all working in my favor
5) BREATHE – and enjoy the exercise
I took her advice (*wink*)
Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/
I went into the meeting calm, in control, committed, professional. I let THEM talk.
They said all the right things. They even said “wow” a couple of times. I could hear their heads nodding.
They make their decision on Tuesday
It will be us or it will be them. Either way I am going to CRUSH it this year. Because that is what I am committed to. This deal is one of many.
Love yourself UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl