“Our sales force is already motivated, energetic and extremely talented,” says Bulbs.com CEO Mike Connors. “But we want to develop each employee’s skills to the fullest to build on our momentum and future success.”

The grant comes from the Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund – a taxpayer funded program that is part of the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development designed to improve employee skills and maintain the economic strength and viability of the Commonwealth’s businesses.

“Our sales staff will complete 12 training sessions designed to create ‘skills enhancement’ education rather than the mostly motivational seminar-based training programs,” says Connors. “This will undoubtedly make our sales staff more effective in both the short and long terms and significantly contribute to our growth.”

Everyone on the Bulbs.com sales team has inside or outside sales experience and has been certified as a Lighting Specialist by NAILD – the National Association of Independent Lighting Distributors. This training is designed to build on their existing sales skills that will build a group of the most highly- effective sales professionals in the lighting category.

“We are excited to announce that we have selected Sandler for our training program,” says Sales Manager, Russ Lamacchia. “Sandler Training is a highly-respected firm with a proven curriculum that will deliver results.”

A Train-the-Trainer component has been added to ensure that future employees will benefit long after the facilitated training is complete.

“We have hired Greg Nanigian from Greg Nanigian and Associates (www.GNATraining.Sandler.com) of Braintree, MA to facilitate the program. His 25 years of training sales teams in the Sandler method will ensure we have fun and get the most out of every session,” says Lamacchia.

About Bulbs.comBulbs.com, headquartered in Worcester, Mass., is a leading online incandescent, fluorescent and LED lighting supplier. Established in August 1999, Bulbs.com provides over 4,500 lighting products from Philips, Sylvania and GE to a growing list of nearly 100,000 commercial customers operating 300,000 locations in the hospitality, retail, property-management, healthcare, manufacturing and municipal sectors. For more information, visit http://www.bulbs.com .

About Massachusetts Workforce Training Program FundFor more information regarding the Massachusetts Workforce Training Program Fund, please visit http://www.mass.gov/wtfp

For information, please visit https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=48904

The giant whiteboard in our creative suite was outdated. Punxsutawney Phil had seen his shadow, Groundhog Day was over, and we needed something to replace the cartoon groundhog who had been staring at us for a couple weeks. The groundhog drawing, itself just seasonal filler, was a fleeting replacement of something else, an easy way to eliminate some white space and live up to our reputation as quirky creative types.

So we decided to make a little chart explaining social media through donuts. We put our minds together and then our creative director, Nuno Gomes, scribbled it out. Doug Ray, a multimedia producer here, snapped a photo with Instagram and posted it on Facebook and Twitter. We had a beer, a good laugh, and went home for the weekend.

Since then, nearly 100,000 people have ‘liked’ it on Facebook, and thousands of people have Tweeted about it. We weren’t trying to make anything cute or funny.

We just needed something to replace the groundhog.

Besides totally blowing our minds, the whole thing has been a good reminder about some best practices in online earned media execution.

After all, we just needed to replace the groundhog. Why donuts? We’re not sure, but weirdly nothing else works as well.

It’s almost impossible to make it through the day without seeing or hearing an advertisement with the tag line, “We’ve got an app for that.”

Interestingly, it wasn’t that long ago that the word “smartphone” didn’t exist. And, if you checked the dictionary, “app” was an abbreviation for apparatus, appendix, or applied.

New technologies such as “smartphones” and smartphone “apps” play an important role in the daily routines of many people—the way they communicate with one another, the way they organize their personal, business, and social activities, the way they get from point A to point B, and the way they entertain themselves.

And, almost every facet of business has been touched, and ostensibly improved, by technology. Everything from scheduling orders to tracking deliveries; forecasting production requirements to ordering raw materials; documenting services to tallying billable hours.

How will technology impact you in the near future? Is your job in jeopardy of being replaced by a next generation smartphone app?

Maybe.

It depends on what you bring to the table—what value you add to the buyer-seller relationship beyond the transactional aspects of doing business.

From a customer’s perspective, interactions with salespeople can be characterized, at one end of the spectrum, as dealing with a clerk—someone who shows up, gets the order, and then disappears. Or, it can be characterized, at the other end of the spectrum, as dealing with a trusted advisor—someone who understands the client’s needs and goals and provides insight and help in satisfying them.

How would your customers characterize your relationship? At or near which end of the spectrum would they place your interactions with them? Unfortunately, for too many salespeople, it’s near the “clerk” end. These salespeople (and hopefully, you’re not one of them) show up on schedule, get an order, and add little, if any, additional value beyond occasionally taking the buyer to lunch or bringing donuts for the staff.

One might argue that there’s a certain efficiency to the “clerk” methodology. And there very well may be. However, your days as a clerk—operating as a “me too” or “milk-run” salesperson—are numbered. It’s only a matter of time before we see an ad that states: “Salesperson – Yep, we’ve got an app for that!”

Unless you change what you represent to your customers and clients…and bring something to the relationships that they truly appreciate and value, your company will be exploring those apps (quite possibly at your customers’ requests)…and you run the very real risk of becoming a relic—possibly sooner than you think.

How do you add value to the relationship? By contributing anything that helps your customers grow their businesses—increase revenues, decrease costs, or operate more efficiently.

Perhaps you can orchestrate a quarterly or semi-annual roundtable discussion with your customer and the people within your company who can provide technical, financial, logistical, or other information that could help your customer improve internal systems…and ultimately production, revenue, and the bottom line.

Maybe you can change your manner of interaction with your customers to make it easier for them to do business with you?

Possibly you can provide market analyses or industry trend information which can help your customers make better production, inventory, or sales forecasts?

What can you do?

If you’re having trouble coming up with ways to add value to your customer relationships, perhaps you don’t know your customers as well as you should. Perhaps your interactions with them don’t extend much beyond the transactional aspects of the sale. Perhaps a smartphone app would do just fine.

© 2012 Sandler Systems, Inc.

Sandler Training practice’s a method called a “mental enema” with an upset customer.   It has the effect of giving the prospect an opportunity to “get things off their chest”.  Once that is done, it is usually easier to deal with the prospect and come up with a solution to “making things right”.  For example, let’s say the customer is upset because of a late delivery.  Instead of saying, “It is late because one of our suppliers for the raw materials had a quality problem and it took longer to get good parts than expected”.  You should say, “I get the feeling you are upset and rightfully so”, at that point expect the prospect to “dump”!  Remember the Sandler Rule that “Yesterday’s Dump is Tomorrow’s Ice Cream” as they are dumping!  Meaning, although they may be complaining at that moment, we can usually “make something good” out of the situation.  By facilitating the “dump” we validate their feelings.  For example, while the customer is telling you how frustrated they are, you can reply with, “I do not blame you for being frustrated, if this happened to me, I would be frustrated as well”.  After sharing how they feel, they will usually become more understanding, at which point you may ask them, “How can I make it right?”  You may or may NOT be willing to do what they want.  If you are not willing to accept their solution then remember they are now more understanding and may agree to an alternative solution. By giving the customer a “mental enema” you can usually make things right more effectively.

This approach is much more effective because it does things for both the prospect and yourself.  The best thing a “mental enema” does is to validate the customer’s feelings through listening and agreeing with them.  It also brings them to a less emotional and more reasonable and logical state of mind allowing you to now work on solving the problem collaboratively.   One problematic outcome to the situation is that the customer may “dump” more than they should given the situation. Whenever you see behavior that does not fit with the circumstances, usually there are several other things that happened and the “late delivery” was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back”.  When people “dump” and go overboard, they usually realize it soon after.  When they do, they will feel guilty about it and that can be a very powerful motivator for the prospect to “make things right with you”!

It may take some guts to use the “mental enema” approach if you have never used it before.  Realize that when we try to explain what went wrong, we are going on the defensive.  Going on the defensive lends itself to getting emotionally involved.  Once someone gets emotionally involved, they have lost control!  Again, explaining why it happened does not give you an opportunity to validate the customer’s feelings. It generally does not pay any dividend for that reason and when the customer hangs up the phone, they usually do not have good things to say about you to anyone in their company. Along with using the “mental enema” approach, you should accept responsibility for what went wrong.  At least that way, you can tell them you will own the responsibility for making it right and people love it when you do that!   It is a much more effective solution than “finger pointing”.  Customers are a lot more likely to continue to do business and even do more business when they can count on YOU as opposed to hoping that everyone at your company will do everything right.  In the example given, after the “mental enema” and after you have agreed on a solution to the current late delivery, you could say, “In the future, I personally will stay in contact with my suppliers to make sure that this does not happen again”. 

People like to deal with salespeople that advocate for them at a business level.  At a bonding level they love it when you validate their feelings. The “mental enema” approach is not a traditional approach to sales, so you will not sound like a salesperson using this approach to deal with upset customers. You will however make “Yesterday’s Dump Tomorrow’s Ice Cream”!

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1. What specifically do I want to accomplish in 2012?
2. How will I do it?
3. How will I know that I’m on the correct path for accomplishment?

Do you want to grow your business revenues and profits? Do you want to increase your income? Perhaps you want to expand your territory, develop key accounts, or grow your customer base. Maybe you want to be able to accomplish more…in less time so you’ll have more time for hobbies or to be with your family.

Whatever your goals, they must be specific. You can’t formulate plans for accomplishment if you don’t know exactly what it is you want to accomplish. More importantly, you must be clear about why those accomplishments are important to you. And the “why” must be significant. The motivation to pursue goals that have superficial meanings or only provide short-term gratification fades quickly. Additionally, your various goals must be compatible with one another. When two goals are competing for the same resources, especially your time and energy, one or both will suffer. For example, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to accomplish the goal of “having more time with your family” if you’re staying late at the office and working weekends to accomplish the goal of “furthering your career.”

Once you’ve decided exactly what you want to accomplish, you must determine how you’re going to do it. And the plans for accomplishment must be no less detailed than the goals themselves. For each goal, start with the end results—the accomplishment of the goal—and work backwards, identifying the sequence of steps that will lead up to that accomplishment. Some steps will overlap and others will occur concurrently. Nevertheless, you’ll need a sense of flow in order to map out your plan so you’re not working haphazardly or franticly.

You should also be brutally honest with yourself about your ability and willingness to perform each step. Even the most well-thought-out plan will fail if you lack the skills to perform any of the steps or you’re unwilling to do what needs to be done…when it needs to be done. If there’s some aspect of your plan with which you’re uncomfortable or unsure, decide up front how you’re going to handle it. If you’ll need additional resources, for instance, make arrangements well in advance so you don’t slow down your progress…or worse, bring it to a grinding halt.

In order to determine if you’re on track and on schedule in accomplishing your goals, include in your plans benchmarks to hit (and thereby measure your progress) at set points along the path. If you’re off track, you can make adjustments to get back on track and back on schedule. If you wait until the end of the goal period to measure results, and they’re lacking, it will be too late to do anything about it.

The year will be exactly what you make of it…nothing more and nothing less. You have a choice: you can develop lofty goals; you can develop play-it-safe goals; or you can simply let things happen as they may (which means you’ll likely find yourself playing a part in the accomplishment of someone else’s goal). Your ability to see today a picture of what you want in the future, and your willingness to develop and implement a plan for accomplishment, will determine whether today’s picture becomes tomorrow’s reality.

© 2011 Sandler Systems, Inc.

“Larry, there has got to be more to rapport than just mimicking what someone does physically,” said Bob.

“What do you mean?” responded Larry.

“Well, look at the two of us. We’re both sitting down, relaxed, semi-slouched, dressed in a similar fashion. And I feel comfortable talking with you.”

“Which means . . .?” Larry once again asked.

“How is it that you seem to be comfortable with whomever you are with? I’ve watched you the past week. Even on the phone, you look like you are talking with your best friend.”

“Interesting you noticed the phone . . . here’s a question for you. How do I get rapport with someone on the other end of the phone when I can’t see him? I have no idea if he gestures or whatever.”

“I don’t know . . . the way he sounds?”

“What do you mean by sounds?”

“Well, when I get on the phone, I know I tend to talk rapidly. Come to think of it, I could see where someone on the other end might think I’m trying to rush her.”

“And what happens most of the time when you talk fast?”

“Almost invariably the person pegs me as a salesperson and starts telling me the 10 reasons she doesn’t want to do business. Then I start countering and before you know it,” his voice trailed off. “You know,” he continued, “it’s sort of like when I tugged my buckle and started rocking. I was actually prompting the prospect for objections. I guess I’m doing the same thing with the speed of my talking.”

“So, if you match the prospect physically, why not match the prospect verbally?”

“Use the same words?” asked Bob.

“Why not? But you can go further. I could say ‘Get out of here’ with one tone, and the message would be ‘Leave right now.’ I could say the same words with a friendly tone, and the message would be that I found what you just said to be hard to believe.”

“Well, Larry,” said Bob, “get out of here.”

The RESULT:

Bob has “listened” and learned that when he thought he was communicating on the phone, he was only setting himself up for a string of objections. How did Larry help Bob “listen” to himself?

DISCUSSION:

The tone in your voice can carry a message to your listener that you have no intention of delivering. Or, it can carry a message that makes it harder than need be for you to effectively communicate.

If you pick up the phone, say hello, and you are immediately “hit” with a rapid-fire, no-pause monologue, you immediately know it’s a salesperson. You may not even hear the meaning of the words. Just the way in which they are delivered is enough for you to get the message, “Salesperson on the line, how do I get off?”

Or, if you pick up the phone, then are asked if it is you, then are told “Good afternoon,” evening or whatever, you also immediately know it’s a sales call. Why?

You recognize a certain verbal pattern and immediately know the message:

If I keep you on the phone, I’m going to sell you something.

Is this the way friends talk to other friends?

APPROACH:

Salespeople get in a rut talking the same way to every prospect. The same words are used, at the same point in the conversation, with the same tonality. The prospect, or for that matter, even existing customers, can quickly sense when you slide into the rut. What do you think they are saying to themselves at that moment?

“This is the same line he uses with everyone. I’m being treated just like everyone else. If he really cared, he’d really talk to me.”

How did Larry “talk” to Bob? He asked him questions that caused Bob to respond. If you ask Bob how the conversation went, he’d probably tell you it was very productive. Who did most of the talking?

The last time you had a really useful conversation, who really did most of the talking?

Consider asking your prospects, and especially existing customers, questions that enable them to have really good conversations with you. Match the tone of your questions to their tone and enjoy a really good conversation.

Now, don’t feel that you are being dishonest or manipulative. You really will find yourself having good conversations that result in sales.

THOUGHT:

Why not make it comfortable for your prospects to be with you? Enable them to have a really good conversation and thus you’ll be thought of as someone who really deserves the order.

© 2011 Sandler Systems, Inc.

I find for myself, and all the folks I’ve ever worked with, Attitude is the most important.  As a salesperson you much “protect” and develop your Attitude every day!  So, here’s a check list to see how you’re doing at that:

1. Behavior impacts Attitude!  Therefore, ask yourself are you doing the Behaviors every day and as much as you should?
2. Your physical health impacts your attitude.  What are you doing to remain or become healthier; do you work out; eat right; drink right – take that any way you like!  Seriously, do you bring water with you in your car and hydrate enough?
3. Are you taking care of your mind?  Everything from who you are friends with to what you read and watch on TV impacts your mind.  Are you continually nourishing your mind with “Good Food”!  Are you developing you skills through training or are you doing the same things to sell all the time?
4. Of course, Spirit is key as well in terms of Attitude.  Meditation, worship, yoga, and even running impact Spirit in a positive way for many.   What is your level of commitment to doing any of these types of things to help your spirit?  Do you surround yourself with good friends?  Do you make a time commitment to developing those friendships?  Friends and family can have a powerful effect on your spirit as well as your self-esteem.

Sales can be great and from time to time it can be pretty lonely especially when you don’t cultivate your attitude.  Have you ever noticed how the most successful people have a great attitude? You may wonder which came first; the success or the great attitude?  It could be they evolved together or the success preceded the positive attitude or the great attitude helped the success.
 
I’ll leave you with one final thought – who would you rather deal with when you’re buying something?  I bet your answer is someone with a great attitude.

The appointment with the prospect that Tim spent two weeks getting was not going well. The prospect kept firing  questions and Tim kept giving answers. The only problem was that Tim could not figure out if the answers were what the prospect wanted to hear.

“How many have you sold in the area?”

Good, thought Tim, an easy one at last, and my answer will let him know that it is a popular product. “In the past six months I’ve sold over six hundred.”

“That’s too bad,” said the prospect.

“What…,” responded a shocked Tim.

“It’s too bad because I only like to buy the exclusive stuff. You see, Tim, in my business, if my competition has what you are selling, I’m no better off than they are. In order to stay ahead of the rest, I need the latest and greatest. You’re not selling it.”

“Well…,” stumbled Tim, “I think we might be coming out with an improved version.”

“Won’t do me any good. I need a competitive advantage today. Not six months from now. I really appreciate your stopping in today. Give me a call when you get something new.”

The RESULT:

Tim answered a perfectly reasonable question and as a result, was shown the door. There is nothing wrong with answering a prospect’s question, but first you should make an effort to discover what’s the real question.

What if Tim had responded to the question of how many had been sold in the area with, “That’s a very interesting question; why do you ask?”

There are only two possible responses. Either the prospect would have rephrased his original question and asked it again, or Tim would have been told the prospect’s feelings about wanting the latest and greatest and why having the latest and greatest was of importance.

Upon learning why the prospect wanted the latest and greatest, Tim could have used the information to position his product to provide that needed competitive edge.

But Tim didn’t reverse the question, assumed the prospect would like hearing how popular the product was, and was shown the door.

DISCUSSION:

Reversing is the skill of answering a question with a question. Never answer the prospect’s question unless he asks it twice. Then you MUST answer it. But only answer it briefly—NO dissertation—and then reverse again.

The first time you hear a question, reverse and ask why the prospect is asking the question.

This tactic is easy to learn, but very difficult for someone to put into practice. The reason for this—salespeople believe that their job is to have all the answers or get all the answers in the shortest time possible. The rationale is simple; if I have all the answers all the time, I’ll be more likely to make the sale. As a result of this, salespeople have conditioned themselves to leap on questions in the rush toward closing the sale.

Do not think lack of product/service knowledge is okay. It’s not. There is no excuse for not knowing what you are selling.

APPROACH:

Reversing a question is simple. For example…

“Do you have this in green?”

“That’s an interesting question since we are talking about computers; why do you ask?”

“When was the last time one of these broke?”

“By broke, your concern is…?”

“Just yesterday my brother-in-law told me that your price is too high. What are you going to do?”

“Too high compared to…?”

“Can you get this delivered in two weeks?”

“What happens in two weeks?”

“Do you offer leasing?”

“That’s interesting you ask about leasing, why?”

THOUGHT:

You cannot read minds. Unless you reverse the question, you have absolutely no idea why it is being asked. Knowing why the question was asked will ultimately help you sell more efficiently.

© 2011 Sandler Systems, Inc.

After several years of not having much contact with Mike, I called him last week.  I asked him if he could “Spot me” that is, talk to me/coach me on the radio, as I race our last race of this season.  After checking with his wife, always a good idea, he told me he’d be there to “Spot” all weekend.  Mike never missed a race that he said he’d be at.  He always came prepared and gave it 100%.  I’ve never paid him anything to be there, he did it because he loves the sport and “the hunt for victory”.   He has a passion for success which fuels his commitment level.

Compare my experience with Mike Lovetere to the experiences you’ve had with many salespeople.  Although the roles are dramatically different, I think you’ll find many things relevant.  I think you’ll also find that the contrast is startling in terms of the level of commitment and passion for success.  Passion for success “fuels” commitment.  The measure of commitment is in the execution of certain behaviors that sales people may make.  Here’s a list of behaviors that I suggest for more success in sales:

1. Prepare for every sales call you make for the rest of your life!  Learn the Five Elements of Pre-call Preparation.  They are: have a goal for the sales call; have an agreement with the prospect that supports your goal; write down five to ten questions to uncover pain and things you don’t know that you’d like to know; have the appropriate mindset going into the sales call and practice the “Two Minute Drill”.  Check out www.GNATraining.Sandler.com for the full article I wrote on Pre-Call Planning.   
2. Always take notes on a Sales Calls; have a composition notebook to take them in.  It makes you look more studious and less like a salesperson.  That’s awesome for relaxing the prospect and having meaningful, no pressure Sales Calls.
3. Include in your notes anything that the prospect, as well as yourself, committed to doing.
4. Sometimes it’s appropriate to send an e-mail within 24 hours to re-affirm what you covered in the meeting and next steps.
5. Do what you said you’d do in a timely manner. 
6. If something changes and you can’t do what you said you would, contact the prospect as soon as possible. 
7. Task yourself with plenty of electronic reminders to stay on top of things.
8. Continue to pursue and remember to “play Air Traffic Controller” with others involved in your company who are helping with the prospect.
9. Once you’ve closed a deal, continue to “play Air Traffic Controller”.  Do this with team members on your team and with the “Cast of Characters” at the account by keeping them informed and dealing with any concerns before they become problems.
10. To do all of the above effectively, I think you must really enjoy sales.  If not, you’re doing something wrong.  So, if you aren’t having fun, get a coach or trainer.  Some people have fun at selling and some don’t.  Of the ones that aren’t enjoying it, it’s because they aren’t getting enough appointments or closing enough deals or both!  A good Coach or Trainer can help you really enjoy sales and that “fuels” your commitment and passion!

As an experienced, winning Driver Mike was candid with me, even when what he had to say would “sting a little”.   I always preferred that to “smoke” as I can learn from an expert being honest and “smoke” has no substance so you can’t learn from it.

We have workshops every week where we coach on these skills.  If you participate, it may sting a little to hear what you may be doing wrong, but you’ll learn!  As a Chamber Member, you are welcome to participate in a workshop as my guest.  Just let me know.  I’m here to help! 

Contact me at 781-848-0993 or greg@gnatraining.com.

Sales Opportunity Management
Utilizing Sandler Training and Microsoft CRM Automation

Tuesday, November 8th, 8:30 AM – Noon
Microsoft, 201 Jones Road, Suite 601, Waltham, MA 

Register Now!

Sandler Training, in cooperation with Core Solutions, is happy to present this informative seminar. There is no charge to attend.

This time, we’ve decided to let you set the agenda!

When you register, you’ll have the opportunity to identify any and all issues you’re having with sales opportunity management. Then we’ll take your challenges and create the agenda for the seminar. 

What could be better than a seminar that specifically addresses your challenges?

Greg Nanigian will present Sandler Training best practices for effectively managing sales opportunities; from lead generation to post-sell.  Core Solutions will present Microsoft CRM customizations aimed at resolving the issues you have identified. 

You set the agenda, we provide the solutions. It’s a powerful combination!