In life we’re bound to do something where you end up not on your A-game, either physically like my knee and the line drive, or mentally because of an issue at home or with your family. The hard part is remembering that you still have the day job to worry about. You still have people relying on you to make sales, keep things moving forward and clients and prospects waiting to hear from you. You can’t allow your injury to slow you down as a salesman.

If it’s a physical ailment, power through it as best you can without making yourself worse, you won’t be mentally at 100% until you’re physically back to normal. If that means scaling back on some of your extra stuff, so be it, but that just means you’re more active in other places.

If it’s a mental injury, pull into your parking space, close your eyes, exhale and leave it in the car. Sales is hard enough when you’re in a great mood and the world is all rainbows, unicorns, and happiness. When you’re in a bad mood, over tired, depressed, or just pissy you are facing a herculean task to convince anyone of anything.

Play through the pain, play through in such a way that no one even knows you’re hurt if you can.

Remember, when you get hurt, you still have to play the game of your day job. There is no IR for weekend athletes. -quote from an email to me last week

Playing Through Pain is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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“I will either find a way or make one” -Hanibal

Not the guy from the A-Team or Silence of the Lambs of course, the General from Carthage. Who knows if he really said that quote, but its attributed to him and if you do a little research it certainly seems to fit his personality and actions.

If I’m hiring sales guys I want a guy who has this mindset, a guy who will get from where he is to where he needs to be come hell or high water. A guy who is like a bulldozer, just pushing things out of his way to open the path. Pushing past obstacles and objections, skillfully brushing them aside.

Find one of those guys, or become one of those guys, and then you get to walk in the cleared path.

Make a Way is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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Great doesn’t have a formula.  There’s no recipe for it, no plan, no path to follow.  Great requires you to stretch outside of what’s expected, to bring in something different, to shake it up.

If you’re putting on a regular event and you have the same set of speakers and topics every time, you’re not going to be great – but you could be good.

If you’re putting together a pitch and you use the same lines as your competitors do, you’re not going to stand out and be great.

If you’re building something and you’re just taking the best parts of other people’s ideas and not doing something innovative you may be good but never great.

Be unpredictable, be dangerous, be great.

The Formula is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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On a team of any size from 2 to 200 you will run the chance of having someone whose sole purpose in life seems to be to be the resident Debbie Downer. They may not do it in a way that is obviously negative at first – the ones who just bitch and moan are easy to spot. But like cancer the worst ones are the least obvious to find – they fester and spread until it’s much harder to save your team.

Early detection is the key, treatment should be swift and with the intent of saving as much as possible. If your cancer can’t be cured you need to cut it right out as quickly as possible. Nothing will take a team down faster than rotting from the inside.

See also the Zombie Theory of HR from James at Forty.

Cancerous is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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Remember everyone that sent you a referral, even the ones that weren’t deals.
Forget about all the people who promise you future referrals or leads if only you just work cheap this one time.

Remember every good press piece that you or a client receives – post them somewhere to celebrate.
Forget the bad press but learn from it so you don’t get more.

Remember everyone who ever helped you out or gave you good advice.
Forget all the bad advice and who gave it to you.

Remember every close that’s been used on you or you read in a book.
Forget the ones that didn’t get you to buy, if you didn’t buy they won’t either.

Remember to take the time to enjoy your job.
Forget all the long hours late at night or on the road.

Remember that you’ve got the best job in the world – making sales and making it happen for your company – regardless of your title.

What to Remember is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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I’ll have new content coming up tomorrow I promise.

I’m Not Dead is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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The challenge between sales and marketing is that they don’t communicate. Sales resents marketing because they are theoretical, internally based strategists. Marketing resents the sales teams because they are the non-conformist cowboys who get all the credit and do nothing the way they are expected to. It is the rubber-meets-the-sky-team (marketing) vs. the rubber-meets-the-road (sales) team. How could they not like each other?

The reality is that these two groups do not get along because organizations have not realized that collective and effective growth requires a collaborative, interactive, and strategically joined-at-the-hip partnership between these teams. The most effective customer feedback can be obtained directly from the market by sales. The most disciplined sense of strategy and organization comes from the marketing mind. Instead of having marketing develop a campaign in their functional silo, the marketing team could be working with the sales team to help bring their creative ideas come to life in collaboration with the sales team.

Until businesses realize that there are collective strengths associated with collaboration between the two groups, there will be a schism between the two groups. They both have their functional value. However, that value is exponentially enhanced if the two would actually work together, not apart. Yes, sales ultimately receives the high praise for their success. It is because their efforts can be easily measured in tangible, real terms – closed deals and sales related revenues. If the marketing guys want that type of credit, they will have to hit the street and close some deals. Ofcourse, we know that won’t happen. If they could actually sell, that is what they would be doing. Instead they will continue to hide in their offices working on charts and graphs and promotional campaigns and complaining about those sales cowboys.

Marketing vs Sales: The Salesman is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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Why Marketing and Sales Don’t Get Along

Marketing is about getting 25-35 year old soccer moms with 2.5 children to buy. Sales is about getting Sally Jones, 28, with red hair and 3 kids to buy. You’d think those goals would overlap enough that Sales and Marketing could get along, but somehow the feud has continued for decades.

The root of the issue is perspective. (Isn’t it always?)

From the sales dog’s perspective, the marketing hack is dealing with the imaginary concepts and hypothetical demographics, while he or she is working with living, breathing human beings.

The marketing hack, however, looks down on the sales dog as “one-at-a-timing” it, while he or she is working on the *entire* potential client base at once.

I’m on the marketing side, so I can totally understand that perspective. Our job isn’t to sell the one hot lead in front of us at the moment; it’s to sell hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people at the same time, even though we seldom get to actually see or hear them in person.

It’s an esoteric pursuit that blends art and science, creativity and psychology, design and function, to influence the thoughts and behavior of large numbers of people with minimal resources.

…and then some sales guy gets to take the call from an already buttered-up potential customer, “make the sale,” and claim all the glory. Jerks. It’s just not fair!

Marketing vs Sales: The Marketers is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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Marketing Vs Sales: Intro is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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Jazz is never the same song twice, never perfect, always evolving. Jazz is equal parts planning and improv. A jazz man may look like he’s making it up as he goes, but is often the most prepared guy in the room. A good jazz man is taking cues from the group he’s playing with and the audience and changing the song in response to their feedback. Jazz is best performed in intimate settings where the whole room is a participant. Jazz changes everyone who hears it.

Now go back and read that paragraph again but change the word Jazz to Sales. Do you dig?

Jazz is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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