Experience has clearly shown me the critical importance of first impressions. Surveys of buyers have shown that over 50% prefer to do business with people they like. I firmly believe that “like” (and trust) are far more important in the selling process than any tactic I’ve ever taught or used.

When you notice anything new – including a person – in the invornment, your brain automaticall shifts into an involuntarily assessment mode. This process is jump started by the instinct for survival. This mechanism happens in 1/24 of a second; you couldn’t stop it even you were aware of it andwanted to stop it. It’s referred to as “rapid cognition”. At 2-3 seconds the impression is established and not likely to undergo further significant change. When the first impression is perceived as a threat, the brain’s gatekeeper switches to the “fight or flight” response shutting down the receptors that than can terminate any meaningful rapport with person.

This process of  ”snap judgement” is way different in speed and flow than deliberate decision making. A warm smile and proper handshake can do wonders in making a positive first impression. A smile is only a true smile when the eyes are smiling in concert with the facile mussles. If the eyes don’t smile it becomes a smirk.

I recommend the book titled “Blink”, by Malcolm Gladwell, for those of you who wish to learn more about this important subject. First impression are critically important in business and social interaction.

I decided that this month’s posting would be a video that I want to share with you.  It is the single most inspirational piece I have ever seen  The site is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE&feature=youtube_gdata
Simply click on the above site. You feedback is important to me.  Please send your comments to: gerry@gerryshaltz.com

Kindest regards,

Gerry Shaltz  (THE DNA OF SELLING)

There is no substitute for enthusiasm, not even intelligence. I managed a salesman who we almost didn’t hire because he couldn’t pass a simple intelligence test. “Mary had ten apples and ate one. She gave Johnny two and gave Betty three. How many apples did she have left?” He couldn’t pass the test. But, he was bubbling with sincere enthusiasm. He won me over. Even though his math sucked, he was eminently successful.  He also worked hard, was organized and followed up; fundemental habits for success in any field.

People can sense the positive, enthusiastic, fervor of a salesperson. It may be the main reason that the prospect says “yes” to your proposal. It could differentiate you from your competition. Don’t assume that you can hide a lack of enthusiasm. It is visible in many ways. People can sense your level of conviction based on several things, including the energy and body language you exhibit. If you don’t feel genuine enthusiasm about your product/service, sell somthing else.

Caution: Fake enthusiasm is worse than none.

This is a continuation of April’s posting. I had promised to list several more of the attributes and habits that great sales people have in common.  We wrote about working hard and smart, being organized, and following up; habits necessary for success in all fields of endevour. Also included, were enthusiasm, building rapport and asking for the order.

This writing will include three additional traits and habits of the great ones. 1. They have a do it anyway mentality. Alistair Cook said, “Professionals can do their best work even when they don’t feel like it.”  They do what others are too afraid or unwilling to do for success.  They do the things that are hard or unpleasant to do in order to be successful.  Everyone wants to go to heaven.  No one wants to die.

2. They sell value, not price. It takes very little talent to drop price.  Fewer consumers than you might imagine buy based on price. Yet, far too many sales people sell price to most consumers.  Price becomes far less important when people understand the value.  I t takes product knowledge, talent, and perseverance to convince the prospect of the superior value of investing in your product/service and you.

3. They engender trust.  Trust is everything.  You earn trust by being trustworthy in all your dealings with the prospect. Partner with your prospects.  Work together with them to address their needs.  Be a trusted consultant.  Consultative selling means that you and your prospect are on the same side of the table.  Your advice must always be in the best interest of the prospect.  Consultative selling is powerful.  It will give you the competitive  advantage you need to earn the business.  Tune in next month for a couple of my selling secrets developed over thousands of presentations.    See you in June.

Have you ever asked yourself, “what makes champion, high earning sales people great?”  Well, there are eighteen habits and/or attributes that they have in common.  We will list six here that make up part of their common denominator.  The first three are critical for success in any career: THEY WORK HARD AND SMART.  One could work very hard at setting up an efficient filing system.  However, doing this during productive, prime selling time is not smart. Prime time is from 8:00 am until 6:00 pm.  During those hours you can find the greats doing any one of the following activities: prospecting, setting appointments, presenting their product to decision makers, or following up in order to close sales.  Doing anything else is suicide.  You’d be losing money and setting yourself up for failure. The champs realize that time is currency. THEY ARE ORGANIZED. Organization allows you to set priorities on a daily and hourly basis. One must maintain a high level of awarenss that begs the question,  “is what I’m doing at this moment the highest and best use of my time?” If you are not organized, how are you going to know what you should be doing next?  THEY FOLLOW UP. Approximately 30% of your prospective will do business with you if you follow up in a professional and consistentl manner. THEY ARE ENTHUSIASTIC about their product or service.  Enthusiasm is contagious. People can see, feel and hear your enthusiasm.  Don’t try to fake it.  Get another product to sell if you don’t feel great about the one you are selling.  Fake enthusiasm is worse than none. THEY BUILD POSITIVE RAPPORT. A survey of buyers indicated that 50% would prefer to do business with people they like.  Remember that first impressions are lasting.  A genuine smile (warm eyes) is a passport to wherever you want to go. Find a commmon  anchor that allows you to listen far more than you speak.  Ask open ended questions that are pertinent to both of you. THEY ASK FOR THE ORDER.  “If you can’t close you can’t sell.”  Many sales people never ask for the order.  They think that the propsect is going to take it away from them.  Others make one feeble, timid attempt to close and quit. The average close happens on the fifth closing attempt. Is is any wonder why so many fail? Buy my book, “THE DNA OF SELLING, What You Won’t Learn in Business School”,  if you want to know about the other twelve habits of great sales people. Or, tune in next week and we’ll reveal a few more. MAKE IT HAPPEN!!

They say, “If you can’t close, you can’t sell”. Also include, “if you don’t work with decision makers, you can’t close.”  There is no better way to influence the decision making process than by presenting your product/service to the person who makes the final decision.  Sounds simple? Then, why do most sales people make appointments with, and give their presentations to subordinates, recommenders, and other people who have one thing in common? They do not have the authority to make the final decision to buy, sign a purchase agreement or issue a check without approval from a higher authority.  More often than you might think, the recommender never mentions the product or service to the decision maker. Why do sales people persist in doing this? Here are a few reasons: 1.They have a fear of people with lofty titles. 2. It’s too difficult to get to the president of the company because the higher you go the greater the screening process. 3. They are afraid of failure; particularly the word “no”.  4. They do not have an effective phone script; therefore, they don’t know what to say. 5. They think that they may offend someone and ruin their chances of a sale by going over the head of a subordinate. 6. They believe that they can keep the deal alive and in motion longer by working with a recommender. 7. It’s much easier to make the appointment with a subordinate; thus, starting the marathon of call backs, voice messages, letters, brochure leave behinds, frustration and failure. This is happening thousands of times a day leaving timid sales people in its wake of wasted time, money, excuses, and ultimate failure. How can we cope with this? How can you cure this disease of self delusion? For starters, one must understand the problem and make the commitment to start at the top each and every time.

Go to people who are successful at making appointments with high level executives and find out how they do it. Perhaps, they will allow you to listen while they make appointments.  I call this “shadowing the aces.” One can actually acquire the words, the mind set, and the success of others who have been there and done that. My book, “THE DNA OF SELLING” contains numerous phone scripts and methodologies for making appointments with decision makers. There is a plethora of material available on the subject. However, the commitment comes first.  It’s in your hands to take the steps necessary to become a professional sales person. It starts by starting at the top. MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Job security is a result of your ability to produce results. The closer one is to generating the income stream, the more valuable he/she becomes to a company.

“The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for someone else.  Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual.  Remember: Jobs are owned by the company; you own your career!” – Earl Nightingale

85,000 jobs were lost in December ‘09. Millions of people are struggling with little to no income and few options. Many have lost hope. I wonder how many high producing, straight commission sales people are involuntarily out of work. Perhaps some were laid off because their employer had to close down operations due to the economy; an unfortunate event. Since great selling skills are universal to the selling process, the top sellers are the last to go and are in a better position to land new employment than many others.

Straight commission separates the champion sales people from the security seekers. You get what you earn and earn what you get on straight commission. And, for every dollar of guaranteed income offered, one gives up a greater amount of income potential. Champion sales people have the confidence that they will produce. They want to ensure the highest income for their production. Their year end earning statement will always be higher than those on straight salary or salary plus commission compensation plans given the same performance. These “hitters” negotiate their compensation plans with that in mind. The greater the perceived income security, the less income one earns per dollar of sales achieved. At the end of the day, you’re gone if you don’t produce regardless of the compensation plan. Remember that we are framing champion, heavy hitting sales people who can knock the cover off the ball. It pays to improve your selling skills to the level of champions. Then, and only then, will you posses the most options and the greatest level of job security.

The fear of failure and rejection are closely related and are among the major impediments to a successful career in professional selling. Getting by the gate keeper, setting appointments with decision makers, qualifying the prospect’s readiness to buy, and closing the sale are critical to achieving a successful outcome. Each of these activities presents a continuous threat of rejection and failure. In simple terms, an aspiring sales person will fail unless he/she finds a way to resolve these debilitating fears that also interfere with the quality of life and become a barrier to healthy communication. The sales greats have come to terms with it and have mastered it, somehow. I also believe that one’s background plays a major role in the fear of failure and rejection. The negative sound of the word “no” that may have robbed us of what we were doing or wanted to do, shamed us, or criticized us during our formative years probably played a role in the development of the fear. I don’t possess the tools, nor am I qualified to drill down much deeper into the human psyche to find more answers to this state of mind. So, here are the things that have helped me the most to walk through the fear each I time I felt this enemy trying to control my selling. I would remind myself of my absolute commitment to become the best possible sales person I could be. Realizing that I must not allow fear to keep me from doing the things that work and are positively critical to my success, moving forward through the fear, doing and saying what needs to be done and said is the key. I also found that vigorous exercise makes me happy and adds to my level of courage. It must be the endorphins. I always found that it was never as bad as I had imagined it could be on the other side Often times; I closed the deal because of walking through that dark threat, and never would have if I hadn’t kept walking. It’s the commitment to control the decision making process and doing what it takes. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. The closer you get to your fears, the smaller they appear. At the end of the day, which will prevail; the need to succeed or the fear of failure and rejection? Fear hides behind indecision. Whether you walk through it, run through it, or dance through it; just do it!

Surveys have shown that ninety-two percent of New Year’s resolutions won’t be kept. Only eight percent are achieved and 45 percent have gone into the “space program” by January 31st. Millions of well meaning Americans will be making their New Year’s resolutions over the next couple of weeks. February, 2o10 will come and go, while the vast majority of these resolutions have failed to become reality; the road to inaction.  

“Hey, I ‘m still smoking, I’m not saving money, I’m not exercising, and I’m not losing weight.” And, why does this phenomenon persist year after year? The answer: Resolutions are Goals. Goals are objectives. Most resolutions begin and end in the same place, the head. If this is so, your resolution was nothing more than an intellectual exercise; thoughts and wishes.     

Follow these rules if you really want your New Years goals to become the New Year’s reality for the full twelve months and perhaps, longer: 1. set your own goals. Don’t allow other others to do it for you. First, ask yourself if the goal is really important. “Why do I need to make the change?” 2. Write down your goals. Something amazing happens when you can see your goals on paper. This starts the mental imprinting. 3. Discuss your goals with someone you respect and trust. This is a crucial step in setting and achieving goals. The goal takes on the form of a commitment, a mutual expectation. 4. Keep a copy of your goals handy and read them frequently. You can make it happen in 2010!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah. May your New Year’s goals come true. 

One of the biggest mistakes a sales person can make is handing his/her business card to the prospect and starting the presentation prior to a warming up period. I liken this to throwing a bucket of ice water on your date’s face upon greeting and asking, “Your place or mine?” 

As suggested, refrain from handing your business card to the prospect in the first few moments prior to your presentation. Give the prospect a chance to ask you for it.  Whenever you feel it’s appropriate, ask for the prospect’s card and place it in a pocket closet to your heart. Put it in your wallet if the pocket is not available. Do not put your prospect’s card into your pants pocket. In summary, handle his/her card as if it holds great value to you.

“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression” A negative first impression is nearly indelible and extremely difficult to reverse. A warm, engaging smile with direct eye contact and a firm handshake can do wonders in getting things going in a positive direction. “A smile is a passport to wherever you want to go”.

I caution my students about a forced (fake) smile where only the mouth is smiling and the eyes are cold; this is not smiling, but rather takes on the appearance of a smirk. “A smile wins goodwill and a smirk destroys it. In a true smile, the eyes also smile.” Remember that the eyes make the difference. The eyes must be warm and engaging in a true smile.

I also caution sales people about their handshake. Some people grip way too hard. “This is a turn off”. Some twist their hand into a dominant position over their prospect’s hand as if trying to demonstrate some form of superiority. ”This is a turn off”. Others shake like a limp fish, giving the impression of indifference, fear or weakness. This is also a “turn off”.

A good, sincere handshake means gripping the person’s hand fully and firmly in a straight up position while smiling warmly and maintaining direct eye contact. Your prospect should be made to feel that you are sincerely pleased to meet him/her. 

Pausing a moment before sitting is recommended. This gives the prospect an opportunity to invite you to sit where he/she prefers. Ask, “Can I sit here” if a few beats go by and your prospect hasn’t indicated to you where to sit.

Finding a “common anchor” with which to engage conversation is the gateway to building rapport. I try to find something in the prospect’s office that gives me the opportunity to ask open ended questions. Pictures, awards, mementos, something I heard, read, or noticed in the waiting area. The goal is give the prospect the opportunity to talk about him or her.

Use the prospect’s name frequently; its music to his/her ears. Keep the warm up period going as long as you feel that it is flowing freely? People love to talk about themselves; help them do it. Show sincere interest. Listen much more than you talk.

Always remember that buyers prefer to do business with people they like.

Build rapport first.