A True Story of "Hippies" to "Helping Heroes"

Selling is helping!  It really is for some people. They have a sincere desire to use their products and services to help their customers improve something in their life, whatever that something may be. Here's a true story that shows how you can be as successful as you decide to be... especially if you embrace the "Selling is helping"philosophy.  

A chance look at a Facebook page recently triggered a memory in my mind going back to 1976.

Imagine it's 1976 and you're my invisible partner. We drive to a tiny store in what's called "the river bottom" a dumpy area between south Scottsdale and north Tempe, AZ. Two hippie looking young men in sandals greet us at the door under their sign "The Byte Shop."  One of their products is a computer hobby kit. Yes, computers were being built by hobbyists in those days. They were not yet going out to the general public...it was mostly just the "geeks."  The owners of "The Byte Shop", Alan Hald and Jeff McKeever, were both visionaries. Oh, back then they weren't called that-they were most likely called "Hippie Geeks" or "Nerds." 

As you observe this first meeting of Alan, Jeff and myself, you too notice what was catching my attention-their passion and their commitment to succeed. What they wanted was to learn to sell even better. They wanted me to come in and do sales meetings for them and their handful of employees. They told me that if they could sell better they could help more people see the benefits of computers.

Since my approach has always been "selling is helping" we clicked. We agreed on a fee and a plan, and I immediately began to help them help their customers. We did lots of little meetings in that tiny river bottom store-and Alan and Jeff's little business began to experience amazing growth. Four years later they opened their first real store in Paradise Valley Mall. 

They renamed "The Byte Shop" to "MicroAge", took the company public in 1995, and had 6,000 employees doing over $6 billion in annual sales as a Fortune 500 company! Because of their passion for helping their customers understand the computer and its potential impact on their customers' lives, they were driven to succeed.

Now how about you? How much "helping" do you have built in to your business? Are you a believer that when you sell your products and services you're helping the customer? 

It's true, because when your prospects have a need or want that your products and services fill, you're helping them when you help them buy it.

How big do you want to grow? How much money do you want to earn? And more importantly... How many people do you want to help?

Here's what you can do... See selling as helping, even if it's a hassle sometimes. Be passionate about your commitment to help your customers solve their needs and wants with your products and services, and you'll be a helping hero in your customer's eyes! 

3 Steps to Better Sales Meetings

"Oh, No! Not Another Meeting!"  

Think back to the last sales meeting you attended as a sales professional. It could have been as recent as today. Or, if you're now a sales manager or executive, it could have been decades ago that you sat in a sales meeting as a participant. In either case, you're probably very familiar with what happens. Either the meeting is terrible, or it's amazing! A recent survey by BusinessMeetings.com reported these statistics:

• Only 3.8% of respondents rated their sales meetings as "excellent."
• Over 79% said their meetings were not even worth attending!

How would your sales meetings rate?

In my professional speaking career and work as an executive speech coach and meeting consultant, I've attended over 2800 sales meetings. Sadly my experience mirrors the survey results above. Why are so many sales meetings generating the cry, "Oh no, not another sales meeting!?"  If you're a sales manager or an executive in charge of putting on meetings of any kind - sales meetings, employee meetings or management meetings - I can help you make them amazing! I've been doing it successfully for many years and now it's become one of my specialties. For example, here are three things you can do immediately. And if you're a Sales Professional, you can pass these ideas on to your Sales Manager. Here they are:

First idea, TLA ... 

That's an acronym for Think Like the Audience! Don't think like a sales manager. Think like the people in the seats. Management sees the big picture and thinks long term. Salespeople think, "What can I do today to make a sale?" 

One client had me attend their sales meeting prior to helping them improve. It was shocking to watch their CEO spend 27 minutes explaining the challenges of a pending IPO scheduled for five months down the road, and then the intricacies of the stock price, and then close with his passionate plea to cut back on their expense accounts. It was shocking because the 287 salespeople in this company didn't have stock options! An IPO was about as important to them as the weather forecast for five months down the road. And "expense account cutting" is the euphemism salespeople interpret as "cut back on spending to build relationships with your best customers and prospects."

Now do the math. Twenty seven minutes on the 4-hour agenda. Not that much, right? Hold on. You have to look at those 27 minutes times 287 salespeople! Now you have 7,749 minutes or 129 hours of potential selling time. Wow, that's a lot of wasted time! Next time you put an item on your agenda, multiply it by the number of people in the seats, and ask yourself this one simple question: "Will this help these people increase their sales?"

Here's your second idea... Increase/Decrease

What can you do that will decrease or increase something now being done, that in the mind of your sales team, they will see as helping them sell even more? Can you decrease paperwork, reports, inventory shortages, the number of emails you send? You know this, but it's often forgotten that the only real selling time a sales pro has that counts is when they are face-to-face or voice-to-voice with a qualified prospect. Anything you can do to decrease activities that don't support that, you'll be a hero in their eyes. 

  

Once you've decreased stuff, switch mental gears and think "increase." What can you bring to your next sales meeting that increases field training, building of sales skills, prospecting skills, product knowledge, awareness of marketing shifts, self-motivation ideas, presentation skills, follow-up effectiveness, customer service, etc! If it doesn't help them sell more, forget it!

And your third idea... Seek feedback 

Why? Because without getting feedback, even if you use TLA, and give them tools and ideas to increase sales, you'll never know how effective you really were. Oh, I know you're thinking, "We do send out an email after the meeting." Right, and if you're fortunate you'll get 35% back. You need 100% feedback and you can get it! Here's how you do it. Let's start with simplest first and move to ideal last. 

The simplest way is to provide a blank index card and prior to closing your sales meeting just say this:  "This meeting was designed to (state your objective). Your feedback is vital to helping make our next meeting even better. Please take that blank 3x5 card and write at the top your job title: Sales - Marketing - Support - Management, etc. No names. Below your title just write a number from 1 Low to 10 High, on how helpful this meeting was to you to increase your sales. Be totally honest. I really want to know! Now please pass the cards to the center aisle and my helpers will pick them up."

If you will do this you will have a baseline for your next sales meeting. It's so simple isn't it? OK, if you just agreed, how about doing the next step... adding two more questions for the 3x5 index card. 

"Everyone please take that blank index card you have and write four things on it. 

#1 - Your job title. 

#2 - 1-Low to 10-High on the overall meeting." 
Just like we said earlier, but now you add these two questions:   

#3 - "In just a very few words, what's one thing we could have done to make this sales meeting even better for you? Please skip requests for free beer or go to Maui. 

#4 - What was the best part of this sales meeting? Your best take-away? Again, in just a few words. I'll know what you mean!"

If you did this you would have such valuable information to help you improve, wouldn't you? 

  

OK, if you just agreed, here's the ideal way to get feedback. Have a pre-printed card with those four questions on the card: Job Title, 1 to 10 Overall Meeting, What to Improve and What was the Best? Take all those responses and summarize them by category. The numerical responses make it easy to average out. Get a final average score, let's say 7.16. OK, that's your beginning number. Your goal for the next meeting?  8.0+.  Use the responses to the last two questions to structure the content of your next meeting. And what if your attendees think the meeting stunk? At least you'll know what the stinking parts are, and you can fix them! Don't fear negative feedback! Use it to keep improving! Since 1974 almost every audience I've been paid to speak for (and that's over 2800 of them) I've used a similar feedback card. It's the best idea I've ever implemented in my own business.  

So, is that all there is? No, it's really just the beginning! If this has made sense to you, let me give you a list of many other specific ways I can help you make your Sales Meetings AMAZING! For example, I'll help you...

• Create powerful meeting themes.
• Add energy-boosting humor.
• Generate audience participation.
• Use a pre-assignment to build involvement & positive anticipation.
• Make your awards & recognitions more meaningful.
• Create exciting PowerPoint visuals using a little known technique I've developed.
• Use stories to drive home your message.
• Stay on time and end early.
• Follow-up after the meeting is over.

PLUS, you'll learn...

• A way to use your notes that's totally unique. (It's my invention.)
• Five keys for using the room set-up to give you dynamic results.
• Two things you MUST know to read your audience's receptivity.
• How Bill Murray's movie "Groundhog Day" can change your career forever.

Contact me to find out EVEN MORE about tools, techniques and tactics that can help you... and let's get started!

MAKE it a great day!

NOW... it's an unrepeatable miracle

NOW is a miracle. It’s also unrepeatable. But most people spend 58 minutes of every hour living somewhere other than right here, right now. They look backwards and live in the past, regretting lost joys and feeling guilt for things done badly—both of which are useless and debilitating activities. Or, they live in the future, which they either long for or dread. In doing so, they miss the miracle of NOW—this minute!

How about you? Missed any miracles lately?

• Did you decide not to go swimming, even though you were at the beach, because you just had your hair done?
• Did you buy the conservative navy-blue tie rather than the more debonair salmon-colored one because the navy wouldn’t show stains?
• Did you stay off the dance floor even when the band played your favorite song just because no other couples were dancing?
• Did you pout and make it a miserable day for yourself because your presentation at the staff meeting didn’t go as well as you hoped?
• Did you tell your kids, “Later, I’m busy,” and continue brooding about that huge repair bill when they asked you to play with them?

We’ve all made mistakes like these and failed to live fully when we had the chance. But berating ourselves for it is also a waste of time. Far better to just grab the next moment before we miss that too! And when you grab it, hang on. Exhaust it. Drain it of its juices. Don’t give it back until there’s nothing left. Otherwise you might create your own version of a very sad story about a young man who was about to be executed for a crime.

At dawn on the day of his execution he stood on the bench in his prison cell, reached for the iron bars across the window and pulled himself up so he could see the countryside. It was spring, and as the sun edged above the horizon he saw his world as if for the first time. He was startled by the brilliant colors of the flowers as they were illuminated by the sunlight. He noticed the lushness of the fields, the rich smell of the freshly tilled soil, and the pleasant sounds of the town stirring to life.

Straining to hold himself up to the window, he continued to stare wide-eyed. Tears rolled down his cheeks. He knew he had missed this miracle countless times before and would no longer be alive to appreciate it. When the jailers came to lead him to the gallows, he was still clinging to the window with all his might, in awe of the sunrise on this spring day. They had to pull him down and drag him away.

The wonder of life had always been there, but he had been preoccupied with regret for the past and dread of the future.

Here’s what you can do:

1.  Spend a few more minutes of every hour fully living the unrepeatable miracle that is NOW.

2.  Work at your work, play at your play, shed your tears, enjoy your laughter. NOW is the only time of your life!

3.  See things in perspective…

•   dive into that ocean and forget your hair

•   buy that special tie, dress or outfit

•   dance to your song and ignore others

•   forget the disappointing presentation you made … just improve the next one

•   take time with each of your children if you have them. From the day they are born, you have only 18 summers before they’re grown and gone. Think of it! Spend time with them NOW and see the miracle daily!

When You Answer These 7 Questions It's Like Having a Crystal Ball

Here's something you can do right now to make 2012 an AMAZING year!  You're already busy, of course -- but before time gets away from you, why not take stock of your priorities for the year ahead? We're not talking about New Year's Resolutions here! They don't work!  In fact, based on Gallup Poll findings, 24% of New Year's Resolutions are broken in the very first week! 53% are broken within six months! And get this, 92% are broken by year end!

As an alternative, as you visualize your priorities for the year ahead, here's an exercise you can do, and I think you'll find it very helpful. The exercise consists of asking yourself these six questions about last year:

1.  What was your biggest success in 2011?

2.  What was the best decision you made?

3.  What was the most important lesson you learned?

4.  What made you the happiest?

5.  Who had the greatest positive impact on you?

6.  What were you most grateful for?

Now I've got one more important question for you ... and the answer to this question will help you see things even more clearly in 2012. Here's the question:

7. If you could re-live 2011, knowing now everything that happened, and everything you did to make things happen the way they did, what would you do differently?  

Answering all seven questions is like having a crystal ball! Save these, and your answers to them, in a safe place. At the end of each year, answer them again. You'll find clarity and conviction to carry you through the year, as you accomplish whatever you decide is really important to you!  

And forget New Year's Resolutions! Instead, make a commitment to yourself that you WILL MAKE 2012 a wonderful year, in spite of change, in spite of conditions, in spite of circumstances!

Your life is your choice! What the New Year brings you is up to YOU!

MAKE it a great day...every day!    JOEL

The 51% Rule -- Should You "Change" or "Improve"?

Most things in life aren't perfect! America isn't perfect! The state you live in isn't perfect! Your city or town probably isn't perfect either. Yet the chances are, as you're reading this you're not packing your bags and moving to a foreign land. Why? Because most likely you're already using "The 51% Rule" without even knowing it!

Experience teaches that at certain times you do need to make a complete "change" and start over... whether it's a hometown, a job or a relationship. Yet at other times in your life you might decide not to "change" something, but instead to "improve" it. There's a huge difference! How do you decide? 

Here's where the  "The 51% Rule" comes in to help you make that decision!

Think of your career and your present job. Most likely it's not the first job you've ever had, or the last one! According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the average worker will have 11 different jobs in their working career! How do you know when it's time to move on and "change" jobs or career?

The answer is, when the negatives outweigh the positives! If you have 51% negatives, it's probably time to "change." Yet in spite of your job's challenges, difficulties and limitations, if you still have 51% positives, then it's time to "improve" things at work, by deciding to recommit yourself to start focusing on, talking about, and thinking of all those positives and putting less emphasis on the negatives.

This also applies to your personal relationships, whether it's your spouse, best friend or significant other. Chances are your relationship isn't 100% perfect! But if your status is at least 51% positive, you can decide to invest your time and effort in improving that relationship to 61, 71 or 81% positive! The same applies to where you're living. If your home is only 39% positive, it's probably time to move! But if it's at least 51% positive, then it's time to look for ways to improve your living conditions.

Here's a personal example. I've been married to the same wonderful wife for 48 years, we've lived in the same house for 41 years and been in the same business for 37 years. Does it sound like we're just resistant to change? Not really... 41 years ago Judy and I uprooted ourselves, moved out of New York, leaving our family, friends and job, and started all over in Arizona. When it comes to vehicles, we usually "change" about every two years at 36,000 miles, and we've traded in each of our Mastercraft ProStar 190 waterski boats after two or three years, once they've got 500 hours on them. In contrast, our home was already 20 years old when we moved in 41 years ago, with just 1900 square feet. It had only 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and a dirt floor carport, with two palm trees and some greasewood bushes for landscaping.

Yet it had 51% positives in the form of a great location, 2 acres of land and huge potential. We totally ignored any negatives that couldn't be changed! We stayed, used "The 51% Rule" and embarked on a 40-year improvement project! The original 61-year-old house is now surrounded by eight new additions we made over the years, and has grown to 8500 square feet, with 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, 6 garages, a separate office and hundreds of beautiful trees, bushes and plants.

That 51% positive has now become 93% positive!

  

What about you? Your career? Your hobbies? The car you drive? Your friends? Your home or the neighborhood where you're living now? With the New Year 2012 just about to begin here's an opportunity to review, re-think and re-evaluate the past year. Is it time to change, release, relocate? Or is it time to stay put, re-establish and renew, by finding ways to improve? If the negatives outweigh the positives, change is usually your best course of action. But if there are 51% positives then improvement can be your best choice. You can set realistic improvement goals each month. In 30 days, 51% can go to 57%, then to 61 or 63%. You'll either turn the negatives into positives, or  just ignore them! Yes, you can ignore those negatives that you can't control!  

As the great American philosopher, William James, said: "Your life is your choice!"

So as the New Year begins, use "The 51% Rule" and choose the best! You can decide now to have a positive life filled with joy, satisfaction and success. You'll live your life only once (so far as we know) so you might as well decide to make it an amazing one!

Happy New Year! You can MAKE it your best ever!

Comment on "The Magic of Truthfulness"

Joel,

I always love your messages. Point 3 especially touched me, "don't underestimate the goodness of people." I learned that is true even in prison. I saw women with literally NOTHING find ways to share with others and help those suffering in a dark and dismal place. I learned a great deal there about truth and goodness.

Congratulations on keeping the magic alive.

Warmly,

Sue EllenAllen

Author

"Education, not incarceration, is the cheapest form of crime prevention." - Sue Ellen

The Magic of Truthfulness

Imagine you work for a company that's about to terminate you. Not such a hard thing to imagine these days. It's an odd scenario in this case, though, because you're told that your job will be over in three months. Yes, you'll be fired then, but in the meantime they ask you to keep working for the three months, attend the upcoming National Sales Meeting, and not leave until the end of the year. And oh, by the way, keep growing the business in those last three months! 

I was the speaker hired by my client, Manny Gerolamo, Nat'l Sales Manager, to address his pharmaceutical sales and leadership team at their final Nat'l Sales Meeting.

In over three decades of corporate seminar speaking, this was one of the most unusual requests I'd ever received.

My first question to Manny was: "Will anyone even be there?" But I didn't know then about "Manny's Magic."  Here's what he did, and here's what happened.

First, Manny informed everyone of the facts -- the cold, hard, disappointing facts. The conditions people signed up for the year before had dramatically changed. The parent company had chosen a different direction and the promises they had made to the sales team couldn't be kept. Yes, the team had achieved every sales objective required of them. Yes, their mission had been very successful. But tough luck, they would be turning the sales effort over to the parent company. Game over. 

Second, Manny informed his team that if they stayed on for the three months till year's end, and got good results, they could earn a big bonus. During that time he would help them, wherever possible, to find new employment. He'd provide support, counseling and even some special training materials (my "Build a Better You" CD series for example) to help them cope and stay positive during the transition.

Third, Manny asked them to leave their loved ones for three days and attend the upcoming National Sales Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. There they would be recognized for their past successes and trained in the new programs for the "final quarter." They would join their fellow team members for one last group hug, a few laughs and a lot of tears. 

Now what would you have done if you had been one of those team members? Would you have gone to San Antonio just to vent your anger, frustration and bitterness? Would you have contacted your customers and bad-mouthed the company? Or would you have quit and begun job hunting immediately?

As I stood on the stage at the Hyatt Regency in San Antonio that September morning, it was magical. There were  200 people, over 97% of Manny's team members, all sitting in that audience -- smiling, laughing and so excited about their last few months together.

What made that happen? Manny Gerolamo was the single most important factor in their decision to stay.  He had earned not just his team's respect, he had earned their TRUST. He told the unvarnished truth from day one. And he offered them the opportunity to be paid a bonus if they fulfilled their commitment to the company, a company that was going to terminate them. It was "Manny's Magic!"  

Here's what you can do to use Manny's Magic in your career:

1. Tell the truth -- even if it's not good news. Tell it like you see it. Be known as a truth teller. Be known as a person who can always be believed!

2. Offer people an incentive if they are willing to go above and beyond. Reward the high achievers!

3. Don't underestimate the goodness of most people, who deep down want to do the right thing, because it's the right thing to do! In a business world that is often drowning in greed, dishonesty and self-interest, it's thrilling to know there are still great people out there, willing to do difficult things, and do them with courage and grace! 

Remember: Success Comes in CANS, Not in Cannots!  

MAKE it a great day!