It's been a few long weeks since I blogged. Bad blogger! The sales team has been slammed, so at least its for a good reason. Naturally it wasn't surprising when I found out a grand total of ZERO people read my blog the past few days. Time flies when your head is up your ass and you don't do anything! Then how come so many salespeople do nothing and expect to get something?
Time can get away from anyone if you don't watch it. It's easy to put stuff off. Easy to be selective. Easy to ignore. Easy to watch "Glee." I'm guilty as charged on the blog front and have to admit that a couple times a year I struggle with it on the sales front, too. Then I follow my dad's sage advice and "get your head out of your ass!"
Second graders are good at getting what they want. They keep at it. They constantly remind you of how wonderful they are, they hang around. Then at the right moment they hit you up for a box of Legos and you say, "okay." As we get older, we lose that drive unless we constantly remind ourselves to stay at it. Other wise, disaster can ensue.
Twice in the past month companies have had their head up their asses and expected to get something. The first company because they basically said we weren't worth their time. The second because we never heard from the rep until a week before our renewal. Sound familiar? If it does then maybe a company has treated you this way, or God forbid you have done something like this too. Say it isn't so!
The first company was a CRM firm. We will be up for renewal in a few months. Many of our users are a bit confused with the system and if they understood the system better, they would like it better, no one would bitch to the boss and we would keep on paying a handsome annual fee for the pleasure of using said CRM.
My request was simple: "We want to renew with you, oh CRM company, but our people need to be happy. So could you take some time to train each person (about 20) one on one either in person or on-line?" Not only would we renew when that was done, but we would add 20 more users! Sounded like a no-brainer request to me.
Think again. The CRM company basically told us they couldn't afford an employee's time to answer our questions and use the product,that we pay for and wanted to renew, correctly. In other words: it really isn't worth it to us. Then after the conversation continued it turned into: "Well, we will do it, but only if you add the extra 20 users first." Insert head in ass.
Another sales person had his head up his ass, by not reaching out to us until a week before we were due for renewal. Email with some cool information? Nope. Letter saying "thanks", I'm here for you anytime? Nope. Phone call to give us a heads up on new features? Nope.
As much as "checking in" is one of the dumbest things a salesperson can do, as outlined in my post "Are You Checking In?", this guy didn't even do that. But he did, email to see if we were going to renew. Then he called and left me a voice message but it was really hard to understand him with his noggin up his butt. Oh, and I got some silly pencil holder with the company name stamped on it and a cookie cutter note.
Renew? Sorry, Champ, no! What if he cut the price? Let me think, no. Sorry but unless I know you are there for me, it ain't gonna happen. And I bet all your customers and prospects feel that way too. Which brings us to new sales.
Some sales people will bring their A game to a prospect for a few weeks, but at the least bit of resistance, will wither away. They will let the little voice in their head say "it ain't worth it," and move on. Some are actually surprised when they call the prospect back six-months later only to find the prospect bought from a competitor. Why? Because the salesperson didn't take the time to court the prospect, didn't stay focused, put their head up their ass.
What's really unfortunate is that many sales managers push for the quick kill and nothing more. Sales people need to "move on" and find new business now. Make those sales managers (and sales people) a hat out of Charmin because they are going to need it! Because time will fly and if those quick hits don't happen, they will be left with nothing and have a lot of cleaning up to do.
You know how you get quick kills? By staying in front of the "slow ones" by being an indispensable resource of information and smarts. By sending great pieces of information, instead of "checking in." You do it by Selling Like A Second grader--deftly reminding your prospect or customer how wonderful and different you are on a consistent basis. That will make the "slow ones" pile up and turn into a steady stream of kills.
Just like blogging, being a resource to your prospects and customers only takes a few minutes. You just have to want to do it. You want to make money don't you? Then get your head out of your ass, make it a priority and get it done. Otherwise, time will fly and someone else will.
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