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In the first post in this series, I introduced you to the following question:
“If you could only offer only one piece of advice as I start a career in sales, what would that one thing be?”
This question had been posed to me, and I formulated an answer that I shared in my initial article last week.
But, on a whim, I decided to ask 21 world-class sales professionals how they would respond to this question. I wanted to check my perspective against my peers, and, ultimately, I thought, it would create a valuable reference for all sales professionals.
After several readings, I divided the various answers into five (instead of the original four) categories:
Each week for four weeks, I will present answers from each category. This week’s responses come from the following sales pros:
Jack Malcolm @jackmalcolm
Lynn Hidy @upyourtelesales
Dan Waldschmidt @danwaldo
Andy Rudin @andy_rudin
Todd Schnick @toddschnick
In order to avoid getting two-page responses – these are, after all, very bright people who all write sales books and blogs for a living – I asked for short, direct answers with a minimum of explanation.
Some took that instruction very literally.
Some, on the other hand, dealt with it very liberally. [On a side note, not one expert listed that particular idea – “Follow instructions very carefully” – as the critical one piece of advice they would offer to a new salesperson.]
Clearly, limiting someone to just one piece of advice is a bit silly if the idea is to help an individual achieve success. However, it has been extremely interesting to view the spectrum of responses.
So, we start. 5 professionals. 5 perspectives. Taken altogether, they present the beginnings of a success schematic for the new sales professional.
1. Jack Malcolm (Discovery)
Jack spent ten years in the banking business before beginning his career in sales training in 1991. In 1995, he founded Falcon Performance to design and implement complete sales process improvement initiatives for companies like Qualcomm and Verizon Wireless. He is the author of two books on selling: “Strategic Sales Presentations” and ”Bottom-Line Selling: The Sales Professional’s Guide to Improving Customer Profits.” Jack has combined his successful sales background with an interest in behavioral economics and cognitive psychology to create a powerful approach to influence and persuasion. His world-class presentations skills, which he shares in his book “Strategic Sales Presentations,” have taken him to more than two dozen countries.
Website: www.jackmalcolm.com
Blog: www.jackmalcolm.com/blog
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jackmalcolm
Twitter: @jackmalcolmNote: Click HERE to listen/download my interview with Jack Malcolm in the Business LockerRoom.
Jack, I have learned, is not fond of using two pages of four-dollar words when three simple words will suffice. His short-and-sweet response to the question was this:
“Learn to listen.”
As advice goes, it is short, memorable, and powerful. What salesperson isn’t measurably more effective when he/she is focused on listening to the customer? And what experience do sales managers have in common if not the fact that salespeople talk way too much and listen way too little?
It is probably way to easy to dismiss Jack’s pithy advice. In two decades of training salespeople, my experience is that salespeople feel in control when they are talking. Great salespeople – the record-breakers and the quota-busters – have learned that control is derived from carefully worded questions that lead to phenomenal information.
If you’re listening.
2. Lynn Hidy (Learning)
Lynn is a recognized expert at creating profitable telesales salespeople and organizations. Her 15-year telesales career has been highlighted by awards, including back-to-back achievement of the prestigious “President’s Club” status before she transitioned to inside sales leadership roles. In 2008, she founded the training firm, UpYourTeleSales, to provide sales training and behavior reinforcement coaching to telesales people and managers. She also hosts a live radio show each week called, “Sales Coaching Over Coffee.”
Website: www.upyourtelesales.com
Blog: www.upyourtelesales.com/blog
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lynnhidy
Twitter: @UpYourTeleSales
“Inside sales” is a different animal altogether. It’s not an environment I have direct experience in, so I was especially curious to hear Lynn’s perspective. Although today’s inside salesperson has far more tools to work with, there is still the basic limitation of communicating by phone, which places extraordinary importance on individual language skills.
Here is Lynn’s answer:
“My one piece of advice is to never stop learning! Would you go to any other professional if you found out he or she never learned one more thing since their initial training? I know I wouldn’t. I want everyone from my hairdresser to my mechanic to my accountant, doctor, or lawyer to continuously be honing their skills to be the BEST they can be to help me. So, throughout your sales career make sure to keep honing your sales skills. It is your profession – you owe it to yourself and your customers to keep up with the latest tools available, to try techniques as you hear about them, and to continuously making yourself better at sales.”
There is the old fable of two people who worked at a particular company for ten years. One, it was observed, had ten years of experience; the other had only one year of experience, ten times.
In sales, it is fairly easy to distinguish between those two people.
The first knows everything about the product and its varied applications; understands the industry and the way customers in that industry do business; and, ultimately, he or she will become a valuable resource to clients.
The second individual, who stops learning and growing the first year, is rarely helpful to the customer’s business. Instead, they are a sales representative with a business card, a product, and a price.
3. Dan Waldschmidt (Mindset)
Dan Waldschmidt is an international business strategist, speaker, author, and extreme athlete. His consulting firm, Waldschmidt Partners, solves complex marketing and business strategy problems for savvy companies all over the world. The Wall Street Journal called his blog, “Edgy Conversations,” one of the Top 7 sales blogs online. He’s a contributor to Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Vanity Fair. He’s been profiled in Business Week, INC Magazine, Business Insider, and on dozens of radio programs. Hundreds of his articles on unconventional business strategy have been published. His best-selling book, Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Create Outrageous Success, was released in 2014.
Website: www.danwaldschmidt.com
Blog: www.danwaldschmidt.com/blog
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danielwaldschmidt
Twitter: @danwaldo
Nothing about Dan is typical. His experiences aren’t typical. His hobbies aren’t typical. His perspective isn’t typical. He has enjoyed extreme success, but he has crashed and burned, a journey he chronicles in his new book, Edgy Conversations.
But don’t miss the critical point. Dan knows how to be successful – both in sales and in life – and his perspective is balanced with the understanding that success just for the sake of success is not enriching or genuinely rewarding.
His response to the question focused on developing a specific mindset:
“The best advice I ever received in sales was from my father: ‘Just because something isn’t working right away doesn’t mean that it’s not the right thing to do. Amazing people keep doing the right thing until it starts working.’”
Prospective and philosophical, Dan’s answer doesn’t address talent or technique; instead, it focuses on attitude. Do the right thing. Do it until you get it right.
Which isn’t at all typical of the average salesperson.
Note: Click HERE to listen to my interview with Dan in the Business LockerRoom.
4. Andy Rudin (Unique)
Andy is the Managing Principal at Contrary Domino Partners, founded in 2002. For over 25 years, he has worked with high technology companies, specializing in strategic and tactical sales services for organizations selling complex products and services. He also has extensive experience in international business, training diverse sales teams to sell to senior executives. A prolific writer for numerous online publications, Andy has been recognized as a “Best Author” for CRM website CustomerThink, where his blog, The Contrary Domino, is syndicated. He has mentored start-up CEO’s in selling skills, and is particularly known for his thought leadership in question-based discovery and revenue risk management.
Website: www.contrarydomino.com
Blog: www.contrarydomino.com/blog/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/contrarydomino
Twitter: @andy_rudin
The interesting thing about these responses is that varied backgrounds and experiences often lead to very unique perspectives. Andy’s viewpoint is clearly influenced by some very specific early experiences in his sales career.
His response:
“After my formative years in the sales trenches, my advice to anyone starting out is to always strive to make your company successful, but never assume that your company’s management has a reciprocal interest in yours. A bit sober, I admit, but I wish I had learned that earlier than I did.”
Most veteran salespeople that I know have traveled some difficult ground in their careers. They may have struggled early, or landed at a company that didn’t quite work out, or worked for a sales manager who made it difficult. These experiences break a career, or they can serve as a springboard to greater success.
The reality is that, during the interview process, most people don’t make the effort to really know and understand a company and their prospective manager. My take on Andy’s advice is that you should spend as much time as is necessary to understand your potential employer and how they treat salespeople.
That relationship, good or bad, is going to have a profound impact on your future.
5. Todd Schnick (Relationships)
Todd is a marketing, sales, and business strategist who has advised hundreds of organizations, ranging from tech start-ups to multi-million dollar organizations. Since 2008, he has published four books, has been a successful writer/blogger, and hosted thousands of business talk show interviews on shows like Intrepid Radio, Manufacturing Revival Radio, Business in the Morning, The GoodLiving.club, Healthcare Insider, and The Incubator. Todd also spent many years as a political strategist, managing races from governor to magistrate judge. During the 2000 Florida Recount, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews predicted Todd would go to jail. To be thought of this way by Matthews is Todd’s crowning achievement as a political operative.
Author of “The Zen of Sales,” and the soon-to-be-released “Live the Intrepid Life”
2014 Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencer (Top Sales World)
50 Sales Pros to Follow on Twitter (Base CRM)Website: www.toddschnick.com
Blog: www.toddschnick.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/toddschnick
Twitter: @toddschnick
It is amazing to see the many different paths that lead to sales and entrepreneurial success.
Todd is another one of those individuals with a wildly different background: Politics. Radio. Failed Felon (thankfully).
Here is his answer:
“Behind that database entry in your CRM is a real human being, not some nameless, faceless line item. Treat them like a human being, communicate to them like a human being, and remember that they are dealing with all kinds of problems: their own, and that of their organization.”
Many salespeople, with their focus achieving a sales revenue objective, can be guilty of forgetting that business is about people.
Perhaps it is his political background, perhaps it is the hundreds of interviews he has conducted, but somewhere along the way, Todd gained a specific appreciation for dealing with customers as real people, and not as “targets” or “quotas” or “objectives.”
Great advice, as success in selling is directly proportional to the quality and quantity of relationship that one develops.
Kelly Riggs is a business performance coach and founder of the Business LockerRoom. A former national Salesperson of the Year and serial entrepreneur, Kelly is a recognized thought leader in the areas of sales, management leadership, and strategic planning. He serves clients ranging from small, privately held companies to Fortune 500 firms. Kelly has written two books: “1-on-1 Management™: What Every Great Manager Knows That You Don’t” and “Quit Whining and Start SELLING! A Step-by-Step Guide to a Hall of Fame Career in Sales.”
