COMMENTS
Dave, this is my favorite topic, and I got on the bandwagon. My comment is on Geoff's blog, but I posted it on mine as well. thx, johnonsales
Dave, I doubt that I would ever apologize to any blowhard that has so much hot air in such a long rant/post. I hate long posts. Especially defensive long posts. My biggest sale was a $4 million engineered solution that took two years to sell to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I should be impressed by some bozo that "personally sold a custom-built automated publishing system with a combined hardware/software value of about half a million dollars. The customer was Lockheed Martin."?
I'm tired of "experts" like GJ generalizing and forecasting with certainty what will happen tomorrow. The only thing that will affect tomorrow is whether or not I can meet the needs of my prospect and they can meet mine. If we can, we'll both be happy and if we can't we'll both keep looking. I read this because you asked me if I had, but I doubt that I'll ever read GJ again.
Dave,
RIGHT ON! I read the blogs, comments and exchanges and all I can say is Geoff James needs to read Baseline Selling and maybe needs to get out into today's real world and sell again as he said he has done in the past and find out what it's really like. Big need for approval on his part I'd say.
Keep up the great insights!
Great stuff here. I can hear Howard Cosell’s voice.
While I object to GJ’s downward look on salespeople and their value, I hope he keeps it, since reading all of this is great fun.
In GJ’s original post, he sights the sales process as obsolete, but then mistakenly declares he’s identified this be-all, end-all process correctly.
What appears to be underlying, but completely absent in his decalred process is qualification. At what point for GJ is a determination made that a prospect even qualifies to purchase a product or service? Would a salesperson insistance this be covered honestly, earnestly and completely be other than client-centric? Left to the prospect, this very important step will likely take the kind of time that neither the prospect nor the salesperson has. And if GJ does believe prospects and clients always qualify themselves, is this not part of his process? Surely, he must be teaching salespeople to only respond to those who’ve already made the decision to proceed based on what they know about the salesperson’s offerings (marketing). The weakest salespeople I teach will eat that situation for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day! Perhaps a very long sell-cycle for GJ's clients helps his development business. It would kill mine.
I like Chip Doyle’s comment regarding surgery and like professions on the previous post. If I’m ever in that boat, I surely hope whoever’s deciding whether I qualify for them to split my head open 1) doesn’t leave it up to me to decide if I need it or not and 2) has one hell of a qualification step in their “sales” process that doesn’t allow me to commoditize his / her service. Last thing I need is a surgeon who’s pissed off at me because I ground their margin down to the nubs. Chip’s comments also make a great comparison between professional sales people and professionals. I think all salespeople could use more of this healthy ego in their daily work when they consider how they really do help others.
Lastly, the Rick Moranis shot was totally uncalled for. You don’t look a thing like him!
Dave Mantel (Lifetime Member, ASASE)
GJ is an excellent writer and several of his points are well made. He also seems to have some credentials as a salesperson. Still, serious selling would appear to lie in his past. Otherwise he would not have repeatedly confused "prospects" with "customers" and made the statement that prospects (which he calls "customers") know what they need. So what? If people actually pruchased what they needed (whatever that means) ours would be a drastically different world.
This writer's duel is most entertaining and both party's positions have merit. However, as an authentic voice for honest and effective salespeople I'll have to side with Dave. After all, Dave is writing to support his selling habit, where GJ only sells because he has to to support his writing habit.
Why is Boston's 'Big Dog' saying 'Always Actionable or it's Free".... Dr. Dave here if I screw up your operation it's free !!!!
Long winters make people do crazy shit !!!!
And the dabate goes on. I read a book during a plane ride to NYC about 10 years ago. As I'm going through the book I realized that someone had beat me to the punch. They wrote "my book". So I go to the front of the book to look up the copyright thinking this has got to be 'new'. Only to find out that the book had a copyright of 1947. Frank Bettger's book was timeless then and it is now. Certainly the 'information' has and impact and will continue to have an impact on how sales people approach people and relate to people and eventually get people to buy goods and services. But in the end it is and always will be a high touch business. A business and profession where the appropriate skills of asking questions, listening to understand, providing creative solutions to problems and last but certainly not least the SKILL to get prospects to make timely decisions will reign supreme. Keep in mind the timely decision is made because it is the right thing for the prospect because making the decision is the ONLY thing that makes the problem go away. So as the debate rages on, keep calling, keep questioning, keep solving problems and keep selling. Because nothing happens for any company until something is sold.
I have been a sales manager in California for a fortune 200 company and was promoted when I was 25 years old. I managed one of the most valuable territories in the US and was presidents club for both sales and sales manager roles. I feel my success was largely in part of my aggressive nature. I worked very hard at applying pressure to my clients and at the same time they felt like I was doing them a favor. I was almost always the highest priced and I commonly had at least 3 competitors in each deal so I had to focus on my strengths as a sales person to assure I was at at least 80-90 percent close ratio. As you can probably tell I have a love for sells and sales management. I love the chase and the kill. I feel pride and a sense of accomplishment when my reps are successful. I feel a manager should assume a personal responsibility for the people he or she hires and if necessary go to every closing appointment with the weaker reps until the rep achieves success. A body at motion tends to stay in motion and I feel in sales that same rule applies. When a rep is achieving success usually it takes a lot less effort to keep them in motion and selling. But everything boils down to numbers and it is in my opinion that the most successful people aren't afraid to do what ever it takes to make it happen( working hard)...