I just read Dave Kurlan's post Improve How Your Sales Force Sells by Phone.

Read it. Use it, but think about this. Why limit it to your sales force?

If I'm busy and your customer service person calls me, or I have an issue and I have to call them they have that same 10 seconds to make me feel like I'm talking to a PERSON, that cares, that's capable, that's available and that's willing. I suggest that whether I'm talking to sales, customer service, operations, a technician, an installer, billing, credit, delivery, an engineer, a manager, or anyone else in your company, they have that same 10 seconds!

If you look at the Objective Management Group home page, and look in the center of the page, right under the company name, you'll see the words,

Always Actionable or it's Free!

In other words, if our evaluation doesn't tell you how to get where you're going, it's 100% free!

Last Tuesday, we conducted a webinar for nearly 400 Hubspot partners, friends becoming partners and curious watchers. The gist of the webinar was that there were 5 issues that needed to be addressed in order to double sales within 90 days. Yes, that's quite a claim, but we've done it several times befor. As a matter of fact, we have several case studies where sales increased 5-10 times in three months. So, we're confident that if an attendee follows our lead (Training, coaching, process development, accountability system, for three months.), their sales will go from $4,000/month in August to over $8,000 in November or go from $10K in August to over $20K in November and if there is no growth, there is no fee.

Now, I realize that it sounds like I'm bragging about the companies that we work with, but my real question is, "How confident are you in your ability to deliver results? Would you make more or less money if you based your fee on performance? Are you that good?

I've been having some interesting discussions recently that have revolved around inertia.

Remember Ray Allen in game two against the Lakers? How many three pointers did he hit in that game? 7 in a row! 8 total for the game! In the zone, in the groove, on fire, hot streak all represent good inertia! In a slump, stuck, in a funk all represent bad inertia.

I used to laugh every time Bob Lobel remarked, "Why can't we get players like that?". Some player that was overcome by bad inertia (a slump) while playing for Boston and wound up being traded to another team. The next season, they returned, recharged and re-energized to beat up on their former Boston team.

Inertia affects business, too. I'm talking with two CEO/founders right now. Both have been in business for many years. Both have been trying to grow sales for many years. Neither has done it. Both are stuck. Bad inertia. Both are frustrated. Both want a magic bullet. Both want to believe that the magic bullet exists. Both wish it was them. Both hope that it's me.

Startups have an easier time with change simply because they haven't been stuck as long. If you've been in business for 10 or 20 years and have essentially been the same business for the last 80% of them, you're stuck. You might be stuck in a good place, but you're stuck nonetheless and Newton's First Law says that you're not gonna get unstuck until an EXTERNAL FORCE gets you unstuck.

Now, back to my two CEO's...Both of them are worried that they are so stuck that even an irresistible force won't move them. I don't need to be irresistible. I need to be do-able. The CEO needs to be able to see that the do-able will be successful and will be in the right direction. They have to feel comfortable that although they can't see all the way to their ultimate destination and they don't know everything that they'll have to do, they can see what they need to do now, they know that they can do it, and they know that I'll be there with the next do-able and keep them moving.

Let's think about Ray Allen again. When he made the first 3-pointer, did he know that he was gonna set a record that night? We just need our client to make that first shot. That will be the beginning of good inertia!

I was talking to The Sales Archaeologist today and mentioned that I had this idea for a post. Most people are aware that each of our brains process stuff differently. We have right brain vs. left brain thinking. We have Mars vs. Venus thinking. We have pessimistic thinking and optimistic thinking and interestingly, don't you know both, pessimists and optimists that consider themselves realists? Whatever our tendency, don't we tend to think that our way is the better way?

So, Frank and I were thinking of examples that show the difference between sales thinking and marketing thinking.

Frank drives by a building and sees a sign on the side of the building. The marketing side of his brain thinks, "What a great logo. Boy do those colors and design draw my eye to the message." The sales side of his brain thinks, "HMMM. XYZ electronics. I've done some work for one of their competitors. I wonder who I need to talk to about doing business with them?"

Marketing is often trying to work a market (numbers of potential prospects). Sales is usually looking to solve one prospect's issue. For example, this blog post is going to be read by several potential prospects. I doubt that any one of them will send me a check with a note that says, "I'll buy." However, there may be one person that sends me an email that says, "Can we talk?" That will be a sales conversation. It may not result in a sale, but it will be 1:1 and specifically about their needs, not the needs of a market.

How about LinkedIn? Look at my profile. Everything that you see there, the words, the picture, the links, the feeds, the applications. That's all marketing. Don't get me wrong, salespeople need to apply good marketing to their LinkedIn proflies, but it's not selling. However, when I see that you are connected to somebody that I want to talk with and I ask you for an introduction. That's sales thinking.

Why is any of this important? The ancient Greeks recommended to "Know thyself." Recognizing how your mind works allows you to capitalize on your strengths and minimize the effects of your weaknesses. Answer this question.

Which are you most interested in knowing...

How to make your LinkedIn profile attractive to your ideal prospects?

or

Which of your ideal prospects am I connected that I could introduce you to?

Which is sales thinking and which is marketing thinking?

One last thing. If you'd like to attend a one hour webinar at noon on Monday, July 19th to learn how I use LinkedIn as a marketer and as a salesperson, click the link below. I'll be telling you how I find ideal prospects, how I ask for introductions, how I find names of CEO's, presidents, owners and others that may not be connections, so their identities are hidden. I'll also share some great tips that will help your ideal customers find you when they do a Google search for what you do. Here's the link.

I talked with a sole proprietor on Friday June 4th. We agreed to do business and started right away. They're a consultant and they sell two hour blocks of time at $100/hour. The week ending June 4th, they had sold and delivered 4 two hour blocks and billed $800.

On Monday, June 7th, I made a suggestion. That week (ending June 11th) they sold and delivered 8 two hour blocks and billed $1,600.

Today is Wednesday, June 16th. They've sold 12 two hour blocks and by Friday will have billed $2,400.

I have a new evangelist!

Selling in the 21st Century is my eleventh most popular post of the 168 that I've posted on this blog over the last 16 months. 5 of the top 10 were published a year ago. 5 were published 2-6 months ago. So, what? Maybe sales executives, business owners and true sales professionals are wondering if they're really ready for the 21st Century. Your customers and prospects have more information at their fingertips than ever before in history. When they find you, what will they see? Will you qualify or be disqualified before you even know they found you?

Let's get down to it. You have a website and post to your blog. You're active on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You've got 100's or 1,000's of pages on the Internet. How many clicks or page views did they generate yesterday? How many of those clicks and page views filled out a form, sent you an email, called you on the phone or otherwise raised their hand to say, "I'm interested."? How about the other side?

Forget the ones that will be back because they're still shopping. Forget the ones that went away because they found somebody closer, cheaper, or the right color. How many of them went away forever because you don't pay attention to detail? How do they know that? I wrote Selling Spelling almost four years ago and was reminded of it yesterday when I spoke with Conni Eversull of ProofreadNOW.com.

I remember looking at someone's profile on LinkedIn, noticing that they misspelled their company name (different spelling than on their business card) and closed their profile.

You've probably noticed misspellings on websites and in blog posts.

How about the things that spell check doesn't catch, like there, their, they're or to, too, two?

What if that mistake is the thing that makes a potential customer go away forever and buy from a competitor that pays closer attention to detail. How much do you lose if you lose one customer? Does it cost more than having a professional proof read before you publish or click "send"?

As an aside and an example, I corrected spelling, typo and fat finger errors as I typed. Then I used spell check. The four black bolded and italicized words were caught by spell check. (Did you know that Internet was supposed to be capitalized?) So, yes you're smart. Yes, you're careful. You may even be very close to perfect and maybe if you talk to Conni, more people will think you are.

Sorry - this article was moved here.

Today, I had the pleasure of sharing the microphone with Dave Kurlan and Chris Mott on the Meet the Sales Experts Radio show. We covered several topics, but one was especially interesting.

Why is it so difficult to hire a great salesperson?

Could it be that the person hiring them doesn't know what a great salesperson looks like?

Could it be that the person hiring them doesn't like salespeople?

Could it be that the person hiring them is afraid that they'll be 'sold'?

Could it be that the person hiring them feels threatened by the salesperson?

Lot's more was said. Go click the link to listen.

The conversation reminded me of a post that I wrote last year. I've posted 166 articles on this blog since last year. RainMaker Wanted? is the #1 most popular post. Why? BECAUSE IT SCARES PEOPLE!

Sometimes my commentators add more content than were in my original posts. Commitment and Commitment is NOT a 4 Letter Word had those kind of comments.

Many comments were around work/life balance, workaholicism, demanding bosses forcing their employees to miss family events and although I don't want to spend a lot of time here, but you may want to re-read the article and comments to see the agreement, rather than the apparent disagreement. For instance, look at the times that the comments were written. Most were written off-hours so as not to interfere with work. Notice that passion for what you do, stage in life, and other factors may change move your commitment/overdoing it line. Read them again and enjoy!

I have another twist. I, personally, would be very stressed out in the monthly quota environment. Sales people are like runners. Their sales process can be analogized to the type of race. Their daily regimen and benchmarks depend on their sales process. Think about runners. Marathoners run long and slow (relative to sprinters) because they need their energy and effort to last the entire race. If your sales cycle is measured in months or years, your salespeople need to be benchmarked and quotad differently than if your sales cycle is shorter.

However, even if you measure your sales cycle in days or weeks, should you have a monthly quota? Many of our bills are monthly, so salespeople can tie their quota to their income requirements. Sometimes commissions and payroll are monthly, so that the employer has the cask to make payroll. The problem is that neither of these reasons takes into account whether you've hired sprinters or marathoners. A marathoner will have days and weeks that every step is a huge effort. They'll also have periods when everything flows. It averages out. Sprinters warm up and explode. Have you ever watched the Olympics? Some sprinters have several full effort heats in the same day. How many times do marathoners run?

So, if you've got a short sales cycle, consider smaller, more frequent quotas and benchmarks and hire sprinters. If you've got a longer sales cycle, build your business around marathoners.