The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

What does 'impossible' mean to you?

200% of quota every month? 300%? Impossible? No, it's not. What is impossible to one person is easy to the next. Here's an example:

A few years ago, when satellite radio was brand new, a friend and I became distributors and put up a website selling XM Satellite Radio. It was just the beginning of the holiday shopping season, we had little competition at the time, and as a result sales exploded. I'm talking thousands of dollars per day right off the bat.

Guess what happened?

Our bank shut us down. They said, "You're obviously running fraud. No one can sell that much."

We said, "Honest, we're really selling that much, this stuff is in demand and it's the holiday season."

The bank replied with, "Impossible. No one can sell that much that fast."

See? What was impossible to the bank manager was normal everyday business for us. Think about what is impossible to you and realize that it may be easy for the next person, and can be easy for you if you remove limitations from your mind and remove that word impossible from your vocabulary.

Exploding the myth of cold calling

Exploding the myth of cold calling - Sales Podcast

The truth about business networking

I'm very critical of business networking groups and mixers because I still don't think anyone has ever actually sold something as a result of them. I advise salespeople not to waste time on them (I think even cold calling works better). I found an excellent article by Tino Buntic on the subject - take a look at this excerpt:

"This further evolved into business networking groups created to meet, usually monthly, to introduce themselves, to exchange business cards, and to pitch their products and services to each other. B2B salespeople would meet with other B2B salespeople, usually over a meal like breakfast or dinner. There are, literally, thousands of B2B networking chapters across the country. These networking functions are time consuming and a waste of your time. Think about it, an average networking group will consist of people like mortgage brokers, realtors, copier sales reps, financial planners, accountants, and business consultants. They are all trying to sell their services to other people that are trying to sell their services. Salespeople are not buyers, they are sellers. The buyers and decision makers don’t attend business networking functions. Why? Because buying is not difficult!"

Click Here for the full article.

The elusive magic pill

(Hint: There is none.)

I'm looking at return statistics on my products. I'm fortunate to enjoy an extremely low refund rate, less than one-half of one percent, compared with an average of two percent for internet transactions.

What I'm noticing, however, is the mental attitude of the people who return my product. It's obvious that none of them ever even tried it. Astonishingly, about half of all returns are still in the original packaging, unopened! It's as if they ordered, then while waiting for delivery, they thought to themselves, "Aww, what's the use, nothing else has worked for me, this won't work either."

Why people sabotage themselves like this is beyond me! Of course something won't work if you won't even give it a chance! I frequently recommend books to others, books that have helped me tremendously, but almost everyone says, "Well, that may have worked for you but you're smart. It won't work for me."

Next time you're wondering if something will work for you, just do it, ASSUME it will work for you, and guess what - it will!

Shutting out negativity (and my 'why I hate Scottsdale' rant)

A debate is raging in the news here in Arizona over Scottsdale's installation of photo-radar cameras on a stretch of the Loop 101 highway, and it got me to thinking about negativity and why I'm so much happier since moving out of Scottsdale, and why I'd never live there again.

When I came to Arizona in 2000 I moved to north Scottsdale because everyone told me it was THE place to be. I quickly learned that Scottsdale is full of the stereotypical "UAW" profiled in The Millionaire Next Door. If you haven't read the book, UAWs are people who look rich on the surface, but in reality are buried in debt and have no money in the bank. I lived in Scottsdale's "affluent" 85255 area and witnessed the neighbors' BMWs getting repo'ed on a weekly basis. In fact, I've met several millionaires since moving here. None of them live in Scottsdale, nor would they ever.

Knowing that I wanted no part of that, I moved to Phoenix in 2002 and have been thrilled with my decision. People in Phoenix - especially in the Arcadia neighborhood where I now live - are very friendly, happy-go-lucky, and are positive and upbeat. By contrast, Scottsdale people, for the most part, are an angry lot. They're rude, unfriendly, don't say hi in public, and get a sick thrill out of cutting you off on the road. Hey, I would too if the repo man was pounding on my door every day. (My apologies if you happen to live in Scottsdale and are not one of the angry phonies. Move to Phoenix, you'll thank me for it later.)

Now for the point of this rant: What happened when I moved out of negative Scottsdale and into positive Phoenix was amazing. I immediately became a lot happier, more outgoing, and friendlier. My career also took a turn for the better. My sales production went way up, and I got the inspiration to write my first book, a decision which I obviously am thankful for. I'm fairly certain this would not have happened had I continued to live in negative Scottsdale, where I was frequently sad and depressed all because of how mean everyone was all the time. Changing my surroundings - and the people in them - was possibly the best decision I've ever made.

Consider where you are now in your career and life and if it's where you'd like to be. If not, are your surroundings causing a negative impact? Are the people around you bringing you down and bumming you out? If so, a change may be just what the doctor ordered.

How high is your network?

Yesterday I mentioned reading Dr. Joe Vitale's book, The Attractor Factor. In one section of the book he talks about bringing your network up a level or two. He talks about having spoken at a number of chamber mixers, and how every single mixer and lead group in his city had the exact same people in attendance, and none of them really ever sold anything.

Now, if you've read my books, you know I'm very critical of chamber mixers and other networking events, that the same non-producing salespeople all go to them, and how successful salespeople - the ones you WANT to network with - don't bother with them. In reality they're about as productive as cold calling.

The solution is to take your network up a couple of levels. Instead of networking with other salespeople from XYZ Company, you need to network with the CEO of XYZ Company. Think about that, and think about how you can take your networking to the next level.

Managing negativity

Yesterday I was feeling a bit down. Earlier in the day I'd filed a lawsuit against Capital One (they're erroneously reporting late payments on a credit card that I closed nearly 4 years ago). I realized that I was feeling low because of such a negative event happening in my life. Granted, it was my choice to sue them, but they left me with no other option and I felt forced to do it to preserve my good credit.

What I then did was amazing. I simply decided to shut the negativity out and be happy. And it worked! I learned this from Joe Vitale's amazing book, The Attractor Factor. I'm in the middle of reading it, and in the chapter before he introduces his five steps to success, he says, "There is a simple way to avoid even having to do the five steps. Be happy now.

Hmm ... so simple! I did just that. I decided to be happy NOW. That's all it took. You can do the same thing each and every day. We all hit lows almost every day in the sales game. That's just the way it is. A big deal you've been counting on falls through, or an important prospect blows off an appointment. Next time it happens, try what I've just explained to you - be happy NOW! It works!

Are you doing things the hard way or the simple way?

In Mark Joyner's free Simpleology 101 online course, he tells the story of the American space pen. The US astronauts needed something that would write reliably in space (regular pens don't work in zero-gravity). NASA spent several million dollars developing what is now known as the space pen. Finally the astronauts could reliably write in space.

The Russians simply used a pencil.

Is this how you're conducting your selling? To me, cold calling is the equivalent of NASA spending millions when they could have used a 10-cent pencil all along.

Representing who you are ... telling the truth?

A call came in asking for me. The caller claimed to be a lawyer so I took it thinking it might be something important. It turned out to be a salesman for a collection agency looking to sell me their services.

He misrepresented who he was to get me on the phone.

When I worked for one particularly unethical telecom company, we were taught to walk into businesses and state that we were there regarding their phone bill, and that it was very important to talk with the owner. The owner always came right out thinking we were from the phone company. When he learned that we were salesmen from a competitor, he usually threw us out.

I don't know why people think dishonesty will somehow make cold calling effective. This is as bad as the post I made a while back about cold callers who are now using phony caller ID services to trick prospects into answering the phone.

If you have to use trickery to sell, something is definitely wrong. Self-marketing, on the other hand, is the most honest way to sell. There is no trickery, no cold calling, and no b.s. If you're still cold calling, perhaps it's time to take a step back and realize there's a better way of doing things. Dozens of better ways.

How to Stop Chasing Prospects Forever!

How to Stop Chasing Prospects Forever - Sales Podcast