Competition Drives Salespeople
Take a piece of paper and draw the traditional Tic Tac Toe diagram on it. Set it in front of anybody in your office and then put an x anywhere except the center square. I will bet that 99.99% of the people you challenge will accept the challenge and put an 0 in the center square.
The average person loves a fight and always thinks they will win.
Ever since man moved out of cabins and into houses, they’ve wanted something bigger and better … and they’ve wanted to show it off to their neighbors.
Men want to win. Charity begins at home. We all think we’re handsome and smart and are more than willing to tell you how smart and handsome we are.
Imagining you’re smart and handsome is a good start, but you’ve got to prove it to others. And THAT is just what a sales contest can do. It takes our inborn desire to show others how good we are and gives us a stage to do it on …and get paid for doing it.
It almost seems silly that we’ll work three times as hard as usual just to win a silly prize. Why we don’t work that hard or smart every day is beyond me.
The answer to that little question is that the sales contest has taken a ho-hum period of time and made it into a chance for you to show your mother-in-law that she was wrong. That you really aren’t a worthless, knobby headed failure. That you are Super Salesman !
Take the opportunity today to initiate a sales contest within your organization and watch the morale soar and take profits with it.
Just Sell & A Message To Garcia
Via a post by my blog friend Mike Smock over at The Maneuver Marketing Communique, I just found a website called Just Sell, and a post called Sales Tough.
I found a boat load of resources over there at JustSell.com and I believe every person who sells ANYTHING needs to go over there and soak up all that fee info.
One resource in particular is ” A Message To Garcia “, written in 1899 by Elbert Hubbard.
Click HERE to be magically transported to their download page and pick the version you want.
Holler back later with your thanks !
Sales Contest Suggestions
A sales contest has a bit of suspense, a bit of a change of scenery to it. It reeks of hope for those that normally don’t lead the pack within your organization. Hope springs eternal for those that occupy the lower rungs of the sales ladder.
At one of my former places of employment, we had an inventory ( bricks ) that was WAY TOO HIGH. The young Sales Manager had tried being a buddy, he had tried being an ass and had gotten tired of trying. I suggested that he partner up with one of the mortar companies that we dealt with and have a sales contest for colored ( pigmented ) mortar used with any brick that was already in stock. Grey mortar and brick that had to be brought in were not counted towards the final totals.
The prizes were higher commissions for the stock brick, versus any that had to be trucked in, and a cruise from the mortar company for everybody who met their goal.
The results were almost comical. All of us who had told the Sales Manager that we couldn’t sell any of the brick off the yard were fighting over those sad excuses for bricks. And all of us who had told him that we couldn’t sell colored mortar were selling it left and right and at a premium price.
Another promotion that I suggested was to put up a ” Brick of the Week “ for the inside sales and customer service reps. The first one to move that lot of bricks got a $50 gift card to a restaurant, where I had negotiated buying $1000 worth of gift cards for $800.
Sales contests that work are hard to devise, but their effects are almost always positive. If you need help coming up with a contest for your organization, I’ll be gald to help you, but my daily fee is $600, plus expenses and you don’t want to pay that.
I normally charge way more than you can afford per hour for phone consultations, and the free consultations are all gone
The two suggestions I mentioned above made well into six figures for the respective companies. I’m sure they’d pay my usual fee for another six figures.
Play Versus Work - Why You Need A Sales Contest
Last post we talked about sales contests and we brought up the fact that we, as humans, would rather play than work.
Need proof ?
See how quick you can find a reason why you can’t when your spouse asks you to run to the grocery on Saturday morning. I can come up with 12 excuses in less than 30 seconds to get out of that terrible chore.
You know…worked hard all week, need my rest, blah, blah, blah.
Now, let one of my friends call and ask if I can fill in his foursome at a nice golf course and you’ll see how good I feel and how quick I can get ready.
We all love to play and we all would rather get out of working.
Thinking of those who loved to play and hated to work, I quickly come up with the name of Tom Sawyer.
You can believe that Tom would have made a great sales manager. Remember the story of how he conned…er, I mean convinced his friends to whitewash the fence. Aunt Polly told Tom to get ‘er done and he did. Tom acted like he was an artist and all his friends wanted to take a turn at ‘painting’. He made ‘em think he was having fun and he soon had more help than he could handle. And to make it even better, they were paying him for the ‘honor’ of painting.
Nobody can explain all the quirks of humans and their peculiar nature. You can, however, make good use of all of these tendencies.
Put this tendency to good use by convincing your salesforce that it’s fun to work harder, while trying to win a prize.
Why Run A Sales Contest ?
Last week a new vendor visited our office for the first time. One of his first questions was, ” How many people work here ? ” As resident smartass, if felt it my duty to say, ” About half of ‘em ! ”
It wasn’t true, of course, but it’s a good lead-in to what I want to share with you today.
It’s true that a lot of salespeople don’t work as hard as they can at all times. I know I don’t. I spend a lot of time….er, thinking ! Yeah, that’s it ! Looking at the big picture !
The world is awash in averageness and mediocrity. I’ve done posts about average and in case you missed them, let me give you my thoughts on being average.
One way to get your salesforce working agian is a Sales Contest.
Sales contests are a good thing for several reasons, that I can think of. Here’s my short list :
1. Humans would rather play than work.
2. Humans will play harder than they’ll work.
3. Men/women are kids at heart. and love prizes.
4. It changes up the routine and gets salespeople out of their monotony.
5. Most of us like a good fight and will try like heck to win one.
6. You can use it to reward an employee that goes ‘over and above’ on a regular basis.
7. It normally increases sales for most of it’s duration.
Next, we’ll look at each of those 7 points and try to come up with a scenario that proves each one is true.
Rather than have me do all 7, maybe you guys can help me out and leave a comment that proves a point listed above.
Help ol’ Mike out and do all the work…I mean, leave a comment with your thoughts.
The Secret Of His Success
I’ve been searching for a word, one word, for a long time. I just found it via Michael Hyatt’s blog. In case you don’t know who he is, here’s a bit of background for you.
He’s the President and Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the ninth largest publishing company of any kind.
He began his publishing career at Word Publishing while still a student at Baylor University. He was there for about six years. Along with serving as Vice President of Marketing at Thomas Nelson in the mid ’80s, he also started his own publishing company, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, with partner Robert Wolgemuth in 1986. Word eventually acquired their company in 1992.
Then he had a successful stint as a literary agent from 1992 until early 1998. He’s written four books, one of which landed on the New York Times bestseller list where it stayed for seven months.
He rejoined Thomas Nelson for the second time in 1998. Since rejoining, he’s worked in a variety of roles in both divisional and corporate management and was promoted to President in February 2004.
This past year, his company placed nine books on the New York Times list—more than any other time in our history. In addition, sales year-to-date are up 8% over the same prior year period.
While loving his work, it is not the most important thing in his life. That honor belongs to his family. Michael’s been married to his wife, Gail, for 27 years. They have five daughters and two granddaughters. They live outside Nashville, Tennesse, which happens to be about an hour from my corporate office and 2 hours from where I reside.
Nashville is a great city for several reasons :
2) A Cracker Barrel on every corner
3) We have offices there and in Murfreesboro, along with several other cities in Tennessee
During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Michael’s company provided for some of the victim’s requests, by providing Bible’s. I commented on his blog at the time and have been a reader ever since.
The word he gave me was R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-V-E-N-E-S-S.
I’m often asked what has made the difference in my career, which has amounted to over $35 million in sales of product for the companies I work for. With products that average less than $1 apiece.
Now, I have the word and another person to help me spread the gospel of responsiveness.
In his post, Michael tells us,
” So many people I meet are unresponsive. They don’t return their phone calls promptly. They don’t answer their emails quickly. They don’t complete their assignments on time. They promise to do something and never follow through. They have to be reminded, prodded, and nagged. This behavior creates work for everyone else and eats into their own productivity. Sadly, they seem oblivious to it. ”
When I let a new salesman ride along with me for a few days, he gets to hear me and how I handle my phone calls. I answer ‘em all, or I call ‘em back as quickly as possible. It’s a million dollar education that most never take advantage of. Sadly, after they are out there on their own and I call them to ask a question, they don’t answer and sometimes it’s 2 -3 days before they call back.
Think like a customer for a second. If your rep doesn’t call you back and let you know he’s going to take care of your needs, what do you do ?
You do what I do, you call another rep at another company.
Maybe you can’t take my call, maybe you can’t call back within minutes. But you can call back before you quit for the day. Your day ain’t done, son, til all your calls have been returned.
Here’s another million dollar tip for all you saleman out there. return your calls and let the customer know, with some positive reinforcement, that you have a solution and it’s within his budget/parameters. Let them know you’ve got it under control and are working out the details and will get back to them as soon as you have all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.
I guarantee your sales will go up and repeat sales will skyrocket.
That’s all people are looking for, someone who will get it done and communicate the progress.
Pretty dang simple, if you ask me. And it will work almost every time.
I have never been the cheapest solution in my industry. Never will, either. But I’ve always been the most responsive and I’ve always been as busy as I can stand to be.
Just in case you don’t believe me, Michael’s given us a short case study :
” As I was making my way to the top, my former boss, Sam Moore, used to ask everyone I worked with, “What’s it like to work with Mike ?” “How’s he really doing ?” “Do you think he could take on more responsibility ?” In responding to him, all they had was their experience with me. If I hadn’t been responsive to them, how do you think they would have responded to his questions ? “More responsibility ? Are you kidding me ? He can’t handle what he has now !” It wouldn’t take too many candid responses like that to tank my career.
Michael has also given you some great advice and a warning when he says,
” The truth is, you are building your reputation—your brand—one response at a time. People are shaping their view of you by how you respond to them. If you are slow, they assume you are incompetent and over your head. If you respond quickly, they assume you are competent and on top of your work. Their perception, whether you realize it or not, will determine how fast your career advances and how high you go. You can’t afford to be unresponsive. It is a career-killer. “
Our basic rules are the same: Respond immediately unless there is a good reason to wait.
Obviously, this isn’t always possible, especially since some of you spend so much time in meetings. Never, and I mean never, let messages sit longer than a day. Twenty-four hours is the outside edge. For me, that’s way too long. If you can’t respond now, then at least acknowledge that you have received the message: “ I received your message. I don’t have time to give it the attention it deserves right now, but you can expect to hear from me before the end of the day tomorrow. ”
Do yourself a big favor, click thru and read all of Michael’s fine post and then do something better : Subscribe to his RSS feed. I do.
You can thank me now and later.
