Samurai Sales! THINK Like a BLACK BELT (made with Spreaker)

Well, welcome again to Think Like a Black Belt: The Week in Review. I'm Jim Bouchard, the guy who teaches you how to think like a black belt. Each week I'll comment on topics I covered in my blog at thinklikeablackbelt.org. That's dot org. And sometimes I'll throw in some topical items of interest when appropriate. Once a week while, I'll even highlight some of the great achievements of the week by you, the people who think like a black belt. Let's get started. This week, it's all about sales. Definitely all about sales. Started on Monday with the blog that said, "You are a sales rep whether you think so or not." And that's about the truth. Everyone thinks that— well, you know, you go to any kind of conference or anything, you start talking about sales and people start saying, "Well, I'm not in sales. I'm not comfortable with sales." Well, you better get comfortable with it because you're a salesperson. Everybody is a salesperson. Here's why. You know, you might be looking for a job, you might be applying for a promotion, you might just be pitching a new idea to your supervisors or sharing a strategy with your employees, or how about this one? You might be trying to get your kids to behave themselves, right? But you've got something that you're trying to sell because all selling is really is it's an interaction between two people. It's an exchange. Where one person is delivering and the other person is receiving. Of course, in business, that exchange involves some money. So that's what we're all about this week, and we're going to get into it in, in depth. Anyway, in all these examples, you know, I'd argue that what you're really selling is yourself. Anybody in sales is selling— before they're selling the product or service, you're really selling yourself. Here's why: because sales is nothing really more than establishing connection between someone who has a particular need or desire and someone who can deliver what they want. Of course, successful sales in business ends in a transaction. That means the prospect buys what you have to sell. If you want to sell more, well then just think like a black belt. I say this because it's worked for me. I've been in business about 30 years and I've tried nearly every sales system or process out there. I've studied dozens more. Some of them were terrific, some of them worked very well, and others not so much. But here's what I really found. There's one constant, one consistent truth I found: that no sales system works unless you've got the right mindset. You know, I am sure that if, especially if you're in business for yourself, you've gone to some kind of conference. If you're in direct sales, you've got the sales system. All businesses have some kind of sales system, but you also know that there are top performers who seem to just ignore the system altogether. And there are other people who follow the sales manual to the letter and just can't sell at all. Well, this is why. Very few sales systems address the most fundamental characteristics of successful salespeople, and it's just really two things. Successful salespeople, the best of the best, are number one, charismatic, and number two, trustworthy. Or we might be— might say able to build relationships very, very quickly. And the rep who sells most effectively and the one who earns the, the longest loyalty from the customer is genuine. We'll get to the charisma part in a second, but being trustworthy and genuine are not really enough in sales. You've got to be able to communicate to your prospects and your customers that you deserve their trust and that you are in fact genuine. The charisma part— and it's funny because, you know, most people think, and I'd say most sales managers would think, the charisma is something you're born with. And that's why you tend to hire sales reps that are already charismatic to a degree. But charisma without integrity and sincerity, it might help you sell junk, but it's not the stuff of a real sales career. You know, I'm always thinking of that, of that movie Tin Man, right? And you see that iconic fast-talking used car salesman. You can sell somebody almost anything if you're charismatic, but it's not going to build long-term trust and a good basis for a long-term business relationship. I'd rather start a person in sales who's already trustworthy and genuine, and then we'll work on the charisma. And here's how. Charisma, most of all, is— well, I'd say it's this. Probably the outward manifestation of what we call in Black Belt Mindset the characteristic of confidence. We're naturally attracted to, and we're going to put more trust in, someone who's genuinely confident. But how do you get that way? Well, like everything we talk about here at Think Like a Black Belt, it's practice. You've got to practice to be confident. Confident— you got practice to be confident. Confidence is really the product of training, preparation, and practice. And here's why: because the more versed you are, right, and the more you understand the product and service that you're presenting, and the more you understand yourself and what you can deliver comfortably to your client or your prospect, that's where the confidence comes from. But let's define this very quickly, because confidence isn't a surety in a particular outcome. That's why really good salespeople, confident salespeople, can walk away from a sale that's not in the best interest of the prospect or in the best interest of the sales rep, you know, himself or herself in the long run. Confidence is knowing really that— it's knowing that you've trained as hard as you can and you deserve to be in the ring. Now in sales, this means knowing your product and service inside and out? Ask yourself— this is a tough question. We're doing the Samurai Sales workshops, and I hope to see you at one sometime soon, a live event. We can do it for your business, or we can bring it to your town. You can offer to be a host partner. We can talk about that. But really what it is, I'll sit there and I'll ask people, I said, honestly, do you know everything there is to know about your product or service? At least everything that you can have access to right now? And most people will say, "Well, no." And I say, "Well, why not?" Right? That's what you should be spending your time doing. So it's knowing your product or service inside and out. It's also studying and practicing the sales process. Now honestly, again, do you really sit down and practice this? I know you've been to sales conferences that set you up, you know, across the table from somebody and you're supposed to role-play. And go through the sales process. And I'd venture to guess that most of you probably never did it again after the conference, right? You said, "Oh, that was cute or interesting," or "That sucked," and then you went out and had a few mimosas and that was the end of it. This is something that you need to do. Go through that sales process again and again because that's how you identify objections. It doesn't have to be so much a formal or corny role-playing if you're uncomfortable with that, but at least sit down and work through that. Recommend that you do it on paper or you do it actually as a recording. And the third thing, it's listening. It's developing your ability to listen and really engage fully in the needs of the prospect. We keep quoting, you know, my dear friend Dr. John Tantillo, the Marketing Doctor, right? You can listen to him on WVOX every Thursday, 4 o'clock. It's Brand Talk Radio, and that's available live streaming too. You just Google Brand Talk Radio and you'll find him, or, or John Tantillo. But anyway, one of the things he says, and I do the impression very poorly, but it's not about you, it's about your customer. Sorry, John, but he's absolutely right. I think too many salespeople, uh, and you know, anything you do repetitively as a practice, whether it's conscious or not, it becomes a discipline, either a positive one or a negative one. If you're constantly practicing just shoving information down your client's throat then you're not really practicing understanding what your client or your prospect needs. So developing that ability to listen and engage fully. So let's review that. He said confidence is knowing that you've trained as hard as you can and you deserve to be in the ring, right? And in sales, that means 3 things: knowing your product or service inside or out— inside and out. It's studying and practicing the sales process, and it's developing your ability to listen. And engage fully in the needs of the prospect, so, or your customer. So like the legendary samurai warrior, that's why we named our program Samurai Sales, you gotta learn how to let go your ego, right? Dedicate yourself fully to the customer. Of course, you don't have to sacrifice yourself to the emperor if you're a salesperson. That's what the samurai used to do. So you learn to become a black belt, and really what you're doing is you're becoming a sales warrior. The samurai sales rep, right? Now, after a short break, we're going to come back. We're going to update you on some of the cool things that people are doing as they learn how to think like a Black Belt, or they're out there in the world thinking like a Black Belt. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about some of the upcoming events that we're doing. But before I go, I want to thank— I really want to thank the folks at the Freeport, Maine Chamber of Commerce and Melissa Albert at G2 Couture. Boutique photo. They hosted a remarkable group of powerful women of the new millennium for our Think Like a Black Belt for the Entrepreneurial Woman event. That was Thursday in Freeport, Maine, Thursday the 15th of May. And what a terrific event that was. What a dynamic group of people that are really going out there and doing something in the world. So again, thanks to Freeport, Maine Chamber of Commerce and Melissa Albert at G2 Couture Boutique Photo. So get on down there and get your photos done. I'll be back in just a second. I'm going to let you enjoy, I guess we've got Bob Johnson and the Funk Dogs queued up for you. Be back in just a couple minutes. That's Foundation by Bob Johnson and the Funk Dawgs. Dawgs. D-A-W-G-S. If you're looking for those guys. Anyway, thanks a lot, Bob Johnson, for the little break music we had there. And let's talk about some of the fantastic people that really think like a black belt. Today, it's really kind of an honor to give some recognition to one of my friends and one of my most treasured mentors, really. Larry Winget. You might know him as the Pitbull of Personal Development, and he's famous for the book Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life, Your Kids Are Your Own Fault, and, and 5 or 6 other New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers. So he's really, really impressive person, and I'm very blessed to have him as a friend and as a mentor. Well, our dear friend Larry went to CNBC this week And he was the guest host on Crowd Rules. Crowd Rules features 3 small businesses. They compete in front of an audience, a live audience, who vote to decide which business wins a much-needed— reinforce that— much-needed $50,000 prize. So that's pretty interesting. I didn't see the episode. I want to make sure I get that on the replay because I'm sure Larry had some very, very interesting things to say. Now, by the way, I want you all to join the Black Belt Mindset Mastermind Group on LinkedIn. And that's how you stay in touch with some of these amazing people like Larry. And geez, I think we've got about 700 other people on there right now. And there's really vital, vibrant discussions on there and a great place to network and to do business with some folks. So at any rate, there you go. Larry Winget on LinkedIn. Crowd Rules on CNBC. Real quick note on upcoming events, and then we're going to get back to the sales tracks here. Uh, we've got— we're back to Freeport, Maine on Wednesday, May 29th. Half-day boot camp, Marketing Your Mastery. It's half price when you register early, so go to JimBouchard.org, hit the Services Special Events tab, and you'll find Marketing Your Mastery there. And that'll take you to the registration and also notices on upcoming events. So this one's Freeport, Maine, May 29th. It goes from 7:30 in the morning to 11:30 or so, and then you're out free for enjoying some nice lunch and shopping in the Freeport area, including the amazing L.L. Bean. That's also hosted by the Freeport Chamber and by G2 Couture Boutique Photo. I have a hard time saying that. That's Melissa Albert. Great stuff there. She's gonna have a business headshot special going on that day too. I think she's gonna do a business headshot for everybody who shows up for about $25.. And that'll be a wonderful, wonderful thing to add to your LinkedIn profiles, Facebook profiles, and so forth. On June 20th, I'll be down in Baltimore at the Baltimore CEO Club. Just Google CEO Club of America and you'll find the listings there. That's June 20th in Baltimore. And if you want, also, we've got some time available down there if you'd like to bring me into your company to talk about the Samurai Sales: Marketing Your Mastery. Samurai Customer Service, or the keynote Think Like a Black Belt mindset talk. Just give us a shout and we'd be glad to fit somebody else in down in Baltimore. Let's get back to sales. Now, obviously the last time, you know, the last post we were just talking about had a lot to do with confidence. Let's do a quick review. You know, you sell more when you're charismatic, you're trustworthy, and you're genuine. And the most effective salespeople, the real talent they have is to be able to build trust or build a relationship very, very quickly. Now, you might argue that it takes time to build authentic trust, and that's, that's a fact. However, there's a way to earn the trust of a prospect or new customer right away, at least enough to make your first sale. These days, you'd better communicate your trustworthiness quickly or you're going to lose your sale to someone who can. And the secret to that is mastery, and that's what we talk about in the Marketing Your Mastery workshops. See, the samurai dedicated themselves completely to a life of training and focus and practice. They became masters of their craft. That's the foundation of it. Now, I want to tell you a little bit about a story. You know, sometimes we learn from the nightmares. I walked into my favorite big-box music store a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to buy an electronic drum pad. So naturally, first thing I did was I went right over to the drum department. A nice young man greeted me there. He asked if he could help. I said, "Sure, I'd like an electronic multi-pad is what I was looking for. I need it to have MIDI output so I can record drum tracks on my computer. I want to do it with GarageBand and all that. But I don't need an engineering degree to operate this thing, do I?" Well, anyway, I told him specifically what I wanted and he just didn't know how to help me. Now he was willing to point me over to the display. Had he been paying attention at all, he would have noticed that I was standing there like a dummy for about 10 minutes staring at the same display that he just pointed me over to. I couldn't make heads or tails of any of the stuff that was there. Anyway, long story short, I stumped him, so he said, "Why don't you go over and talk to the guys in pro audio? They probably know more about it. There's another nice young man over there, and he's putting together a keyboard." Well, he paused a little bit, asked me if he could help, blah blah blah. I repeated what I what I wanted. And really, I gave him a little bit more of a, I suppose, an exacting description. I said, look, I don't understand all the technical stuff. Here's what I want to do. I want to be able to play with my sticks, make it go into the computer, and get good sounds out of it. Well, he launched into this tirade of technical jargon and obscure product codes. I didn't even know what the hell he was talking about. Obviously he wasn't listening when I told him about me not having an engineering degree. Well, ultimately he conceded that he really didn't know much about drum pads, and I should go ask somebody— imagine where— back in the drum department. But then wait, mm-hmm, he had an idea, and he started describing this one unit that he thought might fit the bill. And here's what he's already told me, he said I should go over to the drum department and buy this unit, and in the box there's a really detailed instruction manual, and that would tell me everything I need to know, including whether or not that unit would do the job for me. So here's what his big brainiac, you know, suggestion was: I'm gonna go spend $1,000 on this piece of equipment so I can open the box, read the instructions to see if it'll work. Longer story even shorter, I walked out of the store. And this store, I spent thousands of dollars at this store. So anyway, I went out in the parking lot, opened up my iPad, and I started doing my own research. And within about, I think it was about 30 seconds, I found a review of a product I'd never even heard of. It was a video and it featured a really knowledgeable guy. He obviously was a musician and he was playing this particular unit. And he was explaining in layman's terms exactly what it could do, and it was exactly what I was looking for. But here's the key: this guy obviously knew what he was talking about. I wasn't even standing in front of him face to face, he was on a YouTube video, but he answered all my questions. So where do you think I bought that unit? Yes, I ordered it. Thank you, Sam Ash. They had the exact same piece. You know, the irony was the store that I had been in had the exact same piece at the exact same price. Mastery is the continuing process of learning, growing, and developing your talents and abilities. Now either one of these guys could have applied this principle. Alright, and here's the frustrating thing. You know, what really aggravates me is that as I was bouncing back and forth, and this, you know, this happens at different stores. I'm sure you have similar similar story yourself. I'm watching these guys, and even after I asked the question, I mean, what I would be doing, I'd be diving into the computer, I'd be opening the box, reading the manual, studying, because I just got stumped, right, by some customer. I'd want to know, or at the very least, when I had the customer in front of me, I'd bring them over and say, look, you know what, I don't know the answer, but I can find it for you. So anyway, no, I was watching these guys, and all they were doing was— the one kid, the kid in the drum department, was just leaning on the counter daydreaming. Eyes rolled up in his head. Obviously he didn't want to be there, but you know, that being— it is what it is. Let's get to how you become a Samurai Sales Master, because that's really important part of the story. First of all, study everything, everything about your product or service. Instead of leaning on the counter rolling your eyes, that's what you should be doing. Second, understand your customer's perspective and how your customer uses that product or service. See, I walked in and gave— I handed that to these guys on a platter, but you got to learn to ask questions too and make sure you understand. You may know more of the technical side of it, but you've got to understand how your customer is going to use it, and how in-depth their understanding of technology is, because most people, we don't know how to program our own. I can't say program your own VCR, we don't use those anymore. Third thing, practice using your product or service yourself. If at all possible, you should be, you know, you should be doing that. Car salesmen are often good at that, right? They drive the cars, so they know. In restaurants, sometimes they'll make sure that the waitstaff has tasted the food that they're serving that night. Know where to go for answers if you don't have them. Just touched on that, right? You don't need to know everything, but you gotta know where to go for the answers. And finally, anticipate every conceivable variable your customer might throw at you. Now, shouldn't all this be really painfully obvious? But listen, I won't go into a tirade about why so many frontline sales reps don't know what the hell they're doing or talking about. Frankly, I don't even want to hear the excuses, and I've heard more excuses from business owners and managers than from the troops on the ground. The important thing is that you either become a master of your product or service, or you lose the sale to someone who is. It's really that simple. I'm going to emphasize that you don't have to be a know-it-all to be a master. In fact, a know-it-all sometimes lacks the practical experience that makes you a genuine master. A genuine master— I'm going to paraphrase the ancient genius Lao Tzu— is aware of what he doesn't know. And is fully aware that he can't know everything. The genuine master might not know an answer, but he sure as hell knows how to get it. Now you apply this concept in sales and you become the go-to source for your prospects and for your customers. They know that even if you don't have the answer, you'll find it for them. One of the guys I used to— I only studied with a couple of times at seminars, but what a wonderful guy and a big impact on my life— Professor Nick Sirio. He used to teach us that earning a black belt is simply the development of a great learning attitude. A true master above all else knows how to learn, and that's why the genuine master is always a student first and a student always. See, the genuine master can learn more from his students than they'll ever learn from him. You know, a student at any given time only has one master, right? But a master is learning from many students at the same time. Apply that concept in sales. You'll learn from every customer, every sales opportunity. An average salesperson talks the talk. A samurai salesperson is going to walk the walk. We're going to be right back and finish out this segment on sales. Hope you're enjoying it. We're going to leave you with something from Nikki Lindsey King. It's called "One More Day." And you know, this is really cool on Spreaker. If you come on here Uh, there's all kinds of music that you can access. So I really don't know who these people are, and listen, I'm enjoying listening to it. These tracks are available for you free. So anyway, Nikki Lindsey King, One More Day. Okay, you know, it's really a pleasure to share these things with you. Support your independent artists, your local artists as well. Really amazing music and whatnot that you can find online by people who you're not going to find on American Idol, which I think probably is a good thing. Anyway, Back to the sales thing. Last segment here, we're going to be talking about one of the toughest parts. We're going to be talking about perseverance. We're going to be talking about what you do when times are tough. What are you going to do when you face those rejections or the inflow stream is drying up? Your lead pool is drying up. The ancient martial artists had a saying for us, always did. You can open up a fortune cookie and find some of these things, but This is one of my favorites: Knock down 7 times, get up 8. It's simple, not easy, right? You know, whoever the hell told you it was going to be easy was frankly lying. The path to success is very rarely a straight line. Most of the time, our successes are a culmination of a series of failures, occasionally punctuated, right, by little moments of success and enlightenment along the way. Technical sales tactics include getting more people into your prospecting stream, widening the funnel, qualifying your prospects, you know, all that stuff. So you can spend more time with people that are likely to choose your service. But hey, when those things are drying out— all those things are important, but no matter what you do, once in a while you're gonna lose one. And once in a while, that lead pool is just gonna, by natural attrition, is just gonna dry up. If you're new in sales, you might be losing a lot of the time. So let's talk about how you get through the tough times, and the key word here in Black Belt Mindset is perseverance. If you visit the blog, I actually put up this great little video. It's from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and it's about making— you know, every adversity is an opportunity to shine. So make sure you go back there and look at that. Sorry, I can't remember the name of that song, but something about roses and stuff like that. If you're a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fan, you're gonna know what it is. Anyway, you can't possibly know, you know, absolutely that you're gonna close every sales attempt. You can't know that you're gonna close the next one. What you gotta believe is that some of them will close, and you gotta believe that even when you're on a losing streak, you've got a shot to win the next one. And yet I did say believe. And that's what belief and faith are for. So people that know my stand on law of attraction and that type of thing, I'm not losing my marbles. We're talking about genuine belief and genuine faith, which comes from one thing— same place that confidence comes from. It comes from practice. And, you know, even the major religions admit that one. You don't build faith just by saying so. You build genuine faith by doing, through practice. So what can you do to develop perseverance to get you through the slumps? Well, first of all, there are any number of reasons for failure, and in life as well as in sales, but understand that some of these reasons are within your control and some of them just aren't. The key is to focus on what you can control, and I believe that there's 5 things that you can really, really, really control no matter what. Number 1: No matter if you're failing or winning, keep learning. Number 2 goes along with that: keep training. Then third, analyze the failure and then let it go. Number 4 is avoid personalizing a failure. And number 5 is move on to the present, on to the next fight. The key is really focusing on the present moment, you know. Decide what you can do right here, right now, and do it. And these things you can always do. You, like I said, keep learning, keep training, analyze the failure, then let it go. Avoid personalizing the failure. Move on to the next one. You know, there's no magic pill that gets you through the tough times. I know because I used to try to get through the tough times with a lot of different magic pills. I gotta tell you from experience, it just doesn't work. What gets you through the tough times really is a conscious dedication to doing what it takes to move one small step forward. That's it. Even though it might not feel like it at the time, each small advance is really what produces what we experience as eventually success. You know, I was boxing, I had this great trainer, Dave Marquis, and he always said, "Don't worry, you always learn more when you lose." Of course, he'd usually say this after my nose was bashed in and hanging off my face, but after he'd say that, he'd pause, take a big breath for dramatic effect, then he'd add this: "But some days you just don't freaking feel like learning anything." Well, that's the way life is. In sales or anything else we do, winning is great, but none of us can avoid losing once in a while. I guess I've learned I don't mind losing. Well, I guess I do mind losing. I don't want to lie to you. But I have learned to accept it. As long as I know I've done my best, that's how I get through the tough times. I know that if I'm sincerely doing my best, I'm moving forward, win or lose, whether it feels that way at the time or not. So anyway, I want to share these words with you. I shared on the blog. The immortal sage Vince Lombardi— for those of you who are not religious, he's the greatest football coach in history— and I love what he said here. The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it. We all get knocked down. The champion's the guy who keeps getting up again. Well, anyway, listen, thanks for listening this week. I'm going to be back next week and we'll do another week in review. Not sure what we're going to be doing next week, so I haven't posted that up yet. We're going to emphasize some— we're going to get back to some of the mindset characteristics and we'll give you some hints of, you know, how to apply those in business and personal life. But anyway, come on back next week. I'm glad you're enjoying the show, and thanks for those people who wrote in and gave me some feedback. If you have any questions or comments or anything you'd like to to share with me. And if you're doing something remarkable, you want me to mention it on the show, just, just send me an email or hook up with me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, all the mega social networking sites. You can always just Google me. You could also visit JimBouchard.org, which I really appreciate, or visit the blog itself at ThinkLikeABlackBelt.org. So anyway, this is Jim Bouchard, the guy who teaches you how to think like a black belt. Be back with you again next week. And remember always that perfection is not a destination, it's a never-ending process. Make sure you enjoy yourself. Thanks, bye now.