I’m on vacation this week but wanted to take a moment to thank Tina for sending me Oren’s book to review. It is one of the top 5 books on sales and persuasion I have ever read. His concepts of breaking frames and taking control of the situation in a concise, direct, methodical manner is mind-boggling.

That is why Oren lives in Beverly Hills and flies around in a private jet.

I’m re-reading the book now and will post a more detailed review next week when I’m back from vacation but if you want to close more deals now run to your local book store and buy Oren Klaff’s “Pitch Anything” today.

When it comes to growing your business everything matters.

EVERYTHING.

E-VER-Y-THING!

This includes how you instruct your staff to answer the phone.

People in your addressable marketplace do not do business with you for one of two reasons:

1. They don’t know who you are.
2. They do know who you are.

I’ll address #1 later. Let’s focus on #2.

Nothing is worse than spending money on advertising, marketing, SEO, direct mail, etc. to generate interest in a lead only to scare that person away forever because your staff has the phone skills, manners and etiquette of Archie Bunker going off on Democrats.

Not only will that prospect NOT do business with you they will tell 7-35 other people how rude or indifferent your staff was when they called, which means you lose all of their business as well as any repeat business they may normally do with you.

Spending money to have people not do business with you is a sure way to go out of business sooner rather than later.

You must script the entire prospect / client / user experience from the first exposure of your business to your prospect to the 10th time they buy from you.

Assuming you have advertising and marketing in place you can get 10% to 300% more business from your current efforts by scripting, measuring and adjusting the phone answering process your people follow. This includes:

1. How many rings before they answer.
2. Having a live human being actually answer the phone.
3. The first words that exist their lips.
4. The enthusiasm (or concern) with which they utter those words.
5. The speed at which they utter those words.
6. The clarity with which they utter those words.
7. How they conclude those opening words.
   1. With a statement. “This is the Search Engine Ninja.”
   2. With a question. “This is the Search Engine Ninja. Are you calling about local, regional or national search engine optimization assistance today?”
8. They pay scale and motivation of the person answering the phone. (One of my clients entrusted a $10,000 sale to a receptionist making $22,000 a year. Sales when up 467% when she was given a list of disqualifying questions then turned the caller over to the Director once she had a qualified prospect on the line.)

Cliches exist because they are based in truth and experience. You do only get one chance to make a first impression. How good is your first impression? Have you ever tested your assumptions? When was the last time you hired a secret shopper to confirm your assumptions? When was the last time you had a professional sales and marketing educator work with you to confirm you and your staff are exquisite in this area?

See what I mean when I say everything matters?

The great writer and poet, Emily Post said, “Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory.”

Too often people are nervous and anxious when they attend a social function. If you are in sales, which we all are, this can be a golden opportunity missed because it’s in social settings (or professional networking settings) where you may run across an ideal prospect who is “letting her hair down” and is open to what you do.

However, if you can’t engage them in dialogue the opportunity could be gone forever.

Fortunately for you this is a simple problem to resolve. All you have to do to strike up a conversation with 100% of the general public in any situation whatsoever is just pay that person a sincere compliment and then sit back and listen.

It really is that simple. Try it when you’re standing in line at Starbucks. Look at the person behind you and say something like, “I love that watch,” or “Your perfume smells wonderful,” or “That’s a nice jacket,” or “That’s a beautiful necklace,” or “I love your glasses,” or “That’s a great belt.”

Then listen as they say:

• “Oh. Thanks. I love this watch. I picked it up on sale…”
• “Why thank you. I’ve loved this perfume forever. My mom gets it for me every year for Christmas…”
• “Thanks. This thing keeps me warm in the worst of weather…”
• “Thank you. My ex-husband was a bum but he had great taste in jewelry!”
• “Hey. Thanks. I like your glasses, too. Don’t tell anyone, but, they’re not prescription!”
• “Thank you. I picked this up while in New York on business. I got it at half off…”

Then just let the conversation flow from there.

You mean we have to market our business and ask for the sale?

On a daily basis I am amazed and befuddled by people in business that hate – really and truly despise – sales and marketing, yet scratch their head and wonder why they are not doing better in their business.

That’s like a 400 pound man with a season pass to the all-you-can-eat brisket and biscuits buffet wondering why he’s still fat. It’s like Al Gore wondering why nobody wants to listen to him about global warming after he’s picked up in a stretch limo where he landed in his private jet to attend an international conference hosted by proven liars and cheats. (But I digress.)

Say goodbye to the “stupid money” forever. Business won’t just come to you anymore. The marketing landscape has changed. The economy has changed. However, the consumer HAS NOT changed.

Sure, their surfing and shopping and comparison shopping has changed along with their ability to light you up online if you treat them poorly but the underlying nature of the human consumer has not changed since the advent of Western Civilization, if not longer.

What is that common thread found in all of your prospects – at least the ones you want:

Community. A sense of belonging. A desire to be accepted and acknowledged as special and understood.

It’s written in our DNA. God, Himself, is community (“Let us make man in our image,” Gen 1:26). And God saw it was not good for man to be alone.

Your customers are afraid of being alone. Sure, some want to appear to standout by being an early-adopter or trend-setter but all they’re really trying to do is be a part of that fashionable, visionary community.

So help your customers and clients belong. This does not require “hard-sells” or gimmicky marketing. It just requires consistent, honest, meaningful efforts to connect, to educate, to inform, to sooth, to calm, to encourage your customers that what you offer will help them scratch the itch in that hard-to-reach spot that they yearn to go away.

“But, Wes. My business is different. I sell to the government. I sell to Fortune 100 companies. I sell to hard-to-please moms. I sell to rough-and-gruff bikers. I sell to (insert your own whining excuse.)”

What do all of these people have in common? A mother and a father. The need to wear clothes and eat every day. The need to laugh more and worry less. A sense of inadequacy about something (even Donald Trump hates his hair!) The desire to be healthier. A longing to be loved.

Begin seeing your clients and customers as people instead of “seats or eyeballs or end-​​users or consumers. (They) are human beings — and (their) reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it.” — From “The Cluetrain Manifesto”

As soon as you begin speaking and connecting with people as people and you stick with it your sales will grow.

If you’d like a little help fill out the short form on my Sales and Marketing Consulting Services page and we’ll be in touch soon thereafter.

You can do it.

Happy New Year.

“Hey, Wes. How are you?

“My name’s Joe Blow. I’m calling with Martin Worldwide. We’re a Direct Response Marketing Firm over here in Los Angeles and, um, I just wanted to touch base with you in regards to your company and, ah, how you guys are going about generating new business or marketing to new business.

“Furthermore, we’d like to see, really, if there might be an avenue there or, ah, something we can build up a re-relationship. I’d like to see how you guys are currently marketing your company as well as, maybe, ah, being able to supply this to a number of your sales reps that you bring on, um, as maybe we can work up some form of a coop or vendor relationship, ah, I’d like to see if that opportunity might be there.

“If you can, give me a call and we can chat a little further. My number here is 555-222-1111. Thank you very much, Wes. I really look forward to speaking with you. I hope you’re having a good day.”

What changes would you make to improve this message and increase your chances of getting a call back?

I’m watching the news this morning and an interesting chart was just posted on Fox Business News. Over the last 10 years here’s how the stocks of two of the biggest name brands in technology have performed:

• Microsoft (MSFT) – down 23.69%
• Apple (AAPL) – up 3,021.10% (That’s three thousand percent!)

This shows the power of quality and stick-to-it-iveness (Apple) vs. commodity (Microsoft and Dell). In October 1997, Apple’s stock was around $17 per share, Dell was around $33 per share and Michael Dell was advising Steve Jobs to close the company and return the money to shareholders.

In 2006 Apple’s market capitalization surpassed Dell’s. In 2008 Apple was worth 4 times more. Today, Apple is worth 10 times more than Dell.

Apple stuck to what it was good at.

Apple never compromised.

Apple focused on quality and let their competitors drive themselves out of business.

But it wasn’t easy. There were many naysayers. They were ridiculed. But they persevered.

Have the courage of your conviction. At a minimum you’ll sleep well at night and you’ll probably make more money, too.

What makes people like you? You getting them to think and believer that you possess the utmost of good judgment to be thoroughly interested in them.

How do you do that? By asking good questions. Thought-provoking questions. Questions that they want to answer. Questions they can answer. Questions they enjoy answering. Questions that allow them to pontificate and show just how smart they are.

Some of my all time favorites include:

• The Warm Up
  • How long have you been in your line of work?
  • How did you get started?
  • What do you like most about your line of work?
• The Intermediate
  • Why do people choose to do business with you and/or your company?
  • What would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?
  • What tips / advice / recommendations would you give someone just starting in your field / industry / business?
  • How has your field / industry / profession changed over the years?
  • What’s in store for your field / industry / profession in the coming years?
  • What’s the strangest or funniest thing you’ve encountered in your business?
• The Advanced
  • What are your most effective tools for promoting and growing your business?
  • When it comes to describing the way you do business, what one sentence would you like people to use?
  • How will I know if someone I know or run across is a good prospect for you?
• The Killer Ice Breaker Questions
  • “If you had to relocate to a foreign country where would you go to and why?”
  • “What is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done?”
  • “What is the worst / best business investment you’ve ever made?”
  • “Who do you think would be most receptive to hearing the story about your business, men or women?”
  • “Other than someone in your family who would you say is your biggest role model? biggest fan? biggest supporter?
  • “If you weren’t in your current profession what would you be doing?”
  • “Where were you born and raised and how do you think that has affected your outlook on life and business?”
  • “What’s your favorite movie and why?” (Journalists love “The Godfather”)
  • “Which competitor, client and partner do you like best and why?”

Master asking more and better questions (and then listening to the answers) and you’ll be the life of the party, the richest household on the block, the big Kahuna, the…person everyone wants to be around.

Pardon my rant…This weekend I went wine tasting with some family members that were in from out of town and the experience was just ho-hum. (And ho-hum just don’t cut it today if you’re in business to make a big profit.)

If you’re not familiar with the Temecula Valley and the excellent wines this area is producing I recommend you check out TemeculaWines.org and then come on down and pay us a visit. We’ll leave the lights on fer ya!

But I digress. This post is about my my head-scratching wine tasting experience this weekend that makes me wonder how some of these places stay open.

I’m writing this for a few reasons:

1. I love sales and marketing as well as writing about it and this weekend presented something on which to ponder digitally.
2. I love the Temecula Valley and I want you to come visit.
3. I love the wineries and I want them to do well (sometimes tough love is needed) because the more businesses that do well here the better it is for all of us.
4. I have more kids than fingers (at least on one hand) and it can be tough to arrange baby sitting. So when my wife and I have a chance to get out with the big kids rather than sit home and “self-medicate” we have some high expectations! (But when they let us down it’s a BIG let down!)

Now on with the sordid details…

We only visited two wineries because the overall experience was so under-whelming we decided to call it a night and go get some food in old town Temecula during the Rod Run. (Another good reason to come on down, not withstanding my current story.)

Birds of a Feather, Guilt By Association, Professional Courtesy, et al.

In David Sandler’s “bike book“ he stresses the point that his overall goal was to conduct himself in such a way that it brought honor and dignity to the profession of sales and all sales professionals, even his competitors, because he knew if he acted like a beggar in one account it would come around and bite him on the butt sometime soon and the end result would be massive discounting, lower margins, increased bidding and negotiation and an overall drop in job satisfaction.

These two wineries did not read Sandler’s book. (I’ll withhold the names to protect the guilty.)

The grounds of the first winery were beautiful. Their misters were on outside keeping their visitors cool on the patio. Tours were being conducted. The parking lot was full and we were in a cheerful mood so we wandered on in to “get our tasting on!”

The hostesses were pleasant enough and that is where the fun ended.

The fee for the regular tasting was $12, which included six tastings but you couldn’t keep the glass. I thought you always kept the glass, but as I said before, I’m not an expert so I shrugged it off as them cutting costs and followed my family (8 of us in all, 6 of us actually drinking) to the closest tasting bar.

(HERE’S THE IMPORTANT PART FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH ANY TYPE OF CUSTOMER-FACING / RETAIL BUSINESS!) The young man they had working this section of the wine tasting was a turd in the punchbowl! This one 22 year old kid in some stylish shirt, cool tie and fauxhawk drove us all away from that winery as quickly as we could down our 6 tastings and leave our glasses behind.

He was not interactive. He did not smile. He did not ask us where we were from or if we had been there before. He did not describe the wines or mention any specials. He scowled when asking for our little wine-tasting card so he could expeditiously mark off each tasting and otherwise functioned as an IRS or Board of Equalization auditor (I’ll tell you the joy of “working” with them in another post.)

End Result: we left. We bought nothing extra. My wife will tell many of her friends about the lackluster experience. I’ll forward this post to a few people I know here in town that own and/or run some of these wineries and offer to give them some private feedback if they are strong enough to take it. Since I know the owner I’m leaving the name of the winery out of this because it is, in fact, an excellent winery that produces some outstanding wines but they are leaving money on the table with this kid at the bar.

Keep in mind, the place was quite busy. There were easily 100+ on the grounds during the 45 minutes we were there. If they are all couples that buy wine together that’s 50 opportunities to sell a case of wine. If a case of wine is $100, that’s $5,000 every 45 minutes they COULD be selling while they are open. If they are open 6 hours that’s $40,000 a day, times two days in a weekend = $80,000 times 50 weekends = $4,000,000 in retail sales that could or could not happen because of how some dude with a fauxhawk wants to act that day.

What if half of those 400 buyers per weekend / 20,000 per year (that’s 10,000 for those of you from El Cajon) buy one more case during the year as part of the wine club? That’s an additional $2,000,000 in sales this winery is leaving up to chance.

Man oh Man! I wish I was so damned rich I could just let $6,000,000 in sales “come or go, like, you know, whatever, Dude. It’s all good. I’ll just leave it up to the universe to provide for me and my employees.”

(Disclaimer: There were 3 other associates at the first winery so let’s say the others were fantastic and cut that $6,000,000 in sales by 75%. That leaves $1,500,000 in lost revenue. Now let’s say a case of wine only costs $50 instead of $100. That still leaves $750,000 in lost revenue. Finally, if only half of the 50 prospects were true wine-buyers the final tally (50% of 50% of 75% of the potential revenue this guy is losing his employer on weekends only) is $375,000, not counting wine club memberships, etc.

Do you still think sales training and communication skills don’t matter?

The Second Winery: started of on the wrong foot but turned out better because of Christina, the lovely and gracious pourer at a rather large winery here in Temecula.

As we approached the main entrance there were cash registers placed outside under the patio with confusing signs about some sort of VIP club so we passed by that table and “shoved” our way through to go inside. Once there we were told by one staff member at one counter to go to another counter to pay. The lady at that counter told us to go back outside to a different cash register since she only took customers that were buying merchandise. Once outside again we were told to wait for some never-to-be-seen cashier who maybe could have taken our money. Finally, we were instructed to get back in the original line, which was NOT reserved JUST for VIP members!?

Anyway, we finally pay and here we learn that we only get 5 tastings for $12 but we can keep the glass. (Is there some collusion going on here?)

So we meander on back through an exceptionally busy gift shop and tasting rooms to meet Christina. Suffice it to say, everything that “dude” was, she was NOT!

End result: my aunt and uncle bought a case of wine from them and we even busted open a couple of them Sunday! And they are big wine drinkers so it is quite possible they will not only tell quite a few people about this nice wine but they will steer people to their winery. Furthermore, my uncle is quite influential with the California Board of Realtors and he will be telling some positive stories to a great many Realtors who I bet will also buy wine and/or tell others about the winery.

What do you want to bet the latter winery grows faster than the former? All because of the attitude of some part time weekend worker.

In the words of Michael E. Gerber, excellence beats scarcity. How excellent are you at EVERY aspect of your business? How long can you afford to be less-than-excellent at any of them?

On page 20 of the September 2010 issue of “Fast Company” they mention that September 12 is the date of this year’s “KaraokeFest” in Pomonoa, CA.

In the short article it is noted that annual sales of karaoke music and karaoke machines in the U.S. “have fallen a whopping 80% off their…peaks to just $40 million.”

This is where the inspiration for this post enters the picture. Rick Priddis, president of the-soon-to-be-defunct (in my opinion) Priddis Music inspires readers with this little gem,

“It’s gotten a lot worse because of the rise of the Internet. But we’re all just continuing on and hoping for the best.”

So let me get this straight: This dude, Priddis, says the Internet has hurt his business (it is 2010, right? The internet has been a viable business platform for at least 15 years and he’s been open since 1984.] and his solution is to HOPE FOR THE BEST?!!!

Are you kidding me? This guy has 25 years (actually 26 years. He hasn’t bothered to update his logo from a year ago) and his plan to get through these tough times is HOPE and he blames his tough times on THE INTERNET?

Sure, piracy has gotten worse over the years but if there are 100,000 people willing to come down to Pomona, a.k.a., the armpit of Southern California, and compete for trophies for karaoke singing then there are at least 10 times if not 100 times more people (that’s 1 million to 10 million for those of you from Pomona) willing to spend $1.46 per week for a new track for their machine.

Doing some back-of-the-napkin math shows that if just 1 million people download just one track at $1.46 per week then this is a $72.8 million a year industry just in music alone for a simple $75.92 per year hobby, not counting the machine.

So poor ol’ Rick’s response is to hope it gets better. Well, Rick’s hoping has paid off. Here is a brainstorming list of things that are streaming out of my brain as I sit here this Sunday afternoon pondering the business that could be Ricks if he’d stop hoping and start doing!

If business is down 80% I’m sure a heck of a lot of his competitors have gone out of business. How many did he contact and offer to buy their domain names / websites? If their domain names have expired he can just buy them on GoDaddy or any other big registrar.

What about buying the phone numbers of past competitors and having them forwarded to his office? (I use VOIPO.com and got my phone number for $99 for two years. That’s a good investment to buy your competitor’s phone number when they go out of business. It won’t take many sales to make back a $4.13 per month investment.)

What about buying the contact lists of former competitors? Offer them 10% of every sale for life.

What about making them affiliates of his when they go on to their new careers and paying them 10-50% of every sale they help generate through their affiliate links?

What about partnering with other business owners that serve the same market but don’t sell karaoke-related devices or music and having them become affiliates and they then cross-promote for one another?

What about offering free karaoke machines in return for a 2 year subscription to his music-of-the-month club? If this model works for printers and coffee machines why not karaoke?

What if this guy sold a hand full of machines each week, leveraged the internet to promote his music and machines world wide, maybe offered a membership / subscription program, kept his website up-to-date rather than posting events that are over a month in the past (not to mention his logo, which is a year out of date), offered tips and suggestions on how to throw a fun karaoke party for special occasions such as:

• kids birthdays
• retirement parties
• reunions (DUH!)
• sales meetings
• trade shows
• county fairs

Instead, he has a static Joomla website with broken links, no way to capture visitor information via some sort of free report and web form, poor SEO (search engine optimization), which is evident in his source code, which shows – I kid you not – 127 keywords with no commas separating them including neutral words such as “free,” “pdf” and “with.” Furthermore, the page Title and Description are terrible and neither mention his MONEY WORD, karaoke!!

No wonder this dude is relying on HOPE to carry him through these tough times.

This guy is a classic example of the danger of thinking small, looking backwards and focusing on the obstacles instead of the opportunities in the business world in general and in his particular industry specifically.

If you need to think bigger about your business, talk to Steve.

If you need to optimize your website and generate traffic, talk to Roger.

If you need to grow, take action. Motion beats meditation now and for always. Now stop reading and start doing.

I’m reading “Conquer The Chaos,” the new book by Infusionsoft founders Clate Mask and Scott Martineau.

Chapter 5 is called Disciplined Optimism, which is right up my alley! I’ve been a competitor my entire life and I was always  the quiet one in the corner mentally rehearsing my roles and responsibilities, thinking through the plays, the opponents and how I would crush them as soon as the whistle blew.

Meanwhile, there was always one or two or five who would hoop and holler, shout and jump and run around high-fiving everyone, slapping them on the backside and getting themselves psyched-up (I guess). These were the same guys that would hang their head down low as soon as the opponent busted through for a big gain or scored early or laid a shoulder into one of our guys for a good hit.

Back then I couldn’t distance myself from these yay-hoo’s because they were on my team. Today I can and I do put quite a bit of distance between myself and the crazy-happies.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not some “half-empty” kind of guy wandering around thinking the sky is falling. Quite the contrary. Things are great on the other end of this computer screen and have actually never been better. They are really good for me now because of Disciplined Optimism that has given me the strength and the fortitude to prepare for and persevere through the rough times that have befallen us today and will last for many years to come.

In Conquer the Chaos Clate and Scott refer to the Stockdale Paradox, a name given to Admiral James Stockdale by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. Stockdale spent seven years as a prisoner of war during Vietnam and won a Medal of Honor for his efforts resisting the North Vietnamese communists.

As Collins was interviewing Stockdale he asked him who were the P.O.W.s that didn’t make it home from the Hanoi Hilton. “Oh, that’s easy,” said Stockdale, “the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Stockdale concluded with, “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be” (Collins 2001, 84-86) (Mask, Martineau, 2010, 81-81).

What brutal facts have you been ignoring? Are sales trending down? Is competition up? Are sales cycles growing longer? Are your salespeople making more excuses than appointments? Are you not generating enough leads from your website, trade shows, ads, etc? Are you wasting money on marketing that is not producing a measurable, positive ROI?

Contrary to what my good friend Dione at Impact Marketing will tell you, I’m not a pessimist. I just call ‘em like I see ‘em. You and I can prevail in the end if we focus on our current reality.

If you need a little boost in that area check out what my sales mentor, Steve Clark, has to offer. Tell him Wes sent you and he’ll give you a little extra goodie bag when you enroll in his Inner Circle. But don’t bring it weak and don’t get in his kitchen if you can’t stand the heat because he doesn’t sugar coat a dang thing. You’ll grow or you’ll go!