"Roadmap To Revenue" By Kristin Zhivago

The key to big profits is the development and implementation and strict adherence to big processes. In “Roadmap to Revenue,” Kristin provides the guidance and directions you need to see clearly how to develop the processes you need to sell to your clients the way they want to buy.

She provides examples and stories to keep it interesting along with key insights into the four main buying processes your various clients follow including the most nagging, frustrating and irritating (in my opinion) the “Heavy Scrutiny” process.

This book is not “light reading.” This book is a dense, detailed guide for the serious business owner / professional sales person that is committed to doing what the competition will not do in order to stand out in this competitive environment.

You will be better, more efficient and more profitable in how you run your sales and marketing efforts if you follow what Kristin Zhivago hands you on a big, wide, beefy shiny silver platter with a beautiful blue compass on it. If you don’t read it and heed it you have no right to complain about how tough business is. It’s only tough for the lazy.

The great sales trainers and business consultants know this and have given it their own name such as:

• David Sandler called it “up front contracts.”
• Steve Clark calls it “close first, then present.”
• Alan Weiss calls it “conceptual agreement.”
• SPI (Sales Performance International) calls it “sales reengineering.”
• Ray Leone says “the sale is made before the presentation begins.”
• Jeffrey Gitomer says “Ray Leone eats dessert first.”

Since I’m a dessert guy I’ll go with the Ray Leone / Jeffrey Gitomer phraseology. After running some analytics on my site and seeing how popular my earlier post about a superhero salesman, I decided to incorporate the word “superhero” in this post as well. (I’ll write more about internal linking and SEO later.)

The reason salespeople don’t last at a job isn’t because they are lazy or don’t know how to close, it’s because they run out of money from lack of sales because they are providing free consulting and hours of education to prospects who either cannot, will not or are unable to buy what they have to offer.

Since closing a sale is dessert to a superhero salesman, why not have it first? While it sounds like fun it actually takes some guts, some research and getting out of your comfort zone since you will have to turn your prospecting / selling / closing funnel upside down to make this work. It will feel like brushing your teeth with your opposite hand for awhile but it will be quite invigorating once you see the (immediate) results.

The process is simple but not easy.

1. Know your stuff.
2. Know your prospect’s stuff – at least what keeps him awake at night.
3. Remember that the one asking the questions is in charge of the conversation.
4. Have a list – a long list – of damned good questions.
5. Inform the prospect that you will be the one asking the questions.
6. Inform the prospect that either of you can end the meeting at any time for any reason.
7. Direct them to your website or a competitor that drops their pants to win any sale if the prospect wants a free education or “your best price.”
8. Once they agree to meet confirm what the decision-making process is including who is involved and what their time frame looks like.
9. Confirm that all decision-makers will be present for the meeting.
10. Reach a mutually-agreed upon agenda for the meeting.
11. Send the agenda in writing so there is written evidence of your agreement.
12. Review the agenda as soon as you arrive.
13. Begin asking questions.
14. Continue asking questions until the prospect is squirming, sweating, crying, bleeding from the ears and/or begging for you to help.
15. Reassure them that you can help.
16. Begin your presentation.
17. Gain a commitment to either buy or move to the next step in the buying process with a clearly defined timeline.
18. Do the Happy Dance in the parking lot.

A full 50% of businesses and sales people are below average.

This is because their marketing and sales skills have been aging like fine milk since they got into business.

In the 90′s the dot com bubble made everyone look like genuieses genuiseses really smart people.

After the Fed flooded the market with liquidity and lowered rates after 9/11 the real estate bubble made everyone look like smart people again.

Now we’re seeing who has been creating sales and marketing systems and following a path of constant improvement and those that have chosen to age like fine milk.

We have years of what John Mauldin calls a “muddle through economy.” If you want to do more than muddle through I encourage you to do one or three of the following:

1. Master online marketing, which starts with mastering SEO – Search Engine Optimization – and Roger Bauer is the man for SEO.
2. Master sales and marketing systems, and InfusionSoft is the best for entrepreneurs and businesses with 1-25 employees.
3. Commit to getting a lot better at your entire sales and persuasion process, and Jim Fortin’s “Zero Effort Selling” is unbelievable.

The choice is yours. Choose wisely.

In finance there is a rule of thumb for calculating how long it will take your money to double called the Rule of 72. To use it simply divide the interest rate you are earning on your money into 72 and that will tell you how long it will take before your money doubles.

For Example:

• $10,000 in a savings account today at 1% (I know that’s high) gives you $20,000 in 2083.
• Earn 6% (6 into 72 = 12 for those of you from Rio Linda) and you have $20,000 in 2023.
• Earn 12% and you’ll have $20,000 by 2017.

Small changes in growth rates result in huge profits sooner rather than later.

The same is true for your personal development and sales skills. You’re reading this post most likely because of the title. So let’s look at how you can grow 35% this month.

Let’s say you start down the growth path today and let’s say you are 100% you, so mathematically the sum total of all your skills and abilities equals 1.00 (the mathematical equivalent of 100% for those of you from Rio Linda.)

I you improved your skills / abilities just 1% a day (not hard, right?) your compounded growth at the end of 30 days would be 34.78%. Round that up and you’re at 35%.

What about weekends? Oh, you can’t work on yourself during the weekend? Ok. Let’s say there are only 20 self-improvement days in month. You’d still be 22% better at the end of the year.

If your money was earning 22% a year it would double every 3 years, 3 months, 7 days.

If your money was earning 35% a year it would double every 2 years, 18.25 days.

How much and how fast do you want to grow?

The nice thing about improving yourself is that once you’ve grown you own that growth and the new and better you forever.

“Customers? Why did you end on ‘Customers,’ Wes?”

All of the above and more are conspiring to suck the business drive and life right out of you and deep down you know it. Even your customers (which is why you need Clients…I’ll get to that later) are not there to help you. Customers come to you to solve their own needs, wants and desires. Customers want great service (what a nightmare it is when companies advertise “Best Service In Town”) at the cheapest prices and they want it now and they don’t give a sh*t about how inconvenient, unrealistic or ignorant their demands might be nor how they might impact / CRUSH your bottom line.

So I end the list above on customers because you have to choose who to lose, which means you need to fire some of your customers so you can focus on your clients to get your life and profitability back. You can’t help everyone and you know who the ones that make you cringe every time you see their number pop up on your caller ID. Those are the ones that have to either go or get their prices raised tremendously.

Sounds harsh, I know, but it’s true. And you know it.

That is why you must create processes, systems and routines that shield you from the soul-sucking, momentum-mauling, business-breaking interruptions and distractions created by weak employees, greedy vendors and needy customers that compete for your time and your money and thus far have succeeded in holding you back from reaching your true potential, which is larger than you have even dreamt, yet.

My sales, professional and personal lives all improved significantly when I realized I don’t personally have to answer the phone every time it rings.

“Well that’s obvious, Wes. Do you consider that some type of ‘enlightenment’?”

Yes. I do.

You see, I first got into sales in 1994 and entered it full time in 1997 right out of the Air Force. Responsiveness and availability and responsibility and accessibility were all beaten into my brain since my days at the Air Force Academy. Jumping into commission sales on a $345/week draw against commission with a wife and two sons less than a year apart helps a salesman focus. The stress and responsibilities either bury you or give you superhuman abilities to outwork anyone in a 300 mile radius. I thought dropping whatever I was doing to be at the beck and call of whomever had the urge to dial the right (or wrong) number of the device on my desk or on my hip was “how it was done.”

So I did it.

After years of answering every phone call regardless of where I was, what I was doing or what I wanted to do I sought an alternative. I knew that putting customers on hold, switching to other calls, losing the first customer I had on the phone or not focusing on what they were saying and missing vital information that caused me to waste time, set incorrect expectations with customers and have to make up for it with discounts or delayed sales or lost referrals or testimonials was just not right.

I knew there had to be a better way. This wore on me and sent me on a search of how to sell more, faster, at higher margin, with less stress and more fun, fast!

So I studied and listened and watched and took note of the top sales trainers, motivational speakers and coaches I could find. I also studied successful businessmen and asked them what they did to get to the top of the business food chain. And I learned their “secrets.”

Then I stopped answering the phone unless I was expecting the call and/or I knew the person calling and we were working on something truly important together.

Hello sanity.

Next I turned off the TV.

Hello productivity.

My business grew. And my satisfaction with my business grew. And I started to have a life.

Now, unless we have a scheduled appointment to speak at the time you call there is a 97.8% chance you will get my voicemail.

Most people from family members needing to know where the dog’s suppository is to clients wondering when their order will ship to bosses wanting to review your pipeline to IRS agents wanting to parasitically paralyze you can just leave a message and they’ll be just fine with you getting back to them at the end of the day.

If they don’t want to leave a message or if it’s important they can and will call back, which has the added benefit of letting you know THIS call is important so you should take the time to speak with them.

This has the added ADDED benefit of letting the caller know it is a waste of their time to bother you with trivial matters because you won’t take their bait. It also puts them on notice that if they cry wolf you will NEVER take their call live again.

And/or (here’s the best part) most will realize they didn’t really have that big of a problem so they either end up solving it on their own or, because it wasn’t really a problem, it just fades away like footsteps on the beach without you ever having to know it even existed in the first place.

There are few – like, very few – like, really, really not many – things in life that absolutely, positively cannot wait 60 minutes to four hours to be addressed. Those that are vital – truly life or death – will make themselves known, i.e. fire, floods, your biggest client just declared bankruptcy the last day of the quarter, Justin Bieber tickets are sold out, etc.

So let EVERYTHING that is not scheduled wait so you can focus on what is important – marketing your business, writing great copy, recruiting good people, prospecting, closing sales, making money. This will enable you to then bundle / group your return calls when it is convenient for you and at a time when you can focus on them, thereby making you more efficient. (Bundling your efforts is something I address in more detail in “Piece of Mind = Peace of Mind.”)

In summary,

• Focus leads to clarity.
• Clarity leads to efficiency.
• Efficiency leads to productivity.
• Productivity leads to profitability.
• Profitability leads to freedom.

Where’s your weak link above? Let me know.

How Old Are Your Sales Education & Marketing Methods?

March 2 is “Old Stuff Day.” What old stuff is worth celebrating in your business and what old stuff needs to be gone, like yesterday?

When it comes to marketing your business I always quote King David, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Then I flip it around a bit and say “what’s old is new.”

Which is why I’m a big believer and advocator of direct mail, printed newsletters and written thank you cards. Sure, email and text messaging and voice broadcasts have their place in the marketing world but you need to be incorporating physical mail into your marketing processes to really stand out in the minds of your prospects and clients.

However, there are some old things that need to be purged from your system forever. Coming in a clear #1 is the Hard Close.

This past Saturday I got a wild hair to go check out L.A. Fitness again. I used to have a membership there but I wasn’t using all of their features and amenities and I found a simple Fitness 19 closer to my house at over 60% less per month and I’ve been happily losing weight and staying fit there for years.

But I printed up their free 3-day pass and drove out in the rain to workout there anyway. That’s when I met “him.” I call this sales manager “him” because he didn’t take the time to even introduce himself. He just took over from Tyler, a polite, new young salesman who was taking his time to follow their system, which included sitting me down and going through their fitness sheet and engaging me in a rather thorough discussion about working out, eating right and overall health goals.

After nearly 15 minutes of letting “him” ramble on, take phone calls, say hello to passersby, offer me some cheesy bag and water bottle “valued at $150″ if I renewed today I stood up, told Tyler to learn from both “good examples and bad examples” and left.

And a few days later I wrote this blog.

And I’ll tell everyone else I meet that L.A. Fitness still has pushy sales managers and to beware of “him” at this location in Temecula.

So drop the old-school, hardline closing taught for 50+ years by your grand father’s sales trainer and learn to engage your clients with the mindset Steve Clark taught me:

Selling is a calling.

Serving is its purpose.

Questioning is the process.

A sale may be the answer.

Do you need to get rid of some old ways and learn some new? Give me a shout.

Celebrities that self-destruct do so because they feel unworthy of the adulation, fortune and fame they receive all for saying some lines someone else wrote while pretending to be someone they are not.

In 1 Kings 2:3 and John 10:10 we read that God wants us to prosper and have life in abundance but many times we frown upon or simply reject God’s blessing, which usually leads to our own demise.

Charlie Sheen has had the opportunity to live life to the fullest and he has blown it. As a child of a famous actor he probably feels a little guilty for having easy access to the acting industry. He is surely surrounded by other great actors that had to struggle in the early days to get where they are today.

You always hear the stories of actors leaving it all behind to move to Hollywood and wait tables, clean bathrooms, sleep in their cars, go on thousands of auditions, get swindled by more than one “agent” before they got their big break. Meanwhile, Charlie was bouncing on the knees of Hollywood’s A-List and having Marilyn Monroe sing lullabys to him.

Now he’s sabotaging his career and his life because of these deep-seated feelings of unworthiness.

Salespeople do the same thing. In businesses across the nation walk salespeople that have closed a humongous deal and then go on autopilot back down to their comfort level because they don’t see themselves as over-achievers capable of sustaining numbers 150%-200%-300% over quota.

So they knock down a big deal then “head trash” creeps in and they talk themselves down to where they think they belong. Psychologists estimate that upwards of 77% of our self-talk is negative, counter-productive and self-defeating. That’s why salespeople need great managers, athletes need coaches and all humans need spiritual advisers.

The Devil wants to keep us down. Our peers like us and invite us to participate in their Fantasy Football League as long as we aren’t too far ahead of them. Our neighbors invite us to the block party if our car costs about the same as theirs. But all of the above are counter to God’s will and desire for us.

So turn off the boob-tube (that’s literally what it is when Charlie Sheen is on it), spend some time reading the Bible, spend some time reading good sales training material, find a mentor/coach/trainer/adviser that can push and pull you to a higher level of performance, find or create your own MasterMind group and hold each other accountable then accept with open arms the abundance that will come your way.

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” ~ Samuel Goldwyn

Driving back in Southern California traffic from a no-show appointment is the most embarrassing, frustrating, humiliating, debilitating experience a sales person can face, yet it happens on freeways all across the United States every hour of every day and it stinks.

It stinks because it wastes your time, your gas, wear and tear on your vehicle, spews green house gases into the air (that’s my shout-out to the tree-huggers reading my blog) and worst of all it crushes your psyche, which, if allowed to continue will drive you out of sales.

How To Save Your Time and Your Ego

To save anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours or even a day or more* of wasted time and energy prepping for a meeting that will never happen with a prospect that was just jerking your chain you just need 5-7 seconds of guts.

That’s right.

Just 5-7 seconds of having a backbone during every prospecting call will save you hours every week.

Here’s how it works:

Prospecting can be a drag but it is punctuated by the occasional success where a hard-working sales person actually reaches someone that appears to be a prospect, a qualified prospect and, when the stars are aligned, they even seem to be a decision-making, qualified prospect. (Miracles of miracles!)

After some fundamental features and benefits Q&A and a little chit chat the typical salesperson utters something quite ingenious such as, “I’ll be in your area tomorrow or Friday. Would you mind if I stopped by to put a face to a name and drop off some literature.” (While this is NOT the best way to conduct a prospecting call I’ll address that in a later post. For now, let’s give you brownie points for a) prospecting, b) reaching a live body and c) having a semi-literate discussion with that prospect.)

At this point some prospects will give you a fake/legitimate excuse that they won’t be in during those times or they’ll say, “Sure. Come on by. I should be in.”

NOW’S the time to grow a spine and say these words, “Great, Mr. Prospect, should I pencil you in for 2 pm on Friday or should I write it in ink?”

That question will take between 3-4 seconds to squeeze out and it will cut your no-shows by 80-99% (emergencies will always pop up from time to time so nothing is 100%.)

When the prospect stammers out or even chuckles and confirms you can write it in ink you conclude with, “Fantastic. I’ll be on time,” which takes another 1.5-3 seconds, bringing your total “spine time” to somewhere between 4.5 and 7 seconds.)

You conclude with that last sentence for two reasons:

1. To hold yourself accountable.
2. To stand out in the mind of your prospect because I promise you he’s never heard that from any other sales person that calls on him or her daily.

To survive, thrive and succeed in sales you must differentiate yourself or you’re forced to compete on price. (I wrote about the pain and suffering of competing on price and the benefits of making quality products the market place wants.)

If you’d like to accelerate your path to profound profitability give me a shout. I’ll gladly share my Rolodex to get you in touch with the expert(s) you need to reach, exceed and even set your goals, which is the first step in your new journey of gutsy sales.

*Note: One night over drinks, a sales rep from a Fortune 50 company that retained me to help deliver a series of two-day training sessions on sales processes and CRM utilization, admitted that he had boarded planes and flown halfway across the country to see key prospects that stood him up and he was not alone. This came up because during that day’s training session I mentioned how much more diligent I was at asking numerous, detailed, even “tough” questions of prospects because all travel time and expenses came out of my own bottom line as the owner of my business. When every dollar is your own and you have a family to feed you get down to the nitty-gritty every time or you starve. And if you know me you know I like my food!

Selling today is chaotic.

We are pulled in so many directions:

• Social media sites
• CRMs
• Conference calls
• Team meetings
• Webinars
• Reporting
• Prospecting
• Quoting
• Lunches
• Dinners
• TSA body cavity scans
• Whining. Griping. Complaining with co-workers.
• Voicemail.
• Email.
• Mail mail. (You know – those pieces of paper with stamps? Yeah. Those things.)
• Fantasy football!

The problem with all of these is that if you are distracted 50% of the time or just 1% of the time and lose out to the competition because you were 1% off you lose 100% of your commission.

OUCH!

That just don’t seem fair, now does it? But that sure enough is “how the cow eats the cabbage.”

There are actually seven (7) little mistakes sales people make that cost you 100% of your commission if you commit any of them. For about 65.9% less than a 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel you can be sure you conquer all of those mistakes and see to it your competition is the one giving up 100% of THEIR commissions….to YOU!

Are you ready to invest $4.97 in yourself?

(This is my answer to Sandy’s question last week on my Facebook page on how to attract more Realtor® clients.)

Sell or die.

That has always been my motto, but that is more true for everyone today, especially in the real estate profession.

Professional Realtors® and other professionals in the real estate industry should welcome this “thinning of the herd” because a bunch of unqualified part-timers jumped into the industry from 2000-2007 to ride the wave bubble tsunami government-manipulated debacle and they siphoned off a lot of deals that should have been yours.

So at least those days are over and anyone still employed in the real estate industry is a Rock Star, even if you feel like you’ve been traveling the country in a ’67 Volkswagen van with your 5-fellow band mates hitting every county fair and rodeo from here to Cheyenne, Wyoming for a motel room, breakfast and $100 a night for the last several years.

(Read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” to see how The Beatles and other greats paid their dues to get to the top.)

Now that the dolts, dunderheads and dumbasses are out of the way (excuse my French) it’s time for you to act like the Rock Star real estate professional you are. You do this by providing A TON of value first.

1. Motion Beats Meditation – Do something. Pondering and planning and organizing is for AFTER you get rich. To grow you need to get going. You know what to do. Get back to basics and do them daily. Muscles atrophy if you sit on your butt. Sales and marketing muscles do, too.
2. Forget The Internet (until you master your basics and “new basics” I’ll address below). Too many people are fiddle-farting around with web sites and social media and video marketing and they are going broke! Get out and press the flesh. Go shake someone’s hand. Say hello. Look people in the eye and have an honest conversation with them. I’m in escrow now on a $340,000 house with my Realtor® whom I met at a local networking event THREE YEARS AGO! Even though it has taken us 3+ years to finally do business together I referred her to both my father-in-law and mother-in-law that both bought from her so she’s averaging almost one sale a year by knowing me and it’s all because we met face-to-face.
3. Become a Teacher of Your Craft - Conduct live workshops to be seen as the trusted expert in your area. Realtors® are humans grappling with all of the same issues we all do: organization, leveraging technology, getting referrals, getting testimonials, negotiation, prospecting, etc. Become an expert in all of these areas and teach it to your marketplace. Until you are an expert in these areas bring in outsiders to round out your programs. They’ll be happy to show up to a full room and you’ll get to sharpen your skills listening to them teach. Bring in economic experts, business leaders in the community, motivational speakers and even entertainers to give everyone a break (we all need more breaks today.)
4. Take Massive Action – I don’t know how to help you make 30 sales a month, but I can show you 30-100 ways to make one sale a month. Look at what your SUCCESSFUL competitors are doing and then either beat them at their own game or do the exact opposite of what they are doing. I’ve found that few businesses are successful because of their advertising and marketing. Most are successful IN SPITE of their advertising and marketing! If you are willing to be memorable. To be unique. To be passionate. To “choose who to lose” and go after the clients you really want and can really help then you’ll surpass all of your goals. Write a newsletter. Send it in the mail (not just some cheap and cheesy email newsletter…but have one of those, too, just make it a good email newsletter!) Have a “Realtor® of The Month” section. A “Realtor® Regulation Regurgitation” section showing them new laws either pending or recently passed. Get certified to deliver continuing education credits and offer those classes (see #3 above). Partner with a local promotional items company and give significantly better gifts to new clients and for referrals. Host a referral lunch every month and only those that passed a referral can attend. Then give a bonus gift card or pick up lunch for the top referrer that month and give them a special spot on your website and/or newsletter.
5. Become a Student of Sales & Marketing - The best book I ever read for mortgage brokers (and anyone in sales for that matter) is Robert J. Ringer’s classic “Winning Through Intimidation.” Get that book. Buy it used on Amazon and study it. Then learn copy writing skills.  Learn to write good headlines so people are lured into your material. Then tell a story to keep them engaged. Then have a call to action for a great offer with a deadline.
6. Segment. Segment. Segment. “He who has the biggest list (and segments it and uses it to send targeted messaging) wins.” Every time you get a new lead, prospect, referral partner, client, etc. enter them into your database and mark down at least three unique things about them in your database, i.e. veteran, one story interest, short term buyer, long term buyer, commercial buyer, lender, etc. The more you know about the people in your database the more you can speak with them in an intelligent, relevant manner.
7. Automate. Automate. Automate. As your list grows and your “lead magnets” bring in leads with different interests, you must automate your correspondence with them to keep up. “Out of sight out of mind” is truer now than ever. This has been my secret weapon – and the secret weapon of dozens of my clients over the last 2.5 years. If you’re interested in owning it let me know ahead of time and I’ll get you a little extra “somethin’ somethin’” since I know them so well.

That’s the end of today’s free lessons. Now go sell something. Follow this link if you’d like a little private consulting.