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Archive for May, 2009

Will The REAL Sales Pro’s Please Stand Up

Friday, May 29th, 2009

I am ticked off!

When did sales go from a skill based profession to an easy way of beating the system to make a buck?

In the Province today there is a full page story on a mortgage development officer who made millions in commissions- not by selling but by what I call ’skimming’. My definition of skimming is when you find a loop hole to get business that isn’t necessary ethical.

PS: For a great new book on selling pick up my good friend Colleen Francis book “Honesty Sells” and subscribe to Colleen’s newsletter that provides practical sales tips: 

 http://www.engageselling.com

Years ago I worked in banking (in the ’80’s) and I was given the first area mortgage sales manager role ever created for the large bank. At that time you really ’sold’ you could not accept internal clients and your commissions were based on ‘new’ business in other words clients that would not have come to your bank without your sales approach.

The story in the Province alleges that the mortgage broker was working in tandem with the branch manager and the deal was the branch manager would send ALL mortgage enquiries to the mortgage broker. So, basically the bank paid millions of dollars over the years for their own customers!

In the past few years we have had ‘boom’ times and lot of people who thought they could sell were really just great order takers. They hadn’t exercised their sales muscle at all and in fact became quite flabby with inactivity.

We are experiencing the result of that right now where many sales professionals I have been talking to have acknowledged that they had ‘forgotten’ the basics of selling and this current economic reality has given them a swift kick in the A**.

So my request is will the REAL sales pro’s please stand up?

The ones who have the skill, talent, tenacity and creativity to go out there and find the business.  Time to put on the exercise gear and flex those muscles!

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Motivating Gen Y, X and Zoomers

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
I am often asked how do we motivate the different generations.
Motivating a Gen Y is like having to be a cheerleader- whether we like it or not! They only respond to praise and when giving feedback they are very sensitive to language- as soon as you use the word ‘criticism’ to a Gen Y they stop listening! An example script to a Gen Y to motivate would be:

“Hey Jordan, excellent job on answering the phone for that client- really well done. Hey next time you would increase your closing ratio if you used this tried and true technique I learned years ago.”

A Gen Y responds to this because you are supporting them not ‘dissing them’. 

A Gen X is much tougher and can hear the feedback but wants you to make sure you don’t blind side them. So you could say to a Gen X

“Tyler, you know how your quota this month was to book 3 meetings? Well you are at 1 meeting and it is the 28th of the month- I have taken a look at your best months and it struck me you could take a stab at the client from 6 months ago to see if that gets you to quota.” 

This motivates a Gen X because they can tell you have done your research and that you are helping them to win. 

To motivate a boomer is much more about recognition and WIFM (what’s in it for me?) so if you say to a boomer the following:

“Cheryl, I dont need to beat around the bush with you- you know what you are doing. I noticed you seem a little stressed or overwhelmed lately and this is affecting your results. What ideas do you have that can solve this? I have some thoughts too I just thought we could brainstorm.” 

Another question I am asked is “ How to you motivate them when they are all together?

You have to ensure you are speaking to each demographic and honoring the values of each demographic. For example when I speak to a group I will put in language that the Gen Y understands such as LOL on a slide or when I am talking I will also put a tech question out to a Gen Y and their simple answer usually blows both the Gen X and the boomers away.
To honor Gen X I recognize them as the squeezed generation managing up and down in age groups and that their ability to deftly manoever between these generations is a valued skill. 
The boomers have worked really hard to get where they are and they are really looking for confirmation that they efforts have not been in vain- so I will honor their hard work ethic and encourage them to share their knowledge rather than to hoard it.

A successful meeting to meet the needs of each generation would have the following:

1. Music/pictures for Gen Y
2. Handouts with supporting data and charts for Gen X and Boomers whereas Gen Y does not want handouts but they want a post meeting email, intranet post or text.
3. Opportunity for them to hear from each demographic- include 20 somethings to present on tech topics to your meetings. The Q and A sessions are nothing short of incredible!
4. Team discussions with mixed ages to solve challenges and come up with ideas
5. Recap of success of meeting, follow up with an email, a post on Facebook, a cheer on the Intranet, a blog post by the company President etc. 

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Selling toThe Zoomer Customer- It’s Not Your Granny

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

In a recent article in Canadian Retailer magazine (March/April 2009) it was mentioned that there is a big gap right now in the retail sector in regards to the age of the customer and how they are being sold to.

For example at a conference for a major US based electronics company a video was shown of a 50 something customer walking in to purchase a home theater and was prepared to spend several thousand dollars. Unfortunately the sales associates condescending attitude during the transaction due to the 50 something admitting he wasn’t much of a tech guy caused the customer to walk away. 

A sales associate that assumes that a Zoomer (a modern boomer) who admits their lack of technological savvy  will not buy or can be talked into something they don’t understand is totally missing the boat.

Guess what age the average sales associate is in a electronics retail store!

Yes a Gen Y or someone in their twenties.  It is easy to sell to your own demographic because you get the ‘lingo’ but to sell to a different demographic requires understanding, respect and a willingness to simplify  the techno speak.

I recently walked into Future Shop and watched a Gen Y sell to another Gen Y and it is a thing of beauty. They talk gigabytes, pixels, ram, multi-streaming, digital feed language. The sale is quick and easy.

I then interacted with the same Gen Y (remember I am a Gen X/Zoomer cusper) and he was incredible. I said I was looking for a new MacBook Pro and the first thing he asked me was , “What would you say is your level of technical knowledge?”- excellent question!

I responded with, “Pretty good, I can get around most programs BUT please speak to me in plain language not computer language”. He smiled and said, “I get it- no worries- what do you use your laptop for primarily?” and from there he answered all of my questions and he got the sale.  

Regardless of what age you are we must understand the different language of the generations. We stand to lose big sales with the Zoomer market if we are not careful to talk their talk and remember Zoomers are still 25% of the spending market.

The expectations of zoomers are evolving– watch here for a future post on the evolving expectations of Zoomers.

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