Last night I had a very interesting conversation with a young
group of salespeople who had been trained wrong. Most sales
companies have training programs, but not many of them are
any good. Oh...the company thinks they're good training programs,
and so do most of the sales executives or managers, but the truth
is they are turning out mostly robots.
Hear a certain phrase used by a prospect...use a certain line
to get a response. This is all fine and good in uncomplicated
situations, and for small deals, but it is useless when things
get larger, and more complicated.
Here you need to learn the fine art of horse trading, or giving
to get something in return.
A friend of mine in restaurant sales demonstrated this to me
many years ago. He walked into a clients restaurant around
lunchtime, and he found the owner desperately trying to get
ready for lunch because employees had decided not to
show up that day. He took his jacket off, hung it up, and
started pitching in. He had me do the same, and gave me i
nstructions as he went along. I got my first lesson in
"busting suds."
Within thirty minutes the kitchen was ready, and he told
the owner to go out front, and we would handle the kitchen.
Together, we handled about 150 people for lunch, and
then we cleaned up, leaving about 230 in the afternoon.
The owner was extremely grateful, and thanked us profusely.
The next week we met for lunch and I asked him about
that account. He told me that prior to that day we pitched in,
he owned about 25% of the business in that restaurant.
After our day in the kitchen, the owner gave him almost
80% of the business, which took him from being a secondary
supplier to the primary supplier.
His weekly commission rose from about $55 to over $400.
When you annualize that...it is $2860 versus $20800. That's a
very substantial increase. And all because he was willing to
give something without ever asking for anything in return.
He used this priciple all the time, and very rarely did it not
work. One time at an industry function I asked some folks
about his chef skills. One guy told me, "He's forgotten more
skills than most chefs today have acquired."
That's pretty high praise.
Another told me that he saved his job by showing him how
to put together a menu that was first class, and made money
something that isn't easy to do. "After a while," he said, "You
just ended up doing business with him."
This is a very simple philosophy. Give...and you shall receive.
From the big saddle,
Jim Whelan
The Chairman of the Board
P.S. Give yourself a gift, and contact us here at:
thejamesrwhelanagency.com, or call 206 407 3124.
We can help you put more money in your pocket starting
today.
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