My thoughts during this season frequently return to my years spent at UCLA, and to the legendary “Wizard of Westwood”  coach John Wooden.   It was my privilege to meet Coach Wooden, to hear some of his pearls of wisdom, and to root for two of the 10 National Championships that were won by his teams.

Coach Wooden was famous for teaching “the Basics” to his teams, which undoubtedly led to their tremendous success both on and off the court.    In today’s article, I will follow coach Wooden and explain one of the most profound sales lessons I’ve ever learned.  Read on…

Socks and Shoes  

Hundreds of talented athletes arrived at UCLA to play basketball for coach Wooden.  All were heavily recruited from their high schools, having proven their athletic prowess on the courts for their local teams, many having participated on teams that won state and national championship titles.  

Each of these talented stars were treated exactly the same by coach Wooden, who was fond of quoting:

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

In their first practice, coach Wooden would sit them all down and teach them how to properly put on their socks and their shoes!  He had discovered in his years of coaching that many a player would develop blisters which would result in lost playing time.  Or, during an important game the players shoes would come untied or they would trip over loosely tied shoes. 

 It sounds incredibly simple, but taking the time to train his team precisely how to properly put on their socks and tie their shoes was a critical part of their success.  Legendary NBA star Bill Walton, one of coach Wooden’s protégées, stated that this lesson was the beginning of the team learning “everything we would need to know for the rest of our lives.”  

It was a virtual guarantee that no Wooden-coached team would lose a game because of blisters or untied shoes!   Of course, this lesson was followed by several other ‘basics” such as dribbling, passing, and teamwork.   It took every ounce of Wooden’s coaching ability to persuade his recruits to go back to the basics and to practice, practice and practice some more on the basics that they had long-ago concluded they had mastered. There was much grumbling especially among the prima donna recruits about having to “sweat the basics”, but after several hours and much repetition the essentials were   learned.  Every Wooden-coached team knew the value of the basics.

Simple Sells

One of the biggest lessons we can learn from coach Wooden is the value of simplicity.  The “little details” need to be learned and they need to be practiced and repeated until they are mastered.   I can’t think of anything more elementary (and therefore important) in mastering the art of Selling than the value of simplicity.   In all elements of the selling process, the value of simplicity is frequently overlooked, and this lack of focus on the basics invariably leads to “blisters”, “untied shoes” and lost sales.  

Almost every sales professional has spent endless hours crafting their sales pitch.  They’ve learned all of their product details, and they can fire off features and benefits faster than a speeding bullet.  They know the “speeds and feeds”, the miles per gallon, the return on investment, and the pricing discounts calculated to the tiniest fraction.   They can deliver ad hoc a sterling recap of their product details with a compelling value proposition thrown in for good measure.  No prospect could ever survive the onslaught of their superior product knowledge and persuasive ability!  

Then why is it that prospects fail to sign the order form?

The short answer is too much talking, and not enough listening.  Coach Wooden would often comment:

                “Listen if you want to be heard.”

Almost all salespeople talk too much.  They fall in love with the sound of their voices, and they love to hear themselves verbalize everything “right” about their product.  In their haste to explain the benefit of their product, they don’t observe that their prospect is simply not interested!   Worse, they  frequently interrupt when their prospect attempts to interject a question or an objection, thus creating ill-will and frustration.   And finally, they never discovered the answer to the most important question: Does the customer have a need for the product/service?

You can’t sell anything unless your customer has an urgent need.  Further, they (prospect) must recognize that they have a need, and they must demand to satisfy it!  This means that you MUST ask questions and learn to listen. 

Of all the fundamentals of selling, this is by far the most important.

Simple sells.   And the first simplicity is to shut up, stop selling, and learn to LISTEN

This little question, when seriously considered, can lead you into discovering some very important truths about your business, your sales style, and your career success.

If your job is to motivate, to persuade or to inspire others to take action, then it is vitally important  you dig deep inside and discover your own motivation….and then share it with others.   People respond positively when you are capable of sharing “from the heart.”  After all, sales has always been an inside game.  For the latest research on this topic, read on….

Start with Why

Bestselling author, lecturer and leadership coach Simon Sinek has been speaking on the topic of “Start with Why” for a number of years.   If you haven’t read his book or heard his lectures, you can watch his TED speech on YouTube by  clicking on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4.  

In his research into what makes companies great, Mr. Sinek analyzed companies such as Apple, Tivo, and Google.  He compared the Wright Brothers to Professor Langley (one invented flight, the other was a dismal failure) and he discussed exactly how  Dr. Martin Luther King was able to galvanize an entire nation into supporting the Civil Rights movement with his famous “I have a Dream” speech. 

At the core, Sinek argues “People don’t buy what you do, but WHY you do it.”  Most salespeople make the mistake of leading the conversation with What (all about your products and services) and How they work.   However, the underlying Cause or Belief is missing and that’s the most important part of the equation.   That’s the Why.   If people do business with people they like (and they do), then it’s critical to tell them what you believe in, why you’re doing what you’re doing.   That’s how you make a connection, and it’s the first fundamental in establishing trust and rapport.

Unique Value Proposition

For years, I’ve been training salespeople how to discover and clearly express the unique value derived from their product/service.  Most sales systems will tell you to “sell benefits, not products,” but very few will go to the next level, which is Value.  People buy products/services when they consider that those products/services are VALUABLE to them.   They also buy because of THEIR value, not yours.

In order to sell value, you first need to ask questions and listen.  You can’t sell value unless you know precisely what is considered valuable by your prospect, can you?   There’s nothing dumber than spending all your time extolling the virtues of Product X, only to find out that your prospect has no need for Product X or they already have one!   First, ask questions and listen, and then make a list of what is most important to your prospect.  If that value lines up with what you’re intending to present, then you should continue by all means.  If not, find another prospect that is more qualified.

Every so often, I run across a great idea which forces me to change my sales methodology, and Mr. Sinek has succeeded in that regard.   His “Start with Why” approach cuts through resistance and allows the salesman to make a personal connection, on a gut level, with like minded individuals.  If your personal “Why” lines up with the prospect, you will succeed in establishing tremendous rapport and the rest of your value proposition will land on fertile ground.   If your prospect believes what you believe, then you will quickly and easily establish a solid foundation from which to expand the sales value proposition.

So, here is my “new and improved” approach to a potential new client:

                1.  Start with Why

                2.   Build Trust and Rapport

                3.  Ask questions and Listen

                4.  Determine what’s VALUABLE to them

                5.  Explain your Unique Value Proposition

I look forward to hearing your success stories!

Someone who is paranoid lives in a constant state of fear.  They are surrounded by imagined enemies who are doing everything possible to destroy the paranoid.  Such a person lives in a terror-filled world, a dangerous world, a universe amped to the max with fear, uncertainty, danger, terror and disaster.  

On the other hand, an eternal optimist with a sunny disposition lives in a charmed world, filled with cheerful friends, endless possibilities, lots of fun-filled days, and personal satisfaction. 

The important thing to realize is that each of these people is CREATING the world they live in.  In actual fact, the paranoid will experience hatred, danger, accidents, killing, and doom.  Their life experience will be filled with actual incidents, not just imagined difficulties.  If there is danger, they will attract it.  If there is hazard, it will find them.  If there is a horrible nasty person just itching for a fight, the paranoid will likely draw them in like as moth is drawn to the flame.  Terrible events simply cannot resist the intention created by a paranoid.

The optimist attracts different experiences.  Good things happen to them.  People seek them out to give them things.  Abundance seems to always be in their court.  Friendly smiles, kind words, enthusiastic greetings simply arrive at their doorstep.  They are a literal magnet for good times.

What do you attract? 

Think about it, and honestly evaluate your world.  What have you been experiencing in the last three months? How many friends do you have, and how many enemies?  Do you frequently experience anger, fear, or resentment?  Or do you frequently experience joy, happiness, and serenity.  What is your chronic emotional tone level?   Are you living the dream, or are you suffering through a nightmare?  Write out a checklist, with two columns, a positive and a negative.  How many things can you put in the positive column, how many in the negative? What do you attract?

If you’re like most of us, you are probably attracting a garden variety mixture of good and bad.  Hardly anyone has a clean slate, most of us are saddled with dysfunctional areas in our life, our family, or our careers.   The important thing is to honestly evaluate where we are operating at a less than optimum level, to find out where we are attracting the negative, and to take steps to reverse the story or our lives.

After all, we are the authors of our life story, and we can write the story with either a happy ending or a sad ending.   We pick the words, we frame the thoughts, we visualize the outcomes, and we choose the reality we live in….really!

It has long been understood in the business world that people will perform according to the expectations that others have for them.  It’s a psychological fact that something called “The Pygmalion Effect” can account for huge differences in performance.  When management has limited expectations of their employees, they receive limited results.  When expectations are high, employee performance becomes exceptional.  

For a fascinating account of how this changed culture at Dunn-Edwards, I invite you to watch the training film “Pygmalion Effect: Managing the Power of Expectations” by CRM Learning.  In the film, you will see how a manager treats his high-potential employees completely different than the employees he considers are marginal performers.  And along the way, his expectations of employees turn out to be true.   It is amazing when you consider the performance level of your associates and employees.  What expectations do you have about them, and how do these become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

In a series of startling and well-publicized experiments, The Pygmalion effect (also called the Rosenthal Effect) was studied at length with elementary students, which proved conclusively that teacher’s expectations of their students became a self-fulfilling prophecy.  In a blind test, teachers were told in advance that some of their students had high IQ’s, and some had low IQ’s.  Even though this information was false, the educators behaved differently towards their students based on their expectations, and subsequent IQ testing found that the students who were “bloomers” achieved higher test results and the students who were labeled “late bloomers” had lower test results and lower IQ’s.  In short, the expectation of the TEACHERS determined results by the students. 

What impact might this effect have on your Sales Performance?

Why not ask yourself the following questions:

• �
  •   What emotions do you feel when you think about customers?
  •   What feelings do you associate with Prospects or Cold Calling?
  •   Do you think your customers need to be “educated” about your product to purchase?
  •   Do you sometimes feel your customers are too stupid to “get it?”
  •   Is the economy so bad that it’s killing your sales?

If you’re honest while answering, and my expectation is that you will be, I think you might detect some of your own expectations, and how they are impacting your sales performance.  If you expect the worst, you will probably get it!  And if you expect success, you’ll thrive!

The Thought Police were well aware of the power of an idea, the force of thought, and they were determined to stamp out contrary thinking to preserve the status quo.   However, they failed to achieve their objectives because the tools they used — primarily surveillance videos to monitor speech and facial expressions – could not actually detect contrary thought.  They could only detect the outward visible expression of the thought, not the actual thought.

As we all know, our deepest innermost thinking is both private and secret. We may believe, deep inside, that our boss is an egotistical tyrant, but unless we vocalize that idea, he/she will never know what we truly believe. We may think that our prospect is a moron, but that’s just our own private thought, isn’t it? We’re always believed that what we’re thinking is just for us, and has little impact on the outside world. Or does it?

In a fascinating and brilliant work by Japan’s Dr. Masura Emoto called The Messages of Water, our conventional wisdom regarding thoughts and emotions is severely challenged.  In this beautiful book, filled with exotic full-color pictures, he presents graphic evidence that our thoughts create a significant impact on the physical world.

Dr. Emoto has conducted hundreds of experiments with frozen crystals of water.  His method is relatively simple.  He exposes pure distilled water to spoken and written words, emotions and even photographs and then he freezes the water.  Then, he removes one of the water crystals and photographs it with a high-resolution microscope.  The resulting crystal images are dramatic. 

When the water is exposed to the word “love”, the crystal is beautiful and symmetrical.  When exposed to the word “hate” the water is distorted and ugly.  When a group of Monks chanted “peace” to the water, the resulting crystal images were astoundingly beautiful.  The same water, exposed to curses and anger turns ugly and discordant.   Both the written word (taped to the water bottle) and the spoken word (stated at the water) created the same effect on the crystal images. 

The experiments included playing recordings of music at the water.  Heavy metal music resulted in crystal structures that were bizarre and angry.  Playing of baroque music results in beautifully formed colorful and symmetrical crystals.  One of his more famous experiments included taking samples from Fujiwara Dam in Japan.  The water was polluted and when photographed the resulting crystal structure was dull, dark and ugly.  However, when Dr. Emoto asked priests from the Jyuhouin Temple to pray for one hour beside the dam, and samples were taken, the change was stunning:  a clear, bright-white hexagon crystal emerged.

Dr. Emoto’s conclusion is that ideas, words, and emotions (including sounds and visual images) create an effect, at the molecular level, on physical objects.  This is graphically demonstrated in thousands of images from the water crystals.  And, since the human body is approximately 70% water (on average)  it is an inescapable conclusion that these same effects will be felt by our bodies.  Whether you choose to call it ESP (extrasensory perception), telekinesis, or simply label it the “woo woo” effect, here is dramatic evidence that those “secret” and “hidden” thoughts are actually being transmitted and FELT by those around us.

 Here’s what we learned were the biggest Time Wasters (note: see if you’re guilty!)

             — Unscheduled Email Interruptions

            — Excessive Web Surfing

            — Unscheduled Phone Calls (not business related)

            — Procrastination

            — Multi-tasking

            — Texting at Work, Email on the Cell Phone

            — Spending time with the Wrong People

            — Social Networking (unfocused, not in time blocks)

            — Working personal issues, distracting

            — Socializing, random chit-chat with co-workers or clients

            — Too Many Meetings (especially without an agenda)

            — Non-focused networking meetings

            — Attending Meetings that don’t begin or end on time

Here were the biggest Productivity Gainers:

            — Dedicate time for return phone calls

            — Blocked time for emails/texting

            — A written plan for each day/week

            — Segment tasks into A, B, C priorities

            — No more than 10 major items per day, focus on the 2-3 most critical

            — Know your Critical Success Factors for the day, make sure they are met

            — Focus on Results

What do you think?  Got any to add to either list?

 We’d love to hear your comments…

In our main topic of Listening, we’ve been discussing the concept of “mindfulness”, which is a very ancient concept stemming all the way back to Buddhism.  To exist in a complete state of Mindfulness, we are required to become fully aware, so we’ll now explore this topic.  

The word itself means “having knowledge or cognizance of ______”.  There are millions of books, articles, stories, and documents which explain in vast detail this very simple word.  One of the more interesting tidbits is the archaic definition, which means “to be on guard, to be vigilant (as in war).”   If the soldier who is guarding the castle is not aware for any reason (asleep, drunk, distracted), the enemy can attack with impunity, because there will be no defense.  Since no one was aware of the danger, nothing was done to prevent the attack.   To be aware, to be vigilant was a vital skill in staying alive!

Today, nothing much has changed.  Having full awareness of the here and now, becoming vigilant, enables one to operate at peak performance levels.   The lack of awareness will allow “the enemy” to attack and there will be no defense against the negative consequences.

In his bestselling book The Power of Now,  Eckhart Tolle writes about “The State of Presence,” which he describes as “a state of intense presence, you are free of thought.  You are still, yet highly alert.”  He also describes presence as “anchored in the Now.” 

This ability to be fully aware, anchored in the here and now, is a very rare ability for Homo Sapiens.  Some researchers have concluded that the normal person taps into this heightened awareness level only under extraordinary conditions, perhaps as little as .05% of the time.  The rest of their time, unfortunately, is spent in various levels of “unconsciousness.”   

Please note that when I write about being fully aware, I am talking about three levels of awareness:  body, mind, and spirit. 

At the basic level of the body, all of the physical sense channels need to be fully engaged in order to have full awareness of the present moment:

            Hearing

            Eyesight

            Touch (Kinesthetic)

            Smell

            Taste

At the next level, your conscious thinking mind, you are aware of the signals being sent from your sensory channels and paying attention to what they are sending.   If you are thinking about past memories, dreaming about imagined futures, daydreaming, or lost in thought, it will be virtually impossible to receive the messages being sent.  If you are not “tracking” on the current message stream, you will miss valuable information.   Being lost in thought will result in the complete inability to deal with what is right in front of you.  Your mind is responsible for analytical thinking (positive) as well as reactive thinking (negative) and it’s where you store all your memories.

At the top level, your spiritual awareness or the actual “I”, you are aware of not only the body and the mind, but also the greater range of perception or awareness which could be classified as the ‘non-physical.”  This can include analytical capabilities, your ability to dream, and your ability to “sense”. This is where intuition comes into play, and this is where the upper range of abilities, such as ESP and telekinesis, can be experienced.  This is the highest level of awareness and is also the realm of the metaphysical and the paranormal.   This is where higher-level emotions such as universal love or serenity can be experienced.

In our next post, we’ll explore how these awareness levels impact your ability to listen and perform with maximum efficiency.

             1.  Listening to the Now

            2.  Mindfulness vs. Mindlessness

Many of you are probably wondering what this has got to do with improving my sales performance.  So I thought I’d address that common question in this posting.

One of the biggest causes for losing a sale is flat out missing the close.  You are banging along in your sales presentation, making some important points, building more and more value for your prospect when suddenly WHAM it hits them!  They get it, they see what you’re talking about and they decide right then and there to buy!

If you are not paying attention, if you’re not fully present in the now, you will miss the buying signs that are clearly right in front of you, and you may keep talking.  The prospect simply wants to sign the order and receive your product/service, yet you keep talking on and on and on.   Worse, the prospect may even TELL you that he wants to purchase, and you STILL continue talking.

I have seen this very scenario played out in thousands of sales situations, and believe me it is very grim.  The prospect practically BEGS to purchase, and the salesman insists on continuing his presentation to the absolute end no matter how long it takes. 

Clearly, if the salesman was paying attention, he would observe the evidence and simply move to complete the order.

There is another compelling reason to be in the now, focused on your prospect, and that’s because it’s the best method I know of to ATTRACT people to you.  If you are absolutely fascinated with the person you’re listening to, if you are hanging on their every word and showing them by your manner that you are truly interested, this will naturally draw them into your “space.” 

People enjoy being around people who enjoy them.  The moment your prospect senses that you are really truly interested in them, not just to sell them something, they will open up like a flower and will in fact become drawn to you.  In short, if you can get your ego out of the way and make them the most important person in the room, they will many times reward you by giving you the sale.   In sales, it comes down to the relationships we build, and if you take the time to build a relationship, your chances of making a sale increase exponentially.

So, pay attention, listen, be interested and watch your sales numbers increase!

Here I'm standing next to one of the World's Best Listeners

Aloha!

While vacationing on the Big Island of Hawaii, I had the time to recharge my batteries, calm the inner voice, listen to the silence, and appreciate the sheer beauty of this island paradise.  I also learned the Hawaiians have a term which perfectly describes the skill of Listening Attentively:

             Ho’olohe ka pepeiao

 If you’ve been following what we’ve been expounding, you know we strongly believe the ability to listen effectively is critical to success in virtually any endeavor.    In the absence of good listening skills, we are beset by a host of dastardly, demoralizing, and downright demonic problems.   Here are some of them:

 Lack of Understanding

 If you can’t or won’t listen to another person, your understanding will suffer.   Here’s a simple example: 

             You have just met with your boss and he gave you a performance review.   During the conversation, he states:

              “You need to work on punctuality.  We can’t keep waiting for you to arrive at meetings, always late, so you need to improve on that.”

 What you heard him say is “You need to work on functionality. We can’t keep waiting for you to arrive at meetings always late, so you need to improve on that.”

 What you thought you understood is your boss wants you to improve the functionality of your meetings.  In other words, they should be made more functional, more effective, and you should work on that.

 What your boss really said was that you need to work on being ON TIME (punctual, not functional).   Result:  Confusion. Your grasp of the meeting, and your bosses understanding are quite different! In later conversation, he may remind you about the discussion you had about being “on time” and you will be confused about what he is referring to. 

 This is just a simple example, but it demonstrates the point.  When two people are conversing, it is very easy for a word or words to be used that are  not understood, misunderstood, or just never listened to.  In all cases, there will be a lack of understanding and potential problems down the road.

 Life Problems

 When you aren’t listening, it is very easy to make assumptions that are untrue.  This adds a huge amount of problems, tension, and stress to your life.  The classic example is the student who is a “poor learner” in school, which is most often caused by poor attention and deficient listening skills.   Bad grades pile on bad grades pile on bad grades, all leading to more and more stress.   Once the hapless student is labeled a “problem,” they tend to become the problem, and this pattern frequently leads to drop outs, drugs and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and a feeling of failure.  Highly motivated teachers will often detect these problem learners and correct the problem on the spot, but too often the problem escapes notice.  Most poor learners are also poor listeners.

 Lack of Motivation

 If you have poor listening skills, it is very easy to lose your zest for life.  Since you are not clearly tracking what is happening, you frequently run into problems and circumstances that are frustrating.   If you just don’t “get it,” it’s hard to stay motivated.   Without your active participation in the conversations of life, you remain distant and alienated. 

 Motor Mouth

 If the world revolves around “me, me and me” then most of the talking will be by you, yourself, and I.   One of the most common causes of poor listening is excessive talking, because you simply can’t talk and listen at the same time. You frequently encounter this phenomenon at social gatherings, networking groups, or parties. There’s typically a “star of the show” present who insists on being the center of attention,  rattling on and on about themselves.   It’s curious that such people tend to assume that everyone listening to their dialogue is fascinated, when in fact most of the listeners are simply bored. 

 Self-Centeredness

 This condition tends to be a common human failing, but it is compounded by poor listening skills.  Why would you bother to listen to anyone else, when you are completely consumed with thoughts about yourself?  If the theatre of your mind is endlessly fascinating,  it would make no sense to pay attention to another “movie” which is not so interesting as yourself.  Also, in the absence of input from outside oneself, you tend to introvert and listen to yourself, and if you’re listening only to yourself, guess what?  You can’t be listening to someone else at the same time!

I’m convinced that human beings were designed poorly from the start.

Everyone knows that we are endowed with two ears, two eyes and just one mouth.  This is supposed to teach us that listening and watching are more important than talking, right?  Since our ears and our eyes outnumber our mouth by a 4 to 1 ratio, this should be a clear indication of what is important.  Our sensory channels are flooded with input from the outside world, and therefore we should be excellent listeners and learners.  The input channels far outnumber our output channel, to be blunt.

However, that’s not the way human beings are wired. 

The problem is that we’re also endowed with a brain, and this mechanism can throw a monkey wrench into the mix.  When sound waves are received by the eardrums, the vibration is transmitted to the inner ear and then modulated into “brain waves” which are then interpreted by the brain.  (I’m not a doctor, so I’ve probably left out a step or two, but you can get the idea). 

Certain sections in your brain are responsible for “recognizing” the audio messages, and other sections recognize the visual input, (as well as olfactory, tactile and other sensory input).  The entire mix of signals is then assembled, analyzed, evaluated, and compared to previous experiences.  In addition, opinions about the messages are created, preconceptions are reviewed, bad experiences from the past are reviewed, emotions, attitudes, decisions, and a myriad of other thought processes are applied against the sensory input. 

After your brain has completed its processing work, the “refined” message is passed along to You.   By You I mean the central identity, whatever you perceive to be “yourself.”  The psychiatrists would identify the “I” as the ego.  Spiritual leaders might identify this beingness as the individual soul.  In simple terms, this is who you identify as yourself.  This is quite easy to demonstrate in two steps:

1.  Think about, or imagine, a dog or a cat.  Get the mental picture firmly in your mind.

2.  Who is looking at that picture?

Fact is, SOMEONE looks at the mental images that are produced by the brain, and that someone we can identify as You.

What is important about this is to realize that what occurs in the external world is one thing, but what you eventually perceive is quite another.  Virtually everything that you have ever seen, heard, felt, smelled or touched has been “interpreted” or filtered by your brain.  In short, the accuracy of your information is almost completely dependant upon what the brain tells you. 

And that is the crux of the problem.  

Since our birth, we human beings have been receiving information that is filtered by our brain, and the “self” or the “ego” then makes decisions about what to do with the information.   Because we have all learned from childhood that we are the “center of the universe”, we are all to a certain extent self-centered.  Many of us are downright egotistical.  The cult of “me”, “me”, “me” is one which most of us belong to.  Most everything we experience is viewed from the standpoint of “what’s in it for me.”  Selfishness and self-centeredness seem to be the birthright of the human race. 

If we were able to receive information straight from the source, without filtering by our ego-driven brains, we would probably be recognized by our peers as being amazingly perceptive.  Who knows, with this ability we might even be viewed as a genius! 

In upcoming posts, I’ll be discussing techniques to directly access external reality, bypassing the filtering effect.  To master the art of Active Listening, we will drill deep into everything which prevents the exercise of this vital skill. 

As always, I invite comments, suggestions, disagreements, and encouragement.

Until my next post,

Patrick