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by Rick Baker
On Feb 23, 2011
(The Am I a Sales Person? quiz)
Some folks are horrified by the thought they will be placed in a sales role. Some folks are horrified to have the word sales on their business card. Some folks are horrified to have the word sales at the top or in the body of their role description. “What! I have to show people I am a salesperson – what a stigma…what an embarrassment!”
The energy sector got around the problem by calling its commercial folks ‘originators’. [That sure cleared things up.]
Other folks argue everyone does sales. “You wanna talk your kids into doing this or that – well, that’s sales.” Or, “You and your spouse disagree about your next vacation spot – well, that’s gonna require some sales too!”
Gitomer says something like, “People hate to be sold, but people love to buy”. And, he has written many sales-help books, including a Sales Bible.
Anyhow, the debate - to sell or not to sell - rages on.
Regardless of all the stress and strain around being called a salesperson or the logic around selling versus enabling people to buy, the root question remains – Am I a salesperson?
If that is your question then you will want to answer it!
You will want to know whether or not you are a salesperson.
But, how will you know for sure?
Here’s a way to start: you can take ‘The Am I a Sales Person? quiz’:
It goes like this…
The Am I a Sales Person? quiz
The perfect scores are 0 and 100…ie, extreme scores, one at each end of the spectrum. 100 means you really are a salesperson. 0 means you really are not a salesperson. [So, if you score below 0 you must round up to 0. If you score over 100 you must round down to 100.]
- Start by giving yourself 50 points. That proves you have an open mind on the topic. No matter what outcome, you will have the comfort of knowing the quiz started at even keel.
- If you are still reading this Thought Post then add 20 points.
- If that last line was the final straw and you have now quit reading then subtract 40 points.
- Check your calendar – from today forward, how many hours are booked as sales calls? If there are less than 6 hours then you could be a salesperson. On the other hand, you could be a troubled sales manager. Use your judgment on this one: either add or subtract 15 points.
- Do you have a goal to generate Profit for your organization? If you answer ‘absolutely, and I know those numbers’ add 50 points. If you answer ‘I think my boss mentioned something like that once’ subtract 25 points. If you aren’t sure then stop taking this test and either find such a goal or agree to a score of 0.
- Do you wish you had closed a sale last week? If your answer is ‘sort of’ then add 10 points and buy a motivational CD. If your answer is ‘no’ then add 25 points and take a day off next week. If your answer is ‘yes – very much so’ then subtract 25 points and buy a how-to-sell CD.
- Check your calendar again – if you have less than 6 sales meetings booked and you have tremendously skilled support folks who do that sort of detail work to keep you on track then add 35 points.
- When you see those front-door signs that say something like ‘No Solicitation’ do you wish you had a new job…if your answer is even close to ‘yes’ then subtract 75 points.
- If you have decided to ignore the limitation of a maximum score of 100 for this quiz and insist you scored more than 100 then give yourself another 25 bonus points.
- Do you read and retweet @WFCRickBaker ‘Daily Sales Tweets’ to business friends? Score as many points as you want…I appreciate having you as a follower on Twitter.
by Rick Baker
On Feb 15, 2011
Some studies have shown people tend to be attracted to other people when those other people hold similar views. Conversely, people tend to be repulsed by other people when those other people hold differing views.
This applies whether or not the matter at hand is important or not important.
As examples:
Important Matters would include topics like religion, politics, ethics, etc.
Not Important Matters [or, likely not so important matters] would include topics like favourite colours, music preferences, choice of clothing, etc.
Here is a picture of the Impact of Similarity…
| |
If the Matter
Is
Important |
If the Matter
Is Not
Important |
When we Agree with the
Other Person's Opinion |
We tend to be Attracted |
We tend to be Attracted |
When we Do Not Agree with
the Other Person's Opinion |
We tend to be Repulsed |
We tend to be Repulsed |
The Impact of Similarity…
These tendencies tied to Similarity are helpful pieces of knowledge.
- They explain why misery enjoys company. [yes…a feeble attempt at similarity humour]
- They support the logic of Stephen Covey’s 5th Habit – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. [no point running the risk of alienating people by illustrating our differences, especially if those differences are of little importance or are off topic]
- They help us understand how and why first impressions are of such importance.
- They help us understand how rapport gets built [and destroyed].
- They help us understand the driving forces behind community.
by Rick Baker
On Feb 10, 2011
Barry talked about long-term sustainable relationships the other day.
Here are a few excerpts from Barry’s comments…
“This defines our company.”
“Sometimes you have to give 90% or 95%.”
“You can not expect it to be 50%-50% all the time.”
I know from our earlier discussions, Barry meant his comments should apply broadly: not just to Client interactions, not just to workplace interactions, but to interactions between people – to personal relationships in general.
Barry provided pieces of advice around the extremes of this interpersonal topic:
“let the little stuff go by”
&
“never burn a bridge”
I took these to mean:
- Recognize little upsets are a part of daily life. Being ‘petty’ is a route to interpersonal disaster. Pettiness annoys others. And it injects stress where stress does not need to be. If stress must exist then it should not be around the little things.
- From time to time disagreements will happen. Forceful personalities will collide from time to time. When that happens, even if it means ‘departure’ that ‘departure’ does not have to be done in a way that is stressed or permanent. Instead, it can be done in a let’s-agree-to-disagree way.
“You can choose the person you want to be.”
The bottom line:
Choose how you will handle day-to-day glitches and act in ways that bring you closer to your long-term goals…and one of those goals must be sustainable relationships.
by Rick Baker
On Feb 9, 2011
by Rick Baker
On Feb 7, 2011
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending a Jill Schichter education event, organized by our friends at Trovo Resources.
Jill’s presentation covered a number of things that must be done when ‘reductions’ are required at our workplaces.
Jill injected a great blend of thought, thoroughness, and people-sensitivity.
For me, 8 things resonated:
- Definitions: Jill provided a number of definitions, as examples she defined downsizing, rightsizing, and flexible rightsizing…expressing a preference for flexible rightsizing when that is possible.
- Make sure all decision makers are using the same measurements. Jill provided a Cost/Benefit template to help us capture all the facets that must be considered.
- For strategic workforce planning, build on your previous successes. [focus on the ‘bright lights’]
- Focus on the most critical high-impact jobs [the ‘80/20 Rule’ applies]
- Don’t underestimate the power of your employment brand. [news travels…so, we should make it good news]
- The most difficult job a manager does is letting a person go. [we must be sensitive to the people aspects]
- Related to all of the above, and particularly the human sensitivities tied to #6, Jill did a great job of answering the many questions posed by the attendees.
- Jill shared a fond memory from her time spent working with Stephen Covey [one of my favourite teachers]…Covey taught - the difference between a manager and a leader – “you manage things, you lead people”.
And, Jill explained - managers say “What are you doing?” while leaders say “How are you doing and how can I help?”
Thank you Jill for the excellent presentation.
And, thank you Tony, for the invitation and hospitality.
by Rick Baker
On Feb 3, 2011
Or, maybe you are the boss and you are wrong - at least, maybe once in a while you are wrong.
So…what happens?
Say you are the boss and you are wrong…what happens?
It is common for people to overestimate the correctness of their views and decisions – that’s called knowledge overconfidence*.
So, likely when you are wrong you do not know it.
The alternative is you know you are wrong but press on anyhow…isn’t that unlikely?
Summing up the scenario:
- You are the boss,
- You are making a mistake,
- Your people know you are making a mistake, but
- You don’t know you are making a mistake.
What do you want your people to do:
- Pretend they don’t know you are making a mistake and say “Yes Boss”?
- Let you know they think you are making a mistake?
- Do something else?
It seems to me this is a rather common scenario. People make mistakes. People don’t know they make mistakes. So, it is not a stretch to say bosses make mistakes and don’t know it.
The bosses’ mistakes could be trivial and of little impact. Or, maybe, they could be catastrophic.
But…what will happen when those mistakes are made?
It pays to have a plan to cover this scenario.
Here’s a suggestion…
Bosses can set guidelines.
For example, I use the following guideline for Command Decisions.
I call it the 10-3-1 Guideline:
- For every 10 [command] decisions I make I expect about 3 will be questioned
- For every 10 [command] decisions I make I expect about 1 to be strongly resisted
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