Is Your Staff Selling Your Organization On Their Interactions?”

Happy Saturday everyone!

We made it through another week of the grind and not we are to Saturday.  Unfortunately, some Saturdays still require work whether it be on the house, for your business, or helping your kids with projects that they procrastinated on.  More on that in the future…  Today I want to focus on a topic of your organization's staff.

Most times I hear excuses inside of organizations that support staff think they don’t have to be sales people.  I’m not a sales person so why should I be trying to sell to people that I need to interact with.  Granted there are sales people that will really work to move the potential customers forward on projects, but the first line of some companies are interacting with current and potential customers a great deal more than the sales person.

Service staff at customers contact your company’s service team for questions and answers to their problems frequently.  They are looking for service bulletins, part numbers, warranty questions, etc.  They are stressed from their end customer screaming that they need their product back now and they don’t care if the fact that the item is broke is because they used it as a battering ram during a project.  They need the product yesterday.

Your inside staff is the first person typically that talks to the customers to help them get to where they need to go.  A bad interaction will likely make the sales person’s job a great deal harder to grow sales.  Far to often I have heard people on inside staffs saying well I’m not the sales person and I don’t care what the customer thinks.  The issue is that without the sales coming in that person does not have a job. 

Internal staff do not have the luxury of telling customers off on the phone and not worrying about how this will affect the overall business.  The internal staff should be selling the customer on that your organization is a top notch organization that the customer wants to interact with.  Your internal staff is a sales team.  Even the shipping and receiving department is selling the customers on top notch service. 

A great deal of times the internal team will be having more communication with the customers than that sales person due to the sales person having to manage multiple accounts.  Its hard enough that the sales person is juggling a great deal to move all their customers forward.  The internal team has conversations and can get great intelligence from the customer that the sales person likely will not be able to receive.   They hear more about the needs and opportunities inside your customer’s that need to be relayed to the sales staff.  Having the internal staff thinking about how they can grow business within your customer base when they interact with the customers will greatly influence your organizations opportunities in the future.   

Building the relationship with the internal staff and the customers is also crucial.  Now I am not saying that you bring everyone out, but key internal staff should be able to travel to customers to meet with them to build relationships.  I remember bringing one of our internal order entry members and service staff to customers and how that impacted the relationship.   The key members were talking to the customer contacts and out of that opened up a new opportunity for our organization that I did not notice in the past.  To be fair it derived that we had an online system that allowed for people to order after hours that I did not know there was an issue because the parts department person would tell me everything was fine.  When the person talked with my team they mentioned that it would be great if when they ordered at night before the shop finally closed up instead of faxing in an order that would be huge.  Yes it was back when we had fax machines being used.  I am getting older.

The end result was that our organization actually had set up an ordering system a of couple months prior that I can pushed to the customers, but being that the parts team was busy, they may have forgotten.  Having the internal team from my organization there the parts person was showed the system and very pleased.  The parts team also gave us great intelligence that lead to a business deal between our organization and another organization that ended up being pretty profitable business for us.  I would like to pride myself that I would have been able to identify that opportunity in the future, but who knows how long that would have taken for me to find out.  Maybe one day when it was extremely hot outside and the parts ordering team was frustrated with something that they would have told me why my organization was no better than the competitors.  Who knows.  Bringing the internal team out helped greatly.

I know that with many organizations that not everyone can or should be sent out, but the focus is about when they are interacting with the customers to be polite and focused on how they can help the customer as well as finding out more information to pass along to the sales person.  With the abundance of customer relationship management systems out there, organizations are fools if they do not take advantage of something to keep information flowing. 

Make sure to consistently invest in your staff to train them on products and services that your organization invests in and two or three benefits they would meet for customers.   Also make sure that the internal staff is focused on being polite.  Emotional intelligence is a great training to go through with your team to keep the interactions pleasant and focused on helping the customer even if the customers are being rude. 

Everyone at your organization is selling why your organization is the best option for the customers and potential customers.  Make sure they are equipped and using the tools you have available.  Your sales team and customers will appreciate the extra step as well as your profits. 

That is enough for now.  Enjoy your weekend and remember if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com.  Also, you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Take Time To Enjoy While Traveling For Business

Good morning everyone,

We have completed another week and have made it to the weekend where we want to rest and enjoy our time.  I want to challenge that thinking a little bit to enable you guys to really think about how you can enjoy some time while you are traveling for work.

When I first got into sales I was on the road four nights out of the week.  I was putting about 40,000 miles on the vehicle a year.  I did contemplate putting a CB antenna on the vehicle because I was starting to think I was a truck driver.  During one of my ride alongs with the owner of the company.  He shared with me that we were pounding the pavement pretty hard and doing well on our time.  He said that he hoped it was not just on his account, but we had met with quite a few customers over the first few days only to stop for dinner and when we arrived at the hotel. 

The owner shared on the third day that he appreciated my hard work, but thought I was looking a little burned out.  I shared that I had been in hotels for the past year about 115 nights out of the year.  He said in all of those nights how many times did I go out and explore the areas I was staying in.  I really didn’t think about that much.  I just made sure to get my meetings in and do my paper work while in the hotels as I ate my dinner.

The owner stated that I should cut out early every now and then to explore some of these areas and see some sights.  Whether it was paddle boarding in the panama beach area, check out the blue angels routine flights in Pennsacola, or the little down town areas of south Florida.  He stated that I had a great opportunity to see new things that would open my mind to culture a bit.  Later I would understand that when people tell me where they are going in Florida I am not able to share some off the beaten path locations that they may not know about and enables them to have even more fun. 

Today I would like to focus on the fact that when you are traveling that you need to take time to enjoy it a bit.  Whether it is a suggestion that Jon Acuff offered about renting a nicer car, or during a meeting asking your potential customer of some ideas of where to go in the area to explore later on.  The point is that work is work, but it does not have to be completely work 24/7.  Take time and see the little small business shops that are in the area, some of the local food spots, run the beach during sunset, go to a movie if you are comfortable being that guy.  I did that last one once and I felt weird and kept looking around.  

I have stopped in at shooting ranges to shoot some cool guns,  changed inside of the trailer and went for a swim in the gulf of Mexico only to have dolphins swim up within 15 feet of me, I found a great place in panama city that has amazing sea food and has surf boards in the rafters, tired wakeboard cable park in Ft. Myers, run the stadium in Gainesville wearing my Michigan gear etc.  That last one was a lot of fun and the stares were great.   The point is take some time to enjoy when you are traveling.  You may even find something that you want to bring your family to see some day.  Become a travel agent for your friends and family to give them cool places to go. 

Be an explorer and curious about where you are traveling.  You never know what doors will open when you can offer up some kind of information about a location that someone may be traveling to. 

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com.  Also you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers. 

Last, if you are traveling to Florida and Alaska hit me up.  I know quite a few secret spots down there to help you with your vacation.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Who is Perfect and Blooper Free Anyways

Good morning Everyone,

Hopefully you are in an area where it is getting warmer out for spring finally.  Here in the mid-west it is still cold and in some parts getting snow.  I can remember when I was in elementary school being able to wear shorts by the end of April.  Granted some people when it hits 50 degrees will put their convertible tops down and ride around town.  We have yet to hit that mark here.  I am sure those of you in Alaska are in the same boat.  Although some times I noticed it was warmer in Alaska than the mid-west in the past few winters.  

I’m not a meteorologist but did learn to watch weather patterns in the areas that I worked selling outdoor power equipment.   We had to because not many landscapers wanted to mow lawns when it was snowing or when there was a thunderstorm.   The same token would be that no landscaper wants to test out snow plows when it is 80 and sunny.  Although that is when the dealers would have to place their winter orders.  I guess it follows the clothing industry as well.  That is when you see summer clothes out after January in department stores.

Today I would like to talk about some bloopers and set backs to make sure people know that I am human.  I am not some super sales person that is perfect.  I know a lot of people shy away from showing set backs or bloopers, but I am not one of those people.

I have demoed mowers on slopes and put them in the water having to take off my shoes and roll up my khakis to push it out of the muck and watching for gators, I have called people by the wrong name, I have missed the steps in the sales process, etc.  Luckily no gators were looking for me to be their mid-afternoon snack and that the person with me did not take a selfie with me in the background.   I remember one time not paying attention to my display when I first started in sales which lead to a conversation with my boss that was not very pleasant at all.  Also getting into sports talking about your team is not recommended if you football team consistently beats the potential customer’s favorite team. 

I have been in negotiations that went south in a hurry with people calling each other liars, had runs with potential customers making me sit in their location and waiting to talk to them just to see how long I would stay only to say, they had another appointment and would be leaving (he later ended up being one of my best customers), I’ve filled up my work truck with gasoline when it took diesel.  I realized that one as I was pumping the gas thankfully. 

The key takeaway is that we typically learn through set backs better than successes.  I learned to not get as close and to walk the are before demoing landscape equipment just like a racer will check out a track.  I learned to make sure I did all the remedial items when visiting customers before trying to get more business from current customers.  I learned how potential customers schedules functioned so that I could optimize my time with them.  Use these set backs to come back stronger and refine your strategy.  Make sure that you when you have a set back that you are looking how you can get better.   

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com.  Also you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Why Do We Need Sales People Anyways?

Good morning everyone,

I originally wanted to write about my past bloopers for this blog as a funny gift for you, but I had a great conversation with a business owner yesterday that struck a cord with me.  He used to own a pretty large company that was sold to an organization with a Chief Operating Officer that said he hated sales people.  This COO also believed anything done by sales people could automatically be done through a business transaction.

Golf outings were not allowed, meals with customers were frowned upon, and basically anything that was not a strict transactional kind of relationship was not allowed.  I have also worked for companies that the focus was purely transactional and there was no focus on growing relationships that did not have purchase order attached to them.  Now I am not just saying you have to validate a golf outing with this blog, but the fact that relationship building is important.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee meetings, fishing trips if they have a boat, etc can work to build that relationship.  A side note, I thought I was going to die on a boating trip in the gulf of Mexico on a 19’ boat moving around storms with water spouts forming.  So when doing trips make sure you have all the details before you jump in will be important!

This same person also discussed that business school professors from some of the elite universities even teach that relationship building outside of the professional transaction are not a good idea.  People that are scholars in theory, but unfortunately not at application I fear.

Some of the most successful business people that I have had the chance to sit with and listen revolve around needing to build the relationship not just on business, but the personal side as well.  I have also been able to visit some of my old customers that I have not called on in years and they will smile, ask me out to dinner, and sit with me for hours to discuss the good ole days and where they are at with their current business situations.  They even ask for insight on what I might recommend. 

These kind of discussions would not have happened had I not worked on the personal side of the business relationship as much as the transactional side.  Knowing your customers on a personal level and understanding their dreams and aspirations is a huge benefit.  People want to know that they matter and we all strive for community.  Building that relationship is extremely important. 

It is almost an art form watching an old sales person work the personal relationship and send birthday cards for the customer’s family, as well as celebrating wins that the customer has had.  Meetings on the golf course have transacted in large business deals that can not be instantaneously measured.  Looking back on the sales process though when reviewed a sales person can say that a certain conversation, or another relationship that he was able to leverage helped him to land the deal.  After all sales is a study of people and all about relationships.  The transactions do happen, but after a lot of work on the personal side. 

I encourage you to leverage the personal side of business along with the professional side.  If learning about people was not important than why does Amazon listen in on your conversations and facebook track as much information about you as possible.  Facebook recently came into light for the information on the users being used by a presidential candidate for marketing during the last election.  With that said, I would beg to differ with the professors of theory and those in management rolls that do not believe in having sales people that engage in personal relationships. 

Send a card for your customer’s birthdays, kids birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc.  I have even been invited to customer’s children’s weddings because of the relationships formed that have landed my past company with new business. 

Enough about this, please go make some memories for this Easter break and think about what it really signifies.  One person laying his life down for all of us.  If that is not something to build relationships I don’t know what is.  Have a great Easter!

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com.  Also you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

How Much Is Enough???

Good morning everyone,

I apologize for being a little late on this blog.  Evidentally, when you purchase a new surface pro you do not get Microsoft office with it.  It gets me thinking about how much is enough.  I have been brought up with PC’s and kinda know how to run a Mac.  I do not want to get into a discussion of which is better, but I am seeing why people like the Macs now.  I will just leave it as I am more comfortable with Microsoft products at this point.  It is not to say I won’t get used to Macs if this keeps up.

So on to move important things.

Over the past six months I have had the opportunity to join a group of business leaders from my area.  This is a group of individuals from all walks of life.  Pastors, to construction companies, to authors and speakers.  This is a very diverse group of individuals.  It has been very helpful when working on project like the book that I am creating now.  Insights that one person would not be able to think of on their own. 

The group has a fee, but has provided more value so far.  I can keep you posted on this if you would like.  The group is called Truth at Work.  It is based in the mid-west, but is growing its online presence so that people from other locations could interact as well.  I have seen this online advisor groups with Dave Ramsey and John Maxwell over the past couple of years as well.  The one thing I can say about being in a half a day meeting with individuals in one location is the human interaction that we all crave.  Online is great, but most interactions are between individuals.  More than 80 percent of communication is nonverbal.  So logging online is great, but I prefer to be present and shaking hands, laughing and carrying on with the individuals to hear about their personal lives as well.

If you have been looking for other individuals as a set of advisors I would recommend checking out groups.  It has helped me greatly in building relationships in this area with other business owners as well as personal relationships with them.  If you would like to discuss these groups feel free to reach out by email and I will get back to you and help answer any questions that I can.  If I can’t I will do my very best to help you get in contact with someone that would be able to answer.

One of the topics this month was titled “How Much is Enough”  this discussion was focused on business and in personal life.  This discussion topic focused on asking us the questions to drive out thought on how much is enough in business as well as our personal lives whether it be money, spiritual based, how much work to put in, family time, giving away, etc.  I have been groomed all my life to be one to push forward and get all I can which I have to admit has in the past come at a cost.  I had missed most of the first six months of my son’s life because I was on the road almost 130 nights selling. 

I wanted to prove that I was the best and I was able to achieve the awards and bonuses that all that hard work entailed.  It came at a cost of missing my son’s firsts.  I look back on that as I took this assessment as well as in my past as a guage of what I am willing to sacrifice in some areas in order to achieve in other areas.

We are also told to work to perfection by just about all people in our industries.  Be the best and be perfect because if someone sees a flaw in you then you will lose.  The truth is that no one is perfect.  We can work to the best of our abilities, but none of us can say we are going to be perfect in all we do.  That goes to the fact that we need to continually grow, refine, and get better.  We also need to take a step back and review where we are at in areas of our life to see how much more we believe we need to get better and those costs.  This also ties into your goals and what you want to work to get better at.  Most people set annual goals, but some people do it monthly.  I am an annual goal person personally. 

We can carry on the discussion later if you would like but for now I would like to leave you with some questions to help you with this thought of how much is enough.

How many hours of work do you work?

How big do you want your company to grow this year?

How many employees do I need to hire and what does their work load look like?

How much should I be giving to church, charities, anyone in need?

Should I carry debt? (I live by no debt as a Dave Ramsey disciple, debt causes too much pressure for more in my opinion)

How much time am I spending with my family and friends?

What steps can I take from here to move my work / life balance?

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com.  Also you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Staying Fit While Traveling

Good morning and Happy St. Patty’s Day to all of you.  The one day a year that we are all Irish in America.  I admit though I tend not to go out and drink all day.  Now that I am getting closer to 40, I watch more what I eat these days so that I am not out buying more clothes because my waist is getting bigger.

This brings me to the point of staying fit while traveling.  How do you stay fit while traveling?  Do you run, do cardio?  Only stay at locations that have full gyms?  Find places near gyms?  Do you just give up and hope for the best?

I have spent a great deal of time on the road in my career and I can say that it is extremely hard to stay fit when traveling.  I have tried the watching what I ate, which meant that I watch all the food go from my plate into my stomach.  I think of eating as a challenge that I need to conquer.  When I hit 30 I needed to do more than hit the gym when I was home.  I started running outside if possible, sometimes on the beach, or on a treadmill. 

What I found is that I truly hate running.  From the having to plan out how far I will run to make sure I am burning off enough calories, to running on the beach and seeing old retired women watching us guys run by like we were T-bone steaks with running shoes on.  Now I know what women feel like sometimes.  It was creepy.  I also found that even though I had music I got really bored with running.  I would look at the houses, buildings, sunsets, water, but just doing the same thing over and over one stride at a time bored me to no end.

I then tried to map out hotels that had gyms nearby and if the hotels had discounts because one day memberships add up.  Especially when you are on a strict daily allowance for traveling like some companies mandate.  This too became exhausting to plan all the time and then I would have to wait to get on weights and machines while some person did a few reps and then stared at themselves in the mirror to see how big that last rep made their muscles.   Please don’t be those guys. 

When I hit 32 I had been seeing advertisements for something called P90X while I was in the hotel room.   This weird guy was on there challenging you to get out of your head and do something to push yourself to better health.  I think it took me a year or two to really start looking into it.  Come to find out a woman that I went to high school with was a coach and was pushing this work out routine.  I started inquiring about it and found out about the DVD’s that you could buy and do a 90 day workout that was mapped out. 

I was still thinking that it was false information and that body weight movements would not be as effective as lifting heavy weights as I had been used to.  That and I did not like cardio and there was no way I was going to do yoga.  That was for women and very old men with huge beards.  I still asked tons of questions and asked how much room would you need to do the workouts and what not. 

After six months of asking questions I finally told myself that I was going to pull the trigger and do it.   I ordered the DVD’s and then got into doing the workouts, bought some bowflex dumbells, and resistance bands.  I started pushing play and working out to the same guy from TV that was kind of a mix between Ace Ventura and Tony Robbins.  His name was Tony Horton.  I did the workouts and did not change my eating habits back then and started getting in better shape almost immediately.  I was also a volunteer fire fighter back then, so this change actually helped me in my training at the fire department like when we would pack up and climb the aerial ladder 75 feet into the sky in 90 degree heat.  I was getting faster, more agile, and had way more energy.

The best thing is I could plan my workouts to the times I was in hotels where I didn’t need a pull up bar or weights.  I could do plyometric training, yoga (no I didn’t grow a beard), stretching, etc while I was on the road.  I also started moving the hotel furniture, so I could create the 8 x 8 space I needed to workout.  I would take photos and post them on Facebook and people would comment about my architecture skills of standing a couch on top of a table with a chair upside down on the couch.  I guess you could say I was letting my artistic inner- self come alive as well.  Most of the time I would put the furniture back, but there was one time where I left the hotel thinking I wonder how the hotel staff will reorganize the room today for the next guest 😊

I had been doing P90X for four years and then branched out into other workouts, but none have matched the effects of what P90X has brought to me.  I am planning to start P90X 2 to see if that helps me get in better shape.  Keep in mind that P90X 2 has been out for a while and they actually have a P90X3 that is only 30 minutes long.  I have also been able to do mud races, sprint triathlons, and take on new sports with better agility and balance without excess extra workouts specific to those events.  I can literally show up and complete those events without dying.  You may want to practice swimming for a triathlon though.  I was able to finish, but I needed lots of prayer and floating on my back for that portion. 

Beach Body who runs these video style workouts has recently come out with Beach Body on demand where you can pay roughly $110 for access to just about all of their workouts that have the similar small space to workout, not a big deal.  I have tried 21 day fix extreme, hammer and chisel, core de force, and a few others as well.  I am looking forward however to getting back to workouts with Tony Robbin and Ace Ventura’s offspring though in April.

No, I am not a beach body coach, I don’t sell the materials, or their magic shake formula (which I don’t use), but I do endorse this format especially if you are an on the road sales person constantly traveling.  It works if you put forth the effort to say yes and push play.  I have used this workout formula which helps me mitigate stress, process ideas while working out, and clears my head.  If it worked for me then it can work for anyone. 

A side note I also put forth a goal to finish a workout program and when I do I treat myself to something.

I hope that helps any of you that travel a lot for work to stay fit in your hotel room and maybe some ideas on how to make the hotel staff smile when they clean your room from furniture art.

 As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com.  Also you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Help

As I have mentioned previously I am currently working on a book about the sales process.

In the book I am looking for some testimonials from people that continuously go back to certain people for goods and services.  

If you have someone that you go to for buying a car, clothes, houses, etc and would be okay with having it published, feel free to send your person and why you consistently go back to them.

Have a great Sunday!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales And Leadership Enterprises

Influential Leadership

Good morning everyone,

I hope that you are into Saturday reflecting on all the opportunities that have come your way and that this blog is giving you some ideas to think about and build upon.  If you see something in the blogs that you would like more information on, feel free to reach out.  I am here for you guys.  I want to add value any way I can.  If you have questions feel free to also reach out as I would love to help you understand if I am being unclear.  Keep in mind my education came as an engineer so sometimes I get very tactical and it can get unclear to some. 

Having said that lets change up a little bit and discuss how the sales process is very similar to how influence works.  I believe that to be successful at leadership you must have influence, not a position.  One of the best leadership people of the past decade has been John Maxwell.  I had the opportunity to get trained by him a couple of years ago on Leadership.  He has authored many books and flies with groups of volunteers across the globe.  I highly recommend his book 21 irrefutable laws of leadership.  It is the basis of his curriculum and training. 

What struck me while taking the training is how similar the sales process is to grow your influence.  When I am working to gain influence and lead groups of people I notice how the steps of the sales process come into play.  If you change sell to buy-in you can see how influence will be what you are selling.  Getting people to buy in to your ideas, plan, coffee brand, etc Influence is there.  Some have said you are influencing the market when your brand is so large that people use it as a verb in a sentence. 

How often have you wanted to get some traction on a project and not be able to get all the people going with you.  They have not bought into either you, your vision, or the plan.  Having buy-in from people is crucial.  I have worked on projects that have been so slow to get moving, but when I have gained enough influence with the people it almost seems to move itself forward. 

Too often individuals are put into a position and think that people automatically need to follow them.  I have been in that position and have seen people mentally check out.  It is in John’s book that one of the first levels of leadership is position, but you need quite a bit more if you want to get people that will follow you into battle.  Influence is that key to getting the gears moving.  And when you have influence you can change cultures.  I have attached a picture of the buying decisions reframed into the buy in decisions people make as you gain influence.    

As side note, I have noticed that when I have loaded up pictures that they do not show up on the browser on my phone.  I am still trying to figure that out, but if you look at this blog with your computer, you should be able to see the pictures.

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Life Hacks

I wanted to take today to discuss a few life hacks that I have learned over the years instead of the constant discussion about the sales process, sales, and etc.  Hopefully these will help you at some point in your life.  They have helped me.

Life Hack 1

If you are like most people you have had to make a pitstop once or twice in your life while on the road.  Usually people choose a rest stop or gas station.  All are good if you only need to go number one, but when you are having an emergency that is a whole different ball game.  Did you know that hotels must clean their lobby bathrooms every morning in fear of an inspector coming in and giving them a bad report on hotel cleanliness?  Also, most people that stay at hotels use their own room bathrooms.  So that leaves a lobby bathroom relatively unused throughout the day.  You just have to use your super sales skills, not make eye contact with the front counter people, and find it without being caught.  If this book helps you with nothing else, this one tip will serve as well worth avoiding hepatitis or some other disease from those gross gas stations bathrooms.

Life Hack 2

A phrase called mark them up to mark them down.  Do you really think that the Black Friday deals are all that great?  I recently read an article that states the best time to buy certain products is Columbus Day, not Black Friday.  Do you really think that stores lose their profit to give you such great deals on everything?  If you don’t believe me, think to yourself how big is your house and how big are their buildings?  A website called lifehacker.com has a post on the best times of the year to buy different products.  Planning ahead will help you save in the future.

Life Hack 3

One other piece of advice for those that travel for sales is that of a product that the united states postal service offers for free.  It is called informed delivery.  They send you a scanned in email every day to let you know what is being delivered to your house for mail.  This is free and it allows you to check any mail that was not delivered to you that they informed you so they can investigate what happened.  This only works for your home delivery.  

Life Hack 4

Starbucks or Fivebucks which ever name you prefer has a couple hacks that I am not sure everyone knows about, or maybe you do, in either way I just learned about them.  This coffee connoisseur has some pretty cool options for you to save money.  The first is to become a rewards member due to the fact that on your birthday you receive a free coffee from them.  Free is always good to me.  Second, they have a fourth option for cup sizes that most do not know about and if you drink espresso you can get the same level of caffeine for a cheaper price and that is always nice.  For the espresso ask for the short.  Third, they offer free refills for brewed coffee and tea.  So, if you are planning on staying there for a while to people watch, have extra meetings, or whatever think about trying that one out. 

At this point I should note that I don’t drink coffee and am self-caffeinated which is why I am usually up at 5:30 a.m. to get my day started, but my wife loves coffee and I have had to learn this stuff as well as how to make a good cup of coffee for her to show my love for her.  She actually said instead of flowers that a coffee from Starbucks with a note that says I love you is preferred. 

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Three Types of Buyers

I was always taught that a salesman needs to have the knowledge to identify the DISC profile of the person they are speaking with.  It is helpful to know if a person a more dominance, influencer, compliance, or steadiness.  Rather than you trying to analyze the buyer to discover their hidden disc metric and get caught up in all that time waster.  I believe that there is an easier way to break down buyers that comes out in their behaviors even more quickly when they ask questions. 

In my experience there are three types of buyers.  Each is equally important especially when selling to a corporation where decisions are made in collaboration with each department.  The first type of buyer are the specialists who are more interested in specifications and how the product or company meets that need.  They are very detail oriented and can be very technical like engineers and department managers. 

The second kind of buyer are the users.  The user buyers are those that will be operating the product.  They are usually dental hygienists, nurses, and mechanics.  These are the people that are really key people to get engaged as they are the ones using the products all the time.  They are the most important people to engage to understand how the competition is doing.  They can tell you what they like and don’t like with application.  Keep them in mind when working through the selling process. 

The third kind of buyer is the main decision maker.  They are impacted by the return on investment.  They take the 10,000 feet view of everything and want to make sure they are profitable.  The main decision maker will ask for input from the other two buyers before they make their final decision.  This buyer is the last person to focus on as the other two buyers will have the main decision maker’s trust.  This is the case for most organizations today.

For owner operators and end users the they will likely fall into all of these three buyer styles as they need to be.  Some people are very technically oriented and use the product themselves day in and day out.  They also are the main decision maker that is thinking about how this investment will impact them.  How will they make money on this purchase and how soon they will see success is their main questions for entertaining your presence. 

I am working on a small diagram that will help to understand these three types of buyers so that those of you that are visual people will be able to see what I am talking about.  It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  I hope to have that out to everyone before next week’s blog post.

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Commitments During the Sales Process Continued post 3

Hello everyone,

I hope all of you are starting to experience warmer weather.

To recap we are moving through the sale process and the commitments for each.  If you are done the work to build the trust of the customer and for the customers to explore options that might help them.  During that time you have asked questions to draw out the needs that align with your organizations benefits so that you can move into the “Sell Your Organization” step

During this step where you are addressing some of their areas that they are open to changing you are working to gain the commitments of change for owner operators and collaboration with the group of buyers.  In both of these types of customers you want to focus how your organization aligns with their big needs as well as how the organization will be able to help them get further.  It could be the software that your organization utilizes to help them to analyze their electric architecture, or the fact that you have a large marketing department that is pioneering the end user data to understand their buying habits. 

You will also be using these same commitments to leverage the next step in the sales process which is “Sell your product” change and collaboration are needed commitments to keep them moving along while you show them how your benefits of your product will help them with their needs that they have opened up to you about earlier in the sales process.  Typically you can sell the organization and the product during one meeting as they go hand in hand.  Hitting the largest needs that they have usually the 3-5 with a tailored presentation will get the customer to move forward and where you can ask for the order.

When you are in the “Ask For the Order” step in the sales process remember to give your price and shut up.  Then it is up for them to give in and commit to buying / decide to execute the transaction.  Now if the customer is resistant, then you need to move immediately back to the “Uncovering Needs” .  Hopefully it is a small need that you can hit with an extra benefit or two.  I have missed a few times and had to go back to uncovering needs which mainly was because I didn’t ask all of the questions to get the needs.  I blame myself for being an impatient person.  My name is Kevin and I am an impatient person. 

Moving along because we know you have done your due diligence and the customer says YES and you get past the confetti falling in your head and sounds of champagne bottles being opened, you need to immediately reaffirm the customer and move them on to the next steps.  For an owner operator / end user you are moving them to the delivery date and for the group of buyers to the commitment of implementation. 

If the group of buyers tell you that someone else needs to be involved in the decision then my friend you will need to go regroup fast and move to get the commitment to another collaboration meeting.  If you are not allowed to meet with the decision maker then you need to make sure prior to that meeting that you review all things so they are fresh in the buyers minds.  This is not the time to relax. 

Seeing that we are focusing on the positive we will assume that you are working on the implementation / delivery date.  After that time you can finally celebrate before moving on to the next customer briefly. 

During that time you need to commit to your self to constantly find ways you can improve as no one officially arrives.  Everyone can get better. 

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Commitments During the Sales Process Continued post 2

Good morning everyone,

I hope you are doing well even when you are having to deal with the cold and shoveling of winter.  Yesterday was yet another snow storm, but luckily it went north so we only had to deal with a couple more inches of snow here in Ohio.

I am looking forward to spring time.  When the snow melts away and reminds us of things starting to grow, new animals being born, and the warm feeling of the sun on your face.

I envision the start of the sales process with a new prospect of current customer with a new product the same way.  A feeling of a beginning of something new.  It gets me to think through the sales process and strategy sessions as I walk through the steps in my head with the person and see how I am going to make sure this product fits their needs.

Last week we talked about the commitments of rapport which is time.  You must be able to offer something to the prospect to gain some time with them.  The prospect is busy so we need to do our best to give them something if we want something in return of equal or greater value.  Sales people tend to be self-oriented, but I challenge that I push to be others focused.  This week we will talk about the next couple of commitments and how they look.

The next step in the sales process after rapport is asking questions.  Sometimes that can be done in the same meeting as building rapport which is what I try for, or schedule a meeting to come back to revisit some of the data plus an opportunity to show the prospect or customer something else of value to them after learning about them a little more. 

When asking questions, you still need the commitment of time whether it be an owner operator, end user, or a group decision.  The main focus is still with the primary contact with the individual even if there is a group that will make the decision.  This person will be your champion to move forward if the product fits their needs as a company.  Time is their commitment that must be able to give so that you can ask more questions about the organization and their needs.  Being that they are the same commitment I try to do my best to ask best questions in the meeting that I am building rapport.  Sprinkling them in every now and then when having the conversation.  This tends to make the prospect more likely to answer them and be more relaxed.  I also like to use the mirroring tactic at this point that helps go deeper. 

The mirroring tactic is what hostage negotiators use to pull more information out of the bad guys.  It really works as I have learned of recent in sales.   It works like this.  When the person you are speaking with makes a statement, you follow up with the last three words they said.  This makes them feel like they need to go into more detail subconsciously to help you understand.  Doing so in a calm voice eases them into telling you more and more until you feel like you have gotten as much information as you need.  Try it on your significant other or friends sometime while you are out and see how long you can keep them going without grinning. 

The next step in the sales process is “Needs Analysis”.  This is where you are sitting with the customer / prospect and asking them if you understand their needs correctly.  The commitment for this is trust / exploration.  They need to trust you a bit and make sure that you understand their needs fully which is exploring them together.  The person on the other side of the table will need to trust you at that point and be willing to explore with you some root causes that you will lead them to get to together.

If you have done a good job building rapport and have some level of trust with them, then they will likely allow you to come back or asking more questions to have a conversation about their needs.  I do caution that people tend to think they know all the answers, so tend to use a little humility to position that you are trying to understand them better.  This lowers their resistance and helps them feel that they can confide in you.  This is where you have already structured questions around you benefits to pull our those needs to the customer.  Make sure you are asking the best questions.  I also recommend wearing light blue and white in your color scheme as those colors represent truthfulness in the subconscious. 

Once you have moved out of this step you are ready to start the Agree on Need which brings you to the point where they need to commit to be open to change.  The prospect must be open to change at this point to believe that there may be another way and that they should hear you out and see if you truly understand them.  You will be reviewing your best questions previously to make sure they are solidified in the prospect’s mind that they are real needs for them.  This is setting the stage for the selling steps that most people are comfortable with, but for now lets break so that you can think back about how all this flows together.

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Commitments during the sales process

Good morning everyone,

I would like to take a step back and talk about Commitments that you will need throughout the sales process.

Each step of the sales process will require a new commitment.  Now they won’t look identical word for word as I put on the screen, but they will be in the general area.  For instance, if I say that your commitment for the second step in the sales process “Rapport” is Building Rapport, it may not look like that when you approach your customer or potential customer.  It may be bringing back information about the area for top 20 customers he or she might be interested in. 

What you are really looking to do is get them to commit to building rapport with you and you will need to offer value to them to you to have that time for building rapport.  This is the early part of the sales process where the customer is feeling you out and trying to see if you are genuine or if you are just trying to push your product.

I had to spend multiple visits to the northern area of Florida to build rapport with the prospects up there.  They are as close to the south vs. north stigma that is out there.  They can literally sniff out a northerner a mile away and they are very protective of letting some guy come in a have trust just given to them.

To mitigate that I had to do a lot of intelligence work in the area to uncover who did the most work in the area, what they valued most about the product, who they were, who they chose to do business with, and why some would drive to Georgia to do business with landscaper shops rather than use shops in their area.  A great deal of time was spent on obtaining the data needed so that when I asked for the commitments they were seeing the value to them and let me work to help them. 

I will work to have all of the commitments laid out for each step and how they look for single owner operator businesses as well as larger corporations where multiple people / teams come together to make a decision.  Unfortunately, how the two businesses function there is kind of a separation in how you have to look at the sales process and commitments or commitment objectives. 

I will do my best to have most of that laid out for you next week.  That is my homework for this week. 

I will also let you in on a little secret.  I am working to put together a book, so all of this will be in one location for you.  I will have visuals in it and help you understand the different aspects in the sales process.   More to come on that.

For now, enjoy the weekend and I will have more value for you next week.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Sales Process Visual

Good morning everyone,

I am still new to learning how blogs work and investigating pod casts / video blogs.  

Currently I am trying to see how I could provide you a visual aid to understand the steps in the sales process, but unfortunately I am unable to do it on this text format.  

With that if you would like a free visual on the steps in the sales process and how they relate with time then feel free to email me at info@kevinsidebottom.com

I apologize I was looking forward to loading it up here for you.

I am also working on providing a visual as to how the commitments that you need to get in order to move to each step of the sales process look.  

More on that to come.

Again for a free visual aid feel free to email me at info@kevinsidebottom.com

No I will not spam your inbox from there on out.  I still haven't figured that out either lol  

Not that I really want to spam people.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

How the Sales Process Can Be Used In All Relationships

Hello Everyone,

First I must apologize as I was traveling to the sunny state of Florida this past weekend and forgot to upload during all the hustle through the airport.  Still that is no excuse.  I will try to make it up with the next blog coming Feb 3rd.

In analyzing the selling process that we recently have gone through the past several weeks one might see how this can be applied to all relationships in our lives.

If you are newly dating someone doesn’t the building rapport, being interested, showing value, asking questions to learn what makes them tick, and selling yourself all sound just like the dating process?  How about when you are at work and you are trying to get a group of people to move forward on a project?  What about if you are leading a department or an organization trying to change the culture.  You will use this process to get buy in from the teams to move in the direction you want them to go.

Lawyers convincing a judge and jury, teachers hoping to get their students to want to prepare for college, parents trying to get their kids to change their clothes to get out the door on time…sometimes I felt like I had to sell my son to get ready and eat the food I cooked when he was younger. 

To the point you can apply the sales process in all relationships in your life.  Not that you want to sell people, but following the steps will allow you to move forward a little faster and with less resistance. 

We all use these steps even if we are not recognizing it at the time. 

Try it.  What is the worst that can happen if you try to visualize the sales process when engaging others.

Also to the dating crowd, watching the movie “Hitch” would be super helpful! 

I will see you guys in a couple days!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Getting Better

Good morning everyone!

We have made it to the nineth and final step in the sales process.  It is probably the most forgotten step and likely the most important. 

This step is to analyze the process to see where you did well and what you could improve on.  What areas during the process did you get hung up on and what questions did the customer have that you could address in future sales calls?  Chances are there are a few.  Efficiency and constant improvement is what I pride myself on.   I constantly sit down after ever deal I negotiate to see how I can get better.  I may take a victory lap for a quick second, but then I review my notes and comments to see where I can improve.

This is crucial if you want to enhance your craft and grow as a sales person.  No one ever truly arrives and says there is nothing else to learn.  Hence the reason that those that are truly successful are reading three to four books a month.  I unfortunately am such a slow reader that I use audio books mixed in with regular books.  Yes, I like regular books, so I can highlight, dog ear pages, etc.  That way when I come back to review something later I can figure out where it was. 

So, pat yourself on the back for a job well done and keep moving forward with your growth on sales. 

Feel free to reach out if there is anything I can help you with understanding better.  I know my grammar isn’t the greatest at times.  I blame it on my engineering background 😊

Next week I'll discuss about how everyone truly is a salesperson and how this process will help you in all relationships that you have. whether you are a manager, lawyer, parent, or in a new relationship.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Confirming The Sale and Next Steps

Hello Everyone! 

I hope you are staying warm during these winter months and I am helping you improve your understanding of the sales process.  It took me over 7 years to really understand it.  So if you have questions or even to bounce ideas, I am here for you.

Today we are focusing on the next step after you have gotten the potential customer to say “yes” and now most people will stop right there or even run out of the location making the Heisman pose forgetting to get the signature which is the most important part.  You are picturing that pose aren’t you 😊

After you get the potential customer to now become a customer, you need to confirm the sale with the person and discuss the next steps.  Psychologically when someone makes the decision to buy they get a little sweaty and adrenaline spikes.  Then all sorts of thoughts go through their head about maybe I just made a mistake.  It has been called “Buyer’s Remorse”, and chances are you have gone through it as well.  Especially on large purchases. 

I have seen sales people at dealers come right out and tell the new customer that they will have this feeling to reaffirm them that it is okay, and they understand.  Then the sales person follows up their statement by saying you made the right decision.  They are confirming and reaffirming the customer of their decision to buy.

People tend to look for others to reaffirm that they made the correct decision and by default the person nearest to them is the one they start trusting most.  By confirming the sale and reaffirming the decision to purchase the person starts to feel at ease and can move forward.

To do that I have always been the proponent to confirm the sale and then discuss the next steps to take such as delivery date, a follow up discussion on another topic, dates to help set up marketing materials, so on and so forth.  By doing that you are taking the customer through the process and helping them move forward.

Too many sales people get the sale and walk away never to be heard from again.  That is bad sales and it annoys me to no end.  By doing so and not helping the customer move forward the sales person is only hurting themselves.  Usually the sales person does not see any reoccurring sales turns and can end up picking up the goods sold to move somewhere else.  In worst cases even damaging their credibility as a salesperson that can spread quickly through their industries.  No one wants to be known for that statistic. 

In closing of this step think back so some of the past sales and notice where you have done this without consciously knowing you have confirmed the sale and moved the customer along to the next steps.  Most likely they are one of you better customers. 

One last step to go and you guys know all I know to the sales process.  In later blogs I will go more in depth if you wish and really break down the steps.  Let me know you thoughts at info@kevinsidebottom.com

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Ask For The Order Let The Nervousness Of the Sales Person Begin!

Good evening all!

We are there we are finally there!  It’s time to ask for the order after you have done all your hard work.  You are at the point when you can feel confident and say, “How many would you like?”  At this point if you have done the work correctly the customer is saying as many as they can get.  Please use discretion on that last part.  What you may get is a stop as in they are not sure yet.

At that point you really need to go back and review in your head the questions that you asked previously to remember if you answered the pain points or not.  If not you need to make sure that you focus on that, or ask more questions as to why the potential customer is hesitant so that you can understand.  They will usually tell you why pretty quick if you have done all of the steps correctly because they trust you. 

You will need to answer those questions immediately before you can pass go and collect your sale.  Also having that fourth benefit in your back pocket helps to help confirm that they are making the best decision if you can get them back on track. 

So, assuming if you were able to get the customer saying yes and how much then it is up to you to do this next step very carefully.  Tell them the price and “shut up” no more peeps from you because the next person that talks loses.  I’m serious!  I have been in situations where I could not handle the silence and lost margin on the product and walked out thinking that I was a failure.  Please by all means do not be the next to speak.  Wait for them to speak!  If they come back with they are still unsure, go back to the questioning to find out what you may have missed. 

This is the fun part of sales and is the time where most sales people have the uneasy feeling and not sure they can ask for the order.  Same thing applies when you were asking your significant other out on that first date 😊

If you get the okay it is time to jump right into the next step and very important step called “Confirm The Sale and Next Steps” It has a psychological aspect to it that we will talk about next time.  Until then have a great week!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Selling Your Product

Happy Day before the Eve Day Everyone!

Hope you are getting something out of these blogs.  It helps me think though the process more in detail, so I am also gaining out of this process. 

As we head into the new year I am looking forward to wrapping up the sales process and looking forward to other topics that come to mind.  I would love feedback on topics you might like to hear about in the up coming year.  Feel free to reach out at info@kevinsidebottom.com

As for now, lets Sell Our Product,

Taking the same strategy of selling your company you will use them for the product you are selling as well.  During this phase I tend to use a term “tie back questions”, shared in the book Action Selling.  That was a great book that helped me start understanding the process of sales.  I’ve since had to add upon the process to get better. 

Using the tie back questions you get to review the uncovered needs with the potential customer and highlight the ones that really were the pain points of what the customer currently dealt with.  For example, earlier when I talked about the lawnmowers where I could step off the back so I didn’t end up upside down under water with alligators celebrating that dinner was served.  I used the benefit of safety that was tied to the question I used previously to uncover a pain point for the customer.  This was a no brainer and anyone that cuts lawns in Florida understands this concept.  This made it easy to sell the aspect of not getting sued by the employee’s family.  Just about every larger lawn maintenance crew has been affected by that last issue.

So, highlighting the top three with a fourth benefit item in your back pocket that makes your product really shine is about as much as any customer can focus on.  I call it, “The Rule of Three”.  Call it what you want, I just have learned that people can only focus on a few things when they are interested and paying attention.  After that they start to lose focus and then you also lose the effectiveness.  Make sure you have their undivided attention when you are in this phase.  I guess maybe I could have said that earlier, but hey you’ll get it for the next sales call right 😊

After the potential customer is very interested and nodding along it is time to move to the next step which is finally “Ask For The Order.  Stay tuned for next week as there are some things that can pop up and instead of coming to a halt you can save the presentation and score the sale!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises